Blacktail Deer Plateau It costs to live the way you want.

Backdated to halloween. She has been showing signs for a while but has suppressed them due to the tension around the pack. Greencough is the illness she is showing. @Liri ? You're the only healer in our pack 

         It had been getting colder outside since the first leaf had hit the ground. It was the first cold season that the wolfdog had spent in the wild and she was excited to see what it would bring. Days had passed and the temperature had went down each time. Though she was part wolf, her coat was a bit shorter than others, which gave her a disadvantage in the Winter. Each day that had passed she felt weaker and slower. Something was wrong and she knew it but with the tension among her pack members she had felt it would be a burden to tell them anything. 

        When the light had shed over the territory signaling the end of the month, the wolfdog's eyes squinted open. It was worse today than she had ever thought it would be. Her body was shivering and it felt like she couldn't even get up. Every time her rib cage lifted and supressed a small sound could be heard... a wheeze. Elixir sniffled softly but the mucous that had poured out of her nose was already piling on the ground. A lump had developed in her throat, also mucous, that she had swallowed. All she could do was lay there and hope that in time she would become better.

Right now she felt as though she was on death's door knocking to be let in. Regret.... is what she thought in her mind as she should have atleast told Liri so she could have been taken care of. A small grumble was let out at the thought of it. Elixir didn't know what was worse this or when she was attacked. They both felt horrible...

She hadn't seen Elixir since confiding her recent troubles to the Counselor and the wolfdog's scent had grown faint around the territory. With concern for the Gamma, Liri searched through the wet woods for sign of her friend. An underlying scent - something sickly sweet and dangerous - mingled with Elixir's raised red flags in the healer's mind but when she finally came across the hidey-hole Elixir had tucked herself into, she berated herself for not realizing it sooner.

She'd had a lot on her plate recently but that was no excuse for neglecting to notice the Gamma's illness. 

She paused outside the den, turning and departing before her presence could be recognized. To come too close in contact needlessly would be to risk poisioning herself with the illness and thereby spreading it to all the healthy members of the plateau. 

The healer raced to her cairns - the stones damp with rain but the insides cool and dry - as the herbs she'd stored in the atrium had been scavenged some week or so ago. She returned with feverfew, catnip, and coltsfoot clutched in her maw, releasing a muffled chuff around the bundle to announce her presence. 

Entering the den with a dip of her small crown, she rested the medicine before Elixir's muzzle, where she could easily reach them. Dark eyes filled with concern as they took in the runny nose and eyes, her ears flickering in time to the dark fae's raspy breathing. 

"You must eat this," she murmured, tones soothing and authoritative at the same time. There was no question to the healer that if she didn't, her illness would progress into deadly blackcough and kill Elixir.

The thought of death earlier would have been scary but now, she was living death or so it had felt like it. Now she had felt like if her heart had stopped then so would the hurt, the raspy breathes, and the mucous pools. All hope had been given up by the wolfdog, that was until she had heard footsteps. Too light to be Kavik or Grezig, Liri was the only other that had popped into her head. They had stopped before her den and then padded off. Hope was lost again.

Elixir closed her eyes tight, liquid still pouring out from them. With every breath she croaked a bit of pain out. Whoever it was that came to the door she hoped would bring some kind of help. This was the kind of thing no one wished on their worse enemy. 

She laid still, a cough escaped every once in a while no matter how hard she tried to suppress it. The pawsteps she heard earlier came echoing back like a tease. At first she thought it might just be a hallucination, something else she would have to live with, but no wait they came closer... Elixir opened an eye tiredly to see the pale woman and some herbs. Her voice was slightly mumbled as her ears felt horribly congested. "I'll try" she breathed raspy and tiredly like she had just ran 10 miles without a break. 

The ebony girl moved from lying on her side to sitting on her belly paws extended out. In between her paws were the herbs she were to eat. It wasn't easy but slowly she moved her tongue out and slipped up the herbs, chewing like a 20 year old cow who was about to kick the bucket. After the wolfdog swallowed her eyes traveled to Liri's, "I'm sorry.".

"Don't worry about that now," she soothed, brushing her muzzle over Elixir's dark crown comfortingly. "Just focus on getting better," she murmured.  Obviously it wouldn't be instantaneous but this was the beginning of the process and Liri was here now, she would take care of the Gamma. 

She would not lose another family member. 

"I will get you some water," she said, hoping to help wash the bitter taste from Elixir's mouth. She departed, finding her way to the stream where she wet a mouthful of moss for the wolfdog.

It felt worse for her to even try to open her mouth again to say words to her friend. The wolfdog had nodded at her words to not worry about saying something earlier, even though in her gut she knew she should have. She rested her head on her paws and watched as Liri walked away again, not even sure if she'd be alive when she got back. It had felt as though a mountain rest on her back as she lay there breathing ever so shallowly. 

As Liri was gone the wolfdog drug herself farther into the den as the sun had burdened her with light where she had been laying. The light had hurt her mucous invaded eyes and pain shot through her. She turned her body away from the entrance of the den making sure that all she could see was darkness. It was ironic how usually she would bask in the sunlight, happy and loving life, but now she is covered in the darkness only wishing the next breath would be her last. 

Pawsteps had came to the den and Liri had brought her back some moss soaked in water. Elixir was grateful that the pack had someone to care for them that was as good as Liri. "I...I..th..a...n...k...yoou" her thanks was between many breaths as she didn't want to cough around the Alpha, knowing it could cause her to get it at well.

She was reluctant to catch the illness, that was true, but only because she didn't want to spread it to the rest of her wolves. 

Yet, after Elixir had drunk her fill from the moss, the healer found herself lingering. She could not walk away from the wolfdog who had been with her since the beginning. Some scared part of her was afraid that if she turned away now, she would never again see the dark fae's bubbly smile or speak to her about the different kinds of plants that grew on the outcrop in spring time. 

Liri stretched out beside the Naturalist, her pale coat flush against Elixir's dark one, and curled against her friend to provide some warmth.