Dancing With Wolves

((Continuing from here: https://dragonageafter.forumotion.com/t246-the-long-road-ahead ))

Kassina nodded as Dartmoor described the openness and newness of this place. "Dartmoor feel better when to forest. Forest not much open, more like city. But not bad. Smell better!"

Kassina brightened as she thought of the forest and a smile spread across her face. "When we close pack Kassina go back wolf. Wolf pack know elves with Kassina ok. No hurt Dartmoor. Kassina protect Dartmoor." She said this last firmly as if daring anyone to say otherwise.

"Come, walk now. Tell me 'bout elf... path... panth... When stranger become many. Kassina not know these elves." She began heading once more toward the forest on the horizon, scanning for danger as they went.

"Keeper?" Kassina said the word slowly, recognizing it but not immediately sure why. She walked on in silence for a minute thinking, and then something clicked in her memory. "Old lady. Smell like plants. Like elder alpha." She couldn't even remember the woman's name anymore, she was just a vague memory, more like a wraith from a dream than a real person.

Kassina shook her head to clear it of memories as they approached the forest's edge. She looked up at the sky and realized it was past midday already. She slowed her pace and turned to Dartmoor. Dartmoor hungry? Kassina go hunt lunch? Dartmoor like rabbit? Kassina know how make fire for burn meat." Kassina lifted her head and sniffed the air for a minute and then pointed off on an angle to the left. "Water there." She said and headed off in the direction of a small stream winding it's way out of the forest.

Kassina stopped in a clearing near the stream. She was glad Dartmoor knew how to make a fire because in all honesty she wasn't very good at it. "Dartmoor make fire. Kassina bring rabbits."

With that she changed to wolf form once more and dashed off into the forest. She was so happy to be home again. It had only been a few days since she left but it felt like a lifetime. For the first few minutes she just dashed around in bliss, sniffing here and there to get her bearings. She soon picked up a fresh trail of one of her pack, a young male. She ran after him and caught up to him fishing downstream. She communicated with him for a few minutes and then he dashed off to tell the alphas of her return.

With that buisness out of the way she ran off to fetch lunch. Her nose picked up a family of rabbits sleeping in a thicket near the stream. She flushed them out and quickly ran down two of them and dispatched them with an efficient bite to the neck. She picked up their ears in her mouth and trotted back to where she'd left Dartmoor.

She dropped the rabbits near Dartmoor and shifted once more to elf form. "Find pack mate. Alphas know we come, no hurt Dartmoor. Elves no like eat skin on burn meat. Kassina skin, show Dartmoor." She took a small knife from her boot, laid the rabbit on a large flat rock nearby and began showing Dartmoor how to skin and clean the rabbit she had brought for him.

Kassina had noticed the heavily smoking fire but was trying to be polite and ignore it. Maybe that was how people built fires in the city? But when Dartmoor asked she realized firewood must be like everything else in the city; someone else did the work and you just used the final product.

She looked up from her work to smile to reassure him. "Wet wood. Green wood. Make smoke. Cook fire need old, dry wood. Green wood good roast stick. Kassina show." She stood from the now skinned and cleaned rabbit and walked to the stream to wash the blood from her hands. She had found city folks to be uncomfortable when she licked the blood from her hands.

After washing her hands she took Dartmoor into the edges of the clearing and began to show him what wood would make a good fire. She also made sure they got a good green stick to roast the rabbit on. Kassina began to talk as they worked to gather wood and fix the fire."Kassina teach forest. Dartmoor teach city? Teach elves?" There was so much she wanted to know she barely even knew where to begin.

Kassina heard the spider a minute before Dartmoor. The smoke from the fire had covered its scent, but there was no masking that sound. As the spider burst from the trees and webbed Dartmoor Kassina shifted quickly to mountain lion form. She knew from experience that agility was the most important factor against a spider.

As she ran past Dartmoor she used her claws to slice through some of the webbing so he could get himself free with some work. She then began working her way toward the spider, staying low and dodging shots of webbing and poison. When she was close to the spider she sprung up and into a nearby tree. She leapt to a second tree and into a third to confuse the spider and then leapt down onto the spider's back with claws extended.

Kassina was quite impressed by Dartmoor's fast attacks as she tried to distract it from him by tearing at its back and head. She was trying to move up its length to get its eyes when Dartmoor found the weak places further down and dispatched the giant beast. Kassina quickly jumped off the beast and ran to the stream to wash the blood from her paws. Spider blood was not something you wanted to ingest.

When she was clean Kassina ran back to Dartmoor and shifted to elf form. "Dartmoor ok? Dartmoor fight good. Very fast. Make good team. Yes, many in forest. Not normal this close to edge. Normal much deeper. Normal come in pack. Lunch wait, need go now." She quickly began to gather up and pack their stuff and throw dirt on the fire so it would not spread.

With camp quickly cleaned up she again grabbed Dartmoor's hand and began leading him further into the forest, alert for any more signs of danger. "Kassina need shift soon so wolf pack know. Also find danger better. Dartmoor any questions?"

Kassina nodded, "Always more. One scout. Prolly see smoke. When one not back more come." She walked another minute in silence as she thought about what to say next.

"When reach pack Dartmoor move slow. No threaten. No eye contact with alphas. No touch pups. Kassina find Dartmoor place sit, wait." Kassina was about to shift when she spotted an old apple tree. They were far enough from the fire now, and she was really hungry. She pointed the tree out to Dartmoor. "Apples. Good snack since no lunch."

Kassina ran up to the tree and shimmied up the branches. She grabbed four juicy red apples and climbed down the tree again. She handed two of the apples to Dartmoor, put one in her pack and quickly munched down the last one as they continued to walk. She would have to shift as soon as she was done her apple but she wanted to make sure Dartmoor understood so there wouldn't be any unneccessary complications. This day had been more than complicated enough already.

Kassina heard the same skittering sounds that Dartmoor did and she picked up the scent of at least three more spiders following them. This was such strange behaviour for the spiders. Usually they lived much much deeper in the forest and only attacked if their nest was threatened. They were now quite far from the campsite area and the spiders should have lost interest in them already. She wondered briefly if the warden alpha or the stranger from this morning would know what was going on and made a note to herself to tell them.

But first she had to get them out of here alive. She knew the pack was close and would join the fight, but her and Dartmoor were going to have to run a fighting retreat to get close enough to the pack scouts and hold the line until reenforcements could arive.

"More spiders come. Need reach pack scouts fast. Fight run. Follow Kassina. When pack show don't afraid. Help pack fight make alphas like Dartmoor. Three spiders close." She pointed out their rough positions and then shifted to wolf form and began walking toward the pack very fast, keeping her ears, eyes, and nose open for signs of immenent danger. She didn't want to run for fear of running into an ambush.

Kassina was torn between staying to help Dartmoor and running to get the pack. She could hear the other spiders closing in and she didn't think the two of them would be a match for three or more spiders. Just then she saw an opening as Dartmoor went for the spider's eyes and she dove in and bit down on one of its back legs with all her strengh. She heard the satisfying crunch of bone and tearing of muscle.

Knowing the spider would be greatly slowed now she turned to run. She had only made it a few steps when a second spider emerged from the woods. She turned her run into a flying leap and landed on the enemy's giant head. She began digging at the spider's eyes with her claws. She managed to take out about half the eyes before she was thrown off by the spider's violent thrashing. Unfortunately wolves were not like cats and didn't always land on their feet. She hit the forest floor quite hard and was going to have some pretty impressive bruises in the morning. Luckily nothing felt broken.

She knew running was no longer an option. Kassina took as big of a breath as her bruised side would allow and let out a mighty howl. She just had to hope the pack was close enough to hear. She dodged a shot of poison from the half blind spider and let out a second long howl.

As Dartmoor finished off the second spider she began running in the direction of the pack once more. Her side was causing her a lot of pain, but she kept going anyway. She barely made it to the two dozen metres before yet another spider landed in her path. She slid to a halt, changing to mountain lion form before leaping this time. She lept and landed further back on the spider's head this time and digging in with her back claws so she wouldn't be thrown clear this time as she attacked the monster's eyes.

When she had taken out most of the spider's eyes she spun and landed at the thrashing spider's side. She swiped at the soft underbelly of the beast and watched as its entrails began to spill onto the ground.

She bounded a few steps away and changed to wolf form again letting out another long howl. She heard a faint reply howl and knew that help was finally on the way. She let out a reply to help the pack pinpoint her location, and then ran back to help Dartmoor as two more spiders emerged from the woods behind them.

Kassina saw that Dartmoor had quickly learned the weak points on the massive spiders. Being a quick learner was a necessary skill in the wilds if you wished to survive for very long.

She let out one last howl to the pack before shifting to cat form again, just in time to dodge a spider web from the spider not occupied by Dartmoor. She heard an answering howl that assured her the pack was on their way. The spider infront of her was too enraged for her frontal attack to work a third time. She dodged some more webbing as she zig zagged her way toward the spider, trying to aim for its side. Exhaustion and her injuries were starting to tell on her though. She was dodging the spider's attacks but couldn't seem to close in for a good solid shot. She needed to try something else.

Kassina cautiously retreated and then clambered up the nearest tree. As the spider attempted to follow her she leapt down and landed on its head, but was moving to fast to stay there. She dug her claws in as she slid down the monster's back. It screeched in agony and began to fall over backwards. Kassina leapt off moments before being squashed and pounced on the spider's belly as it landed on it's back. She sliced the soft belly open with her claws, and then attempted to leap aside as the creature entered its death throws. Unfortunatly in her exhaustion she didn't see the flailing limb that caught her in midair and she slammed painfully into the tree.

As she lay on the ground momentarily dazed she heard the sounds of the pack fighting the remaining spiders in the woods around them. She found the energy to shift back to wolf once more, but then lay against the tree, momentarily too exhausted to move.

Kassina looked up at Dartmoor, let out a small woof and licked his hand to let him know she was okay. She could hear the pack coming and needed to stay in wolf form to speak with them. She was in a lot of pain and she did know a few basic healing spells, but they would eat up what little energy she had left and she needed to stay concious awhile longer.

A minute later the first of the wolves entered the cleaning. She recognized the pack mother and her two eldest daughters flanking her as guard. Kassina greeted the pack mother and began conversing with her in the wolf way immediately. One of the daughters gave Dartmoor a thorough sniff and sat close to him incase he acted rashly, but otherwise his presence was ignored. Slowly more wolves entered the clearing, some spattered with blood until a total of a dozen wolves sat around.

Kassina found out that this was not the first encounter with the giant spiders today. A hunting party had been attacked only this morning, and another last night. Kassina knew she must get this news to the small alpha right away.

Kassina used this news as another point of leverage in her argument for the pack to come with her and the wardens when they left Denerim. The forests here were much too dangerous and this was not their home anyway.

The wolves talked for perhaps fifteen minutes before the pack mother and her guards left the clearing. Kassina braced herself for the pain and then shifted to wolf form so she could speak with Dartmoor. Once she had shifted she laid her head down in Dartmoor`s lap as she didn`t have the energy to sit up at the moment.

"Spiders attack wolves. Morning today. Night yesterday. Very odd. Small alpha must know! Kassina too hurt move far. Ribs broken. Hurt inside." Kassina gasped as she was wracked with pain. The effort of getting enough breath to talk was almost too much. "Kassina can heal but too tired, not stay awake. Dartmoor can go back city with wolf brothers guard. Can stay wolf den night, but small alpha need know."

Stubborn males! Well fine if he wanted to carry her through the forest, let him. She could heal herself well enough that the movement wouldn't cause and further damage.

"Wolf pack no move yet. Alphas must discuss. Set up meet point two days. Find answer then." Kassina gritter her teeth as she took another breath. "Town too far. Dark soon. Go back strange elf camp. Kassina heal so move not kill, but need more heal. Stranger heal. Small Alpha should be there too." Kassina let out a little wimper as she took another breath and moved her hands to her ribs to determine where the worst damange was.

"Wolves escort to camp. Please be safe Dartmoor." She gave him a small smile as she reached up and briefly touched his cheek with her hand. Then she set to work healing as much damage as she could before she passed out from exhaustion. She set the broken ribs, four in total, and stopped the internal bleeding where a rib had torn her lung. Then she went limp. Slowly her breathing evened out indicating she was asleep. Her breathing was still shallow and weak, but sounded much healthier than before. Without further healing she would survive but the damage would take weeks, perhaps even months to fully heal itself.