Having Veru in the wards didn't exactly do well for Ea's mood. She could barely stand when firekin got injured, and having a comatose rogue in the mix was just...infuriating. What was she going to do when he woke up? Kick him out again? It was infuriating enough that Ea felt justified in raining down her frustrations. Thankfully, most of the pride knew well enough to avoid the med wards even on their better days. That left Ea with Vlam, the only soul other than An who seemed to endure the wildcat's screaming.
"Well, he'd better be some kind of goddamn scholar for all the effort I'm giving to bring him back. Not that he's woken up yet! And you'd better believe I'm going to hear it endlessly from mom when she gets done birthing if he dies. Like I did it on purpose or something. I don't know what I'm doing here, you know, I'm not even at the least qualified to be-" At a certain point, however, even Vlam tuned Ea out into white noise. It wasn't like she could ask him if he'd been paying attention. He simply watched her listlessly.
When they had been cubs, he'd always found Ea to be an annoying busybody. She never gave him the least bit of attention, and he could never tell the difference between her and her sister. Not that anyone could.
Now, he knew their differences enough to monologue about them. Ea was stockier than Fia, but only slightly. Only in the limbs and the cheeks. And not in a bad way. He roundness smoothed out her otherwise aggressive attitude. No matter how angry she got, she never really felt intimidating. Ea's fur was always just slightly disheveled. Just by the neck, where she likely kept all her tension rolled up. They walked differently too. Ea always walked stiff legged, as if ever step was something one should be grateful for.
And he was grateful for Ea. After all, she'd saved his life. Even though they had never been friends, and he had never exactly been kind. When he had been all alone, shivering and waiting for the end of his life, she had held on. She had slept soundlessly beside him. She'd cleaned his festering wound with more tenderness than her bitter attitude might suggest. She was no kind woman, and he knew it. But he also knew there was a kindness to Ea that the lioness seemed content to keep locked up to herself.
So he didn't mind letting her rage. In a way, he was glad that she simply thought to talk to him, even if he couldn't respond back. So many in the pride seemed almost afraid to engage him in conversation. These days, it was hard to say if this was because of who he had been before the attack, or what he was now. Neither alternative left him with much hope. They both sank like a stone in his heart, and unless there was some hidden third option, he knew that he would likely never be pleased with the answer. But Ea always spoke. She always spoke, and seemed to love it.
"-we're going to need to dig another water pool, this one is dried up." Vlam's ears perked. Not only did Ea speak to him, she also seemed content to use him when she needed it. [Which, was often.] Most people were barely willing to ask him to find them some water, let alone use his stiff legs to dig out troughs. Even as he thought it, Ea turned to look at him with a kind of mixture between sincerity and...well, delight at having someone do whatever it was she asked of him.
So he started to dig. It hurt his paws, but that wasn't anything new. He had become so accustomed to pain lately that most of it seemed nothing more than a bitter memory. He liked to think that maybe he was simply growing stronger, and that with time, he might be able to return to the soldier's life. But he knew better than to expect that. More likely, he was simply accustomed.
"It seems like we're digging more of these," Ea chattered. This time her voice was not ranting. It was careful, even thoughtful. The voice she rarely used when others were around, and it was the voice he found that he craved more than anything. Ea might like to yell, but when she was clever, she was clever. They said she had something of a second sight, and it had been that vision that had lead her to him. He was simply content to believe that she was Ea, and such wisdom was simply natural to her. "We're not under some sort of water shortage, are we?"
He stared at her with a kind of questioning look. She was oddly good at reading his expressions, espiecially given that her face was almost always unreadable. Regardless, even if he could speak, he did not know the answer to her question.
"Problematic..." Ea mused. Her tail curled slowly, as if in thought. "Well, I'm sure we'll have a few clouded days to replenish the stock. Dig that hole deeper this time, if this rogue brute keeps on as he is I'll certainly need the water."
Vlam complied eagerly, digging down into the sand until grain met with darker dirt. Water veins were hard enough to come by, even if the wards had been situated rather closely to the pride's larger oasis. Had he been a wiser lion, it might have been concerning.
Ea wasn't about to help, but he was happy enough for her company as she lounged around and watched him dig.
He knew he was being taken advantage of. He wasn't a fool. And yet... he probably would have rearranged the entire ward if she had asked. He didn't know if she kept him around simply because she liked having someone to yell at and scold, but he would have done it gladly if she had cared to notice him pining. It was unfortunate that in all the time he had spent as a youth, cat calling and hassling ladies that the one he desperately wanted to tell things to, he could not.
"It just doesn't seem fair, you know." She rambled. "Why does she need more kids? What, we weren't good enough? It's bad enough that my sisters are sproutin out kids left and right! Mom has to do it too?! What kind of nonsense is that? I mean-"
Hopefully, one day she'd know that he'd always listen.
