sitting in silence

Laeta offered her no resistance and responded with a wordless nod when she asked for permission to perform a physical on her. With consent given, Syanna moved closer so she could maneuver around the other fae's body. "If at any point anything I do becomes painful, let me know." With her simple instruction given, Syanna began. She started at the woman's forelegs, checking her joints at her paw and knee for any signs of onset arthritis, but found nothing. The joints were flexible and supple. Frowning, Syanna checked each leg for bone fractures or splits, but again found nothing. A check around Laeta's hind legs revealed the same. Physically, there should have been no reason the wolf was unable to move her legs.

Pausing to think for a moment, Syanna began to work through what else could cause paralysis like this. It could be something in her nerves or some sort of neurological damage, but then she wouldn't be able to feel anything, and she was still able to feel pain. Moving around behind Laeta, Syanna placed her paws on the other woman's hips, checking their alignment, then finding the end of her spine and moving slowly up along her back. She felt with tender probing paws for each column in the wolf's vertebrae. Nothing felt out of place or abnormal. Frowning just out of view of Lae, Syanna tried to not let the frustration get the best of her, but she was disheartened by her lack of finding an answer for them both.

Then, as her paws moved up Laeta's spine to the base of her neck, Syanna felt something shift unnaturally beneath her touch. Her ears flicked up and eyes widened in surprise. Very, very delicately, she pressed the pads of her paws along the side of Laeta's neck again, feeling each vertebrae in her spinal column. Near the base of her skull, Syanna felt the bones shift and wiggle where they should have been solid. Grim realization dawned on the physician's face. Laeta had suffered a neck injury that had broken her neck. The wolf had survived, but she'd become a quadriplegic in the process. Syanna's heart sank into her stomach, paws carefully retreating from her neck while she slid off of the bed to come sit before her patient.

"I found the reason why you can't move your legs, Laeta..." Syanna looked over to Mel with a sad expression, then turned an apologetic look to Laeta. "You have a severe injury in your neck. Two of the bones of your spine have been broken, pushing them out of place. It's... honestly a miracle you survived. But I'm afraid there's no way to fix it, and it won't heal on its own." Syanna took a deep breath, swallowing back the lump in her throat. "I'm so sorry, Laeta, but you'll never walk again. Your legs will be paralyzed for the rest of your life." Lifting a delicate paw, Syanna rested it across one of Laeta's paws. She didn't know what else to say, but her heart broke for Laeta. She wished she could have given her good news, given her some hope to hold onto, done something to make her better. But sometimes some injuries were too severe, and there was no cure.

Sometimes life was just cruel...

"Syanna Alluráin"