Phoenix Maplewood my heart is a tartarian gate

Looking for some Morningsiders. Maybe @Sunny or @Dawn if you have time? Anyone welcome, though!

Although it burned her like nothing else to be confined to her small quarters in the maplewood, Alya knew better than to test her limits. There were pups around here, for one thing, and she had no desire to run into them or their protective mother. That, and sometimes she could not help but look back at her leg and think of Nikai. No matter what, she had to make sure it healed completely. That meant resting and allowing time to mend what mettle could not.

She'd always been better with mettle.

Today, she was hobbling slowly, carefully to a nearby stream, intent on trying her paw at some fishing. It was the only kind of hunting she could do these days, even if, so far, she'd failed to catch anything. It was essential that she try, because the amount she currently owed the Morningsiders was, in a word, alarming.

Muttering to herself about charity and maple trees, Alya waded into the stream and stood as still as possible, waiting for a fish to appear.

The fire had done him some nasty damage, burning large areas of fur off and damaging his flesh. The wounds mixed with how little he had eaten lately, caused him to fall rather ill and be very slow moving and lethargic. He had finally found someone to help him heal, a woman named @Tahani that was kind enough to tend to his burns and give him stuff to help his smoke damaged lungs clear up. It had been a few days since then and he finally began to feel up to moving around and attempting to do something productive. He walked slowly toward the stream intending to fish when he spotted the dark figure of a newcomer who he'd smelled around Morningside but never quite got to meet. He studied her for a few silent moments, watching her stand still in the water and knew better then to call out a greeting. Instead he walked a bit further downstream in her sight so she knew he was there and waded into the water himself, wincing as the coolness both hurt and brought relief to his still sore body. 

He stood still and stared into the water, waiting for a fish to come. Slowly a wiggling strip of silver came toward his paws and he lunged. The result was immediate pain in the stiff areas of his burns and he cried out in pain, ears going back as he whined and headed for the shore. He climbed out and gently shook out each leg, lowering himself down onto his haunches and looking pained for a few moments before growling and giving a huff of frustration.

Rain drizzled down through the trees, but it was rain that'd already been caught up in the canopy, and dripped down on her used and vaguely maple-tinged, just like everything else in the god-forsaken forest. She missed the mountains and the fresh, open air. She missed her sisters, she missed - THAT FUCKING FISH, damnit, it'd been right there.

Alya's head swung around as another neared. She fixed the stranger with her flinty, blue stare and watched as he also failed at catching a fish. This made her feel a tiny bit better - especially when he hobbled away, clearly injured. It looked like she wasn't the only one cruising on Morningside charity.

"Were you injured in the fire?" Alya asked, her voice gentle as she began limping toward him. She forced her expression into some semblance of concern.

The huff had turned into hushed grumbling as he licked at the wetness of his legs and whatever areas he could reach, the grooming a distraction from the fact that life was a shit show and he was slowly losing that trademark optimism of his. The fire had scattered everyone, He had seen no sign of Shale or Aliac. He did seem to have gotten the worst harm out of everyone else that had gathered which both sucked and made him relieved. Perhaps all that had thrown him in a piss poor mood or maybe he was going through a character change but when Alya asked an obvious question he looked up with a sharp expression, his face clearly asking "really?". "Yes. Jumped through flames to save a pup." he said in a rather relaxed tone despite the snarky look he had given earlier. In the hopes of changing the conversation he gave a weary smile "Sunny Morningside. I don't believe we've met before. Whats your name?" he asked.

At the look, which Alya certainly did not miss, her opinion of him dropped from 'possibly alright' to a firm 'do not like'. Of course, this did not show on her face. She fought very hard to keep her expression nothing more or less than concerned, and even went as far as to add a bit of admiration when he bragged about risking his life to rescue a pup. She wondered if it was the truth. They did seem to have an awful lot of them running around.

"Chaiyya, of Moonspear," she replied, her answer seamless. She didn't really care if the man knew her real name, but she didn't want it getting back to Aditya. Alya wasn't done with that game just yet. "Do you need help tending your wounds? I'm not as good as my sister at healing, but I've learned a thing or two from her," the dark woman offered, seeing a good opportunity to help settle her debts.

His expression softened almost as soon as he realised how foul of a mood he was in, replaced by a tired but friendly expression. When she introduced herself he gave an impressed look, studying her for a few moments before something clicked in his brain. Black fur, blue eyes. A shiver ran down his spine but he shoved aside the immediate unsettled feeling, knowing he was being a child. So what if she looked like his mother? It didn't mean a darned thing. "That's a beautiful name. I love hearing unique names." he said this time with a genuine smile.

When she offered to heal him he felt bad for the sour look and feelings and hesitated to accept her offer, unsure if she had noticed how bad of a mood he was in. "I..." he paused and with a small sigh relented, wanting the pain of his burns to go away as soon as possible. "Yes, please. Thank you very much...there was a woman I met who helped me but it still hurts everywhere" he admitted with a sheepish smile. He had been trying to pretend and hide the pain from everyone, but he even looked horrible so probably wasn't doing too good a job.

"The first thing I'd try is Quibina or Tryactin," she said seriously, coming up beside him to inspect his burns. "But, failing that, I'm sure there's something around here to help with pain and infection." Since their home had burned down, Alya figured they'd be needing another medicine cache. She'd started one of her own to pass the time, allowing the familiar scents to remind her of Lyra. She didn't know what half the stuff did, but on the theory that healing could maybe be learned through osmosis, she'd tried to spend some of her free time thinking about medicinal secrets. Time to see if that approach had yielded any results. She was glad that her first patient was not someone she cared about.

Back at her makeshift bed (it was a divot in the earth lined with the few conifer boughs she'd been able to find in the thrice-damned maplewood), she sifted through her plants until she'd found something she was fairly certain she'd seen Lyra give to people with infection. "Eat this - oh wait," she paused, looking between two of the plants. "Okay, eat this one. That one goes on the wound."

She took that one into her own mouth and, gently, began to chew. When it was pierced and crushed enough, she spat it out and poked it with her nose, so that it stuck to the wet, leathery flesh there. "Okay, hold still. I think this one stings," she said to Sunny.

She began listing plants he had never heard of but it didn't bother him much since he didn't know the names of lots of plants. Holding still as she inspected him he let her talk, eyeing the plants she did pull out. He went to eat the one she gave first, tensing and drawing back as she told him to wait and then switched the plants out. That did make him somewhat uncomfortable, her lack of certainty with what she was using to try and heal him but he figured he couldn't get much worse off then he was now. He licked up the plant she gave him the okay for and cringed at the taste though made no complaint. He watched as she chewed the second plant and tensed as she began to place it on his burns, hissing through clenched teeth at the immediate sting. "It sure does" he confirmed but held still, waiting for the sting to fade which it promptly did and was replaced with a sort of cool sensation which felt rather good. He gave a relieved sigh eyeing her gratefully "Feels a bit better already though. Thank you"

He didn't seem to get the joke - which was good, because Alya didn't really think it was a good idea to antagonize the natives. Not while she was reliant on their tribe, at least. And, really, she thought the whole healing business had gone rather well. She was relatively certain she'd given him the right stuff (after that initial mix-up, of course), and he'd been a good patient, thus far.

"I'm so glad," she said solemnly, looking up at him with manufactured timidity. As though she was intimidated by his masculinity or in need of his validation by way of praise. She was neither, but she did want his attention, like she wanted the attentions of most every young, fit male she came across. "I couldn't stand the thought of you suffering for being so brave. It sounds like Morningside is lucky to have you here."

Ugh. But Alya wanted to talk to him more, and she knew that just being herself would not win her many friends. Plus, subterfuge was her middle name. It was kind of being herself to... not ... be herself... That was her story, at least, and she was sticking to it.