Completed A Position of Strength (Redd)

[Inoadar]

xxxxxxx35th of Spring, 514

Inoadar

The poisoner knew he'd made a mistake. It was only to determine how serious it would turn out to be. He trudged across the open land along the shore of Lake Ravok. He hurt everywhere, the Ebonstryfe had seen to that. His horse kept the pain from his legs and ankles, where they'd been beaten and twisted to the point of breaking. But sitting atop the creature brought agony up his spine, from the racking he'd received, with every sway of the horse's gait.

His wrenched fingers found it difficult to hold onto the reins with a strong enough grip to be of any difference if he was to lose his balance. He'd topple over if he tried to look behind him. It felt as if every muscle in his body had been pulled; every bone bruised; every joint hyper-extended.

But he hadn't talked. Not until he wanted to anyway. And the interrogators had been impressed. He'd kept to his story as they questioned his inexplicable appearance in a house they'd had under surveillance. Stricken both by drink and poison, he'd stuck to his claim of a dalliance with a woman met at the Silver Sliver, and a covert entry by a back entry below street level.

The fact was, he had poisoned himself when he realized he'd been set-up. There was no need for him to fake such a condition. His daily work with toxins had made him quite resilient to their influence. This included alcohol. His affinity for enduring pain, coupled with his acting, made him a difficult subject to break under questioning. It took a truly accomplished eye to tell when his screams and begging were not genuine.

But his semi-contradictory stories brought about a reversal of roles. The interrogators yelled and threatened, filling in the blanks with details meant to trip HIM up and reveal his fallacies. Instead, they revealed the details HE hadn't previously known. The Ebonstryfe hadn't been the ones keeping the estate under surveillance. They had wanted to know who was.

Once they gave up on Inoadar, thinking they'd wrung nothing but a consistent account of events leading nowhere, he'd resumed his poise and confidence and gave up the name of the girl who'd sold him out. "Bellarhy Rieade." He was not so much angry at her. Betrayal was a constant element of Ravokian life. He was mad at himself for allowing himself to be duped.

The inquisitors had been shocked. But now Inoadar gave up every bit of information he had. He did it willingly, with a smile on his face. They didn't even need to press him for it. It was a matter of pride for him. Not only to see how long he could last, but to let them know they hadn't broken him. He was a loyal citizen and a capable asset. He wanted them to know it. And only now did he give them his name, or at least the one they knew him by...

"Nolan Parnell"

It had been a while since he'd tested himself against the professional application of pain. But the cross-referencing of files led them to realize this subject had been questioned and released under similar situations before.

But that was days ago. Now his purpose was the collecting of herbs and fungus for toxins. He'd been kind of eager to test his growing knowledge of arboreal types now as well. He'd been exchanging knowledge with Verin Rush for a short while now. He felt he was giving a bit more than he got, since he was sharing knowledge of the uses of advanced equipment as well, but he wasn't going to begrudge the bonus.

He'd come to realize some of the connections between the presence of arboreal toxins within the trees and the presence of fungi without. In some cases they went hand in hand. The fungi triggering an effect within the tree which metabolized an enzyme to combat the fungus. This enzyme turning out to be as toxic as that found in the fungus. Nature's checks and balances. 'All for a poisoner's profit.' he chuckled to himself; stopping when he was reminded that it hurt to laugh.

Then he noticed something odd about a trio of trees to his left, growing in a clump. An odd discoloration. Upon closer inspection, he discovered it was not anything about the tree itself. It was a clash of colors between the color of the bark and the color the canvas used to make the backpack packed in a niche formed by the twists of the trunks.

"What have we here?" he asked himself with hopes of loot.

x

[Redd]

The young wolf padded silently through the trees, her paws leaving prints behind in the fertile earth beneath her. Her lungs filled quickly and easily with oxygen, but they worked to pushed out it once again only to re-fill with more of that same crisp air.

Redd was very much enjoying her day for once. She had gone hunting with the local pack and now her stomach was very much full. With the sun dappling through the tree tops to send warmth upon her thick red coat, highlighting the black and brown furs in amongst the red of which she had named herself afterwards, she was very much content.

She couldn't quite remember the name her parents originally gave her as it was over-shadowed by her mother's not so welcoming surprise with a stick when she first shifted, but she was happier out here in the wild. She met up with fellow wolves every now and then, especially when she was incredibly hungry.

Her maw parted as she yawned softly, reminding her of the last hunting trip that she had attempted on her own and had gone slightly wrong. She had spent a few hours trying to gather her wits together after wards to go hunting small game to at least fill that large void in her hungry stomach. So, when her jaw was feeling some what workable after wards, she sought out the pack to go for a fulfilling hunt, days afterwards.

She lifted her black nose to scent the air to see what might have came this way since she was last this way, this revealed the white under her chin which extended all the way underneath her belly. The only part of her that she had to conceal when trying to hide. It did stick out like a sore thumb whenever she was trying to stalk something.

Upon not scenting anything just yet, she continued forwards. She was heading back towards the lake's edge where she had situated her belongings near a cluster of trees. She didn't keep her things with her, in fact, she had taken to stashing it instead of carrying it in her maw everywhere, simply because she had gotten quite relaxed in the area she had situated herself in.

The people upon the lake mostly stayed to themselves and she and the other pack had the land around the area mostly to themselves. Redd did see travellers every now and then, but she let them pass and never really disturbed them as they continued on their way, it was something she considered, her own little paradise.

As she began to reach the clump of trees where she had stashed her back pack, the wind picked up and she began to pick up a scent that had not been in this direction the previous days before hand and warning bells began to ring inside her head as her paw's movements came to a slow stop. There was something about this scent that she thought she recognised but couldn't quite put a face to it. The scent was also mixed in with another beast's scent? Which sent her ears flattening against her head as she pondered why she recognised this scent.

Rather than stay where she had been standing, she continued forward but in a more cautious manner, her muscles were bunched up in preparation of a possible attack and her ears remained against her skull as she turned a small corner around a large tree and the sight before her made her stop.

Her top lip curled upwards revealing her sharp kanines, as she suddenly spotted the male upon the large hoofed beast and her memory triggered as to why she had indeed recognised the scent she had came across a little bit back before as the breeze had picked up.

He was a man that had previously crossed the pack's path, but they and been on a hunt for something to eat and Redd had been more hungry than interested in the man and had held the pack off to let him pass without any interference. This man did seem a little different since she last saw him however, but she couldn't quite place it as the rage began to boil within her.

And there he is was now, sitting on top of his beast as he looked at her stashed items and a growl rumbled deep with her, the sound passing her maw as she stood frozen in her tracks. There was no way she was going to allow him to get near her things without a fight.

Cautious, take it cautious, the young wolf told herself as she began snarl at the offending man, slowly edging forwards towards him. Her movements were a little stiff due to the inner war going inside. Her mind was saying cautious, while her body was saying tear out his throat.

[Inoadar]

Inoadar

Inoadar pulled the pack from the tree and loosened the lashes keeping it tight. He took a quick look inside and was disappointed to find little to remark about. It seemed pretty standard gear.

It was not until he went to replace it that he changed his hold on the bag. He had been holding it only at the top with both hands. But when he put a hand beneath it, to lift it back into the niche, he felt the familiar loose, dense weight of a mass of coins. Hoping they might turn out to be gold mizas, he set the bag on the ground and started rifling through it. 'Can always use more of those,' he thought with a slight grin.

Focused on the thought of free mizas, he'd been trying to dismiss the distraction of his mount's anxious whinnying. But the reality of the wilds came crashing back to his perceptions as it occurred to him that 'Handy', his mount, would not be giving such a warning for no reason.

He cursed himself for a fool. Of the dozens of times that he'd gone into the wilds on such a mission as today's, there had been only a handful of times that he'd NOT run into trouble of one kind or another. Now he heard a different tone in the sounds from behind him; a lower, more feral growl to offset the higher pitched keening of his horse.

He turned, already knowing what he'd see. A wolf...of course...'Isn't it always a petching wolf...' he thought to himself with some anger. Of all the hazards in the wilds, wolves had been his most frequently reoccurring obstacle. This one was a bit more distinct than the usual ones, with it's singular reddish hue. He let a small portion of his mind focus on the thought that he'd seen this one running with a pack before.

Another portion of his thoughts were on the distance between himself and his horse, and the chances of reaching it before the wolf reached him. They were not good. The remaining awareness was on the fact that this lone wolf was coincidentally approaching this same site. The site of a backpack stuck in a tree. A common enough practice among Kelvics in the wilds. If this was a true wolf, it would probably avoid the mannish scent on the items inside the pack as indicative of human presence in the area, in addition to his own.

Inoadar suddenly had no doubt that this was a Kelvic. Of course, that did not mean there was no danger. Under normal circumstances, he believed he could fight off a wolf sufficiently to either discourage it into leaving, or to kill it outright with not much more than superficial wounds. And in the case of a Kelvic, he had his Wildleash poison. In fact, this might just be a great bonus to his day's efforts. After all, Kelvic blood was an item of importance to him.

But he was in sorry shape. AND his dart with the poison was on his saddle. he honestly didn't know if Kelvics were more or less feral of mind than true wolves while in their animal form, but he'd give it a try.

"I'm sorry..." he began. That was always a good start when caught red-handed. "I won't try to give some crap about having thought it was my bag. In the wilds, you grab what you find. You should be able to agree with that. But if this is yours, I guess you probably don't like me going through it."

As he spoke, he took slow, sidling steps toward Handy. When he thought he was close enough, he made his bid. "Here then. I haven't taken anything. It's all there." He tossed the backpack towards the Kelvic, trying to aim it right at the creature's head, to get just an added instant of delay in its likely pursuit as it ducked. Then he bolted for his horse, not with the hope of mounting and escaping, but with the intent of getting his Wildleash dart from his saddle.

x

[Redd]

Her golden orbs watched the man that now held her backpack turn around upon the spot that he stood on and another growl passed her maw and she took another slow step towards him, her mind ever reminding her to be cautious. The other wolves were angry at this man for a reason, she didn't know why, but she felt that she might find out soon and that she might not like it.

As she watched his form for movements, she was a little distracted by the fact that he still held her bag and the only real treasure she had in there was those golden circles. She was going to bury most of them at one point so then no one would find them, but hadn't quite gotten round to it and here he was holding the bag that contained them.

She didn't exactly know what they were, having grown up outside the city, all she did know was that when she had randomly stolen a back pack from a stranger was that the golden circles were pretty enough to stare at. They often reminded her of sunsets or the sun's razes upon the lake's surface and they made her happy during the winter, happy enough to help her get through it.

However, the man was holding them hostage inside her back pack and a snarl pushed forward as she took another couple of steps towards him. She noted the spikes of his cloak and she instantly remembered the moving prickly bush that had stabbed her when she had tried to swipe it with her paw and she remembered that it had indeed hurt.

So, the spikes would protect him and would only hurt her if she indeed went for his throat, however, his stomach was still visible and so were his legs. Every wolf knew that a fatal enough wound to the stomach meant death, but you really had to rip it open and let the guts fall out before you could call it a fatal wound. She wasn't above chewing upon a leg either.

The man's beast however, would definitely attract attention, maybe even help... Or more men and she didn't want that. No, that beast had to go and if it was something that she already knew about large beasts, once scared they will run until they either drop or run until they think they have found safety. They never usually fight unless it's a warning kick if you get too close behind them. She had to get that beast to run some how, but it was the how bit, that left a blank, she didn't feel like getting kicked twice in one moon cycle if she could help it. If a beast was already scared but not moving, sometimes just getting close enough had a good effect...

She was some what surprised when the man began to speak to her and her ears flickered forward only for a second before pressing back against her head as another growl rumbled its way up, but she was listening however, wondering if he would just give her, her damn back pack back.

"I won't try to give some crap about having thought it was my bag. In the wilds, you grab what you find. You should be able to agree with that. But if this is yours, I guess you probably don't like me going through it." At that, she growled again, noting the fact that he was getting closer to his beast. A frightened beast, she noted. Maybe her near presence might do the trick.

Due to retreating back into her mind she almost missed the part where he said, "Here then. I haven't taken anything. It's all there." And threw it at her. She skittered to the left of the back pack that was flying towards her head, watching it hit the ground with a thud once she was clear. He was aiming to hurt her! She realised and a snarl tore through her as she spotted him reaching that damn beast!

The wolf moved forward quickly, hoping to scare that beast before he got on to it and figured a quick bite to the hind leg just might do the trick to unbalance him. Her paws thudded against the soft earth as she barrelled forward towards this annoying beast and as soon as she had gotten close enough to bite, that was exactly what she did. She bit down hard upon the hind leg of the beast, her ears catching the sound of pain and she tore her jaws away in hopes that maybe she might have damaged some kind of muscle. She had also pulled her head back and away and skittered back far enough to avoid getting kicked in the head.

It was then and only then however, that she turned her attention back to the male her golden hues hoping that maybe that bite had been the best risk to have taken to get him a little off balance.

[Inoadar]

Inoadar

Inoadar cursed. The scant seconds he'd gained were lost by Handy's fearful shying as the wolf recovered and charged in. He now had more steps to reach his horse. Even as he did, he caught the movement heralding the predator's arrival. Assuming that the creature was attacking him, he kicked his leg out to block the wolf's leap.

At the same moment that he achieved the least balance, as a result, he realized the wolf had gone after Handy's flank, not his. The horse gave in completely to panic now and flew into a gallop. Inoadar had gotten one hand on his backpack, and the strap lasted long enough for him to be bludgeoned by sixty feet of roots, rocks and shrubs before the strap broke and he tumbled ten feet more into a dazed heap.

His foggy delirium broke with a surge of adrenaline triggered by instinct. His many memories of attacking wolves served him well in this case and his last focused thought was getting the dart of Wildleash poison free of its loop before the wolf was upon him.

He tucked his legs as teeth impacted where it would have been his stomach an instant before. Memories again collided with the present as the familiar tearing of flesh sent a flash of agony that made him growl with as much intensity as the beast attacking him. It was odd though, that there was an underpinning of reassurance in the very familiarity of the pain. He had survived this same thing before, and he would do so again.

Teeth now made attempt against his torso, only to be largely defied by his mail shirt. he strength of the jaws still drove the very metal links to lacerate his flesh, leaving angry welts in streaks along his ribs. He focused primarily on getting his feet ready to spring and get a sense of exactly where the beast was so he could lash out with the dart to subdue his tormentor. In the meantime, his legs suffered further tears and his arms and ribs suffered further bruises.

He noted how the beast avoided the places where the spikes would protrude from his cuffs, concentrating instead on the middle of his forearm. A spike of white hot pain announced a hairline fracture of one of his arms as he sacrificed it to gain the position he needed. He roared in fury and agony as he pulled the arm around to bring the creature into position, as he stabbed into its opposite shoulder with the dart.

Then he kicked at the animal, trying to drive it off for the moments he would need for the poison to take effect.

x

[Redd]

The man had kicked a leg out, essentially blocking Redd's attack at the beast's flank, but her presence still had the desired results and her golden hues watched the beast fly forwards into a gallop. She had felt a little pride in achieving this task, but what really caught her attention was the fact that the man had grabbed a hold of a strap and was dragged along with it.

A deep growl rumbled through her chest as she realised that she had to chase after him and this darned beast, some what annoyed at the fact that the beast was dragging the man that she wanted to shred limb from limb. He had trespasses onto what she considered her territory and she didn't make nice to trespassers.

Her paws thudded upon the soft earth after them, knowing that whatever time he had gained ahead of her, he would use to recover from his injuries sustained while being dragged and would more than likely be ready for her when she got there. By the time she did get there, he had indeed snapped out of it and was wrestling with a loop on the backpack? But she wasted no time and leaped forward her teeth snapping at the male's stomach.

However her motions was a little too slow and instead bit down into the male's leg. Once she had this purchase with her teeth on him, she growled deep within her and shook her head from side to side quickly, hoping that this motion might just break the leg or, if wishful thinking helped, ripped the whole leg off or even half would satisfy her. Yet, this attack did not make her very satisfied at all, so she let go of the leg and aimed to get a bite of his torso.

Upon finding some kind of strong armour, she backed away from him, the young wolf circling the male's form as she gauged which was the better spot to attack at him again as he seemed to be very well armoured and it annoyed her to an extent.

When she saw an uncovered forearm, she dashed in, her jaws snapping shut around it, biting into the arm as her head once again shook quickly to try and get that deep bite and felt the man pull her around almost as if he was trying to yank her free.

Yet, what surprised the wolf more was the sudden sharp pain that buried itself deep into her shoulder and with a loud yelp, she let go of his forearm and allowed the male's kick to push her away from him. Her tail dipped in between her hind legs as she moved away from him, limping upon her right front leg as she edged away from him. She could feel something digging into her shoulder and it hurt every time the muscle within her shoulder would move.

So, with every limp a whine passed her maw, but she could feel something else happening something else intruding through her veins. Slowly, ever so slowly, her nose dipped before her front legs buckled, followed by her hind legs and her conscious picked up that something wasn't right, but she could only register the shift happening, the borrowing of her human form and a pale red light surrounded her being, which was all she could note before she felt the dark depths swallow her whole into unconsciousness.

Her human form however, was revealed when the pale red light faded and there she laid, naked for all to see, lying upon her back. She was mostly a pale skinned being, a little skinnier than normal due to not having a solid supply of food all of the time. Her brindled red hair, showed those rich colours of black and brown with the occasional white strands and was fanned out behind her head. Then, there, sticking out of her right shoulder was the dart that he had gotten her with.

[Inoadar]

Inoadar

There was no time to lose. This brief period of unconsciousness was his opportunity. Inoadar pulled his knife from his battered pack and opened the wound on the sleeping Kelvic girl's shoulder. He placed a vial against her skin and worked the wound, massaging and squeezing to get a trickle of blood to flow into it.

Given friendlier circumstances, a "leashed" Kelvic might be persuaded to give up blood freely during the passive phase that would come next. For another chime or two after awakening from this short comatose state, the Kelvic would be docile and reasonably obedient. But it hardly meant they would just sit there and let someone cut on them. This was when contracted Kelvic hunters would apply a collar. Then it didn't matter if they got their feral nature back. They'd be unable to change without strangling themselves, and they'd HAVE to obey.

Inoadar did not have a collar to apply though. He was not interested in maintaining a captive Kelvic. It only took a few drops of blood to make 500 gold mizas' worth of Wildleash. He'd earned the hatred of many Kelvics around Ravok. Mostly due to a misadventure at the KRI. But that was only because he'd been set up as the fall guy for a plot there. In the process of extricating himself from that situation, he'd uncovered a breakout plan and embarrassed a number of staff members, both from being implicated in the plot, or from being too incompetent to see the signs of it.

Now and then, Kelvics would come after him in town. They were the ones that ended up collared. But by the Ebonstryfe, not Inoadar. But those days were over now. He'd even saved a Kelvic tiger from a pack of wolves out here. He smirked at the thought that this girl may have been part of that pack. Yes, a magnificent white tiger that had then foolishly come into town. Inoadar had seized the opportunity, at the cost of a number of owed favors, to rescue her from slavers and offer her a "job" of sorts.

It had been a lucrative deal for them both. But the tiger girl had felt the pull to return to the wilds again. She'd been branded as his property and under the claim of the city of Ravok. While this probably seemed demeaning to some people, it would actually stand her well in the event of slavers capturing her again. Few would want to incur the wrath of Ravok, and any that brought her back would only serve to reunite her with Inoadar, who would not try to hold her for long.

He had given her the key to her own collar, paid her a reasonable wage, as bodyguard and shop assistant, from his own pocket, and asked only that she give occasional draws of her blood. She was free to wander the town. As a legal slave of an increasingly well-known citizen, she would not be molested. And when she felt the call to "go wild" she had her own key. There was only the stipulation that she act the part of his slave in front of others.

Inoadar did not begrudge the cost of the collar or key when she left. Nor did he regret the cost of the painkillers to to eliminate the pain of the branding. He'd made that money back an hundred times over. Of course, he had to report her "missing" when she left. That was required protocol. It would not do to have anyone suspect that he'd allowed her to leave.

All of this ran through Inoadar's mind as he stoppered the vial containing the wolf girl's blood. There was an enzyme to keep it liquid, which would have to be separated later, before processing the toxin. He took out a cloth strip and pulled a second small jar of some salve he'd made at the NMSS clinic. It was made from Jile berries, which was a fairly all-purpose poison remedy. It was not an actual "antidote", but it reduced the effects of a number of toxins significantly. Many a lethal dose was rendered merely "severe" with a quick handful of Jile berries.

Inoadar was not about to let this girl eat them, he honestly didn't know if they would reverse Wildleash effects. But ingestion-based metabolism was not affected by simple application to an outside wound. It lacked the stomach acid that triggered it. But he did know that Jile salve served as decent wound cleanser. Normally, he brought Krolar poultice, but they'd just run out.

The girl was already stirring as he began to tie the bandage on her shoulder. She would be in this docile state for plenty of time for him to leave safely. He thought for a moment of making the same offer to her that he'd made to the tiger girl, Ariella. But in her case, he'd not used Wildleash on her, and they had fought together against a common enemy. AND he'd saved her life later against slavers. Hardly the same as having been caught stealing and then using poison to get away.

But she was awake now. Maybe he'd make the offer anyway...

x

[Redd]

She felt her consciousness pull her back from the dark depths of unconsciousness and she was beginning to feel and sense the things around her being. Considering how much anger had filled the young wolf earlier, she was welcomed with a calm mind set.

The sun, glared down upon her face and she lifted an arm, her right arm to be more precise to throw over her face to block the sunlight from piercing through her eye lids. It was day light for heaven's sake, why was she not sleeping still? The hunt was not for another...

Her mind pushed forward the idea that maybe she had already been on the hunt with the pack and flashes began to come back to her. It was then that she suddenly remembered why she was even in her human form at all. Well, that part she still didn't understand how it all happened without her consciously making the thought to shift, but still. She had been fighting a male, when she had felt a sharp pain, not to mention she had been really pissed off at the time. Why was she so calm now?

The woman had been so engrossed in her thoughts that she had almost missed the fact that her muscles were straining against something rough, wrapped around her arm. It wouldn't have been the first time that she had been too engrossed her own thoughts to actually miss certain key details.

With a small groan that parted her soft lips, she lifted her arm off of her face, her hazel eyes blinking at the sudden light once more. Her left hand slide along the ground till her hand was beside her rib cage, palm down against the ground and then she put pressure onto that palm, slowly lifting her upper body upwards so then she was in a sitting position. Her red brindled hair fell down her back in soft waves with this movement.

As her mind still struggled to catch up with all of the facts, her hues flickered to her right arm to see what it was that was wrapped around her shoulder. What she saw made her blink a couple of times as she spotted the bandage that was there and tried to imagine what had happen after she passed out.

It took a few moments before her nose had picked up the scent of blood and her gaze flickered upwards from her shoulder over to the man that was only now just attending to his own wounds? She angled her head slightly to the right at this as she briefly wondered, not for the first time at that point, why she didn't feel that rage she had felt earlier?

Her lips parted as if she was going to speak, before closing again, why would she even speak to this man? There were so many questions bubbling inside of her head that she just had to say something, it ate at her not knowing.

So she tried again, her mind allowing her to speak, it would be the only way she would get even a shred of an answer. "Wh... What happened?" She finally asked, still puzzling as to why he was even still there and hadn't attended to his own wounds long ago. "I... I don't understand... Why don't..." She stopped as she suddenly caught a whiff of a scent that she recognised and she turned her gaze back the way they had come.

She knew that smell, she would know it anywhere... It was the pack. She did have an idea that they might of heard the beast, that they might have followed her scent trail, but how far would they come? Redd knew that she should be panicked, simply because the pack never knew about her human side, she only ever really visited them whenever she was half starving and really needed something to eat, so she never revealed her human side, had never had a need to, she hadn't had human company being out here.

Now however, she knew that if he couldn't shift back, she might be in some kind of trouble, yet she only felt that same calm state of mind that had settled over her when she had woken. She was split as to whether she should call out to them, or just simply let them follow her scent trail. Her hues flickered back over to the male for a moment as she pondered, actually pondered as to how they might act with him in the area. She probably figured that she owed him for what she assumed was his bandaged work around her shoulder and for the gashes she gave him that he was now tending to.

[Inoadar]

Inoadar

Pain bloomed in his forearm as he scrubbed the gash free of dirt and smeared the same Jile berry salve on the wound. It was not the pain of aggravated torn flesh, though that was still considerable. It was the sharp stab of a fracture. He cast a glare back at the girl. 'It figures it would be a WOLF Kelvic!' he groused to himself. It was always wolves!

A sudden chill overcame him as he saw the girl sniffing the air and looking back the way they'd come. He could just feel it coming. His imagination got it under way for him. But soon enough, the reality made its presence undeniable. The wind, carrying the mournful wail of wolves, filled his spirit with dread like the ghost stories of his youth. The same malice, the same shadowy stealth, the same sense that they knew he was there and was their only purpose.

He grit his teeth as he got to his feet. It was not just the wounds the Kelvic girl had inflicted on him. He was still battered and wrenched from his question session at the Vitrax. But there was time. He retrieved his backpack, which now sported one snapped strap. He slipped it over his good arm and looked for a likely tree. "You may want to get off the ground when your friends arrive, Miss. I doubt they're going to give you the benefit of the doubt. They'll see you as just another human now."

He turned away from her with an angry spin, sending a spasm of pain through his sore ribs. It only bolstered his anger at her, his thoughts spilling over with accusation. 'Why did she have to petching attack? I was giving her stupid pack back to her. How was I to know there was someone to claim he damned thing? It might have belonged to some long dead woodsman.'

It was a painful ordeal to climb the tree. He had to use the blade in the toe of his left boot for frequent support. The right one was broken and he had never gotten around to getting it fixed. He was most of the way to his target branch when he heard the hooves of a horse galloping. Handy was approaching, his eyes wide in unthinking terror. The thought of trying to coax him down and mounting to escape flashed through his brain.

He dismissed it as quickly as he thought it. He could not hope to stop the fight of the panicked animal, owner or not. It was fleeing for its life. Stopping to accommodate him would only get them both killed. His slowly healing injuries would make it impossible for him to stay in the saddle at a full gallop. He could hear the wolves close behind. He sent a quick prayer to Rhysol for Handy to be spared.

As the wolves came by his perch he warred within himself. He could greatly help his mount by claiming the wolves' attention. But he would bringing the girl to their attention as well...

His decision was near instantaneous. "HEY, YOU FLEA-BITTEN SACKS OF HAIRY SHYKE. THERE'S A WARM FRESH MEAL RIGHT UP HERE IN THIS TREE!" He roared. What did he owe this damned girl anyway? Only now did he look around to see if she had climbed to safety or what.

x

[Redd]

Her hazel hues watched the male as he got to his feet and noted the fact that he seemed to be in some amount of pain and she replayed the scene back inside her head. Half of his injuries couldn't have been from her, surely. She was average as a hunter on her own, better in a pack... Which, by the way... Her conscious had told her that the male had told her to climb something high because her pack might not welcome the sight of her human form... Or ever again, she told herself as she too got up onto her feet.

Glancing upwards she gazed at the tree branches, her consciousness cringed but she just stood there calmly for a moment as her feet carried her over so she stood under a branch that was about 5'9 or 5'10 off the ground. She could probably grab it if she jumped... Maybe. She wasn't well known to be the greatest of jumpers.

Having a calm mind, wasn't exactly the best thing for her however as her mind flickered back to the wolves and what it possibly meant. You know what it means, she told herself as she shook her head softly, it meant even that if the wolves saw her in this form she would surely have to venture away to find a new pack to survive winter.

She caught the scent of the man's beast and then the scent of the pack before her hues glanced back at the male who had successfully climbed a tree. She could tell he was in some kind of pain and come to think of it before she attacked he was walking kind of awkward. Perhaps that might have been because he was in pain? Did he need that beast to get to places? Probably.

She lifted a hand to lightly press against her bandaged shoulder, he could have killed her but didn't, instead he tried to heal her? She glanced back at the man again as she heard his voice loud and clear, calling out to the wolves. Her conscious smugly told her that that was basic human behaviour, just like her mother really but could she begrudge him his beast? Not really.

She lifted her gaze back to the tree branch and was about to jump, when she heard the familiar sounds of a growl. Glancing back in the direction of the wolf she noted it was the alpha male and then she glanced back to the tree branch. Focus, she told her conscious as she once again prepared to jump.

She then pushed upwards, using her feet to push from the ground in a jump, her hands reaching upwards to grab the branch, her fingers hooking around the rough branch just as she felt the piercing teeth grasp her ankle and she almost lost her grip.

She felt pain, she also felt calm when she knew she should be panicked and she closed her eyes and resisted against the urge to cry out with her pain. Breathe, her conscious told her, just breathe and with a sharp intake of breath she then forced it out slowly before looking down to see which one had grabbed her with their teeth. It was the alpha of course, and she glanced back to her fingers just barely gripping the branch.

Slowly, she bit down upon her bottom lip as she felt the teeth ripping into her skin, but she forced her leg to shake her leg, hoping to shake him free due to her having shaken him off balance. Which was exactly what had happened and using her arms she ignored the pain and the blood dripping down her foot as she hauled herself upwards so then she could fold herself over the branch so then she could push herself up into a sitting position upon the branch, leaning her back against the trunk of the tree.

She then lifted her legs up so then her good foot was pressed against the branch she was precariously balanced upon while the calf of her other leg rested underneath her good leg which was bent at the knee to keep her good foot pressed against the branch to hold her there steady.

Her body quivered, but she still remained calm and while her consciousness was telling her that that was not natural she glanced down to see the wolves underneath her branch growling in frustration while the blood from her ankle dripped from the bite that had been inflicted.