Dragoncrest Cliffs untitled folder DWIGHT DWIGHT DWIGHT DWIGHT DWIG

this thread has been moved up to 1/9 per agreement. injuries left intentionally vague but are fairly serious (lots of lacerations and bruises, probably broken ribs) and are now festering. set 1/14

Lilitu had some sense of medicine from time with various healers. Bridget, especially; she remembered going up the mountain with the woman, looking for survivors from the rockslide, and had picked up things here and there.

Moss was one thing she knew. She'd helped the boy in Akashingo when he had hurt his paw.

So when she managed to escape the bear's clutches, she set off bleeding deep into the Tangle, burrowing herself as far within the snarled limbs as she could go. The brute could not reach her here.

For days, she'd scrabbled for moss. Plugged her wounds. Scrabbled, plugged.

The bleeding slowed. The pain did not.

On the fifth day, Lilitu emerged reeking of iron and pus, a fever rippling over her slender frame. She'd grown delirious, having only mouthfuls of snow to quench her thirst and nothing in her stomach. Bits of dark-stained moss still clung to her fur, and fell like autumn leaves as she walked.

By the time she reached the borders of Sapphique, she was seeing things.

The sea. Lightning in her mind. She fell to her knees with a groan, nose pressed into the frozen earth. Snowflakes fell around her crumpled body.

Help, she muttered, with no strength to howl.

This was it. This was what she deserved for leaving her family behind, again.

"dis be a way to cut de kelp when you fin' it," she said to @Etienne. the ruby demonstrated how he could cut the string of the leaves on the sharp edge of a clamshell, propped up between a stone and a hard paw.
lifting her head and letting him try, erzulie's nose wrinkled as the air carried her a fetid aroma. she left off the boy, though he could follow if he wished, and walked carefully along the trail of the dark scent. at the sight of a crumpled figure along the borders, she motioned for her grandson to stay back.
the ruby moved with ginger steps, and then her plume flagged with surprise and confidence. a young woman, festering with gashes.
bear.
"eti. go an' bring de kelp we gat'ered yesterday. de powdered stuff. an' some red strips," the powerful sea-plants that ate the festering from wounds. she checked the girl's breathing, smelled the rot and the infection in all parts of the small body. a clock ticked harshly overhead. 
she summoned @Rhaegal with a quick howl. "we need to get her up an' into de meadow," she decided, for she would need open space to complete her work.
"it might be de same who attacked de boys," erzulie added of the harsh bear-slashes rent in the stranger's flesh. she pulled old moss from sticking wounds, exposing the true breadth of the suppuration underneath.

whoops! shadowposted XD

The bear victims spawned. 

Chacal had caught the scent on the wind and had begun to approach when she heard her Maman call out for Rhaegal. Chacal's heart clenched; she inhaled deeply, searching for any trace of Arric's scent, fearful he might have returned and caused pain. All she could smell was blood, a wolf, and the putrid scent of bear. She hastened her step until she found them.

She cast her gaze into the thick, brooding tangle of brambles. Like her mother, she instinctively wondered if the bear who had attacked the silver-furred woman was the same one who had attacked Quennell and Swordfish. She remembered the sight of bear- rearing, jaws bloodied, claws hooked.

Shardik.

She exhaled through her teeth, fur bristled. The silver woman was not one she recognized, though in this condition, there was a chance perhaps that the swelling from bruises and matting from blood had rendered her into a stranger. "Maman," She breathed softly. Like the boys, the woman was beaten beyond recognition. She would step in to aid as well, under her mother's direction.

Eti paid attention to his granme. FOllowing her steps to cut teh strink of leaves. It was hard and it hurt his paws, but once he got the hang of it, he imagined it wouldn't be so terrible.

Suddenly something wafted their way and his tail lifted up and over his head and he growled low in his throat. Dat smells like de wouns on Qune and Sword.

Eti traveled with his granme, his tail tight against his hocks and his ears pressed to his head. What would they find once they got to the smell of rot?

He raced off to do his Granme's bidding, grasping the kelp that was harsh. The one that could eat infections and the one to sprinkle. He would race back just as quickly mouth full of the items.

tldr; Njord does a drive by

Shardik. Swordfish. Quennell. Arric. Sialuk. Caracal. The drowned woman. This!

There was too much change in too short a span! To many intruders! Too much danger!

Njord’s instincts to protect his wife, family, and the pack backfired like a track engine. He heard the pathetic cry. He heard Erzulie's call. The stench of gore and fear.

Constant vigilance made his mind taught like a bow’s, arrow loaded and ready to be loosed. He was Sapphique’s only father and felt the weight of a heavy burden on his shoulders.

The seaman was prepared to drag her body, kicking and screaming, from their land.

Lucky for Lillitu... Erzulie, Chacal, and Etienne arrived first.

Njord ran with gusto, posture clearly agitated. His neck bowed like a stallion’s, crimson tail lashing behind him. Snarled lips flashed ivory incisors, fury directed pointedly at their patient.

The women worked to get the situation under control.

it might be de same who attacked de boys, he heard Erzulie say.

With a frustrated growl, Njord’s eyes swam around and paced in a small circle, looking for others who might join him, before kicking into a gallop towards the woods where Lilitu had come – ready to meet whatever trouble had followed her.

popping back in before passing out!

Shapes swarmed her, suddenly; she moved to rise, alarmed, and found she could hardly muster a muscle. The shapes morphed into wolves, though, and she relaxed (as much as one could relax in this situation). 

Bear, Lilitu managed. Her words slurred as she added, Nearby. Ou'in'da'meadow. . .

She didn't think anything could hurt more, but quick, sharp bursts of agony accompanied the pack's ministrations, gentle as they may be. She winced and moaned with every bit of the haphazard dressing pulled away, the pain reaching a sudden crescendo—

Her eyes rolled back, and she slumped further to the ground without another sound. The only thing to mark her desperate grasp to life was the rise and fall of her ribcage, slowing as she settled into unconsciousness.

feel free to pp rhaegal as needed! <3

he is summoned and he comes; though his approach upon the borders is swift but weary. he is not sure what to expect and with the tear of his ear and teeth marks on his cheek — shallow in comparison to the forever tear of his ear — he is constantly reminded of the last incident and how much worse off he could be for it.

still, he didn't regret it.

initially, the scene appears to be controlled chaos. the stench of blood is heavy: open wounds.

he is commanded by the ruby — the one he fought alongside — to assist getting the injured girl to the meadow. he draws nearer with a small noise of affirmation; ready to help with her relocation.

pp and little time hop, lmk if not okay!

all of them there, sapphique around her and the downed girl.
"eti, here an' here," she said,  showing him how to sprinkle the ground earth-hued kelp on the worst of the oozing cuts.
"chacal, if you can help me here," wrapping the strong red kelp around wrists and ribcage. not all of them would be covered, and the looser bindings might shift when they moved, but once she was settled, the true work could begin.
her blood ran cold to hear the weakened voice, to know that the monster roamed outside sapphique.
rhaegal stepped forward; erzulie made a mental note to check over the man's wounds when their patient was stabilized. between them, they pulled the girl up.
"fireblood stand," she told their little party, too focused to see that njord had come and gone, only that she sensed his presence no more.
"lie her here," in the wintergrass below the trees that would soon bud back into red maples. "i need seawater, as much of it as can be brought," erzulie began. "i need freshwater, de same amoun'. an' chacal," eyes rising to her daughter, motioning her closer in a whisper, " in seaflower respite, t'ere be a t'ing i also need. look for de shell." she spoke vaguely, for in this place now compromised by emergency, erzulie had tucked a packet of dried purple-kelp beneath a stone and set a tiny dull shell to mark the place, three paces to the left.
inside the leaves, the medicine for pain. for pulling from death. for singing a fever high enough to burn all the black to ash. 
rhaegal moved to the sea. erzulie bent over the girl, looking more closely at the simmering rot in the gashes.

Njord was there before Rhaegal, and Chacal assumed he might step in to help them get the silver woman away from the borders. A soft, pleading warning came from her- that the bear was in the meadow nearby. The tangle, Chacal assumed- an area she knew well. She moved to help her mother as she was asked, wrapping the red kelp around places where she felt it would stay on, even temporarily, but when Njord bolted off into the labyrinth of brambles she hissed through her teeth and looked off into the wilderness. 

Her mind flitted to Meerkat. She knew the woman pined over her son's injuries, and for some reason, she'd worried so much that she might not have children this year, despite being given permission. Had Meerkat had a premonition? Chacal gritted her teeth. No. She wouldn't allow it to happen. Her mother urged them to move the bleeding woman, but Chacal couldn't let Njord jet off into the tangle, not when a bear lingered there. He could anger it and it would still have a trail leading right back to Sapphique. 

"Maman...I 'ave to go.
I will bring him home."

She did not linger any longer. She reached to give her mother's cheek a kiss- her way of making a promise- before she too dashed off into the tangle.

posting once w mireille, who will come along and assume chacal's place <3

she had been sleeping; she was late to the commotion and the downed woman. her eyes took in everything, narrowing as chacal's sleek dark form dashed suddenly off into the trees.
but mireille had not seen her da jet in the direction indicated by the stranger.
she moved to assist the others, and when erzulie whispered to this daughter for the herbs, mireille spun, dashing to grab it and return.
but she thought of her sister. why had she gone?

Etienne tried to listen. He was in a state of cold indifference, but he wasn't indifferent, but he did have to turn off wahtever emotions he had, and keep from sucking in everyon elses. So it was chew herbs, place, chew place, on and on and on. Not sure what else to do until granme told him to do something.

last for me! <3

with the help of the others, erzulie was able to stabilize the bear-torn woman. her own vigil would continue long into the night, over all those injured.
and she would turn her eyes upon the sea in silent communion, unknowing of the events that next arrived.