Frost on the Grasslands | Shelha Series 1 | ✔

Missing Hunter

The sun rose like liquid gold the next morning, warming the hall and bringing cozy smells out of the stone. Wing was awakened by a tap on the nose.

"Hey," whispered Sethral. "Sorry to bug you."

"What's up?"

"What do you eat?"

Wing wrinkled his nose. "Anything but carrion at this point. Why?"

A fish landed in front of him, then a scattering of leaves. Sethral was smiling. "Whipper figured. Sorry to wake you, but the fish would've gone bad if I left it too long in this weather, and we figured you could use it."

"Stop apologizing," said Wing, his teeth already buried.

"Don't make yourself sick. Whipper got heatstroke yesterday and we don't need another one."

"Sethral," said Wing as she turned to leave. She came back, giving Jay a wide berth. Wing nodded to the Northlander. "Could you or someone else look after his paws? I cleaned them last night but they're going to need more than that."

"Is he asleep?" Her wariness was obvious.

"Soundly. Why?"

"Because we tried that last night and he nearly bit Taz. He wouldn't stay off his paws until we let him come and find you, and then we didn't want to risk waking both of you so we didn't try again. I don't think he likes being touched. That, or he's not used to letting other creatures be the healer."

"Gotcha," said Wing. "Well, you should be safe now. If he's up in less than another day, I'll be surprised. And thanks for the food."

Sethral fetched herbs and set about seeing to Jay's paws. The Northlander did not twitch.

"He's synced up to you again," said Sethral. It was difficult to tell that Jay was breathing at all, so closely did the rise and fall of his flank match the one he was sleeping against.

"Well, we'll see if that keeps him asleep a bit longer," said Wing with a yawn, "seeing as I'm bigger than he is. It might calm him down a bit."

"The twins would be delighted."

Wing finished eating, then watched silently as Sethral took the liberty of finding the Drakon cuts in Jay's fur and treating those too.

"You're thinking about something," she said without turning around.

"Have you heard the pit story yet?"

"Only from Taz and Fletch, and they only got the high-speed version from Silversand. Which probably isn't the complete one anyways given that Whipper was in the pit too, and we all know Silversand usually does better without knowing the whole story. If you're not going back to sleep, I'd love to hear it from you."

Wing gazed towards the window, from which the breezes in the hall curled. "You know your friends pretty well."

Sethral settled in. When Wing reached the part about Whipper and the fourth pit prisoner, she shot to her paws. "Stop. You said he was super beat up, by Drakons and a snare line? Was he a small Coppertail-built hunter? Lethal with the Drakons?"

"Did you run into him?"

"Did I run into him? Dear Shelha, Wing; I wouldn't have been able to ambush the Drakon ambush and get the Coppertails out if it hadn't been for him! Are you telling me he got all the way to the tunnel-rocks in that state, after escaping with you guys?"

"Sounds like it," said Wing weakly.

"Tell me the rest."

He did. Sethral sat out the ending staring bleakly at a wall. Or maybe not really the wall. Her thoughts were clearly spinning. "He saved you guys too," she said.