[Kiel]

“Ow. Ow. Ow. Ow...” That was, like, Kiel's new mantra, apparently. Like, it wasn't deliberate, but if asked why he was "Ow"ing his way down the street, he'd swear on his life that "Dude, my foot's falling off!"

Like, it wasn't, obviously. At least, he was pretty sure it was still attached. He was trying not to look at it, 'cause somehow that just made it hurt worse.

Shane snuffled at his side and Kiel would swear she was laughing. “Like, it's okay you laughing, man, but it hurts, okay?” The 'kin snuffled again and shook herself — which was tough on him, 'cause he'd been using her as kind of a walking stick. Which in itself was awkward, since she was so much shorter than him...

“Well, but, like, that'll teach me to race circles around a dashiri, hahahahaha.” Well, like, in his defence, he hadn't meant to upset the herd but, like, his hat got blown off by the wind while he was out running with Shane, and he'd chased it, and chased it, and chased it... and only realised he'd chased it into a dashiri pasture and pissed off a bull after he'd already been knocked sideways by a big brown trunk.

“Like, I think I'm lucky, you know. I heard a guy got mauled once just for, like, looking at them funny.” There was probably more to the story than that, but he usually only remembered the weirdest parts.

And then, he realised he'd limped right past the healer's he'd been aiming for. “Dude! Dude, man, like, dude! Why'd you let me go past it?” Shane's tail flicked out and then curled back around his wrist, helping him to steady himself against her butt. He was just glad it was cloudy enough for her to be out this afternoon, man, 'cause otherwise he'd have had to limp all the way home by himself. “I can't believe I gotta get a new COM, man. That's, like, a whole month's pay, for sers!” No way he was going to fish it out of the big, smelly brown pile it had landed in, though.

Bursting through the clinic door with a "TA-DAH!" pose, he hobbled inside and said, “Hey, hey, like, my foot's coming off, man, for sers!”

[Elena]

It hadn't been a particularly exhilarating day. Nathaniel left for... well, wherever the Hel he goes in his freetime... at about half eleven, leaving Elena unsupervised and without that beast of a Draconi he was bonded to. She had carefully watered and fed all of their plants, glanced nonchalantly at some outdated herbology magazine, then sat behind the desk and leaned back in her chair, eyes closed. After serving a Therian for a broken paw due to an unexpected morph of a limb, she decided to lie down on one of the beds in the ward and 'rest' her eyes.

Resting her eyes had of course resulted in her dozing off, and she woke up to somebody bursting into the shop. Elena had then expected the worst. She leaped off of the bed, smoothed the covers and raised her palm so that a ball of light about the size of a tennis ball hovered over it. She was ready for action. If this was some sort of armed robbery or something, she was ready. She was going to... um, blind them, and then... do something.

But instead, she had peered cautiously through the doorway, hand raised and body coiled in some sort of defensive pose. “Xanth did you scare me!” She exhaled in relief and lowered her hand, the light disappearing from above her palm. The Anyelos examined the 'Vari and his overgrown cat... thing... then kneeled down to look at his foot. “I think you'll live. Take a seat, sir, if you wouldn't mind, and take your shoe off. If you don't mind me asking, how did you obtain the injury?”

After asking, she rose up, folding her wings carefully to ensure she didn't whack the customers with one - yes, that'd happened before, but the bruises had been minimal. Elena smiled reassuringly, and headed over to the reception desk to fish out some bandages in case it needed strapping up. She was feeling very professional today. At least, after waking up from her nap on a ward bed.

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[Kiel]

Kiel didn't need a second invitation, hobbling to the indicated chair and plomping himself down on it with a “Wah-oof.”

Like, he'd thought for a second there that she was going to blind him and turn him into cheese or something, and then at sight of the light Shane had tried to back out of the shop and nearly toppled him over. He was lucky to still be on his feet!

Except then he wasn't any more, and it was all good, and the Anyelos had asked him how it happened so he was happy to tell her. In all the long-winded, gory details, pitted with “Ow!” and “Hey, hey, that tickles!” as she looked at his foot. “Wahahaha, dashiri are kinda fun, you know, until they toss you in the air and against a wall, you know? But, like, at least the farmer's not gonna charge me for knocking his wall down, you know, 'cause I already gotta buy a new COM and that sucks, it sucks! Like, it's a good thing I know everybody's numbers, you know.”

[Elena]

Listening patiently as she tended to the 'Vari's foot, Elena laughed at the story. So, the day hadn't turned out to be that boring, she thought as she listened. She had healed injuries like these many times before, to the point that swollen and bruised feet were becoming second nature for her to fix. To prevent further inflammation, she gently rubbed oil mixed with cumin onto his foot as he talked. “So, let me get this straight. You thought that... you wouldn't be injured if you ran around some dashiri until they became angry?” She laughed and shook her head - finding out how customers obtained injuries was part of the fun, if you asked her.

“Erm, what's a COM?” She probably sounded incredibly archaic, but she'd never really known any form of technology. Her parents had been very primitive in terms of technology. Not the whole, living in a tent by a campfire thing, but more that they refused to rely on some things because 'they melted your brain'. She just really put that down to them being warriors who had fought for peace, they didn't like the idea of things taking over their lifestyles. Something like that, anyway.

She started on wrapping bandages firmly around his foot, pulling them tightly so that his foot was supported. “I'm Elena, by the way. Not Nathaniel like the sign suggests. He's the owner. He's a much more skilled healer than I am, he does all that fancy magical stuff. I can't do that, yet. What's your name?” She talked as she worked, until eventually the wrapping was finished and she could put some safety pins in the bandages to secure them.

“There you go. If it hurts, we have painkillers.”

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[Kiel]

“Wah!” Kiel said (for, like, the hundredth time) as she laughed at his story. He totally hadn't done it deliberately! But, like, she was pretty when she laughed, so it was all good.

He gawped at her when she said she didn't know what a COM was, then flinched at the pain in his foot when she started wrapping the herb-soaked bandages. Dude, that hurt. Ow, ow, ow! But at least she'd given him something to distract him. “Like, it's this weird... thing that lets you - Wah-ah! - talk to people. It's, like, kinda like telepathy by crystal or something, you know?” It was the lamest description of a COM he'd ever heard, but, like, you know. At least it seemed like she got it, though.

“I'm Elena, by the way. Not Nathaniel like the sign suggests.”

Kiel's “Wahahahahahahahahaha!” almost toppled him backwards off the chair. “Like, dude, man! I kinda figured, you know? Not that, like, I knew your name or anything, but if you were called Nathaniel I'd be, like, dude! Your parents should have been shot! You know? Wahahahahahaha!” Sniffing because he'd laughed so hard his nose was starting to run a teeny bit, Kiel shook his head and flapped his hands.

“Like, you don't remember me, huh? Like, I guess Nate gets a lot of patients, right? And, like, I don't always come here, you know? Not that, like, I get a lot of injuries, you know, but, like, I sprained my ankle a couple times running for work 'cause I'm, like, a courier, you know? I'm totally the fastest runner in town, wahahahaha!” Splaying his arms to make his biceps bulge (except, like, no matter how hard he trained with Zeph, they just didn't), like speed had anything to do with his arms anyway, he continued, “But I usually come by in a morning so I guess that's why we never met, you know?” He was only out running this afternoon 'cause Zeph and Marty both usually didn't need him on Sundays.

Realising that in all that, he'd still forgotten to introduce himself, he flapped his hands again. “Kiel! I'm Kiel, hahahaha, and this is Shane. Like, say hi to the nice lady, Shane!” Which the shadowkin did, putting up a front paw to bat it like she was totally waving, man. “Dude, you're so cute, you're so cute!” he told the 'kin, rubbing her face between his hands a little bit too enthusiastically.

[Elena]

It was difficult to keep up with the 'Vari. It was like when you're listening in on somebody's conversation and they speak so quickly that it sounds like they're speaking Sylvan or something, when they are in fact speaking Elysian. Except, she could understand him, and he was nice and friendly. And maybe she should get her hands on one of those COM thingies, it might be good to communicate home with to check in with her parents. And also check to see how Christopher was getting along with his studies (and by that, she meant compare how good she was in comparison to him).

Elena couldn't help but laugh with him, glad that he found her attempt of light humour quite a laugh. She listened intently, then, before she replied. “Yeah, I'm only his apprentice at the minute. Hopefully after my tutor helps me with my skills, I'll be here more often, especially if Nate helps me with my knowledge of poultices and herbology and stuff.” She smiled brightly, half in pride and half because the 'Vari was quite the smile-able character. Also, it was nice to be able to talk to a customer instead of having then dash off in a rush to return to their lives.

As he introduced himself, she grinned and admired the big cat-thing. “Aw, Shane you're lovely! ... What erm, are you?” She didn't even know why she addressed that to the cat-thing, but still, she really had no idea what it was. “I've got a pet... Not quite as impressive. He's a little Fae Squirrel. Nate has a bonded dragon, though, but she's really stern and serious. Are all dragons like that?” She laughed again. Kiel was a lot different to the usual 'Vari she treated or knew, they were often condescending and unsmiling (not mentioning any names... Nate).

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[Kiel]

“'kin, she's a 'kin!” Kiel declared, then elaborated. “Hahaha, shadowkin. You've heard of 'em, right? Like, they're awesome. She's my Chosen, hahahaha, but, like, 'til I met her and her mom, I didn't know much about them, myself. Hey, hey, Shane, show her your monkey, monkey!”

Shane really was the perfect companion for him. He'd never been able to decide on what kind of animal he'd like as a pet before, 'cause, like, pretty much everything appealed to him (except gytrash, ugh). Like, even kraken had their appeal, except for that whole "eat you alive" thing. But Shane was "pretty much everything" in one neat little package, you know? And, she totally proved it right then, as she quickly morphed into the mauve-and-grey capuchin monkey form they'd been practising. This time, it looked less like a blob of shadow, and more like the cutie-pie monkey he'd been aiming for.

“Wahahahaha, see, see?” he crowed as she scampered up his uninjured leg to sit in his lap and preen and hold up a hand to shake.

“...fae squirrel...”

Pride and enthusiasm stalled and Kiel's eyes widened. “Like, dude, for sers? Those are sooooo cute, man! Where is it, where is it?” His gaze flicked over every inch of her in search of the squirrel, as if it could be found peeking from under her hair or something. Like, you know, he knew a Nymph whose cheefle did that, and Derry liked to sit in Zeph's hair, man, so why not?

Except, like, he had to pout when he didn't see it, and then laughed when she asked if all dragons were like that. “Wahahahaha, like, totally, man! They like to threaten you with flambeing and barbeque and stuff, too! Like, Slythe's always in a bad mood and says he hates being ridden, man, but I think he likes it, secretly. Like, especially when he gets to freak Zeph out...” In fact, he'd swear to it. “It's just 'cause they like to think they're bad-ass and above everybody else, you know? But, like, give her kraken and shiny stuff and eventually she'll like you, you know?”

Except, the herbalist would have to be totally rich to afford that stuff. Which made him think, like, maybe that was why 'Vari retained their draconic hoarding habits, you know? Just to pay the bills...

“Dude, but I gotta see your squirrel, man. Like, I bet it's so fast!”

[Elena]

Elena marveled at Shane's talent, and the little animal herself. “Wow, she's amazing! How does she do that? Can she do that for anything? Awh, she's so adorable!” She clapped enthusiastically, laughing as the Nightkin scaled up Kiel's leg. “You two must be really attached to each other. I only recently got Ginger, but I think he likes me now.” Currently, he was curling up napping - like a cat, surprisingly - in her coat pocket in the ward, as Nate had insisted that he didn't sleep on any of the wards beds. Reasonable, really, but she doted on the little squirrel so much that she would have gladly let him sleep anywhere he pleased.

The anyelos wanted to pet the 'kin, but that would probably be too forward. “I noticed. She's stern like Nate. That's probably why they get along so well, but once, once she picked him up by his foot because he insulted her. His expression was priceless.” She giggled at the memory that Nate had conveniently wiped from his mind. Why did he have to be so serious all of the time?

“Hey, I'll get Ginger!” Without waiting for a reply, Elena scampered off with a grin, scooping Ginger up from her coat and stroking his fur affectionately. He sleepily looked up at her with adorable little black eyes, his jaw stretching in what she could only imagine to be a yawn. It was so cute, she squealed with delight and headed back into the main room to show Kiel. “Isn't he adorable? Mind his bald patch. I think Nate clipped some fur off of his tail when I wasn't looking, I think it's pretty valuable. Careful, though, if he's frightened he'll dash off and we'll never see him for the next half an hour.” She offered the little squirrel to the 'Vari to hold, while Ginger gazed up at him curiously.

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[Kiel]

“Hahahahaha, yeah,” Kiel agreed, grabbing Shane's face and cooing at her. “You're so awesome, man, wahahaha.” But to answer Elena's question, he giggled. “Like, theoretically, you know? Like, my friend, she's a Nymph, she's the one who kinda introduced us, you know?” He elaborated (briefly, for him!), telling the Anyelos how Phenny had invited him to her home, and how they'd met Shane and her mom on the way. “Phenny said 'kin can morph into pretty much anything, like, smallish, you know? But Shane's still a baby, yes, yes, you are, so she struggles a bit with details, don'tcha, don'tcha?”

Zeph would have totally, like, fed him to Slythe by now if he saw the way Kiel was baby-talking, and even Shane was looking at him like he'd got, like, a screw loose or something. So he coughed, and then grinned like a total maniac — totally not bouncing in his seat — when Elena went to fetch her squirrel.

“Waaaaaaaaahhhhh. Dude! It's so cute, it's so cute! Can it do tricks?!” 'cause as far as Kiel was concerned, animals that could do tricks was, like, the coolest thing ever.

Reaching for the squirrel, he was ever so gentle. Like, he and Shane rough-housed all the time, which kinda made him feel less homesick for his brothers and cousins and nephews, but something this small, even he knew to be mindful of himself. “Awwww, did the mean, scary 'Vari take your stuff? I hope you bit him, man, for sers.”

Seemingly jealous of the attention he was giving the soft, furry little critter, Shane's little monkey hands came to rest on his sleeve, then pushed and pulled insistently. Curious little eyes watched the squirrel, like, totally unerring. It was probably kinda creepy for the little guy, 'cause even in her monkey form, Shane probably still smelled like a predator.

[Elena]

Elena watched Kiel baby-talking to the nightkin, standing with a small smile on her face. She had heard of Nymphs and their tranquility with nature, in fact she knew a Nymph, and it seemed that animals seemed to be close to them. The Nymph she knew was really lovely, as well. Nate didn't like Nymphs, he said, and she quoted: “They're a bunch of little airy-fairy people who flaunt their elemental control like it's hot.” When she thought about it, she wondered if he was just bitter because Nymphs didn't go about injuring themselves in spars and brawls to provide more business for him.

As Kiel reached over for Ginger, the Anyelos held the little squirrel up, who cautiously stepped onto the 'Vari's palm and stared up at him. She really loved Ginger now. The little squirrel was a lot of company and prevented her from being homesick or feeling lonely, and he kept her on her feet too. He would dash up her leg or one of her wings (which was slightly painful when his little claws yanked out white feathers), and sit on her shoulder, just looking at her with those little black eyes and preening himself with his little claws. It was actually enough to make her 'awe' out loud.

“He's cute, isn't he? And he's so easy to look after. He just runs about a bit, and he sits on my shoulder sometimes! I haven't had him for that long, but I think even Nate is warming up to him. Sorta. Kinda.” Probably not. She didn't see why he had to be so stern, though.

Opening her mouth to answer, Elena watched as the little squirrel froze, ceasing his curious twitching. She was confused for a moment, not knowing the nature of 'kin or anything, and was about to ask Kiel what was wrong. In a single blink, the little squirrel had fled in a little ginger blur, up over Kiel's head and across the other seats before onto the desk and scattering work papers. “I've never seen him do that before! I'm so sorry!” She looked around for the squirrel as she picked up the papers that had fell off the desk in a papery flurry. “Well that's new, can you see him anyway?”

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[Kiel]

“WAH!” Kiel's initial surprise at having a squirrel scamper over him was shock but it immediately fell into a fit of the giggles. “Wahahahahaha, that tickles, it tickles, it — aw.” His shoulders slumping when it was over, like, way too fast for him to really, fully register that it had even happened, he strained to twist in his seat and look for the little ball of ginger, subconsciously patting Shane's head as he did so. Like, sometimes their emotional bond was way stronger than others, and without even realising it, he was picking up on her jealousy.

It was weird, though, man, 'cause, like, she didn't mind when he played with Derry, you know? She avoided Slythe, though. Like, she probably had way better survival instincts than him...

“Where'd he go, where'd he go?” Ruffling Shane's ears, he hobbled to his feet and stood there with his weight on his uninjured leg. Shane, probably predicting the next bad move, hopped to the floor and morphed back into her real shadowkin form so that when he stepped forward onto his bad leg, she was there to catch his weight with his hand on her slender back. “Dude, hahahaha, like, good thing I'm a runt, huh? Haha. Man, but it doesn't hurt that bad,” he told her, grinning.

And then, a flash of ginger! “Wah, there, quick!” He pointed, and would have lunged, but even as he shouted the blur had disappeared again. “Dude, that thing is fast!”

[Elena]

It was now clear to Elena why Nate had clipped off some of his fur; he had probably taken it and brewed it into a super-amazing speed potion, or sold it to some black market fiend with an eyepatch and a wooden leg. The little squirrel was more than a match for both her and Kiel put together, but he was just frightened, and she didn't have any food or anything to tempt him back with. See, it's times like these that having a Nymph around who could soothe animals, would be brilliant.

“Don't you have some 'Vari ability that could catch him?” she asked, then looked at his eyes and laughed. “Well, maybe not. I should have guessed, 99% of the 'Vari I treat are Rutilus.” Her eyes sharply flicked to where he had pointed, but by the time she looked the little squirrel had scampered off again. “Nate's going to kill me if he finds squirrel fur all over, he'll have my head, he'll feed me to Marina, he'll dismember me...” Okay, so she was being extremely dramatic, but the chances are he would give her a good telling-off. And Nate gave the worst kinds of telling-offs, the kind where you felt like a guilty child again, and were sent to your room.

Her eyes scanned the room, and settled on Ginger - finally! -, quivering and shaking on one of the shelves. She smiled, and stood on a chair to reach up and scoop him up, then held him closely to her chest. When she was climbing down off the chair, she stood on her ankle strangely and stumbled down. “Ouch, I think I twisted my ankle!” Well, this was turning out to be an interesting day. “The healer becomes the one in need of healing, excellent. Nate's going to have my head. You won't tell him will you? It'll be fine if I clean up any fur Ginger has shed and stuff, and if I just put some stuff on my ankle.”

As Elena spoke, she began to pat some soothing oil onto her ankle in a bid to help it to un-twist or whatever. “Oh, sorry, but I have to charge you for the treatment as well. Just a formality on Nate's part. That's 5 xanthai, thank you.” She laughed at the situation, and shook her head. “How's your foot?”

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[Kiel]

“Wahahaha,” Kiel laughed, pointing at his bandaged leg as he explained, “Like, I do, but I kinda lost it.” This was gonna suck, man, for sers. Unless, like, Zeph let him have one of those potions, but he doubted it since it wasn't like his leg was falling off or anything. "That'll teach you to mess with things bigger and meaner than you." Or, like, something like that.

“Like, I guess he's got a point, you know?” — and it didn't matter to Kiel that he hadn 't said the rest of that sentence out loud, so she'd have no idea who "he" or "the point" even was.

Listening to the Anyelos fret over what her boss would do to her sounded soooooooo familiar, man, it was well worth another giggle. Even though, like, he doubted she appreciated being laughed at, it was just so like him with Zeph, you know? And most of the time, Zeph just sort of glared at him and couldn't be bothered to actually go after him...

“Dude!” Kiel cried then as Elena stumbled, limping forward unsteadily to try and save her but being way too slow. This really sucked, man. He felt kinda like an Anyeli must feel when they'd been grounded or something.

So he sat back down, and giggled, “Wahahaha, we can be, like, ankle buddies or something, man,” as he fumbled in a pocket in search of the change he'd put in there earlier. “But, like, is five okay? Nate always charges me way more, you know? Haha, but it's good, it's okay.” He waved off her concern as he stood up again, holding out the money. “Like, Shane'll be a crutch for me, eh, won't you, cutie pie?”

Cutie Pie was not impressed.

[Elena]

Taking her usual place behind the desk, Elena rearranged the papers and smiled up at the 'Vari. He was such a nice 'Vari, there was none of that haughty pride about him like she had seen with many others that she had met. Especially Nate, but hey, she really respected Nate and he was entirely entitled to being prideful. Underneath, though, she was quite sure that there was a nice soft creamy centre that was just waiting to be discovered. Excuse any innuendoes that may be created by that line.

“Oh, Nate charges more because of the whole 'having to take on the injury to himself' thing, Xanth bless him. ” She was very fond of him, though more so than he was of her. He was generous and caring, and joining the Viridis sept was certainly a noble thing to do. Reaching up, she took the money from Kiel and tucked it away into the little money box on the desk. “Thank you, Kiel. Enjoy your day, hopefully you'll catch me round here again, huh?”

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[Kiel]

Limping toward the door with a shadowkin for support, Kiel laughed. “Hahahahaha, totally, man!” He really would be able to "catch" her next time — assuming it wasn't his leg he'd injured again, hahahaha.

He was glad she'd explained about Nate, though. Like, it made sense now, you know? And he'd be careful not to ask the guy to do too much, even if his leg really was hanging off next time.

“Wahahaha. Hey, hey, like, if you ever wanna weapon, you gotta swing by Zeph's place, okay? He makes the best swords ever and I get to sell 'em, how cool is that?”

And with that bit of unplanned, and useless (since he hadn't even thought to tell her the name of "Zeph's place") bit of advertising, he was back out on the street, hobbling away like there was no tomorrow.

“Dude, that hurts.”

((Kiel has left the thread. And oops, I still owe you some monies...))