This was inhumane and cruel in a way she almost couldn’t put into words. She was beyond furious when the tyrant had come to her, and explained his ’methods’ to subjugate the smaller wolf. He had made it clear that she could not free him, only offer her healing assistance. By god she wanted to punch him in his smug mouth, even if he did look remorseful. He made it clear that the man was in his territory, not Deathbelles, and she could not receive help from the Empress.

She had grabbed her healer kit bag, turned her back on the tyrant, and marched to Balsam. He had mildly threatened her, telling her she could not tell Balsam he had sent her, and she had no intention to! She would not show any silver lining on the tyrants cold dead heart to the Songa.

She found him in the Travellers lake territory, the hole already starting to smell. She had brought a flask of herbal water as well as strong, thick bandages and other instruments. His wounds would not be festering on her watch!

There was wrath in her face as she reached the pit, and looked into its dark depths. How was she supposed to get down there? “Hello!” she barked out, before she reigned in her temper. “Er, hello?” she asked more gently. She took in a deep breath, and braved the terrible, stinking dark, and attempted to climb down. She slipped almost on her first step, and slid the rest of the way into the pit. She gave a startled noise as she slid into the depth, wrinkling her nose at the increase in smell. She didn’t even pause, despite it, as she pulled her way to Balsam and immediately her teeth went for the chain. She began to pull and tug at it the moment she found it, grunting as her tiny body did absolutely nothing. She didn’t give a shit what Sirius said, she was going to help him escape!

Balsam had been asleep when Riva's voice echoed down to him. Since being confined here his rest had been fitful at best. It was hard to sleep with the ground perpetually wet and the air so heavy with ammonia that his eyes and nose burned. He snatched sleep where he could but was running on a deficit. He started awake and got to his paws as Riva slid down into the pit. Warily he backed away from her. It wasn't fear that motivated him, it was the unknown. She was a new element in all of this and he was confused by her sudden appearance. She began to tug angrily on his chain which confused him all the more. Alarmed, he asked, "What are you doing?"

“Freeing you!” she explained in exasperation as he pulled away from her as through little her was a threat. Of course, now that she was down in here and looking at the man, just how small he was baffled her. She was always the shortest wolf in a group, and yet somehow she towered over this man. He looked disheveled and sleepless, and she could see scars, old and new on his body. This was definitely a recipe for disaster. They were going to fester, and actually kill him if that idiot Warlord let this continue.

She tugged again at the chain, but it was clear it required someone as big as the Warlord to undo them. She let out a frustrated sound, and looked back at the wolf again. “I don’t know how to get you out of here, but I brought you some things” she didn’t dig them out of her bag yet, she didn’t trust putting anything on any surface down here. “I got you some scented nose plugs, as well as herbs and bandages, a thin coat - it was the only one I had, or I would have brought you something warmer - as well as some dried meat.” she said. She had run through all of her supplies well stuck in the subterranean maze, and was offering him everything she had left, or accumulated since.

Freeing him? Well what good would that do - he wasn't going anywhere! When the woman continued to tug at his chain he ducked out of her grasp and backed away as though she were a snake about to strike. "The hell you are!" She wasn't going to steal his moment away from him. "I'm not going to run away from him like a coward. I'm gonna beat that bastard fair and square." He hung back like a feral cat until she began to take things out of her bag. Then he inched closer. Balsam bit his lip and eyed the items she'd brought. Man, that food looked so good. He was starving. A nagging thought at the back of his mind told him not to trust her; that this had to be a trick of some kind. Perhaps she'd been sent to tease out his weaknesses - he was really hungry - and get him hopes up so Sirius could smash them. But that would require the kind of planning he didn't think Sirius was capable of. Which meant the woman was surely genuine. "Thank you," he said humbly. Her kindness was unexpected and undeserved and for that he had no choice but to stand before her humbled and grateful.

“You… what?” Riva asked, staring flabbergasted at the wolf before him. Had Sirius knocked him on his head too many times? “Do you like getting peed on?” she asked, utterly unable to keep the surprise from her tones. She just didn’t understand, why on earth would someone not take an oppertunity to break out of torture like this?

“What’s your endgame then? Just rot in here?” she asked as he eyed her bag of items, and his nose seemed to twitch despite the smell. Ahh, he was hungry. She already had a strong feeling he was going to be a problematic patient. She was likely going to need the food for bribery.

She spread out a thinly rolled, wide surfaced leaf on the ground between them. She didn’t want to risk her medical supplies in this hell hole.
“Here, stick these in, we can change them daily” she said, carefully passing him the nose plugs over the surface of the leaf. “Can I see your wounds? They look like they’re already getting red, if they get infected it’ll bring you nothing but death… and then he’ll have won” she said, guessing that was the linchpin to motivate the strange man.

Baffled by such an offensive question Balsam leaned back so he could look down his nose at Riva. "Of course not," he said indignantly. "But if I run away like a-" he very nearly said 'woman' but caught himself. He'd learned quite quickly that the women of Boreas were easily offended. "Like a coward my honor will never recover." She asked about his endgame and he raised his chin, his jaw set, and said, "I'm going to beat him, take his tail and stroll out of here a free man." The woman passed him what he guessed were things for his nose and he dutifully stuffed them up his beak. "Yes." Balsam leaned down and towards her so she could look at the gashes that littered his scruff. "He's not going to win," Balsam said firmly. "But even death would be a victory so long as my heart stays steadfast." After a beat he caved a little and added, "But I would hate to go so soon. We haven't even butted heads much yet him so...do what you can, eh?" Infection would be a terribly boring way to go anyway.

Oh dear didn’t he realise there were better things in life then winning? She could see the determination in him, the need to deal with whatever life threw his way, all for the glory at the end. He was almost fanatical. She could never understand a wolf like that, and felt sorrow for the emptiness of his life.

“That would be quite a feat” she said carefully, uncertain how he intended to get both his freedom and the warlords tail. It seemed to Riva that Sirius had the upper hand.. Bastard that he was.

Death would never be a victory but she was smart enough to keep that to herself. Instead, she handed him over the strips of meat. “Here” she said, he could chew on that to keep himself busy well she took a look. Hopefully he wouldn’t taste that it was infused with Ginseng Root. she didn’t know how problematic he would be about the fortifying herbs she wished to get into him. Better to disguise it... She set to work, first cleaning them with her precious Trillium water, and carefully scrubbing out the wounds with clean moss. She used it as sparingly as she was able, uncertain when she would find more of the rare herb.

Once clean, she would paste a mixture from her jar that she had carefully learned to craft over the years, and then tie it off with the heavy set bandage. The outside was set in oil to give it a better water-proofing ability... knowing how wet he would be here. She tied it tight, and moved to the next wound, ensuring everything open was cleaned and covered.

"That would be quite the feat," she said. She said that like he was invincible, but he wasn't. He was just a man. Albeit a very tall, very toothy man, but he was mortal just like everyone else. Someday he would lose. Balsam would have not his freedom, but a tail as souvenir. "He's just a man," Balsam said dismissively. "He bleeds just like everybody else." Balsam snatched up the offered food and had the first piece wolfed down before he noticed the strange taste. His chewing slowed and he side-eyed Riva. She was a terrible cook - the meat tasted strange - but he was too polite to spit it out and too hungry to be wasteful so he just suffered through the strangeness in silence. He swallowed hard and then said in a pinched voice, "Thanks." Balsam cleared his throat in the hopes of pushing the slow moving food down faster. "My name's Balsam by the way. What's yours?"