Aaja was actually in a decent mood, which was both an odd thing and a good thing rolled into one. The lioness was sitting with a smile on her face and dreamy eyes while humming as she stirred together the newest brew of medicine she was working on.
Now, important to say It wasn't as if she wasn't usually in a good mood everyday already. Aaja was just a happy person most days and as such she usually was pleased with her life and content to smile to those who had even the gravest of injuries to visit her.
For some reason though, she was in a better mood than usual today. She felt like nothing could possibly go wrong with the world and she even felt gleeful when she recognized the next reaver to step into her humble home.
Turning, Aaja was a bit surprised, but the surprise lasted a faction of a second before she smiled and said, "Good morning Tollak, Good day to die is it not?"
Tollak would have tried to match Aaja's seemingly happy attitude if it wasn't for the fact that he was in a terrible, horrible mood. He had only just returned from a brief raid that had lasted no more than a few hours before the captain in charge had deducted they should just turn around and head home.
Honestly, what kind of captain did that?! Tollak was ready to seize the day, head right into the neck of a fight and yet, this guy, this captain-!!
"Aaja. Spare me your greetings." He growled softly as he spoke. His claws were scrapping against Aaja's floor, which still didn't even have a rug for crying out loud, and his tail flicked restlessly side to side.
Skall trailed in after Tollak, and he whispered hushed into Tollak's ear "Be nice, she's a freeborn." As if it was a fact that Tollak had forgotten. He certainly knew she was a freeborn but Skall worried that Tollak might have forgotten that freeborns deserved to be treated with as much respect as any other reaver.
Perhaps even a bit more, when it came to healers.
"We've merely a few scratches, but it would be nice if you could ensure we aren't more injured then we believe to be true." Some called Skall's statements flower blooded. He called them proper. He was raised with dignity and honor, "flowery-statements" came along with such an upbringing.
Skall sat down next to Tollak, and bumped his elbow lightly into some sort of shelf that Aaja had assembled in her den. She had herbs sitting on it and the reaver struggled to not pick some up and eat them, for he was famished. They didn't even get to hunt before turning back and heading home. Honestly the raid had been a waste of time, it couldn't even be called a raid at this point. More like a hike. That didn't mean Tollak had to be rude however.
She wasn't even remotely surprised that Tollak was in a bad mood. It seemed like they were opposite with moods lately and that was something she wished to fix. They were friends, that meant she needed to be on her best behavior and Tollak needed to not act like a jerk around her.
Seemed like today was one of those days when he was going to ignore those unspoken rules. Still, Aaja tried to lighten the mood. "Scratches hmm, I've got just the thing." She turned to a dish on the ground with a grey, rather disgusting looking paste that she found soothed small injuries. Grinding only a few herbs together along with a small amount of water made it something that took only a few minutes to create, so she had quite the abundance of the product sitting around.
Tollak was repulsed. Did she really mean to put that on him? It smelt terrible and had no intention of wearing it around all day, smelling like a fart. "It's fine, Skall's lying. We're not even scratched, we didn't get into a fight or anything."
Which brought to Tollak's attention, why were they even here? Skall seemed intent on visiting Aaja and having Tollak apologize to her, but that wasn't going to fly. The younger lion felt he hadn't done anything wrong and pondered how the heck Skall even found out if he had spoken to Aaja at all?! It made him frown, and Tollak didn't look pleased even the slightest bit.
When Aaja approached and became examining his arms and paws for injuries anyways Tollak sighed and bent his ears back. He remained like that for some good time until she pulled on a twig caught between his claws, then he snarled and pulled his paw away from her. "That hurt. I thought you were a healer!"
"I am." She huffed in response. Most customers- if one could call them such, apologized when they tore their claws away... If they tore them away that was. Tollak was being a big baby, even she didn't fight healers when she had a hang nail like he did. It was almost as if he finding a reason to be mad at her. Something she wouldn't put past him given he was, after all, Tollak.
"Usually injuries always hurt before they heal, show me your paw again you have a small nick."
Tollak reversed. "No way." He shook his head at Aaja. Something about her was pissing him off and the gray lion couldn't figure out what.
Then, all of a sudden it came to him. She smelt... Off.
Usually Aaja and Dagny had the similar scent of mint clinging to them due tot the fact that Dagny was an all-things-mint specialist and Aaja was her closest friend that Tollak knew of. She didn't smell like her usual minty self however, which meant that either Dagny had stopped brewing mint, an unlikely scenario, or Aaja wasn't spending as much time around her. If Aaja wasn't spending as much time around Dagny enough that she didn't even smell like mint, then what did that mean?
It probably meant that some guy was trying to court Aaja, or she and Dagny had stopped being friends. Given the limited knowledge Tollak had accumulated regarding girls and how close they were to one another he could safely assume they were still friends. So option A it was then, some dude was trying to court Aaja.
Basically what it all came down to was he thought Aaja was being ditsy from what they called the "love-bug" and didn't trust her to do her job right. So she certainly wasn't going anywhere near him!
"I'll go see a real healer, not just some clumsy apprentice one." At that he turned and stormed out of Aaja's den, leaving her and Skall inside...
Had Skall turned his neck around any faster his neck probably would have snapped.
Tollak left? As in, he had just insulted a healer and left?!
"Forgive him." Skall shuffled as he turned to look at Aaja again. "Though I understand if you don't, that was very out of line." Especially for a reaver, gods! Did Tollak understand anything Skall told him?! Clearly from that latest episode to add to the list, he didn't even slightly get it.
If there was one main quirk, one fault or one flaw that Skall possessed (other than his overly serious battle tenancies) it was he was appalled if anyone so much as looked at a healer the wrong way. Healers didn't need to heal and if Tollak came crawling into Aaja's den with half a brain left she wasn't obligated to fix his wounds.
Which was why it was so utmost importance that all healers remained on good terms with Skall. He never wanted to come back to the pride and be left to die simply because a conversation had turned sour. He wasn't going to let Tollak ruin this either.
"We shall journey to the roguelands soon, please inform me if there is any ingredient, or herb perhaps that you would appreciate us returning with..."
Aaja was hit with a bit of shock as Tollak left. His words sunk her heart and buried into it. She tried to swallow the feeling that came with them but wasn't completely able to look as pleasant and happy as she desired.
She probably looked devastated given the bright sun-kissed lion's offer. Still, after a few moments Aaja regained her composure. This was an opportunity, reavers hardly asked if Aaja wanted something in return, they either just arrived with gifts or they thanked her and went on their way.
Yet, given the choice she did need something. Something of create importance... "I require an assistant." She told Skall. "I... I am very clumsy you see. Tollak isn't wrong about that, I have a terrible time..."
"There is no need for you to explain why you require one." Skall interrupted. Although mildly curious it wasn't in his place to ask for why, it was in his place to ask for what she desired. The why was the splotchy cloud lioness' own personal reasons.
"You require a thrall, and we will return with one." He was lament about that decision, if they did not capture the thrall right away then they would keep searching until they obtained one. No questions asked.
Skall turned to leave this time, and prepared himself for what he would say to Tollak. He'd drag the lion by his toes to the battlefield if need be, Tollak wasn't going to keep Aaja upset because Skall was not losing a connection to healer over him.
That was reason enough, wasn't it?
