A wide ravine where a shallow, gentle river flows. Years of drought and silt deposits have built this area into a fertile delta. The river remains low and dry most of the year, staining its waters brown and creating muddy shores.
Thankfully, there seemed to be no open wounds, and hopefully no internal bleeding, but he would gently nudge her body just to be sure. He could feel the skin on his face sting; the beetle's elytra was hard and rough, and when it opened it either gave him a cut or caused some bruising, or both. But he wasn't really concerned about that. The wolf would turn his head to and fro, two-toned eyes looking for something in particular, "could be some st. John's wort or arnica around here."
He'd turn back to Dos at her next comment. 'home' could mean anything - if she meant Verdantis, then she was home, so she must not have meant Verdantis, "vhere is home?" he'd ask, concern still in his voice. Perhaps home is where her mother and uno are. She is still just a teen.
Perception roll to see if he spots any herbs or not
Character Diceroll 1: Success Diceroll must be above 500 to be successful.
0 was added for Perception.
544 was added for Level 1.
0 was added for A. No Enchantment.
5 was added for B. Homeland Buff.
Dos obligingly held still, allowing the gentle nudges against her flanks and forelegs. Admittedly she had no serious injuries - nothing bleeding nor broken - but her ears were officially a bit droopier than before in the face of her lack of joy. She still wanted to adventure and explore,but it was never fun to get hurt - she wasn't even in the mood to dog for bugs anymore! She pouted huffily at the ginger way she had to hold her leg but listened attentively to Gabriel's words - she'd never heard of those plants before, but they sounded like healing herbs and the more herbs she knew, the better prepared she would be when she re-met her favorite, blue-gray wolf.
Her ears pricked a little at the attention she was briefly surprised by but answered all the same, "With my sister and my mom. I wanna go back to our den and nap in my nest."
She shook out one of her front legs, dislodging the mud stained in her paws, just barely resisting the urge to chew what was pressed beneath her claws and between her toes. The twin-tailed fox looked up pitifully, "What do those herbs do?"
Disappointment pricked in his heart. He had hoped to get to know Dos better, but if she wanted to go home then, "I can carry you home," a moment later, he spots some arnica a bit further away from the water, "vound it," he'd say, before bounding over to the patch of flowers. Before grabbing them, he'd grab the largest leaf from a brush and place a clump of the flowers on it. He'd sit it down in front of dos, "all warriors in my birth pack vere required to know at least basic cures. Arnica is a common herb vound almost everywhere. Vhen applied as a slave, it helps vith bruising, inflammation, muscle and joint pain, and insect bites," if she doesn't protest, he'd begin to chew up the petals into a paste, trying to be careful not to ingest it.
"I thought adventures were supposed to be fun," the vixen whined a little, sitting before the bruise on her leg forced her to. She twisted around, carefully licking one of the more itchy spots on her flank. She had assumed her fur was thicker and better to defend her against impacts than it clearly was. Begrudgingly, she could admit that this was a decent place for her to learn the truth of how a fight really works before she went questing with Elcid again some day but it still sucked to see that fighting kind of sucked. "That wasn't super fun... why was that beetle so mean?"
She flexed her paws and watched curiously as the wolf went searching for the weird herb he mentioned, sniffing curiously as he brought it closer. She thinks she's seen these pretty flowers before - bright yellow with feathery centers and five pointed, narrow petals but she hadn't known it was an important medicine. She leaned in to sniff them a little more intently when he remarked about his old pack - where everyone learned to heal at least a little bit.
"That's cool," Dos decided. It really was amazing that plants could do all that stuff for her bruises. "How does it do that?"
---
Instead of giving a sympathetic response, he chuckles, "adventures can be fun and hurt you at ze same time," he'd gaze back at where the beetle had come from, and where it subsequently departed, sniffing the air to see if its scent was still strong. It seems to have left for good, "i don't know vhy ze beetle vas mean. i've never seen bugs so huge bevore. maybe ze normal rules don't apply," he could guess that maybe it was feeling territorial or had babies nearby to protect, but who really knows? In a magical world, anything could be different. looking back to dos, he'd say, "don't let ze pain stop you vrom having fun. an adventure might not always go as planned, but part of ze fun is dealing vith.. un-in-ten-ded, consequences, and learning vrom zem," the longer words were articulated clearly so as not to jumble them up. german has lots of long, complicated words, yes, but that's german complicated, not english complicated. as he speaks, he'd start to separate the petals from the rest of the plant, sweeping the rest off the leaf, "if you er, grind ze leaves up into a pulp, apply it to sight of pain, it soothes. never eat, though. gives you bellyache. toxic." he wishes ceartas was here. she could explain it much more eloquently.
now, with just the leaves left, he'd chew it until it was just a paste. his paw pads were caked with mud, so he instead had to awkwardly dap the top-side of his paw into the paste. then, moving so that he sat directly next to dos, he'd lift up the herb-covered and ask: "may i?" final moment to say no.
"I don't like the 'hurting me' part,"Dos huffed, but she supposed that was true. Thinking back, meeting Elcid had been a fun adventure for her - she'd come out of it with a new friend after all! - but the wolf had been attacked by a villain. She'd had a broken leg and a bunch of bruises from falling over the waterfall (she wondered where the waterfall was in this new world - she wants to see what her home looked like the first time around) so it must've been a 'not fun' adventure for her. She gave a dismissive flick of her tails - well this sucked but she supposes her friend had had a worse first adventure. She still wanted to go home though. "Next time I'm gonna be so fast that beetle won't even dream he could catch me!"
Or maybe she'd figure out how to cloak herself in electricity. Her stormbead always drank in the excess so she'd never really experimented with the static that got caught in her fur. If she could figure out how to make it work though, she'd be able to zap anyone who touched her!
Dos listened intently, tilting her head curiously as she listened to the horned wolf talk about how the herbs worked. He had a funny way of talking, a bit more... hard maybe? Round? Neither of those words felt correct for what she was trying to describe but they were close enough. She found it interesting and a little mysterious - maybe she could develop a voice like that some day.
"Oh, yeah," Dos agreed easily when he asked.
---
Text. Speech.Thoughts.
He gives her a friendly nudge with his muzzle, chuckling at the same time. Of course, no one likes the getting hurt part! But, it is what it is, "can't really help you vith ze speed part," the hulking wolf had too much bulk to carry around for speed. He was better at being on the frontline, tanking hits and dealing damage, "but, if you ever need a sparring buddy, I can teach you vhat I know about fighting."
And with that, once he was given the go ahead, he would start to carefully apply the ground up herb onto the parts of her body he felt the swelling on. The fur would be parted to allow the salve as much contact with the skin. Not for the first time did he think back to his sister, idly wondering what opinions she'd have about his technique, and if he was doing it any good.
"adventures are as fun as you let zem. How about I take you home so you can rest?" he would lower himself closer to the ground to allow her the chance to climb on.
"Okay! I don't get to spar with anyone but Uno usually, so maybe it'll be fun," at least that was something to look forward too. Her fluffy tails wagged lightly, it would be nice to be able to show her wolf-friend that she was capable of fighting and defending both herself and Elcid. Maybe she'll even learn something really cool to show Uno that she was able to look after herself! She was already learning some stuff about healing after all - her mother would be pleased to hear that at least.
She hissed a little at the mild sting from the herb but at least didn't flinch away - her various adventures and explorations as a kit had ended with being administered various medicines to soothe the painful rashes, cuts and bruises she occasionally accumulated. She'd thought that it would stop hurting at some point, that the scrapes would grow less painful, and was a bit put out to discover that a rough fall seemed like it would always hurt. So she just had to get better at not falling.
"Thank you," the little vixen said by-way of an answer, climbing carefully onto the wolf's back rather than jumping like she felt the impulse to.
---
Pleased with her answer, Gabriel already began to think of some fun ways he could teach her on how to fight. It would have to be engaging but still informative, something rewarding too. He continued to mull over the idea, a brief exhale of air coming out once Dos was rested carefully on his back. The weight wasn't too bad - and what with her not yet being at her full adult weight, it was quite easy to walk at a rather normal speed, even race walk a little. "off ve gooo," he says, occasionally asking for guidance on the location of home as they travel together.
