• the time of freedom • [open]

[lio]

salum eyed ace, clicking her tongue. she flicked an ear, signalling for him to come closer, as she was still trying to breathe steadily. her eyes glinted and she lowly growled as blood seeped onto the ground, pain flaring up her legs. her chest heaved dangerously, nostrils widening greatly with every exhale. we made it, she thought. while she waited for ace, she reached a paw up and carefully began pulling out the glass, a hiss escaping her with every tiny movement. her tail flicked with pain,
pupils narrowed to barely visible slits.

[slappedpancake]

Ace crawled closer, confused. Why was Salum beckoning for him? His thoughts were interrupted by Ocelot. "You know, my humans used to work with injured animals, so if a wound gets infected, I'll know. Salum, you should be careful. That glass looks dirty."

[lio]

salum nodded, tensing up as the final piece of glass was pulled out from her paw. she turned to ace, scooting closer before tentatively pressing her nose to his tangled paw. "what happened?" she asked, voice raspy. the siamese heaved herself to her paws, puffing with the effort, and began grooming the blood from her one paw, careful to avoid the tinier shards she couldnt get. then, she turned to ocelot. "do you know anything about, like, herbs or something?"

[slappedpancake]

Ace winced. "A human grabbed my paw and stuck something into it. Now all I can feel is pain in it." Ace then looked to Ocelot, who hesitated. "Yes, actually. I met a cat who claimed they were wild, and told me what herbs to look for in certain situations. Usually I'd see cats - who my humans treated - again sometime after, but I never saw her again."

[lio]

salum paused. she spoke to ace first, saying, "rest it. we'll find a way to ease the pain as soon as possible." she looked to ocelot, expression curious. "oh? i'll have to look into that later. for now, do you think you could find some things to help us just long enough for a makeshift den, only for today, so we can all rest?" salum lay onto her side, curling around herself. "i'll be here picking more glass from my paws. ace, you rest," she ordered.

[slappedpancake]

Ocelot nodded, looking around where they were. There was a few box shapes in the shadows, and as he looked closer, he saw that they were made of something that looked paper-y and brown. He padded over to them, pawing them to test their durability. One of them fell over in a heap of whatever it was, while the other three seemed sturdy enough. Ocelot began contemplating how he was going to get these away from where they were now and to somewhere more safe. (There is a hanging metal pipe above them.)

Ace laid down, staring at his paw. His gaze then turned to Salum picking out the glass in their paw. Life was always dangerous for him, hanging around in the most public of places. Until he was taken into a monster by a human. Annd... dropped off at this cruel place. He shook the story from his head, beginning to lick his now numb paw. Like he couldn't feel it at all! Odd... He thought.

[lio]

salum whimpered as each sharp piece was tugged from her paws, yelping a couple of times. blood traced her muzzle, but luckily, the bleeding had slowed. once finished, she relaxed with a sigh, thinking back to her humans. why had they left her? she had tried to be the best pet they could ever have! her ears flattened as a somber mood washed over her, suddenly growing exhausted by the day's events; yet it was only sunhigh. salum smacked her chopps, belly growling, but ignored it in favor of focusing on ace. "how's your paw?" she asked.

[slappedpancake]

"I can't feel it," Ace replied. "It's numb." He continued licking it, trying to get some feeling. There was still none. Maybe some sleep will help, he thought, straining his neck to look for Ocelot. Ace saw him dragging a large, brown, and box-shaped thing across the dirty ground.

[lio]

[ ayy here's salum's character page document ]

salum, confused, reached over to nudge ace's paw. when no reaction came, she gently bit it, not wanting to injure it more, but wanting to test a theory. "did you feel that?" she asked, blue eyes glancing towards ocelot before twitching back to ace. her expression held concern for her new friend, and hatred for the humans that had trapped them. sides rising and lowering slowly, the siamese attempted to stay calm in the moment of need.

[slappedpancake]

"No.." Ace said, his ears twitching nervously. "Uhh... Do you think we could get Ocelot to look at it?" His gaze shifted once more to his friend, who was already walking over. Ocelot sat down, licking his chest fur.