Wolf RPG

it was a broken girl who stumbled to the border of sapphique, collapsing just feet from the scent markers that denoted home. her wounds had torn open several times during the journey; even now, the deep bites on her flank and her upper hind leg oozed dark blood. bits of flesh and congealed blood clung to her fur around the wounds.

but it was the wound on her lower back which sent a panic through her. it was deep. too deep, she thought, though she had no experience with such things. coraline twisted to look at the wound with a raw, broken whine. the ugly sight of it set her heart to racing, and she called weakly for @Erzulie and @Rosalyn. help me, her howl pled. i think i'm dying.

it was coraline's absence loko most keenly felt while on house-arrest. her departure and his failures hung around him like a stone-laden shawl -- every step a reminder that she was out there while he was in here, unable to help his mothers find her.

it was her call that set his fur on end and feet running blindly. when he came upon her it was not his efforts which took his breath away, but the extent of injuries which cluttered her hide. "cora!" loko whispered disbelievingly, rushing towards her with a full throated howl that all of sapphique would hear.

When the tide went out, Chacal often went with it, trailing along the exposed shoreline to pry whatever she could from the heavy, wet sands for food and treasures. She dined on raw seafood as much as possible- it saved her energy, and the oil-rich foods made her coat glossy.

 The coastline was also the place where their border markings were a bit more loose; a wolf caught in a riptide elsewhere and cast ashore on their lands would be a trespasser, but not by choice. And with the tides constantly sculpting the face of the coast, there was room for some discrepancy should a traveller wander across the sand at low tide, past where the border markings existed further inland. With new neighbours...Chacal tended the coastal bordere more than usual. 

Coraline's plea was urgent and struck her with dread. She recognized her sister's voice but had no time to feel relief knowing she'd returned. She bolted toward the sound of her sister's call, as her mind raced. 

Chacal had not learned much about healing. Coraline's voice was so close, she suspected she might be among the first to respond but knew, as she raced to her sister's aid, that she might be woefully unprepared to help her. She heard Loko call out- and knew at least that she was not alone.

Her jaws chattered lightly as she slid to a halt, having located her sister. Loko was with her, visibly shattered. She panted, her breaths short and threaded with whispers of a concerned whine as she fervently reached to touch and comfort her. Her eyes caught sight of the dark crimson streaks where blood had flowed, and the deep, unmistakeable gouges left behind by teeth. The placement, too- lower back, flank, hind leg- were all indicators of an attack, not a fight. 

"Shhhh," She whispered, hoping to reassure Coraline. Inside, though, she resonated with outrage. In case someone nearby was searching for medicines for Coraline, she too called out, so that they might know better what to expect- and which medicines to grab to treat her injuries. 

Deep puncture wounds. Lower back, flank, hind leg. Blood loss. Bite wounds. 

Chacal was not a healer, but she was at least practical and knew that the best thing she could do was at least to communicate with someone who could. She turned toward her sister. She would begin cleaning her sister's wounds, if she would permit it- but before she did, she spoke in a voice low and stern. 

"Kiyes ki fe ou sa?"
Who did this to you?

There wasn't a lot Sobo could do on short notice. It would need to be Erzulie to cure the wounds; he was still not experienced enough. But Sobo knew enough to help immediately. When three urgent howls rang out over Sapphique, he scrambled to gather what he could carry.

Two bundles of moss, one soaked in sea water, one dry. And several strips of kelp, similarly soaked. Sobo had no herbs of his own to bring and did not trust himself with Erzulie's stores, so he did not search for yarrow or anything else that might stem the bleeding. He simply ran as far as he was able with what he had.

Sobo had a surgeon's mind: the faces of his siblings fell away the moment he reached them and began to assess Coraline's wounds. Take dat, he said, tossing the dry bundle in Loko's direction. Hold it against de leg. Dis, he said, brandishing the kelp for Chacal, for de flank. Then he took the largest bundle, the soaked moss, and pressed it gingerly to the small of his sister's back.

He knew it would hurt, and winced sympathetically. But the sea water would help to clean it and the moss would help to slow the bleeding until Erzulie could arrive with something more suitable.

within minutes, her family filled the empty spaces around her like the sea rushing to meet the sands. they were here. they would help her. coraline sighed, knowing she was safe now.

and without warning, all the grief and terror of her journey back to sapphique came crashing down on her. chacal spoke to her, and coraline looked at her beloved sister with wide eyes and understood nothing. the man, his teeth; she'd almost died —

i'm safe. i'm safe now, her own desperate insistence clashed with the swell of all-consuming panic. borderline hysterical and wildly ashamed, coraline turned her eyes to the ground, afraid that her family would see her tears and know she was weak. but there was no hiding it. she could not speak to them, any of them. when she tried, she accomplished nothing but the loss of control over what noise she did make. she began to sob, and sought to hide her face in her forelegs. only one thought came to her with any measure of clarity through the hysteria.

i can't be this weak again.

loko took instructions wordlessly, relieved sobo was here.

he applied the dry bundle to coralines leg in horror; he had seen blood before, but never of his own kin -- it awoke a sense of industrialized fear and anger in him. as chacal bound the wound with kelp, loko felt his skin shivering.

now erzulie was here. loko's heartbeat slowed, voices a drum; coraline was sobbing now and his guts uncoiled and coiled again and --

he steeled himself against his instincts, breath held for the moment this was all over and his maman said everything would be okay.

it would be a saddened procession which eventually bore coraline back to the cliffs.
coraline's weeping would haunt her a long while.
she worked with sobo and loko and chacal until there was nothing more to be done, and it was she who led them back to the protection of their cliffside home.
and inside her stomach rolled the grief and the rage of seeing her child lain so low.

She didn’t get an answer, but as Erzulie directed them to tend to Coraline, Chacal took a moment to see if she couldn’t pick up any scents hanging about Coraline’s coat that she might stow away in her memory, so she might one day recognize it as a threat again. She wanted to rip whoever had done this limb from limb and lay them in the salt waters of the ocean so they might feel the sting of her ire.

As she worked, she felt Coraline weaken- possibly from having to travel with her injuries but she saw too that the strength she had to hide her tears was sapping, and she wilted as she tried to hide her sadness. She lowered her head as though to keep her expression from view, and it stung Chacal to know someone had hurt Coraline so badly that she might feel ashamed of her own trauma. 

The sob that shook Coraline’s side made Chacal draw in a breath as though something had punched her in the gut. She placed her temple against her sister’s shoulder and breathed heavily, shakily. She shared in her sister’s sadness, and felt it turn in her chest. Her own tears pattered on the ground. Coraline’s pain was something they all shared; she would not suffer or weep on her own. 

Once she was stable though, Chacal would guide her sister, staying close by her side as they followed their mother to a safer place for her to rest and heal.

When Erzulie came, Sobo was quick to move out of the way, bringing the moistened, blood-soaked moss with him. He stopped to consider whether to press it to another wound, then flung it away and reached for more dry moss. He took his place again at Coraline's back and pressed down against the poultice his mother had packed on the wound. He felt the telling shudder when his sister's shoulders shook with sobs, and swallowed back bile and a surprising amount of anger to know someone would hurt her so badly.

There was little else for Sobo to do but assist Erzulie in whatever way he could, holding pressure on wounds while she worked, leaping up to fetch a supply or two as needed. It was harrowing work, but eventually, Coraline's wounds were patched to the best of their abilities and the family bore her back to a place of safety and healing.

For a long while after, Sobo would stand upon the cliffs and cast his haunted gaze out to the sea, calling within his mind for any lwa to show him why his sweet sister was the victim of such violence, and finding no answer there.