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 Posted: Sun Jan 29, 2012 8:37 pm
 It was a weakness of the pack, perhaps, that there were so few wolves trained in the healing arts. Then again, maybe Firdaws was misremembering. Maybe in times past, when the pack could afford it, they all had simply left their wounded to rot.
But that couldn't be true, could it? The God Alpha was merciful. The God Alpha was just.
Well, anyway. He had been in the paws of the omegas, such that they were, and perhaps it was more of a miracle that he had survived than due to any skill on their behalf. His wounds had, after all, been grievous.
Most of these past two days had been a fever-induced blur. He had lay and screamed and cried and talked to people who were not there while his dreams showed him wonderful and terrible visions. When the fever had finally broken, he had shivered and shuddered and fallen into a deep sleep.
When next he awoke, he was somewhat more aware of himself. He could feel his body, at any rate, and it seemed to be connected to his mind once more. He rather wished it weren't. He felt terrible. The lower half of his body felt as though it were being eaten by ants.
He was afraid to know what the damage was. He had the terrible feeling that he knew exactly what had been harmed; he felt a deep, hollow absence inside of him..and outside, as well.
Stranger yet, he seemed to have been cleaned by someone, somehow, in his sleep. He was quite certain that he had been covered in blood and dirt and mud when he came back to the pack. Now he was...if not clean, at least groomed. The wound seemed to have been cleaned and treated with...something. Firdaws didn't know. He was accustomed to inflicting damage, not healing it.
An ear flicking, the wolf attempted to straighten and get an idea of his bearings. Moving caused horrible pain to shoot through him, however, so he fell back to the ground and groaned.
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Posted: Sun Jan 29, 2012 9:23 pm
Satoru, despite being rather shiny, was an easy face to miss. His biggest contribution to the pack thus far was the bringing of Rorret, such a smart boy, but even that great success was not enough to eventually make the omega blend back into the faceless numbers of the shadowy pack. Who cared about who brought whom anyway? It was individual prowess that mattered in the Brotherhood, and lately Sato had not contributed his best to be among them.
Well, until he was given a job to tend to someone's wounds. Apparently the brother had been caught in a fight with someone and was grievously scarred from the event - it wasn't until the omega was brought to Firdaws did he know the true extent of those wounds. And oh did Sato wince.
But this was his first chance to do something productive for the pack, and he took to it eagerly like a starved pup given meat. While a little clumsy in his application of poultices (it was hard not to be at least a little awkward in that particular area), he was eventually given the desired result: the wounds were healing, and there didn't seem to be any infections. Then, noting the poor wolf's state of cleanliness, Satoru couldn't help but wash him off with his tongue where appropriate, spitting off to the side when it accumulated beyond his gag reflex. The poor fellow, he could only wonder what had incurred such a pointed wrath . . .
It angered him even, the attack was centered on a male's manhood (literally!); but Sato was not one to carry anger for long. What mattered was that his ward was sleeping soundly for the moment, and that for once his job was satisfactory. Sato's eyes drooped with the beginnings of fatigue, but he nonetheless perked up when he heard groaning escape his brother, green eyes lighting up. "Shh shh shh," he hushed, gently putting a paw on Firdaws' shoulder to discourage more movement. "You were hurt badly, but you're okay now. It's been a couple of days, but I need you to stay still a little bit longer." He did not mention the half-baked rants he'd heard during the treatment, as such words were not ones he took seriously.
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Posted: Mon Jan 30, 2012 2:06 am
Firdaws jumped, slightly, at the sound of another's voice. The shiny omega had been so quiet that he hadn't notice his approach. Craning his neck to get a look at him, the golden-eyed huntmaster tried for a moment to understand what had happened to him.
He had been out searching...for the traitor, for Danel, it didn't really matter anymore which did it?...and then he had been distracted by the female. Ahh, that damnable woman, with her little smile, and he had wanted her. He could almost taste her. And he would've had her, if he hadn't gotten impatient, if he hadn't tried to pursue her into the foxhole that was too small...if it hadn't fallen in around him...
And then it was pain and confusion. He vaguely remembered Rorret finding him, but that didn't make any sense. What was Rorret doing out there? And he remembered the God Alpha. Or did he? He could have sworn he had seen him...and had the most beautiful dream...
It all jumbled together in his head.
"You...you're Elapse's, right?" He asked, finally. He had never spared much attention toward the omegas. He usually cared only for his hunters. Now that he thought about it...was Elapse even still in the pack? Or was he among the missing? He thought over it, doing a mental check in his mind of who was missing.
He couldn't keep track of things any longer. Everything was all muddy. "What...what was your name? I'm sorry. Everything is so confusing right now."
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Posted: Mon Jan 30, 2012 8:40 am
A small, yet sweet, smile graced his lips as he slid his paw off. "Of Elapse, yes. My name's Satoru. You're back with your brothers, so there's no need to worry." He hadn't thought of his mentor in what felt like weeks now, Elapse being very good at keeping to himself, and now Sato felt bad; he didn't want to forget any of his brothers, as so many of them had faded away. Even Danel's loss, though he had not seen their alpha for long, struck him. Possibly made him clingy even.
"Do you need something?" he asked. "Water, shade, food?" He wanted so desperately to ask what had happened, but Sato was having issues just remembering the wolf's name. He knew this one was important, a head of some sort. Not a story teller, his muscles were telling. A hunter? Yes, he had to be a hunter of some sort . . .
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Posted: Mon Jan 30, 2012 12:05 pm
"Firdaws," he said, as though noticing the other's uncertainty. He didn't mind that the other wolf didn't know him; it was reciprocal, after all. The huntmaster
His stomach grumbled. When had he last eaten? Although the thought of food made him nauseous. "...Water, I think," he said, running his tongue along the parched roof of his mouth. It felt so strange to be weak, at the mercy of an omega. He had never been so vulnerable in his life.
Later, when it began to sink in what that b***h had done to him, the anger would set in. Now, though, he was dazed and exhausted confused.
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Posted: Mon Jan 30, 2012 12:50 pm
Firdaws, yes! There we are. Nodding, Sato ducked away to the den, pulled out a well-worn bowl, and went to fill it with river water; well, after shaking it clean of dirt first. He did not take long to return, a little water sloshing over the lip due to the awkward way he had to hold it in his mouth. Carefully, and with some shaking, he placed the half-full bowl before the hunt master's head. "There, drink up . . ."
Sato then plopped his rump down beside the recovering wolf, biting the inside of his cheek. He would eventually have to tell or show him the extent of those wounds, and he was unsure how the male would react . . . "I need you to take it slow, okay, Master Firdaws? If you stretch too soon the wounds will reopen. They'll also probably itch while they heal, but you shouldn't pick at them."
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Posted: Tue Jan 31, 2012 8:49 pm
He waited for the other wolf to return, dozing slightly in his absence. The smell of water caught his senses, however, and he drank messily and awkwardly from the bowl, tongue sloshing as much onto the ground as he managed to drink.
Bowls, like the cloaks, had been hoarded in the swamp for a long time, passed along from one generation to the next. None in the pack could remember exactly when they had first arrived or where they had come from. Firdaws was vaguely aware that humans existed, but he had never wandered near a human settlement.
"Thanks," he managed, running his tongue along his now-damp maw. He could still taste the grit of dirt in his teeth.
He sighed, glancing up at the shiny wolf. At least the omegas knew a thing or two, he thought. He would be useless if their roles were reversed. The best he would be able to do is kill the patient to ease his suffering. He was definitely grateful that Satoru was not the same way.
"I...how long, do you think?" He closed his eyes. He wanted to get back to his duties as soon as possible. There were new pups to train. He was especially curious to see how Makya and Llikmeht developed...the little green-and-black pup had been his own special project, after all.
He ached to ask how much damage had been done, but found that he didn't really want to know.
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Posted: Tue Jan 31, 2012 11:18 pm
The caretaker bowed his head at the thanks, humbled by any positive word from the huntmaster's lips. "A couple of days," Satoru absentmindedly repeated as if Firdaws had asked again how long he'd been out. Belatedly noting that there was probably a different edge meant to the question, he quickly amended, "Or, ah, I-I mean, maybe another day at most just to be sure. You're in such good shape that everything's been healing quickly, so no worries." And Sato knew about the huntmaster's body rather intimately after that particular treatment; he was particularly awed at the amount of muscle Firdaws had, and could almost imagine them bunching and flexing with each stride, each creeping step, each spring . . .
Which wasn't to say his herbal remedy didn't do the trick either, but an omega in the Brotherhood knew better than to boast. One who was not considered worthy to wear the symbol on his head should not speak with higher pride than his position deemed. He had simply fixed a broken artery in the veins of the pack so that blood could continue to move smoothly as before.
"If I may be so bold, sir, ah, how did you get these wounds?" Sato asked tentatively, no longer able to help himself now that his ward was getting better.
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Posted: Tue Jan 31, 2012 11:48 pm
Firdaws grimaced. Ah, of course the omega would ask. Everyone in the pack would ask. And it was such a horribly embarrassing story, even if he hadn't been somewhere he shouldn't be.
"Cornered some food. She fought back." He said, tersely. Oh, there had been more to it. He had stood and talked with her for...however long she had been in that damnable hole.
He closed his eyes and rested his head back on the ground. "You ever gone hunting on your own, Satoru? For proper prey, I mean. Wolf-flesh."
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Posted: Tue Jan 31, 2012 11:58 pm
"Oh." Another wince. The poor guy, he thought, how horrible it would be to be emasculated by those - those ones who carry teats. Disgusting creatures, letting those dangling things show like the harlots they were. Satoru fumed inwardly for a moment, then suppressed the smoke left behind with a sigh and nod. "Caretaker-patient confidentiality - I'll say it was a straggling male or something. No-one else'll know unless you let them." He couldn't, wouldn't ruin the huntmaster's reputation like that.
As for wolf-flesh, well Sato hadn't hunted his own in quite some time; other prey that were more accessible during his prolonged stay within the borders were caught of course, but the best meats were denied him. He couldn't say whether his cravings were so far gone that he wasn't ravenous any more, or that the mere mention mention of it made him so hungry that his brain hadn't registered it yet. "Not in a while, er, sir," he replied almost sheepishly. "We don't get many strangers nowadays, and I can't just leave pack borders like the rest, n-not without specific orders."
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Posted: Wed Feb 01, 2012 12:09 am
"There's nothing quite like it," Firdaws said, largely ignoring everything that Satoru had said. "One-on-one, stalking the lessers. It makes you feel alive, and powerful. It's dangerous, though. Still...never, in all my life, have I been bested."
And the one time it had happened, it was a dirty little whore of a songbird. What was the matter with him!
He sighed. "I know what she did to me," he said, in a tone half-strangled with a mix of bitterness and despair. "I can feel it. Something...like an emptiness." He didn't want to say 'like I'm missing a part of myself' because he hoped that wasn't true.
He laughed, then, bitterly. "Suppose it's for the best that our lot don't father pups then, aye?"
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Posted: Wed Feb 01, 2012 12:14 am
Wide eyes came with the turn of the conversation, making him antsy as he followed those words around like a puppy's tail. Firdaws' punctuated sighs, however, eased Sato's anxiety of having to explain exactly the damage from that fight. "Yes, yes, very lucky," he told the hunt master with what he hoped was a bracing smile. "A-And of course we don't measure any brother's prowess by the - the - that. Maybe you could, ah, let the little ones see your scars as an example of how strong you have to be against the lesser? And I bet they would think you're cool, heh." Any sort of positive spin on it, Sato would find and suggest.
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Posted: Wed Feb 01, 2012 9:48 am
His eye opened, catching Satoru, and for a moment it looked almost as though he were going to yell -- then the laughter came, again. "Yes...yes. Only the b***h'll be bigger when we tell the story. Big and mean and hairy. Like a bear. And we'll say I killed it, in the end."
Just imagine showing off these scars to the new recruits. Rummy's torn face had nothing on them. And what would Danel say?
Danel.
The dream came back to him, slicing through him like a knife. How had he even forgotten? Well. If he had survived by the grace of the God Alpha...well, they he had best be grateful. He debated bringing it up to the omega, but decided against it. Not now. Let one terrible revelation happen at a time.
"I am cool," Firdaws said, finally, a bit late. "And don't you forget it." He winked, and a shadow of his old, joking self came across him, lighting up his features as though from within.
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Posted: Wed Feb 01, 2012 10:09 am
"Yes, yes!" Yes to everything! All the yeses! Sato's body trembled a little with the exhaled chuckle, having been a bit wound up under that stare - saying something wrong could have earned him some wounds himself. Ah, Sato, stop being so nervous around your own brother! he told himself, but he couldn't help it. It wasn't often that even for the briefest of moments that balance of power was upset, where omega was atop even the master of the hunt. It had been intriguing, but too nerve wracking; all that responsibility made him itch
"All of you are cool," Satoru commented truthfully, ears tilting back in a manner befitting the abashed twiddling of fingers. "'Course I can't forget, sir . . ." If he did, well, he'd quickly be reminded of his place. "A-And I hope in the future to bring more wolves like yourselves into the fold. I did a good job with Rorret, right?"
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Posted: Wed Feb 01, 2012 10:28 am
"Oh, was that your handiwork?" Not for the first time, Firdaws noted that he needed to pay better attention to what was going on in his damn pack. Dios would know all about this, of course, but Dios was a stuck-up b*****d with no sense of humor. "Nobody trusts him, you know."
This was a bald fact, not a statement of judgment. Firdaws simply did not care one way or the other about the silver wolf's motives. He believed that Rorret's intentions were good, if his motives sometimes wavered, and that was well enough for him.
He didn't care for politics. Only for completing his duties, and enjoying some fresh meat. Blah. Some of that would need to be put on hold. Curse that woman.
"He's been a busy wolf. All that sneaking paid off, I suppose. We'll see if the new recruits paid off. You go out and find more pups, you bring 'em right to me and I'll make them the best damn hunters." A toothy, wolfish grin. He was starting to feel light-headed, and his words seemed to swim. He wasn't sure if he was still making sense. "They decide to get uppity, I can just show 'em my belly and tell them that's what happens when you don't follow Master's orders. Hah. Wouldn't that be something."
He trailed off, eyes closed, perhaps fading into sleep.
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