The Sunspire I don't want to rest in peace

There was honey in this tree, and Maia wanted it.

She stood on her hind legs, forepaws planted on the bark, and wracked her brain at the small hive that buzzed overhead.  The few bees that floated around her currently she ignored; her fur was too thick for them to get easily through most spots, and the ones about her face she could flick lazily away.  It was the bulk of the hive she should worry about.  And the fact that she couldn't climb put a damper on things as well.

But it sounded so good.  She gave a small, distressed whine at the thought of it and huffed.  She deserved a treat, and she was either gonna get it or sit here until she got bored of thinking and left.  Probably the latter.

Wraen had been pretty busy lately, therefore after making sure that Maia was as fit as a fiddle and had settled in well among the ranks, she had returned to her main duties - hunting and scouting. This meant that she was often away from Sunspire for several days at a time and returned to the territories very worn and tired. 

On the other hand - no matter, how exhausted she herself was - seeing her younger sibling was always a pleasure, therefore rather than slinking off to a lovely and welcoming moss bed in the sunlight, she approached Maia and asked: "Talking to the tree fairies?" She stopped next to her and looked up curiously.

Despite Wraen's approach, Maia continued to stand up on her tree, though she did twist her head sideways to smile and listen.  

"Noo, though D'you think they'd help? Because idk how I'm gonna get that thing down here, but I want it."  She bounced a bit on the bark, then dropped down to ask hopefully, "any ideas?"

"May I ask you - why do you want it?" Wraen gave Maia a puzzled look, because it ws not entirely clear, why her sister was so set upon getting the home of the bugs down. What on Earth could she want to do with them?

"You can always try jumping up and hooking your forefeet around the first branch you get to," nevertheless she gave the idea a chance and looked the tree up and down. There was one branch that could be reached and perhaps from there either of them could get to the hive.

Wraen didn't know? Well, ok... she'd found out in a kind of unorthodox way.  But still!  "There's this stuff inside and it's really good," she said, emphasizing with an appreciative roll of her eyes.  "I... well I found one and tried it once.  Recommend.  Very much recommend."  She wagged her tail and looked up.  Too bad this one was so high!

"Just gotta get it away from the bees," she said thoughtfully.  Just a piece of it at least!  Wraen's proposal wasn't a terrible one! Better than anything she'd come up with.  Hmmm.  Maia appraised the lower branches a bit nervously.  She didn't want to make a complete idiot of herself in front of Wraen, but it did seem like a fun thing to try.  "Have you ever done it before?"

"Oh - okay..." Wraen nodded, not having the slightest idea, what Maia had meant, and having doubts of, whether climbing trees and getting stung by the bees, was worth all the effort. However, there was a chance for her to find out that, if she stayed and watched.

"Tree-climbing? Did it once, but the tree was sort of suitable for climbing," she recalled her secret hide-out in the Bramblepoint fondly. "It's simple, when you get the idea of, where each of your paws stand. The rest is all about coordinating yourself. A lot like crawling, really, only vertical," she spoke like an expert, even though she had nowhere near that much of experience to call herself as one.

She made it sound simple.. but maybe then it would have been better if she hadn't done it, because now when Maia slipped up, she'd feel worse.  This was absolutely not her forte.  Her size and awkwardness made things like this hard at the best of times, and a hard few weeks wouldn't make it easier.

But Wraen wouldn't laugh too much if she did mess up, right?  Ok, Maia, you got this.  It's just a jump on a tree, and if you get stung, can't be worse than the first time.  Amping herself up, she nodded.  "Ok!"

With a couple hops, she took a running start and jumped for one of the lower branches near the hive.  She managed to get her paws hooked over it, but her rear legs swung, scrabbling at the bark.  This was not good, not good at all.  She hmmmmed low with concentration as she tried to get enough purchase to lever herself up, but she could feel her forepaws slipping.  The hive was close!! But not quite close enough.

Wraen had not really thought that Maia would jump right to the action and do, what she had intended. With eyes full of disbelief and wonder she followed, how her sibling made a leap and an attempt to scramble up the vertical surface. Since she was a bigger and heavier wolf than Wraen, it did not go as smoothly as planned, and left the bystander to wonder, if there was any way she could help out. 

"Assistance?" she asked, though she did not sound so sure and half-hoped that Maia would decline.

"Uh..." She dithered a bit, trying not to think too much about how ridiculous this probably looked from Wraen's point of view.  She was at the age, however, where such a thing was pretty impossible not to think about.  Oh no.

"I don't think..." and then she slipped, and suddenly she was back where she started, seated on her butt and looking back up at the tree.  "Rats."  She giggled though, dismissive of the failed attempt.  Hey, she tried!  "That answers that question - dad and mom must not have any squirrel in them!"  She hid her self-consciousness with the humor, laughing at herself and the situation with the usual easy humor.

"Not any at all," Wraen joined in, laughing happily with Maia. However, fun was not meant to last long - either because of her sister's attempts to get the hive or simply bad luck, part of the hive detached from it's place of attachment to the branch and fell down to the ground with a quiet "plop".

"Hey... you got the st..." Wraen had leaned towards the fallen piece to have a better look at it and had been about to say that Maia had got her honey after all, when she felt a painful sting on her muzzle, then another followed on her forehead, ears and legs. She yelped and backpedalled from the hive, shaking her head, swatting her muzzle with her forepaws and rubbing her head against the ground.

Somehow, happily, it fell anyway! Or... maybe not happily.  Even as Wraen leapt back with a yelp, Maia felt a few stings land herself, and she froze for a second.

"Run!" She yelled, both at her sister and herself because honestly her legs would not move for a second! Omg. This was such a dumb idea.  But she couldn't let it go to waste, so she did one dumber.  She snatched up the piece on her way to sprint after her sister.

Most of the bees had vacated when the piece fell, thankfully, but the one or two that remained made their thoughts towards her very clear in departing stings to her muzzle and, one very unhappily, the side of her tongue.  She spit it out after that one, stopping to whimper and hunker down, clasping both paws over her muzzle.

Eventually the number of angry bees decreased and with one final sting on her forehead the last of the brave protectors of the hive was dead. Wraen stood up, whimpering and squinting her eyes because of the pain. She looked around for Maia and then went over to see, how she was doing. 

However, just before she had reached her and had had a chance to ask, she stopped suddenly. There was a brief look of surprise and fear in her eyes. Sudden weakness overcame her, everything turned black and she collapsed in a lifeless heap right in front of her sibling.

Maia could feel her muzzle swelling up a bit, and her tongue felt odd, a burning numbness that wasn't awful when the initial fire faded.  The burning wasn't nice, but she could handle it.  She lifted her paws to look at Wraen, just in time to see her sister collapse in front of her.

"Wraen? WRAEN!?"  The second came out more like a scream, and she went full on panic mode.  She wasn't dead right? No way.  She couldn't be.  Whining, she nosed her for any sign of life, guilt and self-deprecation welling up in her.  Nice job Maia, great idea.  Now everyone is gonna be really glad your here, your such a great sister.  She wanted to cry and did so, begging her sister "please be ok.  C'mon Wraen, please."

On getting no response, Maia half-screamed and half howled for anyone likely within this half of Teekon to hear, "HELP! PLEASE, SOMEONE!" before collapsing in a sobbing mess next to her sister.  She'd repeat it as long as it took for someone to answer.

Yeah alright, terance wasn’t any kind of medic. But he was bigger than Maia and had carried wraen places numerous times. He was nearby when he heard the call, and though he typically avoided wraen lately he sensed this was -not- something he could just let slide. So terance Beelined it straight to his sisters, feet pounding against the sun spires terrain. 

When he arrived he was mortified— was he too late? What the fuck— there was no blood, no intruders, no— wait, was that a beehive? Why... no time for that. ”Maia, calm down, what happened??” he asked, feeling his heart racing, trying to keep himself from becoming frantic.

He moved to look at wraen, sniffing her. Did he touch her? What happened?? Desperately, terance made a call for @Seabreeze and @Hyacinth.

Oh god, Terance.  Maia didn't calm down much when her brother showed up; honestly she got even more keyed up.  Her words were rushed and panicky and sobbing anyway, but add to that her swelling tongue and she was probably mostly unintelligible.

"There was a hive, and I wanted to get it to get whatth inthide, an Wraen came an thaid maybe we thould climb, an I tried, but they thtung uth an Wraen pathed out an I'm tho thorry."  She didn't slow down and her tone didn't lower any as she continued to panic, having more trouble catching her breath.  Now Terance would probably hate her too... she'd showed up and now Wraen was gone.  It would have been better if she hadn't come.

This panic settled like a weight in her chest as she stared at Terance, and without another word she did something that would haunt her soon after... she took off, running anywhere that wasn't right there, right now.

Wraen's face was swollen and skin burned. 
Her heart fluttered like a bird in her chest, doing all it could, but not enough to keep the blood flow going. 
Quick, shallow breaths followed one after the other, but unless someone paid a close attention, the movements of her ribs were hardly visible. At one point her breathing stopped and was followed by violent spasms and coughing spells - her lungs were aflame, she was thirsty for air and could not get enough of it. 
There was pain in her abdomen as if someone had struck a sharp dagger there and was twisting it around.
She had wetted herself.

And with all this happening, she was deeply unconscious, unaware that at this very moment her life was on knife's edge. Of all the things that she had imagined killing her a sting of a bee had not been among them.

Maia's summoning had caused a sour sensation to stir within Rannoch's stomach; the seriousness in her voice had indicated that something was amiss. When Terance added his request — and beseeched Sunspire's medics—, Rannoch knew that his attendance was needed. He ran as if his own life depended on it. 

As Rannoch pulled up alongside Terance,  Maia recalled what had transpired, and soon enough, his gaze found Wraen's lifeless body— his breath hitched suddenly, and he returned his attention toward Maia as she suddenly fled. Although Rannoch wanted to chase after her, he knew that he couldn't leave Terance alone, and he would have to catch up to her at another point. 

Left with just Terance and Wraen, Rannoch observed the newly-appointed Beta with a frown. He felt useless. "It's going to be alright," Rannoch murmured, almost as though he was also convincing himself that his words were true. Wraen's body then convulsed unnaturally, and a sense of newfound trepidation washed over the Alpha.  He turned towards Terance suddenly, his voice firm despite his apparent panic. "Where are they?" he asked rhetorically; Rannoch knew that he and Terance were not knowledgeable enough to assist Wraen. They desperately needed help. With a note of seriousness sounding in his song, Rannoch tipped back his head and howled.

This is an emergency. Please help us, the message communicated.

Seabreeze was fat, okay?  While she was not as big as perhaps other women were duing their pregnancies, this was the biggest the seasprite had ever been in her entire life.  She'd moved with haste at Terance's call -- it sounded urgent -- but she was sprinting as Rannoch's rang through the air.  

Which really wasn't that fast, because, you know, she's a blimp!  When she came upon the situation she halted, jaw dropping as she smelled Wraen piss herself before waddling over to Wraen.

She was in trouble.  Oh my god.  Hey, Terance, she said, Are you alright to go grab me some mallow from the falls?  Looks like clover.  And if you see any, some periwinkle, too. Maybe if he didn't see what was going on, it'd be better for him.

She turned to Rannoch next, We need to check her over for stingers, see if there are any more.  We need to remove them, if they're still attached.

If you don't feel comfortable leaving, switch jobs, but both of them need to get done and I'm too fat to do it.

"i can do it," terance said without a second question. did he want to leave? no, of course not, but he'd do anything she asked-- especially for wraen. he couldn't imagine what he'd do if she died, and especially now... on their current terms? he'd lose his mind with grief and regret. he took off, away from the whole scene, off to the falls to find the herb.

and he did, it did look like clover... of course he wasn't positive it wasn't clover, but maybe? he just grabbed a bunch of it, praying it was what they needed. and when he returned-- panting-- terance stepped aside, ears flattened, hoping that seabreeze could help, and that he hadn't taken too long.

idk how the time frame of this works, feel free to have some time past in ur own post or just play like terance hadn't arrived yet and whenever SB posts next or... something... idk how to time

Like Terance, Rannoch was quick to oblige to Seabreeze's direction. Despite the repulsive smell of urine, which became almost unbearable once he was crouched beside Wraen, Rannoch went to work without complaint. He would not pussy-foot around this responsibility. 

With his nose just hovering above Wraen's coat, Rannoch sought any remaining stingers. He thoroughly examined her nearly-still body and removed each needle that remained. When he was confident that he had removed them all, Terance had returned with the clover in tow. Rannoch stood, and turned to his friends with a heavy-set pout. "It doesn't seem like she's breathing much," he mentioned as he moved out of the way so that Seabreeze could have room to work. 

Rannoch placed himself at Terance's side and pressed his shoulder against his friend's; Rannoch couldn't imagine what was going through his mind. 

I tried to time?!

She worked the best she could given the circumstances.  The periwinkle would've come in handy, but she doubted Terance would've known how to identify it.  If Olive hadn't just given birth he would've sent him to pester her, but she thought that Wraen wouldn't die, at least.

Er, she hoped.  If it got much worse, she'd have no choice.  I know.  She applied the mallow to help the poison release and hoped for the best.  We will have to monitor her.  I will stay with her, keep close watch.