Go Directly to Jail, do not pass go do not collect $200

永程

Yong Cheng felt a little lame, when Sirius admitted that Bast might not know what he meant. He had spent as much time as he could learning the language these wolves seemed to speak, and now he rarely messed up -- he only had a slight accent -- but technical terms were where he fell short. He shrugged as lamely as he felt. The cobwebs would do.

“When it erupted, its smoke and ash covered territory all the way to Rewater Rocks. It has since receded, and already I believe it’s lessening. Soon, this territory will be habitable again.”

Yong Cheng didn't have anything useful to offer Sirius, so he kept quiet and continued tending to the wound with his moss, arranging the fur on Sirius' leg so that it wouldn't get in and touch the open flesh. The bleeding was already stopping; he suspected that it had slowed a while ago, while they were still in the Shrine. That, at least, was a boon.

Sirius seemed to know a lot. He must have been keeping track of the Shrine and nearby areas. How else would he know about its progress toward recovery?

Cat smell assaulted his nose and Yong Cheng turned to face Bast. Wordlessly, he stretched his neck forward. With open jaws, he gingerly pulled the strands of web from her whiskers where they were gathered. He was no wolf; this close to a creature like Bast, Yong Cheng was sure that she could snap his twiggy limbs in a heartbeat. He set the cobwebs, still clenched between his teeth, in the container of water. Sweeping his head from side to side, Yong Cheng aligned the individual threads properly.

"Thank you. You have been very helpful."

He removed them, and set them on nearby rock to dry out a little.

"I was born here," he said, not offering much in the way of information. "I was far enough from its source that the volcano did not affect me too harshly."

Bast was shockingly close to Yong Cheng, closer than he would have liked. He was constantly reminded that he was smaller and weaker than Sirius, and Bast didn't help to allay his fears. "Excuse me."

Yong Cheng returned a moment later with a rock. He threw the water in the container over the new rock, then draped the silken, but moist, webs over the now-empty bowl. Then, he set the 蒲公英 weeds onto the first and picked up the smaller one -- the one he had just retrieved. With the rock in his mouth, he crushed the weeds, until they mixed with the water to form a thick paste.

He gingerly applied the 蒲公英 paste onto Sirius' leg, pressing it into the wound.

"This is for..." the word eluded him. "...Swelling."

Yong Cheng settled lamely again on a word that was right, but not quite.

Then, he layered the cobwebs so they would be stronger, splitting the gathered threads into half, and placing one half on top of the other. They were ever stickier now that they had been moistened; the dressing wouldn't come free unless Sirius, or some other wolf, removed it himself. He wrapped the makeshift bandage around the wound to keep the paste in and everything else out.

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