The Usual (Post-Raid Healing)

To the Aegis' credit, he was smart enough to sit still on the cot and wait until it was time for the more helpful variety of stabbing to happen. When warned of the unpleasantness, the young brute simply resigned himself to it with a semi-sarcastic comment and a heavy sigh. Artorias mentioned a desire for whiskey to take the edge off, and the cosmic titan chuckled softly. Practiced movements of well trained paws drew the poultice closer, dunked the cloth in the clean water and set to work wiping away the worst of the congealed blood along the wound. He would need the edges clean and visible in order to stitch them shut, as well as to get his painkillers to absorb into the skin quickly. "If you sit still and don't faint on me, I'll make sure to send you off to bed with something better than whiskey." he assured the young male with a grin, garnet eyes flicking briefly up to the sapphire features of his Aegis in between slow swipes of the rag over his battered, swollen flesh. He was fairly certain there was still some of his last cannabis harvest somewhere in his room. Taking that with some whiskey would make quick work of any pain the wounded Aegis might be feeling later.

He had finished applying the periwinkle and clove salve when Artorias reached over to grab a cloth with which to stifle any noises that might slip out during the stitching. "We'll give that a moment to soak into the skin, and the stitching won't feel so bad." he said, and wiped the residue from his paw pads on the bloody rag he'd been using. Don't need the toes going numb before getting into the delicate work of stitching a wound, thank you kindly. When his attention moved to the bone needles, already threaded with their suturing fibres, he quickly and quietly set them up near the Aegis' outstretched forelimb. It had been a while since he'd needed to do any suturing, but most of this was muscle memory by now. Suddenly, that scrawny little dame was at his side, inspecting the work he had already done. She remarked on his techniques, and mentioned a few that he would find useful for the next steps. He grunted wordlessly in agreement, and nodded his head in understanding.

"The clove oil should have settled into the skin by now. Do your best to sit still, it shouldn't take me long to close the wound." the celestial giant told his patient, making brief eye contact with the young male to ensure his point had registered. With blood loss, it was always a good idea to be clear and concise. With that done, he took up his sutures and set them to skin. One broad forepaw settled itself higher up on the affected limb, holding it steady and able to rotate it incrementally where necessary. Puncture the skin about a knuckle's width from the edge of the wound, pull the needle through, and do the same to the other side. Pull both ends of the thread together, tie them off. Cut the thread above the knot, rinse and repeat. The wound wasn't especially large, so it only took him four or five stitches to close. Once he was done, he set the dirty needles aside on the used rags, and grabbed a fresh cloth to dunk into the water bowl. A few passes of the wet fabric over the fresh stitches to clean it up one last time.

"That wasn't so bad, was it?" he joked lightly as he dipped one of his digits into the powdered yarrow flower and applied it to the wound. "This will help with the worst of the bleeding, but you'll need to see someone to get the stitches removed in a week or two." he explained, vocals no more than a low rumble as he worked. There was something cathartic to the repetitive motions of cleaning and treating a wound, it centred him in a way. "No training until the stitches are out, or they'll tear out a chunk of your leg." the words came as a quiet warning, matched with another stern upward glance. Without another dirty rag to wipe the herbs from his paws, he settled for swiping the clumped powder against the dense fur of his chest.