The Wildwood in fear and faith

Rievaulx blinked. And blinked again. And again, this time squeezing his eyes closed before opening them again. Despite his efforts, the black spots that had begun to dance at the corners of his vision remained. He lowered his head as a shudder shook his body involuntarily. Parfait, he growled, his voice raw and distorted, sounding nothing like himself. Parfait. Aveugles et de la douleur. Je n'ai jamais été aussi vulnérable.

Trust me everything will be alright. After a moment he collected himself and looked up. The female was gone, he realised. What had she said? I'll be back in an hour... she had assured. Pourquoi? he thought as another shudder shook his feeble frame. Why does she care?

She doesn't, a firm voice echoed in the back of his head. C'était un mensonge Elle ne se soucie pas de vous. Shut up, Rievaulx spat, silencing the voice for a moment.

What a sight: a lonely, skinny, mangled wolf talking to himself in the middle of the bloody glen. Rievaulx closed his eyes and opened them quickly again, fearing his vision would disappear if he kept his eyes closed for too long. The fuzzy dark stars continued to dance around the corners of his eyes, flirting and distracting in his peripheral vision. Thinking of what would happen if he were to lose his vision, he felt his heart skip a beat. Vulnérabilité was not a characteristic Rievaulx cared to possess, as he often scored those who were more tender and sensitive than he perceived himself to be. The fact of the matter was that Rievaulx was, in fact, a fragile creature, as his physique was naturally rather small and slender. Pursuit of game often left him winded, and attacking creatures larger than himself often ended in a hideous mess, as seen in today's incident. Had Narimé not have been present in the glen, the cougar would have most certainly had skinny Rievaulx hors d'oeuvre followed by venison.

In a fruitless attempt to ease the pain, Rievaulx lowered himself to the ground and rested on his afflicted side. The stars continued to dance before his eyes. This is it! he moaned, his voice echoing through the glen and into the forest beyond. Je vais mourir!

It had taken her more than an hour to get mack, and Narimé hoped the male had stayed where he was. With his current injuries it was not wise to move around too much as it was. Nari crossed a fresher cougar trail on her way back which sent a shiver straight up her spine. At least the cat was not where the injured male was Instead it seemed to be making its way back to the Rise. Perhaps that was a favorite hunting area of the large tawny creature. Thanking her father or whatever onlooker she might have in the cosmos Nari made it to the injured male without seeing the cougar again.

She spotted the male laying down and suddenly grew very worried. Were the injuries worse than she had originally thought? Oh please don't be dead please... She whimpered through the mouthful of moist and frozen clumps of plant sticking out around her muzzle.

As the gray wolf padded slowly towards him she gave the male a bark so as to alert him of her presence. Then she circled around to his other side and stared into his face with serious eyes full of wory. Dropping the hellebore (Or what she hoped was hellebore) Nari reached out tentatively and licked his shoulder. Would he allow it? Or would she have to pull back from a flash of snapping teeth?

"These herbs will help you somehow. I'm not a healer myself so I'm wasn't sure if they were supposed to be aplied to the injury or eaten. I kinda ate a little to make sure it wouldn't kill you.. or me..heh.. so don't worry it won't poison you or anything. Eat half and I'll chew up the other half to put on your wounds." She didn't ask the male this. No, it wasn't like he had much of a choice in this instance. At least Narimé was pretty sure that this plant was the correct one. It hadn't killed her after eating a little back at the partially frozen pond. If anything it had helped her run here without pain. Her paws were bloody and one claw had almost been puled out after digging through the ice and snow after those plants.