Citizen 743 Junebug

“It’s just the right colour of purp- OW!” Chamomili shouted from where she was picking flowers, just beyond the path and in the meadow. Junebug’s head immediately shot up, zeroing in on her friend in an instant. “Are you ok?” she shouted across the field. “I’m fine, just peachy! Just a little guy letting me know I was encroaching on his space.” Junebug perked up even further, this time with interest instead of concern. “A bug?” “Yeah, they are still here if you want to peer at it.” The lavender rex bounded over, carefully slowing down as she approached to avoid scaring the bug away. Chamomili was carefully standing with one arm cradled against her chest, awkwardly trying to shift her bundle of blooms into the crook of that elbow. As Junebug approached, the little yellow rex pointed with her snout towards the little critter she had disturbed. “He’s doing a little dance in that flower.” The caterpillar had a wonderful set of spines, and was waving its upper body in its best attempt at appearing threatening. It had such a wonderful vibrant green colour, and its spines shifted from black into an acrid orange. Junebug marveled at it for a moment before it hit her. “Did you get stabbed?” Chamomili had gone back to collecting flowers, giving the bug a wide berth. “It was only a light stabbing. Very good of him to let me know I was getting too close, I’m not mad.” “Let me see,” Junebug grabbed Chamomili’s arm as she talked. The movement caused the flowers Mili had gathered up to fall on the ground. “Awww, come on June, those hyacinths don’t like getting tossed around like that - it can’t be that bad.” Chamomili went to pull back her hand and pick up the fallen flowers. Junebug didn’t let go. “No, this is important, stay still and let me look.” Chamomili immediately froze. It was one of her better qualities; she trusted her friends to know more about their chosen fields than her. Ever since she was a pup, Junebug loved bugs. As she grew, she kept a catalogue of everything she knew about all the various insects she’d encountered in her mind. She knew which ones were safe to eat, which ones made the prettiest dyes and which liked to nip at your skin. Fortunately, the caterpillar that Mili had bumped into was one that she was familiar with, because otherwise it wouldn’t have dawned on her the trouble they were in. “Oh no, I don’t have any of the right tools for this,” she muttered under her breath. Junebug could feel herself descending into a panic - why hadn’t she thought to bring her field kit? They would have about four hours before Chamomili would be too out of it to move herself, and they were at least that far away from any sort of civilization. She peered back down at her friend and amended her estimate: three hours. Chamomili was small, and an average rex estimate probably wouldn’t be accurate. “We need to go back to the village, now.” “Are you sure? I don’t feel any different.” Chamomili looked down at the fallen hyacinths, woeful. “Not yet, but you will soon, come on. We can come back for the flowers later, just leave them here for now.” Junebug herded Chamomili back to the trail, keeping her in sight the entire time. “That caterpillar is venomous. Trust me, we want to get to a doctor as soon as we can.” “Of course I trust you, it’ll be just fine.” Junebug managed to hide her own doubt before her friend could catch wind of it. The silkwing moth caterpillar’s venom was deadly; it could easily knock out a rex of Chamomili’s size in 6 hours, and she would be delirious in half that time if the lavender rex couldn’t figure out something to counter it before then. As she ushered the smaller rex before her, Junebug let herself spiral a little. It wouldn’t do to panic where Chamomili could see, that would just make her heartbeat go faster and speed up the venom’s effect on the starshine rex. What was June going to do? If she had her field kit on her, she would have some medicine that would help draw out the venom, or at least slow it down until they could get to a stocked hospital. Without it she felt lost - the two rexals were just going on a little day hike to collect flowers; they hadn’t been planning to encounter any bugs, so she had left the kit at home. She tried to keep up with Chamomili’s chatter as they descended, but it was hard to stay out of her own head. But Junebug quickly returned to the present when Chamomili listed sideways, dangerously close to the cliff edge of the path. She needed to focus; now was not the time to be panicking. “Whoa there, stay close to me,” she said as she pulled Chamomili away from the edge and back to safety. “Hehe, whoops. Watching stars is twirling.” Chamomili grinned up at her friend as if she had said the most reasonable thing in the world. Oh no. “Sorry, sorry, what did you just say?” “Balancing log tumbled closer!” “Ahhh, hold on, don’t want you stumbling.” Junebug swallowed hard, trying to keep the fear out of her voice. This was all happening too fast. She figured she would probably be capable of carrying the starshine rex down the trail, but it was worrying to have to resort to that already. Junebug hoisted her friend up and carefully draped Chamomili over her back, encouraging her arms to circle her throat armour. “Just, hold on.” Chamomili just giggled and snuggled into Junebug with a sigh, “bestest.” Junebug’s gallop through the countryside was plodding; it wouldn’t do to sprint and tire herself out before she could make it to her destination. Instead, a steady pace that ate up the distance consistently would serve her better. With that careful speed, she was able to inspect the plants growing along the roadside, and took to distracting herself by trying to identify them as she went by. She recognized more than she expected, though she supposed she’d been spending enough time looking at vegetation with her friend Evernia to know most of the flora in the area. She kept up a running commentary, “and that one is deer’s ear, it’s soft and could be used for bandages in an emergency. Thistledown, it's spiky and doesn’t like to be eaten. Green leaf, that one is…” She had to think for a moment, and when she remembered she came to an abrupt stop, almost losing her precious cargo in the sudden change of momentum. Green leaf: known for its strong antivenom properties. The rex immediately turned around and hurried back to where she had spotted the little green plant. It only took a few seconds to break off some of the precious little leaves and crush them within her hand. “Hey, Chamomili.” Chamomili weakly lifted her head at her name. “Huh?” “I need you to eat this. Come on, open your mouth.” As soon as the leaves touched her tongue, Chamomili flinched back, “blegh, yuck.” “I know, I know, it’s gross and bitter, but I really need you to eat it, Mili. Come on, for me.” With enough coaxing, the starshine rex eventually got the herb down. She peered up at Junebug and even opened her mouth to show that there were no remaining leaves in her mouth. Junebug couldn’t help but giggle, it was like Chamomili was a child showing her parents she wasn’t hiding any gross vegetables to get her dessert before she was done with all her dinner. They weren’t quite out of the woods yet; Chamomili was still fairly limp and while green leaf would buy them time, Junebug still needed to get them into town so she could make a proper antivenom for the Silkwing Moth caterpillar. She gazed at the sky, tracking the sun’s journey towards the west. It would be enough time. She’s sure of it. “Up you go again, let’s get you home.”