Feral awoke to the sound of a cannon fire. She sat up and looked at the spot next to her. Zephyr was missing.
Before she knew it she was racing out of the cave and alongside the river, tearing towards the marsh with tears racing down her face. "Zephyr!" She screeched, not caring who heard. "Zephyr, where are you?"
She splashed into the marsh, kicking up water and mud. She raced around every tree and jumped over every rock. She needed to find him. She was careless in her panic, tripping over roots and slipping in the mud. She looked hideous when she finally found him standing in the marsh a dead raccoon over his shoulder and his spear in his left hand. She ran to him and embraced him.
"Hey," he said calmly. "You look horrible. What happened to your head?" he asked, running his fingers over a three-inch cut on her forehead that she had gotten from one of her falls. She was suddenly hit by a wall of dizziness and he had to catch her to keep her from falling to the ground. "Whoa, Feral… come on, let's take you back to the Crystal Cave, okay?" He picked her up in his arms and began to carry her out of the marsh. She fell almost limp in his arms, all of her energy lost. On the way back he dipped her in the shallows of the river, washing all the mud and blood off her. The cut on her forehead was still bleeding badly. When they got back to the cave he laid her down on the stones beside the pool and rested her head gently on the ground, rummaging through the contents of his pack. Feral watched with blurry vision as he pulled out a bandage. Wetting his hand he wiped as much blood off her forehead as he could, held the skin together and applied the bandage.
That was when Feral lost consciousness.