Sun Mote Copse Kiss me goodnight

Weather is cloudy, Temp is 16F, wind is 3mph, time will be around 9pm (21:00). Anyone in need of a healing thread you're more than welcome, as well as others!

Paws met the ground with heaft, slow and loud was all Rye could manage after the days journey to Sun Mote Copse. His injured body fought back against every step, searing his wound and releasing pain unto his core like a pack of ravenous hounds. They bit, clawed and mawed him asunder, leaving him whining and shedding few tears he couldn't afford to lose. Ryes' hope dried up long before he began his journey, only desperation drove him forward and the instinctual will to live cracked the reins. The male thought himself already dead, his wound was still hotter than hell and his body melted any snow or ice around him as he slept on the ground. His only save and grace was the knowledge of tree bark painkillers gifted to him by Effie but she was gone now, he hoped the best for her. Of course he missed her but yearning for someone didn't pay the life bill; water did however. A quiet stream in the distance glistened with what little light the moon gave off, it was a beautiful sight for exhausted eyes. Rye wobbled himself into the stream, letting the frigid water cool his wound; with any luck it would help cleanse it of dried skin and blood. As the water cooled his skin Rye lapped up the water greedily and hungrily devouring every ounce he could take. Long over due was his break, his reprieve from the cruelty of the world had arrived. Finally hope could begin rebuilding.

Ryes' belly was seemingly overflowing with water and his hunger pains vanished as the water superfically gave the impression of food. He was greatful mother nature gave him another chance at life, a chance he wouldn't take for granted. He needed to find Towhee and the others but they could be anywhere and Teekon was massive, the odds of finding them again was slim but not zero. For the night Rye would build up a comfy bed, made of the finest dead leaves the land had to offer and a small abandoned bunny burrow that he caved in. Altogether it provided warmth and with warmth and comfort came sleep, danger was far from Ryes' mind and hopefully far from him in general. Lady luck be kind.  

My wolf is a healer at the very core so finding a thread to go towards his Healer trade is AMAZING thank you

The massive white brute had found a large cache and dug into it despite the frozen ground, he found this cache in what has he assumed an abandoned packland somewhere between the hotsprings and where he found himself now. He was having trouble finding a pack to join despite his gods promise of plenty. The white wolf had traveled away from the hot springs in disgust, he had no need of them during winter anyway, his herb supply was limited to the caches he carried with him and teas and the like were not ways he could afford of waste his precious resource  

Vein wore two skulls hanging at his sides tied together with vines and a C shaped stick sliding over his head and down his neck until it came to rest at his shoulders. They hung from him like saddle bags would from a horse or pack animal
One skull of a moose and one of a similarly large (to himself) wolf both skulls were lashed together with twisted dried vines, both skulls were almost over flowing with herbs, there were some wooden tools lashed to the antlers of the moose skull among other things, and these things together clicked and rattled as he moved along.


The white brute lifted his head he scented blood, his eyes scanned for signs as his nose lead the way, the scent of blood being something he had long ago trained himself to follow in the most minute amount. He moved quickly not wasting a single motion, his practiced movement swift and calculated not for grace but for energy conservation. It wasn’t long before he found himself standing outside an abandoned bunny burrow, He sniffed loudly. “Anyone here?”

Sweet! I was hoping I could help someone, also I do have to keep the wound placement vauge because the fight thread is still active 

For the first time in ages his dreams took him back to his blood family, his brothers, mother and father gathered in the large cave for the youths coming of age celebration. The whole pack celebrated with ritual dances and a large elk feast, chants filled the air as the patricarch and matriarch danced in the middle of the cave. The night was full of love, cheer and glee. Soon the youths, including Rye, were set to dance with their blood siblings and in the end howl together, releasing their youthful spirits back to Mother (nature) for the next generation to harbor. After that night they were no longer tykes but grown and ready to choose their own paths. After the howl Rye and his siblings wrestled, subltly trying to show who contained the most prowess but for those few minutes, the male didn't care if he won or not. To be back with his family was a blessing, he missed them dearly, his mother especially and even his fathers boring lectures. It was all too perfect and of course it had to end rather abruptly with a voice that didn't belong to any of his famly members. 

Tired eyes lifted and stared into the dark, catching sight of a white haired wolf. Rye stood and limped towards the stranger but kept his distance, hackels remaining flat. "If you're here for an easy meal I'm afraid it won't be easy. You've no doubt smelled the blood by now but I won't stop fighting until my last breath." His voice was monotonous, apathetic, he had fear but Mother forbid he go out crying and begging, he had gone through too much to leave the earth begging. He was too sick, too tired and far too fed up with trouble finding him that he was more than ready to die fighting. His fight may be short lived but the fight was all that mattered to him. In a perfect world, words would be mightier than claw but the world was far from perfect. Rye was taught to de-escolate but if the past week has taught him anything, talking does nothing, not anymore at least. Whatever came of the wolfs' visit so be it. 

 

 

I see the thread began the beginning of December, if want to assume some infection might be starting to settle in? Vein can help with that too, both your toon and the other one were vague about teeth placement but not about wound creating.
You might have to choose the placement :D

The white brute lifted his head an easy smile upon his face and light hearted chuckled emanating from his chest, He backed up a few steps to give the wolf space to move, and to show him he meant no harm.

His soothing rich cadence filled the air “Easy brother, there is nothing to fear from me, I don’t eat Wolf, to gammy. I do however have something you might be in need of, Besides I filled my belly not to long ago.” He might even be able to give this wolf a portion of his last meal if the need were dire enough, He was a caretaker after all but he'd expect future payment if he were going that far.

He lowered his front end in an almost playful bow, allowing the skulls to touch the ground then expertly backed out from the bindings “That is if you would accept my help? An infection in the mid of winter is a deadly thing, actually an infection at anytime is quiet …”
He made eye contact with the male his sun golden orbs gentle “uncomfortable”

The clean pure white brute sat behind his portable caches and sniffed at the moose skull perhaps that was the one that held what he needed, that is if this wolf was willing to accept his help. He nodded his head to it then looked up, his deep slightly accented mantra filling the air again “I am Vein, I am new to these wilds, I’ve traveled a great distance through out my life and collected a great many things, many useful things. Along with a vast knowledge of healing skills, one must take care of themselves out there. If you wish it, I can offer you a taste of my skills.” He set his paw on the herb laden wolf skull and rocked it back and forth gently without looking at it, this action seemed more habit then anything else.

Yes, even a moderate infection would make sense given the amount of time passed. As for the wound placement, I think front left shoulder, towards the chest would be good. 

As the white male spoke the darker one eyed the skulls, the supposed medicine 

stashes. Rye found it curious that one skull belonged to a wolf, alarming but curious. 

Death and health in one, a brutal irony that Rye was sure to be on purpose. However that 

did not ease the churning of his belly but exacerbated his uneasiness. As the other male bowed 

Rye peered into the contents of the skulls and saw the assortment of herbs. An ounce of 

anxiety peeled away but no matter how convincing the wolf may appear, Rye would remain guarded. 

He did want help, his wound burned something fierce and it was starting to spread. There was no doubt 

an  infection, the male doubted he would make it another two weeks before Mother Earth would take him. 

The gamble to accept help had to be made.

Rye settled down and sat where he stood, lifting his wounded shoulder a few inches off the ground. The 

release of pressure brought with it pain and throbbing, second by second Rye worked through the pain 

and let go of the breath he withheld once the pain subsided. "Well Vein, my name is Rye. I do need help,

 I ain't afraid of admitting that but that wolf skull is ominous, a sort of red flag for a supposed healer." 

Rye knew so little about decomposition, the age of the skull was lost to him but it appeared fairly clean and dry.

"What healer carries around a skull of our own kind? Is it some sort of dark joke?" He indignantly asked, 

miffed about the sight of death in front of him. Ryes' slight indifference to death was caving, leaving fear and

annoyance to fill the vacuum.   

Vein watched at the wolf now known as Rye shifted, He watched the wolfs stiffness of his movement, the lift of the shoulder unable to touch the ground, the pained glint in Rye’s eyes.

His nose scented the air carefully, he was attuned to such smells as tainted blood or infections. However Rye’s next words distracted him and his deep rich laughter filled the air around them. “You are the first to ever ask about dear ole dad” Vein’s paw tapped the nose of the skull and he chuckled again “He died of his own stupidity. But not before taking most of my family with him beyond the shores, in the most horrendous way possible.” He frowned softly sobering slightly “My mother and grandmother among them.”

Vein stood and moved to Rye’s side running his nose through the pelt on Rye’s front left shoulder not quite touching the wound but certainly moving the tattered pelt around, He lifted his head and shook his head pressing his lips together, his mind already whirling making a treatment plan. These were not herbs he wanted to use a lot of but to save this ones life he’d have to. It was hard to find activated charcoal in the wilds, he had been blessed to watch a forest fire and survive. His once plentiful stores of the charcoal was now closer to dregs.

He sighed softly “You don’t have long if I don’t tend to you, infection has taken root, So I’ll tell you the long tale of that skull between poultices, you’ll need a poultice of charcoal and plantain leaves to draw out infection, which I’ll have to change overnight then I’ll need to make a comfrey poultice, once the infection is out to promote fast healing to prevent any more infection from setting in. It’s a fine line though if I don’t get all the infection out before switching to comfrey your body could make a painful abscess.”

Vein turned around scented the area he was looking for the scent of rocks below the snow, he soon found something, though he was not sure what, about 5 feet away, without further preamble he began to dig, flinging snow away from them. He was looking for bare ground or rocks to move his herbs around, placing the dried herbs on the snow would ruin them and he needed a flat surface to create poultices on.

He moved carefully not wasting a single action, not flinging his legs to far back not throwing snow to hard, he was delicate and yet deliberate. He created a patch in the snow and as he dug and cleared; by chance he found a flat rock, He uncovered the whole of it from the snow almost tenderly.

The white brute moved as if Rye was not there, so lost in his task, he retrieved his skulls and placed them on the rock and transferred herbs from one to the other setting a few broadly lance-shaped to egg-shaped leaves, that contained five to seven prominent parallel string like veins from the base, aside.
Those were Plantain leaves, common enough plant he just wished he had more, since they were so common he didn’t grab much of them for his portable caches.

He continued to transfer many different herbs having no choice to put of of the overflow onto the rock itself, until the wolf skull was almost empty, in the base of the skull was a black powder, he tipped just a bit of the powder on the rock and mixed it with just a tiny bit of snow until he made almost a paste.

Vein then took a leaf and crushed it under paw while rolling it until the natural juices of the leaf were flowing but it kept it’s leaf shape this was what he was going to use to hold the charcoal paste where it needed to be, then he carefully covered the leaf with the paste. However he left it there and took up a thick branch he had found while digging and carried it back to Rye

“I’m going to need to pluck some of your pelt from the wound and clean it, it will hurt please don’t bite me.”  He Set the branch in front of Rye

“Bite this if you need too” He looked at him pointedly waiting for Rye to pick up the branch before he did anymore tending to the wound.

Sorry for the lack of response, life and all. This week I'll also be going on a Ski trip, so I may take an extra few days before another response but I'm hoping I can get a response in between nursing my future newbie snowboarding battle scars lol

The backstory Vein gave was, to say the least, unexpected. To Rye it did not seem like a tall tail, it was a rather specific and dulled the male down in the end. There were questions that arose but it was not his place to ask, pain from his tender wound dragged his attention away anyhow. A cold nose sifted through his fur, presumably gathering all the information it could on the status and condition of the wound. Rye had not bothered to remove the matted, dirt and blood infused fur thanks to the smarting pain that came with any sort of touch. As the medic moved the fur, tiny pin pricks dotted his skin in quick succession and left Rye holding his breath; releasing it once the medic was finished. 

He wasn't too surprised to hear he had an infection, the way his wound burned throughout the night was a dead give away. The rest of medical jargon was completely lost to him, which was fine, if he understood it all he'd be having serious doubts about his temporary personal medic. All he wanted was the pain and swelling to reduce and never return, the past few weeks for the male were hell on earth. Losing weight, dehydration and nearly starving to death was torture, even if the male had past experiences with it. Rye was confident a few years have been taken off his lifespan but he was also granted to live the remaining years he may have. Give and take, life and death; a cycle that was dutifully kept in check by nature. A myriad of questions pelted Ryes' brain but he didn't want to be up all night, so he kept his mouth shut and let Vein do what he needed. 

.

While the white one got lost in his tasks, Rye simply laid on his good shoulder, propping himself up by his elbow and watched the medic pace back and forth, lost in their own world. For a minute Rye was convinced he was forgotten about until Vein dropped a stick in front of him before explaining the need for it. With a great sigh, Rye lifted himself up from the ground and prepared himself for the agony that was soon to consume him. "I've eaten enough bark to choke a bear, I won't bite you but do tell your story, it will give me something to focus on while you work. If you need to move me a certain way tell me, or just move me the way you need." Rye dragged the branch closer to him just in case but the smell of the bark and the though of the texture already made him queasy. Too many bark painkillers ingested left him a tad resentful of the trees and their extremities. 

No Worries I’m in no rush, in my next post are you ok with me power playing a bit more and changing bandages twice (Especially if Rye tries to sleep) and then again to give him the bandage that focuses on wound closing

Vein wasn’t one to make a patient wait and he set to work tugging hair from the edge of the wound and carefully removing any scab, it caused the wound to bleed quickly running down Rye’s chest and into the snow. As he cleaned the area he spoke “Our pack was in the north far from here we were all white wolves, better to blend into the snow. But that did not save us from the two legs, some how those things took offence to our being alive…”
Vein paused then inspecting his handy work deciding he needed to work the scabbing more cleaning the edges of the wound with his tongue and very very lightly the tiny incisors in the front of his maw. He worked expertly doing his best not to inflect more pain, but some was unavoidable. If Rye could not help it and struck out at him the brute would act unaffected and continue his work. He had been bitten while he worked before and his was not new to him since he was very thorough in his ministrations

Hopefully it wouldn’t come to that for as soon and he could he returned to his painful past attempting to distract the wounded wolf with his own emotional wounds “My father, The Alpha decided we were not to leave, we were there first and we had rights. The two-legs don’t care for nature and didn’t care that they crossed our borders again and again. No matter how often we marked them. Slowly they killed our members one by one,”

“and not even honourably.” Vein growled out clenching his teeth, He moved to get some of the poulticed leaves and began to smooth them over Rye’s wound, covering it in the charcoal that would begin the process of drawing out the infection. With a low angry voice he continued “they could attack from afar or when they were no where nearby, they left nasty things that could claim our lives when they were not there to hunt, many died without the honor of being looking their killer in the face.”

Vein closed his eyes as memories surfaced, memories of infected wounds worse then Rye’s even, wounds that still had metal buried in them and nothing he could do would help those wounds heal no matter how good he got at healing. Vein set and few more leaves aside for the next poultice change and then lay next to Rye’s side. “Try to rest now I will keep you as warm as I can, and I will change your bandage in a few hours” Vein's extra large bulk giving off quite a bit of heat,.He sighed and continued his reiteration of his life, though jumping forward past the most painful parts, these were wounds he could never heal

His voice was deep rhythmic and almost detached “It was an unwinable war the the Alpha made us fight to the very last of us. All the other’s had fallen to the two-legs and their trickery. It was just me and the alpha left. One night the alpha got his head caught in a large loop of wire as we hunted a rabbit. The darn thing hopped through the wire, I tried to warn him, but I was to late the wire pulled taught and no matter what we did the wire pulled tighter and tighter. He lost his war that night, and the two legs came to collect their reward, they left his head since they too could not free it easily. Perhaps they thought leaving it there would deter any other wolves. Little did they know it was just me left then. So when they left I took the only thing of my pack left to me…. His head… since he had not served his pack in life, he’d serve his pack or what was left of his pack, in death. And that is why I keep him, to remind myself not to loose sight of the bigger picture and to give in when the gods are not in your favor.” Vein rested his head on his paws then and fell silent, he did not sleep but his breathing evened out and his body relaxed albeit forcibly.

Yeah go for it, anything ya need

 


Pain clawed into his shoulder, digging into his muscles and making itself at home. To say Rye stifled his pain with a series of whines and muted growls would be a lie, the truth of the matter was he nipped at Vein on multiple occasions. Sloppy, blind bites that never managed to connect with the white males skin. His paws clawed the snow until frozen dirt was thawed and cultivated, if only wolves were vegetarians Rye would be a protégé. Apologies for his bites were poorly thrown together, hasty nothings that could easily be mistaken as condescending remarks. However they were the opposite, he was sincere with each one but was too drunk on the pain to sound genuine. The introduction to Veins story was lost to Rye, drowned out by deafening white noise of torment but once the pain simmered down to manageable, his story came into full focus.
.
Rye listened quietly, intrigued by the 'Two legs' Vein mentioned, he had never heard nor seen such creatures. Vivid imaginations of furry, wolf legged bipeds crossed his mind, their height as tall as the tree tops with fangs as sharp as winter ice. A harrowing imagination, it left Rye with a worrisome knot in his belly in fear of meeting such ferocious creatures. It was something straight out of a nightmare, only the nightmare was all too real gauging by Veins' visible pain retelling his story.

.

"I see." Rye began, quietly contemplating his next words, "These two legs you speak of are unfamiliar to me, I ain't ever seen them around here. I can't speak for all of these lands but in these parts I have seen none. I'm sorry you lost more than just your pack, I can see this still bothers you greatly. I hope you can find true peace." It was blunt, normally Rye would sugar coat and be gentler but after everything he endured there was no room for pleasantries. Sleep was beginning to consume him, leaving Rye muttering out sluggish replies to Vein, if anything was spoken at all. 

Vein's body did not even jerk under the bite and nips, He bore them as par for the course. He had treated much worse and been bitten much harder, at least this one held back some. He didn’t bother responding to Rye’s whines or hurried apology’s, he allowed the wolf to sleep. Vein himself only dozed lightly keeping track of time a few hours passed and once he was sure the wolf of deep asleep he moved with light grace and ease, especially for a wolf of his size.

Very carefully he refreshed the poultice, then deftly and lightly changed it out, he scented the old poultice and could tell there was infection there. Vein rested again and in a few hours and repeated the process the smell of infection left on the older leaf was less, he pressed his tongue gently to the place where the ear met Rye’s skull for a moment checking his temperature which was slightly cool, he didn’t like that Rye’s body was working hard to fight infection. Vein lay next to Rye just close enough to  offer his body heat. As more hours past he again changed the poultice and then left briefly returning with a rabbit that he lay close by Rye, he changed the poultice with the last charcoal poultice he had left happy to note this one barely smelled of infection.

Vein prepped one more poultice of charcoal and plantain leaves and then set about prepping for  the comfrey poultice which was a far simpler then the charcoal one. He pulled Comfrey leaves from his portable caches and boring them other to Rye. Anytime the wolf was  close to waking he would speak about anything, about the sun and sky, rain and weather about the gods whims and desires, his voice was a warm rhythmic chanting voice meant to soothe the wolf back to sleep.

He changed the charcoal poultice once last time, and prepped the rabbit for the other to eat when Rye would wake next. A full day had past and likely a bit more, Vein had eaten one rabbit before bringing the other back for Rye but he was dangerous close to eating the second one.

More hours past and he pulled the last poultice free from Rye and was pleased with the result. The wound was read and angry but the scent was clean and free from infection. He picked up and carefully chewed the comfrey leaves being careful not to swallow as taking comfrey by mouth was hard on the liver. He carefully spread the chewed leaves over the wounds coating them thoroughly the comfrey would soothe the rest of the pain and encourage the body to heal Vein was not going to the needed much longer.

“How do you feel?” He inquired as he watched the wolf stir, this time not attempting to soothe him back to rest

Days blended together leaving no noticeable traces of their
existence, at least nothing for Rye to grasp on to. Rarely did
he wake for Vein, even during the poultice changings. A few
times did he manage words or perhaps grumbles of nothing as
the haze of exhaustion battled to keep him under. The weeks of
fighting the infection sapped so much out of him, death was at 
the border waiting for its opportunity to claim the males spirit.
Death would have to return another day. When the thick tar of
exhaustion began receding Rye opened his eyes to bright, 
blinding lights seemingly coming from every direction. At first
Rye kept his eyes sealed and hidden from the light but a voice
encouraged him to fight to open them. One painful step at a 
time the male adjusted to the days light. 
.
Once he adjusted the spoken words began to register and
he took his time questioning it himself. Waking up after
days of near constant sleep was going to leave someone 
a little misshapen and groggy. Rye tried to mush down his
new hairdo but it failed, who knew sleeping in relatively
the same position for extended periods of time could do
that. "Disoriented but better, my shoulder has lost weight."
He finally answered. "And mass, no hair but I'm not dead.
I will take hair loss over death. Hell of a steal." He laughed.
Recovery wasn't complete but a few extra days of rest and
relaxation would do him good.
.
"I owe you but I have no means of repaying you back, I have
no pack and no stashes of food. All I can offer is my help with 
any task you need, or if you trust me. I can return in a month to
bring gifts, whatever they may be. Alternatively you can call
upon a favor either now or sometime in the future. I owe you 
my life. If not for you I would not have made it much longer."
Debts were not something he was taught to ditch, especially 
life debts. 
  

Vein nodded his approval “I could not have said it better,  The hair will grow back as will your muscles. If you are passing by the hot springs a good a soak will do you wonders”

Vein nudged the prepped Rabbit “Eat the rabbit your body needs nourishment to continue to heal and in two days what ever Comfrey has not fallen away carefully remove, don’t swallow it if you can help it”

Vein looked thoughtful for a moment more “I’ll take the favor, I don’t know when I’ll call on you but I shall.” Vein knew he’d be able to find someone to track Rye down and find him even if he were to lazy to do so. He wondered absently just how far he could take his favour but decided that he’d find that out if and when he’d call on it. He grabbed up his portable cache offered a nod and padded off without another thought.

Archiving!

Without another word spoken from the darker male, he watched as
Vein trotted off into the distance. When the favor would be called
upon, was a mystery that may never be solved but Rye was confident,
he would be summoned. Wonderment awaited his future.