Blackfeather Woods What's a boy to do.

For @Potema please!
This is in a weird place in my timeline... Roughly after the BWP dog attack and after Grim x Potema but probably a few weeks ago..? :s

When he woke up it was like none of it had ever happened. He was clean, as far as he could tell. No blood, no remains of dead dog in his teeth, and no memories of it. Those red eyes looking blankly at him as the night child tore the mutt's face into pieces never stayed in his memory; he remembered them, but only from what happened before the rage. However, the taste of the dog's blood was still strong in Damien's tongue.

Meldresi had probably done a big deal of nursing from the moment Damien fell unconcious, but just like everything else, he couldn't remember it. He didn't know how long he had been unconcious, or why he was unconcious, but when he woke up he felt slow, and a strong head-ache beated heavily in the right side of his head. The light from the outside felt like a knife right into his right eye as well, so he kept it shut to avoid the pain, it would surely fade away soon but for now it was unbearable.

The night child grunted in pain as he turned away from the light to find Potema right behind him. It had been a while since he had come to visit his little sister. Actually, he hadn't since the misterious attack which had left her blind in one eye. It looked painful, the wounds around her eye. Damien felt bad for not visiting, but he had figured since the beginning that he wouldn't do any good to her in the infirmary, he was no healer, his place was out there looking for the bastard who had attacked her. For a second Damien thought about the possibility of that Dog being the attacker, but it was unlikely that the mutt had stayed in the forest for so long and not be noticed... By him. Weak pathetic thing.

"Are you awake, sis?" Damien whispered making sure not to bother her in case she wasn't. The teen missed his sister, it had been days since they last spoke and it felt like an eternity. A little catch up would have been in order.

Potema tended to sleep a lot between her training sessions with Burke. And her dreams were strange. She saw many things in her dreams, and blood was in most, if not all of them. Blood on trees, blood on grass, blood in water, blood on rocks. Sometimes there were dead bodies, some with their eyes open. Usually another wolf accompanied them, and they all had the signature red paw-print of the Dark Brotherhood emblazoned on their shoulders. They would say things that she could half understand, and rarely remember, but those dreams always ended in the same way.

With those orange eyes.

The princess awoke at the sound of a voice cutting through the fog of her nightmares, and she was blessed to find that it was a familiar one. Her brother's. Unluckily for her, he was on her blind side, and she had to turn fully to see him.

He had healed well from whatever episode he had gone through. Mother cleaned him up, but instructed Potema to help as well, placing poultices on his wounds where instructed. Mother did not explain what had happened to him, but Potema knew. She had told her what happened to her brother. And Potema was a little scared. "Yeah, I'm awake." She yawned, wincing as both of her eyes closed reflexively. "Are you ok now?"

Damien watched closely at his sister's blind eye, detailing every piece of scarred skin, until she opened it as she woke up. Damien quickly retreated to avoid making his sister feel uncomfortable, but he couldn't avoid being intrigued by the strange apearance of his once -no- still beautiful sister.

"I think I am... But I can't remember anything..." he responded with confusion clear in his expression. He kept his right eye shut for the pain, it seemed like his headache wasn't going anywhere for now. "I have a terrible headache... Does mom have anything for that?" he said slowly. What he didn't know was that the headache was his own brain restoring the neuronal matter that had suffered from the Rage. He would get used to it one day.

Potema thought for a while, trying to recall the remedy for headaches. Luckily for her the injury did not rob her memories of herblore, or else she would be at a loss. "Umm..." She thought for a moment. "Ironweed and some poppy seeds should help." She viewed the plants in her mind's eye, then rose unsteadily on her paws. "Stay, I'll find some for you." It was a redundant command; Damien was not going anywhere in his state.

The half-blind princess practiced weaving through the tunnels for hours upon hours, sometimes with both eyes closed. She knew them like the back of her paw now, a far cry from the fear she and her brothers had for Mephala's Web long ago. With practiced ease, she walked to the infirmary and found the herbs she needed, wrapping the ironweed leaves and three poppy seeds in a dock leaf before she headed back to her brother. She laid the leaf down by his paws, chewing the ironweed and dropping the seeds into the pulpy mass. "This should help."

Damien laid down once again and burried his head under his paws as he waited for Potema to come back with medicine. His sister was amazingly knowledgeable for her age, and although Damien was stil hesitant to fully trust in her prescription he would take anything that she said would release him from his headache.

Approaching footsteps allowed Damien to know that Potema was coming back from the herb store, and so he pulled his head up and re-opened his right eye, eager to take the medicine, but he found himself watching how his sister regurgitated a warm and wet pulp made of various stuff that he wasn't completely sure was Ironweed.

"Eww!" he exclaimed in disgust, "Did you have to do that? I think I can chew it myself just fine!" he barked, wrinkling his nose as he sniffed the mass. He would not take it like that, he was not a helpless pup and he certainly did not have a jaw injury.

Potema pouted at Damien's disgust. She couldn't have her patients chewing their own herbs. It would contaminate the medicine. And besides, what if he was too sick or hurt to chew it himself? "It's what I'm supposed to do." She nosed the herbs to him. "Just eat it. I'm not sick, and we're siblings. It won't matter." She stepped back and watched him, her single eye narrowed, daring him to refuse her orders. He wanted to get better, right?

Damien leaned in to sniff again at the pulp before pulling his head up with a desgusted expression. It was gross, having to eat things that just came out of your sister's mouth, but then again he had done it for months before he could eat meat for himself, except it had been from mother and he was helpless.

"Are you sure this will help?" he asked, considering for real to take the medicine. "Does it have to be this way?" he asked again, hoping that there would be an alternative. His head was still bumping hard, making his eye ache, he needed to do something quick, but he was just too spoiled to do this.

Potema let out an exasperated sigh, rolling her eyes. Damien was really spoiled, wasn't he? If mother did this, he wouldn't have said that and swallowed the herbs without question. She had a feeling he only questioned her because she was his sister.

"Yes." She said impatiently. "Chewing the herbs helps release the healing juices inside so it works faster. It also makes it easier to swallow for sick wolves." She explained, then nudged the herbs closer to Damien. "Now, eat it."

In fact, if it had been mother who told Damien to eat the pulp he would have done it without question, but it would havejust as gross. He was a spoiled kid, but he didn't consider it to be a defect, and he didn't think of it as being "spoiled", he would instead call it... Privileged.

"Alright, alright" he said exasperated after his sister started rambling about how it was the way it should be done. "I'll take it." he leaned down, trying hard not to smell it again and with one shaky gulp he swallowed the whole thing.

"Ugh..." he said after a few seconds of "eww" face, and laid down again and closed his eyes, hoping for the medicide to take effect.  His thoughts took him back again to those red eyes that were still vivid in his memories, and he remembered that Potema had been struggling to remember her incident too.

"So..." he said after a few seconds of silence, "You haven't told me about that eye..." he opened his left eye again. He doubted it for a moment, but finally decided to ask, somber and intrigued:

"Who did that to you?"

Potema smiled with triumph when her brother finally choked it down. When his eyes began to close, she sat close to him, her white fur mingling with his black, in sibling affection. They were both quiet for a spell, both of their eyes shut as Damien's medicine took effect. Potema basked in the silence, feeling her brain slow down, but jolted as Damien stirred and spoke again.

She did not respond at first. She thought for a moment, bringing back the small beads of memories she had from that experience. Orange eyes and fangs. She shook her head. "I don't....I can't remember at all."

The pain was slowly fading away. Those herbs, even after being chewed by his sister, were being effective. He knew that Potema had his mother's blessing for healing, and he could see her becoming a priestess in her adulthood. She was destined. But priestesses could see things others didn't, and Damien wondered if not remembering something like this had anything to do with her ability to see.

"Are you sure?" he asked looking straight at her. "How could you not?" he was sure that Grimnir had been the one, there was no other logical explanation, but if his sister told him otherwise he would believe her.

Potema merely shrugged. "Head trauma can affect memories." She remembered seeing the small scar on her head from where it collided with a rock. She had been smaller then and the effect was viewable in her inability to recall what had happened to her. "I was lucky that I only forgot who attacked me. Mother said that wolves who hit their heads too hard can forget important events, people they've known and loved and even their names." Yes, Potema was extremely fortunate. She would rather not know who attacked her, especially if it was a pack member. She did not want to go around knowing who wanted her dead. After all, ignorance was bliss.

But she did remember faint memories of being at odds with another wolf. Whether he was from this pack or a loner, she remembered hating him. He had been disrespectful at best, threatening at worst. Whoever he was, he had made no other attempt to kill or attack her, so for the moment, she felt safe. And now that she was older, she was much better at defending herself than before. She was ready for anything.

Last post? This thread was wonderful!

Potema explained sounding a lot like Mother, and Damien listened in silence the way he did when mother spoke. It was strange, this feeling, it was like mother was there with them but he only saw Potema in front of him. He knew that his sister had a lot of Meldresi in her, but it was showing now more than ever.

Her words, although they made the teen's nose wrinkle in disagreement, also made him think about his own position. he had just been attacked by someone, and there was a big gap in his memory where no images remained. He could understand why she sadi those things, but the difference was that it was obviou who had attacked her.

"Alright..." he said slowly, "Just don't forget me and Cicero and Mother. Not even Burke. We're with you. I promise I'll solve this mess." he told Potema fully convinved of his words and moved closer to his sister to curl himself in the floor with his body pressed against her's, and let the medicine take effect.

Last post. Thanks! :D

Potema saw the wrinkle in Damien's nose, but ignored it. Even if he didn't understand, she just wanted to explain what she was taught by their mother. Mother would explain much better than she would.

Potema smirked, laying her head on top of Damien's shoulder as he slid back into sleep. "I won't." She yawned, snuggling into his thick fur. "I promise I won't." She murmured, falling asleep.