Otatso Wetlands ii. pain and guilt

The melted snow, plied with gentle sweeps of the sheepdog’s tongue, moistened the grisly mat of fur and blood even as the cold numbed the inflamed flesh of Reigi’s nape. This time when Seelie nibbled at the surrounding area, there was no involuntary quivering — so she set about removing the scabs and the fur around it with quick, decisive snips of her incisors. Despite the care she’d taken, hurting the distinctively marked female was inevitable; and she kept a watchful eye lest the instinctive urge to nip or bite at the source of pain overwhelmed her patient. When Reigi’s discomfort grew too great, Seelie backed off, applied more snow, and started again.

The Gampr emerged cautiously from the shadows a good distance from the pair — checking on his aralez. She was delighted to see him, having decided that the nameless female was truly a friend and therefore worthy of greeting and being greeted by her mate. Her feathered tail eagerly stirred up a miniature snowstorm behind her. She did not rise to meet him, deciding that staying in her prone position might help her skittish new companion adjust to the new face, but her sleek hindquarters began wiggling feverishly with excitement anyway. To reassure the raven, she supplanted her streamlined muzzle with snowmelt kisses. Then, in a combination of posturing and frail vocal signals, she sweetly conveyed to the heavier wolfdog that Reigi was hungry.

It was probably all gibberish to the bi-eyed girl, but Stockholm was fluent in Seeliese and excused himself good-naturedly to locate a nearby cache with a low chuff. Whether the wild woman was hungry or not, Seelie couldn’t say — but wounds didn’t heal when wolves didn’t eat.

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It took some coaxing, but at last Stockholm returned and the woman was persuaded to eat; she never got within touching range of the Gampr, because Seelie was protective both of her mate and her patient and served as the privacy curtain that winnowed unobtrusively but implacably between them. Only after the wild woman’s wounds were fully tended to — at least, to the best of her current ability given winter’s floral famine — did Seelie withdraw, persuading Stockholm to call across the distance that if the woman ever needed sanctuary, she need only head north to the sea, where the wolves of Undersea ensconced themselves in an idyllic island paradise.