#(!!! aaaa i’m glad u like meredith!! she is fun to write and i appreciate her a whole bunch as well)

[hearthtales]

A question. “Hm?” It took a moment for the selkie to process his words, her worries still muddled together. “Oh, um…” Tesni flipped her hands over to see her palms. The rocks had left raw patches and shallow scrapes, but the bleeding had thankfully ceased. “It’s stopped,” she reported to Ithadel. Seeing Delwyn purring on his lap, amusement glimmered in her dark eyes. “You’re trapped,” she hummed, smiling.

Meredith had filled a bowl with water and fetched a few wash-clothes. She carried them over to Tesni, careful to keep water from sloshing onto the floor, and set the bowl next to the first aid kit. “Right, then. Let’s— oh, I forgot—” Megan hurried to her side, carrying a kitchen chair. Meredith gave her a grateful smile. “Just what I needed. Thank you, love.” Megan nodded before she returned to the kitchen.

Meredith sat beside Tesni’s chair, gently took the bloodied socks and set them aside, and cradled the girl’s hands with her own calloused ones. She winced in sympathy as she inspected them. “Ah, you had a proper tumble, didn’t you? Poor dear.” Magic quietly sank into Tesni’s hands, seeking out hidden injuries or breaks and finding none. “Nothing too serious, thank goodness. We’ll give them a clean and some bandages, and they’ll be right as rain soon enough.”

With practiced ease and tenderness, the lightkeeper cleaned Tesni’s hands and picked out any stubborn bits of debris with tweezers. She hummed as she worked, a soft melody somehow reminiscent of gentle waves washing upon a shore at dusk. Tesni stayed quiet throughout the process, lost in thought, only flinching when thunder rumbled outside again.

The kettle whistled from the kitchen. Shortly afterward, Megan set a mug of tea on the table beside Tesni, then offered another mug to Ithadel. A soothing smell of herbs infused the steam that rose from it. “How d’you like Llewellyn so far?” Megan asked Ithadel. “Since you just moved here.”

“...ah. Hello.” Ithadel blinked down at the cat. He was happier than he’d like to admit with Delwyn’s return, but the timing was once again entirely unfair. 

And there was… something odd about it, too, about Meredith’s confident nod and the cat’s decisive response. But Meredith recaptured his attention before he could think about it too deeply. He frowned, reluctantly settling back into the chair at her urging.

“No, no, not tonight, I just… I’d lost track.” Ithadel cautiously returned to petting Delwyn as he pulled at his sluggish memory. What time had he left the clinic? …possibly several hours ago, but he hadn’t been keeping close track even then. He’d… spent most of the day alternating between setting up equipment, organizing supplies, and reviewing what few applications he’d received for the receptionist position. Afterwards, the brisk breeze and some time spent exploring the town and its outskirts had seemed more tolerable than making his way back to his empty home. 

Then instead of keeping active he’d gotten to the beach and stopped.

Ithadel sighed, withdrawing from petting the cat in favor of massaging the bridge of his nose. Foolish. And he was certainly reaping the consequences now. As some semblance of sensation slowly returned to his hand, the sick ache deep in his forearm was now being joined by pins and needles with a rather sharper emphasis on the needles than the normal case. He needed a distraction or privacy, and he wasn’t going to get the latter any time soon. 

Ithadel let his hand fall and squinted at Tesni. She looked troubled. “How’s the bleeding?” he asked softly. The rainwater might be to blame for how messy her palms had seemed, but if they were still bleeding significantly now then the poor girl had received something worse than just some shallow abrasions.