Wolf RPG

The meeting was over. Perfect. Now it was his turn to get his hands on that polar bear of a woman and remind her she needed to take care of herself. Now. Before she turned around and did something else that was stupid. Okay okay. Guarding the borders was kind of her job and that plain's wolf was a pain in the ass (seriously, he'd met another who'd quite literally gone for his butt and he was pretty sure he was still feeling her teeth).

"You're being shitty," he snapped at her as he dragged her away from the rest of the crowd. He wanted water. A stream. A lake. Something. Whatever was closest. He wanted to wash that wound out and clean her fur so he could get a better look at what was going on blood free. Then he wanted to hydrate her. Or the other way around. Whatever. As long as the job got done.

The meeting over, Kroc had seen it all to the end and now was ready to allow her cinnamon hued pack mate closer to work his healing magic. Hell if she knew how to tend to any of it but it was whatever. She'd suffered worse, in her opinion. He spoke at her and in retaliation, she snapped her teeth near his face, though she was noticeably slower than normal. Getting to her feet, the pale wolf followed without another word, exhaustion closing in now. 

Fortunately, they found a water source not far away. It was a small stream but large enough to accommodate her size, laying down in the cold water to allow it to course over her leg as she moved to lay there, keeping her head above water. Gold eyes, flat in their color at the moment, looked at him to watch for a signal that he was pleased with her wound and could stop laying in the water. 

They came across a small stream. With much relief, Kero released a frustrated breath and stepped aside to help Kroc into the water as needed. Like much of the wolves here, he was beginning to sense a trend of stubbornness. Luckily for him, Kroc was a touch easier to communicate with that Tonravik. He imagined this would be easier and harder all at the same time. 

Kero stepped into the water and straddled the white wolf. Her shoulder was still packed with webbing and he cleaned that off, licking way spider silk as he freed the wound up to be cleaned. "Bleeding stopped," he noted, glad the gauze had done it's job. Now if the water could wash away the residual crusting blood, they may be good to go with that one... If she stayed still. 

"Don't move," he ordered, focusing on the task at hand. "I'm gonna take a look at your jaw now." That meant teeth. That meant she better keep them to herself. He moved, shifting around her form to take a better look. His tongue ran over the raw edges and came back with the fresh taste of copper. Still bleeding. Slowly, but it hadn't clotted yet. 

"Did you touch that rabbit at all?" he asked. He needed to know the full extent of anything that might have happened with that spar. "Any aches, pains or anything else I should know about?"

The bleeding had stopped, which was probably why her condition hadn't taken a steep nosedive yet. She let him stand over her without displacing him, focusing on keeping her nose out of the stream so she didn't choke on water. Surprisingly, his orders now were well received and obeyed. While she was definitely hard headed, usually it was for a specific purpose. Being stubborn now would only lead her to an early grave for absolutely no reason so she listened, and listened well. 

Still as stone, she lay there, letting him get a good look at the damage that had been done to her lower jaw. "No." It answered both questions. The aches and pains she suffered from were the ones he was looking at. "Only the two wounds." 

She hadn't touched the poisoned rabbit. Good. That made things a little bit easier on him. He wasn't super well versed on toxins, but now that they'd been used he moved learning about them towards the top of the list. Made sense too. Poisons usually came in the form of plant life. Where healing was about sustaining life, poison was about destroying it. Two sides of the same coin. He'd turn his attention there. 

Until he had that chance, he'd patch Kroc up. Kero stepped out of the water and nudged a stone towards her head, moving it so she could rest her muzzle on it and keep her nose out of the water. "I'm going to go get something. Hang out for a bit." He gave her one last once over, making sure she seemed as comfortable as she could get before he ventured into the woods. He'd seen something around here that had looked useful... there it was.

He snatched up a patch of yellow flowers by their stems. Yanking them from the ground, Kerosene returned to the white wolf with a not-so-romantic bouquet. Sitting in the shallows, he snipped off a few of the yellow petals and pressed them into the wound on her jaw. An old trick. He'd seen his mother do it and it worked wonders on wounds. Stopped the bleeding. Satisfied with his work there, he moved lower and repeated the process with her shoulder.

Hang out for a bit. Yep, she could totally do that. The rock under her muzzle made things a bit easier and she lay there. There wasn't much to do now except let the brightly colored male tend to her wounds. If she was going to be of any use to the pack, Kroc needed to get back on her feet as fast as possible, without further injuring herself so this, she could stand to deal with. 

She heard him return, one eye cracking open to peer at him as he went to work. Long moments passed by, his work and methods accepted without another ill-tempered snap. "Thank you." Few wolves ever heard her say such words but he had earned them by sticking with her even during her stubborn moments. 

He placed the last of the petals in place and left them there. All that was really left to do was to sit and wait and let them take effect. Funny how obtaining damage took next to no time and healing took forever. Either way, Kroc would be out of commission for a bit and he hoped she remembered that so they wouldn't be doing round two of this.

"Don't worry about it," he said, eyes still on the wounds. There were several flowers still left, but he'd covered the tears already and didn't need the rest of it. Not now at least. He wanted to get that jaw under control before he moved on.

An ear flickered in response to his words and afterwards, she remained quiet. There was nothing to say right now and anyway, she was starting to feel a bit drowsy. The flow of blood had stopped, yes, but that didn't mean she was fully in the clear yet. Knowing these basic signs, Kroc shifted, moving slowly to sit up so that she was not laying on her side any longer.

"Lightheaded." A one-word explanation but surely, it was enough to explain why she would not risk getting so comfortable as to fall asleep. He would probably be better off if he didn't have to drag her off to a safe place if she passed out, being that she was a bit heavier than most female wolves, barring their own alpha. 

She began to shift. Kero lifted to his feet, rising so he could either help her if she needed assistance, or just to get out of her way. He ended up getting out of her way. She had a handle on it. Mostly. He watched her steady herself, as if fighting away some sort of something that was going on in her head. He knew that look. That was the look where you were making an internal inventory of oneself and trying to figure out what was working and what wasn't. 

Light-headed. "Drink something," he said, pulling himself out of the water. He shook himself lightly, freeing a few clingy droplets from his hide as he stepped out onto the shore. "You're probably a little iron deficient too," he spoke out loud. "Hungry for anything? I'll see what I can find." 

Drink? Her brow furrowed for a moment before her eyes dropped to the water that ran over her feet and haunches. Yes. Drink. She swallowed, gold eyes drawn up to look at him for a moment while her sluggish mind processed what he'd said. "Whatever's fine." With no preference, Kroc turned her attention to the water to do as instructed, sucking down a fair amount of water to keep her body going. Rest. She needed to rest soon but now was not the time. No, right now, she needed to stay awake, at least until he got back. 

Red meat. Of some kind. If a buffalo walked into the forest and he was somehow able to take it down on his own, that would have been fucking awesome. As was, he needed to look for something smaller. But not that pheasant. Kero frowned at it, letting the bird wander on its way as he looked for something a little heartier. Why... of all weeks... did this have to be the one where they'd failed their pack hunt? Karma hated his guts.

Karma also gave him a rabbit. 

It wasn't exactly what he'd been looking for, but it would do. He chased down the furry freak with the ears, killed it, and brought it back to the stream where Kroc was laying. She was hanging in there. She'd be fine. If he could get a little food on her, she'd be good to go. 

Kero set the rabbit down on the ground and stepped back into the water. The coverings on her wounds were fine and the bleeding had stopped. All was good there. "Got a rabbit for you," he said, circling back over to it. He nudged it towards her on the shore before sitting down. "Eat this and you should be fine. That stuff I put on you should be good to fall off naturally." 

Over the smell of her own wounds, Kroc's senses were fairly dulled. It was a sensation the wolf didn't much care for but she'd get over it, in the end. Blood loss did that. She was actually discovering that she much preferred the pain of a burn over this. The extent of her injuries now were becoming quite the pain in the ass. Her focus for the next several days would have to be getting back to 100% to better protect the pack. 

The rabbit at her feet grabbed her attention more than the wolf that had brought it for her. Unceremoniously, Kroc descended upon it, tearing at the warm flesh of the carcass. Bones crunching between her teeth, the mammal was devoured, gone in just moments as even the blood left on her muzzle was cleaned away with sure, quick swipes of her tongue. 

She stood then, on three legs; the one with the corresponding injury was tucked up to her chest once more. Hobbling to her pack-mate, she gave a brief nudge to his shoulder — her sign of thanks — before moving off to her own den to sleep the initial part of her recovery away. 


[Kroc exits]

She devoured it. Ravenous. There was something slightly disturbing about watching her tear into that thing that brought him to diverting his eyes from her immediate meal to watching that shoulder of hers as she bit into it. Layers of the flower poultice were already starting to fall off, but what he could see underneath was glossy and well on its way to healing. She'd be fine if she didn't push herself and make it worse. But based on the other scars she wore? He was guessing she already knew that.

"Stay hydrated," he reminded her, watching as she finished up with the rest of it. Kroc gathered herself to her feet and moved towards him, nudging against his shoulder. Kero stiffened, letting a grunt fly from his lips as she hobbled away. 

Ugh. What had he gotten himself into?

-thread end-