She stumbled awkwardly through the trees. Flashes of… something wandering across her mind. Fleeting, and vanishing every time she tried to grasp them. A cat was yowling, but the sound of its cry was sharp, and then quiet as though blocked by water. She felt something against her back, sharp like claws. But she couldn’t bring herself to turn and look. Moving hurt, and turning her head was the worst of all.

She wasn’t sure why she continued to stumble forward, other than the fact that stopping sounded like.. A bad idea. She couldn’t remember why, but it was important. There was a redness in her vision, like something leaking down her forehead and running against her burning eyes. She needed to… do something. It was important, it was so important. But she couldn’t remember what it was.

Ooc: Her cat is riding on her shoulders and yowling, and she has a very bad gash across her forehead.

"Speech"

The hideous yowling of a small cat of some sort caught Corbie off guard as she was lifting a log in place for Ayer to tie to complete one side of a guard shelter on the border. Without her attention, the log dropped, banging her on the shoulder on the way down and earning a tirade from Ayer. But she, Tam, and Ren, who had been holding up the other side, exchanged a grim glance. That didn't sound good, at all. Corbie swung the kinkajou up to her neck without a word, taking off for the part of the orchard the sound had come from. At the sight of the bloodied, wandering black-and-blue wolf staggering through the orchard, Corbie cursed out loud. She sent Tam off at a sprint with Ayer clinging to his neck for what first aid supplies they could rustle up, and hopefully Alarr as well though she thought that he might be out hunting and didn't want them to take the time to track him down if he wasn't there.

Corbie was careful to approach the stranger from where they could see her - if she could see her, with the way her eyes were so glazed Corbie wasn't sure. But the cat on the injured stranger's shoulders would be able to, for sure. She made soothing noises as she approached, gesturing for the injured wolf to slow down, to stop. "Easy, easy, take it easy now. You're in Avalon's lands. We're going to make sure that you're taken care of. You're safe here."

Tam and Ayer reappeared at that moment. The collie was breathing hard, the kinkajou clinging to his neck with three hands and her tail, cradling a first aid pouch in the other foreleg to keep it safe. "I couldn't find Alarr at the barn," Tam panted, "but I barked for him to meet us there, so if he's close enough to hear, hopefully he'll be there."

"Thank you, Tam," she said feelingly. Turning her attention back to the stranger she added, in the same soothing voice she'd used before, "You have a cut on your head. Will you let my friend here touch you? We need to stop the bleeding and see how bad it is." She let her gaze take in the cat atop the stranger's back as well, in case the stranger was too addled from the wound to give her own consent.

She stumbled along, sensations sharpening and fading across her body. The yowling of a small cat seemed loud and sudden, and then faded and muted. Her ears were ringing, and it made it awfully difficult to think. And then suddenly she felt claws sinking into her back, the yowl changing to a hiss, and a voice speaking to her. --Avalons lands-- --here-- She blinked, and suddenly there was a wolf in front of her. She blinked again, but the wolf didn’t fade away. The cat on her shoulders let out one more disgruntled hiss, and then settled into a seated position against the back of her neck.

The stranger was speaking again, so many words. So hard to keep track of. There was a pause, and she had a feeling something was expected of her. She felt the cat on the back of her neck rise again, and lean forward. Placing its weight between the injured wolf's ears. She patted her head, and the blue wolf hissed in pain. The cat's claws brushed close to her wound. Oh She got it, they wanted to tend to her.

She seated herself, and then kept on going. Sinking until her head was on her paws. There was a disgruntled yowl behind her and claws in her back. The cat, keeping her balance as the blue wolf sank to the ground. She felt pressure as the cat patted her forehead again, and then slunk back a few steps across her back.

"Speech"

The stranger was all but nonresponsive to Corbie's words, though she did stop at the cat's demand and slowly sank down to the ground. It was concerning, for sure, and Corbie was suddenly very aware of how little medical knowledge she had and how she very much was not the right wolf for this. She was knowledgeable enough to handle an injured sheep, but a sheep this badly injured she'd likely have just culled - obviously not an option here. She'd have to wing it... But she didn't allow herself to panic, instead taking a breath to settle herself. "Ayer, I need some gauze please." Accepting the loosely woven wool gauze from the kinkajou she carefully pressed it to the wound, wary of worsening any damage to a potentially cracked skull but needing to put pressure on it to stop the bleeding. She wasn't sure if the stranger had been aware enough of her words to know that she was trying to help, and could only hope that the pain of pressing on the wound wouldn't get her bitten. "Wet some more gauze, if you will, Ayer, so we can sponge this off and take a look once the bleeding's stopped." She needed to get the wounded stranger back to the barn, somehow, and out of the elements so they could be properly warmed and treated. "Don't worry now, we'll take care of you," she murmured to the injured.

Keetie hissed softly at the sudden pressure of the gauze over her wounds. As another was dampened and the blood was washed from around her eyes, she found that her sight was a little sharper. She blinked a few times, adjusting to the change. “Thank you” She said, her voice rough and hoarse.

“Do I know you, is the cat yours?” She asked, her voice marginally evening out as she began to use it. The questions flowed from her as she realised just how little she remembered. “I can’t… I don’t…” She paused, shaking her head only to gasp at the pain that caused. She was disoriented and the throbbing pain did little to help.

"Speech"

Corbie exchanged an inwardly concerned, though outwardly as neutral as possible, glance with her companions. Some lucidity seemed to be returning to the injured wolf, but hard on its heels came the appearance of amnesia. Whether it was just temporary confusion that would clear as the woman came out of shock or not, Corbie didn't have the knowledge to say - it further from her expertise than basic first aid was. "The cat brought you here," she told the stranger, making no comment on who it might have been attached to... for all she knew it really was a complete stranger to the other female as well as to her. She cleared her throat and continued. "We've never met before, but no one is a stranger in Avalon - any who wish may find this pack a place of refuge, and recovery. I am Corbie, the alpha here. I can assure you that you are welcome to rest here for as long as you need, or wish to."

Ayer had continued to wash the bloody head so they could see the extent, though she had to stop and duck a splatter of watery blood when the wolf shook her head. Corbie peered at it herself. It didn't look life-threatening for the moment, so she indicated to the kinkajou to bind it up with a pad of the gauze and a bandage until they could get her to Alarr. "We have a healer here," she told the woman soothingly. "He's a master at his craft. If we supported your weight, do you think you could make it a bit further so he can help your head?"

The cat brought her here? Actually, that did sort of make sense. She remembered the cat clinging to her coat before she had encountered the wolf. She felt like maybe that should mean something to her, but every time she reached for some sense of the familiar it fell from her grasp.

As she floundered with her mind, the kind stranger continued on. Offering her a place within the pack to rest and recover. Because there was indeed a pack here, wasn’t there? Breathing in the scent around her confirmed as much. The wolf who was aiding her was its Alpha. She knew that by the scent on her pelt, and the scent in the air around her. She knew it like she knew to walk, or breathe. But her own name was still a mystery to her.

“I think I would like that, thank you. Though I think I have little to offer in return for your aid…” She admitted. When the wolf spoke of continuing further on to meet a healer, she nodded. “I believe I can walk”

"Speech"

Though the confusion remained there in her eyes, the stranger at least seemed to be more alert now, which Corbie thought must be a good sign, and claimed to be capable of walking to the barn where they'd meet Alarr. Which was good, because she would be a lot for Corbie and Ren to manage if she wasn't able to. "We need nothing in return," she assured the injured stranger. "Your recovery is what is important now." Ayer finished tying off the bandage holding the gauze in place over the wound, inspecting her work before nodding and scrambling back to Corbie's back. Corbie glanced over the bandage herself. It gave the stranger a bit of a rakish look, but it should do until Alarr could do a more thorough inspection. "If you can manage now, it would be better to get you there so you can heal." She offered the stranger her shoulder to brace herself on. A new member, albeit maybe a temporary one, but she didn't even know the woman's name yet. Well, it was something that could wait until the stranger could think without pain.