Blacktail Deer Plateau i am damaged

@Ruenna maybe? tags for reference

hearing @Minori’s call kept him up and worried. she had surely left and he had no idea when she was coming back, if she was coming back. he pinned all the blame on himself, further deteriorating his mental state. if she had left for good, he would never be able to forgive himself.

issun lay helpless in the confines of his den. if he could get up and track her, he would’ve done so. sadly, his wounds were still prominent. all he could do was hope she would come back.

Minori's decision to take a journey from the Plateau seemed odd to Ruenna... especially so soon after making the request to be evaluated for the Beta position, and while her very close friend lingered on death's doorstep to boot. Whatever had called her away must have been very, very important. Rue had kept some distance from Issun's sickbed knowing that Minori was checking on him, but with the mercenary's departure she figured she had better step in and go assess the situation for herself. Rue poked her nose into Issun's den with a bundle of herbs in her mouth, chuffing a soft greeting.

his ears twiched when he heard someone behind him. please for the love of god, don’t be corvus. he looked over his shoulder and saw ruenna to his relief. she carried a bundle of herbs which sent a shiver down his spine. he was reminded of the immense pain when she treated his tail.

issun flicked his tail to permit her to come in, or at least he tried. it was more like a twitch of his stub. it was a weird sensation. “those for me?”

Rue had to stop herself from wincing as the injured man's tail-stub twitched in greeting. It made her heart shudder for the man, to see him missing a limb where there once was such a lovely, proud banner. 

She entered the den, nodding to answer his question. "Yes, more marigold I'm afraid. You'll have to keep taking it to fight infection," she spoke, placing the herbs before the man. Rue's voice was apologetic; she knew how awful it felt to have to choke down plants. She had brought some rabbit tallow to mix in with the herbs this time, so hopefully that would make the medicine more palatable. 

"I.. don't know if you heard," she ventured, "...Minori will be away for a few days. Traveling." Rue shrugged, indicating that she didn't know anything else about Minori's plans.

his nose scrunched up as the herbs and rabbit were placed before them. they weren’t the best tasting things by far, but he had to tough through it. he took a bite of the rabbit, then the marigolds, and finally swallowed it down. it felt like a toxic paste slithering down his throat. “thank you,” he mumbled after he got it down.

he looked down at his paws when she mentioned minori’s departure. “i’ve heard.” he let out a deep sigh. “i’m worried about her.”

Issun downed the medicine quickly and without complaint, which made Rue smile. "You're pretty good at that," she commented, knowing that it would have taken her several tries and multiple gags to choke down the herbs herself. She probably shouldn't have been surprised; no doubt all mercenaries were used to taking medicine on the regular. 

"Yeah," Rue agreed, expression clouding with worry that mirrored the feeling behind Issun's sigh. Issun seemed to know Minori best out of anyone in the pack-- if he was worried, that was probably cause for concern. "Do you know what's going on, then? Like, where she went or.. or what she's doing?"

in truth, he didn’t know exactly why she had left. that didn’t stop him from jumping to the conclusion that he had something to do with it.

“well-” he said cutting himself off. was it really a good decision to talk about it? he didn’t want everyone knowing about their meeting, that would be humiliating at best. but it wasn’t fair to withhold information while everyone was left to assume things. he decided to stay vague. “we talked the day before and then she left afterwards.”

Rue blinked as the man cut off his sentence almost before it was started. A beat later, he provided a vague explanation, which Rue had a feeling was made ambiguous on purpose. That was fine though... if this was something personal between Minori and Issun, Rue was more than happy to stay out of it. 

"Sometimes a little time away works wonders. It helps a lot with.. perspective, I've found." Rue shrugged, indicating that was all she had to say on that, since Issun seemed leery of this particular subject. 

"Well... lucky for you, that's all I have for you today," Rue commented, voice turning up optimistically. It was likely that Issun did not feel very lucky, but if he saw the pile of herbs and balms that were earmarked for Siqsa he would probably be grateful for his solitary mouthful of paste. 

Rue had lingered long enough to ascertain that Issun wasn't going to vomit up the medication. Her work here was finished, and she had other sickbeds to visit. "See you tommorrow, Issun. Remember to stay off your feet and get lots of rest." She gave him the same parting advice every time she saw him, but she had found that most mercenaries needed to be reminded (at least) daily. She departed with a friendly nod. 

Edited an ending so this could be archived, lmk if you would like to start something more current with these two!