Paradise Falls 'til I'm in the grave

For @Chan RE: Finley You tear away the gift wrap to reveal: You find a secluded cave, perfect for a moment of rest.
Late evening, Broken clouds, 57F/14C

The Kane woman’s ear still itched something fierce, and she noticed the concerned glances from packmates when she missed what they were saying - but she continued to insist that everything was fine. No need to worry. Just a little tired and sore from her trip. She wasn’t sure she believed it at this point and wasn’t dumb enough to think that she had convinced the others either. At least things weren’t getting any worse, she could keep things going like this at least until Jethro came back.

The woman had been heading back to see if either of her children before she turned in for the night. Suddenly the world began to swim around her and her paws slowed, blinking furiously as she tried to clear her vision. Exhaling hard, her head began to tilt inadvertently and then suddenly the world filled with black spots and her skull felt like it might explode. Pain shot from her ear down into her brain, throbbing and ripping her into pieces.

The woman’s voice cried out in panic and pain, green eyes clenching shut in an attempt to make the throbbing subside. It didn’t work, and by feeling she managed to limp her way into a nearby cave, stumbling once or twice. As soon as she was tucked inside the woman collapsed on the rocky floor, trying to hold in tears and force her breathing to steady.

(This post was last modified: Nov 14, 2024, 03:28 PM by Viorel.)

Chan had picked up Finley's trail while patrolling, following after to check in with her. He'd offered her help, started leaving helpful remedies at her den, but there was only so much he could do if she refused to acknowledge that the problem even existed. He wished he could just chalk the hearing loss up to old age and call her denial pride, but every now and then he'd catch the faintest whiff of infection... He was worried, to say the least.

He paused briefly in place as the softest of sounds reached his ears, something he might have written off if his thoughts weren't where they were, then kept going at a slightly quicker pace. Once she was in view, albeit amongst the shadows of a small cavern, it was clear something was wrong. He could really smell sickness now, and he was pretty sure the scent was mixed with blood. Chan rushed forward and crouched down at her side, concern clearly scrawled all across his features.

"Finley?! Your ear?"

He grit his teeth, and placed a paw over one of hers. This wasn't good. At a minimum, it made recurrent infections for the rest of her life highly probable. At worse...

"I'm here, I'm going to help, okay? I can, I'll have to..."

He'd have to go get medicine if he wanted to ease her pain quickly. If only he could be in two places at once.

Even with her eyes closed the agouti woman could feel the world swimming around her woozily. Forcing herself to breathe deeply, she felt how shaky it was and completely missed Chan moving into the cave to check on her. Startling backwards with a gasp and a flash of her teeth in panic, her vision spun as it tried to focus on whoever it was who had spoken.

Seeing the leader there she dropped the defensive posture and slumped down onto the stone, her head tilted uncomfortably to the side as if that would do anything for the ringing pain that shot deep into her skull. Opening her mouth to speak, she attempted to say something but it only came out as a slurred mumble. Trying again, it was the same and her brow furrowed in panic before she nodded. The movement agitated the dizziness and she had to hold in a gag, jaws salivating as she swallowed down bile in her throat.

What was happening to her? She had thought the hearing loss and fatigue had just been because of her aging body, but this, this was something else entirely. Chan could fix this, couldn’t he?

He had drifted into speaking mostly for his own benefit, unsure if his words were even really reaching her. He'd expected her to realize it was him sooner, his own mistake. When she startled, so did he, jumping backward as though his touch had hurt her. Finley was clearly miserable, and that was awful enough to see on its own. Chan also worried over what this meant about her condition in general, how bad things might have really gotten.

Chan ducked away a moment, exiting the space to send up a howl. He needed @Riven to bring him remedies for pain and infection both, immediately. If it was what he suspected, there was little else that could be done for her.

When he returned, he moved slower this time, attempting to ensure Finley knew he had returned before settling down beside her. His heart hammered, and he felt upset that he couldn't do more.

"Medicine is coming, Fin. It should pass," he tried to keep a bit of confidence in his voice, but it wavered noticeably as his mismatched eyes peeked at her.

"I'm so sorry..."

(This post was last modified: Nov 17, 2024, 01:26 AM by Chan.)

Despite her ill state and the pain that radiated through her skull, Finley still felt terrible about the way she reacted. Part of her worried that when he ducked out of the cave and wouldn’t be returning because she had showed him her teeth. It was not as if they had not had times of tension since Isla had been given permission to bear her own children. Then the birth and everything else. She didn’t even hear the howl that went up outside of the entrance because of the constant rushing sound deep in her ear canal.

Then he was back and green eyes looked him over thankfully, before her brows furrowed as she tried to make sense of what she was hearing. It was like his words were coming from underwater and also far away and she could barely make out what it was he was saying. In the end she whimpered as a shiver ran down her spine, she felt woozy and the intense heat she had felt just moments ago had now turned into a douse of cold that ran through her veins. Looking up at him from where she lay she questioned, ”What’s happening to me?” This was unlike anything she had ever experienced, debilitating.

A call went up, and Riven's mind immediately switched on. Pain and infection - a bad combination, and with the urgency in Chan's howl, Riven felt like a stone had settled in his gut. He quickly grabbed hellebore and prairie crocus, both collected near summer's end and dried just in case, and wrapped them in a large leaf to make carrying them easier. He rushed toward the source of the call, and wasted no time in crawling into the cave, blue eyes round with worry. His senses were immediately overwhelmed by the scent of illness and blood.

He settled the chosen herbs on the ground near Chan's paws, and turned his focus toward Finley, offering the older wolf a small, hopefully reassuring smile.

"What hurts?" he asked softly, keeping his voice low in case the noise was too much at the moment. He didn't know what needed fixed, or even if it could be fixed, but they needed to try.