Stone Circle When the party is over

A call. 

Oryx rolled over onto her side languidly, stretching and yawning as she awoke only to hear that someone was calling out for her. She blinked blearily and pushed herself up into a seated position, noticing with a somewhat delayed reaction that there was a great urgency to the voice that took her a few moments to recognize. Was it her sister? No...No, she wasn't there anymore. She was here. That was Valette, wasn't it? She frowned and gazed down at her dark paws, which seemed to ache with the weight of her body. Her eyes felt fuzzy and blurred and she felt her breath slow and heavy. If it hadn't been for the note of anguish in Valette's voice, Oryx likely would have slumped to the ground and passed back into a druggish slumber, her exhaustion no doubt thickened by the effects of having consumed some of the valerian root she'd gathered. 

She had a couple more in her den, and picked them up more out of habit than anything else, and began to trudge along at a trot, and found that the bleariness faded away bit by bit as she forced herself into action. At one point, she considered heading back to her den and leaving the valerian root there- why else should she have brought it with her? She figured she could explain later- maybe say that she'd been digging them up to stash them away or something. In the end, it was pure tiredness and chance that bade her to carry the medicinal herbs with her- but it was something she wouldn't regret. 

The moment she caught the cougar's scent she dropped the roots and froze. The fur along her spine stiffened and prickled like quills and only then did she snap out of her delirium. It was a good thing the valerian was in her system, though- as it helped her fight off the immediate, overwhelming wave of anxiety and fear which would have otherwise sent her scuttling back to her den like a coward. She scooped up the roots in a sweeping motion and bolted toward Nanook's den area, dread filling her chest as she realized that the cougar had gone in the same direction not long ago...

She could smell the wreckage and ruin before she saw it, but was nevertheless shocked as she slid to a stop and approached the sombre, harrowing scene with careful pawsteps. The cougar was motionless- but so too were two wolves she did not recognize...But she could tell instantly that one of them was Siarut's mate, and that the other was likely Arlette's. Her heart sank. There was no need for her gaze to linger upon the fallen- their departure from the mortal realm was evident enough in the grief shown by all those who surrounded them. 

She glanced over the others- passing over the majority of those present as they were uninjured though she knew they might need some medical attention later, should they need something to cut through the keen pain of grief. As Arlette moved closer to the prone form of Kaito, she could see that her friend and fellow medic-in-training was in pain...But she felt uneasy about approaching her, as she recognized easily enough what the backturn of those ears meant. Wordlessly, she timidly approached Valette and set the valerian roots down onto the ground. She hadn't witnessed Arlette lashing out at Valette, but the intensity of the tension between them was palpable. 

She felt wildly out of place; though Valette had called for her, she knew relatively few of these wolves- and did not even know the names of the dead. She was also not established as a medic, so she did not feel in this moment that she should simply launch herself into the action and address Arlette, who was already being tended to, and who was likely not at all keen to talk to someone she knew as little as she knew Oryx. So she looked up to Valette with an unsure, doleful gaze, and looked back to Arlette. She wondered if she could simply ask Valette to give the roots to Arlette, so that Oryx would not need to approach her and risk her lashing out. But then...What help could she be, if she doubted herself and her value so much? She had something to offer- and whether Arlette wanted help or not- it was Oryx's job to see that she was in the very least offered aid. If she was going to be a medic, that would mean stepping up. She couldn't rely on Valette to mediate their interactions. 

She whittled her way closer to Arlette, and it was then that she caught the smell...And was able to see the stained fur near her hind end, and felt her heart sink even more. She was careful to mind West Tyree and Leta, who were also fixated on the fair girl, and remained out of reach as she set the roots down on the earth, and chuffed softly. She crouched in wait, hoping that Arlette might respond, or at least look up- to see and recognize the gift that Oryx had brought for her, in hopes that she might at least ease some of her pain.