Dos listened intently to the listed herbs, her body slowly relaxing as the other kept talking. The herbs mentioned were all things her mother had brought up in her lessons before Dos left on her big adventure, reassuring the vixen that the wolf before them was at least the real-deal regarding healing. Whether or not she actually healed her friend remained to be seen but it still soothed her mildly frazzled nerves to know the wolf was telling the truth about being a healer at the very least.
They watched with careful, sharp eyes as the she-wolf worked; comparing everything she did to the things she'd been taught. Dos was no healer but she sincerely hoped she'd be able to tell the difference between genuine assistance and sabotage if the situation demanded it. She pawed the ground with her left paw lightly in her anxiety, her elevated heart-rate triggering another wave of electricity to jump across her pelt. The amber orb resting around her neck glowed faintly in response to her powers, drawing the undirected sparks towards itself; preventing her from accidentally shocking Elcid just from being near-by. She'd always thought the orb was pretty, but the vixen was really appreciating its secondary purpose as a form of spark-slnk right now.
I don't even wanna know how many creatures I would've shocked by accident, Dos mused to herself, glancing back to the wounded form of her friend.
"My tails are great luck," she proclaimed. Not entirely true given how some foxes treated her for having two so young, but others were impressed with her apparent talents and skills. If they encountered a coyote, they'd be fine at least. They easily shrugged off the remark about her shapeshifting talents - they didn't care much about talking of her powers. It wasn't uncommon for foxes to be shapeshifters after all - not in her community anyway,"Sure."
They didn't like the idea of having to cause her friend pain but she knows that if Elcid's leg was to heal correctly, it would have to reset into place. Still, that didn't make her yelp of pain and the crack of the bone being shifted any easier to hear. The vixen cringed, watching her friend spit the poppy seeds right back out of her mouth - ooh, Elcid was going to regret that. She stood, pushing aside the faintly nauseous sensation in her tummy - she was always bad with mangled limbs and hearing someone's bones shift was just immensely uncomfortable.
Still, she rose hesitantly to her paws; padding quickly towards the remaining poppy seeds electing to take collect two of them before hobbling towards the prone form of her friend.
"You're gonna want these," she said sympathetically to Elcid. "You're going to hate your life for a bit if you let the pain set in for too long."
After the deed is done, Ceartas watches as her attempts to get the teen into eating the herbs results in their rejection. She checks to make sure the bone has been set back properly, trying her best to be gentle at the same time, and rises from her seat to give the wolf some space. When Dos comes forth and picks up some of the poppy, claiming the other wolf will regret not eating them, Ceartas nods in agreement, a simple “Mhm,” going along with it. A quick glance at their surroundings is given to see if any danger has arrived, and then her eyes are once more at the two with her, “Do you feel pain in any other places?” Pale eyes look over her form to check and see if there are any other wounds she might have missed, and she thinks about what other herbs she has in her satchel, “When you feel ready, we must leave this area. Keep the weight off your legs - we will find a safe spot for you to rest and I can help look for something to make you a splint,” in a land so wood-rich, with plenty of strong vines and creepers suitable for the job, it won't take long to get her the help she needs.
Maybe it was because Dos was younger like herself. Maybe it was because Dos spoke to her in such a friendly manner. Maybe it was because Dos had helped her instead of taken advantage of a crumbled wolf on the edge of the river that Elcid elected to give the poppy a second chance. The fox offered it to her and she reluctantly swallowed it down, resisting the urge to spit it out a second time (which was hard!) A question was posed to her - did she feel any other pain. Her head nodded before she verbally answered, her head still swimming with strange sensations and blocked receptors. She wanted to look at her leg. She wanted to so bad, but resisted the urge to do so. She was afraid that she would look down and see it snapped completely off. The pain of the motion had been excruciating, and her mind was still trying to comprehend what had just happened. So, instead she focused on the other wolf's question. "Yes" she answered with a pained and shaky whisper. "I fell off the waterfall and hit the rocks below" Sure, it didn't help tell the other wolf where else she was hurting, but rather explained why she had answered yes.
She then suggested that they leave the area to find somewhere safer. Yes, that sounded smart. Maybe the wolf knew of a place? She didn't want to subject Dos' to bringing home two wolves, after all. Her mind made up the conversation on Dos' behalf: 'Yes mom I know there are two wolves outside. They're friends! One got hurt real badly and the other is a nurse. No, I promise they're not going to eat anyone.' The made-up conversation made her giggle - or was it the poppy? Instead of putting more effort into talking, Elcid nodded her head at the nurse and grit her teeth, trying to use her good front leg and hind legs to push herself up into a stand. She made it half-way up, then slumped back down to the ground. She would need help to stand and help to balance. Her green eyes looked to the other two, asking them for help without saying it.
Dos sighed in relief as Elcid took the poppy-seeds she offered. Dos had broken her leg exactly once in her life and had slept through the time she was meant to receive her poppy seeds. Never again. The agony she’d been in was almost unbearable and if it hadn’t hurt to so much as twitch her thigh, she would’ve turned on herself in an attempt to rid herself of it. She didn’t want Elcid to have to put up with such a thing if it was avoidable and poppy-seeds would indeed avoid it.
She’ll have to remind the other to take the valerian root when they found a safe place for her to rest. The waterfall was suddenly seeming very far away and she wasn’t even sure she wanted to try climbing the coast with a stranger. Even the barest movements were causing the blue-gray wolf immense pain so climbing was seeming less and less like a good idea.
”Maybe we can try to find a place in the ruins-” she began only to jump when Elcid tried to stand up. Her first thought was, ‘I thought we already concluded that standing was a bad idea’ and sure enough, her friend found herself right back on the ground. She refrained from shaking her head - scolding a wolf already in pain seemed like a great way to get eaten even if Elcid had been nice to her up to this point.
Instead, the vixen decided now would be a good time to display her shifting; if only to actually be of use to the wolf beside her. As it was, she was entirely too small to help her get anywhere; her frame too fragile for Elcid to lean on without both of them having to put in more work than should be demanded. Dos channeled her inner spark, letting the lightning jump across her pelt again - this time though, the arcs were red instead of gold; crackling and creating a lightly smoky scent.
It was kind nervewracking really, transforming in front of two wolves. She supposes she could pass off the extra lightning as further exciting herself by accident - she’d been sparking the entire time so it wasn’t unusual for her quite yet. And she’d only met both of them today so the difference between her styles of lightning likely hadn’t been noted by either wolf yet.
She shook her head - no, Elcid needed her to not be freaking out like this.
The smokey smell grew stronger, and absently the vixen noted that she would need to work on that. It would be embarrassing if she was always caught because of the ozone in the air when she shifted. She quickly grew in size, her fluffy tails tragically blending into one singular (but still fluffy) tail; her muzzle broadened, and her delicate round paws became larger, more heavy. Her soft fluffy coat became thick and with guard-hairs. When the smell died down the electricity stopped jumping, settling back into her pelt as the newly formed she-wolf shook out her new coat.
"This always feels so weird," Dos rumbled in her new form. The wolf's new form was that of a slightly on the smaller side adolescent she-wolf, sunset patches from her natural form still speckled across her body in a recognizable fashion. She blinked a little to adjust to her new height on lanky legs and the fact that her ears felt smaller than usual. She shook her paws, immediately disdainful about not being able to retract her claws which were sharper than a typical wolf's given hers usually remained sheathed. Dos is fairly certain she could change the way she looked too, but the idea just sounded exhausting and given she wasn't attempting to hide her identity, was too much work for what she wanted to do. "I think I can help you walk now - like a fluffy crutch!"
