Phoenix Maplewood zuletzt

here there was no sign of the cat. nor of praimfaya. nor of worripa. nor of wylla, or of phaedra — oh he knew that mother and daughter had left rivenwood for a time, but mahler had not expected to ache so fiercely.
there was notably also no one present to hear him cough, great draughts of air sending shards of pain along his throat. and for a moment, all mahler could consider was his own helplessness.
he pushed himself upright and continued.

Hello :D

 


Eldritch, too, was out and about. 
Though currently she knew nothing of a mountain cat roaming about; the darkling did know she should restock her herbal supply. 
So, out she went, to collect stock for the herbs she was running low on. Not that there were many, at the moment. So far everyone seemed to be well, health-wise. 

Lost in her own zoning out, Eldritch almost missed the coughing that came from some distance into the trees.
Perked ears stood alert atop her vantablack crown, and quickly, she started for the noise, and upon seeing the older male in the trees, El let out a chuff to announce herself, stopping a respectful distance with dandelions in her mouth. 

Setting them down, she swayed her tail with an offer of friendship and spoke. 
"My name is Eldritch. I'm a newer recruit from Duskfire Glacier. I heard you coughing, are you okay?" 
Quick to the point, a show of not meaning any threat -- she just wants to see if she can help him.

hiiii

mahler was not long alone before he was approached. she was a sleek black she-wolf who smelled of duskfire, and introduced herself this way. "mahler, of rivenvood." it was all he could manage for the moment.
"iana treated me," he said after a breath and a rueful half-smile. "it seems the glacier is full of doctors." he straightened. "a cough, left over from — vell. it never vent avay."
it has gotten worse.
but he did not say this.

Eldritch regarded Mahler with a witchdoctor's care, engulfed in his words.

The cough never went away, he says...

"To me, if your cough never went away, it may either be age, or some form of long term chest sickness." The darkling mused, starting to look around the area for potential herbs she could use to help treat his sickness.

"age." mahler chuckled, but it dissolved into another brief fit of coughing. he watched the shadow cast about. "how long have you been practicing medicine?" he asked, interested despite himself.
"do you have any ideas vhat the name of a long-term sickness vould be?"

"My entire life." El responded honestly, shrugging with a soft smile. 
"As for your sickness, I've admittedly only heard of such things, never had to treat it myself, but I call it Sticking Cough, as my mother before me had." The seer explained, padding a few steps closer to try and get a better feel for what was going on inside the Graf. 
Was he wheezing when he breathed, or short of breath? What other symptoms of his illness did he have?

"it seems all the medics do flock to the glacier," mahler commented, but his weakened attempts at small talk tapered off as eldritch came closer to watch over him. he breathed gently for her, and became aware of a small rattling somewhere inside the deep barrel of his chest.
"the sticking cough." mahler smirked. "a fitting name."
"i too have known medicine most of my years, eldritch. i am not sure this can be ended, but if you can but help me vith the coughing, i think that i vill be rather fine."
a pause. "it vould be a fair trade for me to teach you vhat i know of medicine, in return."

Eldritch noted the rattle of his breathing.
It really seemed to be Sticking Cough (Bronchitis or Pneumonia) and as Mahler spoke further, the darkling perked her ears with obvious interest. 

"I haven't treated a cough this bad in some time, but if my memory serves me right, you can treat it best with..." A trail-off for a moment as she racked her brain, "Peppermint and Garlic sound best at the moment. Garlic fights infection, and Peppermint is soothing." She suggested, starting to sniff the immediate area for mint of any variety. She might have to find some elsewhere, if the Maplewood had none. 
Garlic seemed a bit more likely here, now that she thought about it, but they'd find out soon enough.

peppermint.
he did know that one, but had not considered placing it with garlic. both were sharply fragrant, and together might make too nasty a medicine for a patient. but he supposed he was not a patient, after all, and could take such a potion without a lick of honey.
"how long have you lived in the glacier, eldritch?"
she had said his cough was bad.
mahler chose not to seek a further prognosis at this time.

The mixture suggested wasn't intended as a mixture, more so taken seperately, but it was what it was.

To Mahler's inquiry, Eldritch thought with a small furrow of her brows. "A couple months, I think. Time passes in enigmatic ways. Slow or fast, as it wishes." She mused

mahler smiled. "time is a brutal thing. but so lovely, in its passing." the leaves were just now beginning to shift their hues. change would be upon them once more.
and then the snows.
"vintersbane — i have known him many years. ve vonce ruled a mountain together."

El smiles softly at Mahler's agreement with her words.
A reminiscing, it seems now, as the Graf tells some of his past with her Alpha. 
"You once ruled together?" She parroted with intrigue. This seemed a tale worth hearing, if Mahler would share.

mahler smiled. "a faravay place. a spire to touch the very sky. vintersbane vas alvays somevone i respected, even then. more since."
"it vas vhere i truly learned that i vas, at least then, fleet as those goats."
beauty, or only the murmurs of an ageing, sickly man?
perhaps both.

Eldritch listened with obvious awe, and respect for the older man. For Wintersbane, she already had much respect. He was capable and kind, in her eyes. 
Mahler too, seemed kind and just. 

"I hope since then, you have found even more joy where you are at?" El commented. She knew leading a pack was hard work, but it was not something she would ever boast about; that she was once also a leader not so long ago, in Ivory Rose...

"joy had late is still joy, is it not?" mahler asked rhetorically, though with a look to him that suggested yes. 
in the darkening days he and wylla had found one another again.
"are you as happy as you vould have me be, eldritch?"

El chuckled at his rhetorical question. A wisdom she didn't yet have.

Then to his second question, a sadness clouded her white eyes. 
"I once had a spirit-sister, a spiritualist like myself. But in the woods where she and I made our home, the trees caught fire during a lightning storm. I have not seem her since...but...she made me happy." Eldritch responded solemnly

eldritch answered, and mahler was provided with the breadth of what she had suffered.
a storm. a severing.
"it is quite painful to lose those ve love," he said with soft hesitance, and then fell quiet below the weakness of his own offering.

Eldritch nodded with a small exhale at Mahler's words, "I have known that pain twice now. The first was my blood sister, Nyra. Though I don't know if she is dead, I caused her to flee from the destruction of our cruel birth-home. Our father was a crazed and vile leader; He abused her in unspeakable ways." The Seer mused with sadness. She missed Nyra dearly too, but life goes on...

oh, but he did know nyra.
he thought of the way she had smirked alongside the brute at their borders, and how they had only both departed unscathed by rivenwood's mercy.
eldritch tended him. "i know only one nyra, a large cruel and pale woman."

Eldritch perked her ears at Mahler's words. 
Her sister could be alive! The Seer's heart fluttered with uncertainty and joy. 
Still, at the Graf's words, she knit her brows. 

"If we speak of the same wolf...she at least used to be rather timid, uncertain of herself. Though I cannot deny that under the wrong wings she'd likely turn to a darker path. The brute she arrived with must have been her mentor of sorts..." The witchling mused, slanting her ears back.

mahler breathed out through his nostrils. "she vas not at all that vay. she serves the saints of the dying light. they are violent and seem to encourage trouble vherever it is they go." 
but the man kept himself from a true harshness. eldritch did not deserve to bear the brunt of what had gone on before.

Eldritch listened to his words.
It appears her dear sister had changed over time.

With a tired sigh, the seer looked to him with hope
"Maybe not everything is as it seems... but, I wouldn't know." She mumbled the last part, turning her head to look through the trees, towards the glacier she called home.

Should she head back...?

mahler followed the line of his gaze and cleared his throat, rising. "thank you for your time and your skill, eldritch. i vill be better for it."
he had not meant to become so anguished; and dipped his head to allow the dark woman her home-travel in peace.

Eldritch smiled kindly in return to Mahler's words. 
"Thank you, as well. I may come visit sometime, if that's alright?" The Seer inquired, having taken a few strides by now, looking to the Graf over her shoulder,

mahler nodded. "i vould be honored."
he watched her go.
the path back to rivenwood would have him coughing, delayed by the time he made it to the stone arch of the bypass.