Most of the day had been wasted away with small errands, ending up with Caleum distributing lavender between the occupants. It was always one of his favourite plants, able to withstand the cold enough to survive through the winter with minimal attention--as long as it was properly pruned. It served as a staple for the supply of any Seer worth his weight, able to be changed into different forms to promote the health of numerous illnesses and inflammations. If there was an illness that didn't have specific cure already, then lavender would be the safest bet.
Caelum's ears pricked up at the sound of paws approaching, already able to recognize that his visitors didn't seem to be of the immediately important variety; the weight of their paws was too light, and there seemed to be a hoard of them. Leaving his lavender for the time being, Caelum padded over to the source of the noise: surprised to find the tender-foots there, but relieved that the heavy number of paws seemed to have stemmed from Face, rather than a hoard of pups who needed attention--although he had no doubt that Face and Drake were about to ask for more attention than he wanted to offer.
"Oh," he regarded them, all-but about to turn around and go back to what he was doing.
Drake was glad Face had agreed to come with him to bring food to his mother. Although he had tried many times to befriend Caelum while visiting, it never stuck, and the cold encounters often had the winged hound fidgeting in his skin. Some dogs said Drake was stupid, a featherbrained idiot- but very rarely did they dislike him, and confronting someone who had no interest in being friends confused and disturbed him.
Why would a dog want to spend so much time alone? And why wouldn't a healer be the most easy to get along with? After all, you just had to be kind to spend all day sniffing sour smelling plants and mixing poultices for the benefit of dogs who were weak and ill. He hadn't spoken to Face about his uneasiness, just made it seem like a lark. Anyway, his mother liked Face. At least Drake liked to think she did. He wasn't entirely sure if she remembered him.
"Caelum"? Drake said, pushing his head into the den and looking around. "Uh hey- I brought her some food. Some for you too". It was a polite thing to do. From the Pointer's droopy chocolate-colored chops hung a dead dove, one wing splaying out. The kill had been clean and swift, not a single feather dropped, hardly any blood. It was rare to find one this healthy, and Drake had the superstitious- although not entirely incorrect- belief that if he gave it to her she'd absorb it's strength. He'd asked Face to help bring his other catch, a red squirrel.
"Sorry to bother you. H-how is she"?
The taller dog didn't like the narrowness of the den either, he had to fold his wings really tightly against his body, bow his head and walk very carefully to avoid stepping on anything important. But his mother was safest in here where the Seer could easily get to her, so he reminded himself to be grateful. He couldn't help but peek over Caelum's shoulders as he spoke, hoping to glimpse her sleeping in her usual spot near the back.
Face trailed along behind Drake with the squirrel clamped in his mouth, trying to ignore the rumbling in his stomach at the faint taste of food. The Seer had always seemed very standoffish to Face, and he remembered the day Leander had brought the boar to camp--it had been a rousing conversation between Leander and Damus up until Caelum lumbered over, and from there everyone had seemed to get more grumpy.
Still, Face had no problem with the Seer as long as the Seer had no problem with him. Maybe he wasn't the friendliest dog, but that was fine, not every dog had to be friendly. "The squirrel is for you," Face informed him, dropping it at the Basenji's feet before stepping back a bit to let Drake through, mostly having only tagged along for his friend's sake anyway--he got the feeling Drake was a bit put off by the Seer's attitude, leaning to brush his pelt against the Pointer's.
face // male // jack russell mix // fawnstalker // tenderfoot
It seemed Drake would constantly visit, expecting the situation to have changed since last time. Caleum had come to accept that there was nothing he could say or do to get the tenderfoot to deter from the situation, simply dealing with the fact that there was another dog hovering around and dragging dead animals over his doorstep. He couldn't even remember if he'd turned up to eat today, having lost track of what time of day it was. He eyed the squirrel eagerly, stomach deciding that he probably had, accidentally, skipped a meal again. "You can leave it there," he informed Face, eager to get back to things.
There was a moment where he hesitated in answering Face's question, able to pass it off as taking his own time to answer the question--rather than trying to rack his brain for any positive sign he could bring up. "The same as always," he responded, seeing no reason to sugar-coat it when her condition had been stagnant for as long as she'd been admitted. At the same time, he didn't have a heart of stone, and had come to pick up on the fact that Drake seemed to be trying anything to make her better. It wouldn't kill Caelum to let the tenderfoot give her some herbs, even though he doubted they would do much. "Here," he nodded towards the lavender he'd just finished pruning, small cloves of it bunched together. "Crush that up and put it around where she's sleeping," he half-explained, not about the tell the pup that the effect would be minimal at best. Plus, giving them some kind of task would probably keep Face occupied too--Caelum didn't know him that well, but he knew tenderfoots and he didn't want either of them disturbing anyone: especially himself.
Although Drake was aware that the blue basenji might not enjoy his company too much, he remained stubbornly unconscious of his mother's stagnating condition. The pointer's considerable capacity for optimism crushed all doubts and insecurities like dried leaves underfoot. In some situations it turned out to be a pretty convenient trick.
"Thanks Caelum" he said, enthused by the idea that there was something he could do to help as he awkwardly tried to sweep the herbs towards the back of the den with his huge paws. He glanced back at Face briefly, with a friendly tail twitch before slowly moving turning and moving forward.
"Mom"? he tested cautiously, not wanting to startle her. "Are you awake"?
"Hello sweetie" August said, lifting up her head and slowly opening her warm, red-orange eyes
August had white fur, with the same shade of rich chocolate brown as her son spotting in big, bold patches. All down her back her pelt was dappled with smaller fawn-like speckles in fall colors, reds, oranges, light browns and yellows, effectivley making her look like a living bed of fallen leaves. Tucked away and barely noticeable were a set of small wings, much too small to ever carry her off the ground. Once, she'd kept them preened dutifully, but these days they were ragged and begining to lose patches of fluff at a time.
She had obviously once been very pretty but these days her skin clung too tightly to her bones as if the fever had burned all her fat away, her eyes had a cloudy dullness to them, like fog swirling inside a glass orb, her black nose faded to an ashy gray, and her breathe came in irregular rattles. However her voice was just as kind as ever, if slightly unsure of itself.
Relieved that she recognized him this time, Drake set the dove down in front of her, beginning to pull it apart with his teeth so she could easily get at the meet. "I brought something-- pffttt" he had to spit out a mouthful of feathers halfway through his sentence "...N-Nice and juicy for you. Think you can eat"?
"It smells good" she confirmed without answering his question, struggling to get up. He put a gentle paw on her shoulder to stop her.
"No it's okay Mom, I'll do it. Don't worry about it" he soothed until she settled back down, and he could continue breaking the dove into smaller bits.
"Whose that little dog over there? Is he a friend of yours"? she asked as she began to shakily swipe at the fresh bird meat.
"That's Face mom, he's a Tenderfoot like me".
"Nice to meet you Face" she creaked, mistily. Drake didn't mention the fact that he'd already introduced Face upwards of four times. At least she was trying to eat.
It always made Face a bit uncomfortable to visit Drake's mother, always waiting for the Proudfoot to speak first so he didn't startle her, always hoping she might remember meeting him for once--if for nothing else than because introductions were exhausting, but he supposed also for Drake's sake as well. It was always nerve-wrecking to meet new people, even if they weren't exactly new--he didn't have the friendliest face and not everyone was excited to see it.
"Hiya, August," Face replied, shuffling his six paws anxiously and looking at Drake for some direction. "Oh, it's nice to meet you too," he added, despite having already met her a few times before. "I hope you're... feeling well..." Nervously, he inched a bit closer to the Seer, trying to keep his voice a bit lower for Drake's sake. "How is she?"
face // male // jack russell mix // fawnstalker // tenderfoot
There wasn't much that interested Caelum about watching Drake and his mother, finding it awkward and none of his business. He would have just been happy enough to take the food and then move away again, taking the opportunity to get back to his work--but it seemed that Face probably felt just as awkward as he did, meaning it fell onto Caelum to give attention and validation to his presence. That said, he wasn't sure how much information it was or wasn't appropriate to divulge to the Tenderfoot. It was obvious enough that he was close enough friends with Drake, but Caelum couldn't trust that meant he was free to tell him whatever potentially-sensitive information he wanted. That, and the fact that her condition should have been obvious enough. "Just as she looks," he murmured in reply, seeing no reason to sugar-coat it for the pup who had no ties to her.