After making the best of the night in the clan-lodge she could – and being glad of the rain that had kept her there, for all it made their upcoming trip less pleasant, since it was what helped her sleep – Hildegund rose at the first hint of light coming past the clouds.
Fang accompanied her, not quite touching her, but clearly concerned over how she was feeling. She found food downstairs for him, and had a little for herself. Her nervousness over the upcoming need to deal with a whole town at once – or rather, the assault upon her senses from one – had her stomach tied up in too many knots for a proper meal.
After, she peered out, and judged the angle of the rain. From that, she determined she could go out to the side porch – which might not have been intended for such – which would be sheltered enough, but allow her to get accustomed to the sounds of the day, and the wetter air than inside. That helped how her clothing felt against her skin, as she'd expected, and calming herself had its desired effect on Fang as well.
The patter of the rain was louder than she'd like, and kept changing, but it had its own almost-rhythm, and helped deaden some other noises, besides keeping some birds and animals quieter. The scent of damp earth was strong to her, but again, it helped mask others. She marked that, too, and concentrated on accepting it as normal. The wind, fortunately, was mild and steady. The compromise with how clothing felt against her skin and yet needing to have it meant that she felt it against her knees from time to time, as well as on her arms, but the rain would even hide most of that when they walked. Of course, it was a colder rain than she'd like, but walking with the aid of a staff – even though it was her spear – was harder than normal walking. She'd probably be warm enough.
It wasn't all that long, really, before the Hound-Friend came outside looking for her. Even in her mind, she almost never used her clan-mates' names. If she had to address one, it might take her long enough to put words together properly from the non-linear maelstrom of her thoughts that someone who shouldn't hear a name spoken might be able to, even if she'd started the process when it was safe. Thus, to keep from making that mistake, even in her thoughts she kept to their use-names.
Still, there the man was, eating on a peeled, hard-boiled egg, and trailed by Hundr, the near-pup. She hobbled down to join him. A bit of chat about the weather, mostly to be sure she was actually ready to go, and they started off. He was having her lead at first, presumably to make it easier to keep to her slower pace. He'd told her earlier, though, that Fang might need her to go slower, so she stopped to check on her hound – and found him wondering why she'd stopped and what was wrong with her, sniffing to see if she was bleeding again.
She'd wondered before about his sudden concern for his 'old bones', when he'd not seemed to be so slow in answering knocks at their door, or going to check on the hounds. Now she was even more sure that he was just trying to make her feel more at ease about her pace. But why? She knew she was slow. It was just a fact, and not nearly so frustrating of one as the ones affecting how different she was from other people. Still, it was not a mystery she was going to solve by just wondering at it, and she needed to keep focussed on their journey, lest she be too wound up to deal with the town when they reached it.
When they detoured around Combe, she needed one of those rests he was taking after all. The smells and sounds were overloading her. She needed to adjust her breathing, and make another attempt to figure out which smells and noises were 'normal', and which were significant. After several minutes, she managed to get her handling of it all under control enough to proceed.
Once she was able to cope and started moving again, he led her through the town gate and a bit of what had to be a 'street', and it opened out into a market area with a fountain. Of course, he had to explain to her that it was a market area, but the hounds got water, and the water's noise helped her focus and cope with the town. Its smells were not so bad as Combe's had been, which surprised her. But then, Combe had more tanneries, or at least more that announced themselves to her nose.
He led on, up the hill, toward the tavern where they should expect to find this healer-woman. But as they neared it, the smells from it, and its surroundings, and noisier people… she stopped at its little fountain and shook with the effort to keep herself under control. Fortunately, Hound-Friend saw it, and offered to go inside to see if the woman would come out. She nodded her fervent agreement, even as she felt bad about wanting the woman to have to come into the rain for her.
She struggled with her overloaded senses as she waited, and was finally almost as normal again as she ever got, when Heriwulf returned with the woman, whose name he'd already given her as Leohna. At least the woman didn't seem bothered by being out in the rain. That was a relief.
They discussed briefly where was a good place to examine her wounds. Well, she didn't really want to pull her skirt up out in the open, it was true. The woman said something about a Scholar's Stair, though, which made her nervous about the effort to climb such. But if that was where her home was, and she was offering that for privacy – and she was – then Hildegund felt obliged to accept, and try to hide any discomfort.
Discussion transpired as they walked, including saying that they wouldn't have to climb the stairs. The woman's home was somehow under them, which confused her until she saw it, and it simply became a landmark to remember. The discussion included the length of their journey, and how it was colder back home, and where 'home' was. Of course, with all the thoughts and sensations she was trying to manage, her own contribution was very short, and even then barely timely. "Miss the snow."
When they got to the woman's home, she took Hound-Friend up on his offer to stay outside, giving her the privacy she'd want – and, more importantly to her, to keep Fang with him. The hound would not understand the healer needing to hurt her in order to help her, and it was best not to have to keep him under control, too. She'd had long enough on their walk to think that through, and was pretty sure her words were clearly understood.
She made her way inside, and explained her delay, and then had to try to explain that Fang was a guard-hound, and thus why he was outside, since the woman was otherwise happy to have the hounds indoors. This was a good sign, otherwise, but it did fluster her. Her ability to explain things was not what anyone would wish.
She was offered some choices about where to wait, and whether to sit. She had no idea what to expect, so asked Leohna for her suggestion, and got settled by the fire to start drying off.
The healer began by asking her things, especially to explain what had happened, and didn't move to touch her or even look too closely. Hildegund appreciated the thought, though trying to string so many words together was not at all easy, no matter how comforting the woman was being. It helped greatly that her house was clean, smelling mostly of her herbs, and was well-built, blocking out most of the noises from outside. It was so much better than the street had been, and much better than the tavern had threatened.
The explanation of fighting off the wolves showed up more differences in their backgrounds. Even as Leohna started to examine the wounds, always asking permission for the touching, she explained how she was no sort of warrior at all. Not that Hildegund really thought of herself as one, but in comparison, she could see it, and did not disagree. Besides, there was too much information coming to keep up with. She could sort of work out what it meant to be a 'performer', though not how there would be what sounded like a whole clan of them. She had no idea what an 'acrobat' was, but that didn't seem to be important enough to fight the way her thoughts worked to ask.
The discussion of her brother's pet pig, though, brought her up short when she realised she'd been so affronted at the notion of its lack of training that she'd actually said something. Fortunately, the woman agreed with her, at least out loud, and didn't seem offended. That raised other questions in her mind, though, and finally she had to ask about the one part of the story involving the end of the pig after it had been sold to the bearded lady. "Why you bite her?"
Ah, there had been a promise of keeping the pig as a pet, and the woman had killed it and eaten it instead. She took broken promises seriously. And this story was apparently about childhood, when reacting by biting someone was much more likely even for someone more normal than herself. This she understood. She eventually found the words to say that she would probably have done the same.
In the meanwhile, interwoven with the other discussion, her wound did get treated, and she was told the poultice was made from turmeric, honey, and onion – which certainly explained its smell – and it was arranged to send some with her, since it was a fair trip to come back too often. She even got given more bandages for changing the dressing each day, a need which embarrassed her, but she was about to have to start destroying the few clothes she owned otherwise, so she accepted gratefully.
Once the dressing was changed and she was re-bandaged, Leohna let in Hound-Friend and their hounds, and apparently someone else had been waiting for her, too? Or perhaps had been talking with Heriwulf? Anyway, this new person had a hound and an owl, and seemed to be called Aranoll. Hildegund made sure her skirt was covering her again, even while letting Fang sniff her to be sure she was all right – and to discover the new scents from the poultice.
Much more talking, most of which she ignored, though explaining that yes, she could take care of using the poultice herself, especially with the new bandages, that had to happen. And thanking the healer for her kindness. Leave got taken, and they exited, leaving the new man to talk with the healer.
As they left, she wasn't sure whether Hound-Friend's apparent disorientation was real, or just another way to let her take the lead, and set the pace, but take it she did. Buildings were not trees, but like trees, neither were they all the same even when they almost looked it, and blocked the light. She knew her way back. There was some discussion in the winding back street, but past the market square she couldn't really concentrate on speech. She didn't even wait when her friend stopped, but kept going until she was out in clear fields well out of town.
She caught her breath some, then, and finally responded to some of the comments about wolves. They talked more on that, and on boar-hunting, and hounds, and the missing Snow-Hair, all while progressing homeward, finally reaching the lodge-house. She asked after food there, because the use of her spear to walk was tiring.
Hound-Friend held the door for her, agreeing to find something for them to eat, and she agreed not to notice any mess he made, if he did, so she wouldn't have to admit anything to Nightingale. They ate, and discussed more about the wizard's question regarding going back to the Vales. This upset her, or rather what might transpire did, though she was calm enough in the lodge she didn't think she showed it. She could deal with hounds, but not with people. If he left, she didn't think she could take over for what he did. And yet, her leg showed that she was getting older and slower, and couldn't hunt to so well any more, either. Not like she used to.
She worried on it more even after they parted for the evening. There really wasn't anything back in the Vales for her, but was there really, here, either? Home-Wright was Hound-Friend's sister. If he left, would she? And he was really her only sure friend – or was he? She'd been surprised by the trappers, earlier, after all, claiming her as a friend. People confused her. Maybe she was just that bad at seeing friends? She didn't think she could really just survive on her own, as a lone presence in the woods, but that was where her thoughts were threatening to lead her.
After letting Fang clean out her bowl, she took him home, and tried not to let her thoughts show enough to disturb him as they slept.
