Log Date: 11/4/96
Log Cast:
	Eagle, Ynderra, Dart, Branch
Log Intro:
	Summoned home to Lostholt by Strongbow, Ynderra, her mate Kai, and
Dart's two jackwolf riders Eagle and Mirth, have returned to the Holt.
Urgently anxious due to the news of Trouble's situation, Ynderra has
hurried the others home as quickly as possible, and upon arrival at the
Holt, has been greeted by Strongbow and pointed at the wrapstuff cocoon
that contains Dart....

----------
Eagle is lounging on a low branch that overlooks Dart's cocoon. He's busy 
  carving yet another trinket from wood, deft fingers moving just ahead of the 
  carving blade so that the carver doesn't really have to watch.

Ynderra, looking as tired and frazzled as she has for several moons now, 
  emerges from the Father Tree looking brisk and businesslike. "Let's get down 
  to it," she mutters softly to herself. A glance around the quiet clearing, 
  noting who's present, then the healer maiden kneels by the cocoon and runs 
  her fingers over it.

Eagle watches, still carving, "Time to free up the stubborn one, huh?"

"Before Strongbow gnashes his teeth into sand," murmurs Ynderra. Her fingers 
  glow a little, and she frowns, perhaps at what they tell her. Then she draws 
  a knife, and gently begins snipping away at the cocoon.

Wrapstuff cocoon
Shiny webs of gossamer spun by a Preserver. The cocoon is about the size of a 
  tallish wolfrider, those currently at Lostholt will know that Dart's inside.
Carrying:
Dart

Ynderra works, first, at freeing Dart's face; the moment most of it is 
  visible, she lays a hand on his forehead, and her fingers begin to glow 
  again. With the other hand holding the blade, she works at freeing a little 
  more of him even as her expression begins to go absent with concentration.

Dart has arrived.

Light, perhaps, is the first thing the enwrapt Wolfrider might sense -- 
  green-golden light, warm, bright, and questing. It soaks through the skin of 
  his face like sunlight.

Dart opens his eyes, slowly at first but they widen quickly as a mixture of 
  confusion and utter terror fill his expression. "No! Spiders, have to leave, 
  Doreel.. not safe", mutters the chieftain as he thrashes weakly.

The light responds, broadcasting first a feeling of Safety, of 
  you're-with-Tribe, of Ynderra-ness. ** Shhh, Dart, shh, it's alright, don't 
  fight me, it's 'Derra... **

Eagle blinks and drops down from his branch, slipping knife and carving 
  silently into his pouch. "Easy my chief, you're not gonna get healed if you 
  keep trashing like a foaming mountain cat."

The thrashing chieftain calms some, ** But the spiders! They caught me again, 
  thought I got out! <<panic>> **

Ynderra leans low over Dart so he can see her face. Her blue eyes are liquid 
  with worry; her skin glows with the light she's putting out, to infuse into 
  him. ** Dart... shh... hush now... you're safe. It's me. It's 'Derra. Let me 
  see what's wrong so I can heal you. I'm letting you out now. Don't fight me. 
  Shhh... **

Eagle kneels down next to his chieftain, "You're in Lostholt, Dart. An I'm 
  pretty sure it was Berrybuzz that wrapped you up."

Ynderra hands the blade to Eagle without a word, letting both her hands glow 
  now, as she keeps the one on Dart's forehead and the other plucking aside 
  wrapstuff strands till she can get it onto his chest.

Dart stops thrashing completely as pieces suddenly start to click in to place. 
  The terror leaves his expression but the confusion stays.

The light and the warmth continue, waiting with anxious patience, till Dart 
  signals assent to Ynderra's ministrations. She sends, gently, ** You're 
  safe... you're safe... **

Eagle says "Hey chieftain, it's me Eagle, your sickly hide cut me and Mirth's 
  trip short so don't go refusing to get better."

Dart sighs and gives Ynderra a slight nod, his expression at last one of calm.

That's what she was waiting for. The maiden presses both her hands down a 
  little more firmly, and the glow she's putting out brightens, making a globe 
  of illumination that bathes both her and the prone hunter. Curiously, that 
  glow sinks into him, and seeks out what's wrong, what needs healing.

You sense in a locksend, Dart gives you the sense that there's venom coursing 
  through him in addition to being near starving.

Eagle looks away from the bright glow but keeps a comforting hand on the 
  chieftain's shoulder.

Ynderra lowers her head slightly, her stance turning stubborn. Locks of her 
  black hair fall down about her face as she closes her eyes. She didn't 
  confront the poison from Doreel's spiders when it had gotten into Strongbow 
  and Rillwhisper; here and now she winces, sending out a tendril of 
  thought-glow to anchor Dart should his mind go dreaming without him, and 
  devoting the rest of her attention to getting rid of the poison.

Eagle glances at the healing process quickly before looking away, "You're 
  gonna be in top shape in no time, my chief and back bossing me around the 
  Village."

Dart mumbles faintly, "Have..have to get her out..."

Her dainty face sheening over slightly in sweat, Ynderra orders the taint out 
  of Dart's blood; the chieftain might, perhaps, sense it as a wave of water 
  making dirt crumble in passing. Minutes pass before she begins to withdraw, 
  triumphantly; only then does she send-murmur, ** We will, Dart, we will... 
  ** And, aside: ** Eagle! Can you make him food? **

Eagle hrms and nods. The desert scout rises and ponders something, "Mirth and 
  I've got some stuff we've been saving for the trip home, Dart can have 
  that." He walks off to where the small Sun VIllage contingent left their 
  wolves and zwoot to return a few long moments later laden with bags and a 
  few skins.
Eagle drops to his knees next to his chieftain, "So what's your pleasure, 
  smoked fish? Got some fruit juice, got some deer meat." He glances in a few 
  of the pouches, "Got some boar's meat if you want a taste of home."

Ynderra remains kneeling by Dart, and at last, reasonably sure she's cleansed 
  the spider-venom out of him, she nevertheless keeps the link of healing 
  open, looking for anything else that needs her attention. The starvation 
  she's already noticed, but there's only so much healing magic can do, and 
  she focuses on fixing what's broken rather than trying to provide that which 
  isn't there. Threaded throughout her contact she keeps a litany of 
  assurances of safety, of a promise of aid to be given.

Dart looks around the clearing and then at Eagle, almost accusingly, "You're 
  not supposed to be here."

Eagle grins, "You can yell later, you gonna eat or is someone gonna have to 
  nurse you like a newborn?" He hold out a piece of dried meat to the prone 
  chieftain, "Mirth's here to so you can yell at us both."

Ynderra strokes Dart's forehead with still-glowing fingers, and tells him 
  mildly, ** They showed up here after you left, and went with me to 
  Willowholt, but came back with me, too, as soon as your father sent that you 
  needed help. How do you feel **

Dart sniffs the piece of proffered piece of meat, ** Like I got trampled by a 
  zwoot stampede.. ** He shifts uncomfortably, ** Don't like knowing I got 
  covered with webbing again. **

Ynderra moves to pluck the rest of the webbing off the weakened elf, and 
  wrinkles her nose again at the scars of old wounds she finds on him. Her 
  hands linger here and there along his too-lean frame, encouraging scabs and 
  scratches to vanish.

Dart chews on the bit of boar's meat given to him by Eagle, ** Doreel wasn't 
  quite interested in healing me, as much as he was interested in Trouble 
  staying in the grove... have to get her out before he does something to her. 
  **

Eagle asks quietly, "You sure you don't want to come back to the Village with 
  Mirth and me? Just cause you got healed up some doesn't mean you're ready to 
  go out and face those things again."

Ynderra's eyes darken. As she sees Dart rousing, apparently regaining command 
  of his senses, she withdraws her hands and glances between the two males.

Dart shakes his head, still tired but at least coherant, ** Trouble first, 
  then back to the Village. ** He struggles to sit up until Eagle helps him, 
  ** Still tired... **

Eagle supports his cheiftain, noting that Dart's much light than the last time 
  the sharp-eyed scout had to carry his chief.

Ynderra helps lift Dart, as she says softly, "You'd better eat, Dart, but not 
  too fast and not too much; you need your strength if you're going anywhere." 
  Her face stays unusually solemn.

Dart nods picking up some smoked fish and taking small bits, ** When I got 
  back... Strongbow made Blaze get some food for me.. ate too fast and threw 
  up. ** He mutters softly, "Oh High Ones, Father..."

Ynderra smiles wanly, gently. "I'm going to go talk to him. You should 
  probably rest."

Eagle shrugs and hands Dart a waterskin, "Something to wash it down with." 
  Green eye sparkling with mischief as the blue one winks.

Ynderra peers at Eagle. "Don't you _dare_ try to get him drunk and make me 
  have to heal him again," she scolds.

Eagle looks completely innocent, "I wouldn't get him drunk, anyway. You know 
  how surly he gets when he's drunk?"

Dart pulls the stopper on the skin and sniffs, ** It's juice, Ynderra, made 
  from picker plants. ** He takes a long, slow swig from the skin, ** It's my 
  favorite. **

Eagle smiles smugly at the healer, "'Sides, I don't share my wine with just 
  anyone, not even Mirth."

Ynderra replies pertly, "I watched you and Mirth eat enough shrooms at 
  Willowholt that I'd expect you'd even try to get _Rayek_ drunk." She nods, 
  though, at Dart's words. "Good; you need something like juice, though. Your 
  body's desperate for that." Her eyes go slightly liquid, perhaps in empathy.

Eagle shrugs, "Mirth's the one that wants to get Rayek drunk, I'd settle for 
  getting my brother drunk."

Dart takes another long drink, ** How come you're out here anyway. Eagle? **

Ynderra gives one expressive splutter at the entire concept of inebriating the 
  erstwhile master of the Palace, while still eying Dart anxiously. She tells 
  him, "I think you ought to sit and sleep a while, too. The others probably 
  won't let you go anywhere till you can walk without falling down, so if you 
  want to go with Skywise to rescue Trouble you'd better rest."

Eagle bites his lower lip nervously, "I think that can wait a while, no I know 
  that can wait awhile... long while... never sounds good."

Dart gives Eagle a long, searching look, ** You'll tell me next time I ask, 
  Eagle. ** He nods at Ynderra's directions, "I'll rest, just to keep 
  Strongbow off your back."

Ynderra giggles a little. "He's pretending not to give me anxious looks over 
  Willowholt, too, so I've got to talk to him anyway."

Dart nods chewing away on yet another piece of smoked fish.

Eagle says "In other words he's acting like Dart does when he's kept waiting 
  for a scouting reports."

Dart mumbles, "Do not act like him, least not that much."

Eagle grins, "Not even a bit, my chief."

Ynderra's smile flickers somewhere between anxiety and amusement. "Strongbow, 
  if you ask me," she pronounces, "can't make up his mind whether to scoot off 
  to Willowholt and shower Rillwhisper in wolf-cubs and singlehandedly try to 
  order all the Willowholt trees to start acting normal again, whether to go 
  yell at Doreel to give us Trouble back, or whether to faint in relief that 
  Cutter's back. Not like he'd tell anybody, of course, but then again, I AM 
  getting good at noticing such things." She gives another little giggle.

Dart adds softly, "Or be disappointed in his cub."

Ynderra crouches by Dart; if he's not already sitting, she gently presses on 
  his shoulder to make him do so. "Now what put a silly thought in your head 
  like that? If it's the spider poison, you better let me heal you again."

Eagle snorts, "There you go again, any more of that talk and I'll give you the 
  same talking I gave your cub."

The chieftain sigh, "It's not spider's poison, Ynderra... Wish it were because 
  I-I hurt him, and he admitted it."

Ynderra reaches over and taps Dart's brown nose with a dainty fingertip. "So 
  tell him you're sorry and get on with your life, silly!" She sends, then, 
  abruptly, an image of Strongbow greeting her and the others as they came 
  pelting into the Holt; the archer was, unsurprisingly, as brusque of 
  expression and tone as he ever is, save for a telltale worried glimmer about 
  his brown eyes. "That _wasn't_ a disappointed father who gave me greeting 
  when we got here."

Dart mummbles something to the effect of 'Not that simple..'

Eagle smirks, "Of course not, Dart, then it wouldn't be some mess you've 
  gotten yourself into now would it?"

Ynderra's black eyebrows go up, and she sighs, abruptly lifting her hand to 
  smooth Dart's hair back from his face, not only to soothe by touch, but to 
  give him a bit more of her magic, offering strength by which to recover. 
  "Puckernuts, you're almost as bad as Trouble refusing to talk to Myriel, you 
  know that?" Her tone is too gentle to be truly chiding, for all that she's 
  clearly disturbed.

Dart takes another long swig from the waterskin, ** You try talking to him 
  about something you know he's not going to like. **

Eagle smirks, "Couldn't be any harder than trying to convince Ahdri that 
  Gentlerock was old enough to be in charge while you're here."
Eagle smiles at Ynderra, "Ahdri still thinks she's got to baby her little boy."

Dart can't help but grin remembering the conversation/arguements about that, 
  ** She didn't like it one bit. **

Ynderra wrinkles her nose at bits of twig and leaf she finds tumbled in Dart's 
  mop, then settles at least for now just on bathing him with gentle light. 
  She smiles a bit at Eagle, then sighs and tells Dart, "I _have_ talked to 
  him about stuff he doesn't like. That's why I went to Willowholt. _He_ came 
  to me asking for my help and even then I had to drag it out of him as to 
  why. It wasn't just that the Willowholt trees are all messed up or that 
  their pack isn't having cubs or that Talek's mindsick... he was also worried 
  about Rillwhisper and moving the Palace is probably easier than getting him 
  to admit when he's worried about somebody. He had the exact same expression 
  then that he did when he told me where your cocoon was."

Dart says "Well this time it's my own fault, he thinks I don't trust him 
  anymore."

You say "Well, do you?"

Dart says "Of course I trust him, it's just that..."

Ynderra sits back on her heels, and crosses her arms, waiting expectantly.

Dart sighs, "Whenever I'm around him, I'm not an adult. I'm just his boy-cub 
  again and someone to order around without discussion."

Eagle says "Everybody's parents are like that.. I think."

The healer frowns, leaning forward a bit to see if she can meet Dart's gaze, 
  or get a good look at his face. "How, exactly, has he ordered you around 
  lately?" she asks simply.

Dart willing meets Ynderra's gaze, "He told me I couldn't go with the rescue 
  party."

Eagle watches the exchange quietly, for one stumped for something to say.

Dart says "Told it to the whole council that I had to stay here, he knows why 
  I want to go with the rescue party. He'd react the same way I did if it were 
  mother they were rescueing and he had to stay here."
Ynderra looks Dart up and down, then says frankly, "And what would you do, if 
  it were Moonshade in the spider grove, and Strongbow here, his blood full of 
  spider poision and his body so starved that he could barely walk? Would you 
  let him go after her?"

Dart says "You don't understand..."

Ynderra offers Dart another image: his father, after Skywise and the 
  Willowholters brought him home. Strongbow nearly as gaunt as Dart now, both 
  him and the Willowholt chieftess too shaky to hunt, their bodies craving 
  sleep and rest. And with it, she shrugs one slender shoulder. "What I 
  understand is that Strongbow might be your father, but he's not your chief. 
  High Ones, Dart -- if you were my cub I'd sit on you, too, and not let you 
  go into danger till you were strong enough! So rest, eat, and make sure 
  you're strong enough, and if Strongbow can't handle it, well, he of all 
  people ought to understand that you need to go back there and get Trouble. 
  Because he and Rillwhisper nearly died there. If anything, Dart, if it makes 
  him feel better, I'll remind him that I'm going, too, because you'd all be 
  really silly not to take a healer with you."

Eagle says "What're you all worried about, Trouble's probably driven Doreel 
  sane by now."
Eagle mimics the young huntress's words from when she was in the Village, "'I 
  don't want to be any trouble'"

Dart scowls darkly at Eagle, "You can just hush."

Ynderra, fingers sparkling briefly, ruffles Dart's hair a bit. "Besides, 
  Cutter's back now. And Leetah. So if there's anybody who is going to be 
  ordering anybody, it'll be Cutter."

Branch has arrived.

Ynderra then adds, after a moment, her voice gentling, "Am I still not 
  understanding, Dart?"

Dart hmmphs.

Ynderra looks up, then.

Branch walks up into the rough opening that leads into the tree.
Branch has left.

Eagle says "Nobody ever understands Dart's problems but Dart."

Ynderra glances in mild bemusement after the stranger, then shifts her gaze 
  back to the tall brown hunter. She shifts, sitting down cross-legged on the 
  grass. "I know I'm rather bubbleheaded, but if you explain it to me, maybe 
  I'll get it." She grins crookedly.

[But Dart is exhausted, and the healer must allow him to rest... end log.]