The Undecided

[Dannflower Reguba]

       Interesting, the rat was totally calm now, and had no reaction to the contact what so ever, "Nerve damage might be a bigger issue then I thought, Rowan sure hit that one on the head without a doubt.... But the length of his arms.... isn't the same?" Raleigh's fears were confirmed, Twisty's paw was a result of a birth defect in the bone that caused it to grow slightly longer than the other. As a matter of fact, closer inspection suggested that it might simply be the end of the radius that stuck out towards the wrist... Add the fact that there was little to no muscle in the area, and there was definitely hope. Now came the fun part, finding the abnormality. With her current theory, the scaphoid was most likely stuck under the radius due to overgrowth. The effect of the defect would've shown up about two to three years after birth, so he naturally curled the rest of his paw and fingers to protect his wrist from pain. Growing up like this would have forced his hand into habitual protection, only strengthening the muscles that held it in place until the bone itself held the wrist still.

       The squirrelmaid considered searching through the mushrooms, but decided that she would rely upon the lack of feeling in Twisty's paw. She slowly released the pressure on top, lifted the rat's forearm slightly, and got both of her thumbs under his wrist with the hands firmly grasping his.... kinda stinky, arm. Raleigh never once sacrificed eye contact, starting to push against the scaphoid from below. As she began the search process, she tried to engage her patient to take his mind away from the ensuing discomfort, "So, your paw's been like this ever since you could remember correct?" She half snorted as she came to a rather abrupt realization that Twisty didn't appear to have full control over his expression, "Goodness, are some signal's getting lost between your brain and your nose?" She rolled her eyes as a giggle bubbled under almost closed lips. It was a mere second later that she found exactly what her hands were searching for. The still air was ripped apart by a scraping snap like sound as the twisted paw became.... significantly less twisted. It did not stop there however, as the scaphoid traveled the entire front of the radius until it came to rest on the top. The pain of the bone scraping bone was likely excruciating, but the entire event took place in the blink of an eye. A singular branch of the nerves on the left side of his paw had been pulled taught all these years, which is why he would still feel pain in the event that it was twisted. With relief to the taught nerve, coupled with his unfeeling branches, his entire hand should feel a bit more comfortable in a couple of minutes. She did pull her right hand back in case Twisty's finger muscles weren't developed enough to reverse contraction, watching to see if they uncurled and pointed up.

OOC: Feel free to PP Raleigh a slight bit, I don't know what kind reaction you'll have in mind, but but it'll probably be easier if you control her hands as well if need be.... Also, this anatomy research is going to be the death of me.... And while I'm at it, Valerian is supposed to smell sweet.

[Ashleg]

"Nothin's gettin' lost," Twisty commented, and that was his last flighting moment of stability in the current situation.

The rat jerked in his chair, screaming murder, while Raleigh corrected his bones.
He writhed and kicked and felt pale, shutting his eyes--and with a painful 'pop', his paw did uncurl.
But Twisty was too caught up in the feeling to know when it was over.
The vermin wailed, tears staining his fur.
"Aaaaarrrrggh! Did you cut it off?! You cut it off!"

OOC-
I didn't really know what to do with Raleigh because I (cough) haven't done any research myself. This is why I'm a funny rat and not a healer. ;0

[Dannflower Reguba]

       Raleigh hardly even blinked as Twisty finally responded to her probing. Thankfully, his fingers all straightened out and tightened up, albeit, rather weakly. She finally had full confirmation, and was already formulating a remedy in her mind. However, her patient was currently being hysterical, "Twisty! Your paw is intact!" She reached forward and grabbed his shoulders, bracing his neck with her thumb and a spare finger. Pushing down and out to try and straighten the rat's body she spoke again, "Gracious me, you're acting worse than the dibbuns! Calm yourself, we're making progress." The squirrel didn't wait this time as she'd finished planning and wanted to try and get this matter out of the way before the problems at the gate caught up to the rest of Abbey life, "Brother Quincy, would you be so kind as to find and send sister Cestra up here? And prepare a small furnace, stitches are messy, and I'm going to put Twisty out for the operation anyway, so we'll cauterize this time around." When it came time to operate, Raleigh always got serious. She could finish the rest of the preparations herself, now it was just a matter of waiting for the infirmary hands.

[The Skarzs]

  Dozens of Redwallers watched as Hacklaw came even closer. After for what seemed like forever, he and his force stood boldly in front of the abbey, looking up at them.
  Darrin shrank away from the wall slightly so he would not be recognized.
  "So this is Redwall, eh?" said Hacklaw, looking from side to side at the broad walls. "Pretty nice place."
  "What do you want?" called down Elijah.
  Hacklaw grinned. "Depends on what you got!"
  "Get to the point, vermin!" said one of the creatures on the wall.
  The stoat look to where the voice had come from. "Yer a cocky one, aren'tcha? Alright, I'll tell ya what we want, but you ought to think twice before talkin' like that t' a beast like me." He raised his voice further. "I know ye got that loose-pawed Darrin in there. Give 'im 'ere!"
  "And if we don't?" asked Elijah.
  "Well then, yer softer than I thought." Snickers ran through the horde behind Hacklaw.
  Abbot Gerard's head popped over the wall. "What would you do to them?"
  "Nothin' you need to worry yer liddle heads about."
  "We aren't going to give you creatures to slaughter," said Gerard.
  "Then I hope you like sieges, cuz we're not leavin' till you do!" With that, he turned around and shouted to his army. "Move!"

[Ashleg]

OOC-

Sim a racist! ran through the horde behind Hacklaw.

Wat.
IC-
Rangi the otter was vaulting the steps to the battlements when he caught drift of the warlord's last threat.
He rolled his brown-furred shoulders as he tip-pawed across the sandstone and up to the Abbot and Elijah, a worried look on his face.
"Sounds like I missed a lot."

[The Skarzs]

OOC: Woah. Didn't think of that triggering the sensor. "Snickering" can also be as "snig-ger-ing."

BIC: Elijah looked at Rangi and set his jaw. "Need a summary?"
  Darrin sat down on the wall, letting his feet hang down as he thought. He wasn't sure what to do. If he snuck out of the abbey, he might get caught. If he stayed in, they wold either turn him over to the stoat or Hacklaw would get in and kill him.

[Ashleg]

OOC-
Jaaaaaaaames! That word (snicker:synonym) is a staple of Redwall feeling, let it through the censor!
IC-
"Please do," said Rangi as he squinted down the wall.
"On Martin's grave, isn't that a lot of vermin to reckon with. Would you say we're still safe here?"

[The Skarzs]

  "This place has withstood the test of time against countless enemies," said Gerard, folding his paws within his sleeves and looking at the horde. "We will hold out for a time."
   Darrin rose and went to Elijah and the Abbot. "Hacklaw ain't dumb," Darrin said. "If he really wants t' get in, I think he'll find a way." He was silent for a moment. "Whaddya wanna do with us?"
  Gerard pursed his lips as he thought. Then, he spread his paws. "The danger is here, and we cannot turn you in just to die. The decision is yours."
  The mouse walked away, nodding to Elijah. "The safety of the abbey is in your paws, Warrior. I know you will be more competent than I in the days ahead."
  Elijah turned to Rangi. "Hacklaw wants Darrin and his vermin, probably to kill them. And he's going to hold siege here until we give them to him."

[Ashleg]

Rangi had always been one to speak his more...unpopular...opinions.
"Well, then, why don't you give them to him?" he countered, thumping his paws against the stone. "They are just more vermin that will eventually cause a problem to goodbeasts that just want to travel through Mossflower Woods. No matter how much we've dealt with in the past."
He knew the Abbot would shoot him down, but it was worth a shot.

[The Skarzs]

  The Abbot had not heard Rangi as he walked away, so Elijah addressed the younger otter himself.
  "Vermin or not, do you want their deaths on your paws?" He looked at Darrin, who he knew was listening. "Regardless of our opinions, Abbot Gerard is leaving the decision to them, not us."

[Cornflower MM]

Rowan stomped away from the Infirmary, grumbling to herself the whole time about know-it-all squirrels and how no one took her seriously. She went up the stairs to the attics, and sat in the corner of the hallway with her tray. She heaped a scone with cream and took a big bite with a sigh. "Comfort eating. Not ever a good sign." She told herself, taking another bite then putting it back on the tray. Rowan pulled her knees up to her chest and started thinking. It hadn't really been a good idea to speak her mind at that point in time, but Raleigh was just so infuriating. Everyone loved her, but there was just something irritating about the way she spoke to Rowan, like she was the older one. Rowan had spent every night that she wasn't attending to her duties in bed with old Infirmary Sisters journals and such, to learn all she could. But it all seemed to come so easily to Raleigh. Rowan sighed, and picked up her scone again.

[Ashleg]

Rangi snorted and waved Elijah away.
"Right, right. I don't want to question Abbot Gerard." He leaned forward on the battlements, propping himself up with his elbows, and sighed.
"Just don't think I'm going to stay here and die for them."

--

"P-put me out?!" Twisty had calmed down for a short second, but then Raleigh had went and said that. The brown rat had definitely underestimated how much would actually go into this procedure.
"That's, ah, are y'sure you actually 'ave'ta do that?"

[Dannflower Reguba]

       Raleigh spoke through a chuckle as she rummaged around for a particular mushroom, "But of course silly, you don't want to be awake when we open up that wrist." Her gaze quickly swept over Twisty to see if his consciousness would change at all upon hearing this detail. She bustled about the room, getting a couple of clean scalpels, washing a handful of pins and needles, and covering the tray with a few small rolls of clean bandaging so that her patient wouldn't black out at the sight of the tools. Organization was the final step to her preparation, and was promptly completed within the span of a single hummed tuned. Raleigh returned to sit in front of Twisty again, still stirring in the mushroom extract from before, "You needn't worry so much about all this, really. You'll be asleep during the entire operation, and the problem itself is actually very simple. You'll likely have more issues trying to catch those paw muscles up to your other paw."

[The Skarzs]

  Darrin overheard the other's remark and walked away in a huff. "Ain't nobody dyin' fer us," he mumbled quietly. "Let's hope Hacklaw don't know what to do either."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
  Hacklaw sat on a log apart from the rest of the horde, holding a stick he had been drawing in the dirt with.
  "How d'ye crack an egg that hard, eh?" the stoat muttered. He tested the stick's strength. "Ye boil it. . . make the shell brittle. Or. . ." His eyes lit up, and he grinned wickedly. "Ya let it break outta it's own shell."

[Ashleg]

"Right. I trust yer." That did not stop Twisty from grinding his teeth and rocking in the chair, however.
It was Raleigh, he reminded himself. Raleigh would not let anything bad happen to him.
"So, that's fer me?" he asked, curling his lip in slight disgust as he eyed the mushroom drink. "Better not taste foul."