Roleplay

Hermes nodded, packing up the salve for transport, he quickly trotted to catch up with his mentor and looked up at her curiously. There was so much he was still learning from her, and this would be the first time she would be allowing him to treat a 'patient' since coming to Cryosta. Granted it was a familiar but that was still a living, breathing patient.

"Mites..." Hermes shuddered and stopped to scratch, just simply thinking about the parasite made him itch.

Hermes easily fell in step with Moraine, mostly because she was walking at a much slower pace so that her student could keep up with her. The Tundra was looking around, taking sight of how well tended to the flowers along the path were and the height of the sun creeping across the sky. It was in that moment that Hermes realized that it was much later than he anticipated.

That wasn't so unbelievable, as Hermes could become engrossed in his learning and working and lose track of time. That happened plenty of times back home and his brother would need to remind him to eat or take a walk. Though this was more than just a walk, and when he saw the Menagerie he felt a smile slowly break across his face and he nodded his head. "It's a lot bigger than I imagined," he admitted as he turned and faced his mentor, listening to her explain what he would be doing.

"Only one," he said. "What is an Owlynx?" He asked with the slight tilt of his head, as he did not know the name of every breed of familiar.
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Katrun chuckled, shaking her head and gently pulling a fur over the Wildclaw. "You won't be flying if you don't rest yourself. Your have been tended well by Hermes, but there is only so much he could do with what he had."

Sirius knew she wasn't insulting his brother, if anything it was kind of praise, yet he growled and looked away when she looked at him. Styrax, however, took this time to step up and speak to distract from the brief amount of tension. "Now it's my turn to ask why those Ancient Behemoths were after you three? If we're keeping you safe I want to know what my clan is getting into? You don't see those ugly jerks around here usually."

"An owlynx is like a gryphon, but the cat and bird parts are reversed. As you can guess by the name, it is a mixture of an owl and a lynx, and like its progenitors, can get defensive if approached by a perceived threat." As Moraine spoke, she walked to the side of the shack she stood in front of, mostly due to the fact that she wasn't small enough to fit in the structure.

She stood by the fence and from within, Hermes could see what she was talking about. An owlynx, pink in plumage and coat and laid about in the snow with a skydancer on standby. For some reason, the cat looked about to be very drowsy, though it was for the best since he could also make out patches where it seemed the fur or plumage was uprooted. There also seemed to be another owlynx somewhere within the fenced area, blue in coloration, though instead of outright drowsy, the familiar was outright asleep.

"Luckily, this one has been tamed already, so there is no worry of it lashing out. Any other concerns or questions?" Moraine would turn to Hermes, head tilting in question, "If not, feel free to begin now."

---

A look of gloominess seemed to return to Calendula at that instant, but it would be Eira who spoke. "It's quite a long story but we do have some time to burn. I will start from the beginning..."

Eira would then talk about Cryosta, and their former group of friends.

She would talk about how one day, Cinder was marched off with several dragons and never came back.

She talked about the falling out, and the growing suspicion that led to them finding out what happens when they "vanished."

She talked of the four years of hiding for her and imprisonment for Calendula.

She talked of the near disastrous break out and how they've run into Hermes just as they thought it would be over.

At last, she would fill out the last of the details, all that had happened since Hermes took them in. Occasionally, Calendula would interject with details of her own, but those were far in between.

A silence filled the cavern.

Hermes carefully made his way into the pen, the snow crunching softly against his claws as he slowly began to approach the drowsy looking animal. He wagered that they had probably given it something earlier to encourage it to be more plaint to a stranger approaching it.

"Hello there, pretty girl," Hermes greeted softly. "I hear you got a bad case of mites, how about we get rid of them, hm?"

Hermes spoke softly as he removed the salve from his bag, gently reaching out to run a claw down the Owlynx's back, speaking soothingly to the creature to reassure it that the Tundra meant no harm. Carefully he began to apply the salve against the skin, moving the salve with one claw while the other kept parting the fur, the container held in his tail and he continued to whisper soothing words.
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Styrax was sitting back on his haunches, strong forearms crossed over his chest as he was listening, his main eyes on occasion would blink, but the secondary pair simply stared, his tail gently thudded against the ground as he was taking in what was said to him.

After a moment of silence he spoke up. "Sounds like you need an army, lucky for you I have a pack of Mirror Dragons," he replied as he raised a claw to tap his cheek, thinking thoughtfully.

He looked up to the Guardian, who moved her head slowly towards him. "Receta, go send word to the other packs that they need to start making their way here, looks like we're going to be getting ourselves into a fight." The Guardian bowed her head silently before turning and walking away. Styrax looked at Calendula and Eira then and gave them a small smirk. "Look, sounds like your old clan got itself so deep into trouble it can't even begin to think how to dig itself out and that's where we are coming in," he turned to Sirius then. "You said you got Hermes on the inside?"

Sirius nodded his head. "We sent Hermes in undercover to try and gather some information...but truthfully we haven't heard a word from him, and if those Banescales put together that he's my brother their going to be suspicious of him. There's a Tundra there, Ermine, whose suppose to be watching his back but...I don't trust him," he admitted it aloud and he knew that very well could hurt Eira and Calendula but it was his brother's life on the line and he was trusting a complete stranger who, at one time, blindly followed the orders of his superiors. What if Ermine followed their orders once more and killed Hermes? "Sty, you don't need to be preparing an army to fight, we don't know what we are going against."

"You're right, we don't." Styrax replied with, almost, a nonchalant tone of voice. "But you came to me because you knew you were going to need help and so I'm bringing you help."

"Before you run off looking for a fight," Katrun called out as she was working on changing the bandages on her newest patients and giving Calendula a proper stint for her wing. "I would recommend you wait for Hermes to send word about what he can gather, rushing in without information is only going to get pack members killed." She spoke calmly, quite use to Styrax and his jump first, ask questions later ideology about approaching possible threats to their clans and those that they allied with.

"I know, I know!" Styrax said with a sigh. "You make it sound like I just took charge of the pack and have no idea what I'm doing. Getting everyone here and ready will save time."

"Even so," she began as her eyes remained on her patient. "I don't want you upsetting these two, they need rest...they shouldn't have even been moved," she held up a talon to silence protest from Sirius. "I know you had no choice, it's why I'm not scolding you, but it is still the fact they don't need to be given worry and need plenty of rest," she held out a talon to the side as the purple Bogsneak placed one vile in her hand before holding the other out to Eira. "Drink these," Katrun said gently.

For the most part, the avian-feline regarded Hermes with a sleepy stupor, not bothering to move at all asides from the eyelids drooping here and there. The owlynx didn’t react much, but there was a purr drawn out not long after he began to pet her, eyelids finally beginning to close shut. It almost seemed as if the familiar was falling asleep.

As the salve was applied, Hermes could see something shift from within the fur, scuttling across the skin that was exposed from the fur he parted. Though it was bug-like, it was oddly fuzzy looking, the hairs bristling outwards like cattail fluff. It vanished, but he would see a few more run about.

By the time he would finish, he would see that few of the parasites had tumbled off of the familiar, curled up and no longer moving. The skydancer finally moved then, craning his head over as if assessing his work. “Looks like whatever you made worked as well as the original treatment.” On cue, Moraine was suddenly besides Hermes and they stooped lower as to inspect the sleeping owlynx. Gently, their claws combed through the fur and plumage as they inspected. Sometimes, they would pluck out a dead mite, curled up and motionless and would turn it this way and that before dropping it.

The inspection ended when they lifted a wing and a couple of the dead parasites tumbled out, no longer having the motion to cling on any longer. Moraine put it back down, head nodding in approval. “Well done Hermes. I see that the salve indeed does work well. If nothing else, we shall be on our merry way!” She smiled down at her apprentice.

---

Calendula’s mouth fell open as soon as Styrax brought up the army. “An… An army?! How many dragons are we talking about here?!” Likewise, as soon as Sirius brought up his distrust in Ermine, she immediately sent a pouty expression in Sirius’ direction. She was about to open her mouth to argue something along the lines of “Ermine isn’t bad!” and then adding several counterclaims that would not help her point, until Eira spoke up, shooting her down as quickly as Katrun did to Styrax. “Calendula, did you forget the legend?”

Calendula was quiet, face contorting in confusion. In that silence, Eira took the vial from the bogsneak’s claws, uttering her thanks in the meanwhile, which also prompted Calendula to take hers. Once Eira uncorked and downed the bottle, she continued, “Sirius, I don’t believe I’ve talked about this, so this will be a first for everyone except Calendula.” She side-eyed her friend, who still looked as lost as ever.

“I do like the sound of an army, I really do… But Cryosta’s legend also comes from it’s history. In the beginning, Cryosta was a humble trading port until they took in some war refugees. Those refugees brought trouble to their doorsteps and they were terribly outmatched. Imagine a war in which a clan full of merchants and some remnants of a destroyed clan against a clan full of barbarians who definitely have caused the destruction of other clans in the past. The outcome seemed very obvious. However, on the day they were supposed to fight, their enemies actually just… Walked away. Just like that. And they never came back.”

The lost look from Calendula’s face vanished, now replaced with a look of revelation.

Regardless of being half unconscious, Hermes had to admit that he found the Owlynx to be a beautiful creature, granted he had never seen one but that could be very much because he was so focused on one goal and task at a time that he forgot to lift his head up and enjoy life. At least now he was learning new things and was paying attention because he had to.

But the thing that made Hermes the happiest, that made the young dragon's chest swell up, was the praise that his mentor bestowed upon him. To Hermes that was the greatest gift anyone could give him.

He would need to transfer the recipe into the recipe part of his journal, to make sure he had it for later, but he had managed to pull something incredible off and yes, it was just tending to a familiar, but the creature was still alive and deserved treatment and care as much as any dragon did, or at least that's how Hermes viewed things.

"Yes Moraine!" Hermes said when she spoke of leaving. Hermes turned to the handler and bowed his head. "There shouldn't be anymore problems, but if you need anymore salve please come and see me and I'll make sure that you get some!" Hermes smiled, bowing in politeness one more time before looking up at his mentor happily, almost wagging his tail in the excitement that he was feeling by her kind words.
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"No, you didn't..." Sirius said as he listened to how excited Eira had become with this information. With so much going on at once it was no surprise that Eira wouldn't have mentioned something like that, especially if an opportunity didn't present itself properly.

Styrax listened, a look of disbelief crossing his face but he did not voice his thought, instead he looked between both Wildclaws. "And what do you recommend we do then?" He asked with a tilt of his mane, causing the fur to bounce slightly with the movement.

"Simple, we try a different approach," Sirius pointed out.

All four eyes stuck Sirius with an annoyed look before sighing and looking back at the girls. "Alright, I'll call off the army but we need to do something to keep those bone-heads from getting their claws on you two, because I would be willing to wager my life is that they are both still looking for you and the two of them, so we need a plan."

The imperial would part away, saying her final thanks to the skydancer for allowing them to take up his time at the menagerie. They began to head back, the sun behind them closer to the horizine and the sky taking on an orange-pink hue at the edge. However, all southern-icefield inhabitants would come to know that even during months like these, the night approaches swifter and the day would not yet be declared over.

As they walked, Moraine would shoot a question. "How was the experience?" It was something to take into account their student's experiences, and whatever the answer, the imperial would take it into stride with the usual nod and light smile they wore whenever acknowledging Hermes' answers.

They arrived back at the infirmary, and returned to the desk. The window showed a dusky blue hue of the world outside, though it was clouded by the frost and chill. The lantern planted above the door swayed as they entered, and a few dragons who had less to do on their hands looked up at the incomers before looking away. Hermes could see now the other head healers were pretty much all within the room; Ragweed with Springer tucked away at a corner while the younger spiral furiously scribbled away on a paper, Bombyx hovering over her apprentice as he gently placed a squirming insect into the boiling vial, Lumos busily writing away in the book that seemed twice his size, and Mura pacing the room, scowling as always.

They returned to the desk, and finally, Moraine would say, "Take out your book. It is time you learn of anatomy."

---

"We still have to wait for Hermes to get back..." Eira would begin, "...However if they are going to be going after us, maybe we could capture one of them." Calendula raised a nonexistent brow, "Why would we do that? Is it like a ransom or..." She let out a gasp as revelation dawned on her, "We could get the information we need out of them!"

Eira nodded, "Exactly. There's not much we can do until Hermes returns, but if the source of info is coming to us, then we might as well take it."

"Although..." She raised a claw up, scratching at her head lightly, "I'm not sure how exactly we could go about capturing them... And think of the obstacles... For all we know, they could come around with a substantial patrol... And how can we even catch them?"

The days had grown longer, but even shorter it felt like the nights had grown colder to the point that one would think that ice was forming on their bones, stilling dragons painfully to be lost to the cold slumber that had stolen many a life. Though to Hermes, he had some natural protection with his thick fur but he was not Sirius, he could still feel the cold if he was not careful if he was outside at night or during a storm. Though this thought was also mixed with the thoughts of what he had seen and experienced today, working with a familiar was something different but just as important for a Healer to understand, it was never explicitly said they would treat only Dragons.

Moraine's question broke Hermes from his thoughts and he turned and looked to his mentor and smiled. "It was an interesting experience," he admitted. "It also reminded me that my patients will not always be Dragons and I should probably become familiar with...well familiars," he said with a small chuckle. "Also, their fur was soft and it was exciting to work with the Owlynx."

They made it back to the infirmary and Hermes looked around at the Head Healer's working with their students and he tilted his head when he saw Bombyx and his student working with the insect. He thought about approaching them and beginning his questioning, but reminded himself now wasn't the time when the Mentors were working with their respective student, it would be considered rude for Hermes to butt in now with his own questions.

Hermes sat at his desk and removed his journal from his belt where he kept it attached to his waist. He pulled a quill from his satchel and a inkwell, opening it and dipping the tip in as he turned to a blank page so that he could begin taking notes. "Yes Moraine," he said with a polite, curt nod of his head. Hermes attention was completely on the Imperial, not considering the other students that had shot him looks upon his entrance. Their gazes had just become part of Hermes daily routine.
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"Capture them, eh?" Styrax asked as he reached a claw up and scratched his cheek thoughtfully. "I doubt we could lure them into the forest, those bone-heads don't do good on the ground, they tend to keep to the air and we wouldn't do any good in an aerial battle, so whatever we do we've got to get them to land so that we have the advantage against them, especially if we are capturing one we have to cripple the wings."

"We might not need to capture a Banescale," Sirius said as he looked between the group. "I had a run in with a Pearlcatcher that answered to the leader, he looked like an errand runner...and he was easily scared by the Banescale and probably could be used to squeeze out information if we were able to capture him." Sirius pointed out, remembering following the nervous Dragon out of the camp to a secret meeting they had.

Styrax listened to his friend and tapped his tail on the ground again as the information was taken in. "Well, we could do that...probably would be easier to capture a Pearlcatcher than one of those giant jerks...but there is no promise that they are going to send that guy on an errand so that we can catch him but we can put that as an option as there is no point in taking anything completely off the table." This wasn't the first time Styrax and his pack would have done something like this, but there really was no point in bringing up some of the questionable things they had done to survive during times when food was hard to find. "But we do have bait," he said as he looked at the Wildclaws.

“Anatomy is a bit more of a difficult field to learn but very helpful to learn. Understanding often means familiarizing yourself with the inner workings of the body, whether it be a dragons’ or another creatures’, which often means dissection. However, that is no longer the case nowadays as with the right book, you too can understand anatomy without needing to pull something apart.

The difficulty lies in how many creatures live in Sornieth and for all the different structures you need to remember. Even then, it is very handy in the case you need to remember where to find a specific organ or when you are performing surgery or making an incision without damaging a vital artery and whatnot. To start, there are a diverse breed of dragons but even with the different ways the deities have built us, there is something that unifies us all. A similar placement of organ, the heart within the chest, the brain within the head, and so on. All moderns have at least a pair of wings on our backs, four legs, and likewise.

Once you remember the basic structures, all that would be left is to remember the differences. It would not hurt to refer to your notes every once in a while, however, but sometimes, time is precious.

Let us start with your breed, tundras. Without looking to the diagrams, tell me an anatomical difference you know your kind has that differs you from the rest. Body parts, build, feature, tell me what feature sets you apart.”

---

Calendula upon realizing they were looking at the two, slowly raised a claw to point at herself. “Us?” There was a look of worry and nervousness on the older wildclaw’s face, which differed from the look Eira had, a look of understanding what needs to be done. “One of us may do,” Eira would say as if detecting the nervousness in Calendula’s tone. “They would have been after both of us either way. Besides,” she glanced at Calendula whose mouth swung open partway as if to but in, “In the case everything does go wrong, wouldn’t it be wiser to have at least one of us safe and sound.”

“You can’t be serious!” Calendula would squeak, “You are talking like you know you’ll die! It’s not like they are going to let that happen to you, right?” She looked to the rest, as if seeking reassurance. Eira sighed then continued, “I’m not saying it’s likely they’ll fail, it’s more like a what-if. You already stayed in there for so long, getting dragged back would spell the end for you since you’ve already broken out once. And it is not like I will let myself be dragged back.”

Hermes nodded his head as he listened to his mentor, remembering their first anatomy lesson a few weeks back and it caused a low purr to escape from his throat as he was listening to his mentor explaining how anatomy and such were different from each dragon. Hermes opened his journal and looked through the diagrams he had copied down from the books that he had been studying from, since he couldn't carry the large medical books around to be able to whip out at the moment to try and commit it to memory on the spot, and as his mentor pointed out, he might not always have the time on his side to do so, which would leave him gambling with the life of a patient, and that was not something Hermes was OK with.

"Tundra's have a larger olfactory than other dragons, thicker fur if we live in the Southern Icefield, we have hearty constitutions allowing us to eat anything really."

Not to mention our memory is the worse but that isn't really something not unknown to anyone else...get mocked enough for it.

Hermes thought it better than to voice that last part out loud as he could even hear the bitterness in the words. "Are claws have small webbing between the toes to allow us to walk over the snow and not sink into it as well!"
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"We won't let anything happen to Eira," Sirius swore as he could feel his back bristle just at the thought. "This might be our best bet, but we will do everything to keep her safe."

"It won't be too difficult," Styrax said confidently. "And even if something goes wrong, we plan for that too."

“Indeed that is. Knowing your own kind well is the way to start. Though every dragon is different, if it comes to treating your fellow tundras and you must pinpoint the source of the issue, you know best where to look. Now onto another breed… Let us see…” Moraine fell silent as if in thought, before they seemed to reach a conclusion.

“Ah, I’ve got it. Without looking to your diagram, is there anything you could remember of an imperial’s biology you can distinguish?” It was perhaps the next easiest choice in their head, for as far as they knew, Hermes has not interacted with anyone but his brother until coming here.

---

Perhaps it was the absolute conviction in Sirius’ tone or the confident air about Styrax. Whichever it was, Calendula relented, deflating a bit like a balloon. “Alright… But Eira, if you…!” Said dragon would huff, looking towards Calendula. “Funny, when did you become the worrier?”

In response, she seemed to puff out a bit like an agitated hen. “I’m the older one you know!”