her flowers bloom so beautifully that sometimes, sometimes, she forgets they can be dangerous.

dangerous to others, surely, but so infrequently do they both her that she simply... forgets. she is used to the scent wafting from them and the hallucinogenic effect they bring, able to wade through most of the imagined visages she sees. but the newest batch has just bloomed and it leaves her misty-eyed, a bit too far gone to hold on. so she lets go and simply lounges in her den, sprawled out with her head in the clouds.

a shame, then, that it is at this moment the rogues descend.

they slip into obsidian, undeterred by the scent markers that keep most out. they descend upon the tunnels, battering their way through -- and while others might've had a warning, a head's up, talitha is too far gone to hear it. any distant commotion simply passes through her ears, a bland smile afixed to her lips even as a lion finds her. to her it is simply a friend coming to visit... until it isn't.

when the pain comes, it is wholly unexpected -- blooming alongside the right side of her face as the rogue aims a smack there. skin split open from cruel claws -- wholly at the mercy of another, even as she is hardly present in her body when it happens. a shriek rises from her throat ( more from surprise than pain, but there's plenty of that too ) before it is cut short, the sudden smell of blood evident. the dainty girl is then tossed like a rag doll, hitting the stone wall with a sickening crunch.

she is still and quiet as they continue their rampage elsewhere -- left broken and bleeding among the petals she so loved.

CODE BY LARS; ART BY TANZANI

They don't get much of a chance to settle before being plunged into chaos; the den is barely warm, their pelts and trinkets stowed away but nothing in the way of memories. Mordecai, alas, does not have much opportunity to wallow in his anger - a sinister, ugly thing - when he arrives home to caterwauling and chaos. Intruders. No, he is more concerned. The band of... whatever they were - monsters, demons - were pillaging the Hollows, laying ruin to anything and everything in their path.

And, alas, @Talitha was nowhere to be seen.

An unsettled feeling turned to anger, then to rage; he thundered down the corridors, a man possessed, desperately seeking out the young lioness. He finds her shortly after, unconscious and bloodied. {"No,"} came the haggard rasp, and then - louder - would come again, {"no, no!"} A snarl, wet with spittle. Her beloved blooms surrounded her; it was eerie, as if they were at a funeral. {"You will pay!"} His screech would reverberate off of the cavern walls, and if that debacle did not rouse Talitha then his incessant nudging and shaking would. {"Wake up, Talitha,"} the grey-pelted shepherd pleaded, traumatized by the idea that he could lose the last member of his depleted flock.

Please - you are all I have left.

@Mordecai comes, a grim phantom that appears at the corner of her vision -- one minute she is alone and dying, the next she is being shaken awake. From... sleep? Had she fallen asleep? She wouldn't have taken a nap here, would she? Then why was she -- oh, She gasps from the pain of his frantic handling, mismatched eyes wide and rolling.

Pain seeps in, leaving every breath a terrible, hiccuping gasp. Something is wrong with her chest, a rib piece broken or crushed from hitting the wall. Her face, too, suffers from a terrible open-pawed strike -- her mane prevented some damage but it stretches from her cheek to nose and down to her shoulder. Bloodied and broken she is lost -- awash in horror and hope, flimsy flickers of light blooming in her vision that certainly aren't real. These drug-induced butterflies flap around the room as she lays unable to move and terrified, bloodied tears streaking down her face.

A modern madonna, indeed.

Please, she pleads, spittle bubbling on her lips, a fine white foam. She only wants him, in this moment, that she thinks might be her last. Talitha is a delicate flower, unused to rough treatment, and the pain in her chest is like nothing she's ever experienced. A paw raises, trembling and shaking to press against him, but she does not quite have the strength. It falls as her shoulders slump, losing consciousness once more.

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Fawkes courage, dear heart ///////////////////////////////////////////// He is here. Not because he wants to be, or because there is something for him in the hollows, but rather because of a sickening sense of dread that falls upon the fresh air. He had seen the hollows fall only days unto his journey in amaryllis, but to stumble upon the life of another -cradled between the cold and callous hands of death and the remaining breath of life. He is stunned. Frozen in time for a moment that is worth every second of her timing, Please. Let me help. his heart is a valiant solider. Polished within the gold of a brewing lavas cracks as Fawkes moves vehemently forwards. Each step followed with purpose and strained panic - but he cannot let them see that. Don't move. It is an order, though soft and frail - it carries the weight of a thousand men upon its shoulders as the mauve king moves in closer and with bated breaths takes all that he can to listen carefully to her shallow and wheeze like breathing. You there. Can you get me some frankincense and akuamma? I can dress her wounds with the frankincense and the akuamma should take away some pain. He doesn't want to act too brash, or too quickly. It is the life of another that lay between his paws, and he would be damned if she were to wither because of him. Be careful. Do not move her. I'm afraid she may have a broken rib - if you move her, or she moves - she risks puncturing her lung. +20 Save a character's life through healing +10 Heal a character’s sickness or injury @Mordecai @Talitha

Calypso had come to the hollow prepared. It is why, when she is pulled to this scene (call it instinct, perhaps) she clutches herbs in her teeth, wrapped in a large leaf. The blood is heavy in the air, the scene one that squeezes her heart in a brief sense of fear. It is gone as quickly as it comes and she is all business, approaching with zero hesitation or any sign of hesitance.

She happens to have frankincense, which is one of the more useful herbs for holding together bad injuries. In her little bundle is also some damp moss which she uses to soak up blood and clean out the wounds, as well as her own mix of usnea and devil's claw. The latter two work well for pain relief and as a mild sedative which would help her rest through the worst of it.

Calypso dropped her bundle and spoke up - "I have what we need." It was not her nature to overstep, but this was a life on the line. The mixed paste of herbs was placed before the girl and @Mordecai - "she needs to eat dis. it will help rest, and with de pain." Calypso paused, watching. "if she cannot swallow we can place de paste beneath her tongue."

A gesture to him, to indicate that he should help - while her gaze shifted to @Fawkes. "I have moss, dere, to clean out de cuts, and sap to pull de wound closed. some of de paste for de cut first, to keep infection away" Her gaze turned to the girl and her gaze was earnest and keen - "we will help. ye need to rest, be still."

Calypso fetched some of the damp moss and moved to wipe the wound and apply some pressure, hoping by now that the girl had taken some of the medicine to give her relief. "i am calypso," an afterthought, muttered quietly, her attention not moving from her work.

+20 Save a character's life through healing
+10 Heal a character’s sickness or injury
@Talitha

Art by Yumpy

it's as if her body wants her to sink into sleep, to save her from the pain of the present. yet -- she is incapable. if she looses consciousness it's only for a moment or two before she gasps, a weak and tear-filled thing that pulls from her throat. p-please, she pleads with @Calypso -- her form the most prominent, even if tali's vision was blurry and dark at the edges. the woman's strange accent lilts but she cannot quite parse the words. still, she listens -- unintentionally following her instructions as tali can do nothing else. please, she tries again -- spittle bubbling on her lips -- flecked terribly with blood. she doesn't know what she is asking for, but still she begs.

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Her quaking limb moved closer to him, and - awash with panic - Mordecai would lower his head in order to attempt to press a tender kiss to the woman's dark forehead. He had no words to say, nothing else to offer except himself, and in the quiet moment where it was just the two of them he would simply seek to wrap himself around her protectively. He knew, logically, he would have to get help, but the idea of leaving her alone... Unfathomable, especially if the assailants could still be lingering nearby.

Blessed were they, then, that help should come to their doorstep. Both strangers would receive reproachful looks, but the idea of Talitha perishing would overwhelm any sense of stranger danger that Mordecai might be experiencing. Any plea that might've tumbled forth was unnecessary - both @Fawkes and @Calypso seemed keen to help. A suspicious mind might have deemed it odd, yet the man was just so preoccupied with keeping Talitha safe and well that he would simply submit to it. Giving the medics a clear birth to do what they needed, he would edge himself around to the back of his beloved companion, placing another kiss to her nape as he sought to reassure both himself and his charge.

"Hush, my sweet, rest," Mordecai murmured, leaning into her as gently as he could muster. @Calypso's greeting is addressed as an afterthought, and he would look to both medics with a sombre but altogether grateful expression. Something genuine for a stranger, which was very much unlike him. "Thank you. I am Mordecai." A pause, as his next words threaten to catch in his throat.

"Please help - I cannot be without her."

Save a character's life through healing (2/2)
Heal a character’s sickness or injury (2/2)


@Fawkes is silent and she pays him no more mind - her paws are not still for even a moment. She focuses on wiping the wet moss across the wounds of her face, moving carefully. The touch is gentle but still firm, ensuring that she does all she can to clear away the blood.

It is a nasty cut, deep and likely to leave a lasting scar, but she does not dwell too long on this. Dry moss, next, to soak up the water and blood and leave her with a more clear area to work.

@Mordecai speaks and she barely hears him, glancing only briefly his way before she focuses again on her work. Noting the girl had not taken the herbs yet she gestured at them once more. "Please, try to get her to eat d'ese." It would help the girl, because the process would not be entirely pleasant.

Hoping they would manage, hoping he would hear her instructions and help @Talitha consume the pain killing herbs (even if they only went beneath her tongue to be absorbed more slowly) she would focus once more on the task at hand.

Battered and bruised it was still the cut across her face (and down her shoulder) that Calypso focused on first, bringing forward the rest of the paste to smear across the wounds. It would work to prevent infection, before she would seek to pull together the skin and hold it in place with sticky sap.

Art by Yumpy

there is pressure, suddenly, on her paw -- she does not realize, yet, that it is @Mordecai placing a kiss there. her eyes, glazed and unfocused as they are, only manage to see the vaguest shapes. @Calypso's voice is unfamiliar to her but soothing nonetheless, the lilting quality helpful even if she cannot parse the words. feather light kisses fall to the nape of her neck, as if those will undo the damage here. they do not but they serve to soothe, a nervous keen held just behind her molars. help, she wants to say, but knows that they are doing their best -- even if she can only barely feel it. her body, it seems, has numbed -- and she would only eat the herbs if prompted again, the process of chewing suddenly feeling alien and strange. her jaw aches with the effort and she shudders, a whimper pulling from her chest. please is a plea on her lips before it fades, finally falling unconscious -- falling blissfully into that oblivion, a balm to save her from the worst pain she's ever known. hopefully this time she would not awaken too soon; hopefully this time she could Rest while mending.

exit via unconsciousness, pls feel free to pp

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Quick to comply to @Calypso's request - after all, she certainly seemed like she knew what she was doing - Mordecai would take what was offered and seek to spoon it into the mouth of his beloved @Talitha. It had all taken such a toll on the maned maiden, though, and it was no surprise that she would soon slip into unconsciousness. It would send the older man into an inward panic; at least until he caught sight and sound of her breaths, sending her sides rising and falling as an indicator of life. He rocked back onto his haunches, alert and ready to comply with any other instructions that Calypso might give.

Anything for her.

EXIT