Ignita left the territory of the Armada for the first time since the Warlord enslaved her. She had finally felt better after her accident in the storerooms. Then the Warlord himself approached her door and told her they were going on an adventure. He looked terrible as if he had been in a fight with a bear.  

Upon entering The Red Forest she was struck by the huge massively wide trunks of the large trees rising into the sky. Towering up so far she could barely make out the tops of the trees through the thick branches high overhead.

He had said nothing of the reason for their trip yet and looking around she saw no one else from the pack.
"What's going on Bas?" She asked cautiously, he was in rough shape and grouchy. The rich acidic smell of pine overpowered the scent of herbals from the treatment of his wounds.

"Basilisk" || "Iggy"

“I fought a bear, and we’re bringing back the meat for the stores. The pelt will be split between you and Spider.” He told her, the grouchiness yet to leave his voice. The only reason he wasn’t limping worse, was because he refused to show it past what he absolutely couldn’t help.

They weren’t far off now, the scent of death was getting stronger. He knew Ignita wasn’t going to be a huge help in carrying it. In fact, bringing her was almost a bad idea. But he’d done it anyway. He was grumpy, he hurt, Hazel was busy. The scent of Ignita calmed some of the anger and wildness in his heart.

“Here” he said, turning between two tall trees, and coming to a stop next to a dead body. He growled when he saw a bite mark in its pelt. By the looks of it, their arrival had scared off a fox. “Help me cut up the pelt” He ordered her, tossing her a dagger.

"Basilisk" || "Iggy"

The evidence of the turning season of fall was all around them. Mushrooms sprouted in the damp places and berries weighed the branches of the smaller trees and bushes around them. The great redwoods weren't going to lose their needles though.

His rough voice cut through the quiet stillness of the wood. He looked like he fought a bear because he had fought a bear! She perked her ears at the implications of his reason. She was going to have her own bear pelt! Why didn't he call on an other hunter like Tethys to help though? Oh, right, he hated to show them when he was wounded.

She glanced up again as they passed through two trees, a squirrel chittering away as it feasted on pinecones. She had never been to such a beautiful place as this. So lush and different than the desert she had known.

Ignita heard his directional command as the scent of fresh death started to overwhelm the pine and sap smells. She let the danger fall to the ground before she picked it up, knowing she would have fumbled if she tried to catch it then approached the large carcass. She had never cut into a bear before. Rabbits, voles, road runners, lizards, and the like, but never bear. It was so big it almost looked like it was about to get up. But it was thoroughly dead. She never skinned anything either.

She steeled herself for the grueling work and set about doing her best. Blade to meat it cut a lot easier than tearing it with her teeth.

She heard a shifting weight and a faint rustle of branches behind them. She glanced at Bas to see if he heard it too. She pressed into his leg to get his attention. They weren't alone.

"Ignita"

Basilisk may enter her threads without warning.

Ignita let the dagger fall, before picking it up. Probably a wise move, knowing how clumsy she could be. When she picked a side and started to cut the coat free, he crouched down on the other side with a groan. He was definitely hurting, but he was too stubborn to leave such a valuable prize behind. The coat would go far to keep Ignita and Spider both warm over winter. They were such small wolves, that even half each would be excess for them.

At the sound of something moving in the woods behind them, he pricked an ear back, listening with half a thought as he continued to work. Ignita however was a little more cautious than he was. He felt her move a little, and pressed against his leg. He glanced at her, and nodded. It was likely the fox, watching them and hoping they would leave behind some scraps that it could scavenge on.

Oh, how wrong he was. When the sounds grew a little louder, the shuffling and sniffing morphed, until it was clear it was a much bigger creature. A matching polar, which stopped its tracking to find the pair of wolves, and perhaps a mate or relative dead at their paws. Basilisk rose slowly, pushing Ignita as he did so until he had shoved her behind him. His lips peeled back from his fangs with a snarl. Round two with a fresh bear was… not a wise decision. But there was no way little Ignita, or his companion hooked up to a wagon would be fast enough to outrun the bear. No choice.

"Basilisk" || "Iggy"

The pale son of Halo and Mortis got a bad feeling as he watched Basilisk take his tiny slave Ignita and a cart pulled by a companion past his den toward the redwoods.

Ollie had just sewed his giant cousin up, he was not going to let those stitches tear on his watch. Might as well track them down and help out even though he already mentioned someone else should probably do it.

He ducked back into his den and grabbed a knife to help them skin the beast. Took a few tries to find a good one that wasn't a tiny surgical instrument or herbal boline.

They were out of sight by the time he was ready to join them and he saved his energy in catching up to them by taking his time. The cart tracks and the injured warlord steps next to the mostly healed slave tracks were easy to pick out over the pine needles.

As he approached the sounds he heard were not of two wolves gathering a pelt by themselves but of a large creature approaching them. On alert, he slunk to his belly and started to sneak up on the party on the far side.

The bear was none too pleased to find one of its brethren carved into and broke from the trees to charge at the Warlord and his slave.

Oleander took to the ground and like a white bolt of lightning he leaped to strike the bear on the side of its head with his cat-like claws, staggering it in surprise. He jumped back to stand alongside Bas, more fresh and ready than the injured warlord.

"Speech"

Ignita clung to the knife as if that could save her against a giant white polar bear. She let herself be shoved behind Bas. She dashed her gaze about the glade, trying to find a possible hiding place among the massive roots or sparse underbrush, but the only place she could conceivably find to hide under was the cart.

No, no point. Instead of hiding, she unlashed Orso from the cart so he could either flee or help fight. She was in the middle of doing so just as a white streak came out of the underbrush and hit the bear on the side of the head!
"Ollie!" She greeted happily, grateful he was there, but that was a stupid thing to do because it called the bear's attention to her.
Finally Orso was free and she dove under the cart to keep out of Bas and Ollie's way.

"Speech"

Basilisk held his ground as the bear charged. He heard movement behind him, but he couldn’t risk turning and seeing what Ignita was doing. He could only hope she wasn’t being foolish in the face of danger. Before the polar bear could reach him, another shape shot out suddenly from the side and swiped it on the head. The attack was enough to derail its charge, and buy Basilisk a little more time.

This time, he charged, heading straight for the bear. Timing his attack with that of Thunder, as the falcon let out a sharp battle cry from above, and clawed the back of its head. It was enough of a distraction for Basilisk to get in close, driving his shoulder into the bear and hooking a paw behind one of its large ones. Driving his spur into the back of it as he took a bite at its neck with his elongated fangs. He was the largest, and the only one that could go toe to toe with the bear. He could only hope Ollie would take the hint, and attack it while it was distracted.

"Basilisk" || "Iggy"

Oleander took his cue and dove into the soft under belly of the great bear. As the bear reared up on its hinds, dragging Bas with it, Oleander clasped his fangs into the flesh behind the bear's arm. He brought his back feet up to push against the bear as he ripped the skin fold of its underarm away from it upside down. He landed on all fours from the flip, dumped the flesh on the ground, and jumped back up to sink his teeth in to its opposite thigh, ducking as the bear swiped at him and tried to claw at Bas.

"Speech"

Ignita sheltered under the cart, still holding the knife. Blood mixed with the smell of pine, fern, and wolf. Her breathing was quick but steady and her mind was waiting on pure instinct. She couldn't let them just go at this by themselves! She had a knife! She'll use it!

Her eyes were glued on the action and as the bear reared with both wolves attached to it, she darted out from hiding and slashed the bear's ankles with the knife in her maw. She bounded off the trunk of a tree and slashed at the bears ankles again as she darted by. She dove back under the cart and waited for another opening.

"Speech"

Despite Bas’s weight in his foreleg, it reared up. Displaying massive strength as it pulled Bas up with it. He felt his back legs slide forward as it dragged him, but he was determined to keep his hold. He couldn’t let go. He was dizzy, and in a lot of pain. The only thought he could hold onto was of little Iggy, and the young white healer. They needed him. Instead of letting go, he dug in deeper, until he could feel his spur mangling the back of its knee. The bar was marginally distracted by the other two wolves, but Bas was the biggest threat. As the two wrestled, it slammed its head suddenly against Bas’s.

The impact was severe enough that the dark wolf blacked out for a second. His hold on the bear slacking, but his spur, still in its knee, held him upright. The sudden weight of his entire body on it dragged it down, cutting a wound deep in its flesh. It smacked him with a paw, and Bas went down.

"Basilisk" || "Iggy"

Bas went down and the bear with it, on top of Oleander. The white wolf used his claws on the fleshy underbelly to haul himself closer to its throat. Dropping the knife, he lunged for its throat and clung with all his strength. Making as many bloody ribbons of its chest as he could when he raked his cat sharp claws to help him keep his grip. The bear thrashed and swiped but could not reach Ollie before the blood drained from its wounds and it fell with a mighty flop on its side, letting the white wolf, now drenched in polar bear blood back away from the kill.

He looked around for Bas and Ignita, the Warlord was out cold. Damn. He panted with the exertion of the fight as he weakly looked over Basilisk. Then flicked his eyes to Ignita. She seemed no worse for wear.

"I'll be back. Gonna grab supplies." And he padded back to the healers' den for the kit, this time packing a needle and thread like he should have in the last kit.

"Speech"

As the bear went down again she didn't dare dash out and get caught in those huge paws. But when Basilisk was swiped and went out cold she ran for him. Her little body propped over his side as she held the knife as menacingly as she could at the bear as Oleander dispatched it.

When Ollie crawled out from the dead bear, Ignita spat out the knife into the dirt blade down and looked Basilik over. Please don't be dead. Please please- Ollie said he'd be back, he didn't seem that worried. She didn't know if that was just Ollie or if there wasn't anything to actually be worried about. '

"Bas... Basil? Warlord?" She said as the pale healer stalked out of sight. "Please, please don't be dead." She curled around his face, propping his nose up both so she could feel his breathing and to make sure she wasn't blocking it. She laid her tiny golden head gently over his neck, to assure herself his heart was still pumping. "Stay with me..." She whispered, her devotion complete.

She was alone, her master, unconscious, outside of pack borders. Ollie probably shouldn't have left her alone like this, with her rank and all. But instead of taking the opportunity to run for her freedom, she curled around her master's head, desperate for him to live.

"Basilisk" || "Iggy"

Basilisk lay there, stunned as Oleander finished off the bear. All he could do was breathe, and even that was hard. There was a blinding pain in his head, and he wasn’t sure he could feel his body. But as he lay there, struggling, he began to regain feeling. He could hear what Ollie said, but he couldn’t respond to it as the healer took off.

In fact, it took him a little bit to feel the slight weight of another wolf against him, and to realise that Ignita stood there. Tiny little thing, ready to defend him. Something squeezed in his heart, but among all the other hurts he could barely feel it.

As the white healer left, Ignita moved his head. He groaned a little, he really didn’t want to move (or be moved) “Pleassseee shhhuuut uuppp, y-y-yourrr to-loud” he garbled past what felt like an overly fat tongue. Despite everything, he still wanted that fucking coat.

"Basilisk" || "Iggy"

He came back on the scene to what could have been a cute picture if the girl hadn't moved his patient's head without checking with him first.

He scowled at her with his viridian eyes, now she had to stay there to make sure Basilisk was breathing, or at least hope his head wasn't severed from his neck with the blow from the bear and subsequent propping up.
"You shouldn't have moved him, but now you have to stay put until I tell you to move." He grumbled sourly.

He huffed and then turned to the Warlord. "Bas? What's going on, can you tell me anything?" Were his stitches torn? Did he have a headache? He gently lifted the eyelids of his cousin to peer into those fierce blue eyes. Were his pupils regular-sized?

"Speech"

--Skip Ignita allowed--

At his words, Ignita did shut up, which was a good thing. His head was a mess, everything was too bright, too loud, and it pounded something terrible. He was grateful to see the healer return. He’d never been so happy to see Ollie this time, but in truth he was a little bit scared. He hated showing weakness, and while he wouldn’t have admitted it outloud, there was a comfort to having Ignita there beside him. Who, apparently, was made of stronger stuff than he would have guessed.

“Everything hurts, hard to move” He panted softly to the healer, glaring at having his eyes forced wider open. “It’s better than what I was first hit”[b] He admitted, he could feel his extremities now. He clenched and unclenched his toes, just to prove to himself that he could.

[b]"Basilisk" || "Iggy"

Hmmm. Ollie thought for a moment after examining his eyes. He looked over the massive wolf and caught him moving his toes. A very good sign.

"Good good, keep moving the toes. See if you can move anything else. If you open your eyes, look at mine and tell me how many of my nose you can see. Let me know if there's more than one." He asked standing in front of the titan's face and holding his own face in front of it.

If he counted more than one nose he probably had a concussion, which would also explain why it was hard to move.

He needed to get a look at those stitches. make sure he hadn't ripped them, he probably did.

"Doing good Iggy." He mentioned to the girl cradling her master's head.

"Speech"

--Skip Ignita--

Basilisk struggled to concentrate as Ollie asked him to focus. He blinked wearily a couple of times, and brought his eyes into focus. Oh, yeah, there were two of them. “What am I going to do with two of you?” He asked somewhat blearly, before closing his eyes again. He realised it had been a long, long time since he had been small enough to be carried to bed. Not that his father had ever done so. But Hana, Hanako… ”Mum?” He called out softly, feeling confused and delirious.

He decided he didn’t want to bother with what was happening in the real world around him anymore. He sagged his head a little, keeping his eyes closed. Someone else could deal with it.

"Basilisk" || "Iggy"

When Oleander came back Ignita thumped her tail at him. She immediately began regretting every decision in her life when he scowled at her though. She didn't know him as she did Bas and she sank her head low over Bas's neck with her ears airplane-ing out flat, thoroughly chastised for moving Bas's head. The dude was scary when he wanted to be. She was grateful he wasn't part of the chastizing crew when she had her accident.

She held still as he examined Basilisk, her golden eyes wide and watching his assessments carefully. She didn't dare move a muscle.
She relaxed a little when he praised her, at least she knew he didn't hate her.

When Bas mumbled something about there being two of Oleander and then she heard very clearly his soft call for his mother she let her eyes dart at Ollie's with concern. She remembered she had a hard time seeing after her accident, he probably had a concussion.

She pulled her chin over the titan's neck. A comforting hug, she even dared to lick his ear as if a mother would her pup. Seeing the big warlord in pain was heartbreaking.

She saw Oleander working out what the next step could be. She lifted her head at him and offered a suggestion. "What about Oso and the Cart?" She asked.

"Basilisk" || "Iggy"

This... wasn't good. He had a concussion for sure. Oleander lifted his gaze after he received his answer. He looked back down the path to the Mile High woods and the Col.
He ran his tongue over his teeth as he thought about a good plan of action. They needed to get Bas home... who was easily 300 lbs or more, and he and Iggy potentially made up 100 lbs together.

He glanced back to Iggy as she lifted her head to give him a suggestion. Oso and the cart? Maybe. He'll have to hook Oso back up. Would Oso be strong enough to haul Bas by himself or would they have to pull together?

He nodded at Ignita then called Oso back to the cart and hooked him up.

They could probably use a polar bear skin to haul him into the cart.

"Did Bas teach you how to skin it?" He asked the little slave, "If you're gentle you can let his head down while you get up. Help me skin these beasts." He said and grabbed one of the discarded knives from the fight and went to work quickly slicing and pulling the pelt off the bear like he did the tigers.

"Speech"

After that, Basilisk passed out for a while. Coming in and out of it occasionally as he heard the wolves working around him. He didn’t think his head had ever been in so much pain before. His thoughts were slow, and heavy, and he struggled to understand what was dreams, and what was reality. He could hear the voices of the two wolves, and knew they sought to help him. He trusted Ignita, and his trust for Ollie was growing. But it was not easy to be so wounded around them. To know he wouldn’t be able to defend himself (or them).

"Basilisk" || "Iggy"