With all the chaos of the raid over with, Stryx could once again focus on her actual job.
There was plenty for her to do between administering remedies to her own bites and scratches, cleaning up the wolves after their little play date, and make sure the girl they'd grabbed didn't, I dunno, die somehow. It was a lot.
With all of this in mind Stryx knew she'd need to stock up. As she passed the entrance to Mosskeep she poked her nose in, and spotted a shape within.
it was merrick this time, lying docilely for once. arielle had been ferociously stern with him, and since then the bearking had complied with her healings, albeit begrudgingly. his missing toes were not visible now, his paw swathed in a smooth bandage.
the pain still continued, and walked through his one-eyed stare as he pointed it toward stryx. "each mark in your hide that scars is a beautiful thing to the spirit of ursus."
Seeing the mad king made Stryx want to turn around and leave him there; but she knew better, she knew her training and her vows would prevent that kind of negligence.
As Stryx came to inspect his wounds she was silent. His voice spanned the space between them, earning a small huffing laugh that she barely contained.
Rather than speak to her injuries (which were lacking compared to the pack's vanguard, himself included) she mutters, Did you find what you were looking for?
He looked half dead, even after being treated.
"that and more."
his paw throbbed with agony.
merrick remained still.
"i found weakness. i found a sacrifice. i found a way forward."
he tilted his nose to the air, scenting and saying nothing more.
He sounded like he'd had a good time causing mayhem and spreading malice in the dark. So, that was a sign to Stryx he was on the mend and would soon recover.
Stryx breathed sharply, dismissing some idle thoughts as she inspected his worst injuries and began organizing further treatment.
Keep your foot elevated,
she instructed.
There was the chance his wounds would cause him fever. Maybe that his paw would fester and need to be amputated. She considered for a moment the benefit of withholding treatment — of what could be gained — but Stryx knew her place.
She had made the vows and lived by them. The promise to the bear-wolves, to be a teacher, was the only real reason for her to be here.
As Stryx began to lather together different herbs against her tongue and teeth, she was silent, and then moved to place new layers of medicine across his wounds - leaving the foot, for now.
merrick held up his limb with a mocking grin. "i hear you, doctor." two medics in ursus. they were doing fairly well for themselves. he could not think of another pack that necessitated the same level of medical care.
save for —
he closed his eye as stryx worked over him, vulnerable should she bare her teeth suddenly against him.
"do you know who evien was?"
Stryx had an ideology that clashed with those of Ursus. She knew that. It was obvious as soon as she crossed the threshold and became one of them; clearer still during the raid.
The battle had left the Bruin-witch with a mangled foot that the physician now inspected, but did not touch. As she moved on to other parts of his ruined face, then his body, there was ample opportunity to change her mind.
It was her vow that kept her from lashing out at the crazed man for his vendetta and it was her pride which facilitated her work now; she was a woman who put great value in to the bond she formed with her contracts, and even if that made her a pawn in someone else's war, it was part of the game.
She worked hard to keep others alive. It was her entire reason for being - and whether or not the person deserved it was beyond her.
He asked about someone called Evien. It was not a name she knew intimately, but it sounded like something she'd heard before. That wasn't enough of a hint to draw much from her - a shake of the head.
She began to clean one of the harder-to-reach wounds upon the man and otherwise remained silent, focused.
"he was our first great healer."
merrick's voice was a reverie. stryx kept herself so well-oiled that he did not know the internal conflict which marked the brusque healer.
perhaps if he had looked into her eyes —
"i loved him. he had a bad leg and a blind eye and — i loved everything about him."
merrick's breath shuddered.
"the bear chose him. through aventus — evien was the price paid for my son to be recognized as heir."
merrick closed his single eye, turning the plateau of his face into torn darkness.
"anyway," gaze still shuttered as he tasted salt upon his lips, "he chose arielle. you should speak with him too."
If he felt pained by her attention he did not show it. Granted he had many wounds by this point in his life, so perhaps he did not feel the way others did; maybe it wasn't pain he felt at all but pleasure, some crossed wire that promoted his desire for bloodshed. Stryx didn't think too long about it - she had work to do.
He went on to wax poetic about a dead man and that earned an unseen raise of Stryx' brow for a beat of the heart, before she was at rest and frowning.
Aventus?
She wasn't clear on who Merrick meant, and hadn't clued-in yet that he referred to the dead healer's remains. It was pretty clear otherwise that Aventus and Arielle were a united front.
"evien."
"his skull is in the keep."
merrick eyed the healer. "we have many talismans. you should become familiar with them, if you are to stay."
he drew a breath through his mouth and expelled it through his nostrils, picturing it as the bloodied tentacles of pain writhing out of his pores as stryx treated his flesh.
"the rivenwood wolf with whom you fought. what did they look like?"
Oh. They carried their dead with them in a literal sense. Stryx blinked, and listened, tending to another part of the man's injuries without comment.
Much of the dried blood had been cleaned previously from these wounds. Stryx was taking care to inspect the flesh for infection and found that some were warm to the touch, but not terribly so.
A woman. A... quick little woman.
Stryx answered in a distracted manner. She hadn't focused much on the stranger's looks, only their teeth at the time. But now she frowned as she thought about it.
I think she had one eye.
"another cyclops? interesting. i thought i was special." an attempt to rib stryx, dragging their communication heavily to one side. merrick thumped his tail. "do you think two one-eyed wolves would have blind children?"
the twist of his mouth suggested that he did not truly want an answer.
"so there were at least two. a child. the scent of a boy i did not see again. laurel. the children." he shrugged. "no reason to finish the job; they'll either replenish what was stolen or that bitch will try to find me."
Stryx grimaced, not that Merrick would see. Maybe he'd hear the strain in her voice if she were to answer him but his mind flowed on, and the conversation twisted to be about other things.
He seemed fixated on this woman that he'd sought out.
I'm done here,
she murmured after cleaning one last bit of him, and prepared to withdraw.
merrick smirked.
"go and rest."
he slithered from the den and winced gently.
"go see evien."
not a demand. not a request.
the bearwolf turned and limped away.