Now that she was better from the sickness, Ballad's paw had been killing her, so she only knew one way to stop her paw forever; chew it off, and bury it in the snow somewhere, even if it would hurt her. So, lowering herself to the ground and stretching one white paw out, her injured one, Ballad let out a soft whimper before leaning forwards and showing her white teeth. A low growl escaped her jaws before she moved closer to her paw, her jaws opening wider and wrapping it around her paw. The girl's teeth slammed shut, blood staining the white fur, and Ballad pulled away to inspect the damage she had done to her paw. Instantly, she pulled back, but soon wondered if her fangs where really that strong. She sniffed her paw, the scent of blood filling her nostrils, and she looked at her paw again.

Blood was staining her normally white fur red, and there were four puncture marks, deep and bloody. Letting out a soft growl again, Ballad sunk her fangs into her paw again, pain flooding her in waves as she tilted her head to the side, hoping for anything except for pain. Blood filled her jaws, and Ballad hoped for anything, pulling back again. The bone was snapped in two, and the muscles were showing slightly. Blood dripped heavily from her paw into the snow, and Ballad knew that one or two bites would send her paw off, and she would be almost normal. She would be able to walk easier, at least, after a while. Pain almost made her sick, and the white woman gasped, but hazel eyes would shine as she let out a soft sigh and lunged at her paw again, her jaws wrapping around it easily, despite the blood filling her jaws once more when she bit down a final time.

Tilting her head again, Ballad felt a final sure of pain go through her body, ck in and opened her jaws. The paw lay there when she moved her leg with difficulty, but she felt free that it was gone. Blood dropped on the ground from her leg, now nothing but a long stump, and she struggled to get to her paws, jaws wrapping around her paw once more. She stumbled as she got up, and about fell back in the snow, but she used one paw to scratch a small hole in the snow. She dropped it, and walked away, her jaws parting in a howl as she moved closer to the inside of the Ebony border. She would have to explain the missing paw, but hopefully they would understand.


"Speech"

I can't feel the way I did before

Don't turn your back on me

The scent of blood touched Katja's nose as she patrolled the border. Alpha or not, they still had too few working members of the pack for her to not continue with this duty. But that blood-scent was not prey-scent, and the wolf-scent overlaying it was not Ebony-scent. Katja veered from her path toward the scent on the border. Just as the blood-scent was becoming nearly overwhelming from its proximity, a pained howl was heard, and Katja bounded forward at a swifter pace. She came into sight of the wounded wolf, and her quick eyes took in the scene. Hardly pausing for breath, the alpha lifted her head and howled out an emergency call for one of the healers to her position. She had seen this before, when she'd found her sister half-starved and trapped under a rock, forced to gnaw off her own leg to free herself. What was the first thing she'd been told? Pressure on the wound. Bounding across the border to meet the girl she immediately attempted to shoulder her off her feet and onto her side so that she could press her forepaws sharply against the torn arteries and veins that should have carried blood to the girl's missing foot. "What is your name, girl?" she asked the injured girl coolly. "Where do you come from?"



"Speech"

I won't be ignored

Time won't heal this damage anymore

Walk | Talk | Think

She had been on the opposite side of the Garden, seeking out any early green shoots that she could find. Spring was going to soon be upon them, and the faster she figured out where the plants were going to come in the faster she could get to gathering them. And she really did need to redo her own stores of plants and herbs. She and let them go in her sickness, their strong scents combined with her keen nose making it near impossible for her to settle her stomach to the point that they could no longer share her den, and a little she wished to bite her own tail for it. It had been a stupid move; some of those plants had been hard to come by. But what was done was done and she just needed to move on.

The sound of Katja calling for assistance, however, was much more interesting. Very rarely did the Sola Knights of Ebony get called to anything in particular - at least not since the sickness - and the shadowy colored yearling could think of nothing good that would require their attention. She was not a full-fledged healer yet, not ranked amongst those that she trained under, but she was getting there. But more than that she was curious, always jumping at the chance to learn.

So while she was no Sola Knight - not yet anyway - she gave up her early plant hunt and set off across the Garden, cutting an odd path through the many standing stones until she caught the heavy, unmistakeable scent of blood. And lots of it. Her nose wrinkled well before she finally found them, the white wolf lying upon her side with her leg - a leg that lacked a paw, Calli noted - being pressed upon by Katja's paws. What the hell..? For a second Callisto was stunned into inaction. The telltale blood surrounding the white wolf's muzzle told the story of how the lower appendage had been lost. What she could not fathom was why.

Getting herself back, Callisto shook her head to clear it and walked forward on steady grey legs, her head lowered and her blue eyes glancing from Katja to the paw-less limb. "That looks pretty nasty," she commented, her mind already searching for a feasible treatment and finding one though she had none of it on hand. "Horsetail might be good for binding that," she remarked, only familiar with the plant at all because of the epidemic. She had made it a point to learn about those plants involved with the cure once she had been of a mind to retain it. "It grows around the lake." A lot of good that did her here. She doubted it was even possible to move the injured wolf there without having her lose consciousness or die from blood loss along the way. "Unless there's another pond close by?" she asked, watching Katja for a response. With healthy stores of the plant growing around the lake, she had found no use in looking elsewhere. Katja had never struck her as the healer type, but maybe she knew a little more about the lay of the lands than Callisto did and could help in her own way.

The man would hear Katja's call for help...he immediately grabbed everything he could carry that he might need. He hopped Callisto would come. One it would be an excellent lesson for her and if he needed more help than Katja she could help him.

He hadn't been taking his time but at the scent of blood the sense of urgency increased. His stride, already stretched would reach out even farther to increase his speed. At his arrival he would slide into a quick walk. Snow had been kicked up behind him the entire way here and now there were skid marks in the freezing substance. The cold would have slowed her bleeding...but the possibility of bleeding to death was still possible.

Her paw was gone, chewed off by the looks of it. However he would not waist the time asking about it now. He would place the wintergreen in front of the ivory woman and tell her to eat it. A fast explanation would be given. "It will ease any pain the snow hasn't already numbed."

Immediately after the explanation he would look at Callisto "I'm glad your here I need you to lift her leg high enough for me to place the horsetail over it properly but still low enough that while I'm not applying the herb Katja can keep pressure on it."

Blood was coating her pale fur, the liquid making the texture of her fur greasy and disgusting. She had been shouldered off her paws by the stranger, and now she knew that this stranger would have blood on her paws. Soft pants of pain escaped Ballad's jaws, including a few soft whimpers. When the wolf helping asked her name, Ballad took a moment to respond. "My name? My name is Ballad, Ballad Destruction. And......I don't have a pack. That's why I came here. So I could be in a pack." Ballad struggled to keep her eyes open from all the blood loss. If she made it through this, then she knew that she would sleep a lot. That was what she had learned from when her missing paw had first became injured. Her thoughts were broken by two wolves, one coming faster than the other. "I didn't see any ponds nearby, at least on the side I had been on." Pain made her wince a little.

The other wolf dropped something at her head, and told her to eat it. Apparently, it would ease any pain the snow hasn't already numbed. Ballad leaned over and began to eat the herb, gagging a little at the bitter taste. But she didn't say anything, only continued to eat. Maybe the wolf could help her even more. Ballad smelt the horsetail and managed to wag her tail a little, before she lowered her head to the ground. Suddenly, everything was black, and even the voices and pain went away.

EXIT BALLAD THROUGH LOST CONSCIOUSNESS

"Speech"

Katja stilled as the wolf spoke her name, and she darted a glance at the wolf. Ballad Destruction? The last name matched that of the leaders of Ludicael and Abaven, the first seemed to match the naming conventions they used. Granted her common tongue was still not the best it could be, but she was pretty sure this wolf was related to them in some way. Hm. She would have to bring news of this to them as soon as possible. The arrival of Callisto and Maximous took her attention for a moment. The older healer gave the injured wolf something to eat and spoke of Callisto lifting the paw. She shifted to give the healers room to work, but as she did the leg beneath her paws went limp. A flood of German curses poured from her jaws as she checked, but the girl's chest still rose and fell with her breathing. Alive, just unconscious. Her ploy to keep the girl from falling into shock or succumbing to bloodloss by talking to her and keeping her calm had failed, it seemed, but at least now the healers could work on her unhindered. "Speech"

Walk | Talk | Think

A strong sense of relief filled her the second she spotted Maximous headed their way. With him there, she was no longer the most capable of handling the situation, and while she already had decided on what the best treatment within her repertoire would have been she did not happen to have the needed items on hand. Max, of course, did; he always did. She stepped clear as he approached, giving him the lead in treatment and watching as he placed a plant directly before the injured white wolf, the scent of which was strong and caused her nose to crinkle against its smell. Wintergreen. There was no mistaking that smell, and she was sure to commit its use as Max spoke of it to memory.

With the pain reliever administered, Max looked her way, and Callisto's ears perked to attention. Hold the leg while he put the plant on it. It sounded like a simple enough task, though as she glanced toward Katja and the leg in question she knew it would be slightly more challenging to execute. But all she did was sigh resignedly and nod her head understandingly, stepping over to take up a place beside Katja as the white wolf fell unconscious. "She's out, Max," Calli stated, her eyes darting once away toward the more experienced healer before setting again on the paw as she curved one of her own beneath it and lifted it at a slight angle. She did not want to make it harder on Katja to do her part - she was grateful that the woman was so willing to act when it was needed - and she watched to make sure that the bleeding would slow.

Neither female would argue with his instructions. The white woman, who's name he had missed, ate the plant. Katja would keep doing exactly has she had been and Callisto would nod and do exactly as he instructed. Max could always count on her to do everything just as he would instruct. Though some day he knew it would be her giving the instructions.

Had this been a less dire situation he would have paused to give her a smile and a thank you. For now however that would have to wait. The moment sound ceased to project from him, he began needing and weaving the horsetail together.

Already he had been creating the bind as quickly as most would think possible when his student stated that the white woman lost her consciousness. "Damn it!" he would think aloud and then weave faster.

A matter of seconds, minutes even, would pass but to him it felt like making the bind had taken forever. The moment his patient lost consciousness was when his fear for her set in. Though he would hide it from both Callisto and Katja. The last thing that needed to happen was for them to panic.

"Katja I need you to move your paws now. The binding is ready" The moment the alpha compiled Max's large black paws would replace them. Moving the binding until it was placed perfectly, gently with his muzzle and holding it with his paws when it was perfectly placed. The one horsetail he didn't use would be used to tie down the binding to ensure that it would stay.

Once he pulled it tight enough with his teeth to hold it in place and to help stop the bleeding he would move to her throat and check for breathing and a pulse. Thankfully the white woman still had a pulse and was still breathing. Both were stable enough to move her if need be, but instead of barking out that order he would look at Katja and wait for her orders.