Wolf RPG

@Niita

Chaska's back leg was aching like crazy. It was a crazy thought but the grey wolf couldn't think of anything good. It must have been getting infected. That's all he could think. They needed the plants to come back, The healing herbs, all that. Surely someone knew how to help.

He lay on his side, his wounded hind leg facing outside. This time, he was at the back of his den, feeling like he was in despair. And it hurt his heart.

Niita was limping back towards the corner she usually slept in, though she never slept much at all, which had come to be nicknamed her Spot. As in the spot she slept in. Duh. As she passed towards it, a shuffling noise alerted the pale waif to a new neighbour living nearby. Though by the panting and the occasional pained noise, Niita could guess they were in worse shape than she was. 

Niita wasn't a healer, had no idea how to help the injured or dying, but she paused in concern outside the den. She didn't venture in, not wanting to disturb anyone. Instead she called out tentatively. "Hello? You okay in there?"

Chaska flinched at the voice he hadn't heard over his pained painting. He peered over out of the corner of his eye to see another new member. So he guessed. His eyes slowly closed at how tired he felt from the wound. He gave a look that said what-do-you-think. 

"Does it look like I am?" He didn't want it to sound aggressive, but his wound was making him feel grumpy. He wanted to walk around without hurting. Plus the question that had been asked to him, it felt silly in his mind when his wound was plainly seen.

Niita managed to repress the snarl that wanted to leave, this wolf wasn't the only one in pain and Niita just wanted to go sleep off her recent tumble down the glacier. Well fuck you too then. A small growl escaped, and Niita turned away from the den. She hadn't been able to see into it on first glance but when she peered into it she could make out an older male with a gruesome injury to his leg.

"Pardon me for being polite." Niita snapped before sighing and counting in her head in an effort not to spit profanities. "Look, I don't know anything about healing. If that's how you want to be, I have much better things to be doing. You're not the only one with an injury even if yours is worse. I'd much rather be sleeping off this." Niita gestured to the leg she was holding up.

"So if you could be civil and tell me how to help you, that'd be great. If you can't, say as much so that I can go." Niita told him bluntly, waiting to see which it would be.

She showed him her injury. Chaska mentally kicked himself. He wasn't like this. "I..Sorry. This injury, it's been bugging me." Although it wasn't just that. It was everything else that had happened to him. What he did, what he saw. All of it. How could he have known that trying to fix his past mistake would have ended up making things worse.

"I'm not sure. I don't know herbs too well. Just something for the pain would help...Please." He paused in a moment of silence. There was something else as well. "Or some company. Some company would do nicely."

Nodding as he spoke, making his decision, Niita tried to think. She had been hopeless with herbs when her mother had tried to teach her, only picking up the basics. Her blue eyes landed on an alder tree, a lightbulb seeming to go off over her head. "One sec." Niita assured the male, dashing off as best she could on three paws and peeling some bark from it.

Returning to the mouth of the den, Niita chewed the bark though it took a good deal of jaw strength before picking up the mass of chewed bark and carrying it over to the male. She plopped it on his wound unceremoniously, trying her best to be gentle. Spotting cobwebs in the corner, she took those and pressed them against his leg to make a sort of poultice.

"I think that's the best I can do, Krypton is the healer not me." Niita shrugged a bit, knowing that was all she knew how to do. Hopefully that would help his wound if not alleviate his pain. "I'm Niita by the way." 

He watched with a hopeful smile as she went off to get something. Then his smile went to more of a nervous one. Bark? She got bark?! He knew not a single type of healing bark, he didn't even know such thing existed. "Oh. Bark...." He watched her put it on, wincing as she put cobwebs on it. It brought back memories. 

And then she mentioned a name he knew from those exact memories. "This reminds me of when Krypton looked after me...I had a tumble here, back when i was here. It was....well, it changed me." In a humorous way, but he didn't put that in. To hear she was good with herbs still, it was a godsend. Although when the shewolf said her name, he hesitated on saying his. "Chaska."

Niita let out a snort of amusement. "Yeah, bark. We happen to be in a famine, trees are all we have left. And that's alder bark so you know." Her words were teasing, not meant in the snappy manner from earlier. 

"Pleasure to meet you Chaska. Tumbles usually do that." Niita murmured, thinking of her own tumble and how she would never again take her legs for granted.

Chaska looked between the bark and her, confused. Never had he heard of bark that could heal. But she must have known, so he trusted her. Only a little. She even named it, so that helped a little. Despite him not having ever heard about it.

"Guessing you got that injury from a tumble too? Walking up the mountain?" That's how his had happened. One mistep, and then came Casanova Chaska. He still felt silly about those memories. Most of what had happened between his recovery and the fall had come back, and reflecting on those made him feel like there could be worse things than a fall.

"No, I was on the glacier not far from here. Looking for the pups and I was stupid enough to climb it. Of course I slipped, that's just my luck for you." Niita chuckled in good nature, knowing that at some point her luck was bound to get better. 

"You said 'back when I was here.' Does that mean you've been here before?" Niita asked curiously, cocking her head to the side.

Hearing about the pups, it saddened him. Had they run away too? And which ones? "Which ones?" He could only recall the one Steady had spoken of. Just as he thought about Steady, he remembered he had heard Niita's name before. But he would worry about that later. He was too worried about the pups.

"Yes. I left some time ago, to...to do something. Lived here for about a year, believe it or not. I knew Steady's brother, before his passing. I knew Zaria, Mason, June. All of them." Just saying those words, his ears wilted. He missed them. All he knew of the old pack was Krypton and Steady. If they had gone before he returned, well it just wouldn't be the same.

Niita's ears dropped in sympathy knowing that most of those wolves were gone. "I'm sorry." How sad, to come home and find most of your pack dead and strangers in their place. "Odette and Stoic." She tacked on at the end.

When she said sorry, he felt a bit more happier. Glad to have company, to keep his spirits high. But then they went back down as he heard the names. Odette. That was the one Steady had told him. A memory flashed by of when he saw the little pup. "Why did I have to leave?" he murmured accidentally, meaning to say it in his head.

"It isn't your fault, Chaska. It's no one's really. You couldn't've known they would run away or that any of this would happen." Niita tried to reassure him, a sincere expression on her face.

Chaska dared to believe she was right. Yet inside, his opinion didn't change. He still thought it was his fault. He could have done something. But instead, he left to deal out a vendetta he shouldn't have let control him. Still, he managed a smile to show that he was thankful for the company and the talk.

"Thank you...Steady's lucky to have you around" he blurted. Before realising what he said. "I mean, everyone is" he quickly added. Once more, he mentally kicked himself for having said that. He didn't know if she knew about the alpha's crush on her, and if she didn't, well...

Niita felt warmth rush to her face, possibly a blush if her face was visible through her fur. She regretted snapping at him, even if he had done so first, and hadn't expected a compliment. "Oh, umm thanks."

Grinning, she glanced at him. "Is it that obvious?" She asked, referring to their relationship, if that's what one would call it. They didn't really have a label. Perhaps Steady had told this wolf, obviously how else would he know? Just by looking at her? As if. Niita regretted her dumb question almost immediately, hoping not to receive a snippy retort.

A warm laugh came out. He found it a little funny at her response, his tail wagging. Despite what had happened and how he felt, the laugh felt good. "No, it's not that. He told me when I arrived. And I can see why. He needs someone like you to keep him standing through all this." A thought itched at the back of his mind as he siad that. Would that help him, if he had someone? He couldn't think that. He didn't have time for that. "He is lucky."

"Ah, come on. You flatter too much." Niita joked, unsure how to take such compliments. She wasn't good with them, at Asmundr she kept to herself and then she was alone for so long. The girl's social skills were a bit lacking, the familarity around Silvertip had been a shock to her system at first.

"I should probably let you rest, but if you ever need company or anything I live right over there." Niita jerked her head, gesturing towards her rocky corner. Home sweet home. Chaska's den wasn't that far surprisingly.

Memories of his Casanova self flashed by in the back of his mind. He remembered trying to use lots of flattery back then. "Just being honest" he said in response, an earnest look on his face. "And thank you for the company." He turned his head away and tucked it under his tail, despite feeling some pain from turning his body from his leg.