© 2002-2024 Roleplay by Rochelle, Ruth, and Heidi
Part 4

**Only for a while,** Wren locksent in reply to the eldest elder. **He'll be safe enough here as he sleeps, and I am still needed outside with the others.**

"Be safe," she stated aloud to Snapjaw, but her eyes hadn't moved from Darkrider's form. He didn't need to say anything to confirm her suspicions. The look in his eyes and written on his face told her what she needed to know.

Darkrider's silence was momentarily infectious as the complications of such a kept secret piled up in Wren's mind. Naturally, she thought first of Tobin, who over the past hand of days had nearly burnt himself out mending the broken bodies of those who had fallen victim to beast or to shifting ground. Naturally, she was angry.

Albeit, it wasn't the first time an elf had kept such a secret. Two elves in this tree had something they felt they needed to hide. Whether either secret was justified, she didn't know. But why would someone want to keep the gift of healing hidden, especially if it meant taking at least part of the burden off of his own charge?

**What were you doing when Tobin nearly collapsed trying to make the rest of us whole?**

****

**What's wrong elder?** Darkrider sent before Snapjaw could depart.. **Don't feel like telling Wren about how you knocked him out by force?** Darkrider's send was cold, no hate or even much emotion to it. The closest assignment of passion that could be given to his send might have been revenge, but not in the venomous sense. More like 'did you think I was going to omit that for your sake?'.

****

Snapjaw grit his teeth at Darkrider's challenging sending. Time to take what Darkrider seemed to think was a weapon away from him. **Wildlight would not listen to me, either, though he was ready to pass out on his feet,** Snapjaw sent briskly to both of them, though he turned toward Wren, who was still perched beside her sleeping brother. **So I helped him pass out. I put him to sleep with a chokehold.** His murky-green eyes zeroed in on Darkrider again. "Happy, healer?" he snarled, using the title deliberately and hoping it stinged the elf's conscience.

****

Darkrider winced at them both making shots at him, and what little patience and sanity he had left was teetering and about to snap. "Yes I'm happy! I'd be a whole lot happier if you just knock all this off! You want me to HEAL!? Fine! Make me do what I hate the most, you act like I don't love Tobin with all of my being! He is ALL my world, I have never had the LUXURY of children! I am not heartless......" His breathing was labored from the rant as he backed away form them both, his mind racing. He could still see his parents sneering, his parents healing his wounds only to whisper in his hear: "No one hears you little one, and if they did there will be no wounds to prove anything... so don't scream and it will all be over soon..."

****

**Keep your voice down!** Snapjaw snapped at the ranting elf, with a pointed glance at Wildlight. Snapjaw didn't have much patience, and what little he had left was just about worn to half a thread. If the griffin-rider woke the sleeping chief, the elder just may put Darkrider in a chokehold, and not so gently this time. He expected the son of the tribe's old healer to have more sense.

Now that the old elf thought of it, Darkrider's aversion to his magic, what he claimed to "hate the most" with no rational explanation, was all the more odd, in light of his family. Snapjaw remembered the dark-skinned elf's parents as a quiet pair who tended to their oddly skittish son, the healer always fulfilling his duty to the tribe with his lifemate's unflagging support. **Your father's magic is wasted on you. You would do well to follow in his ways,** the elder sent.

****

**Wildlight was killing himself,** Wren finally sent to Snapjaw and Darkrider, interrupting them. What had happened had happened. No amount of arguing would change that. **And though I don't agree with the method, I am glad to see our chief in his den resting, where he should be, rather than killing himself doing tasks better suited for more able bodies to do.**

She paused, not taking her gaze off either of the males. **So I have both of you to thank for saving our chief's life.**

****

Snapjaw nodded in acknowledgment of Wren's gratitude as he eyed Darkrider with disapproval. He admired that Wren always seemed to keep her wits about her, though he suspected she didn't entirely approve of his methods. Wildlight could learn much from his rational sister, the elder thought.

****

**Let's take this elsewhere,** Wren said in agreement with the eldest elder. After another quick look at her brother, she rose, covered him with a sleeping fur that had been lying to the side, and headed toward the den's opening.

She paused when she neared the two males, casting a sideways glance at the exasperated healer. **We all have things we loathe, responsibilities we hate. I have many. But curse the day when I hide behind another, especially a cub, and make them wear themselves into exhaustion just so I can avoid the task. There is no excuse for causing such suffering.**

With that, she hoisted herself out of the den and made her way to the soggy ground below to wait for the two others to descend.