Beruuna staggered into Ratchet, breathing heavily from her run, and startled two snoozing goblin bruisers.
They eyed her warily, but did not stop her from entering the town, it was open to everyone after all. She walked down the path into the town. It reeked. Trust goblins to make a mess of everything they owned. She stepped in something. She closed her eyes, took a deep breath and moved away from whatever the sticky mess was, and wiped her hoof on the grass.
She trudged up the hill to the inn, sighing as she entered. She would rather not spend the night in such a place, but without Amethyst, she didn't feel secure enough to camp out in the Barrens.
Beruuna gave the innkeeper some coins, he snatched them from her hands greedily, "Just fall in a bed, and be gone tomorrow or pay up."
She glanced distastefully at the woefully small and smelly beds towards the back of the inn, but sighed and carefully sat on one, trying her best not to break it. It was going to be a long night.
Beruuna awoke the next morning, an acrid stench in her nostrils and her back aching. She sat up, putting a three fingered hand to her striped snout, and blew an irritated breath out of her nostrils.
She pushed herself up off the bed and strode out of the inn, almost trampling the innkeeper, who shook his fist angrily at her and fired off a string of curses. Beruuna ignored him and began to munch on some dried meat and berries from her pack. She made her way back out of Ratchet, passing a human wearing so much armor, she couldn't fathom how he moved at all, and a blood elf wearing so little, she couldn't imagine how she hadn't wound up dead. Both of them gave her a disgusted look as she passed, but she ignored them.
She took a moment to disguise her scent before she carefully circled around the pride of lions and climbed up into the tree. She gazed down at the pride, looking fro Humar. He laid in the grass, flicking his tail mournfully as a few lionesses huddled around him, sniffing at his shoulder. He would growl and lash out at them if they prodded it, to which they responded with snarling, but eventually left him alone. Beruuna wasn't surprised to see he had ripped the bandages off, but the salve was very sticky and foul tasting. She hoped that had deterred him and the others form licking the arrow punctures.
Beruuna had a predicament on her hands. The wound needed to be redressed every so often if she wanted to be certain Humar made a full recovery, but she had no way of getting to him. Even if she could get the lionesses to leave, he would attack her if she drew to close.
She could make darts filled with the snake venom, but if the venom got into his system too many times, it was just a liable to kill him. She had few alternatives, however, and figured that once more shouldn't do to much harm. If she could restrain him and remove him from the pride, she could tend to his shoulder with the chances of her getting mauled greatly lessened.
It was unlikely the females would try to seek him out... but it would be likely that other males might move in and take over the pride. It still seemed her best option. If he healed well, he would no doubt be able to oust any males attempting to take his place. Beruuna worried for the cubs though, as new males might try to kill them. She saw very few, and if they were so few, perhaps the lionesses could defend them all. It would only be for a few days.
Darts would work better than traps, so she set to work crafting them, using materials from her pack. She made the one intended for Humar more potent, and a backup in case she missed, as she would have to transport him and really didn't fancy the idea of carrying a thrashing lion. She would also need rope, which was luckily something she always kept an abundance of in her pack.
The sun began to set as she finished up her darts and watched most of the pride set out to hunt. She hoped this was the last time she would have to use the darts on the lions, as each time she used them, the more compromised they became.
There were only four females left this time, making her job that much easier. From her perch in the tree she shot the darts at the lionesses, missing twice but quickly rectifying her mistake.
Of course, this had put Humar on alert, and he stood, snarling and trying to figure out why this kept happening. He moved slowly, gradually drawing closer to the tree. Beruuna prepared another dart, and loosed it on him.
It struck him between his shoulder blades. He staggered around and slowly slumped to the ground. Bramblehorn waited several minutes before descending from the tree. She readied her rope, binding his paws and mouth, being sure that the bonds were sufficient. She then moved to the lionesses and plucked the darts from their skin, trusting that the venom would allow her a few more minutes. She jogged back over to Humar, and lifted him up, carefully slinging him across her shoulders. He was heavy, but she could carry him, for a time at least.
Beruuna considered her options as she trudged through the tall savanna grass. Taking him back to Ratchet was not feasible, the goblin bruisers would kill him the moment he showed signs of aggression, and the open grassland was too riddled with dangers for her to feel comfortable setting up camp for an unprecedented amount of time. She looked upward at the horizon, and the hills lining it. Perfect. The only things that wandered the hills were plainstriders and the occasional raptor, and she was more than a match for one of the creatures, despite their cunning.
It took about half an hour for her to reach the hills, and when she did she gently laid Humar down under a tree, securing a harness around his chest, designing it in such a way that it would not strain his shoulder if he struggled, and secured him under said tree, before quickly removing the bandages from his wound.
Fortunately, the two puncture wounds did not seem to be infected, but they were deep enough to were they would require stitches. She put a palm to her face. This was not going to be easy. She couldn't stitch him up in the dark, and it was going to be a great challenge to stitch him up if he was awake, not to mention tremendously dangerous and painful for the both of them.
She re-bandaged the wounds and adjusted the ropes securing his legs so that he would be able to hobble around, and tied the rope around his front legs to the one around his back legs so he would hopefully be unable to lash out at her.
Beruuna scooted several feet away from him as he began to stir, and readied another dart, just in case the rope snapped.
The lion slowly came to his senses, blinking slowly, and trying to get to his feet, growling as his shoulder no doubt flared with pain. When he did manage to stand up, he snarled in outrage at his bindings, and made to bite at them, only to find his mouth was bound as well. He angrily lashed his tail, straining at his bonds, but the rope was the strongest stuff Beruuna could find, and nothing short of mammoth's struggling could snap it. An injured lion was hardly a match for the woven fibers. When he finally stopped trying to free himself, he noticed Beruuna.
He backed up, hissing and growling a warning, but Beruuna made no move toward him. When he realized she was not a threat, which took a good forty five minutes, he let out a snort and laid down, eyeing her warily. His ears were still flat against his head, and his lips pulled up into a snarl. Beruuna took the hint, and decided that it would be wise to not move at all.
And so the two sat, cautiously regarding one another. Beruuna did not wish to fall asleep and leave him defenseless if some creatures decided to prey upon them, so she laid her bow to the side and leaned back against the steep grassy hill behind her. What a mess she had gotten herself into. Perhaps while she awaited the dawn she would think of the solution to her little lion problem. It was, however, more likely she would think of Amethyst. It was going to be a long night.