It was late in the evening when Mercury dragged himself back to the castle. He would be near invisible in the dark, the swirls of gray and black in his coat a perfect match for the shadows. But for the red that trailed down his chest, and soaked his right foreleg. Every step came with an ache, but still he pressed on. He had been forced to abandon the body of the oversized bore that had Skewered him. Worse yet, he had had no choice but to leave behind his sword where it had fallen. 

He stumbled through the courtyard, leaving a bloody trail behind him as he shouldered his way into the castle, turning right as he headed to the infirmary. He pushed open the door, stumbling as he did so. He was getting weaker. He pulled down a box of supplies, failing to keep his grip on it so it tumbled to the ground and spilled its contents on the hard floor.

He left a bloody smare across a number of supplies as he fished out a bandage, and held it up to his chest with a grimace. This next bit would be one of the hardest.

Why was sleep always so difficult? No, she knew the answer to that question, even if she didn't want to admit it. She had grown so used to sleeping next to Ysmir that even though it had been a couple of seasons since they went their separate ways it still felt lonely most nights. After attempting to sleep for a couple of hours she sighed and got up, giving her fur a shake before she slipped quietly out of her room and started making her way down to the infirmary. More often than not these days she ended up working late into the night and then falling asleep on one of the cots in the infirmary. There was no bitterness or issue for her living this way, but it did mean that her work had become the focus of her life again for better or worse.

She hadn't expected anyone to be down here this time of night so when she got to the bottom of the stairs and she noticed the drops and smears of blood she was immediately on alert. She began to follow the trail, her steps growing more hurried as she realized that it was leading her toward the infirmary. By the time she reached the infirmary door that had already been pushed open she was nearly running to see what was going on. Her mint and lavender gaze landed on Mercury's dark form slumped on the floor near where she kept the pack's supplies and she gasped, hurrying over to him. "Mercury!" She quickly got him rolled onto his side so she could see where the blood was coming from, reaching up to grab a couple cloths from the shelves above to press onto the wound she found on his chest to slow the bleeding.

"Gwynevere Carpathius"

Truthfully, adrenaline was the only thing holding him together at that point. The bandage had slipped through his paws, and landed forgotten on the floor. The room was empty, and then quite suddenly Gwyn was crouched down in front of him, pushing something against his chest. 


He looked down to find a mass of cloth against his chest. Hmm, it seemed he'd failed to bind it at all. He looked up, reminding himself that Gwyn was there. His plan had been to patch himself up, and head back out to retrieve his precious sword. But plans had a way of unravelling in the face of reality. He grinned at her. “You should see the other guy” he said, and promptly passed out

The very brief relief she felt at realizing that Mercury was still conscious quickly turned to exasperation as he looked up at her, saying how she should see the other guy, before promptly passing out. She could only sigh and wonder to herself how she ended up surrounded by men that got themselves into these kinds of situations. Her brow furrowed as she focused and got to work, whistling for Blue and using one paw to keep pressure on the wound while she reached for the supplies she'd need to patch him up from the nearby shelves. Once Blue emerged from his little home on the other side of the infirmary and made his way over to where she had begun to work, the lemur helped her prepare the bandages and discarded the ones that Mercury had soiled in his attempts to patch himself up.

She continued to occassionally check his vital signs as she cleaned and sealed up the wound just to put her own mind at ease. He would certainly need some time to rest, but now that the bleeding had stopped and she'd made sure to chase off any infection that could have set in she was confident he would be fine. Once she wrapped a few bandages around his chest to keep the injury clean, she sighed and sat back, giving Blue a thankful nod for his help before the lemur went back to his little nest to sleep. She didn't think she was strong enough to get Mercury up onto a cot herself so after she went and washed off her paws in a near by basin of water, she retrieved a pillow to gently slip under his head and laid a blanket over top of him, deciding he would just have to be on the floor until he woke up or until morning when she could get Art or one of the other men to help her move him.

"Gwynevere Carpathius"

Mercury woke sometime later, head pounding as he struggled to understand where he was. Hard floor was under the majority of him, except for his head, which was cushioned by a pillow. Stretching out didn’t yield many answers. Not immediately, at least. His chest and paw ached, but a dull sort of pain. One that told him herbs were at use, numbing what they could.

He got to his paws, slow and careful. Blinking in the dark until the familiar features of the infirmary jumped out at him. The boar… his sword! He jumped to his paws as if to hurry back out into the night. Only for pain to hobble him. He hopped back and forth, cursing under his breath as he waited for the throbbing to ease.

It took him a second to wonder why he was being quiet, and by the time the pain had eased back into something manageable, he realised he wasn’t alone. The scent of her identified her first, and her coat a moment later. The chief physician had stumbled upon him. He blushed scarlet, grateful to realise she was asleep when he thought of the state of her infirmary. She must have come in to the sight of him bleeding all over the place. One box of supplies a mess. How much stock had he destroyed? He looked around frantically, and found it tidied into a corner. He looked through, and made note of what herbs his blood had ruined. Promising silently to replace them. Limping a little, he made his way to the cot Gwyn had chosen. She had kicked her blanket off at some point, and he grabbed a corner with his teeth, dragging it over her.

"Mercury"

After the crisis had passed and she was sure Mercury was resting peacefully, she had spent a bit of time cleaning up the blood that had been spilled through the infirmary and down the hall. By the time that was all rectified she was finally able to lay down on one of the cots near to where Mercury was resting. She decided she out to stay here for the night just to make sure she was near by when he finally came to–as if she hadn't already been planning on sleeping down here regardless. Hopefully come morning she could find out what got him in this position. The thought crossed her mind that it might be a good idea to go tell Artorias just in case there was some grater danger they needed to be aware of, but she figured if that was the case it would have been here by now. She sighed softly as she pulled a blanket over herself, resting her head on the pillow as she watched Mercury's breathing for a few moments before she finally dozed off herself.

The feeling of the blanket shifting across her shoulder was just enough to rouse her from her shallow sleep, making her blink open her eyes with a soft, sleepy grumble. It took her a moment to register Mercury standing over her and she almost did a double take as it clicked that he was not only awake but upright and moving. "Mercury! What are you doing up? You should be resting," she scolded gently as she quickly set up while rubbing the sleep from her eyes. She immediately started nudging him toward one of the cots like a stern mother, checking his bandages to make sure they hadn't shifted in his sleep. "What happened? You were quite a mess when I found you last night." she asked as she went to go get him some proper pain medication. She had put something on the wounds themselves to numb them a bit, but she had no doubt that some pain killers would do him some good while the worst of it healed.

"Gwynevere Carpathius"

His motion startled movement from her, and she was suddenly awake and fussing over him. Out of her bed faster then he would have thought possible. In fact, he was surprised at the ease in which she herded him to a cot of his own with the efficiency of a mother hen. He didn’t move quickly, but he did move. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to make a mess” he tried to apologise as he was herded.

When he reached the cot, he had to stop and ease himself up slowly, wincing as he did so. “I had a run in with a bore. I need to head back out there and--ahh” He paused as he settled on the cot in a sitting position. “-get my sword.”


"Mercury"

She sifted through a couple of jars in the cabinet near by to find the medicine, keeping an ear turned toward him as he explained that the puncture wound on his chest was from a run in with a boar. That would certainly explain the deep but fairly narrow puncture wound–just big enough for a boar's tusk. She retrieved the small jar of mixed, honied herbs and carried it back over to where he had settled, setting it on a small side table so she could pull the cork lid off. She looked up at him with an incredulous look as he added that he needed to get back out there to retrieve his sword, but she stopped herself with a sigh before she could disagree or deny him the option. She knew that Mercury had one of the limited number of Carpathian steel weapons and how important they were to the wolves that carried them. She knew that if this was Artorias she was speaking to she wouldn't have even been able to properly bandage him up before he was pushing his way past her to get to Embershard.

"Alright," she agreed reluctantly as she used a wooden spoon to portion out a dose of the medicine, lifting it up for him to take. "But not before you take this and let me check your wounds again now that I have proper light to see by." The firelight the night before had been sufficient to do the initial triage and bandaging just to get by with, but she and Blue needed the daylight to stitch up the wound. Once he took the pain medication she put the lid back on the jar and went to work gently unwrapping his bandages with practiced paws, exposing the gash so she could look over it carefully. "You got very lucky that it didn't get you worse than it did," she commented as she reached for a rag to lightly wipe away some old blood. "Any deeper and I'd worry that it would have punctured a lung or organ." Luckily he seemed to be mostly intact other than the pain and soreness.

She took a bit of time both to let the medicine she gave him kick in and to rewrap his bandages before she finally relented and allowed him to get up from the cot. "I'm coming with you," she insisted, walking across to her desk to pick up her traveling cloak, slinging it around her shoulders before she pinned it closed with the silver, Carpathian steel broach at her shoulder. "If you have to go right this moment–which I'm sure you want to–I'm certainly not going to let you go alone." After quickly sliding on her bracer with her dagger tucked into the side of it she returned to Mercury with a nod. "Lead the way, but take your time."

"Gwynevere Carpathius"

He grimaced, but didn’t disagree with her. Knowing he was getting off light being allowed free of her clutches while barely on his paws. He took the medicine with barely an expression, despite its taste and placed himself into a position where she could check his wounds more easily. He watched silently as she put the pain meds back, and unwound his bandage. Once the gash was exposed he spoke. “Think I’ll live, doc?” He asked, voice serious so you could almost miss the tease in the question.

It was sobering to hear how lucky he was. He knew all too well the damage a puncture to an organ could be. It would have been a slow death on the way back to the Hallows. Instead of finding him in the infirmary, a scout would have found his body out in the cold.

She stitched him up with a well practised paw. He hadn’t needed her administrating much since coming to the Armada, but he well remembered her professional care. He started to ease himself off the coat when she dropped a light bomb on his lamp. Insisting she accompany him to where he dropped his sword. “I’m not sure that's a good idea, I caught the scent of more than one boar. If something happened to you, your brother would never forgive me…”

"Mercury"

She expected Mercury to lead the charge out of the castle to go retrieve his precious sword right away, but to her surprise he hesitated, saying how he had caught the scent of more than one boar and his concern about what Art might do if something happened to her. She considered his concern for a moment before giving him a little bit of a smirk as she replied, "And if anything happened to you my brother would never forgive me." Her brother was very protective over his wolves and that fact certainly didn't limit itself to just his siblings. She knew how fond he was of Mercury and how distraught he would be if she allowed his Commander to walk into a dangerous situation on his own while he was still recovering from an injury. "I've faced much worse things than a boar and come out mostly unscathed. I'll be fine." She was about to walk out of the infirmary with a certain defiance that she was still adapting to and growing into, but she stopped, looking back to him again for a moment. "I'll be careful, I promise. If we notice anything off we'll retreat and go back with help. Okay?"

"Gwynevere Carpathius"

“And it’s my job to protect. I can’t do that properly when I’m injured.” He said, his voice soft. Quiet but passionate, he believed in the charge he had been given. He would give his life for any of the Hallows wolves. But he didn’t want to be the reason she was putting hers into danger in the first place. He squinted at her, and saw the unyielding determination and sighed softly. In fact, she was already moving forward. As if his arguments would only ensure she went without him.

“Alright, alright. Deal.” He said, seeing it was the best one he would get. Moving slowly, he gingerly made his way out of the infirmary. Hoping he could follow his tracks in the daylight. Although that wasn’t really an issue, considering he could follow the scent of his blood. He picked up the pace a little as they made their way out of the castle, and out into the world beyond. The moment they left the Hallows territory, he was on his guard.

"Mercury"

She appreciated his concern, his dedication to protecting the pack, and understood where his worry came from. The fact that he didn't want to run headfirst into something that might endanger her was endearing, but after limiting so much of her life with fear it felt good to actually allow herself some confidence. The fact that she was able to potentially help Mercury get back something so important to him was enough motivation for her to see past the potential danger. It was rare that she had that kind of motivation so she wanted to take advantage of it while she could. Mercury did eventually agree with some reluctance once she promised that they would abandon the mission if the danger actually presented itself, but she could tell he was still uncertain. She gave him a reassuring smile as they made their way out of the infirmary, through the castle, gradually following the trail that Mercury had left to find where his sword had been abandoned.

Leaving the Hallows territory had long been a source of fear for her and even though she had worked through the worst of that trauma and no longer confined herself to the castle like she once had, she was still on high alert as they crossed the borders and went into the forest beyond. She let Mercury take the lead in searching for his sword since he would have a better idea of where it was left and instead she focused on being a look out, her sage and lavender gaze scanning the landscape with her ears perked forward to listen for any sounds or movement. So far everything seemed clear and quiet in the morning sun, but she knew things could take a turn quickly if they weren't careful. It occurred to her now that perhaps she should have brought Eilwen to be an extra set of eyes, but she hadn't thought of it–which she was sure her raven would scold her for later. Finally, after a bit of searching she spotted a gleam of metal in the grass up ahead and with a soft gasp she bounded forward toward it, grinning triumphantly when she reached the sword. Glancing up, she saw the shape of the boar's body laying a handful of feet away. Mercury hadn't been kidding–the other guy certainly did get the worse end of the deal.

She had never wielded a weapon other than the small dagger she kept with her when she went on small trips so when she lowered her head to pick up the sword by its grip she was surprised by the heft that it had. Gods, how did the warriors swing these things around so effortlessly?! She had just picked up the sword and turned back toward where Mercury was standing a few feet away when she suddenly heard the quickly building sound of hooves pounding the ground, the noise making her hackles bristle as she spun around to face the sound. A boar was rushing forward directly toward her from the shadows of the trees far faster than she ever could have thought a creature of its size could move. She froze, wide eyed as the boar charged at her until finally her instincts or at least some scrap of self preservation kicked in and she turned the blade point first toward the animal, ducking down a bit to avoid its tusks as she braced herself a moment before it reached her. Her eyes screwed shut so she didn't actually see what happened, but she felt a sudden pressure pushing on the blade and nearly yanking it out of her jaws and felt a warm wetness as what she assumed was blood splattered across the side of her face. The boar had skewered itself through its chest in its blind charge toward her, the animal making a few struggling, squealing screams before it went dead weight on the blade.

"Gwynevere Carpathius"

Mercury led them through the woods. Grimacing at the evidence of how much blood he had lost. He could feel the effects of it, slowing him down both physically and mentally. As he limped along, Gwyn got ahead of him. He watched her carefully, until a sound in the woods distracted him. He scanned the foliage, searching for whatever had Caught his attention. It shuffled out of some ferns, and he relaxed. A pig. It must have buddied up with the dead boar at some point. or was coming to feast on it. He'd heard they were opportunist carnivores. 

Relaxing his stance, he turned back to Gwen just as the pounding started. He saw the threat and lurched forward, popping stitches in his haste to move quickly. He threw himself at the bore just as it blew past him, and he landed hard on the earth behind it. His entire body hurt, he knew his chest was bleeding again. He staggered to his paws, his bandage thick with blood. “Gwyn!” He yelled, horror and fear in his voice as he flew to her side.

He could smell the blood, and the bear was shuffling. Was it eating her? “Gwyn” it was a pained moan this time. He had failed. He grabbed at the boar's shoulders and pulled it back. Expecting a fight, instead it flopped lifeless at his paws. The movement hadn't been the bore. It had been Gwyn, trying to wiggle free. He almost collapsed like a marionette with its strings cut. Alive. She was alive. He gently pried his bloody sword from her paws and placed his own over hers. Pulling her to her feet. “Are you hurt?” He asked, panting a little from his own pains.

She held still in stunned shock, not really registering the weight of the boar that was now flopped over top of her as it perished on the blade she was clutching desperately. It wasn't until she felt that weight shift that she managed to blink open her eyes, looking around with confusion when Mercury gently pulled the sword away from her and slowly her mind began to catch up with what had happened as she looked at the now dead boar that was laying beside her. She had killed the boar. Not intentionally, not really, but somehow she had managed to defend herself from the charging boar and had gotten extremely lucky in the process. She felt a bit of panic starting to rise up in her chest as the adrenaline started to subside, not noticing Mercury pulling her to her paws until he spoke and drew her gaze away from the boar and back up to the blue of his eyes. "N-No, I'm not hurt," she replied as she glanced down at herself. Her face, neck, and cloak were splattered with the boar's blood, but physically she was fine.

"I've... I've never killed anything before," she said softly, glancing at the boar again in disbelief. She had always been a pacifist, avoiding conflict whenever possible and relying on her family to hunt and protect while she focused on honing her skills to care for them whenever they inevitably came home injured. She didn't realize her paws were shaking until she looked back to Mercury and realized he had begun to bleed through his bandages, her worry pushing through her disbelief and panic as she lifted her trembling paw to his chest. "Mercury, your injuries," she said with concern, a frown pulling at her lips. She wanted to stop everything and make him sit so she could check his wounds right away, but her own logic reminded her that they were still in a potentially dangerous area and that she didn't have any of her supplies with her. "We need to get you back," she decided, pulling herself upright with one more look at the boar. Mercury was in no shape to carry anything, much less a heavy sword, so she quietly picked it up herself and started ushering him back toward the pack's lands, ignoring and burying the still unstable and uncertain emotions she was still processing.

She didn't let him stop until they reached the plains, keeping a close eye on the Commander as they went. When he was still recovering from so much blood loss she didn't like the idea of him having an openly bleeding wound again. Even though he was significantly larger than her, she still tried to help him where she could if he needed someone to lean on for a bit. She made sure they moved slowly, but steadily, until they were finally behind the safety of the pack borders once more. Only then did she stop by the stream that cut through the plains, putting the sword down on the grass beside them with a slow sigh and sinking down onto her haunches, motioning for him to do the same. When she was in doubt she always fell back into the familiarity and the predictability of her work. After letting out a quiet howl to call for Eilwen so her companion could bring her bag to her she quietly went to work, pulling away the now soiled bandages so she could begin cleaning away the blood yet again while she waited on her supplies.

"Gwynevere Carpathius"

Her words cut through some of his own adrenaline, and he paused checking for wounds to look at her. She had never been taken hunting, even as a pup? in his old home, that would have been unheard of. But perhaps here, in the safety of the castle it worked out to specialise more strongly in one area. She was taking the life of prey much later than the usual wolf, and it was clearly taking a toll on her. He tightened his grip on her paws, stabilising the slight tremor in them. “You defended yourself, and everyone in your life will be grateful you did.” He said with conviction.

Gwyn was, however, a bit of a whirlwind wolf. She pulled away with instructions to get him back to the castle. Grabbing his sword before he could have a chance to do so. He looked at the bloody and muddy treasure with a deep measure of regret. He would be giving it the full spa day as soon as he could. As Gwyn started ushering him away, he accepted his fate with minimal defiance. In truth, he lacked the strength to stop her anyway. He could feel himself teetering. There were shadows in the edges of his vision, and even adrenaline was failing him now. He kept replaying the moment in his mind. The boar charging at her, his failure to stop it. The moment he thought she was dead… his Alphas own sister. 

It wasn't until they came to a stop that he realised he had lost vision of what was going on around him. He hadn't noticed when they crossed back into territory, and he silently cursed himself for his inattention. He sank to his knees beside her, realising they had stopped by the stream that ran through the pack. As she started to unwrap his bandages, he forced his eyes to focus on her. “How are you dealing?” He asked quietly. Remembering the shock when she realised she had killed the boar.

Gwyn focused on her work as she quietly pulled away the bloodied bandages with a frown creasing her features, barely glancing at Eilwen as the white raven landed beside her to drop off her travel bag of healing supplies. It always felt easier and more comfortable to just ignore the turbulent thoughts lingering in the back of her mind and instead hyper focus on what she knew she could control and what she knew she was good at. That's exactly what she was doing as she sifted through her supplies until she found the sealed pot of horse tail, a couple of cloths, a fresh roll of bandages, and some more numbing salve, her paws steadily calming and becoming more steady as she went to work patching up his wound once more.

However, Mercury spoke as she worked, bringing her marbled gaze up to his for a brief moment when he asked how she was dealing. She didn't respond right away, unsure how she should answer. She knew he had been right when he told her that she had been defending herself and that everyone would be glad that she did, but it was still a shock to her system to take another life–even if it was one of a prey animal. "I'll be okay," she finally replied after a moment, deciding that was the best answer she could land on that was both honest and hopefully would ease his concerns for her. As she finished up her work on his chest and wrapped another clean bandage around his torso, she sat back again with a sigh, looking down at the steam thoughtfully. "I know its silly... to be so shaken just from killing a boar... especially when I wasn't even attacking it. I barely even defended myself–I just held the sword and cowered."

"Gwynevere Carpathius"

I’ll be okay didn’t necessarily mean she was okay right now. He glanced at her, but let it lie. He had no right to push at the lead healer's state of mind. She had those closer to her she could confide in and find solace with. He let the silence grow as she finished her work. The wrapping of a new bandage around his chest seemed to signal that she was done. He had a feeling it wouldn’t be the last bandage before this wound stopped plaguing him.

He wasn’t sure he could really find the strength to get back to his paws. He was done, and he wondered how much she would harass him if he decided to lie his head right there and sleep. It was tempting. He might even have closed his eyes, if her words had distracted him and brought a measure of wakefulness back to him. “The first time for anything is always the hardest. The first patient you ever tended to alone, I bet it wasn’t an easy breeze. Perhaps not even the second, or the third. But look where you are now, the most knowledgeable healer in the pack. There doesn't have to be another bore, but it’s okay to be shaken up about it.” He finished quietly.


"Mercury"

Gwynevere's gaze shifted from the stream back to the injured Commander as he spoke, giving her his perspective and advice. She was grateful that he didn't agree that her reaction was silly and that he was even able to relate the experience to the fact that the first time was difficult for anything regardless of the task. Her ear flicked a bit at the memory of the first time she treated someone on her own–her mind briefly flashing back to the memory of frantically patching up her mother after Resin attacked her. Her personal example of that first was likely more traumatic than most, but she understood what he was trying to say and appreciated him for being a voice of reason. Even though she had interacted with Mercury a few times before she hadn't really gotten to know him very well as of yet. Quickly she was starting to pick up on his thoughtfulness and wisdom and was beginning to understand why Artorias thought so highly of the dark coated man. "Thank you," she replied after a moment, giving him a grateful smile.

She glanced up toward the castle, knowing it would likely be better if they could get back inside where he could rest and get something to eat, but looking at him now she knew even that walk up the slope to the castle was going to be quite the task for him. She settled down on her stomach in the grass, saying, "Lets rest here for a moment, just to catch our breath a bit." Admittedly, the whole encounter had wiped her out more than she wanted to say and she knew that if she was feeling worn by it he was likely struggling to even stay awake. While they rested by the stream, she reached for another clean cloth–the last in her bag, she made a mental note of–and dampened it before beginning to wipe the blood from her face, neck, and cloak. She had to wring it out a couple of times before she was satisfied and knew that she'd need to give herself and her cloak a proper washing later, but this would get her by for now.

She was about to lay it out to dry when she turned her gaze toward Mercury's sword that was laying in the grass beside them, bloodied and dirty. Quietly she shifted to face it and started to wipe down the blade carefully with the cloth. Much like her cloak it would probably need a better cleaning later, but it kept her occupied in the mean time. She glanced over at Mercury to see if he was still awake before she asked, "Does it have a name?" She knew most–if not all–of the Carpathian weapons that her brother had gifted to their family members and particular wolves were named so she assumed this was no exception, but she didn't know that for certain.

"Gwynevere Carpathius"

His smile, while weary with exhaustion, was sincere. “Any time.” if she needed someone to talk to, he would do his best. “That’s… a good idea.” he agreed, somewhat relieved to hear her say it. He really didn’t think he’d manage a graceful walk back to the castle. In fact, he was pretty sure it would look more like a drunken lurch. His poor body was trying to tell him enough! and he knew he would do well to heed it.

He put his paw on his head, and closed his eyes. He didn’t think he nodded off, but the sound of a washcloth over water seemed oddly sudden beside him. Blinking open his eyes, he realised she was washing the blood from her face. If he hadn’t been so exhausted, he would have realised that would likely add to her distress. Foolish knight. He was making a lot of mistakes today.

His next would become apparent when she picked up his poor sword. The precious metal should have been one of the first things he dealt with - a warrior lived or died by their blade. He let out a soft groan, and shook his head. “Art is going to skin me alive.” He muttered. “Skybreaker” he said softly, a little reverently in response to her question. He would give it the absolute best care after this. He would oil it until it gleamed again.


"Mercury"

Gwyn couldn't help but smirk a bit at Mercury's concern about how Art would react to the condition his sword was in. "I'm confident that my brother would much rather have you than a sword," she promised him. Artorias did take their weapons very seriously, there was no doubt about that, but she knew he would be far more devastated by the death of one of his treasured friends than he would be one of the Carpathian weapons being dirty or damaged. Things could be fixed, but lost lives could not. He told her the weapon's name–Skybreaker–and she nodded with approval as she looked back toward the blade and folded the cloth to get to a clean side of it for another pass over the metal. "A good, strong name."

After a few passes of her cloth over the blade and around the hilt it was looking significantly better than it once had. There was no doubt that it would need a more through cleaning once Mercury was feeling up to the task, but she felt like he could carry it into the walls of Hearthstone without shame now. Satisfied, she put the rag aside and crossed her paws with a sigh. Now that the adrenaline had faded and she had more or less come to terms with everything that had just happened she was actually feeling more alive and satisfied than she had felt in a while. She shifted her marbled gaze back to Mercury again, a little smile tugging at her lips. She kept quiet so he could rest, allowing him to doze off if he wanted or needed to, but she was quickly beginning to realize just how much being alone again had been affecting her. Just being around Mercury since the night before–even if he was passed out for a good portion of it–helped her more than she had really noticed at first.

Eventually she had rested her own head on her paws and without realizing it had drifted off into a nap herself. All of her sleepless nights were starting to catch up to her and this moment of being forced to be still and quiet pulled her into her own much needed rest. When she blinked her eyes open again she hadn't thought that they had been asleep for that long, but suddenly realized that the sun was beginning to set and the previously bright blue sky was now warm hues of red, pink, and orange. She jumped a bit at the realization, pulling herself to her paws despite feeling a little groggy and having to rub the sleep from her eyes. "Mercury?" she said gently as she leaned down to lightly nose at his cheek, hoping to wake him without startling him too much. "It's getting late, we should get inside."

"Gwynevere Carpathius"