Can't Beat the Element of Surprise

Dalila continued to lay in the sand on the opposite shore, the island taunting her across the waves. It was so close and yet still so far, impossible for her to reach on her own in her current state. A couple of times her eyes tried to flutter closed as she edged on the brink of unconsciousness, but she forced herself to stay awake even though the thoughts racing through her head kept making tears return to her eyes. Thankfully, by some small shred of luck, as she blinked and pulled her gaze back into focus again, she saw Chimera's slightly blurry form emerge from the water in front of her. A heavy, shaky sigh escaped her and she tried to push herself up onto her paws to greet him, but barely made it a couple of inches off of the sand before her shaking limbs gave out and failed her. Her vision swam for a moment, but when he rushed over to her and spoke her name she was at least able to blink her vision into focus once more to glance up at him with grateful relief.

She held still while he parted the fur around the wounds that were tore open across the back of her neck, wincing a little from the movement around the tender flesh. Chimera lifting her off of the sand and pulling her into his embrace hurt worse, making her aching body protest, but she didn't complain. She was just grateful that she had managed to get to him and that he had come so quickly. As long as he was there she knew she was going to be okay. His question of what happened was more difficult to answer, but after leaning into him for a moment with her eyes closed and catching her breath she replied, her voice a bit hoarse and quiet, "I was scouting the canyon... trying to find places I could take Ruse that she'd like..." Her ears flicked back at the thought of Ruse, frowning at the idea of her having to see her injured and beaten like this. She didn't want their little girl to be exposed to anything like this, even if she was nearly a year old now.

Dalila pushed away her wandering thoughts, forcing herself to go on and focus before she got ahead of herself. "A brute found me... He killed my mastiff and overpowered me..." That was the easiest and simplest way to explain what happened and she didn't really feel like Chimera would want to hear the gritty details any more than she would want to tell them. Her memories of the whole thing were a little foggy as it was with just the most impactful or painful moments standing out like highlights through the mist. The words her attacker said to her right before he vanished filtered back to the top of her memories though and she blinked her eyes open as her brow creased, lifting her head just enough to be able to look up at Chimera again. "He said... He said he was a Carpathius... Isn't that The Hallow's family...? I thought... He looked..." Her words trailed off as a wave of exhaustion washed over her and she leaned her head into him again, panting lightly as her eyes closed.

"Will... Will you help me wash off... before we go back...?" she asked after a moment, weakly lifting her paw to point toward the water. "I-I don't... I don't want Ruse... Or Siren..." She trailed off again, her tired form slumping into him. A soft whine escaped her as she remembered what the stranger had said about carrying his pups, about how he would find her if she killed them, all of the memories of what happened slowly returning to her the more she thought back on it. "And I... I need to get herbs from Ali... I don't... I don't want his..." She wasn't in heat yet, thankfully, but they weren't far off from her season so she truly didn't want to take any chances. She wasn't going to give the bastard a chance to follow through on any threats since she wouldn't be having his pups to begin with.

"Dalila Vista Klein"