The Journey Home Cont.

[Rynn]

Kaze was laying outside of the small pond that lead to the grotto as Dawn and her pups entered dragging a carcass with a limp black figure on it. He stood and went to investigate, once he saw it was Raist asked, "What the hell happened?" He looked Raist over, he looked horrible, the fang marks on his neck had stopped bleeding, but the huge gash in his side was still bleeding pretty heavily, and his breathing was in short pants.

[Hitoban no Fokkusu]

Dawn collapsed as soon as she saw Kage, breathing heavily from the excursion of dragging an elk carcass with Raist on it. Her pups followed suit, a couple of them passing out as soon as their heads hit the ground. I shouldn't have asked so much of them...But they're such good babies. I love them so much... She looked up at a worried Kaze grimly. "We were attacked. Or rather...Raist was attacked. Someone calling himself...Giabri? I think it was Giabri. Maybe...Gi-something-i, I know for sure. Anyway, he came out of nowhere and started attacking Raist, so I hid my pups and came back to help him and...well you see the aftermath. He couldn't walk all the way home, so we had to find something to drag him on.

[Rynn]

Kaze listened to Dawn as she explained what happened, "Well, my only question is how are you planning on getting him to Maname? I'll do what I can to help but i don't think we can get him into the grotto by way of the pond, and by the looks of it you and all the pups need to rest and relax for a while..."

[Hitoban no Fokkusu]

She hated having to reveal the secret passage, especially when neither Tsuki or Hitoban were home. But this was an emergency, and seeing as the passage was large enough for Mar to fit through, Raist and a carcass wouldn't be too difficult. A plan quickly formulated itself in her mind, and she nodded to herself. Then she turned to Kaze, standing again, and began to explain.

"Well, there's a secret passage that goes from the Alpha den to the grotto, and he could easily fit through it, even with the carcass. Mar uses it sometimes. So you help me get Raist and the carcass up into the den, then you go down first, and I'll send toboggan Raist slowly down. I'll follow to make sure he doesn't get stuck, though it's unlikely to happen."

[Rynn]

Kaze listened to Dawns plan and nodded, "sounds like a plan, do you want to go ahead and send the pups along so they can get word to Maname that we're coming?"

[Hitoban no Fokkusu]

One look at the tuckered out pups gave Dawn her answer. She couldn't have them do any more. She would put them to bed quickly, then take Raist down to Maname unannounced. She was good at working on the fly like that. Then I'll have to come back and properly tuck them in. Poor babies...they've been through so much today. She smiled softly and shook her head. "No, they need their rest. I'll put them to bed, then we'll take Raist down to Maname." At the mention of bed, most of the pups started immediately toward the den. She had to nudge Yuuka along and carry Kazuko. She helped them all up the sheer cliff and into the cave behind the waterfall, where they plopped down on their respective beds in the nursery. She nuzzled them all good night, then hurried back out to Kaze and Raist. She huffed, blowing out all her air, then breathed deep and grabbed one end of the carcass, waiting for Kaze to do the same.

[Rynn]

Kaze waited till Dawn returned from putting her pups to bed before bowing his head and grabbing a hold of the other end of the carcass and waited for Dawn to lead the way up the cliff since Kaze had never been up behind the waterfall.

[Hitoban no Fokkusu]

Dawn carefully started dragging the carcass around the pool to the left side of the roaring falls. They were all getting soaked because they were so slow, and that only made the going tougher when it came to climbing the slippery rocks. "Be careful!" was all she said to Kaze before starting up the cliff backwards. She'd traversed it a thousand times, but that didn't make it any less dangerous. She placed her feet carefully, testing how good her footing was before leaning on that leg. This was excruciatingly slow, but effective. Finally she felt the surface of the cave mouth and, with one last tug, pulled herself and Raist to safety. She collapsed on the floor, panting and heaving. "Oh Leda!" It was all she could manage to say after her exertion. Apparently she wasn't as nimble as she used to be. She took a few seconds to regain her energy before turning to look into her den.

It was beautiful, as always. At night it shone with a silver glow, the moonlight reflected through the water, blue patterns dancing on the walls. Her and Kage's bed was to one wall, opposite was Hitoban and Tsuki's bed. In the back left corner was the nursery and the food storage. There were six smaller beds in the nursery, each occupied at the moment by a tiny wolf body. The room was tidy, and smelled nice-like spring. It was the perfect den.

But she didn't have time to dwell on such things. She turned back to Kaze and gestured with her head to the back right wall, indicating they should go that way. She picked up and started dragging the carcass again, and got it to the wall. She turned and faced a large hole in the wall, plunging into darkness. She smiled at Kaze. "Down the rabbit hole you go then."

[Rynn]

Kaze slowly followed Dawn up the waterfall, paying very close attention to where he placed his paws so he didn't slip. Once inside the den he like Dawn paused to catch his breath. He grabbed the carcass again as she did and paused outside the hole in the wall and glanced into it. He glanced at Raist as he grabbed ahold of the carcass again, his eyes were open, though a little unfocused, and his breathing hadn't improved, but it hadn't worsened either, but as Kaze started moving backwards down the hole, Raists golden eyes closed in pain as the movement jolsted him around for a tiny bit. 'I'm sorry my friend...' he thought to himself as he decended further into the tunnel.

[Hitoban no Fokkusu]

Dawn followed in after, keeping a tight hold of the carcass so it didn't slide fast down the tunnel and hurt anyone. Once they were all on the floor of the grotto, she pushed the carcass slightly farther in so no one would exit the tunnel onto Raist, and called for Maname.

"Maname! We have an emergency!" There was no need to take him all the way into Maname's wing because, after all, they wouldn't be able to get him onto the stone table anyway. She came hurrying in, her eyes wide at Raist's injuries. She clucked her tongue, sounding much older than she was, and quickly surveyed his injuries.

"Oh dear...how did this happen?" She leaned in close to Raist and spoke only to him. "I'm sorry to make you speak, but I need the details from the one who was there. What happened, exactly. What was it? Anything special, like demon magic?" She had to have every scrap of detail in order to know what needed to be used for his healing.

[Rynn]

Raist opened his eyes and focused on the sound of Manames voice since his eyes were not wanting to focus on anything, "No....he was no demon, at least not that I knew of....his name was Gibari...my adoptive father and the one who cursed me....I don't think he used any sort of magic while we fought.....he was too intent on trying to injure....Dawn and the pups..." Raists voice was a mere whisper, hard to hear and he had to pause often to regain his breath.

[Hitoban no Fokkusu]

Maname straightened and looked Dawn over quickly. "We are all fine, Maname. Concentrate on Raist." Maname nodded and said, Yes, Madame," before bustling off to her pantry. She returned with some herbs of various colors, green being predominant, and some vines and leaves. She set them all down and looked Raist in the eye. "This shall be easy to heal since it was only mortal wounds, but some of it might sting. You'll just have to grin and bear it, I'm afraid." She smiled apologetically and sliced open a green herb. It was fat and plump, but green ooze sprang up at the plant's wound. Maname took it in her mouth, quickly and expertly. With a final look to Raist's face, she began seeping the ooze into Raist's largest wound. It took three green herbs to stop the bleeding, and one for good measure. She then placed leaves over the green, sticky wound, and wrapped them tightly to his body with the vines. She surveyed some of his broken bones and set the ones necessary with splints-bark set in place by vines. She covered all of his wounds in the same fashion, and saved the worst for last. She pulled the only purple herb off of the floor and showed it to him.

"This is my secret weapon. Internal bleeding is not your friend. The green herb successfully stops surface bleeding, but you need more for internal bleeding. You have to ingest the entire herb's juice as quickly as possible-if you don't do it right, it could kill you. You must ingest it, we wait exactly two hundred of your heartbeats, and then we must induce vomiting immediately or you will be poisoned. I will squeeze the juice into your mouth-all you have to do is swallow. Once you've swallowed the last drop, begin counting your heartbeats. I will, in the meantime, put this," she traded the herb for a small, pebble-sized seed and showed it to him, "in your mouth. Once you reach two hundred, swallow it immediately-not a second later. Then roll over and try not to vomit in your fur."

[/color]

She and Dawn moved him as gingerly as possible to a far corner in the room so he could be alone while he vomited, and Maname began pouring the sap into his open mouth.[/size][/blockquote]

[Rynn]

Raist nodded and inhaled sharply and closed his eyes agianst the pain as Maname started to put the green herb on his wounds but uttered not a sound other than that. He opened his eyes and listened to Maname as she explained the purple herb and pebble-sized seed. He just nodded and closed his eyes agian as they tried to gingerly move him to a far corner of the room. As Maname started to pour the puprle herb into his mouth he did as she had told him to and started to swallow it as fast as he could.

Meanwhile Kaze had moved away from the others and was sitting in front of the secret opening that led to the Alphas den with a spaced look on his face. Something wasn't right, he could feel it.

[Hitoban no Fokkusu]

As soon as Maname had finished squeezing every last drop of sap into Raist's mouth, she plucked the seed off the floor and dropped it in his mouth. Then she sat back and waited for him to count two hundred heartbeats and swallow the seed. This was the part that made her heart clench. She watched worriedly, and scanned the room. Using this method always made her nervous, but it was the only failproof way of stopping the internal bleeding. During the two hundred heartbeats, the juice applied itself to the injuries, making a kind of inward poultice and clotting the blood. After two hundred beats, however, it starts making its way to the heart. It will create a clot in the heart and kill whoever ingested it if it isn't vomited up first. It was a miracle herb, but as everyone in this pack knew, miracles hardly come without a price. Maname found her gaze flicking unconsciously upward, thinking of Kazuko.

[Rynn]

Raist held the seed in his mouth and started counting his heartbeats. The only downfall to counting was that it was a way to put yourself to sleep and concentrating on his own heartbeat wasn't helping all that much to keep himeself awake. But he knew he would die with even then slightest mistake and he would be dead, part of him was yelling telling him not to swallow it and just let it end, he was half-dead anyways, it was just a matter of time before Gibari came back and finished what he started. But the other half of him told him he couldn't just let himself be killed by the seed cause he wasn't going to let Gibari harm anyone in this pack. He felt like he belonged in this pack, or at least fit in better than with any other pack he had wandered into. Finally after what seemed like forever he reached 200 heartbeats and without wasting any time swallowed the seed...