She had been naive and hadn't taken the opportunity to evaluate herself. A gross overture. It was fortuitous she did not get Dagan or Sorcha killed. Io eventually made it to the route she took to find the kids, her gate smooth to keep from jarring Dagan or Sasha's wounds and agitating them further as she returned to the sanctuary of the forest.
Io passed by a slew of places along the way. Each was tempting for them to rest in, but there were no alternatives for bandages. Io figured she would just need to backtrack to where she had rinsed off at the stream. There she had seen a variety of broad-leaf grasses, so hopefully, some of them would be a decent substitute.
Was she mad at herself? Yes. They were lucky that she had gotten there in time, but it was her fault that she had scared the twins in the first place. The last time Dagan had been this injured had been the night that she brought him and Sorcha home.
Io felt a knot form in her stomach. She needed time to assess their new reality. Things here were different. Io didn't think that she needed to worry about humans, which was fine with her. However. She had not expected that would be creatures that would try to eat her siblings. Nothing in her previous world prepared her for this.
Aside from the new world issue, Io had to re-learn her capabilities. It had the sun had set and risen and was now setting for the second time. That all the time that they had been in this world. Io was good at surviving, but this threw her for a loop. It just wasn't possible to learn all the ins and outs of a body. Let alone one that was of a completely different species.
It was irksome that she couldn't control herself, especially when her instincts hijacked her rationality. Though admittedly, part of it was her fault. She was mistaken in the thought that her mind had healed more than it had from previous traumas, and her inattention had cost Dagan and Sorcha.
What concerned Io the most right now, though, was Dagan. Given the severity of his wounds, the boy would be lucky if she somehow got Sorcha to bandage the wounds well enough to do their job and not just wrap the boy up. As Io passed through the trees, she'd occasionally flick her tail around her, collecting a branch or two to keep Sorcha supplied with the makeshift bandages. It wasn't perfect because of the leaves burning, but Sorcha seemed unperturbed by the heat, and Dagan's shallow wounds were slowing down.
Once they reached the stream, Io gently lifted her sister and then brother off her back and settled them on its stony banks. While Sorcha held onto her brother, Io scoured the nearby area for anything that could be remotely useful.
What she discovered were strange-smelling juicy lumps when she broke open some head-sized hollow pods. With a slight push, Io split these pods. Not one to waste potential food, Io laboriously emptied the jelly-like substance into one half and filled the other with water. Once she'd finished the 3 halves, Io carefully wrapped her tail around two of them, grabbed the third with her mouth, and returned to Sorcha.
Sorcha sat on the stone banks, her hands keeping pressure on a grizzly wound on Dagan's back. Io could feel a growl forming at the sight of the wound as she drizzled the water onto Dagan's wounds. As soon as the liquid touched the wounds, a blast of steam hit their faces. Dagan grimaced, but his blood cooled down and formed crusts. Sorcha and Io left the crusts alone and just wrap them. Between the crust and the bandages, that would be enough. Once Io finished pouring water all over Dagan, his skin was more crust than not.
Where Dagan had scales, dents could be seen, but they had done their job in protecting vital and vulnerable areas. Io made waded through the waters to where the two-meter tall plants grew and grabbed a mouthful of stalks that were attached to the grass. The stalk itself was nothing to write home about, but the leaves were about half a meter wide. Plenty wide enough to bandage Dagan. Io dipped the two empty pods she had carried with her tail and made her way back to Sorcha.
Dagan was always there for Sorcha. Anytime there was danger, he would push his twin behind him, ready to keep his sister safe. Io knew that this directly resulted from what they, or rather Dagan, had gone through prior to meeting her. That if he had not been there protecting Sorcha, she most likely would have died. That driving instance to protect was one thing Io admired about the boy when she had first found the siblings, and it was certainly something Io could understand.
As they bandaged Dagan, the wet leaves did as Io had hoped and turned the crust into mud. This would allow Dagan to move without the crust breaking off. Once they finished it was time to wrap Sorcha's wounds. Which was considerably more complicated. Where they could just water on Dagan and his blood turn to crust, Sorcha bled what looked and smelled like water. The difference lay in the type of bandage.
Where all of Dagan's bandages had to be wetted, Sorcha's bandages had to be dry-almost flakey plant otherwise her wounds just passed through, albeit slowly. The dryness of the plant, when wetted, created an almost plaster-like effect and stopped the blood flow soon enough. They managed it though, and after Sorcha was cleaned and wrapped up, Io returned to the river herself and submerged her bloodied body once more to rinse off all the crusted blood.
If the twins weren't injured, this would be the most luxurious experience in their life. Wait, scratch that, it would have been amazing if the twins could have played in the water too. Io thought, then added 'swimming' to the growing list of things to teach her siblings. While this area was nice, it was not ideal. There was no place to put their backs against, and chances were that there would be a variety of other creatures and beasts that would come to the river in order to get a drink.
Finished with her hygiene, Io swam back to the bank. As she got out, Io noticed that one of the juice-filled lumps she had brought over before her bath had a small bite taken out, but nothing more. Io huffed at Sorcha and when she had the little ice cube's attention, she nosed the opened pod towards Sorcha.
"Yuck!" Sorcha answered, her adorable, fey-like face twisting in disgust.
'Great, just great. What do I fee-' Io's thought stopped midway as something caught her eye. She turned towards the river and saw something moving. Whatever it was, though it was gone just as quick, she thought before turning back to face Sorcha, only to find that Sorcha had disappeared.
Io let a snarl and moved to stand above Dagan while she looked for Sorcha. A splash sounded from somewhere behind her. 'OH SNAP!' Io cursed. She dragged some debris on top of Dagan to hide him before she dove into the water.
A few minutes later, Io broke through the surface holding a squirming sodden Sorcha between her jaws. The little ice cube had a death grip on a small creature with no legs- no a fish, in her tiny white claws. Io stopped close by Dagan's side and unceremoniously dropped Sorcha onto the hard rock and lectured her.
"Rawwwrrrr! RAWWWRR. RaaWWWRrrrr!!! Rawr!!"
'The fuck were you thinking, Sorcha? You could have died!' Io yelled internally, wishing for the umpteenth time she could speak instead of having to roar, growl, snarl, or even howl. Io paced as she 'lectured' Sorcha. At the first roar, Sorcha, who had been rubbing her abused bottom, immediately sat on her knees, head down in guilt.
As mad as Io was, the stone was uncomfortable and while Sorcha had behaved out of character, wasn't she having to deal with new behaviors too? If they had been in their previous world, something like this would have never have happened, and while Sorcha was the dare-devil of the twins, she would not normally act like this. Barring the earlier incident with the hooved creature. With a huff, Io stopped pacing and gently head-butted Sorcha.
Sorcha relaxed her posture. Io noticed Sorcha gripped the fish in her claws. Sorcha stared at Io. Then snowflake-like tears fell down her face. "Io, I sorry. Hungry, Io. I hungry." Sorcha explained, her grey cat-like eyes glittering as she clenched the squirming creature between her little claws.
Io froze and slumped. Head bowed, Io let out a soft keening sound in apology. It was her fault that Sorcha acted on her own like that. Misery welled up as she stared hard at the ground, trying to figure out what she could do to fix this, when she heard flesh being shredded.
Startled, Io lifted her head and felt her eyes almost pop out of her skull. 'What the effing bells is this?!!' Io thought to herself as she took in the sight of Sorcha using her shark-like teeth to rip into and through the now very dead fish clutched in her delicate little claws. Dumbfounded, Io stared. Well, that solves what to feed the twins. Io felt lighter at the thought.
"Mmm, good!" Sorcha said, her alabaster skin glowing from deliciousness. Io hadn't seen that look since that had caught crickets after a particularly long stretch of canned goods, though Io wouldn't call them good. The 'collards' had been brutal choking down.
"..."
Io watched Sorcha eat her food while she attempted to remember anything about fish. It resembled nothing like the pictures they had seen with its green-black scales and yellowfins, er, at least what was left of them. Where there were fishes that couldn't be eaten, maybe they could spit it over a fire? Should she have done that? Io herself felt fine after eating her meal uncooked, but who's saying that would be the case for Sorcha? After all, they were completely different species. Io's shoulder slumped at the thought. Great, she could feel her days getting a lot more complicated than she'd it be at the thought of trying to figure out two species' potentially different dietary needs.
"Io?" a sleepy voice rang out. Io's ears perked up, and she moved over to nuzzle that mummy-like Dagan. She let out an almost inaudible chuff and let him gingerly grab onto her muzzle while Io supported him in an upright position with her tail. Sorcha pranced over her, little scales shimmering in the morning light. "Dagan, Dagan." She chirped at her drowsy sibling. "Here, try this! Try it! It's yummy! I full now. You try!"
Dagan's hazy, cat-like eyes blinked slowly before landing on the remaining fish half in Sorcha's claws. "Sorcha. That not food you stu-" The boy stopped immediately as he noticed his sister's smile disappear and her eyes mist up. Io smirked wolfishly ah. The poor boy brought this upon himself this time.
"Sorcha, I, I don't wan- OOF." During his declining, Sorcha's pointed ears flattened close to her head, and she stuffed the fish into Dagan's mouth. The little boy's yellow eyes went wide, and he choked trying to empty his too-full mouth.
"Dagan eat! It's yummy! Better than bugs."
"dlsathjurahtotgjfoij" was the only response that she got.
"Yes Dagan, dis good eats. Yum, yum, good eats." Sorcha continued as she rubbed her tummy merrily.
Cough. Cough. Cough.
Io got concerned when his ashen skin lightened, so she shoved him on his belly and gently, for her, whacked his back. The poor boy spewed the fish and then vomited. Io monitored the detritus that was being expelled. Her brows furrowed. There's a piece missing. She pounded on the coughing boy's back a little harder until he choked out a fishtail.
The tail flew out of his mouth and pegged Sorcha's forehead, knocking the unexpecting girl onto her back. Sorcha cried out, holding onto the slight bump on her forehead as she rolled from side to side. Io sighed exasperatedly, helped the girl back up to her feet, picked up a leaf with her tail, wrapped the perfectly intact fishtail, and tossed it back into the river. She growled softly at the boy. Wasting food was not okay. Yes, the environment they were in had changed drastically and now offered an abundance, whatever it may be, and given time, they would figure it out, but that did not mean that they could be wasteful.
"Io, I don't want to eat the fish. Fish nasty." Dagan said pleadingly, his cat-like eye growing huge. Io glanced at Sorcha.
"I watch Dagan," the little ice cube offered, and Io went back into the stream. She stayed within eyesight of the duo and waited patiently in the lazily moving water. Twenty minutes later, she returned the twins with a mouthful of fish. Io dropped the fish on a leaf her tail laid down. Sorcha eagerly grabbed another fish, devouring it greedily while Io watched contentedly.
'Her viciousness was just adorable,' Io thought. She looked over at Dagan, only to find the boy glaring mutinously at the pile of fish. Hm... Maybe he just needed some persuasion. Right? Io picked up a fish and in two bites, she gulped it down. While she did not think it was as delicious as the hooved creature from earlier, it was tolerable. When she was done, Io motioned at the fish with a paw and looked at Dagan intently.
Dagan crossed his arms as his charcoal skin darkened. "No. No good. Taste like dust. Io said no eats dirt. This like dirt and I no eats it."
Io huffed at the boy and motioned towards the fish. Yucky or not, he needed to eat.
"Don't wanna." The little sun stuck his lower lip out mutinously as he pouted.
Patience. Patience. Everything is new, so it probably just takes weird. Breathe in. Breath out. Ok. Io once again motioned towards the fish and chuffed.
"NO, I don't want it. It nasty and hurt!" Dagan stomped his foot and turned to walk away from her.
Io froze, a low rumble starting in her chest that grew louder until she was roaring.
Dagan ran over to the fish and picked it up, signs of earlier mulishness gone, "Ok, ok I eat! I eats it!" Dagan glared at his sister as if blaming her for his troubles.
Sorcha let out an offended gasp and marched over to her brother, hands clenched and ready to beat him up. How dare he look at her that way! She helped him. Bandaged him. Helped him find food! Io even helped her bring back more food, so Dagan had to listen... Unless Io said otherwise. Just as Sorcha was preparing to set her brother straight, Io lifted her into the air and snarled. Sorcha stopped her struggles with a peep, and Dagan stuffed the fish into his mouth, yellow eyes wide in fear.