Home was just beyond the ridge and yet it felt so far away. The time she spent among the lands was an… eventful turn to say the least. Most of all coming from the swift and unprovoked encounter of the canine assassin, leaving an impression upon her muzzle that would not easily be forgotten. The woman had done her best to treat the wound without the proper care or experience of a healer. She closed it with her own saliva, periodically lapping her nose when the smell of blood again burdened it. Each time it wriggled with new scent she could feel the scabbing skin split and tear once more ushering yet another wave of throbbing pain. The woman groaned with dismay, tracing a delicate claw across the wound just at the end of her muzzle. Luckily the flesh of her nose was spared but the shallow slice was proving to be more of a nuisance than she would have liked. Even more so than the avian clutching her shoulder and hooting off nonsense for the hell of it.
The Nomad walked with a steady pace, all distractions aside, toward the Mines needing that landmark to reaffirm her proper direction. Truth be told, she hadn’t the nerve to venture into it, nor the desire to tread within the abysmal chasm. The entrance was as far as she had gotten in the past and it was her firm belief that that was as far as she would get. The unnatural remnants of the cultures that inhabited this land before them held little interest to her. More so, they bothered her that such things could withstand the test of time. It made her wonder what could have carved into the mountain like this… for what purpose… to what end? She disliked these thoughts and the emotions they surfaced; the uncomfortable chill rolling down her spine mostly. Even her nameless companion was on edge as their path neared the opened maw of the mountain.
But what stilled her steps was a body strung out in front of it, still breathing by the rise and fall of his chest. Such a fair white plotted in red; the container of dye unseen as the Exultare yelped with fright at the sight of would-be blood. “Stranger! Friend are you alright?!” The startled woman rushed to the slumbering male’s side, dropping her to knees beside him and attempted to inspect his injured form. “My friend, please wake! You are hurt!”But as she was by his side, she was able to have a better look at him and was not taken by the scent of blood. Her senses may have been muted, but not dead. Even a trickle of blood would have been scented at this range but there was nothing outside of an odd medicinal tinge. Her searching eyes caught the opened container, its contents spilled with the same hue that marred the male’s natural white. What was this, she wondered. An herb? “My friend…” the woman boldly placed a hand on the other’s shoulder to gently stir him away. “Have you done something to yourself?”