Log Date: July 6, 1996 Log Cast: Of Lostholt: Leetah, Ynderra, Kai Lostholt visitors: Thicket Log Intro: Many strangers have been coming to Lostholt as of late -- and among them, Thicket, brought in by Slate and Silvermoon in the hopes that the healer Leetah can aid her. But Leetah has also been busy with other visitors -- healing Terlis's broken hand, and aiding Lara and Shado in the birth of their child -- so the Holt's younger healer, Ynderra, has taken charge of Thicket, trying her best to soothe the feral stranger's fever and find out why her shoulder is so badly scarred. This has kept Ynderra away from helping with the birthing, which went noticed by Leetah -- and thus, the older healer, as soon as she can, seeks out the younger.... ---------- Leetah locksends ** Hello Ynderra. Would you like to tell me about our newest arrivals? ** You locksend ** Mrmmmm? Oh! Okay.... I was napping... where are you? ** to Leetah. Leetah locksends ** I can come to you if you prefer. I am in my den. ** You locksend ** Let me... mrmm, let me get up. I had a couple dreamberries, Ember was telling a story... oh. I'm outside! ** to Leetah. You sense in a locksend, Leetah's mental chuckle seems audible. You locksend ** I'll come to you... just a moment! ** to Leetah. [Up through the Father Tree Ynderra goes, towards Cutter and Leetah's den.] You climb further up through the branches. Farther up the Tree(#778RL) You're standing on the upper branches of the Father Tree, near the top. Rounded bulges where branches meet the trunk and split, hold dens for the elves that live this far up in the tree. Climbing down towards the lower branches doesn't appear to be that hard. As the daystar sets the air turns chilly in the NewGreen evening. Contents: Nightfall Obvious exits: Type "DENS" to see who lives here. Down You locksend to Leetah, Ynderra, just outside, sends, ** Can I come in? ** Kai has connected. Leetah locksends ** Please. ** Kai blinks. Ynderra smiles to Kai, a bit drowsily, and says, "I have to talk to leetah, want to hear this? It's about healing..." Cutter and Leetah's Den(#2716RL) In the seasons since Leetah returned from the Sun Village, she has once again made her presence here known. The silks and brightly colored pillows have reappeared, and a gentle perfume once again fills the room. Sleeping furs and woven blankets are piled neatly in a corner, where they may be sat upon. The window has once again been filled with colorful and shiny mementos from the desert, lovingly tended.. All in all, there is a joyful air about the room. Contents: Leetah Obvious exits: Out Ynderra comes crawling in, and pipes, "Kai's up!" Leetah laughs. "Is he?" Cutter has been up since the sun went down. Ynderra bobs her head. "I'll see if he watnts to hear this... it's about healer stuff, after all..." You locksend ** You want to come in here, lifemate? It's about healing, and everything... and the new stranger! ** to Kai. Kai has arrived. Ynderra beams at her lifemate as he peeks in. "Come on!" Kai appears quickly, as he was waiting just outside anyway.. he grins a bit, at what may not be clear to others.. Leetah tilts her head, smiling at Kai, but still curious about what Ynd is about to say. Ynderra shakes herself a bit, settles, and tells Leetah earnestly, "I was in trance... with that stranger, Thicket...!" Kai settles down next to Ynderra.. ** trance? ** Ynderra nods wide-eyedly to you both. "I had to.... see, the other strangers brought her in, and she was all feverish, so I hauled her down to the visitors' den, so I could work on her -- I mean, Leetah, you were busy with Terlis and all! I think I got the fever, but her shoulder..." Ynderra's features crumple a little. "Her shoulder is awful." Kai says "Wa's wrong with her?" Leetah listens, expression soft. She holds out one hand, "Show me. Send and share it." Ynderra bobs her head solemnly. She takes a breath, and begins to send, to you both... Ynderra sends openly ** ** Kai winces. Leetah's expression does not change. Ynderra sends on, how she immediately convinced the strangers to bring the sick and injured one to the den. Blaze is there, toddling along curiously, battling at the sparkles his mother makes as soon as Ynderra crouches beside the stranger, sinking immediately into her magic. Leetah listens attentively, her whole attention on what the send relates. Ynderra sends openly ** ** Kai shakes his head.. he says softly. " We can't do.." Leetah says softly, "We can. But -should- we?" Leetah's green eyes are serious as they gague Kai's reaction. Ynderra finishes tinily, "Something hurt her shoulder really badly and she wouldn't let me try to help it. Ember thought she was in wolfsong, maybe." Kai says "If they're Wolfriders.. if she can't be whole, maybe she needs to not be alive? She might live in Sorrow's End.. but, here? Or the Jungle? She'd be killed by packs, or animals on the trip, or.." Kai says "I'm surprised she's still alive now.. that her friends would come here to try and save her." Leetah raises her hand. In a soft, but very sure voice she says "I do not judge." Ynderra, delicate little face grave and uncertain, nods slowly, and asks Leetah, "What should we do?" Leetah's eyes turn sternly to each young healer in turn. "If she wishes to be healed, we shall heal her. Wolfsong or no, we do not force our wishes on another." Leetah says "Shall I talk to her perhaps?" Ynderra blushes, says tinily, "I kinda put her to sleep. 'Cause she needed it... she was very tired..." She hangs her head under the stern green regard. Leetah nods. "That was wise." Kai shrugs. Ynderra looks up again. "Should we wake her up?" Leetah's eyes drift to a small stone ornament of some sort. She shakes her head. "When she awakes of her own power is time enough." Leetah smiles gently at the rock, expression distant, and turns to the other two. "Now. If she does choose to seek our aid, what do you think we should do?" Ynderra nibbles her lip, uneasily. "Do you want to go look, anyway?" she begins. Then goes on firmly, eyes liquid, "I want to fix that shoulder! It..." Ynderra thinks, then goes on, "It _felt_ awful!" Leetah nods, compassionate both to the pain and the healer's wish to cure it. Ynderra rubs at her own shoulder, reflexively. "It felt like..." She frowns. "Something hit her. Right here. Hard." Leetah says "If she is as lost in wolfsong as she sounds to be, how would she feel if she awoke to a stranger touching her? I think it best to wait until she awakes." Leetah nods. "That is the sort of injury which would damage a bone so. Kai frowns a bit. "What could have struck her so hard?" Leetah holds out her hand, healing glow starting. "Feel this... what type of wound would cause this injury do you think?" The feeling which creeps into your hand, should you choose to extend it, is one of feeling then total absence, as though the injury were completely localized along a line and the limb simply stopped afterward. There is no sense of continuation of the injury, it exists solely on a line at the termination of the limb. Ynderra lifts her small fingers, closing her eyes, sensing. She shivers a bit, and squeaks, "It was like that... her arm was like that!" Kai considers.. "Must've been old, if it's scarred up like that.. I'm surprised she'd still alive at all.. she should've bled inside, huh? Leetah arches a brow at Kai's choice of words. Kai blinks. "Am I wrong?" Ynderra listens anxiously to all of this. Leetah's lips curve slightly. "Your choice of words is ... interesting." Kai shrugs, not understanding. Ynderra, clearly not getting it, blinkblinks at Leetah. "How come? I mean, it feels really nasty..." She shivers. "I think humans did, it, maybe? Or she fell off a cliff... or something..." Kai says "Had to have been a weapon.. what else?" Leetah listens quietly. Kai says "Sling stone?" You say "Could a stone _do_ that.... I mean... the whole shoulder was... split, almost!" Kai says "Ah.. I was paying too much attention to the shattering." Leetah turns from one to the other. She finally asks softly, "Did you catch how SHE felt about it?" Ynderra says lowly, "She wouldn't send to me. Just growls. No words." Leetah nods. "That makes it more difficult." Leetah sighs. Leetah pauses to send gently to see if this stranger is awake. Leetah shakes her head. "She does not appear to be." Kai shrugs. "What do we do, then?" Ynderra wrinkles her nose. "Or she's not answering..." Leetah smiles. "We wait." Ynderra, uneasily, nods. "If you say so..." She frowns. "Slate said she didn't like elves. That she'd be scared... or maybe try to hurt somebody. She's awfully skinny, though..." Leetah frowns faintly. Leetah has left. Ynderra blinks, as Leetah suddenly leaves the den. "Wha..." [Ynderra scrambles out of Cutter and Leetah's den, after the older healer.] You locksend ** Come on! I think Thicket might have awakened... ** to Kai. [And with that, Kai and Ynderra hasten out to catch up with Leetah.] ----- [Meanwhile, sequestered in the visitor's den where Ynderra put her earlier, Thicket has awakened. No longer febrile, she nevertheless has realized that she is in an unfamiliar place, and remembers someone trying to work healing magic on her. Remembering Mender's unsuccessful attempt and how it made her arm ache, and unwilling to let that happen again, she begins to sneak out of the Holt....] Thicket(#4108POXc) Lean and wiry, this elf has a look about her of one who has seen many, many turns of the seasons. Her pale, weathered face - too strong of line to be called either delicate or pretty - is framed by an untidy thatch of dark hair that catches the light in streaks and sparks of silver and red; one single thin braid dangles loosely beside her face. Her eyes, dappled light brown and green and gold, are crinkled at the edges, and her glance gives the fleeting impression of moonlight on leaves scattered across damp earth. When she chances to speak, it is with a low, rough voice that is likely not used often. She is clad in old, rough leathers: a cloak stiched together from amny tanned hides of ravvits, in pale dappled shades on the outside, and when her movements allow, one can see glimpses of assorted colors of fur on the inner lining. The cloak hangs oddly off her right shoulder, and only her left arm moves from under the leather at any time. Her legs are covered with crudely stitched breeches; her feet are bare, gauntly muscled, with myriad old scars and scratches. Her mood, if it can be called that, seems one of distrustful, feral wariness. She reacts to anything in her vicinity with alert sniffing, a twitch of her ears, and occasionally, a low growl.... You walk back out of the Father Tree. Base of the Lost Holt Father Tree(#765RJ) A dense grove of grotesquely shaped trees dominated by one immense Grandfather of a tree whose age is no less great than its size. It is obvious that the old tree has survived a terrible tragedy but new growth and thick strong branches cover the worst of the scars left by the terrible blaze. Weeds and night blooming wildflowers grow in a riot of natural disorder around the trees roots, taking advantage of the NewGreen warmth. Like old friends, the gnarled trees embrace one another, their many branches entwining to form a dense canopy high above the ground. As the daystar sets the air turns chilly in the NewGreen evening. Contents: SafeRunner Calmwind(#7032Jopq) Obvious exits: Into the Tree Around the Tree Clearing You locksend ** ** to Leetah. [And after a few moments, while Thicket gets her bearings on this strange pack-place...] Leetah walks out of the Father Tree. Leetah has arrived. Leetah moves quickly, and stops when she sees Thicket. Touching minds briefly to affirm, she smiles gently. "Welcome, stranger." Thicket crouches before the pair of wolves, practically eye to eye with them. All three are snarling, the elf rather louder than the wolves... and at the words, she jerks, and whirls around. Leetah continues her nonthreatening welcome. Thicket blinkblinks. And stares, at Leetah, startledly, dark gaze flicking over the other's brown skin. Her nose quivers, as if she takes a measure of her scent. Ynderra walks out of the Father Tree. Ynderra has arrived. Ynderra peeks out of the tree, behind Leetah, and clamps her mouth shut at the sight. Kai walks out of the Father Tree. Kai has arrived. Thicket stands, with a pair of the Lostholt wolves cutting off her path out of the Holt, each of them wary but not yet actively hostile. Thicket herself stare in evident startlement at Leetah, momentarily halted, stunned. Ynderra locksends, to Kai, Leetah: ** What's... what's wrong? ** Leetah shows nothing but comfortable welcome. Leetah sends to Ynderra and Kai that they might wait in the tree until the shy visitor is more at ease. Thicket's lip curls in a somewhat louder snarl as she spies the other two elves behind the brown one. Her single visible hand clenches under the cloak that hangs on her gaunt body. Ynderra bobs her head in silent obedience, backing up into the tree's entrance, watching from within. Kai shakes his head, but he backs up a bit, putting himself between Ynderra and the feral Wolfrider.. but he looks ready to charge to Leetah's rescue should she need it. Thicket blinks a time or two more as the small black-haired one backs up. A pack? Yes. The brown one... the alpha female? Thicket shifts, warily, her eyes taking in Leetah's movements, her stance. Leetah's stance is easy. If she is the alpha female, she holds none of the challenge of position. Thicket remains where she is, paused, clearly poised for flight. But her eyes have widened slightly, and in obvious fascination, she stares at Leetah, transfixed. Ynderra locksends, to Kai, Leetah: ** Leetah! What are you going to do? Look at her stare...! ** Leetah smiles, completely at ease with being stared at. "Hungry?" she asks in a gentle tone. The ragged one frowns. "Hunt," she barks. Then a strange expression flickers across her eyes, and her left hand comes up to rub at her cloaked right shoulder. Leetah continues to smile. "Are you hurt?" She gestures to the shoulder. Thicket's frown deepens. "Lame," she growls, the world barely discernible. Kai offers.. "We'll make you better." Thicket's gaze flicks to Kai, and again she stares, wide-eyed. Kai At first glance, this elf is not remarkable.. but if one takes the time to look closer, you see that he is a collection of incongruities. Not too tall.. not anywhere near a Glider's height, but somewhat taller than an average Wolfrider.. but then again, not as squat or powerful.. his frame seems to be mostly sleek muscle. His complexion is dark.. whatever flesh might be exposed is of a dark tan, especially on his face and arms.. you also might notice a rather lot of well-healed scars: most of them small and shallow. His eyes are sky-blue, his long hair is sort-of a blue-black, which seems to defy the Daystar's attempts to lighten it.. his hair is long, and most of it pulled back into some semblance of a topknot, secured by a piece of hide.. the rest drops to past his shoulders. His features are more angular than a Wolfrider's.. more like the elves of Blue Mountain, perhaps.. something more like the High Ones. He wears a set of soft leathers that, while being technically fine, show little more than utilitarianism: knee-high breeches, rather loose, with draw-string ties at the waist and knees, ventilated on the sides to allow cooler air to pass through.. and a loose vest that ties in the front at several places. He also wears a pair of lace-up moccasins that rise to nearly his knees. They are all undyed and unadorned even by tassles.. but they look soft and comfortable. At his waist is a belt of leather, held together by a cunning knot, stained with sweat and other fluids.. from which depends a sheath and a long knife with a leather-wrapped handle, the base of which is wide and blunt.. useful for finishing off prey by crushing their bones. Other than that, he carries no other weapons. Leetah offers a hand to the strange elf in a gesture of gentleness and concern. Thicket stares longly at Kai. Her face quivers, oddly; the wild look in her eyes shifts over to a kind of startled grief, momentarily. Then her nose quivers again, as at last, she catches this other brown one's scent. Ynderra peers around her mate's shoulder, timidly, but needing to see, nonetheless Kai cocks his head. "We _will_ make better. Let us?" Thicket frowns, and suddenly barks, confused, "Arm dead...." Leetah shakes her head. "It's just sleeping. Let us wake it up for you." Kai nods. "We will make it move again.. but you have to let us." Thicket spies Ynderra once more, and peers at her, scowling. But these two brown ones.... Thicket's face turns less and less fierce, as she mutters, "Not like pack...." Thicket's gaze lingers on Kai's black hair. Leetah shakes her head. "No, we aren't of the pack." Leetah holds out a hand, but does not approach rapidly. A glow starts around her fingers as her magic reaches out to touch Thicket gently, unobtrusively. Thicket frowns again. But as Leetah's fingers glimmer, she jerks, and her gaze locks on that faint glow. Kai says calmly.. "It's allright.. she wants to make your arm awake again." The magic glowing around her hand feels warm and tingly. Once more Thicket's gaze flicks to Kai and his black hair, as if this fascinaetes her almost as much as the glow. But the glow draws her attention back; very subtly, her face starts to relax. Leetah's healing glow shifts and grows, coursing through Kai like a fiery river. With a gentle send, she guides Ynderra into the joint healing. Kai looks back to the tree, to make certain Ynderra is safely in the tree.. then he moves forward slowly, calmly. Thicket's eyes go rounder, at the wash of.... what?!.... that spills across her. Leetah stands back, slipping into a trance, acutely aware of whether Thicket welcomes the healing or not. Ynderra wrinkles her nose at Kai. She _can_ take care of herself. Besides, what can this stranger do with three of them, here? She steps out after him, moving slowly, so as to not spook the stranger. Thicket sends, without form, ** ... ** Her left hand lifts, to the growing glow in the air. Thicket starts trembling, just a little. A faint whine rattles in the back of her throat. Kai continues moving forward, his arms spread a bit. Ynderra sends meekly, keeping it simple: ** ** Leetah lets her magic swell as that gesture of trust allows her to lose herself completely in the healing. Subtly she joins her magic with that of the other two, flowing warmly to fill the clearing. Thicket stares unsurely at the tiniest of these three elves, then gasps, shakily, at the glow surrounding her. In that breath of time Kai and Leetah can reach her. Kai reaches out to touch the wounded elf.. perhaps a bit of uncertainty if this major healing will hurt the patient or not leaks out into a public send. Leetah's send reaches to cover and entwine that sense of doubt, and gently to dispel it... there is a sense of pain as a part of growth, how growing muscles ache as they reform over formerly shattered bones. Gently she guides the healing, shaping the arm into its natural form. Taking her cue from Leetah, Ynderra slips in beside the two dark-skinned healers. She's glowing, now, too, adding her light to the others', not quite daring to touch Thicket. Thicket, though, stumbles, and her face contorts, as she feels her shoulder begin to... move. Kai touches Thicket a bit more firmly now, to help hold her up. "Is allright." Thicket hisses, makes another noise partway between growl and whine, and grabs at the shoulder with her working hand. There's pain in that flesh, old, old pain, and the wild one flinches as the glow calls it up. Kai says "SHhh.. it will be better." Leetah is lost in guiding the power of three healers together to ease long twisted skin, muscle and bone. In a sense it is shaping as much as healing, as the scar tissue is softened away, the bones flow together like water, and the long disused muscles reknit. Ynderra's relaying was true. Thicket's shoulder is a mass of twisted flesh and skin; buried within that nerve-dead lump is a bone almost sundered in two. Fragments of it cluster loosely around the break. And as the combined light does its work, it revives with the pain memory of what caused it: an axe. Huge. Heavy. Stone. Smashing down onto the shoulder-bone. Thicket's face goes pale, sheens over in sweat. Her knees buckle under her. Ynderra, as Kai and Leetah have both the stranger's arms, kneels before her and clasps her right hand, trying to poor her own share of the glimmer in from the other end of the lifeless arm. Kai slips his arms about Thicket's hips, to hold her up. "Here.. almost done." Leetah is lost in the memory, lost in the sensation. Unaware of the other elves around her, she becomes as much one with the body and the healing as any shaper does with his rock or plant. All three healers can sense the flash of panic out of the old, wild elf's mind -- old she is, perhaps twice again as old as the bearded Strongbow. But whether it's panic at the five-fingers in her memory, the Tall One with the axe, or panic at the molten glow that seems to be coaxing order into her thoughts even as it coaxes order into her shoulder-bone, is difficult to say. Ynderra's eyes drop softly closed. She, too, is drawn deeply into the healing, wanting to see what Leetah does, but it's hard to keep herself separate enough to learn from the elder healer. The maiden contents herself with pouring light and strength up to Leetah's hands, letting her do with it what she will. Motherly love radiates through the healing from Leetah, a sense of protectiveness and gentle soothing of the pain of the healing. There is also a sense of sharing, not just between the healers whose powers pool together, greater than the sum of their parts, but between the hurt and the healing. It is an empathy greater than most will ever feel. Thicket crumples in Kai's grasp, whimpering again. Pain. Why are they making her remember pain? She twitches, trying to break free, but her entire arm seems afire with pain, from her... shoulder, down to her fingertips. Something is wrong with this, but she can't figure out what. And as Leetah sends her profound emotions, that undoes the wild one. Her eyes well over with tears. Old as she is, the maternal sending falls on her like rain on a near-dead green growing thing. Leetah cries too, through eyelids closed in trance. She reaches to embrace the poor she-elf, easing her share of the pain as much as she can. Kai holds Thicket firmly.. "almost done.. almost." There is more pain than just the physical in this hurt one; there's loneliness, too, long-buried grief. Something connected with black hair, that flits without form through her overwhelmed thoughts. Loss. But these are nearly blocked out by the hot pulse of nerves in an arm dead over eight turns of the seasons, nearly two eights, and discovering all at once that they can relay sensation once more. Ynderra wraps her arms around the others, bowing her head towards Thicket's disheveled one. Kai braces for the violent twitch he assumes will come. Thicket jerks, but feebly, and a tiny whimper escapes her clenched teeth. Her arm has gone stiff and taut in Ynderra and Leetah's hands -- but _this_ is a change. Before, it lay dead. Leetah sighs, gradually starting to withdraw from her trance, the major part of the healing achieved. Ynderra is breathing deeply, almost impercetibly slow. Her fingers blaze around Thicket's right hand. Thicket herself curls between the healers. They can feel her mind whirling, flashes of memory flickering on and off in the glow. It does not take long, however, before her mind shuts itself down, overwrought by too much sensation... and she faints. Kai grunts for a moment under the sudden dead weight.. he lowers Thicket to the ground carefully, ending up with her head in his lap. Leetah starts when the link is abrubtly severed as Thicket faints. She looks rather stunned herself as her eyes open. She looks ... pale. She presses one hand to her head. "She... is she... alright?" Ynderra's voice is the first to break the silence, but it's the meekest of noises. Leetah nods, smiling wanly. She rests a gentle hand on the feral elf's brow. "She will be fine." She murmurs. Ynderra blinkblinks, looking rather dazed and stunned, and she mumbles, "What do we do with her?" Leetah chuckles, "Put her back where she was before." [And, tiredly, the younger healers comply, taking great care with the old feral elf to put her back to rest. End log.]