Lost Creek Hollow a lonesome star in a bitter sky

"I think it was chasing an injured coyote," he answered, thankful to hear her queries in place of something else.  Not that he anticipated her chiding him, but at the same time quarreling with a cougar wasn't exactly the most intelligent thing any one of them could do.  Then again, it had never been in his playbook to do anything quite that hazardous.  "I didn't know it was there until it showed up," he went on to say, feature contorting with the passage of pain.

She didn't answer him in regards to his own injuries, so he was left to assume he wasn't as bad as off as he could have been.  Weary, in pain, but conscious.  It certainty beat out feeling life ebbing out of him, and naturally it was a definite win over not feeling anything at all again.