crimson dappled

@Meldresi set soon after the thread with Crescendo called mephala's web. that explains this weird stuff. You get my 250th post also!

Star's eyes opened. Right in front of her face there sat the decapitated rabbit's earless head. Blood dryed on the cave floor all around where the neck had been torn off. Caked blood was on the two places on the top of the head where the ears had once been. Its empty eyes, no soul behind them, stared into Star's face.
She screamed.
Then she remembered why it was there, what had happened last time she was awake. She tried to get up. As soon as her paws found themselves on the cavern floor a searing pain shot through her. She let herself crumple to the ground immediatley, unsure why it hurt. She had been unconscious when it had happened. She lifted her paw and turned it. Right in the middle of the paw pad, lots of blood had dried around a hole in her pad. She screamed again at the sight of this. She hated to see herself again, but she had to, so she dragged herself to the underground creek, which was just a few yards away. She looked down at her reflection. Her fur was dappled with bright crimson, as if it were natural. On her shoulder there was the spiral with a line through it from before, but somehow it looked bloodier. And something new crowned her forehead- a large crimson pawprint, stained of blood, about the size of the silver eyed beast's paw. She narrowed her eyes at her new reflection, and looked away.

Can this be after the interrogation quest threads with Kove as well? Happy 250th post!

It was the scream that woke her and her children up. A terrified scream, akin to the one haunting the swamps. Her pups responded the only way they could, with cries of their own. She wanted to go investigate, but she had to calm the frightened children down first. Once they had settled in the nest, whimpering softly but drifting off to sleep, then she went towards the sound.

The dark priestess went deep into Mephala's Web, towards the creek to find a bloodied white furball sitting besides the underground waterway, staring into her reflection. The hostage. Kove had gotten information about her, that her name was Star, from Swiftcurrent. He had promised her that no one would know, but of course that was a lie. She knew everything he had gotten from her.

She walked closer to the small wolf, but kept in the shadows, keeping herself hidden for the time being. The hostage had interesting wounds; a spiral with a line through it, carved deep onto her shoulder, bloody marks through her pawpads, red bite and clawmarks all over her body and to top it off, a bloody red pawprint, like the one on her Dark Brothers and Sister's shoulder. They looked very recent, but who delievered them she had no say. It could be any one of her more bloodthirsty members: Kadence, Bane, Crescendo, perhaps even the new member Grimnir. The latter might be unlikely, since he seemed more of a killer than a torturer.

"Your wounds are far more severe than I thought," she murmured as she parted from the darkness. "Those holes in your pawpads especially."

sure :)

Star looked up nervously to a voice. A dark colored lady stepped forward, and her eyes were a pretty deep blue color, indigo. "Uh-huh. A silver eyed wolf did that." She sighed with a little glance down at the holes in her paws. He must of done all that after she'd been knocked out. She didn't yet know that this lady was the alpha. Star just thought she was another wolf sent to torture her or interrogate her or drive her insane. She was sick of it all. She just wanted one kind soul who was here to help her, or be her friend, or at least not hurt her. "Are you here to torture me?" She asked quietly as her gaze stayed on the dark lady.

Silver-eyed wolf? That applied to only two of her wolves, Bane and Crescendo. Bane was more likely to do something of that matter, but then again, she did not really know Crescendo all that well.

The priestess shaked her head. She was not much of an interrogator or a torturer. She obtained her information in a way that usually did not harm others. Usually. "No, you woke my children and I up. I came to investigate." The mother wondered if her pups were squirming towards the entrance of her den, trying to locate their mother. They had a habit of doing that, but luckily Bane was there to bring them back inside their den, and she suspected that he played or interacted with them too. Not that she minded. "But now that I see your wounds, I suppose I'm here to heal you as well."

"Oh... I'm sorry, miss. I didn't mean to wake you or your children." She said. Even though the wolf was holding her captive here, she felt guilty about waking children. She vaguely wondered how such a strange, cruel pack would raise pups and hoped the best for them. Her eyes lit up as if she had seen heaven. Well, actually, Star's eyes wouldn't have lit up if she'd seen heaven. She didn't beleive in heaven. "Heal me...?" She breathed in awe. It would feel so good to be healed. "Is there a way to get the bloodstains off my fur?" She asked quietly.

The priestess shrugged her shoulders gently in a what can you do? manner. If she was truly frightened by the wounds she had obtained, then Meldresi was not surprised. The dark woman gestured towards the underwater creek that ran quietly besides them.

"You should be able to rise off the blood by submerging yourself in the creek," Meldresi murmured, her tail curling around her feet. "While you do that, I will get some herbs and start treating you." she said, and without waiting for an answer, slipped off into the darkness towards her herb store. She had something in mind, more than just healing her. There was a herb she wanted to use to lull the girl into a daze, and peacefully urge more information out of her. It was more an experiment than anything, and she would give her poppy seeds afterwards. But she was curious as to what she might learn.

Without a word Star watched as the dark wolfess slipped into the shadows once more. Slowly Star placed each leg into the shallow edge of the Creek. It was not as refreshing as Swiftcurrent. She moved forward, until she had to swim, staying afloat with the doggy paddle. Well, in this case, the wolfy paddle? Then, looking further into where it got deeper, she dove in. It was still not super deep, but deep enough. She held her breath. She stayed under, hopefully letting the blood wash out of her fur. Then she swam to shore and shook off, her fur fluffing up again. She gazed at her reflection in the Creek. Better. Almost all of the dapples in her fur were gone. The thicker markings, the spiral and the pawprint still remained, though fainter then before. She almost smiled at her improved appearance. But not yet.

The priestess headed to the herbs den, pleased to see that it was not disturbed in any way. She grabbed a few rudimentary herbs for healing wounds, such as Canada Milk Vetch, Bergamot, Stinging Nettle, and Poppy seeds. But there was another herb that she took with her, something she had in short supply, due to the lack of use. Devil's snare, a member of the nightshade family. At the right dosage, it opened one's mind to suggestion and allowed interrogations without much pain. Just what she needed.

Grabbing a bunch of cobwebs, she wrapped them in a large fern and took the bundle and headed back to the creek. The little female had followed her instructions and gotten most of the blood off of her pelt, saving the spiral and the pawprint. The spiral would stay embedded in her fur, but with a bit of scronging, the pawprint might come off.

"Come here and eat this." She ripped up the Devil's Snare and scattered it over the two poppy seeds she gave her. "This will help you relax and dull the pain of the wounds."

please tell me if she reacts to anything wrong and I'll edit. I'm just assuming stuff...

She glanced up at the obsidian wolfess as she brought the herbs in. "Okay." she replied in an emotionless monotone. She padded over to the herbs and lapped them up, off of the cavern floor. Star's wounds indeed began to feel better. Her paws even didn't hurt nearly as bad. But then she began to feel lazy, her mind felt... Strange. Kind of like when she ate that mushroom, but not reckless like it had made her. "Whaa," She slurred with a glance up at Meldresi. "....Wazzat?"

No I think that's fine. :P

"Be silent," The priestess commanded, unwrapping the other herbs. She focused on the holes in her pawpads first, since that was sure to be the most irritating. The dark woman nipped off pieces of the milk vetch, bergamot, and nettle, dipped them in water, chewed them, and placed them on the holes. They were slightly deep, so she had to push it in a little to maximize the affects.

"Tell me how many wolves were in your pack before you left." She murmured as she placed the little bits of the poultice in her wounds. Once she finished, the priestess bound the herbs into the wounds by wrapping them with cobwebs.

"Oh." Star said, her brain slowly processing what she said. When she asked her next question, her conscience whispered in her mind. Stay loyal! Don't tell her! Her conscience hadn't been fed herbs. But Star had. She had no idea who or what was fooling around her mind so she ignored it. Instead of taking her advice from the voice or her conscience, she relied on her own independent, if not somewhat hazy mind. Her foggy mind could not remember everyone's names perfectly, so they came out a bit messed up. She began to name wolves, counting as she went. Basi, Skymiter, Dove, Fawazi, Kiran, Nafarous, Pearthernocks, Razull, Galaxy.... And a handful she didn't know. That totaled to ten, plus that few she didn't know was twelve or thirteen. "Someing aroun twele o thiten, someing li tha. Uh dunno abou pups o juviles." She said, her words coming out highly slurred.

12 or 13, almost the same as Blackfeather, including the pups. Meaning that they only really had 8 or so wolves to fight, since they also had to subtract herself and the hostage.

Meldresi again grabbed bits of the three herbs, repeated the process and laid them on the spiral embedded on her shoulder. It would heal, but she was certain that the scar would stay forever. Perhaps it would show past her fur, as a reminder to her and her pack, if she ever did return to them. "Who is your leader and what are they like?" She spoke as she bent her head again to gather cobwebs. She wondered if the hostage would be able to speak to her coherently.

Note to self, use less Devil's snare for smaller wolves.

Who was the leader? Alpha... Skymiter! Skymiter was the alpha, she realized slowly. "Skymiter... He ih relly fiere. I don lih hi sometim... He neher tries to sove an poblem wi wors... He aways jus attacks n stuff. Rill toff. No a softee." She said, finshing her little speech on Scimitar Skymiter. "He ha a beh-uh too, Kascary, and she uh... I don no. She is his sisuh." She slurred. How would she describe Kaskara? Nice, dark brown, orange eyes, one with a bit of turquoise... But somehow the way she was describing her in her head seemed incorrect. Oh well.

Skymiter...skymiter... She tried to put reason into what Star was saying. Skymiter...scimiter.....Scimitar? "Scimitar? Is that what you are saying?" Regardless of what his name is, they could expect retaliation, someone who could and would fight back. And his sister was Beta; 'Kascary'. She didn't know what to think of that name, though it was probably slurred.

"Last question, dear. Were there any pregnant wolves when you left?" If there was anyone pregnant when Star was captured, then it was possible that there was pups now, and that would be valuable information, especially when it came to raiding those caches (if it ever came to that).

To her first question Star responded simply with- "Skymiter.." She mumbled, unsure wherher she was talking about someone actually called Scimitar. Even if she did try to say Scimitar, it would still come out as Skymiter. Next question. Anyone pregnant? Hmm. Pearthernocks was pregnant with Shadurr's pups, she knew. And Skymiter said Basi would be having pups too. She didn't think of the fact that Bazi might not be pregnant yet. At the meeting he had said she'd stepped down because she was also gonna have pups, so she assumed she was pregnant. "Too. Too woves. Pearthernocks and Basi. Yeah." She said, looking up tiredly and lazily at Meldresi.

We should start finishing up here. :P

Two wolves were pregnant when Star left, meaning that there were most likely pups in Swiftcurrent now. There would possibly be more pups in Swiftcurrent than Blackfeather, since they had two litters and half of hers had died on their birthing day. The priestess stored that information away in her mind for later, and pushed more poppy seeds towards the inebriated wolf. "Take these and you'll be able to sleep soundly for a while. I'll make sure no one will disturb you."

my last post. Thanks for the thread!

Meldresi, instead of replying with another question, told her to eat something small. Star had not registered that she had said last question, and the change in conversation was strange to her. The drugged little wolf leaned forward and lapped up the dark little seeds. Star's eyelids fell low, and she looked up exhaustedly at Meldresi. "Goonigh. I'm tire, I ho tha okay." She slurred. Then she put her head on her paws and fell deep into sleep. Hopefully undisturbed by any other interrogators.