Backdated to early-mid-ish August, a few days after this thread.
Hoping for Elysium members if any are about!

---

Skill — Ranger

Liss had spent the rest of the day after leaving Aivar and the caribou nomads sniffling mournfully. In the cold air, frozen snot stuck to her nose and made it sting, which hardly seemed to compare to the painful twist in her heart at how unfriendly the whole ordeal had been. She guessed Aivar was there for a reason, and it must be important, but there was still a kind of feeling of dissapointment when he didn't follow her, after.

Some of her malaise was an empty stomach, she supposed. She'd been hungry before the hunt, and now for all the effort had nothing to show for it except a bloody gash along her side, and aching legs. All the boldness she'd felt before wilted, and she wondered what she was supposed to do now.

Walking seemed the only real option, which she did vaguely back in the direction of Druid's Rise. She slept in a hollow log that night, and woke up hungry the next, feeling much sorer, but marginally less like crying.

More walking. Maybe Aivar was just finishing things up, and would come find her later! Maybe she shouldn't be too quick to assume he meant to let them send her off alone. She could hope.

Eventually she picked up the smell of a pack, and though the drifting band had made her wary, she reasoned that most of her experiences meeting new people hadn't been anything like that, and the odds that this group would also be rude and hostile... especially when she, for real, hadn't done anything to have a misunderstanding about... were really, really, really low.

Standing respectfully at the border, she sent out a greeting howl that echoed off the mountainside. Then sat down to wait.

Briefly. It was really hard to sit still, even with the hoofcut along her ribs trying to scab. She bounced from foot to foot, studied the leaves, watched the clouds. Finally decided she was thirsty, and followed her nose a short distance to the trickle of... purple water. Kirain had mentioned something about that. But it smelled... really good, like just the thing to sate Liss, and realized it was a lot harder to just take the Toisiche's word for it that this was actually dangerous. Liss hesitated over the sweet-scent of promised relief

As this was presently the time when Valeska had been urged to, was resigned to, and completely distraught about the idea of leaving the Respite until the waters had cleared...

... She lingered a little longer in spite of herself.

The morning sun struggled to pierce the heavy cloud-cover overhead, but all that it managed to do was send a few weak, filtered rays down that did little to illuminate the world below. Already the day seemed dreary, while the Respite - a once-bustling community of almost thirty wolves - had become a barren ghost town save for the few who returned occasionally to re-mark the borders.

Valeska was one of them.

The sudden sound of a howl echoed between the empty mountains, and the High Priestess nearly jumped. Who on earth could be here now? With everything the way it was - a visitor? She didn't recognize their voice, but it was her duty to greet them regardless, and so she trotted quickly toward the source of the sound with a sinking heart.

This was no place for -

ЧТО ТЫ ДЕЛАЕШЬ, (WHAT ARE YOU DOING) she screamed at the top of her lungs, the language completely foreign but its intent raw, DO NOT - THE WATER - STOP -

Like a silver bullet Valeska streaked across the field, sprinted down the hill, and headed straight for the figure that lingered at the edge of the lake. She did not slow. She had no intention of slowing. Even if she had, even if she'd tried, she had built so much momentum given the ideal shape of her body - short, low to the ground, aerodynamic (save for a bit of a stout midsection given her advancing years) - the notion of stopping was frankly impossible.

Liss could not drink the water. This would be circumvented by any means necessary, and given how close her lips hovered over the acrid surface of that foul liquid, there was no time.

Diplomacy be damned.

Valeska took a final leap, soaring through the air as would a portly eagle, and aimed to bowl over the stranger as far away from the lake as possible.

Wh-aa...? Words slurred by distraction, Liss turned her head slowly, finding it hard to pull her attention away from the allure of water in a new colour. She had enough time to furrow her brow at the sudden appearance of the stranger. Then they collided with great force, and Liss went tumbling into the brush with a YELP! of magnificent alarm. Mud and leaves and bugs and fur, all in a tornado of unchecked momentum!

Spell broken, she now had the capacity to feel excruciating pain. The slash to her side reopened from impact. It stung terribly! Liss tucked her tail, already teary-eyed — both from the wound and the sudden shock of recognition that Kirain hadn't been exaggerating in any form about the allure of the cursed waters. I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry! She cried, holding paws up over her face, Really!

Skill: Healer

Valeska opened her eyes.

They had gone tumbling together into the underbrush where the High Priestess now lay sprawled off to the side with a mess of twigs and debris scattered throughout her fur. To be fair, she already looked like shit, given her own recent insatiable thirst toward the lake-turned-poison and a festering wound at the base of her tail that she refused to have looked at.

Still, she was meant to appear to be on the mend - at least as far as the lake was concerned - and the addition of broken foliage did her no favors.

She looked clinically unwell.

Do not be sorry! she exclaimed breathlessly, pausing to groan while she hauled herself back up on her paws. The lake, you see, it is terribly animated.

Her brow furrowed.

Wait. No. That wasn't the word.

Most of her understanding of the Common tongue had been slowly gleaned across years of experience and organic interactions with others, but there were some situations that had not yet transpired to add certain necessary words to her vocabulary.

It is - she struggled. Valeska had heard it only once or twice since the onset of the plague, an event which had introduced her to a great many new words, and she was still mastering their usage. ... Concentrated... ah...

Suddenly noticing a trickle of blood oozing from a wound on the girl's side, she gasped. Oh, contaminated! An exultation mixed with concern. Forgive me, I did not mean to injure you. The lake is dangerous, filled with poison that burns the throat but draws you in. Oh, Sacred Wolf Mother, what have I done.

Valeska fretted, momentarily forgetting the agony that was her infected tail as she paced the undergrowth for something familiar, something useful - a cluster of dome-shaped flowers, flat at the top, caught her eye and she immediately shuffled over. A few large mouthfuls, packing them into her cheeks as she quickly and rather violently chewed them into a paste, and already she had returned to the stranger's side.

I vill halph, she mumbled around the plants. Pweaf, wet me. My fifter vaff a heewer.

Maybe Liss would understand.

Maybe she would not.

All she knew was a very disheveled-looking woman with crazy eyes was just about to vomit herbs onto her open wound.

WHEEZING LMAO

---

Skill - Orator

Bewildered, Liss staggered to her feet as the frankly terrifying old lady wandered into the bushes. The girl considered at that point turning to bolting altogether away, while she still had the chance.

Sage-grey eyes wide with alarm looked back at the lake, ear flicking at the various unsuitable words the stranger supplied to describe what had just nearly happened. Were they completely insane, or only bad at the common tongue?

Instead of feet running, Liss's mouth did instead, Y-yeah I mean... someone told me about the water. My friend Kirain said it would make you sick and I believed her but I didn't think... A whine. I mean, I just... it was so much different being here! Right in front of it! Even now she felt the pull, but the shock of interruption lessened what had been a powerful spell. Why is it purple? Do you live here? Did you drink it, is that why you —

The old lady came back with a mouthful of something. Liss hadn't actually been paying attention to what, and barely understood the words around the gummy mass heading imminently for still stinging wound. Oh, um... I mean, if you — think it will help? She forced a smile. It looked noncommital.

Her nose crinkled at the sickly sweet tang of lingering infection. Followed that with pinched gaze under furrowed brow to the base of the healer's(?) tail. Hey that looks kinda bad. I mean, way worse than mine. Maybe you should use some of this on your butt instead?