#earthrunes

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Elsewhere in EarthRunes, Coradel is hurrying towards Emma the healer's quarters, tugging August along by the hand.

August follows along, concern and worry writ clear on his face.

Emma's hut is "guarded" by a napping hound dog puppy.

"Healer Emma!" Coradel calls out as she enters the hut, unconcerned about possible puppy attack.

No puppy, but there IS a large man sprawled across her worktable

"Oh, it hurts, it huuuurts."

"Oui, cherie?" Emma looks up from her patient.

"We have need of...oh! Vince! What happened?"

"I was attacked, attacked I say, in the Library of all places!"

She pats his mane. "A most vile wound. The librarian was right, the pen be fiercer than the sword, but the page! Oh! More fearsome yet!"

"Are you most certain you needn't have me disrobe fully? Perhaps there are wounds yet unseen..."

"I am more certain, but am rarely most certain, because uncertainty is a principle, and I never liked being sent to the principal..."

Poppy twitches in her dreams. In her dreams she's the best guard girl everah

"What is the nature of his injury, if I can ask?" politely.

"A grave wound...bitten by the scribe's maw!"

August blinks at that.

"Ahhh, I assure you....."

"Where does the scribe speak but on the page, I ask you?"

"The book, it went snicker-snack!"

"A paper cut?"

A dramatic pose, the back of one hand to her forehead, the other clutching at her heart. "Can he survive it, Lord July?"

"I'm sure you've saved him, Healer Emma."

"Oh, honestly, Vince!" She rolls her eyes, smiling.

"Not yet!" An impish whisker twitch, and she scampers over to the band-aid-and-lollipop basket.

Apparently, there is enough childling demand for both to be at the ready.

"There, you great silly. The healer is about to bestow on you your bandage of honor and confectionary award. Now if we may, Emma, I must know how many we have at the ready in EarthRunes who are skilled at the art of HeatherBalm or other such healings."

Vince's finger is swaddled in a bright blue "Paw Patrol" bandaid, and she offers him a root beer lollipop.

It's insidious!

Vince whimpers, just a touch, and rolls towards Coradel. "P'raps... if though might stroke my mane?"

"Oh, of course, Whiskers," she indulges him, stroking his hair like petting an oversized housecat. "I am glad you have survived this terrible ordeal."

August reviews the papers and notes in his hands, frowning softly.

"I shall never read again!" He proclaims.

Even as he accepts the lollipop graciously and gives it a rather thorough licking.

Coradel imagines that it's entirely too likely that Vince will get that lollipop stuck in his mane and demand further emergency treatment....receiving another lollipop thereafter. It's a vicious cycle. But she does appreciate his licking style....

"Coradel, Heatherbalm may only produce limited results." August cautions. "It could heal the injured brain cells, but not -restore- them."

"I understand that, August. I'm just thinking that if we have the other option of sending her to Renaissance, then the Heatherbalm would sustain her long enough to make it there from the hospital."

Tattered ears pricked forward to listen. "Surely, Ludmilla mustn't be considered... but otherwise, everyone?"

"Oh...oh, that's fewer than I'd hoped. Hmph." Coradel's smile fades to a frown of annoyance.

Vince considers this all... or perhaps he is just considering the licking pattern on his lollipop.

He yawns expressively. "When -I- am stuck in a long hibernation, as you know, my beauty rest? Nothing will wake me up so much as that first warm breeze that tells me Spring is in the air..." His tail swishes.

"We ought to raise healers on a Farm..."

"Grow them in orange groves, like clementines..."

"Spring magics?" August looks up from his notes.

Then he shakes his head. "I gather the DeBukes are not, as a rule, ah...... welcoming to visitors."

"Well, what is the cause for healing?"

"If I understand correctly, it would be stabilizing a coma victim so she can be transported for deeper healing. That's the intent, anyway."

"Shall thou not simply flick your tail to have them flash to the new locale?"

WIDE eyes.

Vince doesn't seem surprised as Emma does. He sleeps nearly 20 hours a day already, after all.