Bearclaw Valley I know my love can be the killing kind

Making a few assumptions about location and treatment for the sake of making a new thread. @Evien Since the assumptions mostly concerns your character, if any of it isn't cool, please lmk and I'll change it! All welcome!

Aventus awoke.

His eyes stirred behind his eyelids in a telling fashion, but he didn’t open them for a while. It took time for him to come back to his body. It started with a shudder in his too-tall ears as the sound of trickling water, dull at first, reached him and began pulling him to the surface. As the sound cleared and grew sharper, he began to notice other things.

The earthy smells of rock and moss. The bracing chill of the stone beneath him. The thrumming pain that embraced his torso with every breath he drew – that part was the worst. It tugged him abruptly from his reverie back to the real world. His eyes fluttered open the moment a particularly deep inhale resulted in stabbing agony along his flank.

He was in some sort of dark cave. The air within was humid, but the ground seemed dry. Aventus’ small torso was bound up in some kind of stiff makeshift wrap comprised of who knows what. The whole thing was quite stiff. He grimaced and made to stand, only to whine when his ribcage protested.

Evien was almost never far away from the tiniest patient he'd ever treated. He'd taken to sleeping in the main portion of the den rather than his own burrow, and had poppy seeds at the ready if the boy woke up in pain. The wrap around his rib cage was simple, but Evien deemed it to be fairly effective in keeping the boy's ribs stable.

The medic had been asleep, lightly, a few meters away when Aventus whined. His ears perked and eyes opened slowly, and then all at once he was awake when he saw the pup had roused from unconsciousness. The healer got to his feet and headed over, crouching down beside the smaller wolf.

"You're okay," he soothed with a small smile, mismatched gaze soft but appraising as he looked the pup over. "Try not to move too much right now, okay? You're a little hurt, but we're making sure you're gonna be okay," he assured, tipping his head to the side. "Are you thirsty?"

Little points of bright light popped in his vision. Aventus knew the screams of agony and the signs of it. He’d seen it before in the eyes of the trespasser that Merrick murdered. But he’d never experienced it himself until now.

Before he could contemplate it further, movement in the shadows drew his attention. The hair on the back of his neck stood up, then smoothed back when Evien spoke. They weren’t formally acquainted, but the boy knew this one from afar, and from his efforts to speak with the white demon woman. He wondered, absurdly, if the chocolate healer approved of his decision.

A hitch in Evien’s step drew Aventus’ attention to a hind leg that the man held differently. You’re okay. He only glanced away from that weaker leg when Evien crouched, obscuring it from view. Instead, he got a good look at the man’s green eyes. One was foggy and seemed highlighted by the cream outline below. He wondered if Merrick had made it that way in his own image or if it was mere coincidence.

Are you thirsty? Evien asked. Aventus touched his lips experimentally with the tip of his tongue, then bobbed his head. He wasn’t sure how long he’d been down in the deep, but his throat felt like sandpaper, now that he thought of it.

Evien watched the boy's expression and smiled a bit when he nodded his head. The healer turned then and grabbed a clump of dry moss, dipping it into the spring in the middle of the room until it was saturated. He'd bring it over to the pup and sit it in front of his nose, so he didn't have to stretch too far. 

"You can drink from that," he explained, scanning over the plaster he'd put across the tiny, broken ribs. He wanted to check it again, but he knew he shouldn't mess with it. The ribs would heal on their own, with that added stability. It was just a matter of time. 

Merrick and Astara would be happy to know their son was not on the verge of death anymore. Being awake was an excellent sign. 

A soft sigh pulled from the chocolate wolf's nose and he settled down in front of the kid once more. "That was brave of you, at the border," he told him, ears angled forward. "But you're still too small to fight like that, okay? You could have been hurt worse." Surely the pup had learned his lesson, the hard way. "She shouldn't have done that to you."

His silver eyes tracked Evien as he moved about the den. He observed the way the healer wadded up the moss and placed it in the water, how it grew heavy as he soaked the liquid up. Evien’s instructions that he drink the water from the moss was met with a somewhat puzzled expression. He was a bright kid in the ways that counted, but his parents weren’t exactly healers. This was his first experience.

So, like the dumb little kid he was, Aventus snapped the whole wad of moss up into his mouth and choked the whole thing down like food, probably much to Evien’s dismay.

It was disgusting. He licked his lips obsessively afterward, doing his best to rid himself of the taste while Evien spoke (and probably cursed Aventus for his stupidity). Aventus had learned his lesson when it came to picking on wolves larger than him, but maybe not in the way Evien meant. He was determined now to learn to fight wolves like Nyra so that the next time he saw her, he could remove her head from her shoulders and kick it about like a soccer ball. He wouldn’t even respect her enough to fashion it on a makeshift spike. A fitting end for her.

She didn’t bow to mother, said Aventus, scowling. She has to pay. Maybe he hadn’t been the one to make her pay, but in the end, his attack had made her show her true colours to Skoll, Toad, and Evien. As for the reason… well, truthfully, he just didn’t know how significant the alliance was. To him, she was just a disrespectful bitch on their turf, and he knew her words didn’t match her intentions. What more reason did one need?

Ah, eating the moss... that was definitely a new one. The healer cleared his throat to conceal a laugh and shook his head. "You weren't supposed to eat that," he began, amused and a bit concerned. Moss wouldn't hurt him, but it probably hadn't tasted good. "Moss soaks up water, so you just... lick it to get it out. But I guess eating it works, too." 

She didn't bow to mother. Evien arched a brow and shifted to get more comfortable on the spot he was laying. "Well, she has to pay," he agreed, offering the child a small smile. "But she has to pay for hurting you. Your mother can make her bow to her if she really wants to," the medic assured.

Ears angled toward the boy and he tipped his head to the side. "How does your chest feel?" he asked then, needing to know if the boy required any painkillers. "Are you hurting at all?"

Ah, so that was how the moss worked. Made sense now why Evien told him to drink it, not eat it. Oh well. Aventus felt a little dumb for assuming it was to be taken like food, but he didn’t let it get him too down. At least Evien was laughing about it, not chiding him like a baby, so it couldn’t be that bad.

Evien went on, and Aventus knew he was right. Astara could make anyone bow to her if she wanted to. It begged the question of why she wasn’t more forceful about it. He couldn’t exactly ask her, but thinking about it did bring to mind something from the meeting with the Saints. He almost asked Evien, but held it on the tip of his tongue when the cleric asked how he felt.

Hurts, he agreed, shifting his body a little and wincing when pain lanced his side. S’okay if I stay still. Which was doable right now because he’d only just woken up and he had the chocolate healer to talk to. So he went back to his question, from something he’d overheard Evien say when the two packs met. Truthfully, he had a few questions for Evien, but he started with that. Mother’s name is… Leila?

Well... as long as he stayed still. It was probably best to avoid giving him herbs for pain, as they would just make him sleepy again, and it was important for him to be awake and talking. His mental health was just as important as his physical, and it was Evien's job to watch out for both. 

"Yeah, it's gonna hurt for a while. You tell me when you think you need something to make it feel better," he urged the boy, folding one forepaw over the other and resting his chin down on them. 

The medic paused at the question, recalling the trespasser and the name she'd called the black wolf. Astara. That was her name, wasn't it? How many other black-furred, purple-eyed wolves were there anyway? But still, Evien hadn't talked to her about it. It wasn't his place to share it if she didn't want to. So he smiled at the boy and shrugged his shoulders. "It's the name I call her by," he offered, by way of explanation. "For a while now. She doesn't... well, I've never heard her voice. I felt like she needed a name to be called." To treat her like a person.

Aventus nodded slowly to acknowledge Evien’s instructions. He intended to go as long as possible without asking for anything, not because he knew that it would put him back into the deep, but because he wanted to seem strong like his sire. That would prove difficult; the longer he was awake, the deeper the ache in his side grew.

He listened as Evien explained that Astara didn’t speak, so the name Leila was just something he’d granted her. Well, he knew the first bit. His communication with his mother was largely nonverbal, and even if he did speak, she never replied with words. It made sense that friends of hers would make up names for her. It begged the question of what Merrick called her.

Why do we need allies?‌ he asked next. He didn’t like Donovan or Nyra or their shifty pack, and he didn’t understand why Ursus needed the likes of slimy snakes on their side.

"Well, normally allies would be useful because they can come to help you when you're fighting with another pack, or if you're low on herbs, or just to share information and safety," the healer explained quietly. "Allies should never attack a child from another pack. Or anyone from another pack. The fact that that woman did that to you was unacceptable and will not be tolerated." They would have to deal with that. Evien wouldn't even allow someone in their own pack to harm a child. 

Watching the child, Evien took note of every facial expression and shift in weight. Things to signify discomfort. "How much does it hurt?" he asked outright, wanting honesty from the boy.

Evien had a lot to share. The healer's voice was lovely to listen to, kind of soft and inviting, quite unlike the boy's sire. Aventus listened and chewed on his thoughts and tried not to wince whenever pain rippled across his flank. Allies should never attack a child from another pack. Or anyone from another pack.

Am I in trouble? he asked, gazing at Evien for any hint in the man's demeanour, rather than his words, that he would be punished later. Nyra had taught Aventus a valuable lesson: spoken word was not always honest. Sometimes it was altered to soften the blow. Sometimes, in her case, seemingly kind words oozed with contempt and condescension. She'd deserved it. Her words lie.

Evien's brows knitted together in concern when the child spoke. "Why would you think you were in trouble?" he asked, tilting his head to the side and studying the boy. He didn't think he'd done anything to suggest he might be. "You're not in trouble. I think what she did to you was beyond any punishment you would have received. You were very brave to try to fight her, but it was dangerous, and you shouldn't go into fights you can't win." Not that Evien was the best person to be explaining this, considering he'd done much the same several times already.

A small smile formed on his maw. "If you start fights like that, it makes more work for me. And while I love taking care of all of you, I would also appreciate if you would protect yourself, too. Which includes not attacking wolves that are much bigger than you," the medic offered, eyes soft and tone kept level and calm. "As a favor to me, and to your parents - who were very worried for you - do you think you could be more careful in the future?"

Evien had a lot to say about Aventus' question, but already the exhaustion of the ordeal and of being in pain began to claim his consciousness. He nodded when the healer asked him a question, scarcely hearing it, and felt his chin drift toward the floor. His eyes fluttered closed. He sought to heave his sides in a familiar sigh, but the pain made his breath catch in his throat.

Nevertheless, sleep came for him soon enough, even without medication to aid with it. His shallow breaths became deeper, as deep as his ribs would allow, as he fell into an uneasy slumber.