Dangers of the Mountain

Paladin nodded gently as Malalia gave her answer, adding “Another way to know if there’s a rib fracture is if the rib gives unnaturally under the paw—bending inward instead of holding against light pressure.”

At her question, he answered readily, “It would mean the lung is punctured. There would also be a sucking noise with each breath he’d try to take, and possibly blood leaking from the mouth. But he’s escaped that, lucky man that he is. The herbs I gave him should stop any other bleeding.”

He glanced toward Sirius as the behemoth began the setup of the cart. Then turned to Malalia, adding belatedly, “I am Paladin Ancora, by the way. I helped pick out the herb packets for your first aid kit.”

He flashed a wink at the girl then turned to Cairo with a brisk, “Well! Let’s get this boy checked out on the other side and wrapped up.”

Cai’s other side had no full fractures, but Paladin suspected that there were cracked ribs. There were further bubbling whines as he and Ime slowly, carefully sat Cairo up again, though Kayode had taken the precaution of gently muzzling the young man. Cairo in his right mind would never lash out, but if he came to, in pain and confused, and in a strange place, none of them wanted his teeth finding their persons if he lashed out in that state.

“This is how you wrap a chest. It works for wounds and keeping the torso still. It’s definitely helpful to have primate friends in these cases.”

Cai’s head rested on Ime’s shoulder, Kayode placing a pad of deer skin on his side over the ribs, before wrapping the longer strips of doeskin around Cairo’s middle behind the forelegs. He made two wraps, being sure to go slowly enough for Malalia to watch and learn.

After two more, he pinned the next length beneath the end of the first and made two more wraps before crossing the bandage between Cairo’s front legs, crossing diagonally over his chest to the other side for two wraps, then two wraps around the torso, before repeating the chest wrap in the opposite direction, like a piece of armor. It took four rolls of doeskin bandages, the end neatly tied off.

They laid him out over the coat Sirius had laid out, assuming it was large enough. “Alright… The next part is getting him up into the wagon. Two on either side of the hide, one at each corner, should make it a lot easier. We’ll want to lift him up and in and set him down as gently as possible. Those hides will need to be rolled up around him to keep him from shifting around over the bumps and hollows on the way to the Armada.”

He gave Cairo a last check-over before taking one of the corners, Ime taking the diagonal opposite. Once whomever else had taken a corner that would, he took a good grip of his end in his teeth, nodding at the others before pulling back and lifting. Hopefully with one try, they got the young warrior hoisted into the wagon.

Now that the boy had the initial care done that would hopefully keep him alive long enough to heal, Paladin gazed over him with more tenderness. He’d administered care to the boy since he was a pup battling colds. He knew Cairo was a determined fellow with drive to achieve. The young man was already patient, thankfully, or he’d be in for even worse frustrations than he already was in for. But the boy would bounce back quickly.

I believe we’re ready to go…” He remarked as Ime and Kayode rolled the hides and lined Cairo’s limp form with them, rather like a wolf shaped concrete form. Chrystal swooped to the wagon, lighting beside the wolf and settling on her breast.

He bent and gathered up the supplies, tucking away the first aid kit away into Cairo's armor pouches before tossing his armor up onto the wagon to one side.