Anduin had never been the type to freeze in shock when something terrible happened. This time, however, that's exactly what he did.

He'd started to feel the pull of fatigue in his muscles sometime after they'd left Silverton. He hadn't really thought much of it, considering they had just eaten lunch, and simply put a little more effort into his wingbeats. The fatigue kept growing though, to the point that he was starting to feel some concern when he'd noticed Jacen descending toward the treetops. Feeling a bit of relief, Anduin descended after him, Toby keeping pace at his side.

Then, it happened. A feeling of his stomach dropping and twisting, then the draining of his magic. Only a second had passed before he realized he was no longer in his owl form and for a moment, he froze in disbelief. He could see Jacen frantically waving his arms and had even caught himself instinctively doing the same before realizing it was useless.

A brief glance at Toby showed a stunned Othánas looking in horror at the ground below. As they plummeted to the trees, he tried to grab onto a branch, perhaps with the thought of slowing his fall.

We are so dead…

As wood crashed and splintered all around him, he bounced from branch to branch like one of those pinballs in that game machine Sarah had brought to the Estates. Something hit his right shoulder hard and he heard himself scream. Pain shot through him like lightning before he heard a dull thud.

Then darkness.

His head hurt. It hurt a lot.

His shoulder hurt even more, and with every beat of his heart, it throbbed in hot agony. Every time he took a breath, he felt a sizzle of pain shoot down from his shoulder like a lance. Anduin gritted his teeth, concentrating on getting the pain under control so he could find Jacen and Toby. If he couldn't control the pain, he wouldn't be able to move, and all three of them would end up lying here until a bear ambled along to eat them.

Slowly, almost too slowly, he was able to isolate the pain enough to open his eyes. To his immediate right, he saw Toby. He'd been relatively fortunate during his fall… he'd managed to find a rather full foliage bush to collide with. He was sprawled on his back over the bush and looked for all the world like he was sitting in a green, leafy reclining chair. His eyes were closed, but he was stirring.

He looked around for Jacen, scanning the immediate area. He'd gone down right in front of him, so it followed that he should be somewhere nearby. Turning his head as best he could from his position on his stomach, he realized that he was lying face down on a pad of thin branches and leaves, no doubt brought down with him during his plummet. Part of him was a bit amused… his pinballing with the tree had broken off the branches that ended up saving his life.

He groaned and closed his eyes as he tried to turn over, his shoulder lighting up again with excruciating pain. A hand closed over his wrist.

"Stay still, Anduin. Let me have a look."

It was Toby. Anduin opened his eyes again to look at his friend more closely. He was scratched up, and there were marks on his face that would bloom into some spectacular bruises, but he was mobile. He held his left arm out from his body and used his right to run his fingers around the area of Anduin's shoulder.

"Broken. Collarbone for sure. I don't know if your shoulder blade is broken too, but it doesn't seem to be. Any pain in your chest or stomach?"

Anduin's voice was hoarse as he replied, "No. The boughs I ripped coming down seem to have cushioned me. You?"

"My forearm… I think it's either broken or fractured. My right's okay. Legs are fine, just scratched up. Can you move your toes?"

Anduin wiggled his toes in his boots. "Yeah. No pain there either. I mean… other than bruising."

"Okay. I'm going to check your other shoulder and then we're going to get you sitting up."

After a brief examination of his left shoulder, Toby hooked his right arm under Anduin's left and slowly pulled him up. Grunting in pain with every movement, Anduin was able to get himself sitting properly with Toby's help. As soon as he was upright, he scanned the area again.

"Where's Jace?"

Before Toby could answer, they both heard a muffled groan. Turning to face the direction of the sound, Anduin felt his eyes widen in shock.

Jacen was in a tree. Hanging by his left ankle.

Briefly scanning the lack of damage to the tree that he was in, it appeared that Jacen had been on a trajectory to belly flop right on the hard ground, and by the grace of Danu had gotten his ankle wedged into the fork of a branch. This stopped his fall, his head dangling only about two feet off the ground. His eyes were open, and he looked back at Anduin in dazed confusion.

"Hang on, Jace," said Toby. "We're coming."

After Toby wrestled Anduin onto his feet, they staggered over to Jacen. Looking at the branch, he saw that it was barely hanging onto the tree by a strip of bark. Toby apparently saw the same thing that he did, since he immediately moved to Jacen, grabbing him under his arms and pulling him as upright as he could. Anduin reached up to the branch with his left hand, using his claws to sever that strip of bark that was holding the branch to the tree. He heard Jacen's cry of pain as his legs impacted the ground, his weight pulling Toby down, too. Both of them were sitting on the forest floor, breathing heavily.

"Okay Jace, what hurts?" asked Toby.

Jacen turned his head and gave him a weak glare, "The better question is… 'what doesn't'?"

Anduin smiled, "He must be relatively okay if he's being sarcastic." He reached forward to help get Jacen off of Toby's lap and sitting properly. As gently as he could, he drew off Jacen's boot, trying not to hear his hiss of pain. He checked Jacen's ankle quickly, sending silent thanks to Danu that it only seemed to be sprained. Jacen's right arm, though…

"Yeah, it's broken," Jacen said with a groan. "I was trying to grab a branch and break my fall. I ended up snapping it instead." His eyes narrowed in on Anduin. "Yours is gone, too?"

"My what?"

Jacen closed his eyes briefly. "Your magic. Can you transport? Even to Silverton?"

Dread pooled in the pit of Anduin's stomach. "I've got nothing. Toby?"

Toby shook his head, "Nothing. No can do. But we need to get to the cabin. We're close. We can wrap your ankle and make our way there. Then, we can set that break and see what we can do about Anduin's shoulder." He pulled his dagger and tried to cut a strip from his tunic. "Anduin, can you hold this steady for a moment?"

Anduin reached with his left hand to hold the fabric taut. Toby made quick work of it, cutting enough strips to wrap Jacen's injuries as tightly as he could. To Jacen's credit, he didn't make a sound while his ankle and arm were wrapped, although his lips went white and bloodless.

That done, they moved to either side of Jacen, using their good arms to get him to his feet. All three of them stood for a few long moments, pain etched on their faces and breathing rather heavily.

That's when he sensed it. Something was watching them. Before he could say anything, Jacen started to growl softly, then louder. Toby joined him, throwing in a snarl or two, then Anduin's growl blended in with theirs. The three of them twisted until they stood almost back to back, facing the forest around them. Slowly, the sensation of being watched faded.

"Okay… you want to tell me why we just did that, Jace?" asked Toby.

"Didn't you feel it? We were being watched. I don't know by what, but… it wasn't friendly."

"Yeah, I felt it," said Anduin. "Probably a bear, curious and scenting something wounded."

"No," said Jacen slowly. "That wasn't a bear. I don't know what it was, but it was hostile. I could feel it. And… it was big. The whole forest got quiet there for a bit."

"Still is," said Toby, looking around wide-eyed. "Maybe it went away but didn't go far."

"Let's get the hell out of here," murmured Anduin.

Slowly, the three made their way, Anduin and Toby holding up Jacen between them as he hobbled on his one good foot. Thankfully, they were on a relatively level section of the mountain. He didn't want to think about how hard this trek would have been over steeply angled ground.

He lost track of time, just concentrating on moving forward and pushing the pain as far back in his mind as he could. Despite the coolness of the air, he was sweating profusely, as were the other two. The silence of the forest was interspersed with quiet grunts, hisses and sometimes whispered curses as they made their painstaking way to the cabin.

Once we get there, we can rest. Take care of the hurts. Tomorrow we'll have enough magic to go home…

They rounded a stand of trees, one of which had an Aboveground rubber tire roped to a branch as a swing.

Almost there… almost there…

Then, they came into the clearing where the cabin had been built. Instantly, Anduin could tell that something was wrong. A quick glance at the cabin proved him correct.

The door was broken off its hinges.