Crux came to after what he could not know had only been a matter of seconds. It was a good thing Stratum had been there though because the very first thing his conscious mind did was gasp for air, which inevitably led to a round of coughing because luckily for Crux there was air to gasp for. His mind frantically piecing together the sudden explosion of senses. The first thing he was aware of was the pain in his limbs, the second was that those limbs were empty. Where was Cryptis? He could hear his brother talking to Riya, saying he had to go. No! Crux tried to say something to stop his brother from leaving, to ask if he knew where Triss was, to plead with him not to go and risk Crux losing anyone else but all that came out were a bunch of gurgled coughs and Crux instinctively rolled over, water fighting it's way out of his system one painful cough at a time. Still he fought to get up proper, to try and make himself stand up, start looking for Cryptis. "Triss" was all he managed to rasp, he had wanted it to be a shout to be loud enough that if she could somehow hear him she would... But Riya heared him.  

"Crux!" Her tone was sharp. "Calm down. I am tending to Cryptis. Take a moment you're no help to either of us like this!" By the sound of her voice she was very much looking forward to him being well enough for her to whack him across the head. He forced himself to calm down. Only until his breathing settled though. The be was forcing himself to his paws which had grown stiff from the cold.

Before this moment he would have thought it impossible for Cryptis to look any smaller but laying on the cold stone her pelt soaked through she somehow looked even tinier. Worse though he was glad to see Riya had shifted her into her side to avoid her drowning on any liquid that might come out of her it seemed that liquid was blood. "Not breathing, unresponsive." Riya told him Dutifully. "She's been given a few rescue breathes already." That was a much as Riya cold do, her claws much too dangerous to risk the next steps. Crux swallowed hard, nodded and they gently moved the girl onto her back. Crux leaned down, ear to her nose listening for even the weakest breath. He trusted Riya but since he was about to try and resucitate the girl he had to check for himself. And expectedly there was nothing. He carefully maneuvered her head back, opening her mouth and grimacing as he spotted the deep red her fangs and tongue had been dyed with blood no doubt her own body's doing. He positioned himself so that he could easily place a single paw on her chest, gods she was so small, and easily move back to her head as needed. And then it started, he'd blow a breathes into her mouth trying to force air back into her lungs, then move to doing compressions on her chest struggling to find the right force when she felt so breakable under him. He'd do this until she started breathing under how own power and not a moment sooner. In the logical part of his mind he knew there was always a limit, a point where someone had to say there was nothing more they could do... But Crux knew in his heart that he'd be unable to make that call if worst came to worse... Someone else would have to drag him off of her, he'd keep trying until the world ended.

"Triss" & "Crux"

She was floating, and she couldn’t remember how she got here. She couldn’t remember ever feeling so light, as if she was puffed full of air, which gave her the buoyancy to float among the clouds. She giggled as she reached out a paw to touch one floating marshmallow-shaped cloud. The second her claw touched it, it popped! She gasped, and laughed again, trying to peddle through the clouds. But she realised she couldn’t control her direction, and attempting to only made her spin. Around, and around, and suddenly it was going faster and she screamed as she tried to get it to stop. Instead, it picked up speed, hurtling her through the sky.

She gasped suddenly, coughing a mixture of water and blood as she heaved and gasped again. She was back in her body, but the dizzy sensation of spinning hadn’t left her. She felt sick, and her chest hurt but her throat - her throat was on fire. Every breath felt like she was sucking on hot coals. She realised there was a wolf above her, and some of her frantic emotions stilled at the sight of him. Crux! He was alive! She opened her mouth to speak to him. To thank him, or simply gush over the sheer joy that they both had made it. “......” her mouth opened and closed like a fish out of water, and nothing but a trickle of blood came out.


"Triss" & "Crux"

Crux didn't know how long her worked to resuscitate the girl but he felt her twitch under his paw and he was about to lean forward to try and catch the sounds or feeling of her breathing when she gasped to life and he gently guided her head to the side, again to help make sure she didn't choke, and as water and blood splattered the ground Crux bit back on his anxiety the mixture brought him. Instead he placed a paw gently on one of hers, seeking to both keep her from jumping up too suddenly but also to offer a silent sign he was there, for whatever comfort that gave her. "You're okay, just breathe." He said softly, unsure if she could even hear him over her coughing fit but unlike their first meeting this time he was less panicked for her, at least right now. The coughing meant her body was trying to work out something, in this case probably the ingested and inhaled water. For now it was actually a good sign. Still he watched her carefully, looking for any sign that the fit was shifting, changing to something worse.

Finally Cryptis seemed to focus on him and despite himself he couldn't help but smile softly when her gaze met his, finally letting himself feel relief. They were both okay. They'd both survived. He probably should have realized even that was too good, he never got that lucky. He watched as Cryptis opened her mouth but instead of any words all the escaped her lips was blood. Crux did his best not to look too alarmed. He was moderately successful. "Don't speak, just focus on breathing. You can get more comfortable." He said softly, hoping he sounded more sure of himself than he felt. He wanted to tell himself it was just that water had gotten into her system and she like him had crystal growths that affected her, hers were just internal. But he didn't know, couldn't know, so for now he was trying to keep an eye on her and praying that once she'd caught her breath and gotten herself warm and dry things would be fine. "I'm going to focus on getting us dry so we can start warming up." Their perch was outside the caves of the col, the area the pack was meant to evacuate to beyond their reach right now, at least while the water still raged. He had to consider the long term, he had no idea how long they might have to wait before the waters calmed enough for stragglers to be brought back into the fold and their next most pressing issue (he hoped) was that their drenched forms would meet the chill of winter and earn them hypothermia. Riya had already set about licking herself dry. It was important to keep panic down for that time too. He just hoped he could keep an eye on everything and nothing would need more immediate care he couldn't provide.

"Triss" & "Crux"

She stared at him, her mind still trying to catch up. Her last memory had been the water. Of it rising, and rising, until she couldn’t breath. She still remembered that feeling of panic that had washed over her. She remembered breathing in water, and the fit that had followed. Clearly, Crux had managed to drag them both out of that cave. She owed him her life. Both for that, and for administering first aid afterwards. Had he put his mouth on hers? She didn’t have any memory of it, and felt heat touch her cheeks. Feeling it despite all the other aches and pains her body was trying to tell her about.

She did as he told her too, and concentrated on her breathing. She was definitely worried about another attack taking her, but her breathing seemed to be okay. Painful, but okay. She would kill for some fresh water, both to drink and gurgle however. “....?” She asked him. Hmm, that still didn’t seem to be working.

She started to slowly sit up, allowing more of the wind to brush through her damp coat. She immediately shivered, and fought the urge for her teeth to chatter. Oh boy, it was cold. “.... …. …” She pointed out to Crux.

"Triss" & "Crux"

Not one thing, not one single thing was ever allowed to be simple. Not for him. Crux could hope all he wanted but as he'd been considering keeping themselves warm he'd heard Cryptis... Or rather didn't hear her... There was a distinctive way breath sounded when it was meant to lift up words but hadn't and Crux blinked at the smaller wolf, his brain struggling to process. Not what he wasn't hearing but because he had no god damn clue how to deal with it. If he could have known what was on her mind he'd have agreed that clean water would be a good course of action, in fact it was the first solution he'd thought of... The problem of course being the only water around was the flood waters carrying dirt and branches and who knew what other debris it had picked up and he was almost certain that would not help, if they were lucky enough for it to not make things worse of course. So what else was there? The supplies he'd been able to grab before the waters had risen too high were beyond his reach and while Riya had managed the swim twice now she wasn't looking like she was up for much more, especially as the cold had started to seep in to her still damp fur. Which he also had to deal with. He started nodding to himself, trying to just convince himself he could still handle this.

"The water probably exacerbated..." He lifted a paw to his own throat. "Once the water has calmed we'll make sure you get a good drink to sooth any swelling." But Cryptis' silent observation was correct and there was only so much they could do until someone came for them so that would have to be enough for now, there was something more pressing: The threat of hypothermia. "I'd rather not risk making it any worse by asking you to ingest any more, so do you mind if I..." He trailed off, feeling his face flushing. Which was absolutely not the response he ought to be feeling. He gestured with his muzzle towards Riya who was busy licking her chest dry. How cats managed to bend their necks like that he'd never know. She was much smaller than him, the risk of a chill taking her sooner was much higher. Once she was dry he could focus on himself. So why was he feeling so... Hesitant? He ought to have been focused on what needed to happen but he was suddenly so aware of her and didn't want to do anything that'd make her uncomfortable. Maybe it wasn't even a good idea, sure he wasn't a cat so he wasn't expecting it to work quite as well but it had to be better to get the cold dirty water out of their coats rather than letting it sink in... Right?

"Triss" & "Crux"

She was still looking up at the taller wolf. She trusted him, and had placed her life in his paws once before. She hadn’t had a choice the first time, when he had helped her with her asthma attack. But really, did she have much choice now, either? Choice or not, she believed in him. She nodded her head, a soft sigh escaping her as he spoke of water taking time. Who knew how long it would be before the flood waters began to lesson? But she got it. There was no fresh water to be had here. At his next question, she blinked at him. Trying to figure out what he was asking. Did she mind if he…? His face flushed, which was intriguing in itself. She followed the point of his muzzle, where his cat was cleaning herself. Oh! Did he mean to dry her? She moved forward, and leaned lightly against him. Despite the dampness of both their coats, he already felt a little warmer than she did. She couldn’t help herself, she pressed closer to his body, shivering. Seeking his warmth. "Speech"

Welp! For a moment he was worried he'd have to struggle his way through saying what he meant as diplomatically as possible and yet what Cryptis did only a moment after Crux had seen her confused expression left him even more speechless. Her tiny form pushing into his, and Crux half expected her to just disappear in his fur. None of this did anything to help his already flushed face which seemed to somehow grow even hotter. He cleared his throat and fought the urge to shuffle, not wanting to jostle the much smaller girl. Crux took a moment, his gaze turning skyward as he fought to get himself to calm down more, certain that even though she didn't reach that high on him that she could hear his heart pounding so strongly he half expected his ribs to shatter, or was that just the blood pounding in his ears?

"Okay." He breathed, ignoring the soft snorting laugh he caught from Riya and leaned down to begin to gently, so gently, lick the girl's back dry. Crux was trying very hard to ignore how intimate this somehow felt, trying very hard to ignore how much of her scent still lingered under the less than pleasant flood water smell and the way it seemed to claw it's way into his brain, demanding he focus on it, he wasn't doing a very good job and it was only the feeling of her body against his, the dampness he could feel, that forced Crux to keep his focus on the task at hand and not drifting off on some instinctual thought process he was pretending he didn't have. Teenagers. Well at least he cared enough about her health and safety to force himself to focus on the task at hand.

"Triss" & "Crux"

The warmth of his fur did much to remind her just how cold she was. She pressed further into him, not at all shy about their closeness. Somewhere along the way, Crux had become someone that mattered to her. She was crazy shy when it came to strangers, but Crux had stopped being that to her a while ago. Now, she was just so happy that he was okay, that they both were.

When she felt his tongue start to scrape down her back, drying her coat, she sighed silently, half melting into him. It was actually very nice, and if she could make any noise she’d probably be purring. She closed her eyes, pressed against the soft bed of his fur. If he continued to groom her coat for much longer, she’d likely be snoring sooner rather than later.


"Triss" & "Crux"

It seemed he was the only one who was getting all tangled in his own mind over this as Cryptis seemed to relax into him. Crux paused to take a deep breath and let himself release some of his tension. "You can rest if you feel tired." He said softly as he leaned back over her to begin licking at her again. He didn't know how comfortable she was right now, but he expected she was at least physically tired. In fact he slowly moved himself onto his stomach, doing his best not to jostle Cryptis too much and angling himself so she stayed against his chest but he was curled around her more.

Riya had finished drying herself and moved behind him to begin licking at the back of his head to help him start getting dry too so he could focus on the tiny girl. Not that he was at risk of losing focus on Cryptis, he had to admit there was almost something pleasant about the scenario, and he was letting himself at least be happy she was safe, physical state notwithstanding.

"Triss" & "Crux"

When Crux folded them both down to the ground, she would have squeaked in surprise if she could. She'd been just about dozing, and the sudden change caught her by surprise. But she let him  bring her down, and was covered by his warm coat. This felt a lot more intimate than leaning into him, and she could feel her heart rate start to pick up. She became more aware of him, and her tongue on her coat.


She wasn't sure what she wanted to say, but she found herself regretting her inability to speak. She cleared her throat a few times, trying to fix whatever was going on with her. Instead, the pressure through her throat hurt, and forced her to swallow. That hurt too. She pressed her nose into Cruxs coat, frustration bubbling up inside of her. How did mute people get through life? This would heal, right…?