Valentine walked the last couple of steps that separated him from Imperium and without ceremony crossed into packlands. Home at last. The girl didn't look like much but after awhile boy did she get heavy. The trip and been long and painfully slow, but at last they'd made it. With a relieved sigh, he told Illie, ""We're here, sweetheart. Now I just need to call my friend so she can take a look at you, alright? Without further ado Valentine called for Cascade.

Very slowly and carefully the brute laid down on his belly to give Illie a chance to climb off of him. If she even could. The trip had undoubtedly been hard on her, but she's soldiered through. Valentine was very proud of her. She was a very tough little kid.

Illie had withstood the journey as well as a young child in immense amount of pain could. She was draped haphazardly across his back, and she felt every bump, every shift in the long long journey. She whimpered and cried at first, but that soon quieted as she slipped in and out of the deep blackness that threatened to swallow her whole. It scared her, it terrified her, it hurt so bad that she almost wished she could go back to the washing cold where she had spent an eternity in the darkness. But the hope still glimmered, like a new star in the sky, and she held on both physically and mentally. When his voice broke through the fog she had to force herself to blink her burning eyes open. The light had dimmed, enough that it didn't hurt as much but it still hurt. She groaned as he called for someone, the sound cutting right through her skull and echoed through her very soul. When he crouched she stayed where she was for several heart beats before it clicked. Luckily it was easier going down than up. She slid from his back, not even attempting to catch herself as she fell to the ground with a soft fump and a groan. A small chuckle, broken but there, bubbled from her lips. "Rockslide." She whispered, smiling her pained smile and cracking one eye open to look up at the blur that was Valentine. She hoped his friend could help her… "Talk" "You" Think

Cascade's ears pricked at the sound of Valentine calling for her, and a lopsided smile tugged at her muzzle. Well well well! The Big Man himself calling for her, and it sounded important. Wouldn't you know it. She left her half-finished meal for Chaos, and set out without hesitation, though she slowed and her head came up with curiosity when she came within sight of Valentine and saw the child flopped with him on the ground. Her brows came up after a brief examination, and the smile blossomed into a full on teasing grin. Those were some awwwwwfully familiar eye markings... either one of Valentine's half-siblings had procreated (somehow she didn't expect Valen's mother to have survived long enough to have produced the child herself the way she'd gone on) or Valentine had gotten a little something-something away from Imperium... "Found yourself a long lost daughter eh? What did you do, screw a blue jay this time, Valentine?" she joked, eyeing the bright blue of the girl's coat and throwing him a wink, a wink that dissolved into a faint frown when she realized the girl's condition. "What happened?" Her voice was kept light for the kid's sake, but she'd switched into Super Serious Business Cascade mode and she was already sweeping her eyes over the girl again more closely, this time with an eye to cataloging obvious injuries before she tried touching her.

Valentine felt Illie shift her weight and he turned his head to look at her just in time to see her slide gracelessly off his back. The groan that followed had him concerned for a second, but the chuckle and quip that came soon after eased his concern somewhat. She was still doing well enough to joke and that had to mean something. He grinned at her and twisted around to place a lick between her ears. "She'll be here any minute."

"Found yourself a long lost daughter eh? What did you do, screw a blue jay this time, Valentine?" Leave it to Cascade to make an entrance. Valentine's head snapped around so fast his neck complained. For a second he fixed wide, disbelieving eyes on her before his expression shifted and his eyes narrowed in what he hoped conveyed that now was not the time for man whore jokes. "Cascade," he hissed in a hushed voice as if the girl wasn't laying right next to him and well within earshot. Shush.

Careful not to disturb Illie, Valentine shifted around so he could see Cascade better. To her head said, "This is Illie. She washed up on the beach in Corpseghoul and isn't feeling very well. She's also having a hard time remembering things." He then turned to Illie. "Illie, this is Cascade. She's the friend I was telling you about. Can you tell her what's hurting?"

She was in quite a lot of pain, more than she could understand. It thrumbed in her ears, deep and echoing. She barely reacted when someone new showed up, blue unfocused eyes turning towards the woman. This stranger wasn't as tall as Valentine was, and for some reason that made her feel...better. It was oddly comforting and she stared up at the woman before groaning and closing her eyes. Her ears flicked at the comment, and she couldn't help but be curious. What did she mean? Long lost daughter.....she slid her eyes open slowly as Valentine hushed the woman...Cascade, huh? She'd have to ask about that later when she wasn't in so much pain. When he turned to her and told her to tell this Cascade what was wrong, she groaned. "Is "everything" an okay answer?" She whispered before tilting her head slightly so she can look up at this woman a bit better. "Everything...my side, my head...It hurts to keep my eyes open." She whispered bravely, her voice shaking in her pain as she closed her eyes tightly again, the light getting into them. "I f-feel like I've been thrown off a cliff..." Her soft voice was weak, tired as she tried to shift, whimpering as she did. Luckily, there was nothing severely broken. All four limbs were, well, intact, but she may have fractured a rib or two. Bruises littered her little frame, and lacerations cut long her shoulders, sides and legs that had been washed out with sea water. But the pain in her head was so severe that if she had any healing knowledge she would know it was a concussion. "I feel all woozy..." She whispered, her teeth gritting as a wave of pain washed over her. "Talk" "You" Think

Valen's horrified hiss at her question only earned the tip of her tongue and a muttered, "Seriously though, she has your eyes," with a significant glance towards the blue orbs surrounded by the circular dots all of his kids but Ash carried. But other than the tongue and the commentary on the kid's parentage, Cas was all business. "Memory loss isn't terribly uncommon with head trauma," she mused. "Well, you've come to the right place then, if there's anything I know it's physical trauma. I'm going to bet you feel somewhere between stubbing your toe and getting run over by a herd of buffalo, right Illie? Have you ever seen a buffalo before where you're from? Real silly looking creatures, bigger than a bear with a big hairy hump on their backs and big old horns, and big dumb faces. We have them all over the place here. Goofiest looking creatures! But you do not ever want to annoy them, let me tell you. More than one of my kids have tried to chase them." All the while she was chattering away, she was carefully examining the kid, light little touches everywhere to see her reactions, manipulating her joints, feeling her heartbeat and listening to her breathing. "Say, Valen, remember that time Rhys stuck in a tree?" she prompted, poking at him with a paw to pick up the thread of distracting the pup so she could concentrate. "Follow my paw with your eyes a minute ok bluebird? Just your eyes, don't move your head." She slowly moved her paw across Illie's line of vision to see how she was tracking it.

"Say, Valen, remember that time Rhys got stuck in a tree?" Huh? He blinked once at her in surprise before it clicked. "Oh! Yes." He cleared his throat. "This is the daughter I told you a bit about, Illie. When Rhys was little," - she was still pretty young, but 'little' didn't quite fit her anymore - "she got it in her head to climb a tree. Don't ask me why, I have no idea. But she did it. She climbed way up into the branches." He snuck a peek at Cascade out of the corner of his eye. "I didn't see her climb it. I was walking the border with my head in the clouds when this loud BANG! almost made me jump out of my skin. There was this rustling sound and then a squeal, and I knew it had to be one of the kids so I went running to see what it was." He grinned, his expression distant as he relived the memory. "And there was Rhys, haaaangin' upside down. Somehow she'd managed to fall in just the right way to get caught in the crook of two really thick limbs. Now, you'd think she'd be scared, right? Not Rhys. She twisted around to look at me and just grinned this shi-" he caught himself and stumbled over a phrase, "this...this huge grin and goes "dad, I'm a bat" like she wasn't hanging upside down by her waist." With an expression of remembered incredulity he shook his head before leaning towards Illie and continuing. "...I didn't know what to do. I couldn't even reach her forepaws. Ended up having to recruit half the pack to get her down."

Illie's eyes remained closed as she groaned, tired and achy. She just wanted to sleep, but she also...wanted to feel better. Someway, this woman would help, right? "Trauma doesn't sound very fun..." She murmured in her soft, scratchy voice, just laying there as the woman began to poke and prod at her and speak. She kept speaking, talking about buffalo, and illie couldn't help but giggle softly, a small but pained smile on her face. Buffalo, huh? "Can I see one...later?" She asked softly, hopefully. When Cascade asked her to open her eyes she did, but slowly. Blue eyes stared unfocused up at the purple blur, groaning softly. "It's so bright.." She whispered softly, squinting as she tried to focus on the paw infront of her and follow it. But everything was a blur, and dreadfully unfocused, and her gaze would jump slightly as she tried before she had to close them again. Valentine took over the store telling, and she would quickly turn her attention to him, rather enjoying these stories they told. A soft laugh would bubble from her, scratching in her throat and broken in her pain, but laughing nontheless, a small smile on her lips. "Really?" She asked skeptically, opening her eye a sliver to look up at the comforting shape of Valentine. "Will I get to meet her? She sounds fun." She whispered softly then. "I don't got any stories like that..or any at all."  She whispered softly, wishing she could tell them something funny too since they seemed to be exchanging things like that. "What's this place like?" "Talk" "You" Think

Watching Illie's reactions and movements, she let Valen's words take the forefront as he caught on and told the story. Finally, satisfied with her findings, she sat back and let Valen finish speaking. "Oh, you'll have stories of your own," she assured the girl. "You've got what's called amnesia. Your memories will probably start to come back eventually with some time. Older memories usually come back first so don't be surprised if you start to remember stuff from when you were a baby but nothing inbetween. You aren't dying, but you might have a headache for a while. Don't worry though, I'll get you patched up and you'll be off terrorizing Imperium just like Rhys in no time." She turned her head to Valen's ear and lowered her voice for him alone, to avoid scaring her with healer-talk. "She's fine for the most part, nothing broken. A lot of bruises and cuts, and that's about it. Maybe a couple fractured ribs but nothing serious. Her head though, she's got a pretty major concussion and I don't have the sort of experience to know where it's going to go. If there's this much memory loss she could very well have other more extensive damage in her brain that I can't see. There's often other longterm affects that I really can't predict. On top of that, some wolves start bleeding inside with trauma this bad and there's no way to stop it." She shrugged, sympathetic but hey, she'd just met the kid, there was a limit to how worked up she'd get over it if things went downhill. "So," she said more loudly to include Illie, "what we're going to do is get some herbs from my den to put on the cuts and rub some pain reliever on those bruises and let you get some sleep. We'll wake you up every couple hours to check on you so don't be surprised when we do."

She doubted the authenticity of his story and fixed him with a squinty-eyed – that was probably the too-brightness – look. ”Mmhm,” he rumbled. ”Cross my heart.” As for Rhys... ”Maybe when you're feeling better I'll take you to meet her.” Hopefully Rhys would have the sense not to drag the bedraggled girl all over creation right off the bat.

He quieted as Cascade began to speak to them, his ears flicking as she handed down the diagnosis of amnesia. ”...and you'll be off terrorizing Imperium just like Rhys in no time.” The words weren't directed at him but he found himself nodding approvingly. That is, until Cascade's attention turned to him. The words for his ears only were quite a bit more frank and caught him off guard, although he hid his dismay well. No mention of death was made, but it was there and the shrug that accompanied her final words somehow made made it easy to cast off any doubt that she might be joking.

After Cascade spoke in a louder voice to include Illie Valentine asked, ”Is there anything you'd like me to get for you or do?”