sooo does anyone want ankle rope burn (open)

[fish]

Onca hadn't even been planning on the luxury of an antiseptic, but there was no way he'd turn it down. Just because he thought his immune system would eventually be able to tough it out didn't mean that he wanted it to. He took a sharp inhale when the salve came in contact with his broken skin, but otherwise stayed still.

He listened silently (half from holding in any cursing from the pain, half because he also just had nothing to say) to Asta reprimanding him. Okay, sure. She was right in that he wasn't the most grateful rescue victim, but he'd learned long ago that favors always came with a catch; he didn't like, much less even know, how to show gratitude anyway, especially when he'd had no choice but to take it or die. Instead, Onca just wordlessly adjusted his hands around to allow her to bind around the wound until it was well padded and secured.

When she finished, Onca leaned back against the wall again, sighing heavily. "Been there before. It'll do." He hadn't stumbled into that village with a wound as severe as this, but remembered seeing at least a handful of places that might've housed a healer who could possibly look at his leg or at least refer him out further, hopefully with some fucking painkillers. But in terms of arriving there...

Onca looked Asta up and down. "You won't. You're covered in blood." He knew he looked equally as unsettling and bloody around his bandaged leg, but he only looked injured while she looked murderous, and only one out of the two of them could actually clean off their grisly bloodstains anyway.

[DragonSong]

Ah, shit. He was right.

Asta sighed as she glanced down at herself, plucking the fabric of her enchanted shift away from her body for a moment before she gave another little huff and stood. "I'll just be a second," she told him, once again crossing the small space to the corner where her meager supplies were gathered, this time to fetch a water basin. She'd just filled it from the stream that morning, so at least she knew it was fresh.

Taking the basin to the window, she scrubbed at her face until the water no longer came away pink, then tipped the basin over the sill. She'd refill it when she returned. She figured the blood in her shift could pass as having gotten there during her tending of the hunter's wounds. Though the thing did desperately need a wash. Something else she'd have to attend to when she was through helping her...guest.

Speaking of...

Asta looked back at where he sat on her floor, brow slightly furrowed. "You're not going to make it there on that leg," she said softly. "You'll have to ride again."

[fish]

Onca nodded grimly. If he were a kid he'd have groaned in exasperation, but instead he just bit the inside of his cheek and began pushing himself back upright onto his leg again to stand with a slouch. There wasn't any reason for him to delay anymore, so he gave Asta another look up and down. He came to the same conclusion that the blood all over her clothing didn't seem out of place since she'd been assisting him, and she no longer looked like she'd recently mauled half a dozen men (not that it wasn't true). Onca didn't see anything else that would make the villagers fear her. If anything, if Asta wanted to enter the village as a human while dragging Onca along, they'd probably be more willing to approach an attractive girl who needed help rather than someone as faceless as him. He wasn't a stranger to seeing pretty privilege in action.

He swallowed the bile rising in his throat. At least this time he wouldn't be jumpscared by horse Asta again. "If I pass out or fall off on the way don't bother." If he lost consciousness or blacked out and dropped off of Asta on the way there, then that was going to be on him, and he assumed it'd only make sense for Asta to forget about him and leave him for dead. She'd already gone out of her way to help Onca this much already, and he didn't expect the goodwill to last forever. 

"If I make it, stay out of smelling range from any horses." Or they'll come after me, and I'm totally fucking dead with the state I'm in anyway. He took a deep and slow breath, and straightened up while leaning against the wall to indicate he was ready to get back up and move on- or as ready as he could muster in his condition.

[DragonSong]

Asta raised her eyebrows at that—again with the horses—but nodded. "Fine." She moved carefully around him to step back  over her doorway so that she had space to take equine shape, but wouldn't be forcing him to move too far in order to mount.

She paused before she shifted though, looking at him with a slight tilt to her head. "I...don't suppose you've got any beastspeaking ability?" Though it was technically a question, she was pretty sure she knew the answer—she'd been around him in animal form enough that she assumed if he could speak to her that way, he would have.

Sighing quietly, she gave herself a little shake and added, "Well, I won't be able to speak with you, but I can understand you fine. So...I guess that'll work."

[fish]

Onca shook his head to her question, that no, he didn't know a lick of beastspeak, and that she was correct. He then nodded at her compromise. "S'long as you make sense I'll get it." As Asta probably knew at this point, he wasn't much of a conversationalist anyway and seemed to prefer relying mostly on non-verbal indicators that even an animal could potentially do; he was comfortable receiving the same from others.

Once she was ready as a horse, Onca shoved down all of his instinctual urges to flee so that he could clumsily heft himself back onto her. Again. He was never going to get used to this. Instead, he rather focused on the task of figuring out what to do when they actually arrived, if he'd even be able to get that far. He'd been there a few times, and weighed which acquaintances would be the most helpful.

"Southwestern entrance," he muttered, "gate's too small for horses. Aim there." It only seemed wise to tell Asta ahead of time which village entrance that he knew to take, and that she'd likely have to turn back human and drag him in just so they could fit through it.

[DragonSong]

Asta bobbed her head to show she understood the direction he was giving, waiting a few more heartbeats once he was on her back for him to properly settle before she began to move.

It was strange; she'd never though of horses as having a particularly sensitive sense of hearing, at least not compared to some of the shape she could take. But they did—she could hear the hunter's heartbeat almost as clearly as she felt her own, with him so close.

Picking her way through the forest in this shape became easier the more she did it, so though the trip was still a good few hours, she at least tried to make it as steady as possible for her passenger.

The tree line ended several wagon-lengths from the village's southwest gate, which seemed as good a place as any to take a more appropriate shape; the hunter had been right, this gate clearly wasn't used for anything other than foot traffic, too small for even a horse and rider to get through.

She curled her legs under her body and lowered herself as gently as she could to let her passenger dismount, again waiting a few breaths to give him time to get properly clear before she took human shape.

"Here." She stood, holding a hand down to him. "You'll have to lean on me—I'm stronger than I look."

[fish]

If it weren't for the fact that his face were entirely covered, the world would have seen that Onca's face was positively green by the latter end of the trip. He could tell Asta was already trying to reduce as much disturbance to him as possible, and couldn't complain; he didn't want to know what it would've been like had she cared a little less.

He dismounted with 0 elegance, and accepted Asta's instructions to lean on her with equal inelegance. Even had Onca wanted to doubt her comparatively slight figure, he had no choice if he wanted to make it any further than a few hops anyway. He slung his arm over her neck without protest and allowed her to take the brunt of what weight he couldn't support himself. True to her word, Onca found himself able to distribute a decent portion of his weight onto her. He kept this in mind, so that he didn't underestimate her strength in the future.

The village, having been small and knowing mostly peace, simply had a single guard posted near the gateway. As the two approached, Onca recognized the guard as one he'd already passed by before during one of his previous times here. Small village, after all. It was apparent they were there more to keep tabs on the few travelers flowing in and out rather than being able to stop anyone, as they weren't that well armed; the guard also seemed to recognize Onca as a previous visitor who'd merely brought in meat and fur to sell (as there weren't that many visitors to even forget in the first place), and mostly just gawked at the sight of him being almost carried in by a bloody pale stranger.

Their appearance alone told a very plain story that spoke of their urgency, so they made it in without issue. Once they entered, Onca turned his head to a pathway lined with stalls and houses behind them. A market, from the looks of it. "Fourth stall on the right. With the potted plants." He recalled an herbalist he'd run into prior who'd requested antler velvet from him, and figured in terms of locating a healer, their family would be likely to know.

[DragonSong]

The guard stationed at the gate did little more than give them a startled look and then usher them into the village. Just as the hunter was telling her to go toward the market, the guard noted, perhaps a little awkwardly, "If you're, ah, looking for healing, ask for Madame Nerys. Her grandkids run a stall in the market, they should be able to take you to her."

Asta nodded in thanks, biting back the automatic, snarky reply that rose into her brain about "if" they were looking for healing. No, no, she was just intending to cart her skewered charge around the village for a little exercise.

He's just trying to be helpful, she told herself firmly, trying to force her own irritation with the entire situation away from the front of her mind.

Assuming the stall that the hunter had indicated and the one the guard was talking about were in fact the same thing, she helped her charge hobble over to the stand. She didn't even need to try to get anyone's attention; they drew plenty just from their general state.

"Dear gods!" The person running the stall didn't look to be much more than a teenager, and their eyes went round as saucers when they caught sight of the two wild folk. "O-oh my— Nana Nerys, you want to get to Nana Nerys!" They pointed to a squat building  nearer to the center of the town, though still accessible from the market. "Do—do you need any help, or—?"

Asta shook her head. "No, thank you, I've got him."

[fish]

Yeah, Onca thought tiredly, I think I'm good being coddled by one person for now. He let himself be dragged over to where hopefully, his leg would soon get properly looked at. As soon as they were within reach of the building's entrance, Onca didn't hesitate to drop his entire arm weight onto the door so that his fist slammed against it to give it one giant and desperate bang.

"Injury," he called loudly through the wood. He hated raising his voice in general, but he wasn't about to risk this "Nana" Nerys leaving them unheard at the door; he found old people annoyingly poor at picking up his typical low volume. A few more seconds later, he banged one more time on the door right before they could hear a voice clamoring from within.

"I heard you the first time, you impudent fools, now hang on a moment...!" Heavy footsteps rushed unevenly to the door before their owner finally swung it open. "Now what's with all this racket, coming in such a fuss as if your arms and legs are about to fall right off of yo-"

Onca and Asta were met with a solidly built old woman who was tall enough to almost see Onca eye-to-eye. She was quite the imposing Nana, having a robust and stern face, and rugged set of hands that spoke volumes of her age and experience. She looked at them with a hawkish glint of her eye before adjusting her tiny spectacles and widening the door to let them in. "You look terrible," she asserted. "Sit there." She pointed to an empty cot. The two of them didn't even seem to have to explain any of their situation for Nerys to already stomp around gathering what she saw fit to treat Onca's leg.

"Patient name and cause of wound?" She called over her shoulder. Onca remained silent for the time being, as he was mostly focused on easing himself onto the simple cot and biting back a hiss from having to endure the pain from the entire ordeal. He didn't particularly care that neither Asta nor Nerys actually knew his name.

[DragonSong]

Asta was actually rather impressed with herself for not shrinking under the older woman's gaze. She nodded quickly when they were directed to a cot and helped her charge hobble over to it, getting him settled before she took a brisk step back.

Patient name and cause of wound?

"We, ah, had a bit of a run-in with some poachers out in the woods," Asta supplied softly. "My..." Friend? Acquaintance? Pain in the ass? "Well, he fell into their trapping pit," she finished a little lamely. She looked at the hunter pointedly when she ran out of things to say, mouthing, Your name?

[fish]

"Impaled leg. Wood's still in it." Onca ignored Asta's question, lifting his leg up to place onto the cot until Nerys caught him with an AHT AHT while holding up a towel to indicate that she wanted to lay it down first. He merely sat there holding his limp leg up by his thigh until she was able to return to the cot and place it down, finally easing his leg on top.

"Well, I'd assume so, considering you haven't bled out yet, Sir Too-Mysterious-To-Warrant-A-Name." Her words were sharp but her tone had become less snappy. Nerys was a stern and disciplined medic, not a hostile one. She cleaned her hands in a basin that left her hands completely dry when she pulled them out, likely a magic one, before pursing her lip and pushing a stool over to inspect Onca's leg.

As she gingerly but efficiently removed the bandaging, Nerys spoke to Asta without looking at her. While her tone didn't soften or lack its intensity, all traces of irritability were gone. "Dear, you're also a mess. There are clean patient gowns in the back that you're free to use; broody travelers like this one would rather I saw off their leg than change out of their ridiculous getup anyway, so you can take whatever would've been his. Use my basin over there to clean your clothes; it's enchanted to clean common organic matter off whatever you wash in it. I'll get you something hot to drink once I've seen to your friend."

"Not you, though." Onca's hood perking up at the sound of a warm beverage was maybe too obvious. "No fluids until I know what to do with you." Nerys tossed the bandaging onto the cot, swatting at Onca's hands when he tried to stop her from cutting open his boot (he didn't want to have to get a new one) and judging how would be best to remove the wooden fragment skewering his calf meat. Her magic was practical, not a miracle, and she wielded it like a surgeon would their powerful tools.

[DragonSong]

The shapeshifter absolutely crumpled under the woman's brisk kindness, nodding quickly in agreement with anything she said. "Right, yes, ma'am. Thank you, ma'am." She scurried in the direction the healer indicated and quick snatched up a patient gown--not enchanted, so she'd have to stick with her human form for a while, but at least she could clean her shift.

She came a little more sedately back out into the main room, crossing to the basin Nerys had indicated to begin scrubbing the blood off her clothes.

"I put a disinfectant on the wound before I brought him here, but that was really all I could do. I know it's not much," she told the healer softly. "I'm not trained for anything more than basic field medicine. Patch jobs. It's been about three hours since I found him."

She looked at the hunter, head cocked. "How long were you in the pit before that?" she prompted, as gently as she could manage; why the hells was she the one giving the healer all the details? Surely he must have some opinion on his own care.

Although...judging by his order for her to just leave him if he happened to drop off her back, maybe not.

[fish]

This time, Onca actually bothered to give her an answer. "Less than an hour." His voice was strained, and he was stiff from gritting his teeth and letting Nerys actually begin poking around his injury. She stared intently while her fingers barely grazed against the open wound, deliberating the best steps to proceed with. She took note of Asta's detail about adding ointment. "A good thing that you did, too, given how filthy this is."

"Alright." Nerys looked back up at Onca. "I'll be redirecting your local bloodflow so it doesn't spill out while I fragment the wood into pieces that I can actually remove without disturbing the surrounding tissue." She put her hands together and rubbed her palms as if she were flattening out an imaginary ball of clay between them, and as if the friction ignited her hands, the veins under the skin of her palms glowed softly. "Then I'll take a look inside the actual flesh to plant some muscle growth back in. You'll be needing anesthesia. If you have a budget, now is the time to say instead of telling me you can't afford the strongest numbing we have after I've used it."

"Cheap," Onca immediately responded. Nerys raised an eyebrow. She held up a plain clean cloth, twisting it. "This is our cheapest," she offered; at this point Nerys had also realized that talking to Onca never got very far, so she directed her conversation to both him and Asta as a whole. Onca's hood visibly tilted like a confused dog. Nerys pointed at his face. "You say aah and bite down on it."

"Not that cheap," Onca revised sourly. Nerys gave Asta a look that screamed can you believe this guy and sighed, beckoning her over efficiently. "I'll have to ask you to apply the numbing paste, love, I only have two hands and one's for halting the bleeding and the other's for fragmenting and removing the blasted chunk of wood." She held up her hands as if to demonstrate how her palms were still glowing. "The jar is right next to me on the cot."

[DragonSong]

Asta returned the healer's look with one of her own that spoke volumes, but she didn't actually say anything until she was told to assist in applying the numbing agent to the hunter's leg.

"I-I--" she stammered, but moved forward automatically at the direction. "Um, okay," she mumbled, sitting where Nerys directed her and quickly picking up and unscrewing the jar. She glanced at the patient before scooping out a dollop of it and starting to dab it on his leg around the wound. "Sorry," she mumbled as she did, though she wasn't entirely sure why, or to who.

With that done, she screwed the lid back on the jar and looked to Nerys again. "Is, ah, there anything else I can do to help?" she offered quietly. Without really thinking about it, she had laid her hand on the cot near the hunter's, and she shot him a quick look out of the corner of her eye. Tone becoming perhaps a little petulant, she added to him, "Take it. You'll probably need to squeeze something."

[fish]

"You're quite fine as you are, darling," Nerys muttered to Asta. Her tone wasn't the warmest it could've been given she'd been focusing intently on Onca's leg, but there wasn't a trace of any mockery or sarcasm in her, only genuine bluntness. "I'd listen to her if I were you. I've already begun working on your leg before the numbing sets in because we can't afford to lose more time with the state your leg is in."

Onca's hood had turned to Asta's hand and was visibly debating whether or not to take it, but he was hedonistic at heart. Comforting skin contact was something that he could almost never turn down when he didn't feel in danger. The irony of his typical full-coverage gear wasn't lost on him, and his own penchant for pleasant skin contact with others easily won him over. Onca pulled off a glove and placed his bare hand into Asta's, even though he made no moves to squeeze it forcefully as though under duress. He just held it for the sake of liking the sensation of holding someone's hand. Yeah his leg hurt like shit, but he'd started becoming adjusted to the pain enough to hold down the urge to roll around groaning or clutching at anything for dear life. The only visible movement from him was the slow and steady swell of his shoulders and chest as he took slow breaths from his nose. He was really hoping for the anesthetic to kick in soon.

"And here I was worried that you being a dark and brooding vagrant would be terminally unable to accept kindness," Nerys sighed. "Hold still," she ordered again as her hands hovered close to Onca's calf. Not that he had budged an inch anyway other than accepting Asta's hand. From afar it hardly looked like anything was happening to his leg, but if one looked closely, they'd notice small seams cracking through the wood to fragment it without actually moving the body. In the meantime, Onca quietly sat there gently holding Asta's hand. Sure, Asta was still mostly a stranger, but she seemed nice enough to him. He wasn't particularly picky in terms of who or how he got to exchange friendly physical closeness as long as he didn't feel like they endangered him. He knew this wasn't particularly the purpose she'd offered her hand to him, but he still decided he'd take what he could from it.

[DragonSong]

Asta blinked when he removed his glove, not expecting that to make much difference to him. Especially considering...well. Just about everything about him, but in particular the way he chose to dress, absolutely wrapped up from head to toe.

Her breath caught a bit when he took her hand--despite everything, she still wasn't entirely used to being touched. Not skin-to-skin, anyway. It was different when she was an animal, when she'd let him ride her as a horse or when she was a cat and a passing stranger might offer her pets. It was just...different.

Carefully, she folded her fingers around his with a light pressure that she hoped was comforting. Maybe...well. Maybe he wasn't the worst, after all.

She didn't want to bother the healer while she worked, but she was curious about the process, watching the seams splinter through the wood with interest for a few moments. Keeping her voice low, she eventually asked, "Do you have any idea how long his leg will take to heal, once the stake is out?"

[fish]

Onca responded in kind to Asta's light reassuring squeeze. He already ran fairly warm, but the duress of his injury had spiked his temperature a little. He loosened his grip just a little so his hand wouldn't get unpleasantly sweaty. The anesthetic had started to kick in so the pain was becoming more and more bearable, until he was able to relax a little more loosely and stay still without being stiff.

"I'll know once I get a better look, but I'm afraid this won't be magically better by next morning. I'm unfortunately not that kind of healer." Nerys had begun lifting out the first shard of the wood, tapered and long so that it allowed inner space for the surrounding pieces to be lifted from the flesh without scraping outwards. The wood floated by her palm before being placed onto a tray, and she set to gingerly removing the next pieces.

After extracting all of the wood, she peered into the hole to confirm it was cleared of all splinters, careful to keep her hand that was willing the blood from spilling steady. "Mm, thought it'd be the case." Nerys had seen how Onca hadn't been able to put any weight on his leg at all. "If there was only muscle damage, it'd be a faster recovery, but your tendon and fibula need repair too." She closed her hand into a fist above his leg, almost magnetically drawing in the last traces of debris from his leg, and pulled them out.

Nerys fished out some powders and oil from her pouches, expertly portioning and mixing them with her free hand into a little bowl. "Had it been you, dear, I would say three to four weeks. Realistically for him, I would give six; I know a patient who won't listen to bedrest orders when I see one, and it'll delay the speed." Onca did not protest to this, and watched silently as she began spreading the mixture inside his open flesh. She hovered her hand over it until it glowed and seemingly disappeared, melding into the tissue. "This will restart the growth and keep it from festering. Absolutely no strenuous activity or weight onto this leg for the next month, you hear?" She unraveled a roll of bandaging with one hand and held out the end to Asta to indicate for her to help tear it.

"Once we finish the dressing, I'm releasing your blood flow. I can't prevent all blood loss if you're to heal, so there'll be a decent spillage before it clots and you might be lightheaded for a while." She didn't even wait for Onca to answer (as she she didn't really expect any from him at this point) and finally looked back at Asta while holding out the bandaging. "You'll likely have to keep an eye on him for the rest of the day until he replenishes the blood over time."

[DragonSong]

Asta found herself watching the process with a combination of curiosity and distaste--quite apart from anything else, it was simply strange to see the inside of someone's leg.

She listened intently to the healer's explanation and instruction, nodding to show that she understood, even while a corner of her brain wondered at just how exactly she'd wound up as the caretaker for a hunter who just a few days ago had been happy enough to extort her into ridiculous deals. I never knew I was a masochist, she lamented silently even as she took the bandages Nerys held out to her and began to hlp dress the wound.

She had to let go of the hunter's hand to do it, of course. There was a moment of hesitation--it was awkward enough to suddenly realize she was still holding his hand when he didn't seem to need it anymore, and only more awkward when she had to pull her fingers back carefully.

"Ahm...just...hold still," she mumbled as she bent quickly over his leg, unsure what else to do. It was, of course, just her luck that her incredibly pale complexion let even the faintest blush show clear on her cheeks and neck.

[fish]

Onca merely let Asta's hand slide off of his, and he set his hand down next to his side to continue staying still like a good patient as she wrapped his wound. Nerys nodded to Asta to indicate she was doing a very satisfactory job, and neither of them seemed to take notice of her slight flush; either that, or they noticed and paid no mind enough to point it out. Nerys took a deep breath as she flexed her shoulders to prepare releasing her magic on Onca's leg. "Ready?" Onca gave her no answer and just stared. Just do it already. "Of course you are," Nerys answered herself. The glowing in her hands halted.

Almost immediately, bloodstains began to bloom from within the bandaging. Onca let out no sound, but true to Nerys' warning, he immediately faltered from where he was sitting up, and doubled over onto his side before catching himself with his elbow. He gripped the glove he'd taken off and had been holding onto in his fist while straining to get his bearings again.

"Now I can get you a refreshment, in return for your well-appreciated assistance." Nerys washed her hands in her enchanted basin again before bustling off to prepare tea for them, returning in almost no time as promised with a tray. "I'm not able to offer much on the house, but at least take this barley tea. You, however, can either opt to tough it out without anything for a few more hours, or accept intravenous nourishment to help with replenishing your blood. That, you'll have to pay for." Onca's shoulders fell almost comically at the disappointment of no free food or drinks for him. "Your body has to be disturbed as little as possible to start the regrowth to begin properly," Nerys chided, "even from distractions like digesting."

Onca pulled his glove back onto his hand, which in turn covered up his wrist to show that he declined her offer. "I'll pass."

Nerys sighed. Of course he would. She turned back to Asta. "Then you're to stay here for another half hour until he can at least sit upright and you've finished your tea while I clean up. After that he may pay and you two are free to leave whenever you like, given that he follows my instructions properly during recovery. I trust you'll hold him accountable to it?"

[DragonSong]

Moving seemingly on instinct, Asta reached forward when he doubled over to brace the hand that had been holding his against the front of his shoulder. "Easy, easy," she murmured in a low, calm tone, as though talking to a spooked wild animal.

She glanced to Nerys and smiled gratefully when the healer offered refreshment--and once again found herself flushing as she only realized she was still bracing the hunter's shoulder when she needed to use both hands to take the offered cup of barley tea. "Thank you," she murmured softly to the older woman, bringing the cup to her lips to sip at it carefully.

When the hunter passed on further medical attention and the healer began listing off rules to Asta, she started nodding along without fully realizing what she was doing until Nerys said I trust you'll hold him accountable.

Wait--hold on a second, did she think...?

Well, what else would she think? Asta hadn't done much to explain her presence in seeking the hunter care, why wouldn't the healer assume she was prepared to see through his recovery care? And so it was with some combination of genuine concern for a wounded creature of her woods and a mild desire not to disappoint the brusque Nana Nerys that she found herself saying, "Yes, of course. I'll keep an eye on him."