They Just Like to See You Fall [Jenn] [FIN]

[Lucca]

Myth's eyes were wide as she looked up at her Mother-Doe. She'd never thought about that...well, actually she'd never thought much about her Mother at all, much to her slight chagrin. But then, it really wasn't the Doe's place to raise her children, was it? It was the place of other Leverets. "Perfect..." she managed a small smile. "I'd settle for just...better. For just...being useful." Her ears drooped a bit. She knew she was plain, especially compared to her Mother and sister. She had no aspirations of becoming a Doe. What Jack would ever want her? But that didn't bother her...she merely wanted to find her own place, and serve a Warren that could appreciate her as a good little Leveret.

Sighing, she leaned against her Mother, eyes closing, trusting Nayeli to lead her somewhere safe and warm that she could recover. Her bleeding had finally stopped, though it might be difficult to tell that due to what a mess she looked right then. "Thank you..." she muttered at the offer, forcing her paws to move when the Doe's did, steps halting but steady as they could be.

[The Jenn]

"You are useful, dear," the Doe soothed, worried how walking might aggravate the girl's cut. At least it seemed that there wasn't any fresh bleeding from her angle. The fact that the girl was so much smaller than her as a delicate Mid-Range female Leveret helped make it easier to guide her. She kept talking as a distraction in case her mind drifted back to thoughts of guilt. "Every Leveret with a willingness and the ability to serve their Jack is useful. You have both. I'm sure that Leon values how smoothly the warren runs with your assistance."

She may not have known anything about the girl's personality or much about her history of work around the warren, but platitudes were her specialty. She could say them with utter sincerity until she was blue in the face. Similar words and phrases came out as she led the girl through the halls until they reached her room. She reached up to catch the lever knob and pushed the door with her paw, leaning so that the Leveret would move with her. Dark eyes cast around for any older cloth that might make suitable temporary bedding. She kept her room very tidy, but there had to be something...

Those old curtains had needed mending for months now and she'd never gotten around to asking the Leverets about it. They would have to do. She retrieved one from a heap in the corner and pulled it close to the wobbling girl, nudging it into a more bed-like shape. "Here now. You settle yourself and I'll see about getting some hot water. No trouble, you just rest your head right here and relax. I'll be right back." Some gesture of comfort probably would have been appropriate, but the girl wasn't a baby anymore and it wasn't really... appropriate... for her show favor like that to anyone but her Jack.

She sighed and ducked out to find some cleaning supplies. That blood, she had to clean it up. She could do that much for the girl's peace of mind. Then she would get some hot water to carefully dab at the fur and clean her off. It brought her back to her younger years, in an odd sort of way.

[Lucca]

"Thank you," she mumbled again, weakly, at her Mother's comforting words, though part of her refused to believe it. Part of her was still screaming with guilt at just leaving that mess in the hallway for someone else to clean up. Or, worse yet, for some unsuspecting Doe to step in and get her pretty fur all dirty...she trembled slightly and took a deep breath, trying to focus on Nayeli's words instead. The little Leveret was silent for the rest of the trip, teetering on the edge of consciousness. There was a gnawing ache in her belly, too, which only helped her feel weaker. She had, after all, been on her way to take a meager lunch in her room when the...accident...had occurred.

With a sigh, she lay down on the blanket provided, curling up and closing her eyes. As soon as she was alone, her mind was again attacked by a savage guilt. Why was she letting a Doe, her mother or not, care for her like this? She should...well, whatever she should do, she didn't have the energy to do it right then. Before she felt the familiar warmth of blood on her back, she stopped it. After all, her mother was right...she was more use not passed out from blood loss. And she knew she was already close to that pitiful state.

[The Jenn]

Eli had forgotten the fact that there was food on the floor as well, so fixated on the blood she needed to clean up before it became a huge mess and somebody had a fit. It wasn't necessarily her problem, except that she had never thought to explain their realm properly to the daughter who shared it. She should have. She really should have.

The cleaning supplies felt odd in her paws, made as they were for Leverets. It had been so many years since she last scrubbed a floor, and yet she could remember the easiest way to move so that everything absorbed. How strange. It brought back memories she hadn't thought about in years.

It took her maybe half an hour to clean up. Leon was thankfully occupied in his studies and she only ran across one other Leveret, who assisted her in cleaning up the mess when she adamantly refused to leave. Not that she wouldn't have liked to stop, but she needed to do this. It would help dispel some of the faint guilt that floated around in the back of her mind.

When she finally finished, she had to think for a moment. What would the girl need? Warm water, a towel that could be thrown away, something to restore her strength... maybe they had some fresh spinach in the larder? She went to ask, found she was in luck, and had the same Leveret who'd assisted her wheel a tray into her room. Peeking her head in, she turned and thanked the Lev in a way that very clearly dismissed her. No, she didn't need one of them seeing Kameli before she cleaned the child up.

[Lucca]

Myth had been dancing around the edge of unconciousness while her mother had been out, sometimes dozing, sometimes awake, always with a heavy cloud of guilt and anxiety and exhuastion hanging over her. She longed to be back in her own little room, the tiny bit of space she could call her own and the only place she ever felt truly at peace. Would her Father-Jack trade her away if he heard about this? Would he be angry? Would she be locked up? She had no idea...

When Nayeli returned, the little Leveret was lying curled up, in about the same position she'd been left, breathing shallowly, eyes closed. The blood on her back all dry and crusty by now, making her fur look like an even worse mess than before. At the smell of food, her little nose twitched, and she blinked open hazy eyes, smiling weakly when she saw who it was.

"Hello again...Mother..." She coughed, mouth very dry, and struggled to at least sit up slightly. She was going to help with whatever needed to be done, dizziness or not.

[The Jenn]

"Hello, dear," Eli replied absently, dark eyes taking in the mess all over the girl and wondering where to begin. The bleeding had stopped... that had been one of her biggest worries, that the young Leveret would keep bleeding herself out this whole time. That would have probably been fatal at this point.

She hopped over with the spinach and put it very close to the small mouth, nudging it with her paws and arranging it in a small pile. "Here you are. Eat up, this is all for you. A special little snack to make you feel better... oh dear. Oh dear... you just eat up and don't mind me." She moved back to the small cart and carefully maneuvered a rag into the warm water, dipping and tugging and pulling until it had wrung itself out somewhat. Then she carried it back over and began to slowly run it over the girl's fur. It would be a combination of warm cleaning and, hopefully, comforting grooming. The child seemed dizzy enough.

[Lucca]

Myth was determined to at least sit up a little more to eat, and she managed to struggle into that position after several agonizing moments. Her eyes flashed with an inner ferocity that belied her meek demeanor, but she gave a weak smile. "Th-thank you, Mother." She began to nibble the leaves, savoring the juices as they filled her parched mouth, and waiting for her strength to slowly return. Spinach had never been one of her favorite greens, as the dark leaves were rather a little bitter for her tastes, but right now they tasted absolutely heavenly. Maybe she had been pushing herself a bit too much lately...the words from earlier kept running through her mind, a mantra to get back up, try again, and not bleed herself into unconsciousness for every mistake.

She churred lightly in the Rabbit version of purring at the warm, comfortable sensation on her back, knowing her gray fur would soon be clean. Well, as clean as it ever was. There was a permanent pinkish taint to the fur near her cuts that she would probably never be rid of, with how much she bled herself. After her mind caught up to the sensation, however, her eyes widened in alarm. "Mother, oh Mother, I appreciate very much that you are doing this for me, but should not one of the other Leverets tend to that instead? I don't want your paws to get dirty..." Oh, how her Father would be angry then, if she was responsible for something like that! She could imagine it very well, though she had rarely even ever met her Father, just seen his striding through the Warren or barking orders at the Leverets, tall and dignified and intimidating.

[The Jenn]

Good, the girl was eating with a healthy enough appetite to satisfy Eli. She would recover from this just fine, especially if she ate a few more meals of the leaves that helped restore blood and she was put on light duty for several days to recover. She would mention that to the head Leveret.

The grooming was a mindless, numbing sort of motion, over and over again on the soft fur. She would need to clean the rag soon.

When her daughter finally seemed to take note of the nature of the grooming, the Doe sighed and put down the rag for a moment. No need to stress the little thing so soon. "From one Mid-Ranger to another, this is a personal matter. I won't be taking responsibility every time you bleed yourself, but at least this once, I played a part in never talking to you about our... nature. You handle your own guilt and let me work out mine."

That came out more blunt than she intended and she flushed uncomfortably, some part of her wanting to clarify or qualify or add to that statement. In the end, she just hopped back to the bowl and swished the bloody rag in the water for a while before it was clean enough to resume grooming.

[Lucca]

Myth's eyes widened as her mother took a tone with her she would never have expected from her previous, rather meek demeanor, and her ears went back. Whatever else her reaction might have meant, she was certainly sufficiently cowed by the reprimand to not object again when her Mother Doe went to dip the rag into the basin. She lay there quietly for a moment, trying to get her thoughts in order enough to reply. Her eyes misted over a bit as she continued to munch on the spinach, already feeling somewhat stronger already between that and the warm water bathing her fur. One might suspect she'd lost the thread of the conversation entirely, or was too shocked to even say anything, but she finally broke the silence.

"I understand. Thank you, Mother, for...for looking out for me and telling me all this. What you said earlier...it makes a lot of sense. I'll always remember it from now on." She turned her head to give Nayeli a hesitant smile, trying to see clean her back looked, too. Now that she was regaining her energy, she was eager to return to her own little cubby hole, to think and dream and continue resting until tomorrow, when she would start a day of work with a new, better philosophy. Her sense of honor and duty was stronger than ever thanks to her Mother's life lesson, and she had never been more grateful than she had at that moment for the Doe that had given her life, and now had helped her keep it.

[The Jenn]

The girl's quiet submission to her grooming satisfed Eli, who stroked the cloth over and over against gray fur until it gleamed wetly rather than with the dull residue of dried blood. Moving the cloth in the water had also served to dispell her own faint bleeding, which had stopped very quickly. She didn't often have cause to feel guilty, doing everything in her power to avoid it, and the fur around her cuts remained a clean gray. It was unfortunate that the girl had already stained hers... probably for life.

"That's good, dear. It's good advice. I'm sure that Leon will approve." He certainly approved of her and it was the philosophy that she followed, so it only made sense for their daughter to emulate it in order to please the Jack.

She gave the girl's paws and ears a brief going-over to remove any residue of food or blood before putting the rag in the bowl for good and drying her paws on a towel, which she then tossed over the girl with a quick move of her neck. It was messy, but it worked. "When you feel strong enough, take that with you back to your burrow. You don't want to catch a chill while you're drying. Also, I'm going to tell the Leverets to give you light duty until you heal. It does no one any good if you collapse from blood loss. Take care of yourself and your Jack and everything else will take care of itself."

With that, she hopped out of the room to go and find a Leveret. They could remove the tray, clean up the pink-tinged water, and see about a modified schedule to accommodate the girl's weakness for a few days.

((OOC: I think this was Eli's last post in the thread. Is that alright? ^_^))