Now that Kieran had sat and had kicked off his shoe, Jude rounded the table and began to root through the drawers for - anything that might help. Not that bad, he said now, like he hadn't just shown up at the break of dawn in this sorry state, sounding more serious than he had ever done!
Jude scoffed in wordless dissent. There wasn't much he trusted himself to say in protest, in case it came out as trembling as his hands suddenly seemed to be. No sense in panicking, he told himself, as he lifted up various jars of medicinal pastes and creams to read whether they would be of any use. Kieran had gotten hurt, but he'd made it here, he was safe, it was over. There was nothing else to worry about.
So he waited intently for Kieran to finish his fractured sentence, pouring the last of the boiled water from the kettle into a bowl and setting a cloth to soak in it.
It's not working anymore.
Jude hastily carried everything back over to Kieran, where he sank to his knees again to treat the wound. He didn't reply in haste - didn't have an answer, an easy solution - but surely, he thought, talking about this could wait. Not long, not nearly long enough: the moon would be back out tonight. But a few moments more. One thing at a time.
Rolling up the bottom of Kieran's trouser leg to see it better again, he wrung out the warm cloth over the bowl and began washing off the worst of the dried blood. Biting his lip, he worked in careful circles around the wound, getting as close to the scarred area as he dared. No, Kieran was right, what he was doing wasn't working. They couldn't have this happen again.
"Alright," he agreed, eyes still on Kieran's ankle but nodding anyway. Perhaps the forest wasn't the best place to be, to begin with. For one, it was dangerous - out where someone might just happen to come across him - and maybe the setting made the creature more restless, being chained up. "Is this the first time?" Jude asked. "That it's happened?" He was utterly unaware if it weren't, though he wasn't sure he trusted Kieran not to have been battling against the werewolf trying to maim him for months already. But perhaps it had only been this time, perhaps something had provoked the creature to wrest more with its chains last night. Heard something, or seen something, maybe.
"Maybe something was different last night?" he wondered aloud. There had to be something to do. If the chains had worked all the rest, then Kieran maybe wouldn't have to create a new plan from scratch, maybe he'd be able to avoid what had happened this time. It would do no good to make this ankle worse, of course...
Jude scoffed in wordless dissent. There wasn't much he trusted himself to say in protest, in case it came out as trembling as his hands suddenly seemed to be. No sense in panicking, he told himself, as he lifted up various jars of medicinal pastes and creams to read whether they would be of any use. Kieran had gotten hurt, but he'd made it here, he was safe, it was over. There was nothing else to worry about.
So he waited intently for Kieran to finish his fractured sentence, pouring the last of the boiled water from the kettle into a bowl and setting a cloth to soak in it.
It's not working anymore.
Jude hastily carried everything back over to Kieran, where he sank to his knees again to treat the wound. He didn't reply in haste - didn't have an answer, an easy solution - but surely, he thought, talking about this could wait. Not long, not nearly long enough: the moon would be back out tonight. But a few moments more. One thing at a time.
Rolling up the bottom of Kieran's trouser leg to see it better again, he wrung out the warm cloth over the bowl and began washing off the worst of the dried blood. Biting his lip, he worked in careful circles around the wound, getting as close to the scarred area as he dared. No, Kieran was right, what he was doing wasn't working. They couldn't have this happen again.
"Alright," he agreed, eyes still on Kieran's ankle but nodding anyway. Perhaps the forest wasn't the best place to be, to begin with. For one, it was dangerous - out where someone might just happen to come across him - and maybe the setting made the creature more restless, being chained up. "Is this the first time?" Jude asked. "That it's happened?" He was utterly unaware if it weren't, though he wasn't sure he trusted Kieran not to have been battling against the werewolf trying to maim him for months already. But perhaps it had only been this time, perhaps something had provoked the creature to wrest more with its chains last night. Heard something, or seen something, maybe.
"Maybe something was different last night?" he wondered aloud. There had to be something to do. If the chains had worked all the rest, then Kieran maybe wouldn't have to create a new plan from scratch, maybe he'd be able to avoid what had happened this time. It would do no good to make this ankle worse, of course...
