forum I summon thee @Young-Dusty

Started May 08, 2019 by @amber_is_in_a_loop

tune

Charlotte sighed. "I'm disinfecting. If I don't, then this will get worse. You don't want that, right? Because I don't." She kept rubbing without easing up on him.

Slash gave a somewhat resentful sneeze. "Do you humans do this for every cut you get? I've never even heard of disin….disinfacting."

"Disin_fect_ing," Charlotte corrected him. "And no, only the deeper ones." She finally finished, and rummaged through the kit for a the stitching tools. "This part might hurt, but we don't have any numbing agents. Just don't make any noise, okay?"

Slash gave her a dark look. "I won't. I'm tough, you know."
Rick finished boiling some water and glanced over at Charlotte. "If you need to clean some bandages or any of that stuff, I can do that real quick."

"Yes please," she told Rick. She showed Slash the needle. "Okay. Here we go." She started stitching him up, the thread held between her teeth.

(gosh it was so hard to verbalize this response the way I Imagined it)
Slash was transfixed by her actions, and it quickly became clear that he was very weirded-out by the whole ordeal. He stiffened, growling slightly. He didn't change form, but the back of his jacket somehow became fur and he raised his hackles at her. It seemed to take all of his willpower not to pull away from the needle and bare his teeth.

Charlotte paid no heed to his strange behaviour, focusing all her attention on her work. She was halfway done, stitching as quick as she could without hurting Slash more than she needed to. She stitched and stitched and then finally snapped the end of the thread off, knotting whatever was left.
Charlotte let out a shaky breath, falling back on her hands.

Slash instantly jerked back as well, staring at his mended arm with something like outrage. He started scooting away into the undergrowth, but Rick stopped him with a stern look. "Hey. What did I say about thankin' her?"
Slash paused. "….Thanks. For….fixing my arm."

Charlotte nodded silently, blowing a strand of hair out of her face. She chucked all the equipment back into the kit and snapped it shut.

Rick leaned back against the trunk of a tree. "Well, now that both the kids are taken care of–" Slash shot him a glare but he ignored it. "–we really do have to sit and wait a while. You hungry, Charlotte? I think it's a little past lunch time."

She nodded, returning to Jessie's side. "I dried some of that deer meat," she suggested.

"Well that sounds good. Want some, Slash?"
Slash hesitated, then sighed. "I guess. Lemme know when you need me to go hunting again."

"Will do," Charlotte mumbled distractedly, checking Jessie's pulse. It was evening out, which meant she'd be waking up soon; she told the boys as much.

Rick nodded, passing her some food. "I'll warm up some broth in case she's hungry. Slash, maybe you should stay back a bit so you don't startle her, okay?"
Slash frowned. "Why would she be scared of me?"
"Well, I didn't say scared. She just, uh…might need some space, is all."
"Fine…..I wanna see her when she's awake though." He stumped over to a patch of trees and curled up underneath them. "I'll be over here."

After a minute or two, Jessie's eyelids started to flutter. Biting her lip, Charlotte took the girl's hand, and Jessie tightened her hold on Charlotte's fingers. Her mouth opened.
"Charlotte?" Only a whisper, barely enough for Charlotte to hear. But it was enough and, teary-eyed, Charlotte's somber face broke into a smile.
Jessie's eyes properly opened, shining bright blue in the sunlight, and she immediately spotted Charlotte leaning over her. She smiled too, tiredly, and pulled her Mentor into a hug.

Rick watched with a smile, stirring the broth quietly and staying silent to give them some semblance of privacy. He was relieved to see that the girl seemed all right, and felt greatly encouraged by their victory, though it might be small in the long run.

(Sorry!! School’s started now so my timetable might go weird)
Charlotte pulled away from Jessie, gently setting her down on the grass. Judging by her unfocused gaze and slightly slurred words, she was indeed drugged. Her eyes were already drifting shut again.
“Is that ready?” Charlotte asked quietly, trying not to startle her.

(It's okay ^^ I have to work again this morning so I won't really be around until this afternoon)
"Just about." Rick fished a metal bowl out of his backpack and filled it with the broth, nesting it in a piece of cloth before passing it over so nobody would get burned. "You want some too, Charlotte?"

(Okay!)
She took the bowl, shaking Jessie awake with her free hand. "Have something to eat before drifting off again," Charlotte breathed, and the girl nodded and sat up against a rock. Charlotte handed her the bowl and let her be for a moment, turning to face Rick again and smiling in assent.

Rick gave her a second helping of broth, then took one for himself. "Slash, you want some?"
Slash shook his head, so deep in the foliage by now that only his ears and eyes were visible. "What's wrong with her?" he asked quietly. "Why is she acting all weird like that?"

"She's drugged, some sort of herb concoction probably. We have to try and dilute it, or just wait until it's been flushed out of her system. I don't get though…" She paused. "Why she's healthy. I mean, other than some cuts and bruises. He could've done so much worse…" She told them, trailing off distractedly as she watched Jessie sip at the broth.

Rick nodded. "Seems like we got lucky in a lot of ways. Maybe once we reach our destination, we'll find out some answers."
Slash had cautiously poked his muzzle out of the bushes and was sniffing around with great care. "Can I come out yet?" he whispered.

Charlotte looked over and, with an uncharacteristic gentle smile, nodded. She sipped at her soup, and Jessie noticed the animal crawling forward. She let out a quiet squeak and shuffled closer to Charlotte.
The latter wrapped her arms around the girl. "He's only a teenager. He can't do anything, and besides he's one of ours. You don't have to worry."

Slash stepped slowly closer, his bright green eyes glittering in the light from the fire and from the afternoon sun leaking through the trees. Pausing a couple feet away from Charlotte and Jessie, he sat up on his hind legs and stared down at the younger girl with great curiosity.
"Uh…..hi," he rumbled after a minute, his ears flicking back and forth.