Log Date: April 1994 Log Cast: Nofti, Clearsight, Tumbleberry, Log Intro: An increasingly frantic Clearsight is spending every waking moment she can spare tending her ailing, wounded companion Blackmorn on the savannah north of where the Cat Elves dwell. Refusing to heed the advice of the Preservers HoneyGold and Tumbleberry to wrapstuff Blackmorn, Clearsight has begged the misshapen elder Lhovrik to find her a healer for her friend. And in the meantime.... ---------- Nofti comes up the trail from the savannah. Nofti has arrived. Nofti looks at you for a moment. Clearsight sniffs back tears as she mixes Lhovrik's herbs into a small bowl of water. She sits by her small tent, the Preservers with her fluttering nearby; she does not see the stranger approach. Nofti peers closely at Clearsight with unabashed curiosity. Nofti Nofti is tall, burly, and blazing with a powerful, virile energy. His hair is a violent crimson, and his eyes brown and piercing. He wears only calf-length leather breeches. Even his silence is jovial and overbearingly charismatic. Clearsight, just off in the distance, shoves a hand through disheveled hair. Beside her, lies another elf, pale of face, evidently unconscious; his shoulder and arm are bandanged and bloody. The maiden seems intent on trying to get him to drink from a small bowl. Nofti's face screws up with concern. A tiny, apple-green winged creature fluttering near the tent looks up, and eeps! /Another highthing! Looklooklook!/ Nofti says "I should say 'Well met,' lovely, but well are not the circumstances of this meeting, it seems." Clearsight's gaze shoots up at that, and she first eyes the Preserver, then the direction in which the creature points its tiny hand. She gasps, and clambers to her feet, blurting, "A-are you a healer? Did Lhovrik send you?" Nofti's brow knits. "Who? No one sends Nofti. Nofti says "I am here of my own wanderings." HoneyGold flits. /Ooh! More highthings! Hihihi!/. Tumbleberry flits up into a branch and perches there looking down. Nofti says "What has happened to this poor fellow?" Clearsight's expression falls, and she swallows hard. Then she seems to frantically consider, and she blurts on, "A-A cat attacked us... bit Blackmorn. He is very sick, and Lh-Lhovrik told me he _must_ have a healer...!" Desperately, she asks, "Did you come from near this place? Do you know where a healer is?" Nofti looks shocked. "A cat? What sort of cat?" Clearsight, evidently exhausted herself, answers with worry in her voice, "I-I do not know exactly what kind... but it was large, and there was foam in its mouth...! It made Blackmorn sick." She flashes a glance at her companion, who tosses his head faintly in his slumber. Nofti says "Foam in its mouth. This is serious indeed." Nofti muses a moment. Nofti says "I do come from not far away. But the way I know crosses a dangerous bridge." Nofti says "A dance and a jump for myself, alone, but, I fear, no way for a sick elf to travel." Clearsight goes back to trying to shake her companion's unwounded shoulder, whispering gently, "Blackmorn, please... wake... please." He stirs faintly, but does not quite rouse; the maiden who tends him sets her thin mouth, and sends Nofti says "And this Lhovrik is quite correct. I could possibly find herbs for the injury itself, but that foam is poison. It causes sickness of the mind." At that, the wounded one's eyes open; they're a very dark brown, glazed over with pain and confusion. He makes a tiny noise, gazing foggily up at the maiden as she finally succeeds in getting him to drink the water. Nofti kneels beside Clearsight and places a hand on her shoulder. "How long? How long since the bite? HoneyGold flits. /Eeep! Poor silentdark highting!/. Clearsight, looking back up at the newcomer, says mournfully, "Two days. N-nearly three." Nofti whispers, "High Ones." Nofti says "It is possible...possible that we could get him across. A skin, strung between sticks..." Nofti looks Clearsight over. "...but no. Forgive me, sweet one, but we'd need two or three of you. Unless you are stronger than you look. Clearsight bites her lip, and considers. "I could use the skin of my tent, perhaps." Her chin lifts a little, and with a grave curl to her mouth, she answers, "I am strong enough." Without a hint of amusement, Nofti nods. "Then we shall begin." Clearsight looks up to both Preservers and demands brusquely, "Have you seen Blackmorn's wolf?" The apple-green Preserver pipes /Tumbleberry saw growler go off in grasses!/ HoneyGold nodnods! Nofti looks up. "Wolf?" He peers at Blackmorn, and a feline grin spread across his face. "How very curious." Nofti says "If you can handle the tent, I can catch your wolf. Which way, little things?" HoneyGold flitflits! HoneyGold flits. /Honeygold show berryhair highthing!/. HoneyGold flits ahead into the grasses. Clearsight sighs, and glances around in all directions, before at last looking back to the newcomer elf. "He is a Wolfrider," she answers solemnly, as she moves to dismantle the tent. "And the wolf comes and goes." With great concentration Tumbleberry chooses a new leaf for a hat. Tumbleberry gather berries from a nearby bush, offering them to Nofti. Nofti, with great politeness, declines the berries. Clearsight pauses, and frowns, considering. She calls after Nofti, "Wait... how... difficult would it be, to cross the bridge?" Nofti says "It will be quite a trick. The bridge sways a bit in the wind, but if one is surefooted and nimble..." Clearsight says hesitantly, "Lhovrik... did not think... that he should be moved." Beside her, on the ground, Blackmorn moans almost inaudibly. Nofti nods. "I do not think so either." Nofti says "Then we must bring a healer here. But my people wander...I have seen few of them of late." Clearsight pulls in an anguished sigh, her thoughts racing. "I am... frightened to hurt him further," she admits huskily. Nofti says "And moving him will most certainly do so. Still...it was a grand plan." Nofti smiles and seems distant for a moment or two. You say "I... I do not know how long it will take Lhovrik to get to Sorrow's End... he said he would go there. Can y-you find more herbs, maybe? Nearer here? To make Blackmorn less hot inside?" Nofti sighs, and looks grim. "I can find herbs for you...there is a jungle leaf whose juices are soothing and cool. But the inside heat...the sickness...I know no herb that will take that fire away. Clearsight frowns, looking down at her prone companion, worry and fright unconsciously rippling out of her in barely-felt sendings. Off in the distance, as the Preservers search, the form of a wolf lopes into view. Nofti lays a hand on her cheek. ** Be calm. You are caring well for him. ** he sends openly. Nofti's head turns slowly to watch the wolf, and his muscles tense almost imperceptibly. Clearsight looks up, and blinkblinks at the sending. An odd little expression ripples across her face, and she seems to almost steel herself. But she nods... and turns her head as Nofti tenses. Clearsight breathes, "Whiteridge... " Tumbleberry beams! /Is silentdark highthing's growler!/ Nofti eyes the wolf warily. Any hostile intent there, his stance wonders? Clearsight nodnods, as the creature lopes up to the camp. The wolf eyes the unfamiliar elf for a moment, but seems unruffled; he then pads straight to the unconscious elf's side, and nuzzles him. Nofti relaxes slightly. Blackmorn, as if sensing the creature's presence even in his sleep, breathes a small sigh. His hand gropes, though, as if seeking something.... Clearsight sinks down beside the wounded one again, clasping that groping hand. With that, Blackmorn subsides. Clearsight sighs quietly. "He-he does not want me to leave him.... " She looks up once more, at Nofti. "I do not know what is best... to take him across the bridge, or to wait for Lhovrik... " Snake comes up the trail from the savannah. Snake has arrived. Snake looks at you for a moment. Clearsight starts, looking up startledly at the new arrival. Snake A thin snake, as long as an arm. Its green body hides it among the foliage. It slithers quietly by and looks with cold eyes... HoneyGold eeks! HoneyGold flits over! Whiteridge's furred head snaps around, and his lupine gaze locks on the reptile. Snake recoils. Snake slithers quickly under a boulder, peering out from beneath it. Clearsight frowns, hand going to the small knife at her belt as she watches the creature, ready to leap up should it come too close to her or her charge. As it slithers off, though, she relaxes... HoneyGold flits. /Honeygold wrapstuff nastybad slitherthing!/. Tumbleberry lights protectively on Blackmorn's chest. Whiteridge whurfs very softly, and positions himself between the snake and the small camp, but does not otherise move. Clearsight sighs, her shoulders shaking unconsciously. [To be continued....]