Cas' eyes shone impishly as she trotted into the fruit-laden orchard that morning. Early, EARLY morning, the sun not even peeking over the horizon and stars still visible in the waxing light. She was a high ranking wolf in the pack though not specifically in charge of healers, and wasn't it her job to make sure things were getting done on a reasonable time? Healers hadn't met for training in far, far too long. Though not by chosen profession a healer, she had knowledge of healing and had a fairly good idea that, given the propensity of Imperium wolves to pick fights, the pack's actual healers needed to get out of their dens and actually do something. When was the last time Revenge had even showed his muzzle around the pack lands if he wasn't specifically answering Valen's summons for a meeting? And they had new healers now too, with Renhett joining and Evangeline becoming a student. It was long past time for them all to gather and practice their trade, and she had just the idea to do it. Finding the same little clearing Valentine had called his last meeting in, the black-coated female lifted her muzzle in a demand for all the pack's healers and healers-in-training to join her, then she settled back to wait, her ears quivering in anticipation.


Deadline: Imperium healers have until SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 13TH to reply. Anyone who isn't a healer is welcome to come as well if they're interested.

Integra startled awake at the sound of the howl, blinking slowly as she struggled to process whether the howl had been part of reality or part of her bad dream. Either was she was glad to be awake. The yearling femme gazed for a moment around her small den, void of anyone else but herself and a number of herbs she'd managed to gather on her travels. The girl had been stubbornly working to try and make herself to seem of some value to the pack but so far she wasn't feeling any closer to her goals. The empty den was the farthest she'd felt in a long time and she half wondered if her siblings were embarrassed by her. A slave. Pfft. She couldn't blame them. Peering out of her den she gazed up at the stars and wondered if her parents were looking down at her… were they proud she wondered? Sighing Integra withdrew back into the den but try as she might she could not get back to sleep. She made note to gather some herbs for sleep deprivation in the morning. Magenta eyes started to drift when a howl rang out. Cascade? Her brow furrowed. Why was she calling a gathering so early in the morning? The call didn't sound distressed but if she wasn't mistaken the call was for healers. A jolt of excitement and nervousness settled in her gut as she slipped out of her den and shook out her coat. The girl immediately headed toward the call, unsure if she'd be welcome. Her rank was slave, not healer, but she was determined to get out of slavery one way or another. She meant what she said, she'd fight everyone in the whole dam pack if she had to. To her surprise she was the first to arrive in the Orchard. Integra quickly dipped her head in greeting and took a seat a fair distance away. She had no idea where she stood with the other woman and opted to just keep her mouth shut for now. ""

Being awake at this hour was not uncommon. Staring at plant and refreshing her memory on illness both physical and mental. It was her life, while she had fought to enter the pack that was not where her profession lied even if she could defend herself. The lady heard Cascade's call and a beam of joy hit her heart. Finally! She didn't have the authority to call a healer meeting as she wasn't even a healer yet but now she got her chance. Besides, she had always been curious about Cascade. Bounding along the female would stop to see someone else there, though her attention to her was short lived as she focused on Cascade. Renhett happily took a seat in front of her, not too close and yet not too far. She didn't want to seem like she was being intrusive or obsessed. "Good Morning Cascade." Renhett would say dipping her head. Oh how exciting this was. To actually be doing something, it filled her veins with a sort of adrenaline. Even if this wasn't mental healing she could heal illness, wounds, and believed that she was rather good at it once she concentrated. Plus Imperium, it was her home and she had gladly fallen in love with it and it's inhabitance. "Talk"

Rising this early wasn't unusual for the King. He got up at various times throughout the night to patrol and while he'd been asleep when the summoning call rang out, Valentine was a light sleeper and he'd been thrown into awareness immediately. After a few still moments he recognized that it was the kind of wakefulness that would be hard to turn off and the brute decided he had no choice but to rise. A sleepy curiosity motivated him to slowly make his way to Cascade. He wasn't a healer, but he recognized just how useful the profession was. While it wasn't for him, Valentine appreciated those who devoted their time and energy to healing. It was, however, more than just a simple interest in learning that drew him to the gathering. Those who did and did not attend would be noted. Several of Imperium's members appeared to have been inflicted with, and currently suffering quite horribly from, slothfulness. Coming up on Cascade's left side, Valentine froze as the faint scent of Sonticus reached his nose. His hackles rose immediately. Nose twitching, he eyed the two wolves who had answered Cascade's call. One he'd been keeping his eye on since he'd decided to let her back. The other was a fairly new member, one whose history was unknown to him. It wasn't immediately obvious who the smell was coming from. Smoothing his expression and letting his hackles lay flat before he moved, the King then slowly make an arc around behind the pair, his gait nonchalant and seemingly without strong motive as he moved to take a seat out of the way of the proceedings. In doing so he pinpointed the source of the stink. Renhett. It seemed Imperium's new healer had been consorting with the enemy. Sinking back onto folded haunches, Valentine's gaze sought out Cascade. He wasn't about to interrupt her meeting to drag Renhett aside, but Cas had to know something was up. For now he would wait.

Rhythm's physique hadn't changed much with her pregnancy thus far, she was roughly two thirds of the way through and she barely had a pooch to her belly. Maybe the whole world didn't know about them, but Rhythm very much did. She was suddenly very awake that morning, if you could even call it morning. Maybe a few hours after midnight was more like it. Within her abdomen in the little den she had beneath the boulder would stir her tiny children. Much to her dismay. While she felt kind of warm that summer night, it seemed they were rather cold. She could feel them shift closer to her spine and ribcage. Sighing heavily she'd curl into a tighter ball to help them relax. Rhythm wasn't getting back to sleep anytime soon.

While she'd resigned to just laying there miserably Cascade's call would reach her ears. It was fully a relief. Eager to get out of the den and do something with the time she might have been sleeping Rhy didn't hesitate in making her way to the range. She kind of waddled but it wasn't that bad yet, though she wasn't able to completely hide it. Her lithe form didn't hesitate in its approach, finding Valen first and offering a sweet smile before finding a place more near Cascade. She smiled warmly at Integra, the young healer she'd gone herb collecting with recently, and looked curiously at the she wolf she did not know with another smile before settling her gaze on Cascade.

He had been sleeping when the call came, and though his stuffy ears probably wouldn't have heard Cascade had he been in Mercy's den he hadn't been. He'd come to the Orchard the previous night for an easy meal when he'd eventually just passed out from how tired he was. Now the morning had barely come and he was being summoned. Sighing heavily, (but regretting it right after because of the heavy coughing that it caused.) The tall Destruction would make his way to where the group had gathered. He'd keep his head down and tried to sit a distance away so no one would catch his ailment. As he grew comfortable he'd be afflicted with another bout of coughing. He should have stopped at his den for some herbs before hand.

Cascade's voice pierced the early morning air, rousing her only daughter from slumber. With a yawn the Imperialis stretched her slim body to drag herself up from her den - now her very own den, not shared with her mother and siblings, so that she could start making her very own herb stores in the cubby she was slowly building into the back of the still-tiny space. Why was her mother calling a meeting this early in the morning? Was she crazy? Yawning again, she strode into the meeting and looked around. A scowl creased her face at what she saw - she was the last to arrive? Did any of these other wolves sleep? Sulking, she moved to sit down next to Integra, tail curling elegantly around her paws, and checked the other girl over surreptitiously. Inty was a slave, and as a slave anyone else in the pack could choose to pick on her if they wanted, so Vana wanted to make sure she was ok. Satisfied that she was, for the moment, all right, Vana turned her attention to her mother to wait for her to start the meeting and see what all this was about. ""

I don't want to rest in peace
I'd rather be the ghost that annoys you

Cascade's tail brushed the leaves behind her in an excited wag, her head high and eyes far too bright for the early morning. She was feeling chipper. But when Valentine appeared and stiffened, sending her a significant look, her tail stilled and she herself straightened. Oh? Was something up? Anticipation quivered over her, but he didn't seem inclined to elaborate at the moment, so she may as well just get started and find out from him later what had him so chilly. Maybe she could... warm him up. (-eye brow wiggle-)

Clearing her throat to get everyone's immediate attention (and to draw her own attention back to the matter at hand) she hopped to her feet. "All right ladies," she barked, cheerfully ignoring the fact that not all of the present wolves were even female, let alone ladies. "So I cannot even remember the last time someone called a meeting of the healers. It has to have been seasons ago. Being a healer doesn't make you less accountable for regular training than a fighter, even if your training is a little less noticeable than a fighter's. You think you need it less? No - you need that practice more. When fighters come home from war torn and shredded, broken bones and losing blood, it is on you whether they live or die. It is on your training whether you have the skill and the steady nerves and paws to save lives. When a bitch struggles to give birth to the pack's next generation, are you going to be prepared to save her life? Her pups' lives? Or will you have been too caught up in your own lives and your own specialties to bother learning the rest of it? If you're going to call yourself a healer, you bet your ass you are going to be learning to be a healer, every day of the rest of your lives, or you aren't of any use whatsoever. So! Your days of slacking and riding by on the success of the rest of the pack are at an end, healers."

Throughout her speech, her cheerful attitude, her grin, did not falter a smidgen. Oh she meant every word. Every single word. She'd be holding them accountable. With the way the pack was set up, the way the personalities in the pack were, there would be conflict. There would be war. There would be raids, and spars, and maims. They could not afford a bevy of healers who could not do everything that a healer might be called on to do.

Well, her scolding was over and done with, and she stared out at them with bright eyes. Well, there weren't going to be enough healers for her to sit out and administrate like she'd planned... Her gaze fell on Valen, and a wicked grin curved her muzzle. Good, he'd volunteered himself! "Split up into pairs. Rhythm and Integra, Renhett and Evangeline... Revenge and Valentine." She quirked a brow at him, giggling internally. Revenge was clearly... grossly... ill, so it amused her to stick him with poor Valentine, but even more than that he'd been the most absent of all the healers, and she trusted Valentine wouldn't let him slack now. "Once you're in your pairs, one of you is going to play healer, and the other is going to play victim. I mean, patient." She gave them all a fangy grin. "I will be going around giving each of the patients their ailment and a list of symptoms they should be exhibiting. The healer of the pair will then examine them and determine what the symptoms are, and attempt to diagnose them based on the symptoms, and when you believe you have found your diagnosis you will call me over and detail the treatment to me, and I will let you know if it would be successful. If it's not, you will have two more chances to attempt to treat them before failing."

She had spent a lot of time coming up with these ailments and the treatments for them - she was battlefield medic, not a healer, and had really very little interest in healing as compared to other fields except as it supplemented her in those other fields, but she'd put in the effort to make sure the pack's healers did the same.

She waited as they situated themselves.


""

I hope you can make me laugh
Six feet down when we're bored of each other

OOC:

You have until next Friday (September 25th) to decide amongst the pairs who will be healer and who will be patient, and then start a new thread for them. Once you have decided and posted, Cas will "whisper in the patient's ear" the details of their particular ailment (which I will actually PM to the account of the patient). Then it will continue in this format. The healer will, IC in posts, examine the patient. For each part or possible symptom they specifically examined, the patient will in their next post tell them what they discovered. Bob examined Steve's heartbeat, breathing, and palpated the stomach. Steve replies that his heartbeat is rapid, breathing is normal, and the stomach palpation shows severe pain. Etc! Once the healer thinks they have enough information, they will attempt a guess, and a treatment. They will have three treatment attempts before failing. Patients shouldn't tell them if their diagnosis is correct! Cas will tell them if their treatment is correct for the actual ailment.