Healer, heal thyself

Old Forest Road, Grassy Knoll

The Old Forest Road ascends and descends a tall knoll at this point in its longitudinal traverse of the great forest. The summer forest is thick with growth around you, though the trees thin out around the bald knob of the hill. The late morning air is warm around you, and below you the earth is damp and soft. The road is carved with wagon, boot, and hoof prints.

Sunlight streams through the gap in the trees onto the top of the rocky knoll.

Obvious exits:

SouthWest, NorthWest, East, and West

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Real time is: Wed Aug 06 15:16:35 2008 - Weather in the Beorning realm is: CLEAR

Elendor time is: Late Morning <11> on Trewsday of Summer - August 15, 3044

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With clear rays of noon-time sunshine casting their brightness across the knoll, the darkness of the shaded forest all around seems that much more complete. The thick undergrowth prevents any great degree of visibility except along the thick corridor of the road, which maintains its shape only through the weary treading of many feet and ponies. The dwarven and human camp is much alive, having taken a break to rest their weary limbs and keep their wits and weapons sharp.

Valdi lies on a side of the knoll, looking up at the sky. His healer\'s tools and cloth are stretched beside him, and he changes the bandages on his stomach without looking. Rather than wearing his normal pair of woolen pants, he is wearing ones riddled with holes, kept on him with some gauzy cloth acting as a makeshift belt. His shirt is pulled up as he slathers some salve on. A brief wince, a pause, and then he continues.

Halla enters the camp, tucking her axe back into her belt. It seems that the woman was one of the lucky ones - a rag is wrapped round her upper left arm, but otherwise she appears unscathed. A wide wicker basket is slung at her other hip, and it is filled with bounty of the forest - leaves, bark, even a handful of berries. She grunts at the nearest Beorning, then demands, \"Seen any of the healers?\" Following the man\'s nod towards the knoll, she stomps off in that direction and comes to a halt in front of Valdi. \"This lot any use?\" She stares down at the bandage-changing.

A grunt as the woman\'s shadow comes near, and Valdi hastens with his operation, sitting up and wrapping the bandage around him only once before making a knot. Then he folds the rest of the cloth together, uses a rag to wipe off his pestle, and looks at her. Then he squints as he notices the basket. \"Lemme see,\" he says as he kneels and cranes his neck. A hand runs through it. He picks out a set of berries and tosses them away. \"Poisonous,\" he mutters, and then ahems. \"Some of those are good. Where did you go?\"

Having noticed Halla\'s return, the watchful Lithiugelir glances up from the dry bandages he is rolling. There is a boiling pot of water for cleaned bandages, and a line for hanging them out to dry once boiled. He may be no healer, but the man seems eager to help out as he is able. Anything is better than sitting around doing nothing - and there is much to do!

Still, having been at it for a few hours, the tall man sets the finished roll with a few others where Ranol or another can collect them. The harper stretches, putting his left hand up to try and feel his stiff, sore, right shoulder. He starts to walk towards the knoll out of curiousity as to what Halla has brought back, perhaps.

\"West. Past the oaks,\" Halla jerks her head, scowling as the berries are discarded. \"There was a damp patch, and some willows ...\" She points to the bark and her chin jerks up. See, I am /some/ use, her glare seems to say. \"What about the rest? Anything I can get more of?\" Only after that does she think to enquire after her companion\'s condition. \"Uh, you /are/ mending all right?\" She eyes the bandage with the blank ignorance of the uninitiated.

\"Just making sure more dirt doesn\'t get into it. Honestly what the orc did to my pants is of far more concern than this gash.\" Valdi flits at the rags and shrugs. \"Just another scar.\" Then he grins and nods at her arm, acknowledging it though he doesn\'t say anything. \"Here,\" he says, taking the basket from her and setting it on the ground and sorting through it with his hands. \"Some of this will make a decent tea for pain,\" he says, gesturing to some bark. \"Some of it\'s edible but has no other use... but I guess you knew that,\" he adds hastily. \"And...\" He looks up to see the bard coming near. \"A second opinion?\" he asks, loudly enough to include him.

A warm smile in greeting to Valdi and Halla both, \"Good to see you gathering resources, Halla.\" A quirked black brow to the healer, Valdi, \"Second opinon on what, good sir?\"

A glance at the items in the basket and the harper adds, \"Did I hear someone mention willow bark?\"

\"Hah\" For a moment Halla\'s scowl is replaced by a grin. \"You narrowly escaped being hacked in two and you\'re fretting over your modesty?\" Deliberately she places her hands on her hips and surveys the kneeling man. \"Doesn\'t look that bad. There\'s no children to frighten.\" For a moment she winks, but then frustration creeps into her tone. \"And no, I didn\'t know. I\'m not a bloody healer-\" She breaks off, glancing round at Lith\'s approach, and sighs. \"Well, I thought it was willowbark. Looked like it always does ... lets see what the expert says.\"

Valdi smiles and holds up a sample of willowbark for Lith in two of his outstretched fingers. \"If I haven\'t gone blind and deaf, yes.\" Then he looks back at Halla, some hint of challenge in his voice. \"Bloody healer, haha. No, I only thought...\" Then he shrugs. \"You did well for someone that doesn\'t know anything. So I assumed you knew something of what you were doing.\"

A nod to what Valdi proclaims, from the harper, \"Good. Maybe Halla here will show us where that tree is, even if we have to back track a bit. The dwarves could sure use some fresh restocking.\"

A brief heistation, watching Valdi tend to his own person and the condition of that man\'s attire. Then Lith asks, \"There\'s been ... much, serious wounded to see to. But, if you have something to help keep out infection, might I have a little, Valdi?\" The tall man doesn\'t say what it\'s for though.

Halla shrugs - or starts to, the wince quickly masked by her trademark scowl. \"I know less of healing than a fish of beekeeping,\" she informs Valdi, \"though these past few days I\'ve seen plenty enough of men\'s innards and outards. Don\'t know how you find the patience for it, sometimes. But I do know the forest.\"

Her gaze flits to Lith, and she responds levelly, \"Aye, I can show you, if you\'re able. Or just go back myself ...\" What, no harper-baiting? It seems not.

Valdi hands Lith the bowl he was recently working from, where a poultice still sits. \"That\'s a mixture of a few different ingredients, like woundwort and boneset. It\'s what I\'ve been using to help along healing and to keep wounds from festering. Just don\'t sniff it... it smells horrible, and you won\'t believe any good from it.\" Then he gives a slight nod to his pestle, which he holds up and then slips in a cloth side pouch. \"I can mix another batch up soon, too.\"

A thin smile from the musician for Halla\'s question of him being able, \"Aye, I\'m able. I was not gravely hurt. We can go and come back all the faster, more safely, and carry more between us than either alone.\" A hint of a frown and a glance to the murky wood, \"At the risk of offending something that lurks here, the dwarves will need it.\"

Lithiugelir nods and accepts the morter from Valdi, wrinkling his nose at the smell even without holding it up to his face, \"Smells a lot like that stuff Thari was using earlier.\" He sighs but smiles, \"Thank you.\"

Halla, overhearing Valdi\'s instructions, does sniff, and wrinkles her nose, even at this distance. \"Ugh,\" she murmurs, and then covers it by smirking at the harper. \"Don\'t worry, you won\'t smell any worse than usual.\" The smirk fades as she adds tersely, \"Best way not to offend the Forest is not to take without giving.\"

Valdi\'s sufficiently used to the odor that he scarcely gives a sniff at it as it passes. \"If only the trees noted how we kept them clear of intruders,\" he says, winking. Then he gives a slight sigh and winces once more as he turns his torso. \"Oh, I\'ll stay here. If you\'ve found that bark, there\'s not much else for me to do but help out around here.\"

A flick of grey eyes back to Halla and a lopsided smile, \"Do I need to bath that badly?\" But another glance for the gooy mixture, which indeed he is not looking forward to smearing upon himself - if he can even reach the wound on his back. But Halla\'s other comment recaptures the dark haired man\'s attention fully, \"You are more familar with this wood than I am. What sort of things do you \'give\' that might alliviate offence?\" Hearing tales is one thing, but a local\'s knowledge surely is better.

A soft laugh for Valdi, from the harper, \"There are always more bandages to work on, more wood to be collected. If -you- are up for it.\"

Halla sighs at Valdi\'s remark. \"Aye, well - suppose to a tree all that goes on two feet is much the same. Pity.\" To Lith she frowns. \"Fell an oak, plant an acorn. Pick some flowers, clear the undergrowth so the sun can reach the leaves. Never take so much as to weaken a plant.\" She pauses. \"And don\'t take a life, unless you plan on giving yours in return.\" Back to that old argument again.

\"I\'m stiff, not dead. Yet.\" Valdi grins in the way only healers can about death, even patting his abdomen and nearly not wincing at all. The healer gives a deep nod. \"I\'ll go for the wood.\" To Halla\'s explanation he adds only a smile as he gathers of the rest of his things, dumps them in a patch, and goes walking toward the edges of the trees to collect more wood.

Another soft laugh, this one for Halla, \"I shall give my own life, sooner or later, back to the earth. And if I should have the choice, to feed a forest or even a bear, rather than an orc.\" Despite his sore shoulder, the tall harper is of mostly good humor. He nods in parting to Valdi as that man goes to take over some of the chores the Dunadan has been tending to himself.

Glancing reluctantly back at the bolw of awful smelling mess, Lithiugelir then adds, \"Well, I suppose I should try to put some of this on. Then we can go find that willow before the day grows too late.\"

Under the mid-morning sun, the forest is starting to heat up, and here on the side of the grassy knoll the sunlight is pleasantly warm. Halla raises a hand to Valdi, then half-closes her eyes to let the sun warm her. \"Fine,\" she nods to Lith, then opens an eye again. \"Try? You don\'t look that badly hurt - you\'re walking around, aren\'t you?\"

The harper has already turned to walk a little distance away to find a shady spot to take a seat. The wound on his back cut through his cloak and leather armour into the back of his right shoulder, but luckily his quiver and harpcase took the rest of it, saving his spine from harm.

Lithiugelir glances back nods, \"No, I\'m fine. Be with you shortly.\" Before he goes further though, the man adds, \"I think Mobeorn and I will start back soon - perhaps tomorrow - once the dwarves move on again. I expect that you, Valdi, and the others will wish to come as well.\"

The Ranger slips off a little ways into the trees to find some privacy to remove his armour and shirt. The sunny knoll then becomes quiet but for some faint rustling about in the dwarven camp.

\"Oh\" Halla digests that information for a moment in silence. Then she stoops, a little awkwardly, to pick up the discarded basket. \"I expect,\" she mutters under her breath, \"I\'ll /wish/ not to. Not that it matters - by the Bear, couldn\'t Mobeorn have taken up with someone less full of their own words? First it was that rabbiting ranger, then those warbling elves, now some honey-mouthed harper. Bah!\" As she moves off the mumblings slowly fade and blessed silence returns to the knoll at last.