Sunbug was... confused, to say the least. She'd gone to the Grandfather Tree to get her gift, intent on gaining some kind of power to help protect herself and other nouls as she scouted. Or as things started to change in Vykeli. But what the Grandfather Tree had given her? Vivify? Absolutely baffling.She'd wanted to prevent nouls from getting hurt, not be caught in the aftermath of it all. The thought of handling sick and injured nouls made her stomach turn. Blood made her nauseous. She couldn't imagine sitting by another noul's sick bed, praying she was gifted enough to help them.
And the ascended vivify? They literally dealt with the dead. The most ambitious of them had the hooves in resurrection, making Vykeli's most important and potentially dangerous decisions. Is that what the Tree wanted from her? She couldn't image it.
"Why," she whispered, vaguely hoping the Grandfather Tree would hear it and answer her question. Of course it didn't, and she was left with nothing. It was just her, alone with her turmoil, walking through the ruins.
She hadn't gone directly back to Homewood because she wasn't ready to face anyone and tell them the gift she'd received. Undoubtedly everyone would be excited, but she didn't have her wits about her yet to pretend she was okay with it. Vivify nouls were some of the most respected, but she didn't want to bear that weight.
Spectrum might have been useful as a scout. Then she might be able to see better or trick enemies and prevent injury at all. Or Atmos might let her avoid dangerous weather while she was away from homewood and shelter.
She groaned and stomped her hoof down onto the concrete. The noise scared something nearby that squeaked in terror. Startled, Sunbug looked around her to find the source. She almost missed it, but a small rodent was trapped in some kind of metal grating leading into the ground. It looked tired and weak, but her hoof had come down only inches from where it was trapped, startling the noise out of it.
"Oh no," she murmured to it quietly. "How did you get trapped there?"
The rodent only looked at her with exhaustion. It must have been stuck for a while.
"I'm going to help pull you out. Grab on to my horn." She lowered her head to the tiny creature and it seemed to understand, reaching up to grip her horn. The first two times she tried to pull it didn't seem able to keep a good grip. The third time it held on for dear life, but it cried out as she pulled.
With a sick pop it came free, but Sunbug was horrified at the cost. Its poor back leg hung limply behind it. The unnatural angle made her feel faint. The rodent didn't move, clearly in too much pain. Had she made the wrong choice? Maybe there had been another way. This was all her fault.
All of her panic coalesced into a magic pull she could feel. Intinct lead her to push that magic toward the rodent, who gave a startled squeak and then a relieved sigh. Sunbug was happy to see that it had pulled the broken leg back up towards its body, apparently now mended. She'd fixed it. But she still felt horrible.
"I'm so sorry little thing. I'm going to get you somewhere safer."
The rodent allowed her to gently pick it up and she carried it with her, far out to the outskirts of the ruins where trees began to get thick again and there was no more metal grating to get caught on. She nestled it into a low hollow in a tree where it could at least rest semi protected. She then scavenged a small bundle of berries from nearby bushes for it to eat and regain some energy. Water was way more difficult, especially for something so small. She had to find a small, cupped leaf and gather water that had pooled at the base of a tree, hoping that was good enough.
When all was said and done, the rodent was left with a small feast and a comfortable resting spot. That was the best she could do. She was at least glad that it wasn't going to be permanently injured, but it's broken, unnaturally bent leg was burned into her mind. She felt shaky and sick. If anything, despite helping the rodent she was more convinced that the Grandfather Tree had gotten it wrong. She wasn't cut out for healing, and if she had to experience anything worse she was sure she would pass out.
She hated to fail so early on, but she didn't think she would live up to whatever the Tree had planned for her. She headed back toward Homewood, feeling heavy and unbalanced in the world.
