2. The desperate and the bold.

His doze didn't last very long, at least he didn't think it did,-it was getting so hard to tell anything anymore,- for footsteps from the trail roused his attention again.

He wasn't alone anymore, but he still had a duty and he managed to lift his head and pull his lips back, even as elf-that-purred brought his bow back up, pointing it the way they had both come. These footfalls had no hesitation, and they rushed ever on, closer and closer.

A figure forced it's way through the brush in the same manner the last had, and she came to just a sudden stop as the last. Lady-that-sung stared down at them, her pure determination fading into one of simultaneous relief and worry. It struck him as amusing how near totally she had repeated the same motions as elf-that-purred.

"Leliana!" Elf-that-purred quickly lowered his weapon and sighed slowly.

"Zeverna! You found them!" Lady-that-sung was quickly at their sides, her wide eyes passing over elf-that-purred and settling first on mistress and then on himself. "My poor, dear grey warden," her hands found their way to mistress's face, stroking her thumbs against the gaunt cheeks. "Makers breath, how badly were you hurt?" her voice had become a whisper, her eyes trailing from the wound on her face, to his own hurt frame.

"Badly," elf-that-purred sounded somewhat grim, but he pulled off a mild grin. "but the pooch here took real good care of her, went for a walk, then cleaned the good lady up. If her amour is any indication, she was fairly coated in blood."

Lady-that-sung rested one hand upon mistress's shoulder, and the other reached out to gently stroke between his eyes. "Such a brave warrior you are, noble hound," she said, looking him right in the eyes. "to withstand such trials, and bring you both safely through this."

He let out a long sigh and resumed his resting position. Mistress's breathing was still shallow under him, but her pack was coming together, it would be alright.

He listened with half an ear to the talk between the two, knowing that both of them wanted to wait for soft-voiced-lady, who would heal mistress before any more action would be taken.

"He carried her all the way here." elf-that-purred commented.

"I can see that," Lady-that-sung replied without any trace of sting. "brave and noble, more worthy warriors of song you'd be hard pressed to find…"

"… what do you know of the others?" elf-that-purred asked.

"I haven't seen any one else since we spilt up in the clearing…"

"Damn… how did you get here so quickly?"

"I ran."

"Funny but-"

"How did you find them?"

"Found the trail."

"There wasn't one, we all looked…"

Elf-that-purred chuckled again, and he felt the rough hand accompany Lady-that-sung's soft strokes atop his head.

"Not for a ways, no. You wouldn't think it, but this big brute is pretty good at hiding his trail, wasn't until I hit the deer path the second time that I found any trace of them."

Through half-lidded eyes, he saw the dark hand reach down for mistress's dagger, presenting the pommel to lady-that-sung almost as though it was some kind of sacred object.

"Ran across this, and it gave me enough of a clue to start looking in all the right places."

The two went silent, but their hands continued their affectionate stoking of his head.

"Damn good dog." Elf-that-purred commented.

"Greatest dog that ever lived." Lady-that-sung corrected vehemently.

Again, the clearing lapsed into silence, each lost to their own thoughts and worries, but the night had been stirred into action, and their quiet reprieve was quickly ended.

A loud barking 'caw' and the beating of wings from overhead drew all their gazes back to the sky, three pairs of eyes following the strange black shape that blotted out the glittering stars as it circled downward.

He was reminded of the crow from earlier and of the comparative to dragon-eyed-lady, but this thing was larger. A raven, he guessed.

Quite a strange irony it was when the raven swooped close to them, beat it's wings back a couple of times, then, in a glare of white light, morphed back into the very woman he had initially compared it too.

Dragon-eyed-lady stared down placidly at them, the perfect contrast to the previous two intruders upon this valley. She seemed neither particularly glad to see any of them, nor particularly worried over the bloodied state of him or mistress. Looks didn't tell the whole story, he knew, and thanks to the brief wind her own wings had created, he caught the faint smell of both apprehension and relief, a sort of sticky sweet mix that clung to his nose.

"So, our esteemed leader and her mongrel are finally found," dragon-eyed-lady always spoke as if she was somewhat exasperated about something, and this night was no different. "bloodied, battered, and beaten as always. 'Tis truly a wonder we do as well as we do in this forgone quest."

"And it is always a joy to have your company with us in our most desperate moments, Morrigan." Lady-that-sung practically growled, the hand resting on mistress's arm balling into a fist.

"I should think so," Dragon-eyed lady replied, unfazed, as she strode slowly around to stand at the same side of mistress he lay upon. "as it is often my talents that get us all out of the messes our grey warden here gets us into."

"How about now then, eh?" Elf-that-purred clipped his syllables just slightly. "would you care to use a few talents to help out our extremely hurt leader? Or at the very least, her faithful hound? Who took her away from the hungry mouths we saw fit to do away with earlier?"

He twisted his head back around to look up at the face of dragon-eyed-lady, she had a dangerous little grin upon her dark lips, and an irritated glint in her eyes, he got the impression that she had emotional turmoil during this night, and the prodding of elf-that-purred wasn't doing her temperament any good.

"If I wanted to set them on fire, give them horrid nightmares, or even blow them up, that would be a wonderful suggestion." her dangerous look slipped into a wary one and she glanced about the clearing. "my powers are better at destruction. You know that, elf."

Turning his head back around, he could see that both elf-that-purred and lady-who-sung were about to reply with sting in their words, but he gave them both a short bark, quelling any further arguments. It was the sort of thing mistress would've done, in-fighting in the pack served no one but their enemies, and if ever they shared a common goal, it was here and now in the darkest gloom of night. They needed each other.

Dragon-eyed-lady seemed content to stand behind him, leaning on her staff and ever watchful of everything around them, and both elf-that-purred and lady-who-sung bent their heads back to mistress, easily letting go of whatever qualms they had with the witch.

A high yelp from the woods made them all jump, and the following crashing and crunching of brush and tree branches made all three of the watchful two legs tense up and reach for their weapons. But unlike the last few times, he knew exactly who was approaching, and also knew the man was probably less of a threat to them than the multiple night creatures in the woods all around them.

"Ow ow ow, damn forest, cursed darkspawn,-" the cursing preceded the man into the clearing by nearly a minute, and by the time the heavy plate laden figure stumbled off the deer path and free of the brush, they were all resting in undisturbed postures again.

"Lovely, the idiot in shining armor has been found," Dragon-eyed-lady was always quick with an insult to this particular pack mate. "I was beginning to wonder if we'd have to go off searching for the other grey warden after just loosing track of our first one."

Grey-tainted-man only gave the smirking dragon-eyed-lady the briefest of heated glares, before jogging up to them and dropping to his knees at mistress's feet. "Thank the maker," he sighed, reaching out and affectionately patting the other warden upon the knee. "I swear, elf," he went on with mock seriousness talking directly to his unaware comrade. "when you're back on your feet, I'm going to strangle you." he dropped his head in his hand and shook it. "running off by yourself, damn."

"She wasn't alone," Lady-that-sung interrupted grey-tainted-man's private berate quietly, pointedly running her hand back over his broad head. "and if it wasn't for his strength, she'd be dead."

Grey-tainted-man looked at him for the first time, then surprisingly laughed lightly. "Of course he did, he's mabari, he'd follow her to hell even if she told him to stay home. I'm the one who keeps saying how amazing, how amazing these hounds are, yet no one believes me."

"He carried her all the way here." elf-that-purred put it, sounding slightly in awe.

Grey-tainted-man nodded, placing a gauntleted hand on his neck and carefully rubbing around the many cuts and pained spots. "I believe it, he's probably smarter and definitely far more self sacrificing than many humans I've met." then he turned a mild glare to dragon-eyed-lady.

"What in the name of all Ferldan is that poisonous look for? I did not discredit anything the mongrel did or did not do. I have not, in fact, said anything about him at all." Dragon-eyed-lady sounded highly irritated, apparently she enjoyed bothering grey-tainted-man to no end, but didn't appreciated the returned negativity if it didn't seem warranted.

"Oh, it's not that at all, it's just that I find it a sad irony that I find a greater range of human emotion in a dog the size of a small pony than I have ever been able to find in you, Morrigan."

He could actually feel dragon-eyed-lady stiffen behind him, the very air around her grew colder.

"You, know what? I take that back, what's really sad is that the only emotions you are capable of showing, to any other human, and- I don't know,- maybe even feeling, are those of contempt, disinterest, and selfishness, where as the hound here is only capable of compassion, loyalty, and undying love." grey-tainted-man bared his teeth up at the dark woman. "Tell me, Morrigan, do you even have a heart under that breast of yours? Or did your mother take it out and eat it while you weren't looking?"

The hound understood that grey-tainted-man was really only using his dislike for dragon-eyed-lady as an excuse to vent his troubled feelings, but it did worry him that there was such conviction in his tone. This was the sort of thing that destroyed a pack, the kind of in-fighting that their enemies tried to plant in them to break up their strength. Unfortunate it was that only he and mistress truly understood that, she still in danger of death, and he without words to speak.

Dragon-eyed-lady took a step closer to them, the air around her swirling with a dark energy he could practically taste, he only had to move his head on mistress's belly slightly to get a full view of dragon-eyed-lady. He had never seen a more frightening look upon her face, yet she smiled in an unholy anger.

"Perhaps I took it out and did away with it myself, since the trivial emotions you name only serve to weaken the greatest warriors. You would be a fine enough example of such, if you weren't already such an idiot. So I'll just use our downed leader here as an example instead-"

"Don't you dare!" grey-tainted-man interrupted, jumping to his feet with a swiftness that didn't seem possible. "don't you even dare, she's been there for you more times than anyone in your life has been , probably more times than you even deserve, and she's never even hinted that she's needed anything in return. Don't even give me any of your bullshit! In her hour of need the least you can do is show some respect!"

The darkness in the air condensed, tightening painfully, as the anger between the two grew stronger. The magic of dragon-eye-lady,-the same kind of energy that a fire would emanate,- was the kind that one would only have to stand too close to to get burnt.

He was far to close to dragon-eyed-lady, and his body was already in pain.

The darkness accidentally lashed his broken foot, he yelped hard and tried desperately not to jerk against mistress's hurt frame, even as agony lashed though his paw. Whimpering and shaking, he twitched, almost wishing that one or the other of the fighting two hadn't shown up.

"Stop it!" Lady-that-sung suddenly yelled, throwing glares with equal heat to both guilty parties. "These two have been through hell tonight, they don't need the pair of you squabbling over petty differences while they lie here dying!"

No one bothered to point out that so long as they could be healed before the night was through, they would probably be fine, mostly because the point was still a strong one.

"What would the warden say to us if she saw us fighting like this?" the question seemed directed more at grey-tainted-man.

Grey-tainted-man's head bowed in sudden shame, his gaze falling over him as he still lay shivering next to mistress, then slowly lowered himself back onto one knee, saddened eyes sweeping over the two of them. "She'd, she'd tell us to stop acting like children, that we're all a team, despite our differences,"

"Then she'd say that we aren't hampered by our differences, but greatened because of them." elf-that-purred continued, nodding slightly.

Behind him, dragon-eyed-lady sighed and stepped back, the darkened air slowly draining away. "And then she'd probably regale us with a tale of how her clan's Keeper would have dealt with us, something about tying our wrists together for a full day. Then something about the moral of team work, or some such thing."

Lady-that-sung nodded, looking over them all. "The greatest thing we can do for her is to always remember what she tries to teach us as she leads us to our destinies. We might all feel differently about her, but I do know that we all trust her, she's earned that trust many times over, and I say that trust for her actions should extend to her words."

"Well spoken, Lelianna," a new voice joined the crowd, smooth and calming like water over rocks. "I couldn't have said it any better myself."

Soft-voiced-lady gracefully parted her way into the clearing, and her appearance did much to bring relief to all present, the moonlight shining off her silver staff and pure white hair in much the same way he had seen in the tapestries of the chantry, a blessed sight to see.

"Wynne, oh thank the Maker." Lady-that-sung sighed, getting quickly to her feet to leave room for soft-voiced-lady at mistress's side.

"You have no idea how glad we are to see you." Grey-tinted-man said with great earnestness, and he couldn't have agreed more.

"I can imagine, young Alistair," soft-voiced-lady did not hesitate as she took the place of lady-that-sung, and quickly reached her hands up to examine the cut upon mistress's forehead. "I came as swiftly as I could, following that rather ingenious beacon, who thought of that?" she asked the question without looking up, running her long fingers through mistress's tangled hair, looking for more injuries under the thick layers.

"I did," elf-that-purred answered without a hint of gloating pride, just a solemn honesty. "just a little something I picked up on one of my many adventures, figured it might do the trick, and it did, eh pooch?"

It was the first time in a while someone had directly spoken to him, and he was dismayed to realize he barely had enough energy to whine a low response.

"My goodness, you poor thing," soft-voiced-lady was talking to him now, her eyes trailing along the many long injures half hidden under his blood encrusted coat. "did anyone try to take a look at your hurts yet?"

Touched as he was at her concern, he would much rather she focus on mistress first, and he tried to demonstrate that by burying his head further down into the elf's belly.

"As concerned for her as ever, but I'm afraid I'm going to have to ask you to move, faithful hound. I need to check her over and find what needs healing first."

Without hesitation, he slipped his head off her body and half rolled, half crawled a few inches away from her prone form, giving soft-voiced-lady space to examine mistress.

"Good boy." her hands reached out for the edge of the blanket and carefully rolled it back.

Collectively, everyone in the clearing -apart from himself and elf-that-purred, the only two who had seen the extent of the damage- gasped. Lady-that-sung bit her lower lip and looked away, he could see lines of water under her eyes, grey-tainted-man recoiled slightly and swore, looking as if he might be sick. Behind him, dragon-eyed-lady shook her head and tapped her fingers uncomfortably against her staff, jaw tightening.

For her part, soft-voiced-lady took a moment to close her eyes and shudder very slightly. "By Andraste's life and breath, what horrors you both have endured." her moment was over quickly and her skilled healers hands began to run over the elf, seeking out the worst of the wounds. "Broken ribs, bleeding inside no doubt…" she was only talking to herself, but everyone in the clearing hung on her every word.

"Perchance would one of you be so kind as to help me?" her voice raised and she spoke to all, without ever taking her eyes off her charge.

He got the strange feeling that most of them would have been willing to face a troupe of darkspawn by themselves if she said it would help, perhaps that was just because it was something he'd be willing to do, even as hurt as he was.

"We'd be poor companions if we let her loyal hound continue to suffer, after all he has done to bring her to safety, and it doesn't look like anyone has taken a look at him yet, could someone…?"

The sentence wasn't even finished before he felt the hand of grey-tainted-man reaching out for his skull, and lady-that-sung walked around mistress to come to his side, he even felt dragon-eyed-lady kneel at his back.

"Poor boy, we've been terrible friends haven't we? Just so worried about your master that we didn't even think of your hurts. Don't worry boy, we'll fix you up." grey-tainted man moved closer to him and began to carefully run his heavy hands through his coat, forcing dried flakes of blood to fall loose.

Lady-that-sung was at his back legs and had carefully taken his broken paw in her hands, running her fingers lightly over it to feel the extent of the break, murmuring soft comforts to him as she did.

It felt like cold water was being run over his back, reaching into his wounds and easing the sting with pleasant numbness. He realized after a moment that it was indeed water, dragon-eyed-lady ran her hand a few inches over his body, a strange glowing spell passing between her hand and his flesh as she did so.

None of them could do anything to heal the wounds, but his skin loosened under grey-tainted-man's rough strokes, the hard gauntlet doing much to get rid of the dried blood and loosen his clumped fur. The warmth from the bare hands of lady-that-sung did much to bring back the greatly needed warmth in the mangled limb. And while the spell of dragon-eyed-lady was usually much more effective in freezing opponents solid in their tracks, her careful application very easily numbed much of the lingering sting in the deep gashes.

Elf-that-purred had taken a watchful position not far off, his dark eyes keeping vigil for them all.

He let out a long sigh and let himself relax lower to the ground. Perhaps they were really only helping him so much because it was easier for them to have something to do, rather than to stand uselessly by, but perhaps they had some kind of newfound respect for him, now that they had seen just how hard he had fought to keep their grey warden safe. The thought gave him a small amount of comfort.

A glittering light from mistress's position made him lift his head back up, and his caretakers all paused to watch the same scene. Soft-voiced-lady had one hand upon her staff and the other hovering just above mistress's chest. Eyes closed, she chanted soft slow words, both hands glowing a pure white.

Amazedly, he watched the effect of the spell unfold as places in mistress's chest moved, the drake-scale amour rising in places were there had just been a shallow dip, the bones under her skin refitting and knitting together again. Soft-voiced-lady slowly lifted her hand higher, and mistress's chest followed.

The elf inhaled a long, deep breath, -the first one she had been able to breathe all night- then let it out slowly, the next inhale came easily and surely. The deep gashes still adorned every limb, and he could still smell the blood under her amour, but she was no longer gulping down shallow gasps, her forehead already had lessened it's lines of pain.

"Wynne, you are a miracle worker, you are." grey-tainted-man sighed.

Soft-voiced-lady chuckled lowly. "Hardly, Alistair, it's not something that only the greatest mages can perform, any circle mage worth her salt knows how to heal. I've just had enough years of doing it to know where to start, it's a skill that can often determine how long the patient is in your care."

He whined slightly, tapping his short tail as he watched mistress breath easier.

Apparently picking up on his anxiety, lady-that-sung asked with the emotion in her tone. "but will she be alright?"

Soft-voiced-lady leaned back upon her folded legs, and nodded slightly, brows furrowed in thought. "As long as I can study her body completely to see if there are any wounds even slightly as bad as the ones I just healed, and she can get plenty of rest, yes. She's not quite out of danger yet," soft-voiced-lady added quickly, as though she intended to keep everyone alert. "I need to get her out of the amour to get to her other injures, and she has lost a lot of blood."

"Then what are you waiting for, exactly?" Dragon-eyed-lady was resting one hand against his back, for support he guessed, as she leaned over him to speak to the older human. "An invitation? She's not going to wake up long enough to give you permission to undress her, I doubt she will mind about modesty if she dies for fear of privacy."

Soft-voiced-lady frowned over at her. "For the first time since I met you, Morrigan, I find myself agreeing with you, however," she lifted a hand before the witch could shoot back a reply. "I will not risk greater infection here, and while magic can heal most everything, I find clean bandages can still make things progress much faster." she looked back down at mistress. "We will need to move her back to camp."

There was a short pause, in which elf-that-purred moved back to their knot.

"Can we do that? I mean, the hound took her all the way here, but can we move her now without hurting her more?" he shifted his weight from one foot to the other.

Soft-voiced-lady nodded again. "I believe so, I have healed the broken ribs and most of the internal damage, so long as we are careful, we can take her back without any difficulty."

"Good."

The single word made everyone jump, the deep tone it was spoken in was familiar enough, but the owners proximity hadn't been noticed.

Man-of-bronze-skin easily jumped down from the shallow hill on their left, his bulk somehow making the valley feel even smaller.

"Then let us waste no more time in taking the warden back to safety." as clipped and to the point as ever, he either didn't notice or outright ignored the varying looks from his fellow two legs.

The pack was here, they had been found, he and mistress. And they had come, all of them rushing to their sides, and each doing their own part to help. He felt such a great swelling of pride at the fact, he may have chosen a less dire situation for the confirmation, but now he would forever know, they were truly a pack. Let all their enemies tremble in fear, together they would cut a swath in the enemy ranks the likes of which had yet to be seen. Mistress was alpha, and in her need, in her silence, they realized they could still stand strong and powerful together.

He knew it was a lesson none of the two legs would ever really forget.

"Damn Sten, give a man some warning before you go creeping out of the shadows like that, you could make someone die of fright alone." Grey-tainted-man sighed.

"And had I been darkspawn, I would have done much more than startle you to ensure your end. It is not my concern that you were not as watchful as you should have been." man-of-bronze skin walked up to stand next to elf-that-purred, towering over him in much the same way as a mountain to a tree. "but your lack of observation doesn't concern me, not now." the giant looked from mistress to soft-voiced-lady. "Wynne, you are certain she should be taken back to camp?"

Soft-voiced-lady began to pull the blanket back over mistress's prone form, doing her best to tuck in all the edges. "Yes I am, I'm afraid that I do not have any lithreum potions with me, or any other such supplies, and I will need our stores to do this healing properly."

Man-of-bronze-skin grunted. "I suppose no one else thought to take supplies with them when we set off? No healing potions, of any kind?"

Only the uncomfortable shifting of feet answered him.

"Well, we just took off so suddenly, and after we found the clearing… didn't even think of going back really…" Grey-tainted-man mumbled for them all.

He found it somewhat amusing that the pack had all forgotten of the energy giving drinks, the bitter red kind that sent fire through the limbs and eased the pain of wounds, helping them to heal faster, though not instantly.

"Then it is a good thing the warden was located in time, for it seems that without her, we are incapable of even sorting out our supplies for our quests." man-of-bronze-skin said dryly, and no one dared to question whether the statement extended to himself as well. "but enough of this, let us be on our way."

Without any word of protest from the others, man-of-bronze-skin knelt down next to soft-voiced-lady and very carefully slid his broad arms under mistress's much smaller body, lifting her to his chest as though her weight was nothing to him. He rose, mistress's head lying limply against the hard metal plate of his breastplate, and the other rose with him.

All except lady-who-sung, who still cradled his broken paw.

"Wynne," she said softly, then gestured to his injury with her other hand. "Do you have enough energy left to heal this? It's the least we can do for him here."

Soft-voiced-lady moved to stand over lady-who-sung, her wise eyes carefully studying his paw. "Yes, but I'm afraid it will hurt."

He grunted slightly. Everything hurt, it would just be nice to be able to walk properly.

Soft-voiced-lady chuckled. "Very well, then." and she reach her hand down as it began to glow.

It did hurt, and he yelped out in startled surprise at how much it hurt, kicking his front legs against the ground, clawing long lines in the soil as the bones shifted back into position, the ligaments reconnected, and the skin sealed over. But the moment was over quickly and then his foot was let back down on the ground, sore, but otherwise healed.

No need to be lying around anymore, the pack was taking mistress to safety, and he would not be idle, despite his exhausted state. He hauled himself up without a second thought, and was grateful that the shaking in his legs wasn't as bad as he thought it might be.

He woofed, then, stumbling slightly, made his way up to man-of-bronze-skin, as close as he could be to mistress.

Ever respectful, man-of-bronze-skin nodded down at him and pressed his shoulder into the brush, forcing it aside in a way that spared mistress further harm, and stepping back upon the deer trail, himself right behind, and the others falling in step along the path.

Somehow, the walk back to the clearing felt shorter than the walk away from it had, perhaps because mistress's weight was no longer slowing him down, or maybe because now he knew exactly where he was going and how far it was, or maybe it was as simple as the fact that walking downhill was always easier than treading up. Though in the end, it didn't matter how much shorter the walk felt, he couldn't make it all the way.

If it was possible for his mind to grasp the concept, he might have cursed himself for his weakness, for his worn and cold body, for having come so far only to falter at the end, but that kind of thinking was not natural to a mabari, and so all he registered was that the others of his pack had easily overtaken him in the places where the deer trail widened, and mistress was being borne further and further from him.

They hadn't even reached the bottom of the hill yet, and all the pack had surpassed him, taking no notice of the fact as lost in their own heads as they were. His paw was no longer broken, but still throbbed with every step he took, the pads of each foot tender on the unyielding ground, and the numbing spell of dragon-eyed-lady was fading away, reminding him all too well of his own wounds and blood loss.

His head hung low to the ground and his breath came harder and shorter with every moment, he might as well been beating upon drums for how loudly he was breathing.

They passed through the break in the trees he had stopped at earlier in the night to gaze over the valley, and he came to a shuddering, final halt. With the moonlight streaming down upon him, he let out a despairingly soft sound somewhere between a whine and a howl, and then slumped to the earth, his legs refusing to take him any further.

So close, yet so far, but mistress was going to be safe, and that was all that counted, he was content, even if the pack didn't notice his absence at their heels, he was certain that they would take care of her. It was all he had ever wanted.

He could still see them all, ahead and below him, trudging their way onwards. Until man-of-bronze-skin came to such a sudden halt that grey-tainted-man nearly collided with him. Ignoring the mild protests from the shorter human, he turned his great bulk around and stared directly up at the downed hound, it was as though he had, felt, the mabari's plight.

The others in the pack followed his gaze, and though their expressions at his depleted state varied from one to another, their silence seemed to grow even grimmer.

Before a single one of them could utter a question, a proposal or even a complaint, man-of-bronze-skin turned to grey-tainted-man with the same grimly serious look he always had and said in the familiar toneless manner. "You consider yourself a strong man, do you not, Alistair?"

Taken aback, grey-tainted-man gaped at man-of-bronze-skin for a moment, looking completely clueless. "Well, yes, I suppose…" then glanced back up at the semi-conscious hound. A look of dawning horror crossed his features, and he looked back to man-of-bronze-skin a protest already forming on his lips, to find the giant man was gently, but firmly pressing mistress's limp body into his arms.

Again, either not noticing or outright ignoring the questioning stares he got from the others as grey-tainted-man fumbled slightly with his new load, man-of-bronze-skin walked back up the hill and knelt at his side.

He shifted his head along the ground so that he could look up into the severe face, he found that as usual, he could not read the look either upon the square face, nor in the dark eyes. But the man left no guessing involved as he placed one hand upon his head. "You are a true warrior, and worthy of respect."

Without so much as a grunt to indicate any discomfort at the heavy load, man-of-bronze-skin slipped his arms under his back legs and abdomen and under his front legs and ribcage, then lifted his whole body clear of the ground in one smooth motion.

The looks of shock upon the faces of the rest of the pack quite mirrored his own feelings, at best he would've thought that one of them might have stayed with him until he regained his strength or perished. But it seemed man-of-bronze-skin truly meant what he had said, and was going to keep him close to mistress. Had he the energy, he would have given the man one of his rare wet kisses, he hoped a short wag of his tail was enough to tell the man of his thanks.

"We are already bearing one wounded comrade safely off this mountain, it would be cowardly and dishonorable to leave behind another." was the only answer man-of-bronze-skin offered the others before taking the both of them back down the trail.

He had to admit that he wasn't all together comfortable, at least not more so than he had been all night, but he accepted the odd posture with a deep gratitude, man-of-bronze-skin considered him an important part of the pack, not just mistress's hound. A great pride grew warmly within his chest, and though the others gave both him and man-of-bronze-skin odd looks as they passed by on the trail, he couldn't help but feel a deep affection for them all, each in a different way, but still present.

Grey-tainted-man stood with a startled look still upon his face, holding mistress and the rough blanket covering her close to his chest, and as man-of-bronze-skin walked by, he extended his head just slightly and gave her a short lick on the forehead.

"Well, er, on we go then!" Grey-tainted-man said from behind them, and half a second later, he heard the resumed footsteps of the others.

Somehow the pace of man-of-bronze skin was rhythmically soothing, and before he knew it, he was sliding back into the black oblivion of sleep, content in the knowledge that the whole pack was heading back to their temporary home.