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“How are you doing up there, Xefros?” Joey called up to the Troll boy where he hung up in the middling branches of a tree. Picking bright yellow fruits that looked sort of like a cross between a large tangerine and a small pear and dropping them down to her where she caught them in her jacket.
“Doing alright.” He waved at her with ease where he hung from the branches up there. He hadn't been kidding when he said he was good at climbing trees. Having a sloth for a lusus and growing up in a hive with a tree as part of it really amped up one's abilities in climbing even the most precarious seeming of limbs, or so it seemed. It was almost second nature to him to shimmy up the trunk, carefully testing his weight against the branches as he made his way through the foliage. Peering through said foliage, he caught sight of a cluster of the fruits at the end of the branch. “I see one more bunch of fruit over there. I'm going to get it before I come down.”
“Okay. Be careful!” Joey replied. She followed his progress down below, watching him through the leaves. As he usually would, Xefros made his way along, bit by bit, satisfied when he finally made it to the end. Grabbing hold of the fruit. He snapped it off of the branch, and waved down to Joey so she could see it.
“I got it, Joey! Be ready to-” His attempt to tell her to be ready for the fruit was cut off by the sharp sound of something cracking, and he froze up. He'd been in a tree plenty of times in his life, and he knew that distinctive crack better than most things. If he knew his trees, he knew that sound meant that the branch had just cracked.
Which was quickly proven right when the part of the branch he was clinging to suddenly gave way and sent him plummeting downward.
“Xefros!” Joey yelled in shock, seeing him fall. She ran to around where he might land, dropping the fruit in favor of looking up for him. Thankfully, his descent was not a direct one, and he did not fall straight to the ground thanks to a slightly stronger, but fairly springy branch catching him halfway down. However, it the benefits were not so great in a few moments, as the springy branch flung him out and away from the tree. Tumbling head over heels and right into a giant patch of thorn bushes. Joey cringed and hissed in pain when she saw where he had landed, but ran to his aid as quickly as she could. “Xefros? Are you okay?! Are you alive?!”
“Yeah... I'm alive.” Xefros's voice came weakly from the midst of the brambles, and Joey breathed a sigh of relief. “I'm just... kind of stuck in here... and kind of in pain.” Oh, right. Landing in the middle of a thorn bush. Probably not that comfortable of a thing.
“Um, don't worry. I'll to get the hoverpad. Try to lift you out of-” she was cut off mid-sentence when Treetoe suddenly lumbered on past, bumping her out of the way in the process. He stopped in front of the bushes, tilting his head left and right, before finally seeming to come to a decision and reached into the midst of the thorns and leaves. After a few slow moments of careful shuffling, he finally managed to extract Xefros from the middle of his painful cushion, and set him down outside of it.
“Oh, um, thank you, Treetoe,” Xefros quietly thanked his lusus. The great white creature rubbed at his head with a couple of his long, furry fingers before lumbering back towards where he had been resting. Staring after him, Xefros made to rub at his back, but instead hissed the moment he laid his hand on it. “Ow! What...” He tried to crane his head to look behind him, and surprised himself when he realized that the back of his shirt was slightly bloody. As were his arms. He realized he must have been so in shock from the fall that he hadn't even noticed that the backs of his arms had gotten all scratched up by the thorns. As well as his back, apparently, given how tender it was starting to feel now he realized what had happened.
“What? What's wrong?” Joey leaned around him to see, and cringed when she saw his arms, and the way his shirt was all bloody. “Oof. That looks pretty bad.”
“Oh no, I mean, it's fine,” Xefros tried to wave off her concern. “It's just a bunch of scratches. I've been through worse.” Like the time his gander precipice had fallen on top of him, as he thought she might recall. That was pretty bad.
“It's hardly 'fine', Xefros. We need to treat those. What if any of those get infected?” As much as she really wanted to conserve the alien veterinarian kit's use in order to use it on animals who really needed it, she had a friend right in front of her who was honestly looking pretty crummy at the moment. So this was an exception. Besides, Xefros was an alien, so it was maybe... kind of like using it on an animal? Well, nonhuman at least. “Come on. Let's get those patched up so they don't get any worse.” With that said in finality, she grabbed Xefros by the wrist and dragged him back over to the cave. Figuratively speaking, of course. She knew for a fact that he could likely not let himself be dragged if he pleased, but at least he listened and was following her.
They made it back fairly quickly to their shelter of choice for the night (day? Going from days to nights was hell on your internal clock and the day to day terminology one used. [Would it have been better to say 'night to night' there, perhaps?]). As soon as they were there, Joey motioned to the floor as she pulled out her borrowed veterinary kit.
“Go on, lay down on your front and I'll get to work.”
“You really don't have to,” Xefros tried. “Didn't you want to save all that for any animals we find?” Joey looked at him, but shook her head.
“Well, I do... But I'm making an exception for you. So go on!” Xefros sighed as he saw the determined way she was looking at him, but did as she said. Settling down on his stomach with his head head resting on his forearms. Joey was soon kneeling up by his head, and had out a tube of ointment. She'd learned from previous veterinary ventures that it was supposed to be some sort of disinfectant ointment, so she was at least certain this would help keep his injuries from getting infected.
She looked over the scratches carefully. Well, it seemed like he'd only gotten scratched up where his clothes didn't cover. Since his clothes weren't cut up. She supposed the scratches bleeding on his back were where his shirt had ridden up up when he fell and landed. So hopefully there wouldn't be that many. But, first things first.
“Okay. So I'm going to start with these ones on your arms first.”
“Kay.” He finished making himself comfortable, while Joey wet a small cloth from their shared water bottle. Carefully, she put a hand on an uninjured part of Xefros's arm and wiped away the blood from his arms. Then she picked up the tube again, and squeezed out a good amount of the disinfectant onto her fingers.
He hadn't even realized how uncomfortable the scratches really were, but the sense of pain being lost was immense as the ointment was applied to his injuries. Cleaning his wounds and soothing them all at once to the extent that he sighed with relief as she rubbed it in. He let his eyes slide shut, even as Joey switched over to tending to his other injured arm. She was so gentle and careful in treating his injuries, it was... nice.
“Alright, that's your arms done,” Joey said mostly to herself as she stood up. “I'm going to get to work on your back now, alright?”
“'s fine,” Xefros replied sluggishly. He was actually feeling pretty relaxed now. Didn't feel like moving or talking much. Either way, Joey took the opportunity to go around him.
“Hey, Xefros?” He grunted an acknowledgement he'd heard her, so she went on. “I'm going to start working on your back now. So I'm going to move your shirt up a bit.”
“Oh. Yeah, okay then, ” he replied groggily, not bothering to move much outside of that.
“Alright. Just wanted to tell you.” Joey settled in next to him as she prepared the things. Carefully, she took hold of the edge of his shirt and pushed it up his back. Ooh. Yup. Those... Those were some pretty nasty scratches. Those were certainly some pretty nasty scratches on his back.
… Well, the only thing to do was get started. Couldn't be a vet if you couldn't stand a little blood. Or, a lot. Boy that was a lot of blood... Well, couldn't get hung up on all of that. With deft movements, she wiped the blood off of his back with another wet cloth, careful not to press too hard and continuing on until they were all cleaned off. When she was done, though, she noticed something very curious.
There were two big red things on his sides. They were big and the color of his blood, and they looked very pronounced. They kind of looked like big scars? They still looked really fresh, though, if they were still the color of his blood. Were they just always there and he didn't mention it? Seemed like they would really chafe under his shirt. Joey looked between the tube of disinfectant, then the scars... Well, if this worked on helping heal and soothe fresh stuff, maybe it would help with these older things?
Only one way to find out, she supposed.
She squeezed out some of the ointment onto her fingers, and slowly rubbed it into the fresh injuries first. Just like with the ones on his arms, she could hear Xefros sigh with relief as she rubbed the soothing ointment into his injuries. Good, at least those were doing good.
She finished rubbing medicine into the fresh ones, then looked at the two big scar things on his side. Okay, now to go to those...
Xefros really did feel a lot better with Joey taking care of his injuries. Dammek's medical kit had had a lot of use over the sweeps. On both Dammek and Xefros himself. One always had to be prepared for any situation. Dammek had been good at it, in his own way. But Joey, she was good at it too, in her own way. Dammek was sure about himself, but methodical, sort of like a mediculler. But Joey was more... gentle, and it was nice in the contrast. Something Xefros could just relax to the touch despite the discomfort of the injuries.
Then he felt a very unexpected touch. The moment he felt it, it was as if someone just static shocked up his spine. But, in a good way? Oh god, oh god was she really doing this? Was she touching his oh no she was. Those were his grubscars, definitely grubscars. His shoulders started shaking as he felt her rubbing her fingers along his grubscars, as if she were massaging them. Oh god, why was she doing this, why was she- Oh no, and now he was purring, that was definitely purring.
She just kept rubbing his grubscars and Xefros felt his face heating up with color. This was so out of his league, only a moirail or a matesprit was supposed to be touching those this was not proper!
But... he also didn't hate it? Oh god, stop that line of thinking Xefros, you're going to dig yourself a hole deeper than before. Should not be thinking these things. Should not!
And yet, he was still purring, and she was still doing this.
It only lasted a couple of minutes, but it felt like an eternity to him. Finally, Joey pulled her fingers away and pulled his shirt back down over them.
“Alright, that should be it, Xefros,” Joey said cheerfully. “I guess if it starts hurting again, I can reapply some more ointment to them later. So I guess you can just tell me... if... what's wrong?”
In the time she had been talking, Xefros had sat up, and was staring at her, clutching his hands to his sides. Almost the whole of his gray face filled up with burgundy. Staring right at her with a flustered look on his face.
This was... this was going to be an awkward explanation.