She made a wry face at him as he grumbled that he couldn't promise that. Yeah, she knew that. It was just part of Valen, as much as his height or his blue eyes. He couldn't help it. It didn't bother her but it... worried her. She didn't like the idea of him getting hurt. Well... emotionally hurt, she amended to herself as she spat the nasty glob of herbal goo onto a lambs-ear leaf. Physical wounds were easy to heal. Emotions were trickier. Riskier. In that respect, she was a lot safer than Valen was, though he was physically much larger and stronger, and the better fighter, she was skeptical and emotionally closed of and you know what? The only time she'd had her heart hurt since she'd grown to adulthood was when Neios had abandoned her (multiple times) so clearly she had the right idea. She was lonelier this way, maybe, but... she couldn't get hurt if she didn't fall in love like Valen. Anyway, all her emotional energy went to the kids and to her friendship with Valen. She didn't need to add the added stress and inevitable heartbreak of a lover to that. If anything she pitied Valen. Really. And it made her angry - not at him, but at the women (and men) that she knew would break his heart. It made her angry to the core that anyone would take advantage of that sweet, vulnerable side of his for their own selfish ends.
She slathered the honey on him and pressed the poultice and lambs-ear bandage against his wound as she had on the other one, adding a few more leaves again, before flashing him a half-smile. "I feel like of the two of us, it wouldn't be me that people would think to describe as 'wise' Valen." She smoothed her tongue over a tuft of fur on his shoulder soothingly. "There, all better. Give it time and don't overdo it, and it should all heal over with a minimum of scarring." Whether she was talking about his wounds, or the issue with Rhythm, was up to interpretation. She continued to smooth over his shoulder absently a moment, before shaking herself back into some semblance of her usual cocky grin. Too deep. Way too deep. Walk it off, Cascade. "Well, let's get you off to your den so you can sleep the drugs off, or you can sleep here if you'd rather not walk that far." She stretched to her feet, busying herself with ferrying the remains of her herbs back inside her den to stash them in the small herb cache there.
If he wanted to keep talking, it wouldn't take but a word to halt her busy-bee scurrying, but he really did need to be getting some rest at some point, and this conversation had delved much, much deeper than she'd expected. She felt a lot like she was skirting too close to the edge of a ravine, that same dry-mouthed adrenaline-fueled knowledge that her paws were dancing on a precipice, and she was quick to back away, quick to cover the sudden nervousness with a teasing grin and busy work. Emotions were a tricky thing all right, and while Valen seemed to navigate through them with - for the most part - a frustrating sort of ease, it was better - far far better - for someone like Cascade to just... avoid that whole mess.
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