Look, look with your special eyes

Aliana wasn’t exactly sure how Chimera would react to the prospect of having his full sight restored, or to the potential side effects and consequences the procedure might have. This was still a wholly unverified field of medicine, working entirely on theory and the few clinical trials she had run. It was entirely possible that restoring Chimera’s vision might be an impossibility. But until she was forced to accept that reality, Ali would continue to persevere in her efforts to make her husband whole. As she told Chi about her plans and her tests, she could see the awe in his eyes. It sounded too good to be true; hell, it still sounded crazy to herself! Eventually, the great giant of a king simply purred sweet nothings to her as he held her close. Ali knew he was processing his thoughts and she gave him all the time he needed, content to remain snuggled up to him all the while.

It took some thought, but eventually Chimera gave her his response when he pulled her head in until their mouths met in a slow yet loving kiss. The clouded fae murred happily against her husband’s lips, her petite frame melting into his rippling muscles as she clung to him. Parting from him was a dreadful thing, but when Chi looked into her eyes and gave her his full faith and acceptance of her offer, the Ashen queen was all smiles as she gently extricated herself from her king’s embrace. "Lie on your back, my king," she instructed him, and while this ordinarily would have been a salacious command, this time her tone was far more instructive as her doctor side took center stage. She was now a healer first and a wife second, and Chimera would be her greatest patient. Moving across the bedroom to where she had stashed her supplies, Ali took the ointment-soaked bandages, the herbal eye drops, and a skin of pure spring water back to their bed along with some clean cloths for cleanup. Settling back in beside her prostrate mate on his blind side, the little fae began by uncapping the waterskin and gingerly laying a paw on his shoulder. "I’m going to tell you everything I’m doing so there’s no surprises." Chimera was no cowardly wolf, but she didn’t want to chance startling him with a sudden action to him that he couldn’t see coming. Ali paused, looking down at Chimera, and considered what the outcomes could be. "Whatever happens tonight… if it’s nothing or if it’s bad, I want you to know I love you, Chimera, and I’ll always love you." Then she began.

"I’m starting by flushing your eye with spring water from the north glaciers, so you’re about to feel cold water on your face," the little healer explained. Then she began to pour a slow stream of water onto Chimera’s blind eye, using her free paw to keep his eyelids held open so she could cleanse his eye of any debris and impurities. Once she was satisfied his eye was clean, Ali set the skin aside and picked up the bottle with the herb decoction and uncorked it. "I’m going to put the medicine in your eye now, love. It will feel like drops of liquid, they shouldn’t hurt." Shouldn’t, because Ali genuinely didn’t know what the voles felt when they received the eye drops. It could feel like nothing or a light tingling or absolute awful burning. Holding her breath to steady her paws, Aliana applied the medicinal drops to Chimera’s blind eye, keeping his lids held open again to make sure every drop landed where they should. Maybe it was just her imagination, but Ali could swear she was already seeing the medicine start to dissipate the milkiness in Chimera’s eye.

When all the decoction had been administered, Aliana put the empty bottle aside and picked up the ointment-soaked bandages last. "We’re almost done, my love. I’m just going to put these over your eye to keep it protected while it heals. You can close your eye now and try to keep it closed while the bandages are on." Ali waiting until Chimera had closed his blind eye before gently pressing the medicinal bandages over his eye, making sure the ointment was soaking into his eyelid before gently yet securely wrapping clean bandages around his face to hold the medicine-soaked gauze in place. With her work completed, Ali inspected Chimera’s eye before taking a clean cloth and wiping away any excess water or ointment from his face to clean him up. Her work was done and all they had to do now was wait and pray.

Aliana breathed a soft sigh and nodded with a smile. "The tests I did took anywhere from a few hours up to a day to show signs of improvement, but I guess we’ll just have to wait and see what happens." Stepping away just long enough to clean up her supplies before returning to bed to snuggle up to Chi’s chest like they had been before, Ali leaned up to plant a gentle kiss upon her behemoth’s lips. "How do you feel, my Chimera?" They should really be getting some sleep to help accelerate his healing, but first Ali wanted to make sure she hadn’t hurt her husband with her gift.

"Chimera & Ali"