healer, heal thyself

Jigsaw felt that if it was up to him - he'd definitely earned the rank of super-healer Washa Dawa something. To be honest, he spent more time dreaming of his promotion then he did trying to memorize the title. So far he'd collected the biggest Sunflower in the universe, a heck of a lot of Lavender, he'd prescribed his first treatment and given his first medication to a patient. He'd even healed his own sunburn, an accomplishment he was mightily proud of. Things were going amazingly, and Jigsaw was out of the den so often that his father probably was wondering what the heck the little pup was possibly up to during his long days away from home. Askell knew though - he'd needed his brother to play a small part in achieving his dream, crafting a satchel for him out of the tiny rabbit Jigsaw had succeeded in taking down. It was marvelous and fluffy and although the craftmanship wasn't perfect, Jigsaw loved it anyways. When he sat in his bed at night and thought on his future, he'd do it stroking and nuzzling the wonderfully soft fur.

He was out on another early morning, a happy skip in his step as he bounded overtop the crackling leaves and enjoyed the way the cool air brushed past his fur. He wasn't sure what sort of flower he'd find today, but if his feeling was right it was sure to be a marvelous one. With the changing of the seasons he suspected the herbs he'd find would change too, so he kept his eyes open wide and roaming the nook as carefully as possible to make sure he didn't miss a brand new very-rare color.

Jigsaw was spending so much time looking out over the nook that he'd not been watching his footing, and with a loud yelp the pup came crashing down. What the heck happened? He looked back at his foot, it ached painfully. Beneath him was a small root that he thought he must have tripped on, but what had happened to his leg?

The realization hit him so hard he felt he might throw up. This was just like Muzet. His leg was broken. He stood up, testing to see how bad the injury was and tapping the paw upon the ground a few times. It bore his weight, but then again maybe he was just that much stronger then Muzet. It could still be broken, he was sure of it.

Jigsaw got to his feet, wincing at the faint pain and half-limping his way back towards home. It wasn't until he got nearer to the den that he stopped and realized - a real healer would be taking care of this himself. With a renewed purpose he continued past the sleeping area towards the towering trees. Muzet had had a thing she called a splint, so that was the first thing he needed to do. He'd also fed his patient some grass and she said her leg was feeling better, so for good measure he took mouthfuls of the ground as he walked. The more he moved on it, the less the pain felt. The grass must be working.

It took a while but he'd found a tree - the pain in his leg almost vanished entirely by this point, grass must be the best painkiller of all time - and began to search for downed branches. He knew the purpose of a splint was to keep the leg still, and so a branch wrapped up must work just as well, right? Once he found one of the perfect puppy size he got to work shaving the bark from it and spitting the shavings out in a pile. Maybe the mush could be useful later for something else. Eventually he declared it ready and sat back on his hip, the hurt leg extended to better inspect it.

This was going to be harder then Jigsaw anticipated. It took him both his forepaws to steady the stick in line in front of his rear leg, but then he had nothing to use to wrap the stick and hold it close. Eventually with a sigh, he craned his neck and bit down upon both the stick and his ankle, holding both in his mouth so his paws could work the rope around. Jigsaw had been determined to complete his quest without Habari resources, but he also knew that if he went to see a healer that said professional would be using the same things. So it wasn't really stealing or a waste, he could give the rope back after his leg was healed.

Once he tied it off - which took so long that his leg was absolutely no longer in any bad - he stood, cautiously tapping the splinted paw to the ground and letting out a sigh as it held. With his expertly treated limb, little Jigsaw hobbled back home to show his father what he'd accomplished.

TOTAL WORD COUNT: 839