don't try to fix me i'm not broken
samara
A zombie on paws the slate alpha wriggled into the entrance after just a bit of a struggle. The scent of fresh herbs overpowered the smell of soot and ash. For that he was thankful. Even if he’d been physically able to stand at his full height in the small den Rhyme wouldn’t have been able to. As he emerged into the main area his body refused his commands and he slumped to the floor beside the tiny she wolf.
He sighed heavily, sure that she was alive but unable to make much more of an assessment. He sighed heavily as he tried to return to his feet. He had to finish here, and go back and den with the pups. Who knew how they were feeling at this point. ”Samara?” He asked softly, wanting her to remain asleep if she was, but if she’d regained consciousness he’d like to make sure she was comfortable. He had been trying to keep his distance, she encompassed all that made him weak, but with the fire… Rhyme had been drawn to her, and knowing she was injured caused him more distress than he wanted to admit even to himself.
Samara had only surfaced from the dark depths of unconciousness earlier that morning, waking to an aching in her lungs, her throat feeling raw like she'd been yelling nonstop for... well who even knew how long? Her eyes stung, watering the moment any amount of light hit them. There had been a sound of scrabling somewhere around her and as the woman had strained to crain her neck a voice she hadn't known had gently told her not to move so fast, a gentle pressure on her head from something smaller than even her own paws. A pair of white paws moved into her vision and she slowly lifted her gaze to see a tall white man gently sniffing at her. A shape leapt onto his back. "How long?" She croaked, her voice breaking with the strain of unuse and something else she could yet place. "A day." The female voice spoke again though she couldn't seem to find it's source. "You passed out in the fire." The fire! Samara was suddenly struck by panic and her body jolted. The man, immediatly placed a gentle paw on her shoulders and a soft weight returned to her stomach, tiny preassure points resting on her skull, strange limbs gently stroking her head. "Shh it's okay." The voice cooed again, this time from her stomach and she was able to figure out the gentle stroking was coming from it's owner. "It's out now. Mr. Ryhme brought you out and we, us and the other healers, have been looking after you. You'll be fine. We need to go check on a few other wolves but we left some Lavender and Meadowsweet, try and get some sleep but they are there if you need them." The voice paused and another shadow indicated it had jumped back onto the man's back. "Mr. Rhyme said you were a healer so you should know how to use them." The man must have retreated then but in truth Samara had already started falling asleep. Since then she'd been in and out of sleep, passing another half of the day before she was suddenly jolted from her rest. A large object nearly colliding with her and the woman would have jumped to her limbs if they had obeyed her, instead her body jolted, eyes snapping open. Then the voice pulled her to reality. "Rhyme?" She croaked, blinking as she tried to allow her eyes to adjust to the dim light. He was sprawled out near her, very near. The man was visibly tired, and she silently wondered if the man had slept any at all since nature's attack on his pack. "You look like how I feel." She said, her voice still harsh from unuse and what she now knew was smoke inhalation, still she managed the barest hint of humor. |
”It’s good to see you too.” He muttered tiredly, eyes blinking as he fought to keep them open. ”I just stopped in for a minute, I need to go check.. on. the pups.” His words were growing more difficult, but he felt determined. Rhyme would make his way back to the maple tree with his eyes closed if he needed to. Obviously his paws weren’t obeying his slowing mind though.
Rhyme responded, and Samara released a breath she didn't know she was holding, so he was awake enough to respond though even as it seemed her mind was shrugging off it's weariness Rhyme seemed to be fading fast. He mumbled something about having to get to his kids. "Not in this state you don't." She slowly managed to work her paws under herself. Finding the strenght in her limbs slowly returning. "At best you'll only scare them, at worst you'll be less than useless." The woman meandered over to the deeper part of her den, finding the herbs the strange female had told her were left there. It would have to do. She pulled some of the Meadowsweet away from the bundle. "Chew on the roots." She instructed him, nosing the bundle towards his nose. If he had any pain that'd help some, she'd have rather mixed it with Yarrow to make it more potent but without knowing exactly what was going on with him she didn't want to over medicate him. "Stay awake for me for a bit longer." She implored him. "Talk to me, have you been seen by any healers yet?" Probably not based on how much soot was still in his fur, it'd be hard to check for burns with him still like that. "Talk to me about anything you want... your favorite childhood memory." Some patients needed guiding and keeping him talking would mean he wasn't about to drift off to sleep quite yet. She wanted to make sure he wasn't too badly off before allowing him to sleep as much as it seemed his body craved it. Slowly the woman would begin to try to clean his head, removing layers of soot from his unkempt fur. It was a simple, intimate activity, but she was determined to keep it proffessional, she had to clean his fur of anything that could hide any skin level abrasions, nothing more. In truth, she'd have rather shoved him into the rapids but he didn't seem capable of getting up let alone stopping himself from drowning, so she'd have to take on the task herself, grimacing against the taste and resigning herself to a long process. |