"That's a whole lotta blood..."
"She dead?"
"No, but if y'all don't shut up for more than one second, she might well be!"
The arguing voices rang out loudly in the otherwise quiet clearing. The noise came from three shadowy viscets crowding around the prone form of a fourth viscet, one bristling at the other two. The trio had only just come upon the bloodied form, and while one of them was a healer, they all agreed it didn't look too good.
Even though it was dark, they could all clearly make out the darkened stain around her neck where blood had seeped out, though it was hard to find the offending wound in all of her fur. The healer was willing to try his best, but he was certain that it was far too late to do much good for her, especially without any supplies other than the bare minimum he always carried.
"You sure? 'Cause she isn't lookin' too hot..." one of the viscets peering at her replied. He reached a paw out as if to prod her side, before thinking better of the action and plopping down by his side.
"Yes, I'm sure!" the healer snapped back, lashing his tail a few times. "...Though I don't expect she'll last much longer, with or without proper medical attention. Can't really see the wound well, but it's gotta be deep with all that blood loss we're seein'." he adds.
They sit in silence for a moment, staring down at the limp body before them. She was pretty young, much too young to be losing her life like this. Probably over something she wasn't even involved in. Nobody said anything about what had caused the sudden loss- they didn't have to. The trio all just assumed the same thing- rebels.
They rarely worked in a direct fashion outside of the battlefield, and though it wasn't unheard of to target unaffiliated viscets, none of the three had ever really put much thought into it before now. Even if it would probably be hard to identify which side the trio was on in the dark, they weren't exactly worried about being jumped- any rebels still in the area would probably be too intimidated to try anything else tonight.
It was silent save for the night time sounds once again as they reflected quietly. Though they didn't know this viscet whatsoever, a bit of mourning just seemed right. It wasn't like she had anybody else around to lament over the loss of her life. Mm, they'd probably need to bury her too. No sense in leaving the corpse just laying around- the three at least had some decency among them.
Finally, the healer stirred, stretching out his body quickly. "C'mon, help me move her closer to the treeline," he barked softly to his companions. They too stood, ready to take up positions on either side of the unknown female and help carry to something of a more proper burial site. "A'ight, I'll take the head 'n such, you handle the rest however you want."
He moved into position, gently easing the female's head and neck onto his shoulders. No sense in accidentally aggravating the wound any more- she had already lost enough blood as it was, even if she wouldn't be needing it anymore. The other two were moving into position as the healer helped guide them, although something strange made him stop dead in his tracks.
"Wait..wait a minute.." he mumbled, partially to himself and partially to the other two viscets. He had felt something, something that...it must have been a trick of the senses...
The healer lowered the body to the ground, stepping back for a moment. The other two shuffled somewhat awkwardly, exchanging looks.
"What is it? Whatcha' see?"
"What's goin' on here?"
The healer didn't answer, only moved closer to the prone body. He lowered his head to her chest, then to her face, lingering in silence for long moments. When he finally rose, his expression briefly expressed shock, before hardening a bit.
"W-what's...?" one viscet managed, edging away nervously.
"She's still breathing," the healer replied, already pulling out everything stuffed in his bag. Though there wasn't much, maybe there was something that could help.
"So that..does that mean-" the other viscet stuttered. He was quickly cut off by the healer.
"Still alive."
It was mostly shock that made the pair nervous- how could someone survive an injury like that? They'd all seen their fair share of fatal wounds- even inflicted them- and something like that? Not generally listed under survivable. However, they soon began to snap back to attention, stepping away to let the healer do what needed to be done.
The healer grabbed a few rags, tossing some of them towards the two who were watching, now stony-faced. "Go dip these in the river," he commanded. They nodded before running off, trying to be as quick and efficient as possible.
The healer moved back towards her neck, peeking once again at the injury site. It was still covered in blood, and he found himself still unable to pick out actual cause of the bleeding. He crouched down and began to gently push her fur aside, determined to discover the extent of the injury.
Perhaps it wasn't nearly as bad as they had assumed? But still, all that blood...
When the healer finally uncovered something of substance, he was quite, well, puzzled.
Hidden beneath her fur were scars were something had raked its claws across her neck. They weren't fresh, however, and were definitely healed. That couldn't have been the cause of all that blood...and yet, it seemed unlikely that this was some kind of coincidence.
"What in the..." he murmured to himself quietly as he began to search for something else, something that had to be the cause of the wound. His search grew increasingly frantic as he was unable to find any open wounds, and he only realized how violently he must be pulling fur aside when he heard a faint cough.
Freezing, the healer's gaze rose up to the rest of the female's head, where she seemed to be coming to, albeit slowly. She emitted another, almost silent cough, her head bobbing lightly from the force. Her limbs were slowly stretching out, almost as if she were simply awakening from a long night's sleep.
The healer moved his paws away from her neck and sat back in silence as the female they had all thought was dead seemed to reach the end of her coughing fit. She then lay in silence, long enough that the healer was almost starting to think that he must have imagined the whole thing, until she began to move once more.
This time, she was beginning to sit up, groggily propping herself up with an arm. She seemed disoriented, so it was no wonder it had taken her this long to notice him. Her eyes widened as she finally saw the healer, who probably looked just as equally shocked. To her credit, she only tried to scoot back a bit, seeming to recognize he hardly looked threatening.
They both sat on edge, staring at each other and unable to form any real words. The healer swallowed roughly a few times, attempting to open his mouth to speak, to say something, and yet he found his jaw wouldn't cooperate. The female didn't try to speak, only watching with big eyes.
What broke the standstill was when the female viscet saw the blood coating the healer's paws. Her head slowly followed the trail of droplets leading back to her, and when she stretched her neck just enough to see a bit of blood staining her white chest mane, she fell backwards, scooting away from the healer.
He was quick to the draw, doing his best to reassure her that "don't worry, you're okay now" and "we just need to get you cleaned up" and "you're gonna be just fine". She wasn't quite ready to lay back down and accept this, however, so she continued scooting away until she reached what she must have considered a safe distance. She stopped and gingerly reached a paw up to her neck, trying to inspect the wound.
The healer held up both his paws in a gesture of surrender, and didn't try to approach. He knew it would probably be better to let her come closer on her own, instead of making her more upset by getting too close.
"It's okay, 'm not tryin' to hurt you. We found you out here like this. Any chance you can tell me what happened to you?"
His question is met with a silent stare.
"If you know why your neck's bleedin', it would be awful helpful if you could tell me. I'm a healer; it's my job to help ya out when you need it," he tried again, but was met with the same silence.
He suppressed a sigh and tried once more, "Hey, can you at least tell me your name? What you're doing out here alone?"
She was still silent, though she seemed less on-edge by now. Her stiff limbs seemed to be softening, and her stare seemed to cut through him less than before. The healer was hoping she'd come back over and answer his questions soon, though the arrival of his two companions from earlier quickly dashed those hopes.
They came bolting through the trees, wet rags clutched tightly. The healer grumbled in annoyance after he realized what was happening. If only they had taken a little longer, maybe he could have gotten this female's trust and an explanation out of her.
He turned around, waving for them to stop, only to see that they had already paused, seeing the female who they had thought was dead just a little bit ago sitting up. The healer turned back around to see the female had jumped to her feet, a wild look in her eyes.
She stood upright for a moment, though she was quite wobbly, and quickly dropped down to all fours. She had a gleam in her eyes he couldn't quite recognize, other than that it probably meant trouble. Hopefully he could soothe her enough to get her back to base camp.
"Hey, hey, it's alright. They're not here to hurt you. These two are buddies of mine, and I asked 'em to go get some water to clean your neck off. It's okay, they just startled you, yeah? They were pretty loud."
The words at first seemed to fall on deaf ears, though she slowly showed signs of relaxing a bit- her eyes stopped darting around, her claws stopped digging into the earth, and she seemed to almost sink down a bit.
The healer still didn't approach, as she was definitely still nervous about the three of them. "Hey, back off for a bit, won't you? Actually, head on back; we'll be right behind you," the healer said to his companions, who nodded, dropping the still-wet rags on the ground.
This seemed to help the wary female, even though she still looked as if she was ready to flee at a moment's notice.
"Alright, it's okay. Nobody else was with me, and nobody else is gonna come back. You can relax," the healer coaxed. "I'm certainly not gonna hurt you."
She seemed skeptical at first, but eventually sank down to a sitting position. The healer started toward the rags with slow, deliberate movements so he wouldn't scare her again. He grabbed them, then turned back to give the female a hopeful look.
"You gonna let me clean that neck off, or would you prefer to clean it yourself?"
She seemed indecisive, not saying anything, until she gestured towards herself. The healer approached cautiously, and set the rags down a few feet from the female and backed away, letting her clean her injury up.
She worked gently, with a steady pace, and soon it was much less obvious she had been covered in so much blood not too long ago. She was silent the whole time, and the healer said nothing, just patiently waited for her to finish up.
She finally dropped the rags into a pile, gently feeling around her neck. She grimaced when she seemed to find something under the fur, although she did seem rather calm about it, so hopefully it wasn't anything too bad.
"May I?" the healer asked gently, tensing his legs in preparation to stand. She eyed him for a moment, before giving a small nod of affirmation. He strolled over to her, and very gently began to feel around her neck. He didn't think he'd find anything different than earlier, but it didn't hurt to double check.
There they were again, the healed clawmarks hidden beneath her fur; that was all he discovered, as suspected. He pulled his paw away and moved a few steps back so as not to alarm her by being too close.
"Do y'know how those got there?" he asked.
She shook her head, a glint of confusion in her eyes. The female was just as stumped as the healer, which wasn't good for either of them.
"Well, can you tell me anything else? Who are you? What's the last thing you remember?" he questioned curiously.
The female just shook her head lightly. He wasn't exactly sure what that meant- was she saying no, she couldn't answer any of his questions? If so, that was troubling.
After a moment of confusion, it suddenly dawned on him that the female hadn't said anything at all since waking up. "Hey, can you speak? Are you physically able to?"
She once again shook her head, and with this revelation, the healer was a bit taken aback. This was probably the weirdest viscet he'd ever had to chance to treat. Usually it was just battle wounds and smaller illnesses- never anything this odd.
The healer wasn't exactly sure how to go about this now. He could keep asking yes or no questions, although it would be more difficult to get any useful information that way. Besides, it also seemed like she didn't know much about the circumstances leading up to all of this.
The female viscet suddenly began scratching in the dirt, something he took notice of, but didn't really comprehend until she had finished. She had written something in the dirt, it looked like- she could write?- and he leaned in to try to decipher the words. It was quite dark, even with the stars and moon, and she had rather messy handwriting, but eventually he made what he thought was four-letter words.
"Hero?" he puzzled aloud, glancing up at the female, who nodded vigorously. "Well, what does it mean?"
She began pointing at herself, hoping he would understand.
"You? What does..? Oh- your name? Is Hero your name?' the healer exclaimed.
The female nodded even more vigorously, an excited look in her eyes. Hero. An odd name for sure, though it wasn't any more odd than the viscet herself.
However, this was certainly a good turn- maybe he'd be able to get more information out of her this way. "Is there anything else you have to tell me? Anything important I should know?"
Unfortunately, she only shook her head. Back to square one, he supposed, other than now knowing her name. Maybe it was time he took her back to base, see if they could get anything else figured out there. It'd at least be safer.
"Hero, would you be okay with going back to base with me? There're plenty of other viscets there who I'm certain will want to help you. You can stay long as you need, free of charge, and you won't have to worry 'bout much. Is that alright?" he asked gently.
She seemed uncertain, pulling away slightly. The healer was certain that she was going to reject his offer despite the risky alternative when she nodded yes. A grin broke out on his face, though he made sure not to make sudden movements.
"Just let me grab those rags and we'll be on our way."
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Hero had been on base with part of the kingdom's army for upwards of a month now. She wasn't sure the exact number of days, but it had been more than enough to settle in. When she had first arrived, they'd offered her food, water, and some rest, which she had taken after some coaxing. In the morning, a few other viscets were around to examine her neck, and she quickly realized that they were all there to help her.
The thought was a bit relaxing, and she allowed them all to check her over, even if the results were always the same- rather baffled at what the medic had described to them vs what they saw. Hero was a mystery to everyone, including herself.
In the days she had been there, Hero hadn't remembered anything else other than her name. She tried hard, but it was all futile- if there was anything important in her brain, she couldn't find it. It was frustrating, and even terrifying at times to think she knew just as much about herself as anyone else.
Her time there had not all been in vain, though- about a week in she decided to join their army. The commanding officer at the base had agreed, and just like that, she joined someone else's war.
Hero wasn't exactly sure what had compelled her to join- maybe it was because she didn't have anywhere to go, maybe it was because she had already grown to know the viscets here during the past week, maybe it was because she was already subconsciously trying to reinvent herself, or maybe it was because she didn't want to join the rebels.
Although she knew not to just blindly trust one side without hearing out the other, it wasn't like any rebels were stepping forward to come tell their side of the story- the only rebels she had seen had either tried to attack or just flat out ran.
It wasn't exactly for no reason, though- by that time she already had the marks of their enemy. Everybody on this side wore some sort of red bandana or scrap of cloth so that they didn't attack their own comrades.
She had been given a bandana before even deciding to join, just in case she wanted to head outside of base for some reason. It was pretty old, a maroonish-colored thing, and complimented her armor quite nicely, if she did say so herself. Of course, she had already managed to tear it, and during her first battle no less- an opposing viscet had tried to tear into her and they had traded a few good blows.
He was way too close to slicing her arm for comfort, and Hero definitely appreciated the bandana more than ever. When she got back, Hero scrounged around for something to help fix the tear, not wanting it to worsen anytime soon.
The best she could do was a safety pin, though it served its purpose well and kept the torn fabric together. She wasn't about to let go of that bandana in the conceivable future if she could help it; perhaps it would become a lucky charm of sorts.
A good deal of the other soldiers had little things they considered to be lucky- an earring, an odd-shaped rock, even tufts of fur from other viscets. Hero hadn't been there long, but she figured it wouldn't hurt to have a little luck on her side.
Extra Facts;
Hero suffers from what's known as aphonia, which is pretty much a medical condition that is often caused by injury to certain areas in the throat. It prevents the vocal cords from working, and causes the victim to be unable to speak. There are also some cases where aphonia is caused by other means; it can be caused by fear, or as a result of other already having other psychological problems.
She also has a rather profound case of amnesia. Normally, amnesia either effects your ability to learn new things and make new memories after the event that caused the amnesia (anterograde) or memories around and during the event that caused the amnesia (retrograde). However, in this case, it's not so much a case of realistic amnesia so much as it is her memories were forcibly removed by someone.
Hero greatly prefers walking on all fours rather than standing on two legs like regular viscets. Nobody's really sure why, not even Hero, but ever since she woke up, her natural instinct has been to walk on all fours. After awhile, it's not really questioned any more, as Hero's shown no interest in trying to break the habit. During battle, she can stay lower to the ground to fight, and can quickly rear up and strike her opponents with her front feet. Her arms are much stronger than usual due to bearing her weight more often.
