Ask to Join Scars, Salves and Secrets

Survival demands caution, but greatness requires daring
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Kosmo scented the blood despite her best efforts to keep its flow from giving way to the wind. He stepped from between the pines without hurry, mismatched eyes settling on Vivica as she bent to her hind leg, limp worse than perhaps she'd care to admit.

He took in the angle of her stance and the tightness along her spine. "Stop." He didn't step close to inspect, not yet. "Can you walk?" He asked, already assuming she could.

The lavender scent stirred as he began moving at a measured pace, slow enough that she wouldn't have to leap or strain to keep up. He didn't look back immediately. He trusted pride would get her on her paws before gratitude ever would.

All of his senses were alert just in case her attacker returned. Odd eyes moved even as his body arced in a trajectory that seemed muscle memory. "I have a place if you'd like to keep that leg useful." He briefly turned his head back to her, edges of his lips curling.

"You can trust me. I'm a healer."

She who wishes to be obeyed must know how to command.

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Part of Vivica, something deep and angry, wanted to whirl around and snap at Kosmo as he approached, but she didn't act on it. Something else that was more reasonable and witty fought the urge and won. Kosmo's face was familiar enough for her to remember him by name. Considered himself a healer? Vivica didn't find many of those where she was from, cats just took wounds in silence instead of taking help from others, Maverick's rule had enforced it, Vivica was not so ignorant.

"I can limp" She said in good humor, her fur still ruffled from the previous scuffle, assuming one of many if that tortoiseshell was hanging around Whitehart. "If there is no jumping over anymore fences, I'm sure I'll be able to make it wherever you need me to go." Vivica still wasn't sure how much she could trust Kosmo, but what other choice did she have, stumble off into the distance to get shoved in another bare plastic den and taken away again? Not for Vivica.

She rose to her paws again, the injured leg lifted just enough from the ground to stop it from dragging and close enough to land on it if it truly mattered. She hated the sensation of helplessness, that she isn't able to do everything by herself, but the mark of a leading cat is not just power, but to know when to let another cat take charge. "Lead on." she croaked out as a short-lived throbbing pain wretched her leg, causing it to tense to flinch back in instinct. The sooner this was over the better.

Survival demands caution, but greatness requires daring
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Kosmo adjusted his stride without making a show of it. The path he chose angled away from the more exposed fencing and toward the older edge of Whitehart where the neat line of trees thinned and the world felt half forgotten into a bit of wilderness all his own.

They approached a sagging stretch of fence behind an abandoned house on the outskirts of Whitehart. The yard beyond had long since surrendered to wild growth and Kosmo paused only long enough to glance at her leg. There wouldn't be any jumping necessary.

He slipped sideways through a slanted fence post where the wood warped and sat nearly hidden within the ivy. His slim frame made it look effortless.

The backyard opened into a sheltered clearing where he had taken Mistyleaf moons ago. A twisted oak dominated the far edge. Kosmo moved straight toward it. "Wait here."

At the base of the tree he did not stop. Instead he leapt where he found a familiar notch in the bark. Halfway up the trunk he disappeared around to the far side. For a heartbeat there was only the sound of bark shifting under his weight.

There was a rustle within the hollow before pulling out a grape leaf in his moouth and could be seen again as he stepped out onto a branch. His mismatched eyes blinked down at her before he carefully slid down the vertical drop and lifted himself confidently onto all four of his paws.

"So...What happened to you?" He meowed after putting down his package, already nosing through the chosen herbs without looking over at her.