67th of Fall, 515 AV
the black of morning
The coyote was hurting too badly to sleep. His ribs seemed to press in with every breath. He twisted from one side, rolled onto his back, and only lasted there for a moment. No matter what position he laid in, even curled up, his ribs hurt.
When he did manage to doze, there were strange dreams: large barren trees in a place where there was no water or green growth or animals and too much sun, where shadows swayed and sometimes walked as if alive.
And in the shadows, if he looked close enough, was another dream, and his boy was in it and in a place that the coyote could never go.
After he woke from that he did not want to go to sleep again.
---
He was at the Pride and he was much too early. Not even Ramsay was here yet. There were a few others, watching over the sheep, and one of them was a boy the coyote recognized, one of Ramsay's little lambs-- his children's children. The coyote limped by him and wagged his tail in hello, crossing slowly to the other side of the field.
Pack was with him, the pup bright-eyed despite the dark of the night, and so they ran races. It was something to do while the sun was still sleeping, and Ramsay said it was good practice for herding. They circled again and again around the flock of sheep. First they went slow, slow enough that the coyote could walk as the pup jogged easily beside him. Then, when one lap was done they went faster, and another went faster, and faster yet until the coyote's injuries were howling and the pup pressed ahead in a flash of white-tipped tail. As the coyote pushed to go faster yet, he twisted his bad paw and had to keep from snapping his jaws down on his tongue in pain.
After that he was as through with racing as he was with sleeping.
Instead, he took the pup to isolate a couple sheep and chase them lazily back and forth, to the herd and away again. Ramsay had said it was important to get the chasing-but-not-biting instinct into the dogs when they were young.
---
sunrise
"What you think doing, man!"
The coyote looked up at the shout, coming to a halt where he was guiding the sheep in a wide, slow circle, pup by his side. It was Ramsay. One look at his face and the coyote had to move his eyes away, head down and tail tucked close to his belly. Ramsay was angry. His hands flashed in the air, saying what the coyote did not know.
Soon enough the coyote was trailing guiltily behind him on their way away from the flock of sheep. He still kept his head down. Ramsay's back was straight and shoulders rigid in his anger.
The last thing the man had spat at him was, "You want work badly, hmm?" with that cutting look in his dark eye.
---
early morning
Ramsay was conferring with some of the Pride's others that Kyo had not yet met. He kept casting the coyote-man mean looks, and Kyo darted his gaze whenever that happened, finding something less heart-pounding to look at.
Finally Ramsay turned back to him and firmly said, Stay here, work, "Work, work-gra," kindly repeating the word as usual so that Kyo might learn it in the Drykas language. But he was not so kind as not to abandon Kyo there, first shoving a rope into his hand before stalking away and out of sight.
Kyo looked down at the rope in his human-form hand, and found it attached to a ram. His ram. From yesterday.
Ramsay obviously wanted him to do something with it. Dubious but not wanting to make his boss --and friend-- angrier, Kyo began to tug on the rope, expecting the ram to resist, but it didn't. He inspected the dispirited creature a little more closely: the ram was not looking good. Its wounds were still open and untreated, the teeth marks apparent on the side of its throat and the back of its leg. It hung its head as if too weak to hold its horns up.
Kyo urged it along, approaching the people Ramsay had been talking to earlier and the little tent they stood in front of. When he paused at the flap, one of them swung a hand to indicate that he should go in.
The inside was small, clean, and smelt of herbs in a way that made him think of doctors.
Doctors. Is that what Ramsay wanted? He had said yesterday night, after Kyo had come back covered in bruises, that he should not be expected at work the next day, maybe even longer, because of the injuries to his face, ribs, and foot. Ramsay had said he needed rest. But waking up this morning Kyo had had nowhere else to go but to where he usually did. He had thought maybe Ramsay would not like it... but not thought Ramsay would be so angry at him for disobeying that he would make Kyo go away.
He had been wrong. Now he was here. Ramsay had told him to work here instead, to stay. So maybe he was supposed to help with the ram. Help... help to heal it?
He would try, though he knew nothing about what the human-forms called medicine. Clearing his throat, he called out anxiously, hoping someone good, who could help, would hear him. "Uh... I need help. Um, with the ram? It was captured... ah, hurt. Please? Need to... help... it." He didn't know what he was doing.
OOCJust so Ruari can have an appropriate reaction --if you want-- to Kyo's injuries... I'm thinking he had bruises on his face (think that raccoon look you get when you get hit in the nose), on the right side of his ribcage, and a swollen, sore foot from being stomped on, haha.
The ram was bitten by a large dog on the rump of one leg, bad enough that it was bleeding and limping, and had part of the skin of its throat on one side torn open, also from a dog's teeth.
Also I might go get Kyo's dog, Brother, to get looked at too if that's okay? He was injured by the ram and Dravite said he needed to get looked at by a doctor or there would be permanent damage.
