Walk | Talk | Think
Callisto stood outside the earthen den, sifting through the plants she had gathered and placed inside the little depression beside it. She would have preferred they be kept fully inside the structure, where the coolness would keep them longer than they would keep out in the open, but with Jakart still requiring moments of rest and slumber it was simply unfeasible. If she needed them in a pinch, they would have been inaccessible to her, and so this was, for the time being, the compromise that had been established.
It was not for Jakart now that she searched for plants - at present, he was tucked away very comfortably inside that den, resting while he still had a moment to. She searched for something to treat the wound on her scruff, assuming Belladonna delivered a less than hoped for verdict when she enlisted the little black cat's assistance with it again. Trillum. There it was. Taking a couple stalks of the flower, she carried it a short distance away from the den and stopped. "Belladonna," she called out quietly, mindful of the wolf slumbering behind her. The cat was not far - in fact, she had been staying very close recently - and immediately dropped into sight from one of the trees to hurry toward her. "Can you look at my scruff again?"
The little cat gave a wry smile and nodded her head. "Well, get down here then." Without further prompting, Calli lowered herself to her stomach and tipped her chin downward as the cat carefully, mindful of her claws, crawled up onto her back and sat to begin her inspection. "Not too bad actually," she remarked softly, gently maneuvering her the fur out of the way with one forepaw so she could get a decent look. "Not red. Looks like you're safe from infection. Let me see that plant."
It was almost routine by now, and after the black and grey healer passed up the flower, which Bella held carefully with one paw, she tore at the flower and chewed it a little before applying it to the healing wound. It was not the cat's most favorite of pastimes, and she made faces as she went, but she had seen the effects for herself; it was definitely a useful trick. Nearing the end of applying the trillium, Bella dared to venture into a new conversation as she absently smoothed out the lumpy paste she had made across the bite wound. "How's your boyfriend healing?"
The casual statement brought with it its usual accompaniment of irritation and frustration, but there was no use in commenting. Every other time she tried, the black cat merely brushed it off, and she had every certainty she would only do the same now. "He's fine," Callisto answered gruffly, chin still tilted downward as she tried to keep herself from turning to scowl at the cat, though her ears turned and folded irritably against her head. "He can get up and move around now without hurting himself. Should be ready to head back soon." She was actually eager to get back; their vacation had extended far longer than she had anticipated.
"You shouldn't have brought him."
The blunt, carelessly direct statement caused the healer to blink in surprise and turn her head to stare as well as she could over her shoulder at the cat seated upon her back. "What?"
"If you were done with him before we left," Bella explained, leaping cleanly down from her mistress's back once she was sure she had covered enough of the wound, "then you shouldn't have brought him along. He could have stayed back with his feelings and been spared the flood fiasco." It would have made for a very quiet trip too since Calli never seemed to want to talk to her, but Belladonna was still convinced that leading on the grey male was the wrong thing to do.
Though it was not directly stated, Callisto understood the accusation her companion was making against her, and like before she was not at all happy about it. Her angular face stiffened, soured, as she stared at the cat, rising to a seated position. "Look, he could have left at any time," the black and grey wolf countered lowly, ready to go on, but, as seemed to be her habit, the cat cut her off.
"But you didn't tell him to leave." Bella's tail twitched and flicked at her side, irritation evident as well as challenge. "You should have. You told me yourself you thought he was getting too attached, so keeping him away would have been the clearest option. But you kept him around. He didn't deserve what happened to him, and I think you know that. If you'd just told him to go, he wouldn't have been nearly killed, and--"
"Shut up, cat."
"No," Bella shot back defiantly, ears settling back against her head while her tail gave another wild swing at her side, "You're being selfish toying with him, and I--"
It was Callistos' turn to cut off her companion, her voice rising with temper. "Alright, you know what? Fine. Fine. It's all my fault. I'm a selfish bitch who keeps around a guy that she's made clear she doesn't want, but that she'll screw whenever it's convenient, and even when it's not." Of course, Bella had made no mention of that fact, but Calli was too charged to give it much thought as she hurried on. "And yeah, he's a good guy, he could do so much better. I shouldn't have led him on. But he's not leaving. He could whenever he wants but he hasn't, and I want him here so I'm not gonna send him away. I'll keep him for as long as I can because, damn it, he's the luckiest fucking thing to ever happen to me, and I don't want to lose that."
Bella stared, dumbfounded and absolutely silent. There it was. There was the reason her mistress had reacted as she had when they had found the grey wolf half dead from the flood, why she had been so protective and snippy since beginning to treat his wounds. The little cat had suspected it all along but...she was still no less surprised to hear it said aloud. "So that's it," she muttered, fighting very hard not to smirk, "It's not him you've been worried about. It's you."
With a lip-curling snarl, Callisto lunged. Anger clouded her judgment, obliterating all thought except that she could not stand to listen to the cat talk a moment longer and needed her gone now. She snapped, but the cat was too quick. With an answering hiss of her own, Bella leaped away from her mistress and took off at a sprint, intent upon finding a hiding place somewhere away from the angry wolf. Standing bristled in the spot where the cat had been, still growling low beneath her breath, Callisto breathed in quickly, temper flared. Damn that cat, she thought, visibly beginning to deflate as her breaths began to come in slower and her silver-blue eyes closed with painful realization. And damn her for being right.
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