Animals and Elementals (Di/Ly)

"There, there," clucked Diana over the broken animal's wing.

It hurts, mage, it hurts, said the bird in a pitiful whine.

"I know it does," soothed Diana. "But the pain'll stop in a few minutes." Fishing behind her, she brought out a numbing salve called "numbweed" and spread it over the animal's wing. "There. How's that?"

Better, said the bird.

Usually, Lyra never dared to venture into a human settlement, much less such a populated one as Keld. But it was desperate this time- she had gone for a few weeks in the forest, and although it was nice there, and Khole had been great to her, Lyra needed human supplies. Before entering the town, she'd promised herself no water tricks because she couldn't afford getting caught. So it was quickly ducking into the town's general store to get some bread, a canteen like her old one- minus the holes, a new jacket, perhaps, and maybe some bandages for the cuts and scrapes on her knees.

She walked down the road, keeping carefully to the shadows to avoid much notice. The streets were mostly deserted at this time of day. Lyra spotted a girl kneeling over an animal. She tilted her head to the side to get a better look, and saw the girl applying salve to it's wing. Poor animal. Since meeting Khole, she'd been more aware of nature. She felt the urge to help the poor bird, so Lyra walked up to the girl and tapped her shoulder "Need help?"

Diana heard something approaching her and she jerked, eyes wild. The bird, sensing her distress, squawked. Someone tapped her shoulder and said, "Need some help?"

She turned around.

Oh, it was a girl. She felt herself relaxing. "Oh, no," she said. "I'm, uh, I'm fine. The bird's fine -- stay down!" she added in an undertone as the bird fought to stand up.

Damn. She had spoken louder than she had intended to.

Face frozen in a smile, she brushed a lock of dark red hair away from her face.

"You're sure?" She asked, frowning. "The bird doesn't look that fine, and neither do you," Lyra furrowed her eyebrows. This girl was really shy. "Here, ahh..." Lyra hesitated for a moment before she undid the clasp on her broken canteen and water spilled onto her fingers. She cupped the water so it wouldn't spill and carefully began cleaning the bird's wound. "Shh," She said, smiling wryly. "Tell nobody I did this, will you? A favor?"

"You're an elemental," gasped out the girl.

Mage, she's most definitely an elemental, said the bird. You must give her some respect.

Right. Respect.

"Um, I'm very glad you did this," said Diana. "A-and, the bird says you're an-- shoot!"

Dammit. Why didn't she just put a parchment on her back saying, "HI IMMA MAGE."

Seriously. She could be quite stupid sometimes.

"I am, I guess, but I try not to think about it much." She said. Lyra looked at the girl then look down nervously. "I like how you're helping the Animals, it's really a good thing to do." She said softly. "Can you please promise me, though, that you'll tell no one about this? No one can know that you saw me- especially what I can do. Please," She was pleading with the girl now. Lyra never begged or pleaded for anything, but this was desperate.

"I won't tell anyone," said Diana, and then laughed. "Silly. Why would I? I'm an animal mage. Secrets are my life."

She stroked the bird's head as it gasped in pain. "You've washed the numbweed out."

Lyra nodded thankfully then cringed. "I'm sorry, I did mean to," She said apologetically.

"It's all right, I'll apply more later." She clucked at the bird and spoke softly in the bird language, "Rest, brother, you must sleep."

The bird closed his eyes and fell asleep.

She knew how ridiculous she must've looked, clucking and chirping in the bird language, and she flushed.

Lyra nodded wordlessly and watched the bird fall asleep. It was fascinating to see the girl speak to the bird, and it was amazing how she could make those noises so fluently. She raised her eyebrows in a silent question when the girl blushed.

"Meh," said Diana, blushing even harder. "You could...clean out the wound more...fluently now."

She nodded again and trickled a few more drops of water out into her palm and began the process of wiping the wound free of blood and dirt. "It's admirable of you to be helping animals, you know," She said conversationally. "I myself like animals a lot."

"Thank you," said DIana, flushing a bit more. She brushed a strand of dark red hair away from her face. "It's ah...a passion of mine. You like animals?" Her eyes brightened. Animals was a subject that she liked to discuss...quite frequently. "Ooh, what's your favorite animal?"

"I do," Lyra said, still working. "I like all of them, but I think I like cats best. They're sweet."

"Ah, cats." Diana nodded. "Dolphins and others carry on the best conversations, but a cat taught me how to purr once." In her throat, she purred.