Wylan was trying his paw at curing some meat. He started by skinning the prey, and leaving it hanging on some branches just outside their den to drain. Flatting for the first time was an interesting experience. Sometimes, he found himself tripping over tinctures that Ollie had made. Sometimes, he found Ollie demanding to know how feathers had ended up in his honey, or on his bed, or other totally random places. (Wylan didn’t know, sometimes feathers just did that).

But all in all. He liked it. He liked the freedom of having their own space, but still having Ollie nearby. Sometimes, he woke up in the night with a terrible ache in his chest, and would curl up outside Ollie's door, just so he could hear another wolf breathing.

His thoughts were heavily on what life looked like now when he heard a branch snap just outside the front door. He glanced outside, and found himself face to face with a tiger. Close enough that he could feel their breath. One of his drying birds in its mouth. “Ollie… OLLIE!”


"Wylan Fatalis"

Oleander had just taken some dried herbs and finished tinctures from the treehouse to the den at the base of the tree. He liked the system he had worked out, it made his muscles ache by the end of the day but he was well on his way to making the trek up and down the stairs to increase his endurance and strength. He also liked having his own room where he could silently cry about missing his family without alerting Wylan or anyone else. He had to be strong for them.

He was on his way up with a couple of new jars ready to steep in the corner when he heard the startled call of his brother above. He sounded scared! Without thinking Ollie dropped the basket and ran full-tilt the rest of the way down, the jars rolling and falling off the stairs.

He smelled the big cat and Wylan's fear before he crashed through the door with a vicious snarl. He leaped from the doorway at the big cat and grasped its cheek with his teeth, intending to pull it down from the window. He gripped it with his forepaws digging in his claws while the tiger flailed its own massive paws trying to get a hold of him.

"Speech"

Wylan had never had a chance to see his brother in action before. While the winged wolf froze in shock, Ollie appeared at his side before the span of a few seconds had passed. The white wolf was there, and suddenly was pulling on the tiger, pulling it into the treehouse. Or at least, attempting to.

Finally unfreezing, Wylan realised Ollie was right. They had to pull the tiger towards them. They couldn’t just scare it off. If it was in pack territory stealing prey, it could just as easily steal one of the smaller, or non fighting wolves of the pack. It could kill one of them at any time if they weren’t prepared. He reached two paws through the window and latched his claws into the tiger's shoulder as also attempted to heave the wild creature through the window. At the same time, he started buffering its face with its wings, attempting to keep it from striking them as they pulled.


"Wylan Fatalis"

Oleander pulled the beast from the window with Wylan. The cat yowled loudly and snarled back at them, dropping it's prize it had been intending to steal. Oleander jumped back and ducked to avoid Wylan's wings beating the beast. He was going to lose them if he kept doing that! They were too delicate to be used as battle appendages!

Flipping itself upright it attempted to grab one of Wylan's wings with a swipe of its paw. Oleander reached out and pushed his brother's wing out of reach. "Keep those back! Don't break it!" He didn't know if he could heal his brother's wing if it broke, and the space was so small for the battle between the three of them. Then made to grab the tiger's arm and push the beast into a corner or at the very least incapacitate this arm from swiping at the wings again. The cat went to bite Ollie's face.

"Speech"

They pulled the cat through the window with some effort. It was more surprising that no one had lost an eye yet to the dangerous flailing paws of the cat. Perhaps his wings were sufficiently keeping it distracted. He did spare a moment to give Ollie a surprised glance at his comment. He couldn’t fly what else were the things for? But he didn’t bother trying to answer.

He pulled one wing out of the cat’s grasp, and smacked it soundly over the head with the other. It was enough of a distraction to buy Wylan time to reach over and grab the back of its neck with his teeth. Digging in with his elongated fangs as he yanked its head back. He would not let it bite his brother! “G'f'r th' throat!” he said over his mouthful.


"Wylan Fatalis"

He struggled to maintain hold of the tiger's arm as Wylan battered it with his wings some more. He ducked as Wylan came in and grabbed the back of the cat's neck, pulling its head back. The cat swiped again yowling loudly and thrashing its tail, Ollie ducked again and heard his brother's muffled suggestion. It took a second glance at the cat for him to register it and then he dove for the cat's throat, sinking his teeth into its jugular and waiting for it to expel its last breath.

Finally, it went limp, but just to be sure Ollie held on as he panted through his nose and then gave it a thorough shake, tearing the throat out in the process. Very dead.

He flopped down on the floor, his body shifting some of the jars aside with soft clinks, panting hard, tongue lolling. He looked at his brother to see how he was faring but panting too hard to comment on their surprise fight.

"Speech"

Thank goodness Ollie could understand him. The white wolf made the killing strike, and at last he could release his hold on its neck. He groaned and stretched out his neck muscles, and gave his wings a quick flick. They felt fine, he didn’t think there was any damage. There were feathers all over the place, however. Soaking into the blood that was staining their floor. He groaned again, this time at the sight of it. “What a mess!” this was a side of flatting he hadn’t considered. No one was going to help them clean up this mess. “At least we get a tiger coat. Maybe we could stick it in the communal area, and eat dinner on it?” He suggested. It seemed the best way to share it.

He was just about to start picking up feathers and look for a means to clean all this up, when a second growl came from the window. Wylan did a double take, looking there, looking away, and back again. What!! “Ollie, Ollie, he had a friend!” He groaned as the tiger shoved its way through the window.


"Wylan Fatalis"

Oleander caught his breath with a sigh as he relaxed into the mess for a minute. How would they clean this up? Tiger blood started to creep across the floor when he heard Wylan call his name again. The smell of the first tiger had covered up the smell of the second tiger.

"You really wanna piece of this?" He rolled his eyes as he got up to face the tiger's friend. As if he really couldn't be bothered to give this new one his attention. He squared off with it and they paced together in a circle, Ollie was aiming to get the cats back to Wylan so he could take a shot. He couldn't take this one by surprise like he did the last one, but maybe Wyl could.

"Speech"

Wylan was grateful that neither of them had gotten injured from the first tiger, but it would have been nice to at least get a chance to catch their breath before a second one decided to take offence to them. How had the patrols missed two tigers sneaking into the territory?? He really really hoped it hadn’t happened on one of his patrols.

Ollie got to his paws as the tiger crept slowly into the room together, white wolf and orange cat began to pace circles around each other. Wylan crouched down low, trying not to be too obvious as Ollie distracted the beast. Letting it circle around him until its back was to Wylan.. And that was when he struck.

He leaped on its back, digging in with both claws and teeth as hard as he could. Trying to pull it down with his weight - and he weighed more than most wolves with the heavy appendages of wings on either side of him.


"Wylan Fatalis"

As soon as Wylan leaped on its back and dug his claws into its fur, it whipped around trying to claw and roar at the winged wolf. Ollie dove in with his own attack, latching behind the cat's jaw and trying to drive it further to the ground. The cat whipped around again, this time at Ollie and the white wolf lost his grip as the cat raked a heavy paw over his shoulder, and dragged its claws down his side and briefly over his ribs. He pulled himself back to avoid the cat's own aim at his jugular then made a swipe at its face with a snarl.

"Speech"

As they fought, Wylan was struck with how seamlessly the two wolves fought together. They had missed out on a lot of puppy play with Ollie’s illness, but it was clear that Ollie had the heart of a lion, and the winged wolf felt proud to call him his brother.

As he attempted to drag the cat down, Ollie took on a much more dangerous frontal assault. Just how dangerous was soon obvious when it raked its claws down his brother's side. “Ollie!” Wylan yelped, clawing his way up the cat. Half mounting it, and crushing it beneath his weight as he crawled over it towards his brother. Digging his claws in every step of the way, until he was at the nape of its neck. He drove its shoulders down hard, squishing it beneath him. “Ollie, are you okay?”


"Wylan Fatalis"

Ollie was focused on the big cat and hadn't realized he had been scratched badly. That is until he put his weight on it and his shoulder screamed for attention like it was set on fire.

"Yeah! I'll be fine! Let's get this sucker!" He said, obviously favoring it. He was glad his brother was over the nape of its neck because as he dove in for another bite he stalled out. The tiger was limp under the winged wolf.
"Uhh, brother? You broke its neck! Well done!" He said sitting on his haunches and peering out of the treehouse to see if any other stupid cats dared to try them.

"If we mount one or both of their heads, it'll tell all the other tigers and bears to stay away." He suggested, ignoring the blood dripping from his shoulder and side. The cat got him good.  


"Speech"

Wylan blinked in astonishment, looking down and realising that Ollie was right. “I don’t weigh that much, do I?” He asked, he was a pretty big wolf, and the wings added a lot of weight. Oops. he’d have to be careful not to do that to something he cared about.

He climbed off the corpse, and looked with exasperation at both of the creatures. At least one had been killed cleanly, so it wasn’t bleeding out everywhere. But both wolves were covered in blood. In Ollie’s case, his own as well as the cats. “We need to get that cleaned Ollie, who knows where its claws have been” Placing the health of his brother over any sort of cleaning. Cleaning was going to suck. He was hidden suddenly with a suckerpunch of homesickness. Halo would have known exactly what to use to get the blood out of the wood.

He pushed it aside, sniffing only once as he grabbed one of the med kits the boys hand on hand for emergencies, and crouched in front of his brother. “This will sting” he warned, as he grabbed some salt water infused with Trillium.

"Wylan Fatalis"

Oleander chuckled at how Wylan was oblivious to his size when he killed the tiger. His laughter was strained though as the adrenaline started to wear off from both fights and he could feel his heart pounding and his legs shaking beneath him.

"No... I can... It's-it's" He was starting to feel woozy and weak, hungry for air. The exhaustion hit him like a tiger to the gut. He eased himself down to the floor, his limbs shaking with fatigue. There was no getting around it, no tending it himself. He trusted Wylan at least to know what he was doing, but why oh why did his body have to flop out on him?

He propped his head over the tiger's body slowly growing cold. It was a better pillow than a jar. At least he was practiced in laying still as someone tended to him.

He licked his lips and then pinched them with his teeth as the salt water cleansed the wound, and he took in shakey breaths instead of hissing in pain. He'll be resting for hours after this, if not days, damn.

"Th-think I'll get a c-c-c-ool scar?" He asked, trying to keep his shivering under control. Not that it was cold, no, it was just his body registering the shock, finally. Damn, was Wylan okay at least?

"Speech"

Wylan looked over at his brother in concern as he clearly grew weaker. Likely the adrenaline had been hiding what the white wolf was feeling, and it was hitting him now. Watching for a moment to make sure his brother wasn’t about to pass out, he moved to the other wolf's side. He got to work, starting with cleaning the wounds. He was gentle, but merciless. He knew an infection was far worse than a scratch. In fact, it was usually the infection that killed you. Once he was sure the wounds were clean, he got to work. Checking what would need stitches, and what would just need to be bound.

“You’ll definitely get a cool star. Girls love scars, right?” he asked, keeping his voice light as he worked. The hard part of learning to be a healer was seeing the people you loved in pain. “Almost done, and then you can bundle up in bed” He suggested. Cleaning was going to suck, but there was no way he was dragging Ollie through it now. “Looks like just this scratch will need stitches”


"Wylan Fatalis"

Ollie dryly chuckled at the idea of girls loving scars. Not that there were any in the pack he could pick up anytime soon. They were either related to him, older than him, or Ignita. And he wasn't going to touch Bas's personal slave with a ten-foot stick.

He winced silently as the scratches were cleaned, and flicked an ear at his brother when he suggested only one needed stitches. "Oh g-goody, m-mmy first...stitches..." He'll know what he puts his patients through now. Hopefully Wylan could work around his flinches.

"Speech"

Wylan grinned lightly at his brother. “Come on, you can’t tell me you haven’t always wondered what it was like to be on the other side of the needle” he teased, knowing it likely wasn’t true. But he was trying to help his brother keep his spirits up.

He worked quickly, cleaning the needle, threading it, and getting to work on Ollie’s side. The herbs he’d rubbed there first would have started to numb the skin by now and he made quick work of it. Making neat little stitches along the cut. Once he was finished, he put a bandage of herbs over top to keep out infection. “That should do the job, now lets get you to bed, alright?” He said, moving to help the other wolf along.


"Wylan Fatalis"

Oleander steadied his breathing and tried not to wince through the stitches. The numbing herbs had done most of the work though and he wasn't feeling every poke. He'll have to remember those for the next time he was stitching somebody up.

Wylan was quick and Ollie appreciated it. He was glad his brother was also a fighting healer like him, they really could take on the whole world by themselves.
He nodded as Wylan helped him to bed. "Ss-sorry Wyl, I'll find a way to help out cleaning after I get my energy back. I promise." He hated feeling so weak, how could he fight like Bas and Wyl and his father if he was always a shaking mess after? At least he could get a hold of his shaking while getting stitched up.


"Speech"