Ciná stalked away from the bifrost, his tail stinging and aching from the assault is had taken and his mind reeling from the encounter in general. The wound around his tail was sure to be deep, but it was hard for him to tell on his own. He just knew that he was leaving a trail of blood as he tried to make his way back to Fenmyre. At the very least he knew there was a whole slew of healers there that could patch him up as long as he could just make it back over there before the blood loss got to him. Even still, he was having a hard time making himself care about his wounds more than he cared about whatever the hell that fight was. Everything felt like it had gone so fast. One minute he was stumbling across Ignis and confronting him over his oblivious, deflecting, neglectful ways and the next he was being attacked. He played it back so many times in the short walk from the bifrost to the edge of Fenmyre's territory, but even as he neared the border he still couldn't make heads or tails of it.

He started to slow as he neared the border, swaying slightly as his head began to spin a bit and he stopped as he leaned his shoulder against a tree just outside of Fenmyre's borders so he could catch his breath. Of all of the terrible, shitty things he could have guessed and expected from his father, somehow he never would have expected this. Yet somehow, the deep bite to his tail wasn't even the worst of it. That was just a painful inconvenience. What hurt the most was the calloused disregard for how Ignis' actions and inactions had affected him and the apology that had come right at the very end after he had already torn away his father's ear that had only confused him more. He sighed and remained leaning into the tree for a long moment, trying to muster up enough strength to just walk himself back to the island without having to call for help.

"Cináed"

Satira didn't often make it down to Auster, as the southern continent was quite a hike away from Elysium where her family was staying temporarily. But as their time with the pack grew shorter and the nomadic family was preparing to pack up and hit the trail once more, the little wolf-dog became more and more adventurous and independent, striking out on her own on extended herb gathering trips to keep her family stocked on important medicines they could use or barter with on their journeys. Plus it had the added benefit of giving her some space away from the overbearing dread she felt being around her mother and uncle and half-sister. Tira had headed down to Auster to make use of the massive gardens she'd seen when her family had come to the Hallows for her aunt's wedding. The gardens were lush with flourishing herbs and plants, and after gathering so many that her little leather herb satchel was barely able to close properly, the little canine was headed back home with her stash.

Slipping between the lands of the Hallows and Fenmyre, Satira paused to collect a healthy batch of fresh cannabis along the edges of the Wildberry Grove, using her sharp feline claws to surgically cut the stems of the bright, shiny leaves from the plants and stash them in her bag. With her harvest complete, Tira maneuvered her way up to the shore, intent to follow the coastline back to the Bifröst and then head north again. At least, that had been her plan until she saw the spotty splotches of dark red staining the golden sands. Her eyes narrowed with concern, tiny nose taking a tentative sniff of the puddles. The coppery stench of blood was unmistakable, even beneath the salty air of the sea. Someone was injured. Another careful sampling of the air caught a familiar scent in her nares, and when she recognized it, her blood ran cold.

"Cináed..." Satira gazed down the stretch of beach that led away from the Bifröst. If Ciná was hurt, then he likely needed help. Tira didn't pause, not even to consider how awkward it might be seeing him again after she'd snuck away from him after they'd drunkenly slept together at the wedding. She had a duty as a healer, a lesson her father had passed on to her early on in her life, and if he was hurt then she needed to help him. Tiny paws took off sprinting down the sand, kicking it up as she ran. Ciná hadn't gone far, his scent getting stronger by the second. She found him slumped against a tall aspen tree just between the beach and the woods, right near the border to another pack. He reeked of blood and there was little doubt that he was indeed injured.

"Ciná!" shouted Satira as she ran up to him, her pace slowing to an urgent trot when she drew near. She was about to ask if he was all right when keen blue eyes spied his mangled tail. "Oh gods, your tail...! Ciná, what happened?!" Tira didn't wait for Ciná to explain how he had gotten hurt or give her consent to treat him before she was slipping her bag off and beginning to rifle through her plethora of herbs for her bandage roll she'd nicked from Elysium following her healing lesson. Pulling it out with a triumphant cheer, Tira also dug out some thick moss and lichen she'd fashioned into a makeshift sponge, coming closer to inspect the damage done to his tail while she used the "sponge" to gently soak up the excess blood from around the wound.

"Satira"

Ciná was still leaning against the tree, catching his breath and steadying himself, when a voice from behind him made him jump a little as they called his name. He blinked with surprise and turned his head to see Satira there, running toward him with concern etched on her face. He was momentarily distracted from his own situation and the pain radiating from his tail, too caught up in the fact that the exact wolf that he had been looking for before all of this happened had magically appeared. He wanted to question what she was doing here, where she had gone after the night they were together, why she had gone after that night, but he couldn't form the words and she was already scrambling to get supplies out of her bag while instead questioning him about what happened. He didn't know anything about healing, but she seemed to which was actually pretty fortunate all things considered. He wished it wasn't Tira that had to see him in this state, but he was still kind of glad that he was getting treatment sooner rather than later.

Before he could muster up the courage to admit to what had happened, she moved closer and started using whatever bundle of stuff she had pulled out of her bag to start cleaning up around the wound on his tail which made him wince and suck in a breath at the initial contact. The wound was still incredibly tender with deep gashes that were very obviously teeth marks and was sure to be plentiful bruising all around from the struggle he had gone through before he managed to get away. The bones in that portion of his tail were also likely fractured considering how long it took him to get Ignis to finally let go. He was honestly just happy that he managed to keep it. Ciná laid down to hopefully make it easier on Satira to work on him and to keep himself from toppling over in the process.

He glanced back over his shoulder at her while she continued her work, still struggling to find the words to tell her what happened. It probably would have been easy enough to just say he was attacked and let it go with that, but that didn't feel right either. He could already imagine her pressing him for more information if he tried that and for some reason that scenario felt worse to him than just coming clean about it up front. "I bumped into my psychotic father on my way across the bifrost and he attacked me when I tried to walk away from him," he finally muttered, looking away from her and looking down at the ground between his paws. He frowned and grimaced as she continued to patch him up, doing his best not to move and to be a good patient, assuming that if he was still then it would probably go more quickly and smoothly. "I ripped off his ear so I guess he got the worse end of the deal, but not before he did all of that."

"Cináed"

The little wolf-dog paid no mind to the sharp intake of breath Cináed made when she began to tend to his wounds, already expecting him to give some sort of resistance as a knee-jerk reaction to the pain. As the blood was soaked up from the wounds, it became apparent that these were inflected by teeth, sharp ones at that. Another wolf, or another large predator? She couldn't be sure right away. Satira cringed while she studied the ragged edges and torn flesh and muscle. Whoever had done this had savaged Ciná's tail with brutal viciousness with intent to sever it, but they had thankfully failed. Now it was up to her to make sure he didn't lose it after the fact. Her patient laid down, which did in fact make it easier for her to settle in to begin her work given the massive size difference between them. Now she wouldn't have to reach up to try and treat his injuries. Satira finished drying the wounds and proceeded to reach into her medical bag, rifling through to find some of the yarrow and trillium she'd collected from the gardens. Deft paws moved with practiced precision to crush down the trillium flowers and put them into a small vial of sharp alcohol she kept in her bag to steep, then did the same to the yarrow with their stems until they formed a gooey, herbal-smelling paste, which she began to smear over the fabric gauze she'd pilfered from Elysium. The yarrow would help stem the bleeding and bind the wounds while the trillium would act as a disinfectant. She really wanted some wintergreen to help with the pain he likely felt, but she didn't bring any of the northern-growing plant with her on her trip.

Satira noted how Ciná kept looking past her and down the beach, still on high alert, likely from whatever or whoever had attacked him. The answer he gave her question was not what she had expected to hear. The shock on the wolf-dog's face when he revealed that it was his own father who had brutalized him like this was pronounced. How could someone's own parent do something like this to them?! Sure, Cináed hadn't always been the most pleasant wolf she'd known, but what could have happened to justify this? "Fuck, Ciná... I'm so sorry," Tira muttered under her breath. She didn't really know what else to say to that revelation. Instead, she focused on her work, caring more about getting this big idiot fixed up and with all his appendages still attached than dissecting his dysfunctional family. "This is going to hurt like a bitch, and I don't have any painkillers, so I apologize in advance," she explained to her unfortunate patient, the grave reality of the situation clouding her pale blue eyes while she looked up at him. She fished into her bag and pulled out a mass of cannabis leaves she'd harvested from the gardens as well and laid them at his paws. She'd been intending to use these for other purposes, but they were the best she could offer him for pain relief given the urgent circumstances.

"Chew on these, then hold the paste under your tongue until it goes numb. You're going to feel a little weird, but it'll help." Satira gave Cináed time to comply with her direction or refuse, whichever he opted for. Then, while the yarrow paste soaked into the bandages, she lifted the bottle of trillium tincture and gave it a swirl. It really hadn't had as much time to steep as long as she'd have liked, but it would have to do. Tira was racing the clock here and Ciná was risking bleeding out if she delayed. "Do you feel anything?" she asked him, passively observing his expression to determine how far into his high he might be. She wanted to give him as much time as possible for the drugs to kick in and block his brain from experiencing the agony he was about to endure, but she couldn't wait forever if his constitution turned out to be unexpectedly strong.

"Satira"

He didn't have any real expectation for her reaction to his explanation of how he had ended up this way, but he supposed her swear and appology was as good as he could have hoped for. He nodded quietly and continued to grit his teeth while she continued her work and manipulated this nearly severed tail. If there was one good thing about the sharp, burning pain that was radiating from the wound it was the fact that it was keeping him distracted and made it impossible for him to really think about what had happened or his father. All he could really think about was Tira and what she was doing to patch him up which at this point was a blessing. When she told him that it was going to hurt and she didn't have any pain killers he just nodded again with a grunt and began to brace himself for whatever it was she needed to do while he glanced back at her from the corner of his eye. At this point it just had to be what it was and if he had to sit through it and bear it then that's what he was going to have to do. If the options were that or risking bleeding out or loosing his tail he'd rather take that option.

He watched as she reached back into her bag for something and pulled out some pointed leaves before looking at them with consideration and then handing them over to him with a set of instructions. He raised a brow at her when she said how it would make him feel 'weird' and it made him wonder what it was since she had just told him that she didn't have any pain killers, but he trusted her so he nodded and took them regardless. He started chewing the leaves, the bitter, earthy taste that herbs usually had filling his mouth, and when it was paste-like he did as she said and tucked the lump of chewed up leaves under his tongue. Pretty quickly that numbing sensation she had mentioned started to spread through his mouth and over his tongue, making his mouth feel slightly tingly in the process. He continued to let it sit while doing his best to ignore the throbbing ache from his tail until eventually that ache started to feel more distant. He could still feel it, but it almost felt farther away some how and the tinging he felt on his tongue started to spread down his limbs. He didn't know what this stuff was, but it gave him a little bit of relief and allowed his muscles to start to relax a bit so he was thankful for whatever it was.

His ears perked a bit when she spoke and he turned his head to look back at her when she questioned whether he could feel anything. "Yeah... Yeah, I can feel lit," he replied in a quiet rumble, the way he was holding his tongue to keep the chewed up leaves under it making his words come out slightly off. The longer he let it sit the more it started to seem into his system and the more that floating, tingling feeling started to take hold. He didn't know what went into how much this stuff effected him, but he had already been a little light headed and dizzy from the blood loss and exertion of it all so he wondered vaguely if that had any sort of sway in it. Either way, he prepared himself for the worst and figured he could be pleasantly surprised if this helped at all.

"Cináed"

Satira didn't have much time to spare. The longer she took, the greater the risk of blood loss, shock, or even infection got. She needed to get to work on Ciná's tail, but she really didn't want him to be in too much pain, giving him every second she possibly could to let the marijuana take effect on him. When he confirmed that he was starting to feel something, Tira nodded her head. Good enough, she supposed. A quick glance up to the red brute's face confirmed that his eyes had started to glaze over, his eyelids drooping as he began to relax into the effects of the drug. All right, that would have to do. It was now or never. "Good. You can spit it out now." Satira popped open the bottle of trillium solution, the strong scent of medicinal herb and alcohol punching her in her nose. The antiseptic would sting like a bitch, but it was better than preparing to amputate his tail. "Don't move, okay? I'm sorry."

Then the little wolf-dog medic began. Satira held Cináed's tail still with one paw, doing her best not to put any pressure around his injuries so as not to hurt him. With one deft paw, she poured the contents of the bottle over the wounds, washing away the blood and disinfecting the cuts in one go. Tira was prepared for Ciná to try and pull back from the sting of the antiseptic, preemptively holding his tail still so he couldn't thrash or pull away. Once she had dumped the entire bottle over his injuries and cleaned them, Tira grabbed a couple of nearby sticks that seemed sturdy enough and set them on either side of his tail to splint it. It would do no good to have him undo all her hard work and kill himself simply by wagging his tail too energetically. "Ciná, hold still!" she reminded him through clenched teeth as she focused on her work while also struggling to keep his tail still for her to do what needed to be done.

Picking up the ointment soaked bandages in her free paw, Tira began to wind them around his bleeding tail, wrapping the sticks up in the bandages as she went to help set the splint in place. She wound several layers tight to keep the wounds compressed, but making sure it wasn't too tight as to cause discomfort or pain. It was a fine line to walk, and Tira didn't voice to Ciná that he was her first ever actual patient she was treating on her own. Gods, she hoped he didn't lose the tail because of something she fucked up! Floppy ears folded back to her head as the very real worry that she could make things worse crept up into her psyche. The little wolf-dog was hyper focused on her work, tying the loose bandages together in a small knot once she had run out and making sure they remained set. When they bandages didn't slide or move, Satira sat back and inspected her work. Not bad. A sigh of relief passed her lips. Cináed wouldn't bleed to death today, it seemed.

"Okay, done." Pale blue-gray eyes looked up to Ciná's face, looking to make sure she hadn't caused him too much discomfort and that he was still conscious—or not too doped out of his mind. "Hey, you still with me, big guy? Can you stand? We need to get you somewhere to lie down and rest. Maybe get some meat in your belly for all that blood you lost too." Ciná would need to be ambulatory on his own though. Gods knew the tiny hybrid couldn't lift a hulking dire wolf the size of him!

"Satira"

After the herbs had seeped into his system and caused a fuzziness to settle over his skin while it dulled the sharp pain from his wounds, Tira told him to spit them out so he complied willingly and did just that. It took a couple tries to get all the mushed up pulp of the leaves from under his tongue, but eventually there was a clump of the mushed up green leaves off to the side on the grass. The marijuana had done its job and helped him relax his tense muscles, easing his racing thoughts a bit and that effect only got stronger the longer it had to take effect. Unfortunately time was short and Tira did have to get to work on his tail and when she reminded him not to move with an apology he braced himself for whatever it was she was going to have to do to fix it.

The sharp stinging from the liquid she poured over his wounds made him suck in a breath through his teeth, the breath leaving again in a hiss as he struggled to fight the instinct to pull away at the sudden reintroduction of pain and discomfort through the filter of the drugs he was being influenced by. He was certain that it wasn't as bad as it could have been otherwise, but it still wasn't a good time. The one thing about this stuff was even though it did dampen the pain, it also made it harder to control his reactions so while he probably would have sat more still without it, he would have had a lot louder and probably more expletive filled reaction as well. It was a give and take and it meant that Tira was having to hold down his tail to keep it from twitching and pulling away on instinct. She reminded him again to hold still and he grumbled between pained, slightly dazed grunts, muttering, "I'm trying." His front paws gripped at the ground, tearing up the grass a bit while he tried to focus on tearing into the soil there to deflect this need to move instead of letting his tail wriggle.

After a bit more of this and feeling a more constant pressure around that portion of his tail, Tira eventually declared that she was done. Cína let out a slow sigh through his teeth, his golden eyes fluttering a bit from the combination of the subsiding sharp pain, the drugs she had given him, and the lingering effects of his blood loss. His head felt light and swimming, but he was still very much conscious. The pain settled into a low, aching throb now that the bandages she had put on were lightly compressing the wound and the splints kept him from accidentally bending or moving any of the damaged muscles and tendons. It was a weird combination of being aware and out of it at the same time and he wasn't really thinking clearly enough to figure out where that feeling was coming from. When Tira spoke to get his attention he blinked and lifted his gaze up to her face, focusing in on her even though he struggled to fully process what she was saying.

A little grin tugged at his lips as he looked at her, taking in her pretty features from her light blue eyes to her slender, feminine face, even looking at her cute, folded over ears that he regretted ever making fun of once upon a time. Completely missing everything she was asking of him and saying, he replied, "You're so pretty, Tira..." He grinned a little wider and chuckled as he reached out a heavy foreleg to wrap it around her sides, pulling her much smaller frame down onto the ground with him as he started to roll onto his side. Even though his movements were much more clumsy and messy in his current state, he could still manage to get the smaller wolf-dog down beside him and pull her into him, hugging her to his chest. Still dazed and a bit out of it, he nuzzled one of her soft, velvety ears while he held her, marveling at the feeling of the short, soft fur that covered the uniquely floppy appendage. His brain slowly began to catch up with the situation and remember what she had just saved him from so he gave her a squeeze in his embrace and added, "Thanks for helping me... You're a real good healer..."

"Cináed"

The procedure had been a hellish experience, but seeing Cináed eventually beginning to calm down again and remain conscious did her heart a lot of good. He hadn't gone into shock or passed out from blood loss, which meant he would now likely be out of the woods, so to speak. He would still have a long recovery process ahead of him, but at least now the road should be smoothing out. Trying to get the attention of the dazed, high wolf was another challenge in of itself, but after some insistence, Tira managed to get Ciná to focus on her. Or at least she thought she had, until he responded to all of her questions by turning a little grin at her with glassy, distant eyes. Then he... said she was pretty? The sudden and jarring shift in their conversation short circuited the wolf-dog's brain and for a second she could only dumbly stare at her patient, looking at the giant red wolf like he'd spoken to her in a foreign language. Then a massive paw came out to scoop her up around her sides with an even bigger grin on his face and Tira snapped back to reality.

"Whoooa! Hey, easy there, big guy!" Satira cried out as she was swept off her paws and pulled down to the ground with minimal effort on her captor's part. The next thing she knew, the little wolf-dog was being wrapped up in a clumsy yet firm embrace, Ciná hugging her tiny body tight to his chest. Wide eyes glanced about as if in a stupor, trying to figure out what the hell had just happened while the doped up brute nuzzled at one of her ears, jostling the floppy appendage with his snout. "Um... thank you, I guess?" Satira didn't know whether she was thanking him for calling her pretty or for complimenting her healing skills, or actually why was she thanking him at all in the first place?! He was the one who'd gotten hurt and was now treating her like a pup would some cuddly stuffed toy at bedtime! With her dainty paws squished up against his chest and trapped between their bodies, she was fully helpless to do anything but squirm in his grasp, and even that didn't do much against the solid wall of muscle that was Cináed. So Tira was forced to surrender until her dopey captor decided to either let her go or loosened his grip just enough for her to wiggle out.

With their bodies literally pressed together and Tira's small snout pushed into Ciná's chest, the hybrid girl was forced to be surrounded by his warmth and scent. She didn't know if she liked this or not, but she also couldn't tell if she didn't like it either. Each breath drew in more of his scent—warm and intoxicating, and distinctly masculine. It brought the girl back to the night they'd shared together in a drunken stupor back at the Hallows wedding. Heat pooled beneath her cheeks and her floppy ears gave a twitch, her heart picking up in rhythm in her chest. "I wasn't just gonna let you die, Ciná..." she murmured when he thanked her for helping him, trying to act blasé and brush it off as nothing. But the warmth in her face didn't go away no matter how cool she acted. A moment passed, and then Tira shyly added, "...You're welcome." Another moment passed before Tira tried to wriggle her way out of the dire wolf's grasp again, still concerned about his physical state. "Ciná, can you... let me go please? I need to get some red meat in you so you don't faint." At this point, anything would do. A rabbit, a squirrel, anything to help replenish his lost blood.

"Satira"

Ciná still had a hard time focusing on the words Tira was saying to him as she thanked him with a bit of confusion as he complimented her healing abilities. He was too out of it and unaware to notice how she was trying and failing to wriggle free of his grasp and instead his body instinctively held her a little tighter so she couldn't get away. With his thoughts muffled and quieted like they were it allowed his more baser instincts and desires rise more prominently to the surface and now that the worst of the pain had subsided there was only one thing he could really think of in that moment—regardless of whether it was actually wise or safe for him to be thinking about them in his current state. He just continued to nuzzle at her soft ears and his large paws squeezed around her sides with an odd mix of protectiveness and gratefulness that intermingled with the more straightforward lust and need that harkened back to the night they spent together.

His ears flicked a little when she mentioned how she wouldn't have just let him die. That poked through the intoxicated haze enough to actually resonate with him a bit. Had he really been that close to dying? He knew it was a really wound just from how much it hurt and how woozy he had gotten, but he couldn't really get a good look at it himself. Could he really have died because of his father's inability to control himself if Tira hadn't found him when she had? They were questions that he'd probably never have answers to now, but it did linger in the back of his mind even as Tira's voice pulled him back to the present again as she asked him to let go of her and tried to wiggle away again. This time he actually took notice of it, but he didn't loosen his hold right away. It felt too right to have her like this with him again. He hadn't been with anyone since then and he had missed this feeling a lot. It was crazy to him how just being with her one time had made such an impression on him, but right now he was far from willing to question it.

He quietly grumbled as a frown pulled across his lips, refusing to loosen his grip on her just yet. "But I just want to hold you for a bit," he muttered in response, nuzzling her cheek and wrapping her up against him with groggy affection. He wasn't sure if it was the blood loss or the drugs, or maybe some combination of both, that was making everything feel heavy and weighed down as if it would be impossible for him to stand, but right now all he really wanted to do was snuggle this tiny wolf-dog that had seemingly saved his life and had made such an imprint on his life in their few encounters. "I was looking for you," he admitted quietly as his eyes closed and he just held her for a bit, breathing in her scent and letting it tickle some part of his brain that was trying to overcome the exhaustion and heaviness he felt to allow him to be tempted by his other desires. "That's why I went to Boreas... I didn't know why you left that night and I wanted to see you again." At this point he didn't really know what he was saying or why the words were falling from his lips, but he couldn't really stop them either and now it was too late to take them back.

"Cináed"