reap it with a sickle of leather [closed, Paradox]
Jan 14, 2015 13:02:53 GMT -5
Post by Rosalina on Jan 14, 2015 13:02:53 GMT -5
Rayna had recently become a full-fledged member of Tempest.
She still wasn't entirely sure how she should feel about such a fact. Sure, Tzafar certainly seemed trustworthy enough, and more than capable of running a pack. And having Willow beside her was enough to calm her nerves a bit more, even though her sister seemed to hold some kind of strange grudge towards their current leader. But with how reluctant Rayna was around anything even remotely resembling a pack (largely due to her previous experiences with Kekoa), and the way she was insecure about all of her obvious shortcomings, this whole 'member of a pack' thing was going to take a while to get used to. It had already taken about a week or so for her to be reassured that Tzafar wasn't going to try and take advantage of the members behind their backs, and it had taken even longer for her to stop flinching away from even the tinest of movements that the other members had made towards her. Twice she had to stifle her terror-ridden screams in the middle of the night, with varying levels of success. But if the other members of Tempest had at all noticed that Rayna was not exactly the most mentally stable of canines, they seemed to be keeping it to themselves- a fact which she was immensely grateful for. It meant that she could concentrate on performing her duties, concentrate on staying largely out of the limelight for now. But, of course, nothing in Rayna's life ever went exactly according to plan.
She'd set up shop in a small room within the fortress, not too far from where Willow had set up her own establishment- the two often traded any herbs that they'd managed to find back and forth, sharing ideas for how to make their workplace as efficient as possible. Rayna had just been putting away a small stash of comfrey, absent-mindedly musing to herself that winter would be coming soon and she'd need to stock up on supplies, before the news had come that she'd been given a....assignment, for lack of a better term. She was set to be teaching at least basic healing techniques to Layla, one of the fighters within the pack. Hell if she knew why a trained solider would want to learn anything about nursing, but she figured she wasn't really one to be questioning such matters. Even if she'd wanted to refuse, she had a job now, and was expected to carry out its duties as well as she possibly could. And there was no way in hell that she was about to start knowingly letting Tzafar down- not when the Kangal mix was one of the first dogs that had bothered to show her even an ounce of compassion in quite some time. She had a roof over her head now, a stable place of living, and she was going to show that she deserved such privileges. So after an initial period of reluctance- and mentally griping about it for quite some time- Rayna had finally decided to carry out the task that was set up for her.
Unfortunately Rayna hadn't quite learned the subtle art of matching names to faces within the pack, so she'd sent another member off to deliver the message to Layla instead of trying to go through the embarrassing process of seeking her out herself. The Border Collie mix worked in silence as she waited, paws frantically flying to sort the herbs and make sure that everything was in its proper place. She kept this up until she heard pawsteps at the door, turning to view the large Leonberger standing there. Rayna stood in awkward silence for a few moments before letting a soft cough escape from her maw, pinning a smile that was only somewhat forced onto her maw. "You must be Layla. I'm Rayna. Nice to meet you." God, why did her voice suddenly sound so robotic to her? She almost wanted to slap herself for acting so brain-dead. Focus, Rayna. Just go through the motions like you always do. You'll be fine. Stepping aside to allow Layla to enter the room, Rayna gave her tail a gentle wag back and forth, more to put herself at ease than the giant female standing before her, because when she looked at Layla she kept getting flashes of that god-damn Wolfhound and his lackeys. Taking a deep breath, the small girl spoke after a few moments, asking a soft question. "Do you have any knowledge of herbs already? If you do, I'll skip going over those particular ones. For now, I figured I could start with safety as far as dealing with the plants goes and go from there."
Might as well start simple, she figured, trying to ignore the bouts of nervousness that were rising up in her at the fact that she'd never really had to teach someone healing techniques before. She tried to think back to how Mareena had taught, but her memories came up frustratingly blank on that note, causing her to mutter to herself ill-temperedly. Damn it, where was someone who was actually good at this shit when you needed them?
Word Count: 869
Playmates: Paradox with Layla
Other: AND THE TEACHING COMMENCES.