How she'd even managed to make her way home was nothing short of miraculous. Through the night and the next day she'd pushed herself, knowing that if she stopped for longer than just to catch her breath, she wasn't going to make it. Lyanna's heart pounded from the loss of so much blood. Weaker with every step, it felt like every mile that passed made it more difficult to breathe, and by the time she'd crossed the borders of Shallow's Edge, her sides heaved laboriously. Dried blood was crusted on her face and matted in large chunks in her tawny fur - missing in places that were replaced with wounds of all shapes and sizes. Defeated and, in all honesty, lucky to be alive, she limped almost lifelessly through the brush before her den eventually appeared off in the distance, leaving a trail of blood behind her that surely stretched all the way to Kingsfall.

The sun was beginning to set. Perhaps it would have been for the best to seek out one of her pack mates for help, but by the time her paws met the verdant grass just outside the den's mouth, she simply collapsed. Her entire body throbbed as she struggled to find air to breathe. What would Askan think of her now, showing back up from a simple scouting trip half dead? Not only that, but she was sure her encounter with the boy from their rival pack was going to stir up more trouble than she wanted to be responsible for. She hadn't intended for things to get as violent as they had, but she hadn't had a choice in the matter. She could only defend herself as best she could, and at the time, her best meant escaping as fast as she could. Again, she was lucky to have found an opportunity by the time the vicious fight was said and done.

And so she laid, her head nestled between her forearms that were no longer creamy but blood-stained. Laboring to breathe, managing only to suck in shallow breaths and wheeze them back out, a long, slow whine escaped her. If no one found her tonight, she didn't know if she'd live to see the sun rise.

A time went by and she felt only slightly relieved in the grand scheme of things when she was able to finally catch her breath. The incident itself hadn't been traumatizing, really, but the anxiety she felt in not knowing if she'd make it home or not had thrown her for a loop. It all had just begun to settle in and she realized she'd survived. Most likely, she'd regain some of her strength if she could rest enough and when she was able, she'd attempt to seek someone out. But she was hardly ready, not yet.

Lyanna hadn't moved an inch by the time she caught the sound of someone moving through the forest. She could only imagine what a mess she looked like, battered as she was and covered in her aggressor's disgusting scent. The pad falls came nearer and finally upon her and she didn't even move to see who it was until his voice broke over the quiet of the approaching night.

Askan. Damn him. The one person she longed for the most at the moment and the one person she didn't want to see her like this. His tone was not the least bit kind, and she reckoned that was just fine. She'd certainly earned whatever was coming to her now.

She remained still as he sniffed over her. When he was done she shakily lifted her head, saying nothing as a low whine expressed her need for his comfort - which she most likely would not get - and begged for a sliver of kindness. Whether he liked it or not, he was essentially all she had. And even if she didn't want him to look upon her now, she was incredibly happy to see him - as always.

Pushing herself up to sit, her golden eyes found his, bright and weary against the backdrop of her bloody, muddy face. "I'm fine, Askan," she replied in a quiet, withdrawn sort of voice with a tone that was a far cry from her usually upbeat one when it came to conversing with him. "I was attacked by a wolf belonging to our new neighbors up north." She attempted a feeble smile, attempted to make a joke about the irony of it, but as she craned her neck to get a good look at him, the pain shot through her like a bolt of lightning. She winced, her brows furrowing together. Explaining her failure to him couldn't have felt any more against the grain.

"I'd been tracking a herd through Kingsfall, had been for several days," she began, sure that - at minimum - he'd want to know what happened. "When our paths crossed he mentioned being one of them, that the area was their hunting ground. I told him nothing of Shallows Edge, only that we were allied with the Surge and that Kingsfall was plenty big enough, that it was neutral ground. He didn't like it, said that if we went up there then they'd come down here. I let him know they wouldn't be welcome if they came traipsing around, and the rest is history, I guess."

She was in for it, now.

And she wasn't ready for his backlash, not after what she'd been through, but she was willing to take it. What choice did she have.

Askan didn't have much to say but it was easy to see that the incident and its implications had put him on edge as he gritted his teeth.

To state that the attack had wounded her ego was correct. She'd only been doing her job, and she'd been at it - tracking that herd - for a number of days before her efforts had been so gruesomely ended. It hadn't been for lack of trying, though. She'd given it everything she had. She'd made good time. She'd been diligent. She'd been as careful as she could have been, and at least it wasn't the coyotes that had gotten to her. She'd done her best to represent her pack with the respect they deserved. The whole ordeal had made her angry; the Keep's wolf was hardly justified in what he'd chosen to do to her, in a place that didn't belong to anyone. All in all, she wasn't going to lose any sleep over it but the feeling of defeat was nothing underwhelming. She would see to it that he got what he deserved. That was, unless Askan saw to it first, and she had zero doubt in her mind that he would succeed in a way that would more than sate her desire for justice.

This pack to the north had crossed the Driftwood Surge and Shallows Edge in no time at all. If they were looking for war, perhaps it would descend upon them all sooner than they could hope for, even if the matter was not up to her.

The dark man instructed her to get up. Without hesitation she gave it her best shot, her legs quivering beneath her, her body shaking as she searched for whatever strength she had left. A sharp breath left her chest as she faltered for a moment before leaning into her friend and Leader. She pressed her cheek into hard muscle of his neck, fighting the welling tears that caused her defeated amber eyes to glisten. Lyanna didn't know where they were going, but she had nothing but trust invested in Askan. She'd follow wherever he led her.

With her inability to keep the tears at bay, even as quietly as she'd fought them, she easily felt Askan's tension. It was a known fact to her that he wasn't into that, and surely had no tolerance for weakness in anyone, but it wasn't sadness or regret or disappointment that had brought the wave of emotion crashing over her; it was the feeling of finally being safe. The feeling of his warm, strong body next to hers. The feeling of relief that just the sound of his voice brought her. Lyanna was a strong girl - getting her ass handed to her wasn't unbearable and it certainly wasn't going to break her. Just the opposite, this little bump in the road was going only going to make her fierce.

But she wouldn't convey that to him. Right now, all the could think about was literally putting one unsteady foot in front of the other until they made it to the sort-of healer's den, less her legs gave out from under her.

Askan made the grandest effort then, and instead of kicking her to the curb the second she'd made him uncomfortable with her teariness, he comforted her with three little words. Wow, they were really making progress by leaps and bounds here, weren't they? He also reassured her that the transgression would not slip by unaddressed, and made her a promise of sorts - that he and Reyes would deal with it, would deal with him. Somehow she knew his words to be true. His comment about pulling the boy's teeth out was the icing on the cake.

Perhaps she should have had more to say, but the energy to put any effort into talking or anything beside moving forward just wasn't there. But, before anything unforeseen could possibly happen, she wanted to be sure that Askan's had at least some notion of who'd perpetrated the act. With a marked effort she inhaled the best deep breath she could muster, the words slipping from her mouth sounding much more apathetic that she'd intended. "...His fur was black, and his eyes were grey." As if getting it out had equated to running a marathon, the girl was beginning to feel a little lightheaded. Just a little further, she told herself.

"It's really good to see you, Askan." she mustered, nearly a whisper as her vision began to get a little hazy. The light that lived in her golden eyes was fading, and she stumbled once before leaning the brunt of her weight into him, her consciousness beginning to wane.

It was all quite the blur as the pair finally managed their way to the sort-of healer's den. On the inside, the plethora of aromas gave her a hint of stimulation. A handful of them smelled familiar, though when she tried to put a name to any of them she found she couldn't, and couldn't really see much of anything, either. How ridiculous this was all turning out to be. The feel of fur beneath her feet meant that this would be a good place to stop, or drop, and as Askan nudged her she did just that.

"Rest," he'd ordered. Unfortunately Lyanna had already passed clear out before her body had even hit the floor, so she hadn't caught that last bit. For a second it might have appeared as if she'd went ahead and died on him, but within a few seconds when her brain caught a little blood flow, she inhaled a long breath and sighed it out with a meek groan. When she came back to, she could think a little more clearly. The fur on the floor felt nice against her face, but it was colder than she'd hoped for in her hypovolemic state. There was quietness within the confines of the little infirmary, enough that she could hear the sound of Askan breathing.

It could have been anyone's guess as to when someone who actually knew how to apply anything of use would be around. For the time being it was just the two of them, and the thought crossed her mind that if Askan left out, she'd be alone. She squinted with one eye to peek at the side of his face, as if to be sure he was really there, before letting it flutter closed.

"...Stay with me."