Moonspear By the Sword

There was a moment of understanding as Charon looked into Nishu's weary eyes. There was a fighting spirit somewhere deep down in there, and he recognised that. Nishu would keep fighting 'til the end; the only real question was how long or short that end would take. "You're right," Charon said, a sympathetic frown creasing his forehead as he spoke. "Resting doesn't seem to be doing the trick." Time was trickling away, life was draining slowly, grain by grain from the hourglass. Every grain seemed more painful than the last, Charon realised as he looked into Nishu's eyes. Nishu was determined and fighting, because he was a wolf and instinct dictated him to, but he was also fading and in constant pain. What, then, was the real mercy? To call for Thistle Cloud and let her assess that his chances were slim, or...

Charon looked at Nishu's broken leg, which still looked crooked. He should've had it looked after. 'Should've' wouldn't do much good now, though, as the only way was forward.

For a while, the young Alpha just stood there and looked at Nishu with the frown of sympathy creasing his brows, while he fought battles on the inside. But he really did think that he was doing the right thing when he moved forward. He nosed Nishu's cheek and hoarsely said, "The stars will watch over you, and Moonspear will remember you." And Charon would look to the skies, knowing that Nishu was watched over, for even if he had been an insolent follower who had learned respect the hard way, he had also been a Moonspear wolf, and Ame's friend.

Expecting no fight from the weakened wolf — perhaps falsely so — Charon's nose trailed from Nishu's cheek down to his neck, where he tried to grab him by the neck so that he could finish this mercifully.