The Sentinels I've got a lovely bunch of stroconuts

YO @Lasher! Your side bitch is here. Please let @Deirdre post first. This takes place a lil' while after this thread. :)

Peregrine was a weak, hungry, aching mess by the time he and Deidre reached their distant destination. He had recovered more of his faculties en route, yet he still felt like someone coming off a three-day bender that involved both alcohol and psychedelic drugs. He could speak in short sentences, give or take, his speech only slightly slurred now, but his head felt like it was floating about ten feet above his body at any given moment. And it hurt, bad. Sometimes his vision blurred or blacked out entirely. Fortunately, weariness took the edge off his alarm over the entire situation. Peregrine was simply too exhausted to worry much about the fact he might be dying.

"Deirdre," he breathed as they approached the woods where her family must live. He could smell Lasher everywhere. "Fuck." Well, that wasn't right. But he didn't know what he'd intended to say in the first place. He was so damn tired. If not for the thought of Fox and the kids waiting for him back home, he might have just sunk to the ground right where he stood, rolled over and died like that Cypher chick. "Weaksauce," he added nonsensically, blinking hard and drawing in a deep breath of that tantalizing Taltos smell.

together they had walked a long way. she, too, was exhausted by the time they had arrived home; the second of his words was one she had, amazingly, not heard yet thus far in her life, and the third brought a bemused smile to her lips at the whimsical sound of it. the second word had, on the contrary, sounded harsh--she related it automatically to pain.

she moved with him deeper into donnelaith, and bid him to stop near a particularly old tree. sit and rest here, she instructed gently, while she herself tipped up her head and called for @Lasher, if he was well enough now, and also @Eilidh and @Lucani, who she knew were wise to medicinal things. in her call she revealed to them she had brought with her a guest who knew lasher, for her fathers own benefit. with her, she had brought the coconut, thinking that it would be helpful in carrying things such as water and when the herbs returned, salves. for now she would get the stranger whose name she did not yet know some water.

again she returned to him promptly, water in tow. she placed it before him. i have called my sister, eilidh, and a wolf named lucani--they might know what is the matter, and when you will recover by. for the moment, he had shade--donnelaith's branches knit themselves into a canopy in this area that offered it, even without its leaves.

Ohello. :)

While she looked older than ever, Lucani was also in many ways rejuvenated — for she had been returned to her former worth, no longer a shaking piece of dead meat with fishscales in her teeth but a confident and hard-eyed contributor to the pack. She hunted, she patrolled, she scouted for remnants or beginnings of medical herbs. And now, nosing for frogspawn by the river, the huge twiggy female was called upon by a comrade.

She stood alert for a brisk second before taking to a softly galloping pace. And as she reached an ancient tree she had only seen once before, Lucani looked right into the face of Osprey... for the strangest moment. And then she knew this was not Osprey, but a big ebony male: very dissimilar to her ashen friend. She looked to Deirdre, the good soul. The coconut was a curious touch. Hello Deirdre — what happened? she asked calmly. Without some obvious trail of blood, asking the question was the fastest route to the answer.

!!

lasher had not expected to take the scent of his lover so close to his borders. deirdre worried him, for she had gone off to wander. she was young, but precocious -- he worried all the same, and patrolled daily to watch for her return. blue willow had not returned, which caused the druid no small amount of pain -- he blamed himself for his mate's disappearance.

perhaps he had not shown himself to be strong -- but lasher was distracted from these dismal thoughts by the smell that clung to peregrine's coat. it was not yet time for their meeting. why had he come? the man lengthened his stride and soon came upon a trio of wolves: worried deirdre, lucani, seemingly more hale than she had been for a time, and the panther himself, looking decidedly sickly.

"what has happened!" he exclaimed, sweeping close to offer his shoulder as a support to the redhawk wolf. the odd-looking thing upon the ground smelled of water; he glanced almost helplessly to deirdre, then lucani, questioning in his gaze.

They were soon joined by a stranger, a tall and leggy she-wolf with pale fur and eyes. Her voice came out deeper than Peregrine expected. His lips parted to answer her that he didn't actually know when he realized she had not spoken to him. Nor did he really know the answer. She had addressed Deirdre, who perhaps knew more. His eyes slithered sideways to his young caretaker, a pained but grateful smile twitching the corners of his lips upward. She hadn't hesitated in calling either her father or the pack's medics. He wondered if this meant she had fully recovered from her earlier trepidation around Lasher. In his current mental state, Peregrine couldn't recall his friend's latest news on that front.

Speaking of which, the man himself appeared shortly thereafter, immediately bracing himself against the ailing Peregrine. The black wolf relaxed so suddenly and completely that all his weight pressed down on the proffered shoulder. "Shit sucks," he breathed into Lasher's ear as if it were some sweet nothing. This caused an inexplicable giggle to burst from his lips before he groaned and slid further forward, slumping at Lasher's feet and closing his eyes as starbursts of pain exploded in his head.

@Eilidh you're still more than welcome to join <3!!!! in fact ID LOVE FOR U TO

donnelaith was large, but lucani and lasher were both near; her eyes fell firstly to the recovered woman, who was handsome, she noted--the attractiveness stilled her tongue for a moment before her father entered the scene, a saving grace for her momentary lapse. deirdre was entering her teenage years of noticing such things and mulling over them, contemplating the meaning, but the most important matter at hand was prioritized, and she was glad she had said nothing else she would need to repeat herself thrice over. for surely eilidh would come, though it was likely she was deeper within the forest.

a dream led me to a place where i found this man, laying beneath a bare tree. when he awoke, he reminded me of renoir-- she paused a moment, to explain this, renoir had hit his head, and could not move very well. this man... i did not see it happen, but he also cannot move very well. he is speaking better, and even moving a bit better, but at first, could hardly say a word, or drink! he seems to be improving... but i worried there might be some greater issue, and also that in his state he would not get home safely. she quieted, her gaze looking to lucani and next to her father. she realized she did not yet know the mans name, and perhaps her father--or the man himself--could fill in that blank for her.

Oop I can't resist replying again, Eilidh pls don't let that put you off! :)

No sooner had she spoken the words than she turned swiftly, coarse fur barely moving as she did so, to see Lasher. She had not seen him since the fish... and Lucani regretted her indignities, so avoided his gaze for more reason than one. Still she bowed her head low to the Alpha she admired unconditionally, then blinked sideways to listen quietly to his fair daughter. Deirdre eloquently connected one situation to another, and through this came to a sound conclusion. Lucani lifted her head now to regard the strange dark male, whose behaviour was surely no fault of his own.

Her temptation was to laud Deirdre for her smart thinking and good decision, but this was the job of a father and Alpha, so the grey female simply nodded. Then she turned her analytical eyes to the hurt male and stepped a bit closer to him. It sounds like he's concussed, she said to the others, then added to the patient: I'm going to take a look at you. She did so, albeit with a bit of caution lest Lasher bid otherwise, searching for bumps on his head. Has he been sick? she asked her young friend.

Eilidh arrived late; it seemed a bad habit of hers lately. But she followed the voices and found yet another scene that nearly made her heart stop, though it settled once she realized the large black wolf wasn't hurting anyone. Rather, he seemed to be the one who was hurt, and she arrived just in time to witness the beginnings of Lucani's ministrations. Eilidh swept to her side and watched, taking in the movements she made and the questions she asked, while she remained silent. She might have earned her caretaker trade, but she was far from a seasoned medic.

the pressure of peregrine's body against lasher comforted some unknown place within his heart, and he settled himself along the dark wolf as he slumped to the ground. ears cupped to listen to his daughter; for a moment he drifted away to behold how much she had grown! and how very like a small woman she had become. a pang of grief gripped the man for a moment and then he nodded to lucani, and smiled at eilidh.

"his name is peregrine, and he is an old friend of mine. you did well to bring him here, deirdre -- he might have met a worse fate if he had been left alone." he gathered himself and stepped back alongside his eldest daughter, nudging her shoulder gently to assuage the worry he felt for peregrine.

Wolves surrounded him, talking to one another, and Peregrine dimly observed that he could be killed at any moment and he wouldn't be able to stop them. Fortunately for him, they discussed ways to tend to him rather than ways to dispatch him. He lolled there on the ground, groaning under his breath every minute or so, his cheek eventually coming to rest on one of Lasher's forepaws. He let his eyes stay closed as they conversed, making no effort to keep up with the conversation. He trusted Taltos and so he trusted his wolves, particularly that precocious daughter of his.

"Deirdre helped," Peregrine supplied (thank you, Captain Obvious) before adding, "M'head hurts. Fuck." He then fell quiet again, deciding to remain still and silent unless something was asked of him. There was no escaping the pressure in his head, yet remaining motionless seemed to be his best bet.

concussed. she had a word for it, now, and stored it away to remember forevermore. deirdre quietly observed her father and peregrine, wondering at their friendship and warming to it. lucani asked a question of her, and she shook her head. no, he did not fall sick along the way. mobility was a challenge to him, as was speech, but both improved. concussed--what do we do for this? her head swung toward her father as he named the man. she lowered her head and looked to the jade-eyed being, and felt her fathers eyes upon her as she spoke, we are well met, peregrine, and at her fathers commending of her decision, she felt greatly rewarded and rich from it. for she had, indeed, aided in the saving of peregrine's life, and such a thing brought pleasure to her heart that he would see another day. more than that, she had done well by her father; her heart was warm, and she exuded this feeling as she looked to her father.

she looked to eilidh, who had come to them after all. in looking up to her sister, she believed the eldest mayfair daughter to know all things. these illusions would go away in time, though it would not make her think any less of her. she had similar illusions when it came to her father, and these, too, would come to leave her as the days came and went.

Peregrine... in a flash, Lucani recalled a time before her healing (it felt like a very long time ago):

"He is a handsome fellow and he knows it — can't say if that's for his own benefit. Fiercely loyal, kind-hearted and adventurous spirit. Though now he has changed the life of a bachelor to the bliss of marriage and children. He leads a pack down South — Redhawk Caldera."

Lucani blinked down at Osprey's brother, but kept her composure despite the unexpected turn of events. It was good news that he had not vomited. Greetings, Peregrine, she said to him curiously. My name's Lucani.

She looked up at Lasher and the girls, though her tail and ears were low out of respect for the hallowed family. His brain's been rattled by a hard hit to the skull, but don't worry, she said for Deirdre's benefit, it's not as bad as it sounds, and it's quite common. The best thing for him — for you —, she involved Peregrine in the conversation, is plenty of water, and considerable rest. Though I'm afraid he should be woken up every hour or so, she added to his well-wishers. To make sure he doesn't deteriorate or slip into a coma.

Eilidh listened to the conversation around her, and smiled softly when her sister looked up to her. Eilidh didn't know what to do, but Lucani seemed more experienced with these types of head traumas. So she listened to what the woman had to say, storing away all information she could use later, and learned from the woman before her.  Head injury, keep the patient awake, with plenty of rest and water. That was the most they could do now, anyway, with the famine having driven off all prey. Eilidh nodded and stepped forward then. I'll stay with him, if you need to go elsewhere. Her green gaze turned from Lucani, to Peregrine, and to her father.

despite the severity of the situation, lasher could not help but smile at the elegance of his daughters and the attention of lucani to the patient at hand. donnelaith was blessed indeed to have such faithful and skilled healers; it would thrive for generations to come beneath such dedication, he believed. "is it all right to move him to the medics' den?" he asked, nuzzling peregrine's ears gently and breathing in the man's scent, as if to assure himself that he was close at hand and living still.

"i shall also remain here," he told his younger daughter and the deep-voiced woman, casting a fond look to eilidh.

Despite his prostrate position, he intended to keep up with the conversation. But Peregrine instead found himself swooning, not even roused by Lasher's warm breath in his ear. His eyes fluttered and he groaned, not quite conscious but not quite unconscious either. This spell lasted a moment or two before he became more aware again. He continued to lie still, though his eyelids parted and he found his gaze rolling up to a dainty figure over him (Eilidh).

"You're very pretty," he said inanely (and inappropriately) before sighing and falling quiet and motionless once more.

short post!

deirdre listened to lucani's instruction; now she knew how to aid in the life of one concussed, which she felt was quite important. peregrine was the second wolf with this ailment she had seen... and to learn of healing was always a good, helpful thing. she listened next for the words of lucani, in reference to her fathers question--then, she would depart them all. it seemed he (peregrine) was in the capable hands of her father and sister both.

Lucani did not know Eilidh, but had learned her name and skills early on, and thus she had some pause before taking the lead as a healer. Lucani's stature was low and respectful, and her tone far from undemanding, and when Lasher asked a question she took a beat before replying, in case Eilidh wanted to answer first. Yes, she said, and knew she wouldn't have to add that the moving would have to be careful. Too much motion and Peregrine might be sick.

She would linger to help with the moving and give any further advice, but then, like Deirdre, she would depart and leave Peregrine to the effective care of Lasher and Eilidh.

last for me! please feel free to PP lasher <3

lasher glanced to peregrine when he muttered, but did not take offense. the man was clearly not in the right mind, and after all -- he was correct. eilidh was quite pretty. he lay down beside peregrine and lay his muzzle across the dark, sun-warmed withers; where his daughters and lucani directed, he would go.