Redhawk Caldera not used to seeing this much of my own blood anymore

There is a necklace of red growing around her neck, but Airi isn't admiring it. She is no masochist, taking pleasure at the thought of being hurt by a stronger being. Instead, Airi was furious, both at herself and at the wolf that she still felt something nice towards. Had it not been for the dragon that resided within her, she might have bled out in her attempt of a tantrum. As she ran, her body wanted to slow down, but she was pressed forward as Zennyo took over, pushing her forward as best he could as their body weakened, a winding trail of blood behind them.

Except, neither of them knew where they were going. They were unfamiliar with the land here, Blackfeather Woods as far south as they had ever gone before. And they kept winding south, Ryūjin too far away from them to reach safely. But this still a gamble. While the molten-eyed wolf did not deal the finishing blow, there was enough blood to kill the girl if she does not find someone to help her soon.

Zennyo jerks them to a rising stone structure in the distance, the smell of wolves, once faint, now becoming stronger with each step. It takes the rest of their energy to drag them there, and the moment Airi's body is resting on the border, Zennyo collapses, using the last of his energy to summon a garbled howl from Airi's throat before passing control back to the young girl.

Eljay never liked patrolling, but being trapped and seeing how well Lagan tended to the pups had made him feel very insignificant and he needed some time away from everything. This time away never really offered him anything, and often left him feeling worse than before — but staying around everybody wasn't an option either in the light of how he felt, and he guessed nobody would think poorly of it because they'd all been stuck together and needed their space. Maybe they welcomed it, too, though for different reasons. He couldn't imagine it to be fun being stuck with him in an icy cave.

So it was accidental that he ran into a young wolf, around the age of his own baby siblings or maybe a little younger, he guessed, on the Redhawk borders. He was close when he heard the strangled call and recognised the panic in it immediately. Even though he didn't recognise the voice Eljay broke into a run right away and he was soon to arrive upon the figure of the child. "Are you — What's — Oh!" Eljay hastily brought forward before he saw the blood pouring from her neck. "Wait, I'll, uhm, for help," he brought out, the words even more garbled now at the sight of her wounds, and he craned his neck to point his nose to the sky and call for @Raven in hasty manner so that she'd know it was urgent. If she had not already heard the child's call, then she would hear his, and hopefully she would be able to head it, too. Eljay paced up and down, radiating uncertainty as he asked, "Are you okay? Can you hear me?" Not sure whether she was all there or if the blood loss had taken its toll already.

Her vision fades, blurring, coming in and out moment after moment. She isn't sure how much time has passed between her collapse and the wolf's approach, but she was not dead yet, so it must have not been long. Airi's eyes flickered up to him, wavering in their chilly stare. She did not care even if she was bleeding to death, her snark still remained. Hai, She responses, her word slurring. You're very loud, She complains, Why are you just standing ther... Her voice trails off, blacking out momentarily.

Eljay didn't know what to do when Raven didn't come round the corner. He just stood there staring off at the horizon, hoping, praying to see her face coming round the corner any second now...

... But she never came. Maybe she was busy with something else; he wasn't too sure. But he couldn't wait any longer. After the child seemed to pass out, Eljay tried grabbing it by the scruff and pulling it.

That turned out heavier than he had thought and so he lowered himself to the ground to try and carry the pup on his back. He struggled to get the child in place though, as it was difficult without any means of pulling it on his back successfully, and he bit his lip as he just kept trying to get it on, hoping it wouldn't wake up. He let out another panicked howl, hoping for anyone at all to help in the process, while he felt panic rise up.

It was Eljay's second howl that caught Elwood's attention. He was nearby, returning from a patrol, and the urgency and desperation in his son's voice was alarming. He moved swiftly towards the source of the call, worry rising in his chest as he wondered what could be wrong. Whatever it was he expected to see, it wasn't the scene that unfurled in front of him.

Eljay was trying to heft a dark-coated youth, which was puzzling in itself, but Elwood was alarmed when he saw the amount of blood pooling on the ground. "What--" he said, bristling as he came to a halt alongside his son. "What happened? Who is this?" She seemed to be unconscious, and the metallic scent of blood filled his nostrils, preventing him from identifying anything about her.

She loses all sense of time, darkness taking over for the moment. To her, the moment flashed in an instant; one second, she is on the floor, the next, she is on a wolf's back. Airi groans, her mouth opening to speak, her tongue lolling out of her mouth. Had she been able to see herself, she would have been disgusted by the sight of herself so weak, so out of control. 

There's another presence near her, she barely feels. Airi's eyes open halfway, gurgling a word to the male, half in Japanese, half in English, uncomprehensible in either tongue, her brain too addled from bloodloss to articulate.

It took a long time before Eljay finally managed to lift the pup onto his back, and it was when he had succeeded at last and was panting from the exertion that daddy arrived. "Daddy," he said, not thinking for a moment it might be weird that he was trying to drag a wolf that wasn't from their pack into it. All he thought of was saving the child's life. "She's losing a lot of blood and I dunno where Raven is, so we gotta go cause maybe she's with the pups and we have to save her," he hastily brought out, forgetting to answer the question 'who is she'; maybe because he didn't know either and he didn't care very much in this time of need for her. If it were his own siblings or cousins that were hurt somewhere, he'd want someone to help them rather than let them die, too.

The girl groaned and said something, but it wasn't in a language that Elwood could understand. It could have just been gibberish for all he knew. He stared down at her, brows knit, as Eljay finally lifted her from the ground and began to explain the situation, his words tumbling over each other in his panic.

"No," Elwood said quickly, the single syllable coming out sharper than he meant. He shook his head and continued in a gentler voice. "We don't know anything about her -- we can't take her to where the puppies are. It's not safe," he said. Surely she had a family, a pack who would be looking for her. But in the meantime, he couldn't just leave her here to die, no matter how wary he was.

"Do you know how to stop the bleeding?" he asked. If Raven wasn't coming to their aid, they would have to do the best they could. "If you tell me what you need, I can help you."

@Elwood @Eljay feel free to PP Airi.

There were two blurs above her, moving about. Sometimes, their voices were clear, ringing like a lark's on a cool summer's day. In a blink of an eye, it would return to her being underwater, drowning in her own blood. Again and again she called out to the strangers, her brain fuzzy. What? Nani? Who are you? Okotte imasu? She gasped, floundering, though she was on dry land. She had resurfaced from her brain fog, her words and senses momentarily clear. There was a question, one she felt the answer was pretty clear: I'm bleeding.

Daddy carefully tried to deter Eljay, telling him that they couldn't just take in a random pup. He looked at daddy with big shining eyes, quietly pleading, "But daddy!" he called out, having no arguments to keep this random pup but unable to just leave it here and do nothing.

"We gotta, because... cause if it would be Lucy, we wanted someone to help her too," he said, struggling to find arguments because this was mostly a feeling matter but wanting so badly to convince daddy to just bring her someplace safe first, then care about who she was. "She's just a pup, she won't hurt anyone."

He ignored the girl's mumbling but to daddy he said, "I... I don't know, Raven was gonna teach me but then everything with the pups happened!" He looked at daddy pleadingly again, quietly requesting they bring the pup to Raven themselves and let her take care of it.

While Elwood was quietly rational, his son was the complete opposite. Eljay's voice lifted in tone and pitch as he pled his case, begging Elwood to let the girl stay. All the while, the injured puppy mumbled incoherently.

The Alpha male might have stood his ground had Eljay not mentioned Lucy's name. His heart melted instantly; even after all this time, the pain of Lucy's disappearance was still fresh. Eljay made a convincing argument and Elwood felt himself waffling.

"Fine," he finally agreed after what seemed like a long silence. "I'll help you carry her -- maybe we can find Raven back at the shelter," he said, already shifting closer to Eljay in order to take some of the girl's weight.

Relief washed over him as daddy agreed that they would take the girl somewhere safe. When daddy took part of the weight he sighed with relief, both mental and physical to have some of the responsibility and weight of this girl taken off his shoulders. He continued to drag her towards the rendezvous site, hoping that Raven would be able to help her. They'd see whatever happened to her after that when it came to that.

Wrapping this up here! I also thought I would note, it's safe to assume from here on out that Raven has been caring for Airi behind the scenes. :)

It was awkward, trying to carry the unconscious youth, but the father and son pair managed it slowly and surely. When they reached the cave, Elwood left her briefly with Eljay so that he could slip inside and inform Raven of what had transpired. She was, of course, eager to assist.

Elwood helped get the girl into the shelter, and then hovered in the background as Raven tended to her wounds and presumably collaborated with Eljay. He was still a little unsure about taking on such a huge responsibility when his plate was already overfull, but Eljay's words rang in his ears. Had something similar happened to Lucy, he would have wanted his daughter to be cared for by the kindness of strangers.