Arrow Lake abbatia

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The participants have indicated the following reason(s) for this warning: gore & sadness

the cat was at once sinuous and desperate and unwieldy as his teeth bit toward brain stem, through spinebase and flesh. meadow this time was the one flung aside, germanicus dragging the animal backwards and away.

but it twisted, and fire filled his body from right throat to right shoulder. a dying blow, one that rang true and immediately welled in thickly running furrows of blood.

germanicus kept his grip, comprehending that perhaps only his rage had saved him from more. he shook the cat's limp body with a hard jerk that snapped bone audibly in the light.

he threw it aside and returned to meadow. the man did not panic.

but in her reaching arm and horrified expression, in her bloodied body and the thud of her heart, he saw the dozens of boys and men flung into the mud of old battlefields, and his throat constricted as her figure became theirs and then another and another, rapid-fire before his eyes.

germanicus swore a latin curse and grabbed a pawful of mud from the lakeshore to slap over his shoulder. he had done this before: a man treats himself first before he puts his hand against the bleeding wounds of the other, scarlet welling up between the digits in a sickening rush of warm crimson.

his eyes were empty as he packed her wounds with moss and lakemud, the only immediate things available for a field dressing. 

"meadow, focus on breathing. i am going to call reyson and arsenio." he knew how it would look and he knew now there would be no denial. the wolves of the vale would save their own. and in the end it would not be the epoch woman that shouldered the brunt of their blame.

this was a gambit. 

"better their anger than your life," came the growl breaking in his throat as if it were the first wintry stormblast before an avalanche.

the eagle was smeared with the rich clay and their mingled blood and somehow the moment which had been so aflame had become a worsening arena of two pitched battles, both lost.

there was no deserving. and perhaps it had indeed been a divine justice to smite them both down in such a moment of betrayal. but he would not lose her over any god. germanicus waited to see that she was able to stay conscious before he moved.