Chapter 3

Bane found it just as nerve racking as he had thought the job would be as he started, walking into the first room on the clipboard, room 23.

He noticed that the young coyote Anthro on the hospital bed was already unconscious, likely the work of the healer who had put the coyote here, only small and shaky breath coming from the coyotes maw.

There was a thick cast along the entirety of the coyote's torso which he quickly realized that he was meant to take off in order to heal this fur.

Bane hesitated, his hand hovering over the thick cast. Bane had always had a sort of phobia when it came to blood, one of the things that had made it so hard for him to become a healer, constantly having to be around so much of the awful substance in order to practice, strengthen his healing magic.

He took a deep breath before pulling off the cast, gently pulling it off of the coyote he knew would likely stay unconscious throughout the entire process, even though healing a wound would usually hurt exceptionally from the fire magic that partly helped in burning the skin back together.

The sight of what was underneath the cast was certainly one of the worst Bane had ever come across. Though the wound looked old and had already been cleaned from most of the blood and gore that would have clearly been present, the flesh was completely ruined and barely able to keep itself together.

Bane forced himself to summon his magic, quickly able to ready it as he pressed his hands softly into the flesh of the coyote fur. Luckily just as Bane had predicted, the coyote didn't wake up from the intense Anastasia magic that was likely still having some prominence within the fur as Banes magic slowly repaired the flesh, the would slowly closing as his fire magic reopened it while the healing almost immediately closed it, the skin being melded back together, only a scar that wasn't too visible showing after the skin had been rebound.

But there was so much to heal, whatever terrible things the coyote had been through evidently showing as Bane continuously repaired more and more of the ruined flesh, more than he was sure he'd ever had to do on a singular fur.

The task was exhausting on just this one patient alone, but having many more to do listed on the clipboard. The Anthros he'd had to heal when he was in just a simple school for healers only had mild wounds, just moderate cuts or perhaps a more severe wound if one got advanced enough, but never something quite like this, leading Bane to struggle to heal the fur, having to heal large sections at a time.

By the time the fox had finished patching the last of the skin together, his hands ached in pain, throbbing from how much magic he had to channel through to effectively heal the coyote.

Bane sighed, almost falling to his knees as he finished the first person, hands on his knees as he caught his breath, frustrated that he already felt so exhausted as he just had finished only one task out of so many. He had a sick feeling that he would have an awful magic burnout once he returned home, the burnouts always delayed by the magic staying some time extra within him before funneling out completely. It was already something he was preparing for already, knowing the blinding pain of the event well as it had happened to him numerous times when he had overworked himself.

Just as he was leaving for his next room, forcing himself along despite the rising headache building within his skull, he saw a grey wolf in fighting leathers burst in through the door, short of breath from likely running across the long halls of the castle to get there.

The wolf at the reception jerked from her seat, startled as the grey wolf barged into the room, her expression frantic.

"I need a healer immediately!" She said quickly to the wolf at the reception. "One of the wolfs I was training may have gotten injured during our sparring practice and a healer is necessary immediately!"

The wolf at the reception seemed quite stunned for a moment, her eyes quickly scanning the halls before quickly landing on Bane who had just left the room from the nearby hall.

"Oh! I suppose I can get someone to help you." She turned to the fox, quickly gesturing from across the hall. "Bane! Your assignments for now are temporarily suspended, please help this woman with whatever injury that has been encountered." She ordered him.

The grey wolf sighed, "Oh thank you so much!" She told Bane, gesturing to the exit. "Follow me."

Bane didn't have time to think as he followed the grey wolf out of the door, nearly not able to keep up with her quick pace as he followed her out of his workspace, through the halls before she opened the double doors to what looked like a courtyard.

As soon as he entered the courtyard, through the sunrise seeing an Arctic wolf sitting down weakly on the grass, hands clenched to his chest as blood fell through it, staining his coat of fur.

Bane felt stunned as soon as he recognized the wolf, the Snow White fur of him meaning he could only be the son of the wolf who lead the army of furs, them the only ones who had fur in this particular shade. Bane willed himself to try to look as presentable as he could, even through the circumstances he'd found himself in.

He ran up to the Arctic wolf, kneeling down beside him as he forced his magic to rise, even as weak as it was in this moment he knew he would have to summon all of his remaining magic in an effort not to seem useless to someone as important as the Arctic wolf.

"Hey, I'm so sorry, but this may hurt." Bane said to the Arctic wolf he remembered was named Aspen, from how notable he was from his father's high ranking.

"It's fine." Aspen snapped back, not even a hint of kindness in his words. "Let's just get this over with."

The Arctic wolf pulled his shirt over his head, revealing the entirety of the wound jutting across his chest.

Bane readied his magic, while simultaneously forcing himself not to look at Aspens toned body.

His magic resisted greatly at first, having used up so much of its power on the coyote, it was almost unbearably painful for Bane to press his hands against the wolf's chest and begin to use his magic to knit the skin together, gritting his teeth to surprise the rising scream in his throat.

But he was surprised to see that the Arctic wolf merely flinched slightly as the reparation process of his flesh began, seemingly not having much of a reaction to what Bane knew was a blinding pain from his experiences from the others he had healed in the past.

As the last of the skin was pieced together, the white wolf sighed, looking at Bane suddenly in a sympathetic way.

"Sorry, I didn't quite mean to speak to you like that." He said softly, not making eye contact with the fox as he said the words to him, as if this was coming from a fur who wasn't used to apologizing very often.

Bane blushed softly. "It's alright, I know these sorts of things can be quite a challenge at times. Even when I had practiced my healing magic, it had taken a lot out of me."

Aspens paws clenched into fists, his brows knitting together. "It's been especially difficult... since my father died so recently." The wolf's face showed so much pain, but just as it seemed like he was about to speak again, it appeared as if he had noticed something, quickly taking back whatever it was he was just about to say, his expression quickly moving back into neutrality, the pain he had just displayed a moment earlier gone within an instant.

Bane was stunned by what the wolf had just said. The leader of the army dead?! Especially with the tensions between the scaled Anthros and Canines flaring, it seemed like a terrible occurrence, for him to have died at this specific time.

But Banes previous feelings instantly dissipated, his mouth dropping into a frown. "I'm so sorry you had to go through that." He said softly and with care.

The wolf stood up, with a stiff grunt. "There's nothing you can do anyway." He said.

The wolf stood there for a moment too long, glancing for a moment back at the fox before quickly turning around, leaving the fox behind.