Thicket of Secrets Never Miss the First Blow

She was immediately in action and after pressing down on the man’s wound long enough started to lick away the drying blood m determined to get his shoulder clean as much as possible. Noticing how deep it was, her worry ebbed away, noticing that it did not look as if he had torn any part of his shoulder. It came to a shock to her when Hollow spoke, his words ringing a bell somewhere in her head, something like…Sloane…Sloane would have said something like that if he were here lying before her. Biting her cheek to keep the pain of losing her friend within her, she worriedly said, "Don’t waste your breath, dear one," and was relieved when Ashanti came sprinting through the bushes. Nodding towards the female she watched as she set down the important herbs and immediately took off to find what she couldn’t in the sort amount of time.

Turning towards the small stack next to her, she immediately muttered the herb she picked up, "Lavender. " She then placed if next to Hollow’s large head and muttered soft instructions to him, "When you breath inhale this. It’ll help calm you." She then went for the black hawthorn, relieved to see that she had enough and placed the plant next to Hollow’s mouth, speaking strongly, "I need you to eat this, it will help with some pain and help me with the rest of my work. " Ignoring the nagging in the back of her head, she was relieved to see that Azariah and Iopah had come back in time while she stood chewing away on the ergot and making sure that she did not swallow any of it. Taking the moss from the women, she made a head gesture signaling that she needed more cobwebs before going back to work.

Pressing the moss firmly down upon Hollow’s shoulder, she watched as the remaining blood soaked up the moss as she waited for anything else. Knowing that this was all going to be alright now that she had gotten to the easy part, she carefully spread the ergot onto the man’s shoulder, making sure it covered everywhere that needed to be covered. Then, carefully, she chewed the golden rod and repeated the same process before grabbing some cobwebs –thank goodness they were sticky- and tried pulling apart some with her paw before administrating it to Hollow’s shoulder, letting it stick. With a relieved sigh she waited for the three women to come back with the rest of her tools.

It seems when you're around, my life is complete.

Exhaustion began to pull tantalizingly at the black wolf. His eyes seemed to almost roll back into his head before snapping forward. The loss of blood coupled with fear and the fight had wiped out all of his strength. If the bobcat would have just let go it could have ended differently. But it seemed it had been out to kill Hollow. It's fangs had not torn him, that much was true, but the puncture wounds were indeed very deep. Had it been anywhere besides his shoulder, things could have been much worse, even fatal. Now that Nina was here though, his chances of survival had increased dramatically. Had he been on his own he would surely have died, and had the cat began to tear his shoulder he would be dead regardless of Nina's efforts due to the depth of his wounds. But that didn't happen, it seemed fate was not ready to let him move on just yet. Life wasn't finished with Hollow Nite.

It was just as well as Hollow was not finished with this life either, there were things he wished to do that could not happen unless he were there for it. Azariah, he could never take her as mate, he could never help raise the pack's puppies, he would never see Simaea rise in her pack. No death simply would not do, Hollow was not prepared for such a thing. As Nina spoke to him these thoughts circled his head and he did exactly as he was instructed without question or words. He inhaled as he was told and swallowed whatever bitter tasting herbs he had to swallow. Hollow was still exhausted though, no herbs could change that and he was beginning to fear that if he slipped off into sleep that he would never wake up.

Even with the fear thick in his head, he knew that logically he could not hold out much longer. Soon he would fade away into sleep, or unconsciousness, or death, he did not know what it was but he knew he must hope. Hollow would face whatever came next as boldly as if it were another bobcat. "Nina.... I'm tired." The words were breathed quietly as his leader worked... hopeful that she knew if it would be okay for him to close his eyes.

Iopah pushed around in the undergrowth. Every tuft of moss snatched up without ceremony.The squirrels and birds watched her in amusement. It seemed to them all the thicket wolves had found the mushrooms. Iopah took no notice of them.

She had enough to do and worry about.

It was an easy and mundane task and it left Iopah with opportunity to think. Could Nina save Hollow? Was there any chance he would be as before? He was a friend and Iopah was wracked with worry and uncertainty. She moved on auto-pilot, swiftly adding to her collection of moss. The hurried movements of Azariah kept her grounded, and her ear flicked occasionally towards the younger girl. Soon they would need to bring this to Nina.

Iopah noticed Azariah's nod and she stooped to engulf her mass of moss before breaking into a run back to Nina, and, more importantly, Hollow. Iopah didn't think he was injured as badly as Kele was, but she had not way to be sure. She had only her own intuition as a hunter and a scavenger. She focused on Nina, not wanting to see the injuries. It wasn't that she was uneasy at the sight, but she didn't want to think about what they would remind her of. She just wanted to focus on her next job, whatever it was that Nina needed this time.

With a gesture Nina indicated the moss deposited in front of her. Iopah dipped her head in acquiescence, Nina seemed sure and confident, so she turned back to the thicket. She had never seen Nina treat someone.

Back home there were no healers. The Barberi pack was not cruel. All it's members were cared for as best as possible, fed and protected. Sick wolves simply healed on their own, or they didn't. No one had the ability to do any more for them. Iopah immediately set into searching for more absorbent materials. Despite all of her attempts to keep it out the question slipped through. Could Kele have been saved? It was a question that Iopah didn't think she wanted to hear the answer to, so she busied herself in finding all the moss she could snatch up.
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Io can be PP'ed again if need be.

(This post was last modified: Aug 15, 2013, 01:59 AM by Iopah.)

All Ashanti could do was wait, and let the more experienced healer start to work on the injuries. Sadness, pain, torture. She hated just waiting while another was in pain, but she wasn't going to just run off because if Nina needed her to do something else, or to go get something else, Ashanti had to be there. So she left her mind to sink back into deep thoughts. I wish I had seen what was coming for me. Her mind was already trailing to places she didn't want to do. The experiences that she had been through, the good and the bad, had her thinking more about her parents, her siblings, her friends. It had her thinking about how lucky she was to have the support of her pack mates, and it pained her to know that her family died, all of them, probably Isen had passed too by then. She would never know.

She glanced at Hollow, laying there, whispering on about how he didn't want to die and about him being tired. There was Nina soothing him with words of comfort. The blood's run stale.. I wanna hide the truth, I wanna shelter you. Her thoughts drifting to her son, who was back in the pack den with the other children most likely. Being given the role teacher, she was suppose to teach the pups, but Nina had made it clear that she was to focus on healing in situations like this. But Ashanti wondered, would she ever be an actual healer, after all the pack had Azariah as an official healer, or at least Asha was pretty sure it was official. If not, they had Nina, who would need Ashanti? She let determination in though, and she asked one question, one question that meant everything to her. "Nina, is there anything else you need?" It was her life.

Just as usual she worked efficiently, finishing the job quickly and without incident. Hollow had been patched up in record time and would definitely be alright in the end. Sighing, she took the time to make sure everything was alright when Hollow’s tired voice addressed her. Turning her single-eyed gaze towards him she spoke softly and kindly to the young man, "Sleep dear, Hollow. I will be here when you awaken." When she was sure that the Guardian was finished, she turned her gaze towards Iopah, giving her second efficient commands that she knew the woman could handle out aggressively and quickly given her specialization within the pack. "Iopah, I want you to soak as much moss in water as possible and bring it back here for Hollow to eat when he is awake, after that I need you to catch something fresh for me…if you can, that would be amazing, if not get something that if fairly new from the caches, please." Even though she was alpha, Nina found things always went quicker if she was polite to her pack mates and right polite was the only thing that was going to pass.

When Ashanti spoke up, she turned to the young woman, extremely pleased that she had heeded her call with no question and immediately sprung into action when everything went bad. Nina had wanted to help Azariah learn to heal, but felt that right now the process was too personal for her new pupil to do right now and the Healer felt it best that she finish the job as quickly as possible in fear that Hollow would possibly fall out of their paws. Clearing her throat, she spoke calmly, "Ashanti, I want you to gather as much of the herbs that I used as possible and put them in storage. I will need someone…or myself to redress his wounds many times. Save the hellebore if you can, it is no longer needed." Glad that she had everything under control, she felt the need the protect Hollow and it was why she warded Azariah away from him with her whole stance. Her lips were pulled back and her pose demonstrated dominance and the screaming of protection over his Guardian. It would look much like when Nina was protecting her pups. Hollow was afterall…family.

It seems when you're around, my life is complete.

There was activity everywhere, it wasn't for a few moments that he realized suddenly Iopah's scent was here, along with everyone else. Which he could not decide on being good or bad. Even as he lay in a small pool of blood that did not excuse the predators and other wolves from the borders. A huff escaped his lips that could have easily been recognized as laughter at his own thoughts. You just can't stop can you Hollow? He asked himself. But then he heard Nina, finally, rest, he could rest. Her words helped reassure him, just the part where she said "when you awaken" It must mean that she was done and he was going to be okay. Hollow exhaled and began to slip into unconsciousness or sleep. Which one he couldn't tell.

Just before his eyes slid closed he managed to breathe a few words. "Can Azariah be here too? I need to tell her I'm okay." Then it was a black silk sheet. Warmth from his head to his toes and comfort, oh comfort like no other. But this was brief as the pain in his shoulder caught up with him. His jaw clenched tight until he found himself standing in an endless, flat, beautiful feild. Greens, yellows and reds blended to make a beautiful pastel scene. Hollow was dreaming. There before him was Nina, Azariah, Iopah, Ashanti, Simaea, and Sloane. All of them gazing at him with pride, You are fine Hollow. They all seemed to speak in unison calming him further before he slipped into the deepest part of sleep and no longer saw the pleasant scene.

After depositing her supplies Iopah stepped out of the way of the healers. She watched every movement with curiosity, and studied every seemingly ordinary plant. This was something her pack never had any knowledge of. It all seemed very mysterious. But, Iopah could tell it was working. Already Hollow had begun stabilizing. With her hunters nose she could tell the blood had been staunched. She sighed in relief. Nina spoke her name and the light tawny woman stepped toward her in response. Swift orders followed and Iopah took only seconds to comprehend her task. She nodded once, then leapt into the forest.

Moss was easy. She and Azariah had been collecting it for nearly twenty minutes. Iopah knew where to look for that. Soon her jaws were full once again. The taste was not growing on her and she grimaced. Where was the closest source of water? Her ears swiveled as she considered. Her body sharpened as she thought of her little spring. It was nearby, but this late in the year would it have dried up? She snatched up her moss and raced north-east. The area came into sight, but was ominously silent. No gentle trickle of water greeted her ears, but she pushed forward anyways, panting lightly.

There, nestled in the pile of smoothed stone was a rivulet of water. It was seeping into the dry earth without a noise. Hurriedly Iopah dropped her moss where it rose out the ground, the cold water seeping into the plant material. She watched it in agitation. It was slow, and she impatient.

Ahead of her a twig snapped and her head jerked up to stare at a very confused rabbit. It was probably coming to drink. Poor thing had the worst timing in the world. With a loud huff Iopah scrambled over the spring. Her attack was very inelegant, hurling herself at the rabbit with all the grace of a bowling ball. Soon it was swinging from her jaws, and she padded back to the spring. The moss was now saturated, the water bubbling and dripping from the edges. Nina wanted the moss first. She set down her rabbit, nudged it protectively, then gingerly picked up the moss. Squeezing her jaws would force all the water out, making all her work pointless. Slowly she made her way back.

Hollow appeared to be asleep, so she set it next to Nina, catching her leaders eye only briefly before returning for the rabbit. Back at the stream, the rabbit was just as she left it. Several minutes later she was back with Hollow. She set it next to the moss, then dropped heavily to her haunches. She was panting in earnest now, but she sat attentively willing to help until Nina dismissed her.

Unfortunately Nina did not hear Hollow’s request and continued to keep guard, watching as the rest of the ones that had gathered stood in a outer ring around the Healer and Guardian. It was the first time in quite awhile she had been needed to perform such a strenuous task and the alpha was sure that if she had been slightly later than she was then it would have been the end of her friends life. The Woodlands pack could not afford such tragedy and Nina couldn’t imagine her life without her loyal, devoted friend. After what seemed like forever, Hollow feel into a sleep, whether it was peaceful or not Nina did not know, but she stood their strong and proud, her body radiated the power she held. Dismissing the rest of her pack mates with a flick of her tail, she watched as they dispersed, Azariah hesitating slightly before Iopah and Ashanti whisked her away.

Looking back down at Hollow, she sat down next to him, glad that Iopah had gotten what they needed. It would take much longer for injury to heal than it had for any other minor injuries that Nina had taken care of before. The only thing that she could ask the Gods for was that nothing got infected, because sometimes an infection would be too great for herbs to manage and the golden brown woman did not want to take any chances. Taking a deep breath she lay her head down, ears perked and her single eye open, watching the shadowy thicket around them and praying that her friend would not be taken by Death.

{Fade to black}

It seems when you're around, my life is complete.