he had been reckless and careless. entering the rock garden, he marveled at the different sizes and shapes of boulders before continuing further in. it was by this decree of curiosity that he failed to notice the smaller rocks under his paws. one, in particular, was quite sharp, and it cut deep into his pad. the man would gasp, feeling the pressure and pain before leaping backward. the small rock showed blood on the ground and even more from his paw pad. instinctively raising the limb that was hurt - his front right one - Benedict hobbled around trying to find a place free of rocks so he could clean it properly. the man cursed his negligence. he should have been paying attention to his surroundings. accidents happen, his reasonable mind proclaimed. it wasn't all his fault. he shouldn't be too hard on himself. managing to slip toward a patch of grass, he'd sit down and bend his head to clean. the blood tasted like metal but he managed to stop the flow even slightly. the pain was a bit worse and he'd have to find a healer to check it. but where out in the middle of nowhere? Benedict looked back to Abaven's lands in the distance, frowning. he could put weight on it and go back, see if anyone was around to help on his pack's land. too absorbed in his plan, he failed to notice if another approached him.

Where else to search for rocks to help her grind her herbs down into powders than a garden full of them? Light and seemingly without a care, she seemed to glide through the garden with nimble agility. She was fast but sure-footed as she kept to the grass and dirt, avoiding patches of gravel and any upright stones if she could. She knew all too well the dangers of picking the wrong rock to support you, so today she was only searching for ones that could help her with her current activities and avoiding touching the rest. Once the scent of blood hit her gray nose, she froze and finally ceased her fluid movements. She was a healer, of course.. but also a loner- anxieties still riddled her when she chose to meet strangers, but she didn't let it get the best of her when facing someone who might need aid. Her last patient broke her heart when he died, but perhaps it was the determination to make up for that in her career of caring for other wolves. She followed the scent cautiously from downwind, unsure what she was dealing with- she only knew that this blood belonged to a wolf, not any sort of prey animal.. and that alone was enough for her to seek out the source of the injury she was smelling. When the male resting and licking his own paw was visible, she ducked and hid behind an available cluster of boulders big enough to hide her from view. It wasn't like her to spy, but she really didn't want to get herself into trouble. Once she was certain they were alone, she thought over the risk of approaching him. He was already injured, and likely far slower than she.. if there were any problems, there was nothing stopping her from slipping away from him, was there? She took a breath and gave herself a confident nod before walking out from the cover of the boulders. Her step was light, but her stature tall and well reserved. "Hello, are you hurt? My name is Moonlit Wreckage, I am a Healer.. I followed the scent of your blood. Do you need my help?" There, straight to the point. She lifted her skull again with took another deep breath, her chest proudly and full of poise as she awaited his answer.

Benedict gave a start at the voice. twisting his head from his paw, he'd look up at the stranger warily. she introduced herself as Moon - Moon Wreckage - but surnames meant little to him. he still considered himself a bit new to these lands. he knew that many wolves placed stock in family, but to him, they were all the same. their actions spoke louder than bloodline. what was interesting was that she was a healer, and had followed his blood trail to assist him. "m' Benedict of Abaven" he introduced himself firstly, baby blues straying from her pale form to the injured paw. it was still bleeding but not as profoundly as before. he'd hold out his limb to her so she could see it better. he didn't seem to notice her own wariness, nor her steeled nerves. "might haf' cut meself" he added in uncertainly. what if it would fester into infection before he went back to Abaven? the thought was a bit scary. he'd never had an infected wound before, but he heard not so nice things. "ye think ye can look?"

It was unfortunately in the woman's nature to stare, a side-effect of her curious brain. His accent left her standing there in a sort of stupor as she tried to place where she might have heard someone talk like that before but she wasn't sure she ever had. She pulled herself out of it as he admitted that he'd heard himself and held out his paw, thankful that she had something else to focus on so that she wasn't so awkwardly just standing there checking him out. All former signs of wariness were gone as she focused, her pale eyes finding the injury on his foot and the source of the blood trail she had been following. She came in close and brought up her own paw to place gently on top of his toes and get a better look at how deep of a cut she was dealing with. It seemed to be bleeding pretty well, and that made her frown just slightly. She would need to find something to hold any sort of herbs she put on it, or else the blood flow and the location of the injury might just make all of her work for nothing. "Hang tight, I'll be back before you know it. I just need to get some supplies from the swamp to the south. You've done good work at getting the bleeding down, keep it up and I'll be back with something to keep it from infecting and to curb some of the pain." She offered him a reassuring smile, but her word was as good as a promise. She waited to see if he had anything else to say to her for a moment before she broke out into a full sprint, going the exact way she came into the garden so that she could avoid cutting herself the same way he had. "Just need some yarrow.. and some.." It wasn't yarrow, but another yellow 'flower' caught her eye just as she was leaving the garden. Marigolds were technically weeds, but so useful.. she plucked it up and continued on her way out to the swamp. When she arrived, it didn't take long to find cobwebs and moss on a low enough branch that she could reach, she worked quickly to wrap some around her right forelimb so she could continue to carry the herbs with her mouth. Once she was satisfied, she made her way back to the garden and managed to find yarrow clusters at the edge of the swamp. What would she have done if she had found him in the middle of winter, she wondered? She really needed a place to call home.. a place to keep her herbs, so she didn't have to run and grab them every time she found a patient. She sighed, but narrowed her eyes and ran even faster back to where she had seen the male. He wasn't hard to find again due to the scent of blood, but that concerned her. She had heard of bears this far North, and what if one picked up his scent? She pushed the thought aside as she took a seat next to the rock he was perched on and began unraveling the cobwebs and moss from her leg, attempting to lay it out as flat as possible.. even though it was a lumpy mess for the most part. "Think you could hold it out again for me?" She smiled up to him, sweet as possible though she knew she was about to apply a bit of pressure that might be uncomfortable for him. She felt bad for all of her patients but tried her best to make up for what they were going through by being as kind and helpful as possible.

He was no healer, so he trusted the woman to do what she felt was best. The names of the plants were foreign to his untrained mind and he’d nod as she seemed to know what she was doing. The stranger was straight to the point and knowledgeable about her trade, so he felt better about leaving his injury in her assuming capable paws. Once she was done looking at his paw, she’d proclaim she’d be back soon. She needed supplies. ”Course” he’d nod to her once more, watching the woman disappear from his field of view. He’d bend down once more to lick the wound, trying to slow the bleeding even more. Time passed but she did return. Her pale shape came back with plants and cobwebs. He gave her a grateful smile as she asked him to hold out his paw to her. He did so, eyes focusing on the plants she had brought back. Moon seemed to be trying her best to make him remain calm. He knew she’d be applying pressure to his injury; there was no way around it. Benedict wasn’t one to shy away from pain. He’d been injured before. ”do yer worst” he’d chuckle as he extended his limb to her, hoping the little joke was enough to put her mind at ease as well. he could take it.

"Ah, you're brave! I like that." His words brought a bright grin across the piebald woman's face as she looked down to her collection so far. She scraped some of the moss away from her cluster, trying to get a thin pad a little bigger than the size of the injury, but small enough that it could sit on his paw without a massive lump protruding from it. Once she was satisfied with what she had for her patch of moss, she began chewing the yarrow and marigold. Her weight moved to her hinds as her forepaws were brought up onto the rock the man was resting on. She smiled to him before she rested her left paw on his toes, applying pressure so that she could open up the wound just a little bit. He had made good work on getting it clean from debris, but she double-checked anyway just to ensure she wasn't trapping any unnecessary potential for infection in there. One satisfied, she stopped her chewing and brought her right paw up to her muzzle, using her claws carefully to extract some of the yarrow and marigold that she had managed to chew down. She didn't want all of it, but enough to fill the wound partially and spread along the top. Carefully, she focused all of herself on bringing her right paw and the claw holding her poultice to his wound. She had to make sure that it left her claw and transferred over to his wound, so, unfortunately, she did have to press. She would glance up to him as a sort of warning before she finished spreading the rest of the herbs on his paw. Once she was done, she lifted herself from him immediately and moved her attention to the patch of moss she had separated from the rest. She chewed a bit more but immediately brought the moss to her mouth with the use of her paws. The rest of what she had managed to grind up was soaked into the moss and then placed on top of the wound. The marigold and yarrow together would both help fight any sort of soreness, inflammation, and infection. "You should be able to walk on this somewhat, but try not to get it wet and dirty. Only apply what pressure you need to. If there is a healer where you are going, you might need to change the cobwebs out once but your body should do the rest after that." The hard part was over, so she grinned as a satisfying feeling came over her. She began using her claws again to tear through the cobweb and get only a thin but long strip of it that she could use to wrap over the top and bottom of his toes and hold that moss in place.

he was mainly silent throughout her work, not wishing to distract her from her own goals in any way. he kept his eyes on the paw as it was worked with, noting the way she applied each thing. Benedict tried to be a good patient, wincing only slightly when she applied the pressure. he didn't withdraw his paw though; he only shuddered a bit awkwardly in the air. Moon was soon done, but he did feel a bit light from the blood loss. he'd have to eat something or drink some water on the way back to Abaven to get the flow normal again. "thank ye, Moon" his thick accent said as she proclaimed the finishing touches. no getting wet or dirty. he'd have to hobble back to his pack as slow as possible. luckily it was close by and not on the other side of Boreas. Benedict did not move from his spot though. he remained sitting until his head didn't swim anymore. "let's 'ope m' paw don't fall off by t' time I get back, eh?" he'd chuckle in good humor, his words a bit slurred from exhaustion. the blood loss made him tired but he refused to curl up and complain about it. he tried so hard for so long to get rid of his accent but it did come back in waves when he was in crisis. "where ye headin' next?" he asked her. she seemed to appear out of thin air when he needed her the most.

She had underestimated how weak the brute had become due to his blood loss, but as she watched him move around... she started to second guess her instructions. Her ear flicked attentively to the slurring in his words, but she still managed to crack a smile due to the nature of them. "On second thought, maybe you should rest." Her pale eyes looked around the rock-filled field they found themselves in. It was a very out in the open place, not somewhere she would have laid down to take a nap but she had an idea. "Over here," Long legs shuffled as she turned herself around, nimble paws carefully bringing her over to the boulders she'd initially ducked behind when she had seen him. They were large enough that they could be hidden from a couple of angles, at least. The piebald woman looked up, facing him with a soft smile after she'd finished inspecting the place she'd chosen for him to get some rest. He asked her where she was going and she let her ears fold back a bit. "I'm not sure, Benedict of Abaven. I don't really have anywhere else to go, no one to meet. I just came here looking for rocks that would work well enough to press a few dried herbs down into powders. I could watch over you while you regain your strength if you wish." Was it creepy? Maybe it was a little creepy. She just offered to watch him while he slept, but honestly, it was hard not to be a little creepy sometimes when dealing with caring for a stranger's health. She lowered her head, trying her best to ward off her anxieties about appearing odd, but she smiled at least.