Redsand Canyon Wheat like waves.

Towhee’s jaw clenched as she stepped out of the palazzo, hustling toward the arena. She paused but saw nobody there at the moment, so she pivoted on a heel and marched southward toward the woods.

The leaves were changing color, though she barely noticed as she stepped beneath their shade. Towhee didn’t stop or even slow down until she reached the far side of the forest. Sighing, she finally halted among the thinning trees and sat down, hard.

Her muscles ticked and twitched as her thoughts caught up with her. There was no outrunning the conversation she’d just had with @Ruenna. The former Matrona was thinking of seeking intervention from some healers she knew outside the Teekon Wilds. Apparently, they’d worked miracles in the past. And she might take @Alivia with her.

It was all “maybe”s and “might”s for the moment, though the possibility still unsettled the Redhawk. Heaving another sigh, she climbed back onto her feet and retraced her steps back northward, hoping someone might be loitering at the sparring pit when she got there.

Referencing Zoo’s timeline mentioned here.

he knew it as well.

the imperator would show none of this turmoil upon his face but his world had begun to pale around its edges. it was good that he found towhee then.

the eagle swung into step with her. he was silent.

The instant Germanicus materialized beside her, Towhee’s thoughts began whirling even faster. We need to talk her out of it, she wanted to say, though she’d resisted this impulse with Rue and did the same with the Imperator. Rue was a grown woman at the end of her rope, could anyone blame her for seeking relief? It would be selfish to ask her to stay, and Towhee had worked so hard to learn to let people go.

We should definitely spar out our feelings, was another tempting—and certainly more constructive—thought. They couldn’t quite see the sparring pit through the trees ahead, though they both knew it was there. Towhee didn’t even bother voicing the thought, simply hastening her step so she and Germanicus would get there sooner.

Life had thrown quite the wrench today, yet it seemed it wasn’t quite done with them. Towhee didn’t hear the hiss that came from somewhere overhead, where a lynx had dragged a stolen carcass into a tree to feed. But between Germanicus’s inevitable reaction and the sudden stench of feline, she dropped into a bristling crouch, ready to fight.

You’re more than welcome to copilot the lynx!

Reyson had been patrolling the borders. He had scented Towhee and the impwrstor and had originally planned to take a different route being that they didn't need 3 on onw. Until the scent of cat licked along his senses and he was on edge.

Brutish paws tore across the landscape until he made it to them both. Towhee in position to fight. He crouched and would act as a rear guard.

his yellow gaze flicked upward. he stepped as towhee did, out of range of strike.

the scarred man reyson appeared next. the imperator looked to him with approval.

"it will not come down so long as we are here," he said to the others.

confronted by three wolves, the lynx hissed and spat.

"it will need to be starved down and killed." germanicus could abide the presence of lynx outside the canyon but not within, and not when it had poached prey from their territory.

Towhee didn’t catch a word Germanicus said, too busy pinpointing the location of the threat and repositioning herself accordingly. She only glanced away when she sensed Reyson’s approach, orange gaze immediately swinging back to the cat just in time to see it defy the Imperator’s logic.

Perhaps compelled by desperation, the lynx bounded down from the far side of the tree. Before it could make a proper break for it, Towhee hurled herself toward the cat. She didn’t stop to think about how dangerous it was to engage such a creature. She just knew she had to stop it, lest it run toward the housing and the veritable smorgasbord of children there.

Reyson was listening to Germanicus and as such didn't see the creature move until it was too late and Towhee was already on its trail to engage.


Shit he muttered

Then with years of conditioning on his side. He moved into position and to cut the creature off. Though keeping an ear open to Germanicus to ahout orders. He wasn't about to let Towhee attack it without backup though.

it moved.

they moved.

germanicus manuevered himself to its other side, striking when towhee did. blood weltered. his senses searched for reyson.

There was very little strategy in Towhee’s approach. She flung herself at the cat, jaws snapping, aiming for its nearest limb. Mercenary’s instincts told her to hamstring it before it could get anywhere near Mereo’s most vulnerable.

She succeeded in clamping the lynx’s left hind leg. Towhee intended to apply pressure and shake it simultaneously to maximize the damage. But the cat possessed, well, catlike reflexes. She’d barely registered her own triumphant hit when the lynx whirled and slashed.

Germanicus and Reyson were quick to close in beside her, distracting the lynx enough that Towhee only took a single blow. Ignoring the searing pain and the impulse to release her grip, the Redhawk doubled down until she felt flesh tearing and bone snapping. Her mouth filled with blood and gristle.

The lynx shrieked directly in Towhee’s ear. She didn’t hear it, though she felt the heat of its breath, smelled the sourness of blood and fear. It became suddenly much harder to hold onto it. The lynx was being battered on three sides. It was falling to the ground. As it went down, it struck desperately at Towhee’s face with its fangs.

Finally, the Redhawk let go and leaped clear. Certainly the cat wouldn’t be getting back up again. The soldiers had eliminated the threat, though at what cost? Towhee would assess herself and her comrades in a moment, after the lynx finished screaming and twitching.

Reyson drove the creature back. Pushing forward and retreating. Blood filling his maw. Shallow cuts. He aimed at shoulders and chest. Mindful of teeth. Though they grazed him blood welling from his own shoulders. Claws swiping.

A claw caught the side of his face, where only recently the scars from the porcupine had finally healed. Though it was a glancing blow, certainly tearing, but nothing near as what it could be as Towhee, succeeded in taking it's attention away.


Reyson moved boldly forward to snap at the creature. He was not in a good position to tear it's throat. he could only hope that Germanicus could reach the throat of the screaming creature.

blood filled the air and it belonged to towhee.

germanicus twisted his shoulders, thrusting the swiping cat to the ground as reyson savaged with his teeth. towhee too kept up her onslaught.

his teeth glinted. the throat of the cat was cut. he took a blow to his own shoulder which welled immediately with scarlet.
the end was swift.

he looked grimly toward the praefectus.

Blood trickled into her eye and Towhee winced, though she barely felt the shallow bite mark on her brow. All she could feel, suddenly, was a horrific burning sensation spanning from her shoulders down her spine. She did not turn to inspect it until the cat lay still on the dusty earth.

When she finally attempted to take a look at the damage, Towhee hissed at the agony of such a small, simple motion. Gritting her teeth and still blinking blood out of one eye, she arced her neck to look at her own back. The lynx had only clawed her once, but it had laid open three deep gashes spanning dorsally from the base of her shoulder blades along her spine to her hips, where they curved toward the meat of her haunch.

Even as she gazed at her new track marks, they welled with blood that streamed down her right flank and leg. Where the gouging ended at her hips, the wound was not so deep. But as Towhee bent her neck even more, she swore she saw a glimpse of white. Was that her backbone exposed? A small cry escaped her, though whether it was due to the sight or the pain, she couldn’t say.

Sucking in a breath, Towhee faced forward again, wondering if Germanicus and Reyson were at least faring better. Before she could determine how badly they’d been hurt, she swayed on her feet, causing her to step in the puddle of blood pooling beneath her. Experience told her she was on the verge of passing out, so she slumped her hindquarters, another cry wrenching loose at the way the shredded muscles along her back pulled.

Reyson stared at the cat making sure it was dead. He was pulled from his thoughts to towhees sharp intake of breath. Then the gut wrenching whines of a soldier in pain came to his ears and Reysons breathing came in galloping gasps as he was transported to the battle fields of his former home. Of the scream of agony of Renaud. He shook his head and put his feet in motion.

He was no healer, but this looked really bad. He looked to Germanicus and back to Towhee.

Do you want me to go get Aquene? She probably shouldn't move.

He stared at her back again and winced. He looked about him for any strands of cobwebs. It wouldn't heal it but the bleeding would at least stop.

He grasped a stick and wound it through gissamer strands of webbing and chunked it quickly back to Towhee, but he deliberated putting it on.

Can i touch it to put the webs on or would it cause more damage?

towhee was gravely wounded.

he felt the sting of his failure as her leader but did not dwell upon it. "put your paws here," he instructed reyson, along her spine where the wounds must be held together. he added the cobwebs himself and then summoned @Aquene and @Fennec with a short succinct voice that told of dire injuries.

he himself returned to towhee. "stay with us, praefectus," he willed aloud. "lie down. do not move."

Fennec froze as, from somewhere, a howl went up summoning her. It wasn't her mom's voice, which was the first surprise. The second was that they were calling her because of an injury. If Aquene was being summoned too, maybe they assumed she'd bring the supplies.

Fennec didn't waste any time in plucking what useful things she had for injuries and then setting off for the sound of the howl. She just hoped she could find it quickly.

She didn't like that the call had been for her, or that the call hadn't come from Towhee. Either Germanicus had decided to randomly remember her skill set now or something had happened to her mom. She was running as fast as she could, faster than she'd generally risk, and fiercely hoping for the former.

she'll arrive next round <3

She knew she should lower herself to the ground fully, though the pain prevented her from moving. In the end, the decision was made for her when her legs gave out and she slumped forward, one foreleg sprawling and the other bent awkwardly beneath her chest. Towhee screamed.

She knew the Imperator and Scutarius were close by, yet she didn’t catch anything they were saying. Busy trying to breathe through the pain and fighting to stay conscious, she unwittingly obeyed her leader’s command. Towhee trusted they would call for help and aid her in the meantime.

As hard as she struggled against the dimness limning her vision, the very first touch against her sliced skin was a torment. The shock of it promptly rendered her unconscious and Towhee slumped in the spreading pool of blood.

Skip and powerplay to your hearts’ delight. :)

Reyson moved to obey. Paws on back. Slick with blood. It stained his golden paws crimson. He said nothing.

Ears back listening for Fennec and Aquene to arrive. He hated having to put so much pressure on the wounded warrior, hut was aware if he didn't it would not be good. He whined as Towhee slumped into unconsciousness.

Imperator she fainted. How do you want me to try and being her back being that she cannot hear and I shouldn't jar her?

He couldnt bend at this angle to lick her face either.

Aquene had been returning from a venture to find more poppy when she heard the call, her eyes widening as she immediately bolted for it’s source. The fact that both she and Fennec were being called for was enough for major concern. The stench of cat lingered heavily in the air, the creature fallen… and Towhee as well.
 
“Towhee!” She knew it would fall on deaf ears as Reyson applied pressure to the gaping wound. “Fennec, I need cobwebs, willowbark and yarrow, immediately.” She would need to pack the wound. The exposition of the spine was more than enough to cause concern. She had seen such injuries before… and she had never had a good outcome with it. “Do not move her, Reyson. It could worsen the bleeding.” She became aware after the fact of what he had said, hearing it but not processing it until after she had given her orders to Fennec.

the imperator did not answer reyson.

he did not have time to rejoin before aquene returned to take charge. she called orders and germanicus stood grimly by. 

"help lady fennec," he ordered the man, moving to take the soldier's place in applying pressure. two sets of jaws would bring these items far more swiftly.

"the cat was in the tree and then it was not," was all he said to the matrona.

It was her mother, of course.

Fennec arrived with barely enough time to process before someone (the healer, she assumed) was giving orders. Fennec's ears went flat and she dropped what she'd brought, the items asked for already grasped in her jaws. She'd brought everything she had thought they'd need from her garden.

Here. Fennec could smell the blood, but she didn't move close enough to assess. Aquene's immediate demeanor, and the close proximity of the other two, had her backing off and leaving space instead. She would just be in the way.

Resentment mingled with her fear, but she stayed tensely where she was. She couldn't bring herself to leave either.

skippable for the rest of this!

Before Reyson could even begin to move to help and beside Healer Fennec. She already had the items down at her feet. He wasn't certain what to do now that Aquene and Imperator had taken over. So he moved closer to the other healer, but far enough away that he was not invading her space and he would wait, with her. He wished he could offer her promises of good health and that Towhee would be fine, but this....this was not good.

Also skippable unless needed. That way it moves a little faster.

She needed to stabilize Towhee before she could worry about wrapping the wound, assessing the long-term effects of the damage, and all the sorts. Fennec luckily had the supplies she already needed, offering a rushed thanks to the woman as she quickly began to apply the medicinal between layers of packing in cobwebs. Her hope is it would protect the bone and allow thin layers remaining to heal overtop.
 
Either way, it would likely be a long recovery for the praefectus. Germanicus explained, a frown on her features. “I hope that cat was on the receiving end of Mereo’s justice.” She offered up, leaning in quickly to sniff the wound… cats could carry diseases in their bite, but that scent often transferred with the saliva… it appeared, for now, that Towhee was in the clear in that regard though she would continue to keep a close eye on it.
 
“I need access to water to clear the blood… once I’ve finished packing the wound I’ll need assistance carrying her to the pool inside the tablinum. It will need to move slowly, as jostling could dislodge what I have done.”

'it is dead," he told the matrona.

"when you are ready for her to be moved, i will assist. reyson also."

he glanced to fennec but said nothing, focused upon any command aquene might give. "i will bring water."

several minutes and a soaked jawful of moss was at her elbow. the eagle remained grave.

I’m tidying my thread logs and archiving outdated threads that haven’t had any replies in a while. I figured I’d wrap this for everyone. :)

If anyone would prefer to post again, just post a revival request in Maintenance!

Losing consciousness made Towhee a model patient, at least. And for better or worse, it would evade her for some time longer. When she did come around eventually, the pain and its treatment would both keep her from being particularly aware of herself for quite a while.

But between Germanicus, Reyson, Fennec and Aquene, she couldn’t have been in better—or more capable—hands.