Roleplay

@Quamosthy

It was rare that a fragile dragon such as herself would venture away from her Clan without an escort; her familiar was currently not accompanying her, as she trusted her companion with the duty of guarding her den and the herb supply while she was away.

Upon doing inventory of the medicinal herbs, Inachus had come to find she was running low on a good few herbs that she needed. It was her sole duty to heal her Clan when they were hurt or ill, and she very much so couldn't do so when she was running low. Besides, Caden was still back at the Clan; although he was only recently taken under her wing to learn about healing, he was already showing a blossoming gift of it.

Sky colored wings were neatly tucked and folded against the maize tiger stripped body of the Skydancer, and silver gem's that were bound to her body covered both limb and wing; not that she minded them. Her neck was neatly bandaged up, and she was clad in a simple looking vest that had been bleached to a white color.

As she crept carefully through thick foliage and over the occasional stream, she hummed a tune; it was both gentle and cheery sounding as it left her. Inachus found it would speed her work up the more she hummed. Though after an accident that had put said bandages around her neck, Inachus couldn't utter much of a beautiful tune other than humming.

A few herbs had been carefully tucked away into her vest, along with bandages out of habit; she never knew when to be ready to leap to one's aid if she discovered them hurt or ill. The Skydancer, when rummaging through a few plants, had spotted something else of interest looking closer towards a larger looking river. Oh, more herbs!

Happily hopping towards them, her nimble frame easily making it's way through plants and vines, brambles or a thicket, she eventually ended up with her snout faced down towards the plant curiously. Yes, they were more herbs! She would have been content with plucking the best looking herbs to tuck away into her vest when she spotted something out of the corner of her eye.

It looked like something washed up? Confusion had melted into her joyous attitude as she raised her head to peer down the bank of the river. It did indeed look like something was washed up.. but much larger than something like fabric or parchment. Having forgotten her original quest of obtaining more herbs for her and Caden to use, she instead left the comfortable coverage of the plants to move towards said figure. As much as it unnerved her to move from a more comfortable hiding spot.. even the healer couldn't stop curiosity.

@ifawn

Wight really shouldn't have tried to go out flying that day. The sky had called to him, as it does to all dragons born to the wind. Sure, he was much quieter, and immensely shyer than almost any other Wind-aligned dragon, but that didn't mean he wasn't still a dragon of Wind deep within his soul. Feykro has said that his life was out of immediate danger, and the crowding of the lair had been making the white Nocturne rather nervous. When he had told Edea that he wanted to fly, she had been quick to offer to go with him, just in case. His half-sister was always protective, and for that reason she was the only dragon that little Wight felt safe around.

It wasn't that he didn't like other dragons. He was just deathly afraid of them. He didn't really know why, beyond perhaps the capability of any dragon to commit acts of terrible violence and destruction, but that knowledge did nothing to alleviate his terror. He wished he had let Edea come with him instead of insisting that he wanted time by himself to feel the wind and sky.

She had been right, of course, when she worried about him. Wight hadn't even lasted half an hour in the sky before the wounds that nearly stole his life began oozing blood again, the healing that Feykro and Pristro and done only being enough to save his life and get him out of immediate danger. As such, the wounds were still very fresh, and the movement of flying had torn them wide open again, as if he had never been healed in the first place. At that point, a deep-seated panic had taken root in his heart. He wasn't going to be able to make it back to the clan.

With an unsteady and irregular wingbeat, he managed to soften his landing into the water enough that the impact alone wouldn't kill him in his weak and wounded state. Tidelord... keep me... he thought, as his pale green eyes slid shut and he was left at the mercy of the tides.

Whether it was the Tidelord, the Windsinger or the Gladekeeper that had guided the wounded dragon to where he washed up didn't matter. What did matter was that Wight was washed up on the shores of one of the many streams in the Gladeveins. The bandages that hid the wounds that had snatched him from the sky were soaked through with blood and water, and the tattered cloak gifted to him by his half-sister in an attempt to help him not be so shy was draped over his body and head. For all points and purposes, the white Nocturne looked rather dead.

@Quamosthy

Once close enough, Inachus was completely shocked at what she had found; a Nocturne, drenched in water and bandages both heavy with water and blood. The sight horrified the pacifistic healer, to the point where her heart clenched in sympathy and she immediately jumped to action.

It did not matter to Inachus where this dragon was from, if his Clan was nearby, or if they were hostile or not; the only thing that mattered to the Skydancer was to heal to the best of her ability. Using what little strength the frail Skydancer had, she had managed to move the white Nocturne away from the chilly bank of the stream and back up into the softer foliage of the grass.

The female was not new to healing, as she had had a Clan before joining Revered's. In that one, she had felt she had given all she had to offer in her healing ways, having already trained two others under her wings in the art of healing and had moved on to find another and help them as well, which was what brought her here.

" Gladekeeper, give them strength, " she uttered softly once she had gotten the Nocturne away from plain view and began her work; before performing healing arts on another, she would pray to the Gladekeeper for the best results and that said dragon would regain their health.

Even if she had seen many wounded before, it stil made her insides churn to see open wounds, and it was no different when she began the tedious task of removing said soaking wet bandages to replace them with dry, clean ones, but not before using what herbs she had gathered. The Clan would be fine without these, as right now, this dragon needed them.

Minutes upon minutes passed by as Inachus worked, stopping to crane her head up cautiously to survey her surroundings before going back to the importance at hand.

" You poor dragon.. " her sympathetic, quiet voice came out as she had eventually finished, using one foreleg to carefully array the wet cloak away from the bandages safely. What had caused this?

Looking up, Inachus studied the sky through the spider web network of branches and was a bit dismayed to see how late it was becoming.. the Clan would be worried, but it was no matter. She would stay put until the other woke up, and to periodically check onto the bandages that were currently fresh and changed. For now though, she settled herself tentatively away from the Nocturne, close enough to keep view on him, in case anything were to unfold and happen.

@ifawn

Wight was only barely aware that he was being dragged out of the water, slipping in and out of true unconsciousness and a half-conscious daze. By the time the Skydancer began her work of healing him, he had already fallen back into that blissful, painless darkness. It was for the best, because if Wight had known that he was being treated by another, the young Nocturne would have panicked and jostled his already serious wounds.

By the time Wight opened his eyes with any sort of clarity, the sky above him was a deepening shade of purple, or at least what he could see of it. A dense canopy of trees towered overhead, leaving the ground in near-permanent shade save for the streams carving the landscape and nearby to their shores. A soft groan escaped his jaws, cut off by a rather nasty cough. His cloak was beginning to dry off, but it was still heavy and damp, and with the chill of oncoming night, Wight shivered. Perhaps it was blood loss, or perhaps it was having spent the day passed out in the water, or a combination of them, but he was rather cold.

For a while, the Nocturne just rested there on the ground, watching the little bit of sky he could see darken, then light up again as stars began to appear in the deepening dark. As night fell, he tried to pick himself up off the ground. His limbs were weak and wobbly, and his already precarious balance was lost as a wave of dizziness swept over him. With a muffled thump, Wight fell back to the forest floor.

Resigned to spending the night on the ground, Wight did his best to wrap his injured wings around his even more injured body. The cloak he donned constantly covered his back and head well enough, but he didn't feel right sleeping without being wrapped in his wings. At that moment, he realised that the bandages on his wings were dry, and not as bloodsoaked at they were before. In fact, only a few speckles of red were visible on the pristine white. Someone had found him? The panic that would have set in earlier if he had been awake had found him as he realised that there was another around when he was passed out.

In a screeching tangle of limbs, cloak and wings, Wight tried desperately again to get up. He had to leave. He had to get out of here. Even if this mysterious dragon had done nothing but save his life, the Nocturne was terrified.

@Quamosthy

" Oh, please don't try to get up so violently! " a soft voice pleaded as Inachus caught sight of the Nocturne trying to struggle up. Such harsh movements would only harm his wounds even more, and she didn't want to see that!

Content that he was well hidden by foliage and underbrush, Inachus had roamed around the area for anything to hunt; what she had brought back was little, but it was enough if the Nocturne had been hungry or beginning to feel the emptiness of the stomach.

The Skydancer hesitantly was standing a bit off, her mouth creased into a worried frown as she looked at him. There had to be some way to calm him, wasn't there? Though Inachus was only good with working with the sick and ill momentarily, and young Hatchlings; what if she got accidentally hurt in his panic filled thrashing?

" If you move so much, you're wounds will open again. I've ran out of bandages and herbs at this moment, so it would be bad if that happened again.. " she tried to reason and plead out, worry lacing her quiet voice. It was so difficult to voice her worry when her voice could only reach a soft volume due to the injuries on her neck, but it was the only best she could do.

She looked around frantically for anything to calm the Nocturne, and instead the young healer frantically began to speak anything that came to her mind. " I-I have food if you would like any. I don't know what kind you would have liked, " she said and gave a small, nervous nudge at the small pile. " .. Y-You have a very nice cloak, "

By now, her rambling in hopes of calming him and progressively got softer and softer, a nervous tone entering Inachus' voice. She was mostly worried about the injured Nocturne rather than her own potential safety.. which was a slight downside.

@ifawn

In all his flailing around and screeching, panicked cries, Wight hardly heard Inachus' soft pleas for him to stop before he hurt himself even more. Regardless of whether or not the Nocturne was listening, his thrashing movements got weaker and eventually stopped as he tired himself out. He was exhausted, whatever energy he had left in his small frame consumed by his violent attempt to flee. Curled up in his wings, Wight shivered and muttered the one word under his breath over and over again, "Edea, Edea, Edea, Edea..." His voice was little more than a whisper ans his half-sister would never hear him, but she was a warrior, and protector and the only dragon he felt safe around.

Now that he was still, he could actually make out what the Skydancer was saying, he decided to listen to the words. At the mention of food, Wight realised just how hungry he was. Fear and pain had taken that feeling from him before, but now the emptiness in his stomach was back with a vengeance. Peeking out from under his wing and under his cloak, Wight looked at Inachus with sad, glassy eyes.

Stumbling over to the food offered by the Skydancer with an awkward shambling walk, Wight sniffed at the food, his hood slipping down and covering his nose. Oooooh, it smelled so good. His stomach let out a rather loud growl of agreement. Hunger overcame fear and he began to eat what Inachus had offered. While he was eating, crunching up bugs, she commented on the tattered cloak he wore. Ordinarily, he wouldn't have the courage to reply, but this cloak was a gift from Edea, and the thought of her gave him strength. "I-it was a g-gift from m-my half-sister..." Wight stuttered, the hood having flopped down to over his eyes. He often found that helped too, when he couldn't see who he was talking to.

@Quamosthy

Inachus' tense frame immediately relaxed as she noticed the other dragon cease his violent thrashing, and she exhaled heavily. It seemed he was somewhat calmed down.. much to her contentment. She wasn't use to a dragon thrashing so much.. the only time she had dealt with a fussy dragon in her den was Hades.


As the Nocturne came over to eat up what she had gathered, she instead settled herself down comfortably on the grass, her wings tucked evenly on her back and eyes on Wight. Inachus was unaware of his current problem.. being away from his own Clan, and now being injured again on top of all that.

Taking his reply as a positive thing, a smile danced onto her muzzle. " I haven't seen a garment like that before.. it covers one up rather well. " she continued on, her voice now a raspy, soft tone as she spoke while he ate up.

Using her voice so much was a foreign feeling to Inachus, but she instead continued on at the expense of her voice and throat. " How do you feel? How did this happen? " she asked, and her smile became a frown of concern; a prominent trait in the healer. " Is your Clan anywhere near here? "

If they were, perhaps she could head back to the Clan to ask Revered and Minsoo if help could be given to Wight to getting back to them! They were a small Clan.. harmless at the moment, but Revered was a kind patriarch. He would surely understand!

@ifawn

Edea had been right. The cloak really did help him talk to other dragons. When wearing it, Wight felt as though he was hiding in plain sight, and it reminded him of the seemingly endless courage of the Spiral that had given it to him. "Th-that's why sh-she gave it to me. S-so that I-I might b-be able to b-be braver..."

She might not have known it, but Inachus' quiet voice and soft tone was the only thing stopping Wight descending into another fit of panic. Hers was a calm presence, and the lack of danger was enough for him to set aside his terror enough to think clearly and realise that he wouldn't be able to do anything much without her help. Here he was, hopelessly lost, severely wounded and too weak to fly. If it wasn't for Inachus, he wouldn't even be alive to try. The thought that he needed her help was the only thing keeping him there with her.

The Skydancer sure asked a lot of questions. The barrage of inquiries was almost too much for Wight, but at least the questions were short and simple enough. "It... it h-hurts..." Wight admitted, Inachus' healing merely being enough to fix again what his own clan's healers had done, and he had unintentionally ruined. As for how it happened... "I can't r-remember, but Edea s-said that I w-was attacked by M-Maren warriors." It made sense, really. The aquatic beastfolk didn't take kindly to any draconic trespassers, intentional or no. It was a risk taken when living in the Sea of a Thousand Currents.

"M-my clan?" Wight echoed, fear bubbling up again. He had no idea where they were from here! He didn't even know where he was. Since he had passed out, the water had carried him wherever water goes, and he had no idea how far he had drifted or how long he was out.

@Quamosthy

Inachus nodded slowly as it seemed that Wight had no recollection of where his clan might be from here. That was a worrying thought.. if it was Inachus right now, she too would be rather worried if separated from her Clan.

" It's alright, " she spoke up swiftly, sensing the slight panic that was flooded over Wight. Her mind worked quickly, thinking up possible soothing words that would once again calm down the Nocturne. " The water must have brought you far, but don't worry. This area is close towards my own Clan and there are not many other dragons or beastfolk who linger here. It is the reason that our patriarch chose it for a fledgling clan like ours. "

She was trying to move away from the more darker topics, such as what had inflicted his wounds or where his clan was, but onto a lighter topic. " I have much more of healing back at my den.. and also a fellow healer. You must be awfully tired. " Inachus would not feel right if she now just up and left the Nocturne.

" I know that I've only just stumbled upon you like this.. but please, I would very much so like to help you. If only for this night, there is plenty of room back at our territory. There would be no trouble to accommodate you in so that you may rest.. and then, we can help you return to your own kin. "

It was true though. Revered was a kind, young patriarch. He accepted all who came to him, timidly though, and gave them all he could offer. So what would be any different with Inachus returning with another in need, if only to help reunite the Nocturne with his own group? If he agreed, she would take full responsibility for his well being and, if there happened to be any complaints, she would approach them herself.

@ifawn

Despite Inachus' kind and soothing words, Wight was still very much afraid. He was far from home, impossibly lost and face to face with a dragon he didn't know. By the Tidelord, he was nervous around dragons he did know, so the white dragon had no hope of not being terrified in the company of the elegant Skydancer, however calm and comforting she tried to be. "I... yeah... I g-guess I am t-tired..." Wight muttered, looking away. Even if he couldn't see her for the hood that covered his eyes, he still felt that she was looking at him. He hated that feeling, the feeling of being watched.

At the mention of being taken back to Inachus' clan, Wight shook his head so much that hid hood fell off, revealing the disquiet and fear in his glassy green eyes. One unfamiliar dragon was already more than he could deal with, but a whole clan? There was just no way he could deal with that mentally. "No! P-please, n-no! I... can't..." That was all the timid Nocturne managed to say before his speech turned into a garbled and completely unintelligible.

If Wight was going to go anywhere, it would take one of two things: incredible skills of persuasion or carrying his sleeping body. Given his utter exhaustion from a combination of blood loss, excess activity in the form of panicked flailing and his general poor health; the latter was both more likely and far easier.