Sunspire Mountains dead woman walking

Years of solitude had hardened her into a fiercely self-sufficient creature, a loner and survivalist. She managed on her own, fighting through hunger, illness, injury and myriad other challenges. But there were some things even the toughest she-wolf could not overcome.

Badly wounded from a hunt run afoul, she didn’t bother seeking her kind and the medical care they might offer her. She couldn’t even remember the last time she’d spoken to another wolf, much less asked one for help.

Instead, Javelina accepted her fate and turned in a direction she had not gone in many moons. She returned to the Teekon Wilds by the same route she had left them, pausing wearily at the foot of the Sunspires. @Mahler barely crossed her mind.

The only thing she cared about was getting back to Rivenwood, so she could die in the place where she’d been born.

My bones shall rest in this loam forever, she whispered to herself.

He had finally descended from the mountains. He had not seen Djinn or the girl Mercedes since he'd abandoned them in that secluded forest; he considered this a win, for himself and for them. Glaukos was singularly focused on returning to the 'Spear and returning to his usual routine.

To hell with good intentions.

The smell of blood drew his attention and Glaukos paused for a handful of minutes, knowing it was none of his business, knowing he wasn't equipped to help another wayward person; he had places to be, and all that. The scent was strong though — fresh enough to make him stop and consider his next choice.

And with a momentary long-blink and sigh, Glaukos' path went backwards, to the upward leading paths of the Sunspire.

She glanced to her right: east. In the warmer months, it was probably a swamp. Presently, all the pools of water were frozen, creating something of a gauntlet. If Javelina slipped on some ice, she wasn’t sure she would be able to get up again.

Her eyes cut over to the looming mountain range. Did she possess the strength to climb them? She shook her head, gazing toward the icy tarns again. It was a directest route, anyway. She just had to be careful.

The terrain proved much more treacherous that anticipated. Javelina slipped. In the instant before she hit the ground, she felt a flash of anger with herself. She’d gone so long without making any errors. Now she’d made two in a row that would not just cost her her life but also a dignified death.

She couldn’t help the yelp that tore out of her mouth when she made impact. She hadn’t fallen on her “bad” side—where the stag’s antlers had slashed open her right thigh—but it was still painfully jarring.

Javelina let out a whimper of angry despair as she sprawled there, breathing harshly. The cold immediately began seeping into her bones.

The sound of scrambling reached his ears; she was not too far ahead, and Glaukos was a capable mountaineer, so he was close within moments. As she stumbled, he was there to buffer her on one side and as he braced against the cliffside, felt her crumble to a pile upon the earth.

At least she hadn't gone over the edge... Glaukos peered down upon the packed ice and exposed stone, and then turned his attention to the stranger with a swing of his head that could've been compared to a sleepy bear. It sounded like the girl was hyperventilating — or very near to it.

You good? He went ahead and asked, looming beside her.

Get up, she said to herself, grimacing through the pain as she began pushing against the freezing ground.

Javelina inhaled sharply at the dark entity suddenly looming beside her. She mistook it for a black bear. She had once seen an angry grizzly maul a wolf who’d come too close to her cubs. She had begun to eat him while he was still alive and screaming.

With a defensive snarl, she scrambled away from the bear. Her broken flesh seared in protest at the quick movement. She stayed low, writhing across the icy, slippery ground.

When she turned back to look, she realized it was only a wolf. Javelina froze, heart thundering against her ribs. He could still mean her harm, she knew, as she struggled to get to her feet.

She’s meant to be crossing Tormented Tarns, sorry that wasn’t clearer!

Oh my bad! I blame the 2 hours of sleep.

The way she reacted — scrambling with reaching steps at first and then truncated and frenzied — told Glaukos enough. He saw how she favored her movements. The fear in her face would've once made him feel elated; but now he was only breathing deeply and saying, Right, see, you're good.

Well, except that nasty score to her side.

She'd finally stopped and the two eyed one-another. Glaukos was aware of how broad-figured he was, and usually used that to his advantage to keep people the hell away. In this case he tried to lower his head a little bit, trying to make it clear he wasn't about to do anything.

You're hurt. You want some help with that? He could at least do a basic soldier's field-dressing, but he wouldn't approach her unless she was open to it.

She would be easy prey, if he wanted to hurt her. But he made no movements, threatening or otherwise, until he lowered his head. Javelina’s racing heart started to slow as she realized he wasn’t going to attack her.

He wanted to help her. She blinked, glancing down at the wound on her haunch, then up at his swarthy face. She hadn’t sought aid, though now that it was being offered, Javelina carefully considered it. She wanted to die in Rivenwood. But she didn’t necessarily want to die today, if it could be helped.

I didn’t think there was anything that could be done, she told him frankly, finally straightening into a proper stand. But I’d be happy to be proved wrong.

The girl didn't run, and didn't become defensive. She appeared to consider what he'd said, and welcomed whatever he could do. It wouldn't be a lot; but at least it would be something, and Glaukos only hoped it would be enough to help her on her way.

What're we working with here? His voice was like gravel, but nobody ever said Glaukos had a positive bedside manner. Hell, he wasn't a real healer by any regard. But he moved closer to her and positioned so that he could see the sliced tissue of her haunch.

What he saw might've caused some people to go white as a sheet, or make some comment, but Glaukos was like stone. He began to look around pretty quickly after, seeing what was around in these borderlands of tarn and mountain, in the middle of winter.

As he began to gather some things from around them (a few familiar grasses, although frozen; a clawing at the permafrost to slush up some snow and mud). He was pulling some weeds free of their roots when he muttered, You're pretty tough, walking on that.

His question struck her as rhetorical, so Javelina made no reply. She swiveled gingerly to grant him better access to the injury. She was too full of hope now to worry whether she was being overly vulnerable with a perfect stranger. What did she have to lose? Her life?

Her two-toned eyes watched as he first inspected the wound, then began gathering supplies. Javelina had tended minor cuts and scrapes many times, though she had no idea what could be done about this much trauma.

Or stupid, she murmured in reply to his comment. I figured I was a dead woman walking, anyway.

Javelina glanced off in the direction of the bypass. If she survived this, did she still want to go there? She wasn’t sure. There was a very big difference between dying there and living there, among all the old memories.

Turning her attention back to the stranger, she asked, What’s your name? Pausing to let him answer, she added, I’m Javelina but my friends called me Jav, her tired eyes dancing at the private joke: she didn’t have any friends.

He'd at least seen how some of these plants could be applied; they'd been used on him plenty of times. There was no way for Glaukos to be certain that they were the right plants exactly, or that they'd be very effective, but he crammed them in to his mouth anyway and began to masticate. As he did this, he worked at the snow and the mud until there was a decent amount. It would be very cold and probably feel awful on her already frigid skin, so he'd hold off until the weeds and grasses had been applied.

The wound itself was quite deep. Glaukos didn't know enough to check for infection (such as fever) so he didn't, and without warning he went in to start applying the chewed plants to the wound; it would have been better if he'd cleaned it out somehow, but by the time he'd thought to do that, he'd been chewing grass like some kind of cow.

She said she felt stupid? He focused on the work until his mouth was empty — in time to answer her.

Glaukos. Short, sweet, to the point. He gathered some of the plant remnants that were trapped in his cheeks and between his teeth, balled them up with his tongue, and spat them in to the snow. The flavor wouldn't quit. He cast a look at the mud puddle as he considered the next steps.

How's that feel? Probably shitty.

Better than dying, Javelina gritted out between clenched teeth, probably?

She did her very best to hold still and let Glaukos do his work. The pain was so bad, she felt a little faint, but she clung to consciousness by taking notes on what he was doing. Javelina was not a healer by any stretch of the imagination, though she was always adding to her repertoire of survival skills.

Thank you for doing this, Glaukos, she though to say somewhere in there, voice sounding a little faraway to her own ears.

She was curious about him. Was he from around here? Was he part of a pack? Did he often get mistaken for a bear? But Javelina was in no condition to uphold a conversation and, anyway, Glaukos’s mouth was otherwise occupied.

He'd called her tough before, and her ability to grin and bear it only proved that to him. He wondered what had caused the wound, what she'd been through; it wasn't like he'd ask her outright for the information. He presumed she'd killed whatever had gored her like this — yeah, that fit with the mental version of her so far.

Don't thank me yet. He countered — and then began to slather her wound with mud. It was very cold and very wet, and probably wasn't the most hygenic thing in the universe. His plan was to hold the mud in place until it solidified and would keep the plant-mush there; that's medicine, right? That's how that worked?

When he'd finished with this last round of grab-ass (literally), he stood back to regard his work and was pleased enough with it. Okay. There, all done.

At some point during his ministrations, Javelina let herself sprawl on the ground. It gave him better access and allowed her to rest a bit. Of course, there was nothing relaxing about this situation. She was trying really hard not to pass out by now.

I’ve literally never heard better news, she said weakly in response to his, “There, all done.”

Javelina raised her head to look at his handiwork. It looked messy but he’d packed the wound so well, she couldn’t see her own meat anymore. That was a vast improvement, in her eyes.

Now what? she asked, eyes flicking back to his gentle face.

Now what?

His thoughts exactly. She looked from the wound to him, as if expecting something. Glaukos was reminded of that girl he'd left in the woods, and fought back the scowl that tried to crawl across his face. He averted his eyes to the slush and the score-marks in the ground where he'd made the medical wallow.

Home, I guess. He looked towards the mountains he had earlier been climbing, oriented himself with a look at the sun next, and squinted at the clouds and through their misty tendrils. She probably shouldn't be moving until that mud was dry, but Glaukos hadn't thought of that yet.

You got one of those? You idiot, stop picking up strays.

Where’s home for you? Javelina wondered. The only home I’ve ever known is Rivenwood. I haven’t been there in years, though. That’s where I was headed… anyway, to answer your question: I’ve been a loner for quite some time. I think it’s been close two years, actually.

She didn’t particularly want to change that, either. Javelina wouldn’t even know how to operate within the parameters of a pack anymore. And though she’d long ago shed Rivenwood like Bracelet shedding her skin, the thought of joining another pack felt disloyal.

She wasn’t sure if she had a choice, now. She couldn’t hunt in her condition. Since she’d been on her own so long, Javelina was already fairly lean and couldn’t rely on fat stores. Besides, she thought ruefully, it’d be a waste of Glaukos’s hard work if she wandered off alone to die, after all.

Anyway, that’s not your problem, Glaukos. You’ve already gone well out of your way to help me. I’m a survivalist. I’ll figure it out from here. And when I’m healed up, I’ll come find you and repay you somehow, Javelina said cavalierly.

She answered a question with a question — and the evasion initially piqued Glaukos' interest, except Jav was quick to let the answer unfold. He knew what it was like to be without a place to live, and without a purpose; it was a common enough story that it did not tug at his heart strings, but he saw some familiar themes in her explanation that were mirrored in his own life.

There was a lull in the conversation and Glaukos gave a shrug. I'm between places right now.

Which meant he was free to go where he wanted, and do what he wanted. Even a noted survivalist could see the merit of having an able-bodied ally, even if they were nearly strangers to one-another. Look, I know the valley you're talking about, I grew up over there. But I don't remember any place called Rivenwood; I haven't got anywhere to be, and you need some help getting around.

It was a lot to say at once, for Glaukos. After a pause, as they looked at one-another, he gave another non-commital shrug. So, where we going? He'd been away from the 'Spear for a long while at this point — what was a few more days?

It seemed they had a lot in common. Javelina’s lips parted as she stared at him, still slightly dazed. He was being outrageously generous but she had no desire to argue with him. She did wonder what was in it for him but she decided not to poke the bear.

Nowhere, she replied, if it’s all the same to you. If you’re sure… She paused, eyeing him. We can stay here—or somewhere nearby, anyway—until I’m back on my feet. Then I can pay you back somehow and we can go on our merry ways. How’s that sound?

It was probably for the best that she not go anywhere, come to think of it. Glaukos was pleased enough with this plan; he wasn't going backwards, so there wasn't any risk of running in to any of his previous charges, and once Jav was back on her feet then Glaukos could get the hell out of dodge.

Its a deal. And for now, he'd mosey over to her good side and offer a shoulder for her to lean on; if that didn't work, maybe he'd go off and scout for a possible place to hide out for a while. Either way, he had his work cut out for him.