PM to join Need an Ice Pack [Dravite]

[Kyo]

41st of Fall, 515 AV
mid-afternoon

It was a warm sunny day, just as it had been a warm sunny day yesterday, and the day before. It was good weather, the type that made wild animals want to laze about in the sunlight. If Kyo had been smarter, he would have been lazing about, perhaps in coyote form just outside of the city limits. Playing bite-face with his dogs, maybe, or teaching the new pup how to cricket-hop, or trying to figure out the best way to scent water.

But he wasn't lazing about.
Just like yesterday and the day before, the new pup had gotten lost in the tent city.

Yes, the coyote-man should have been smarter.

After getting the pup Kyo had begun to wonder whether the creature even had an ability to learn... but it seemed he himself had been the one who needed to learn a lesson. And finally he had: From now on he'd sleep with one ear perked.

If he didn't, the pup was sure to wake up before him, and if the pup was feeling adventurous --as he had been these past few days-- then it would mean searching the tent city for the rest of the morning, and sometimes into the afternoon.

The trouble with the tent city was that Kyo couldn't shift coyote to search. There were too many hunters here; one of them would end up getting him with an arrow --well, getting more than his ear with an arrow-- if he ran about in natural fur. His human-form nose was not nearly as good as a coyote nose, which meant it was difficult to trace a scent-trail through the city. That meant it was difficult to figure out where the pup had gone. It would have been easier if he had known how to speak the language. Then he could ask people to point him the right way. But he didn't know the horse-speak-hand-speak, and so he had to search in a way that was all-too-familiar to him: by ducking a head into every tent he passed and seeing if the little dog might be chewing someone's discarded boots.

Today he'd been searching since he woke up from his mid-morning nap. The long travel to the city had been hard, very hard, and he still was not near healthy again. Otherwise he wouldn't have napped at all.

"Pack{here, now}!" the coyote-man called in the liquid-language of the ice-people. This was something he had started saying to the pup whenever he wanted him to come. Pack!, as in 'Rejoin your pack{family}!' He said it so much that the tent-people nearby had started calling the pup by it, as if it was his name. Kyo didn't quite understand naming things --Brother and Sister were brother and sister-- so by coyote standards Pack should be called pup, or young brother, or son. But it seemed 'Pack' would stick.

"Pack{here, right now}!" He called again, and then thought he saw a splash of the strange fur-pattern that the young dog wore. He turned, jogged towards it. Saw more of that strange pattern, like yellow-gold and black and white but not in spots. He jogged faster. And then he saw what the pup was doing and he broke into a sprint.

The pup was standing underneath a horse, nipping at its legs, and the horse was not looking happy. It stomped a hoof and barely missed the pup, his tail wagging, thinking it was a game. "Pack!" Kyo called one last time, more a yelp now, and then shifted for more speed and agility. Mid-stride human-foot became coyote, and for a moment he tangled in the pants before shrugging them from his hind legs. He bolted towards the horse and dog.

It happened fast. So fast he didn't know what happened. He was racing up to the horse's side. He had his jaws on Pack's neck, flinging him out of harm's way. The horse moved; he didn't see how. He turned to run.

Something hit him, hard, in the head. There was a flash of bright white, then dark. The coyote rolled with the blow, body going boneless. There was a glimmer, a flicker of light. The horse, startled by the light show, danced away, pawing the dirt.

Where the coyote had laid was now a young man once more. He lay still for a few ticks, then groaned, muscles twitching as if to move, though he didn't try to get up. Nearby the puppy shuffled in, tail tucked. He licked at Kyo's face, then yapped once at the horse. The horse flicked an ear.

[Dravite]

Black, blue, white; black, blue, "hmm," Dravite sighed, if he had to look at these three colours a moment longer he felt he might go blind, if only to save him from the task of weaving Satalu a second longer. Still, he was persistent and the Satalu needed to be finished, the more he could do, the easier it would be to distinguish his herd of cattle from another. The horse lord sat weaving, stitching one coloured piece of yarn over the next until the skin on his fingers was dry and the simple pattern had been confused, spun into a mess of tangled thread; a job for later, he convinced himself and set the project down.

Roan Winterstorm sat next to him on the log outside, a boy with a lot more patience when it came to these kinds of mundane tasks the Watchman found little joy in. The two had worked in relative silence until now, when Roan spotted something small aggravating one of the horses, "what's that?" He asked.

Dravite glanced at his hunting dogs, which both seemed to have spotted something too, before redirecting his line of sight to the small pup that looked of their ilk, patterned much the same as Kavu and Meka, with big round ears and a dark, pointed snout. The pup was playing under Bones, his white faced, colour-splash mare who was temperamental at the best of times. The mare stomped her foot as if to warn the pup and Dravite couldn't help but laugh, "he'll learn."

It was then he noticed the flash of gold, silver, and clay; a ghost of the coyote he had killed earlier in the summer with his bare hands for gnawing on the remains of his mother's dead horse. Dravite stood up quickly in order to get a better look, just as his mare lashed out and kicked the fleeing coyote across the back of the head. There was a bright light, the same kind that consumed Kaitanu each time his Kelvic transformation took hold; and where a wild dog should lie, there instead was a man with his arm folded over the pup he had saved.

The horse lord raced from camp on foot, running as fast as he could to get the horse under control and move her away from the scene. Roan was soon at his side, the young man holding his head at the sight of blood.

"Don't move him!" Dravite warned someone who had stopped in the street to try and help. He took the pup by the scruff and handed him to Roan before examining the small cut on the back of the unconscious man's head where he had been clipped by the horse, "it's just a graze," he announced and thumbed the boy's eyelid to see if anyone was home, "out cold..."

Dravite had been thrown or kicked enough times to know the power of a horse and it concerned him that Bones had managed to smack this poor man in the head. He ran back into camp to get some water and his jar of honey. On his return he washed the wound first before smearing some of the raw honey over the cut, if only to stop the bleeding and prevent dirt from getting in. Roan stroked the worried pup to try and keep him calm while Dravite tried to wake the young man on the ground in front of him. If he was anything like Kaitanu, he probably didn't speak much Pavi, so it was in the common tongue that the Watchman pointed his efforts, "Boy, boy, up!" He squeezed Kyo's shoulder but did not shake him.

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[Kyo]

"Boy, boy, up!"

Boy. There was a boy.
Kyo could see him behind his closed eyes. There was a light, sparkling. It was the bright white of fresh-fallen snow. The boy was pushing his way through a snowbank, up ahead of where Kyo was following. The boy was dragging something-- a sled? He looked back, said a few trilling words
--run, run! echoed through the coyote's confused mind-- and pointed, smiling. Kyo looked. There was a strange bird on the evergreen branches of a nearby tree. The boy whistled part of a song, and the bird took to flight, spinning away into the bright white sky. The boy waved his hand after it as if to say goodbye.

Goodbye. Boy.

The coyote-man opened his eyes. He expected snow and cold; what he saw was trampled yellowish grass and the happy warmth of the sun. He tried to move, tried to look around, limbs flopping discordantly, not doing what he wanted them to do. Someone had said boy, and his mind grasped at the term. He needed to find the boy. Or-- or pup? What was missing? He was having a hard time thinking; the thoughts hurt.

Pain. Yes, that was right; there was pain, mostly in his head. Something else. A hand touched his shoulder, and inside his addled mind the light turned from yellow to pure white, snow white once more, and it was the boy's hand that reached out to him. They were collecting firewood and doing the other chores that the boy never complained about; he liked doing simple tasks like these ones, he liked to contribute. After that they were going to find the father-one and ask if they could go on the next trip. After they got the firewood...

...and there was a tree fallen across the path that they had to clear. It was blocking the way so the caravan couldn't get past. The men were grumbling about how large it was, hooking up horses and tying ropes to slowly pull it out of the way. There was a strange noise that made the coyote's ears perk, and the others paused, listening. Then a shout. The dogs were going wild; one of them, near the coyote, bayed out a warning call...

...there was firewood, trees, all around, and there was the great storm. A crack so loud his ears rang. A lightning flash, and the air buzzed. Fire. Heat. His coyote-girl was running beside, then she was gone. He looked back and it was all flames. His paws burned underneath him as he ran and he knew the coyote-girl had been lost. When he went back later, after the ground had cooled, all that was left was twisted, blackened flesh and white layer of ash like snow.

Lost.
Lost.

Kyo opened his eyes again. Sluggishly he began to move, began to get up. Sit up. Dizzy. He couldn't remember-- something about a boy. His boy. He was looking for something. His mind spun into the sky like a bird in flight. His boy was here-- no. A hand and a voice. He looked, saw a man he didn't know. "Boy," he muttered, looking around.

There was a boy, standing nearby, but not the right one, someone he didn't know. The pup squirming to break free of his arms was familiar, but Kyo was having trouble... he was not in Avanthal, the ice-city, was he? No, and not the wilds, either. The pup... the pup had come from a man with ribbons, and --he looked around further-- tents. This was the tent-city. He knew this place, though not exactly why or how he had gotten here.

His head hurt, and he put a hand to it. It came away sticky with blood and something else he didn't know. He couldn't remember what he'd been doing, but in a sudden flash of inspiration he knew that whatever it was was urgent. "Help... find..." he said uncertainly, then tried abruptly to stand and nearly tipped over. He put a shaking hand out for balance, then looked over at the man and boy.

"Have you{you-good, help, please} seen a boy{small, friend-brother-bonded}? I need... try to find boy. Or... find other?" Then he groaned, putting his hand to his head again. "Hurts. {confused}What happened{hurt, how}? What... what happened?"

[Dravite]

To see Kyo wake was a relief, but when he tried to stand, Dravite looked concerned; rose with the man and opened his bear mitt to see if Kyo could find his balance. Slow, easy, hurt, the horse lord signed, forgetting himself; this one, much like the last, spoke no Pavi. Common, Dravite scolded inwardly; no doubt this is how the language earned its name, so all strangers seemed to speak it, "Dog," Dravite said simply, waving Roan into view so that the Kelvic would know his dog was just fine, "Boy hurt, horse kick head," he touched the man's temple tentatively and took hold of his shoulder to help keep him upright.

For a few chimes the streets had stilled around them with man and beast stopping to stare and see what all the commotion was about, but now that the young Kelvic was back on his feet, it was business as usual, "Come," the Watchman encouraged, taking Kyo's right arm to pull up around his bare shoulders and help the man into camp so that they didn't hold up the slow moving foot traffic any longer.

The Blackwater camp was made up of a large pavilion tent with a lean to for the horses, a living area that could house thirty people comfortably, an open fire pit, and six smaller four-man tents plotted out across camp in the shape of a horseshoe. Dravite sat Kyo down in the shade against the side of the large, black tent which would support his weight without trouble. Water, he signed to Roan before taking the pup from the young man's hands to set in Kyo's lap, hoping it would be enough to keep the Kelvic awake for now, "Drink," he offered when Roan returned with a small wooden cup of fresh water from the cooking pot.

Eyes that rolled shut were countered with a light smack to the cheek in an attempt to start Kyo awake and keep him that way, "Stay," Dravite scolded, trying to search for the right words, "open, up, no sleep!" He finally managed to find that which had escaped him momentarily.
"Why can't he sleep?" Roan asked.
"Seen this before," Dravite replied, "a young girl in our pavilion while I was growing up was kicked by one of the foreign imports, no one knew what to do; she kept drifting off."
"What happened?"
"They let her sleep and she passed. Later when my mother returned, she said you must never let them sleep, not at first, not until you know they are well," the horse lord explained.
"Should I run and fetch Pearl?" Roan inquired.
Dravite looked thoughtful for a time, what if someone at the River Flower needed her more than this man? "She has been at the auctions all morning, I don't know if she will still be there or if she will have moved on to work. Tell her only if there is no one that needs her urgently."
"And if she can't leave?"
"Then ask her what I must do."
"All right," Roan agreed and dashed out of camp barefoot to cross the city of tents as fast as he could.

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[Kyo]

Kyo was shown a pup, and told "Boy hurt, horse kick head."

For a few agonizing moments he thought his boy was the one who had been hurt. He lurched forward in reaction, toes dragging, and would have fallen on his own. Whoever was helping him walk was strong enough to support him; after that first terrible moment he stumbled back into place.

The world spun around a few times, and somehow in the spinning he realized that it wasn't his boy who was hurt, it was him. The relief was strong like a flood of hot water that made his legs want to give out. It didn't matter, though; even as he sank down he was already being helped to sit. He rested, slumped, against something hard-soft that he didn't immediately recognize without looking. Water was offered and taken; he gulped it down quickly, slopping some onto his lap and dousing the puppy there, who snarled and gnawed Kyo's knuckles, finding a healing cut to worry painfully at with his tiny sharp teeth.

Memory came and went. One moment he was in the tent-city, and he knew that a horse had kicked his head, though he couldn't remember ever getting near to one. Then the next moment he was somewhere else, in one of the many places he had been before he had come here. The feeling of coming and going, of in and out he didn't much like; it reminded him of something, and at points he could remember that it was the doors in the blue city, the ones that opened to all the wrong places. Other times he just felt ill at ease, uncomfortable, and he didn't know why. The nervousness made his head pound harder.

Occasionally he fell too far into one of the doors, into a different place like the ice-city; once his boy was sick in bed with fever and Kyo was anxiously watching his scary-black, blank-staring eyes. When that happened someone slapped at his face, and he blinked awake, not knowing when his eyes had shut. He was very very tired, and it hurt to be awake.

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Kyo was slouching against something and he didn't know what. He bent to look. It was a tent. A big black tent.

He was in an unfamiliar place. He didn't know how he had gotten here. It was a camp. There was the big tent and a bunch of smaller ones looping around. It smelled like strangers and animals and crushed grass and cooking-smoke. He could see the pup, Pack, playing with some baby goats. There was a man nearby he didn't know. Kyo moved to get up and a rush of squealing silver pain knocked him back down like a blow to the head, enough to make him breathless, gritting his teeth.

He was tired and if he hadn't known better he would have thought he had been sleeping, but for some reason he thought he hadn't. Maybe because of how badly his head was hurting. He couldn't recall what had caused the pain. It felt like his skull had been split open.

He was aware he was in the tent-city, but he couldn't remember what had brought him here, or for how long. He could get vague moments of deeper memory, telling him that he had run here for some very important reason, pushing hard to find this place, but the reason why was lost. His body confirmed this truth. When he looked down he was much too thin, battered and scratched up in places, and his hair fell into his eyes like it had grown too long.

All of this was startling, and he would have been frightened if it hadn't been for the pain. As it was the pain blunted all emotion. He couldn't be properly afraid because it just hurt too much. Still, he was breathing a little fast.

"Pack," he said, calling the pup, wanting something to comfort him-- he knew the puppy was a source of comfort, but once more didn't understand why. But of course the pup didn't listen, too busy making the little goats jump and bleat. He tried to move again and managed to get to his knees. He was surprised by his nakedness; when he was around people --like in cities-- he usually wore clothes since that was what the people wanted.

He had a lot of questions, though most of them seemed to fall out of his head when he tried to focus. He oriented nervously on the man, asking, "What happened? What is... tent-place?" He didn't have the words to be more direct than that. It was harder than usual to string sentences together and he fell back to plain Common, not able to think enough to bring out the ice-language he sometimes used to supplement his speech. "I don't... oh, my head is not good, not good. Broken. Not... not hold." He was trying to say that his memory had gone, that he couldn't remember, but the human language, often frustrating, failed him.

The unknown injury made him want to go away to somewhere familiar, somewhere quiet and dark, and try to make sense. But as soon as he tried to think where to go his mind went blank. Startled again, heart now thumping along with his head, he croaked out, "I don't know. Can't find place I belong, place live. Don't know." He would have started panicking had his head allowed.

OOCOkay, just to explain OOCly: I'm thinking like Kyo had his head scrambled, and when it came back together he was left with a dollop of amnesia that should pass within the next few-ish days. He still remembers who he is and most of his life, just not much of his time in Endrykas (like where he currently lives) and there's also a blank spot immediately following the horse-kick, explaining why he didn't recognize his surroundings when he 'woke up'.

[Pearl]

The crunching sound of the bark beneath the heavy handle of the pestle was all that could be heard in the small room. Roan stood waiting on Pearl at the door to her office at The River Flower while she ground up some Acklar Tree bark into a fine powder. Fingers tested a pinch of the powder before returning it to the mortar bowl and grinding it against the sides for a few more ticks to be sure it was the consistency that she needed it to be. Once it was, she poured the small amount of it into a paper pouch, which was just a simple piece of paper that was folded in on itself until it resembled a small pouch where you could lift one end and obtain some of the powder without losing the rest.

“How long was he out?” she asked Roan as she folded the paper back over itself and sealed it with another fold.
“Not long, a few chimes maybe?” he said with a shrug. “Dravite put some honey on the wound on his head. It was bleeding.”
“Good, that will help,” she nodded as she walked towards him.
“And he wouldn’t let the boy sleep. Said his mother taught him that.”
Pearl smiled as she walked with Roan in a quick step towards the door and out to the streets of Endrykas; she felt she’d missed out on being able to get to know Lazuli. She called for Knox, clicking her tongue against the roof of her mouth. The Strider appeared quick enough, nickering at his rider as he nosed her at the back of her neck.

They made quick time on their walk back to the pavilion, Pearl’s steps were difficult to keep paced and she often found herself nearly trotting along the way. When it came to her patient’s she wasn’t one to leave them waiting for long; though she knew the boy, whoever he was, was in good hands with Dravite until she could get there. Bluest eyes scanned the pavilion, looking for anything out of place, or out of the ordinary. That’s when she saw him, the young boy, sitting by the side of the tent, leaning with his head down.
“That’s him,” Roan confirmed leading Pearl over to the boy.
“Roan, would you get me a cloth from Knox’s bags, please, and wet it with cool water.”

Pearl crouched down beside the young boy and smiled, touching his hand gently with her own. “Hello. I’m Pearl. A doctor. I’ve come to check on you. They tell me you were kicked by a horse, in the head. Could you look up at me please?” her tone was gentle, the one she used when she was treating her patients and gaining their trust so she could try her best to help them. It was sincere and kind, just as her smile was when she looked to him.
“Dravite was using common earlier. I think maybe he doesn’t understand us well?” Roan offered in explanation as he handed the wet cloth to Pearl.
“Oh, thank you,” she smiled to Roan as she switched to common. It wasn’t her best language, by far, but she was well versed in it enough to get her point across and be easily understood. “I’m a doctor,” she repeated in common in case he hadn’t understood it before when she explained. “This will help with any nausea you may be feeling,” she explained as she reached up to place the wet cloth over the back of the boy’s neck, dipping her head down some so she could get a look at his eyes.

Gentle hands then pushed his hair back enough so she could view the already growing goose egg that was forming where hoof had met skull. The wound, she observed, wasn’t terrible, and the honey Dravite had treated it with would likely be all that was needed. It didn’t appear to need stitches as the flesh wasn’t separating. Head wounds often looked like they bled a lot, when in reality it was a lot of clear fluids from the flesh that were released along with the blood making it appear as if it were worse. “No stitches will be needed, so that’s good,” she reassured him. Now that she had had a chance to check in on the boy, she looked around quickly for her husband and offered a gentle smile to him as well, signing to him, love, gratitude, concussion, rest. “Love, would you mind getting a bit of the crystalized ginger that Yuki and I put up. I think a piece or two may help him with his stomach and to give him a little relief from feeling quite so ill,” having switched from the common language to Pavi for her husband.

Looking back to the young boy, she reverted back to common, “We’ll have you feeling better soon. Meanwhile, why don’t you stay here with us, and rest, so that I can keep an eye on you and make sure you recover nicely, hmm?” Of course, if he would rather, she would gladly take him to The River Flower, but there was nothing they would do there for him that she could not do here at their own pavilion, and he likely would be more comfortable here where he could get up and move around when he felt able, and then rest when he needed to. “I need you to look at me though, please? I need to check your eyes.” She held one finger up before him. “We’ll go slow, I don’t want to make you sick to your stomach, but please watch my finger as I move it, don’t move your head, only your eyes, and if it hurts, then tell me, and stop, okay?” She moved her finger, slowly from left to right and then back again as she observed the young boy’s eyes and how he was able to track her finger with his eyes, or if the movement made him ill.



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[Dravite]

Pearls arrival had not gone unnoticed, though Dravite was busy building up the fire pit again in the hopes of boiling some more water from the stream in order to make it drinkable. He was relieved when Roan returned to camp with his wife and the woman went straight over to the young man who seemed somewhat confused as to where he was and how he had got there. The horse lord emptied the last water skin into the large cooking pot and put a lid over it so that the steam wouldn't be able to escape.

He stayed within earshot, listening to all of the instructions Pearl gave the man, hoping he could pick up a thing or two that might come in handy in the future; head injuries were quite common in Endrykas, so knowing how to deal with them felt important to the man. The cold cloth on the back of the neck and a slow moving finger set before the man's eyes would keep him awake and test his awareness; Dravite suddenly felt terrible that he hadn't acted sooner with the puppy.

Soon Pearl had offered for the young man to stay with them and Dravite started thinking about where their new guest might have to sleep. It would be no trouble to pick up an extra bed roll; Roan could do that in the meantime while Dravite got some jobs done around camp. The only question that remained was where, where would the man sleep? It wasn't that he was unwelcome, but Dravite knew too little about this one to keep him in the main pavilion too near to where his children slept. It occurred to him then that Kaitanu had been staying in a four man tent all by himself and could probably do with some company and who better than another Kelvic?

"Kai," the man ducked down beside the entrance to the man's tent and summoned him forth, "Kaitanu friend, hurt head, stay Kaitanu tent?" Dravite scratched his head, what was that damned word his wives were so good at in common that he kept forgetting? "Come, meet, talk," he insisted, sure now that the Kelvics must share some secret language no one else could understand.

Dravite led Kaitanu over to the injured man before pulling Roan aside to ask him to fetch another bed roll, even if Kyon only stayed a couple of nights it would be handy to keep an extra around. “One silver for the marketplace,” he smiled and set the silver piece down in Roan’s hand, “Hurry back.”

Before the horse lord returned to his wife's side, he ducked into the tent to fetch the jar she had requested, something she had worked hard on to perfect with Yuki. Dravite turned the jar in his hand, studying the crystallised ginger before exiting the tent to holding it out to Pearl, "This the one?"

LedgerBed roll –1 SM

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[Kaitanu]

Kaitanu was too used to being at someone else’s beck and call to hesitate when Dravite needed him. Immediately, he set down the mending he’d been taking care of and shifted to his knees, bowing his head in submission. Perhaps this customary gesture was tending toward respect now that he knew the Drykas better. In any case, he always went into this posture whenever anyone looked into his tent.

“I am at your service.” he said quietly.

Listening to Dravite’s broken Common gave him little idea of what was wanted, except for him to come, which he did at once. But what the man meant by ‘friend’ he couldn’t guess. So far as he knew Kaitanu had never had a friend, and didn’t know what it was to have one. At least, not that he could remember. There was a small nagging in the back of his mind at that word, but he dismissed it, following the Drykas to where Kyo sat with his head angled down, clearly hurt. Kaitanu still didn’t understand Pavi but had guessed that something was off when he heard all the scuffling about and worried voices. As Kaitanu was still in the habit of minding his own business on pain of severe punishment he hadn’t so much as looked out of his tent in curiosity. Perhaps the pull of wanting to know would outweigh his training someday, but not yet. Kaitanu had stayed dutifully inside his own tent and away from the glare of the sun, and the commotion outside, though his senses had picked up on the other kelvic’s strange smell. Wild, fierce, bloody… Like Kavu and Meka, but more so. Kaitanu had gotten used to them, but this new flavor in the air had sent a shiver down his spine. Now, standing before Kyo’s bent body, he felt the instinct to run without knowing why.

Taking a slow breath, Kaitanu looked from Kyo to Dravite, then back to the wounded kelvic at his feet, wondering what he was supposed to do. The pale young man was no healer beyond the sort of first-aid slaves were expected to perform on themselves. Certainly he could do no better than Dravite or any of the others had already done. He went over the Drykas’ words in his mind as he half-watched the little coyote pup who had come over to sniff curiously at his ankles. It soon grew bored of nipping at them when Kaitanu didn’t respond. He was trying to think of what he should do as the old fears resurfaced. Not knowing, or guessing wrong, still brought half-formed memories of pain and punishment.

“Come, meet, talk….”

His stomach clenched. Dravite had meant for Kaitanu not just to come and see the newcomer, but speak with him. It was perfectly understandable, though a somewhat misguided idea, that he would understand the wounded kelvic better than anyone else. Kaitanu didn’t even know this one was kelvic at all; not yet, anyway. Until he saw the man transform or act in a suspiciously animalistic manner he wouldn't have any more idea than the humans around him. That left the question of what Dravite expected him to do about this wounded individual? 'Talk'....perhaps he didn't speak Pavi, or use their strange sign-language. If he spoke no Common then they were all out of luck, and Kaitanu couldn't bear to think of displeasing Dravite.

Swallowing a bit of saliva to moisten his dry throat, Kaitanu slowly knelt so as not to startle the half-conscious boy before him. ‘Boy’ was something of a misnomer- he looked about Kaitanu’s age. Of course, looks could be deceiving. The pale horse kelvic had only been on this strange planet a few years; seven at most.

“Can you understand me?” he asked, relieved when comprehension flickered in the other’s dull blue eyes. It made more sense that Dravite would need him now if the stranger spoke Common. “If you please, would you tell me your name, and where you come from?”

[Kyo]

It was a mistake to try to get up. He had managed to get to his knees, but now the dizziness came back, and with it a sick feeling in his stomach, growing stronger in waves. The coyote-man, who had been babbling out his fear and confusion a moment before, reeled back, slumping again against the side of the big black tent. He hung his head and clamped his teeth together, trying to make sense of what had happened and what was happening now. Hurt. He knew that. And he was in the tent-city. But thinking anything past that was making his head hurt worse. The spinning-spinning of the world had his eyes closing tight and his belly rolling. He was so tired and sick and hurting. Why couldn't he sleep? It would be better to sleep.

In time --fast or slow he didn't recognize-- a gentle woman came to him, and his shaking hand reached out towards her of its own accord, touching her wrist, trying to hold onto something that he knew was here, now. Something comforting. He listened to the low, soothing voice and let the cool-rag-thing wet the back of his neck and let her poke at the back of his head and at whatever was making him hurt so badly. He didn't know what stitches were when she mentioned them, but he did know what staying and resting was. He thought there was someplace he was supposed to go or maybe something he had to do --he had been looking for something,
right?-- and he didn't know if he should stay in this place. But what other place was there? He couldn't remember. Or maybe he did know something, a tent-place? But there were many tents in this city. No, he didn't know where else to go. To be.

Mostly he was tired and not feeling good. But she wanted him to look at her, to open his eyes. Watch her finger for some reason that he didn't know. Too used to wanting to please other people, he winced his eyes back open. It wasn't spinning so bad, not if he didn't move. He reached out to touch her again on the wrist, reassuring himself. His eyes tracked the finger as it went to one side, to the other, but it was too bright out somehow, brighter than it had been before like the sun had come out from behind a cloud and was blazing down. He put his other hand to his head as if to shield himself from the glare, and took his first hand from her wrist to press to his mouth. "Not good," he muttered. "Can... stop? I sleep. Hurts, hurts. Don't know. Need..." But he didn't know what he needed, besides for it all to be done.

Now another approached, kneeling close, and Kyo caught a distinct smell of horse. He pressed back a little, then panted at the effort, squinting over at the pale pale horse-man. The man spoke, and Kyo did understand. “If you please, would you tell me your name, and where you come from?”

He shook his head, and shaking it was a bad idea. He closed his eyes like before, pinched tight to make it stop, before opening them again. The pup nudged at his side and Kyo reached down to pick him up, holding him close. For once the little dog held still, pressing his nose to Kyo's collarbone. "My name is Kyo. I can't... I don't know where I come from. Can't... can't." He made a motion towards his head, then abruptly put that hand back to the ground to steady himself, hugging Pack tighter. "Horse... I don't know what happened, him--" indicating Dravite vaguely, who stood near holding something out to be taken. He didn't know the man's name, didn't think he knew any of their names? "--make conversation so I know a horse kick my head, make it broken, not-good." He paused, taking a few breaths as if needing a break, then frowned, almost a grimace. "You are a horse, yes. You... you kick... me? I don't know, I don't want to hurt you, to make you fear. I try to... to friend. Yes?"

He didn't know if it was an apology-- had he made the horse-man kick him? Done something to make him angry or frightened? Or maybe he was asking that the horse not kick him-- again? Whichever it was, it seemed important to say, either way.

[Pearl]

She offered a small nod to Kyo when he asked if he could stop. “Yes, of course, we’ll stop,” she changed to common whenever she spoke to Kyo, “but no sleep, not right now. You can rest,” she sighed. She wanted nothing more for him to be able to rest and feel better, but she knew this was going to be hard for him. So often head injury patients wanted to sleep, and couldn’t remember the event surrounding the injury, which led to frustration and fear, making them irritable. “I can let you rest for a few chimes at a time, but no sleep. No sleep right now. We’ll take care of you, and let you sleep soon.”

Her newest patient was her first concern, but she did offer a smile to Kaitanu when he arrived. Pearl hadn’t had much of an opportunity to talk with Kaitanu during his stay with them at the pavilion, but she knew her husband was still uncertain why the horse man continued to act the way he did. She herself, kept thinking, hoping, that the young man would eventually settle into his place with them. Her smile offered a hint of encouragement to Kaitanu as he spoke in common to Kyo. She was so focused on assessing his injuries that she had not yet asked the boy’s name.

She let Kyo talk with Kaitanu without interrupting them, but listening, as she looked up to her husband and the jar he was holding out to her. Her smile said it all; yes that was the jar of ginger she spoke of, and she was thankful for him and bringing it to her. “Thank you, love,” she spoke in Pavi with Dravite as she accepted the jar from him, then stood up. “I think he would benefit from taking some of the Acklar Tree powder too, as it will help his headache, and the ginger will help him not feel so nauseated, but he’ll need to rest, doing minimal activities. And we’ll need to keep him from sleeping for long at a time. Short naps will be okay, but he has to be woke often, and made to talk to us.”

“Standing up straight and walking will also help with the dizziness. Bending over, putting his head lower than his waist can make it worse,” she continued to explain to her husband, so he would be able to help her and help the others understand how best to help Kyo. She gestured with her hand above her eyes. “Maybe something to shade his eyes from the brightness of the sun, as that seems to bother him some. His eyes track well through, so I don’t think there is any severe damage to his head, just a scrambled logic and memory right now. It should return as he starts to feel better.”

She let her hand rest upon her husband’s arm a moment, knowing that he understood what she was saying, and that he would do everything he could to help. “Maybe a task to help him focus would be nice. Something simple,” she suggested, “but something that gives him a purpose to think about, other than his head hurting. Before long, he’ll realize that he remembers more than he thinks he does.” She lifted up and pressed a gentle kiss to her husband’s lips, lingering for a tick as she smiled. “I’ll get the powder for him,” were the words she spoke before she stepped away and went over to Knox.

As she came back over to Kyo, she knelt down before him, sitting on folded knees and smiled. She made quick work of opening the jar of crystalized ginger and putting a small pinch of the Acklar Tree powder on a small piece of the crystalized ginger, then offered it to Kyo as she spoke slowly in common, “Medicine. It will help your head not hurt, and your stomach not be sick. Chew it slowly, then swallow it.” She encouraged him with her eyes and her smile to take what she offered him, knowing it would help. Just as he had earlier with her, she reached out and gently took his hand in hers, reassuring him with that gesture that she was there to help him, as she put the small piece of ginger upon his fingers, so he feed it to himself. She wouldn’t force him, but rather continued to encourage him and comfort him, “It will make you feel better, promise.”

She looked to Kaitanu for a tick, the same gentle smile upon her face before she looked back to Kyo.


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