White Fir Notch how the mighty fall

For @Raela.
Random Event: Lucia, you misstep on a hill and roll your ankle.

"Mama!" she shouted, trying her best to battle the high winds to make herself heard. The little girl had wandered, as was now allowed within certain limits, and found something which she thought to be highly amazing. Of course, that meant it was to immediately be shared, and with who better than a member of her family? Her mother was nearby, she'd crossed paths with her not too long ago, and already she could picture those gold eyes that she now shared lighting up with pride once the woman was shown what her amazinger daughter had discovered.

"Maaaamaaaa!"

Her body wriggled with excitement as she bounded over high roots and dodged under the brush, dodging the natural obstacles of the forest with practiced ease. It was the same energy and recklessness that she put into everything, and never before had it turned out badly for it. At last, the runt's luck seemed to run out. With one poorly placed paw, all of her enthusiasm and mirth was turned upside down and thrown out as a shock of pain shot up her leg and she was suddenly tumbling and bouncing along the sloped ground.

A yelp fled her jaws and when all was said and done and the spinning stopped, confusion and upset set in. The girl struggled to get back onto her paws, her ankle throbbing and and unable to bear weight. What had happened? Why wasn't it fading away fast like Aleris' nips and pricker bush scraps did? A whine slipped out and she tried to move forward, hobbling along.

"Mama..." she called out again, but her voice had turned into a mournful wail.

“Mama!”

Her ears and head shot up, identifying the sound instantly as the call of one of her children, and taking only a moment longer to register that child as Lucia, specifically. She wasn't far, of course, and the mother mentally sighed with relief that it wasn't a cry of fear or pain. It was the first thing her mind liked to jump to, just in case. The girl's excited, bounding footsteps and the crunching of the forest floor signaled her approach, drowned out only by another summoning yell, perhaps more excited than the last. The Queen smirked to herself, turning to face the direction of her youngest with a swish of her tail. The kids were always asking for her attention with things big and small (though mostly small); things like rocks and rodents were absolutely fascinating to them, and she wouldn't be a proper parent at all if she scorned their demands to “watch this” or “look, look” whenever prompted. There wasn't a moment she wanted to miss anyway.   

She had only taken a few strides, and her mouth opened to call out in reply, when the pleasant atmosphere shattered. There was a shriek and thudding that made the matriarch flinch and pause, only to lurch forward at a hasty lope. Perhaps it was nothing major, but there was no way she was going to wait to find out. "Lucia?" Her concerned voice reached out through the woods. “Mama...” She was running now, unable to keep her sunken heart from racing in response to that sad, hurt sound. This was why she wanted someone to always be nearby. 

Raela was upon the girl in seconds; spotting her wilted black form among the autumn foliage. Her golden eyes searched the pup for evidence of harm; finding no wounds but lingering suspiciously on that one, favored paw. Her daughter's movements betrayed the likely site of injury even more clearly. Her ambling was so pitifully slow that the Queen rushed that more swiftly toward her, if only to close the distance the child had to cross. "Oh Lu-lu, what happened?" Her voice rose in pitch as she nudged and sniffed, trying still to be absolutely sure no other disaster had befallen her precious puppy. It was hard not to make a big deal out of any little fall her babies took, but she tried. They had limped a little before, after a hard bite or a clumsy step onto a pricker or a misfortuneately placed pine-needle, but never had it been so pronounced. The woman's nose reached down toward the little front paw, careful not to press and hurt her further. There was no blood, at least. For what it was worth, Lucia had been moving it, so it probably wasn't a break, which was relief in itself. Not that it mattered to the little girl, who was obviously in quite a bit of heart-wrenching pain.  

(This post was last modified: Oct 11, 2016, 01:03 AM by Raela.)

            

There is a deer that was killed by a lynx nearby. +10 Health

note to self, lucia is four months old.

With each second that ticked by, the pain seemed to build. Her ankle throbbed and her mind raced, a slow-mounting panic intensifying what she was feeling. Lucia did not understand what had happened to her, and the more thoughts that churned through her head, the further her imagination was able to run away with her worry. Raela had always been there when the girl needed her, but what if this time was different? What if she had done something horribly irreversible?

Thanks to her mother's quick reaction, however, the girl's fear was not able to grow too large. As quickly as the doubts infected her, Raela was there to wipe them all away, reaffirming the trust she had always placed in the matriarch. Mother was always there for her. Grateful tears began to fall from her eyes as she wriggled closer to her mother, attempting to press pass her probing sniffs to bury her face in the woman's chest. It wasn't until Raela questioned her that Lucia attempted to regain her composure.

"I was-, I was-," she tried to hiccup out, gingerly lifting her paw to better let her mother see. More and more steadily, her own worries dissipated at seeing the care and concern her mother showed, offering the girl an eventual heartsease behind the tears.

"I wa-wanted to sh-show you sumthin', th-then I f-fell."

Raela was still as her youngest and smallest crept forth, seeking the comfort of her agouti fur, moving only to run her muzzle across the girl's back as she approached. It was difficult not to be extra concerned over this child in particular, but as the stuttering words began to flow at last, Raela was able to breathe a small sigh of relief. Her golden eyes took in the paw once more when it was offered, the story of its injury much simpler than the Queen had at first dreaded. She was patient, cupping her orange ears forward and down to soak up the anxiety riddled words. Lucia had only tripped. 

She was interested in that first part but there were more important things to speak of at the moment. Somewhat visibly relieved but still serious, Raela drew her head back a few inches. "Well as long as you can move it I don't think it's too bad," she explained. "Your Dad can take a look and maybe give you something to make it stop hurting," the matriarch continued, glancing into her daughter's now yellowed eyes. It would be best to take the child toward the medical den and call for Gent, but she had seen how much it hurt the pup to move, and another idea popped into the woman's brain. "Why don't we sit here for a little bit and see if it gets any better? I can call him so you don't have to try to walk on it right away. Does that sound good?" She monitored her daughter's face for a reaction; brows lifted just a tad by concern.