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When Aris looked at Reya's leg - the small otter didn't want to examine it herself - he said that it was broken near the center of the bone. Reya was relieved beyond belief. When a bone completely snapped there were several ways it could happen. When a joint was involved, a lot of the time small fragments of bone ended up chipped off or broken to the side. It could still happen to a bone broken in the center, but it was rarer. Animals who broke bones like that could end up with incomplete or unstable bones for the rest of their life. At least in this case her leg could heal over time.

A quick discussion between Reya and Aris had them agreeing to splint Reya's arm right where she lay. Aris had decent first aid skills as all rangers did; their profession was not by any means a safe one. Reya wanted to be out of the forest as soon as possible, but she decided, finally, that she'd rather sit it out and let her two friends help set her limb than to yet again make it even worse.

The beagle had been wearing his full gear when he finally arrived. It was slightly odd to see the small dog wrapped up in the forest green garments. They were without a doubt sized to fit him, but the loose fitting wrappings still seemed rather large.

Wrapped around the fabric was a sash that was almost indistinguishable from the clothes itself. If Reya hadn't been in so much pain, she would have been squealing in excitement and pawing all over the numerous bags and pouches that adorned the decoration. However, her eyes were understandably drawn to the two largest objects in his outfit.

He had a crossbow nearly the length of his body strapped to one side. Despite its size, it didn't seem to hinder Aris in the slightest as he moved. Despite its size, it didn't seem to hinder Aris in the slightest as he moved. On his other side was his real treasure. Reya had been dying to get her paws on one, but war rarely visited the north. A leather sheath obscured the weapon. However, its outline was clearly visible. The grip was a somewhat tight hole in which the paw was inserted. Most of the grips had to be custom fitted so that a paw wasn't likely to slip out in the heat of battle. Inside Reya knew that there several indentations for a person to curl their digits around - a further guard to keep the device stable. The handle, a solid and sturdy mesh of leather and steel, was firmly attached to three arm length blades, making it clearly resemble its namesake, a claw. Each one curved slightly along its length into a breathtakingly sharp tip. Reya could only see the outline of the weapon through its sturdy sheath. She was, however, wide-eyed with excitement.

Aris found a fairly flat stick that was slightly wider than Reya's arm to work with and then shoved his paw into the weapon's grip. Reya wouldn't have been surprised if she were drooling. This was a dream come true. She knew that Aris had all of this equipment, every ranger did. She just never expected to actually see it out and ready for use.

The beagle extracted the blade swiftly. He wasn't putting on a show, as much as Reya was wishing he would. The weapon was just as she had thought. Its metallic sheen glimmered against the scattered sunlight as he drew it from its casing. Aris set a single blade against the branch and, with a precise cut, split it in half. Each piece was now slightly shorter than Reya's paw, a good length for a splint. He then set the first half upright and balanced the blade against it. He measured his strike a few times.

Reya knew that it had to be as straight as possible. Too much curvature could make it worthless as a split. He brought the weapon down quickly, the momentum keeping his arm incredibly steady. The cut wasn't perfect, but it would easily do until they had access to supplies again.

Oh god.

She was going back to the lodge. Sylvia might still be there... She opened her mouth to speak for a moment before closing it.

'What's wrong? Realize that you aren't going to get a turn?' Torren teased. He'd obviously seen the mesmerized expression on her face, and misidentified the troubled look that came after.

"You just shut up," Reya retorted, grinning. "You'll watch your -" she almost said 'tongue,' but then she caught herself, "...self when I get one of those things."

"Uh, are you? Oh! Right, the other otter spoke. I'm sorry!" Aris looked embarrassed, like he had caught her in the middle of telling someone a secret.

"Its fine! We were just talking about your claw, you know? I mean, it's real... isn't it? Of course it's real! You wouldn't be a ranger out wearing a fake claw. And look at that shimmer... It's so pretty in the sunlight. Wave it again!"

Aris shyly waved the claw around in a larger patch of sunlight that shone through the canopy. Reya could tell that even Torren was pretty impressed.

"Its steel right? They're all steel, except for the imperial guard. They say that the imperial guard has some strange metal that'll cut through anything, right?!"

"Uh... not really. They just have steel ones too..."

'You like this stuff?' Torren was clearly laughing despite the lack of sound.

"I guess it is pretty obvious, isn't it?" Reya went a bit red under her fur.

'You've been out here all night, your paws are bloody as a porcupine's mate, and you've got a broken leg and you're still rambling on about it.'

"I guess so." Reya was slightly thankful for the bandage covering a fair amount of her head. It covered her blush very well.

'I didn't mean for you to stop,' Torren backpedaled, 'I just thought it was kind of funny...'

"Oh sure. Laugh all you want." The spotted otter looked like he was about to do just that.

Reya turned her focus back onto Aris. He was carving the splint now. It was good to get the bark off. If bark was left on the outside it could brush against the fur on Reya's other leg and rub it raw. That was the last thing the damaged otter needed.

"Okay, I'm going to go find something to bind this with."

"See ya!" Reya called out as he ran off. Aris started to call something back and then realized he was a bit too far to be heard clearly. He took a step back, looking like he was going to walk back over to respond, but apparently decided against it and bounded off.

'How the heck is a beagle like that allowed to be around sharp objects?'

"Oh be quiet! you saw how good he was - cutting that splint up for me. And he wasn't the one whose shaky paws nearly blinded me with a bowl full of salt water," she teased back. Torren grimaced. He still looked upset for his mishap.

"Its ok!" Reya laughed at his consternation. "You were probably pretty stressed too yesterday. Completely understandable."

Aris walked back into camp looking a bit sheepish.

"What's up?" Reya asked.

"I forgot I had some rope in here." As he spoke, he reached into one of the bags adorning his outfit and pulled out a short length of rope. "It isn't much, but rope can come in useful more than you'd imagine. I can't believe I forgot about it!"

"Just tie it up and make it quick!" Reya winced, "something to keep this stupid arm from moving would be very nice!"

The beagle nodded as grimly as he could. "I'll try. Torren, give her a stick to bite on, I think its going to hurt pretty bad."

The spotted otter wordlessly began scanning the ground for a moderately sized stick. Reya hoped he picked well. She'd seen some animals with sharper teeth bite straight through fairly well sized sticks. And then straight through their own tongues. Reya didn't like that thought. She stuck her own tongue to the roof of her mouth right then and there.

Aris was busy setting the two wooden splints down next to her paw in just the right spots. He looked worried.

"How long have you been a ranger?"

"Not very long," the beagle admitted, "I got out of training only about a year ago. Half of that's been traveling out to the middle of nowhere - no offence! ... Um, From the capital. That's where the training is. They like to keep it centralized. The other ha-"

Reya cut him off. "Oh! Are you from the capital?" She asked with a glimmer in her eye.

"Uh, sorry to disappoint you, but no. I'm from Southbank."

"Oh my God! That's even better! You've seen the sea? I've heard its so big that you could swim all day and not see any land when you're done!"

"Well, yeah... We've had ships go for almost a month and not see any land."

"That's so cool! I'd love to go swimming in a place like that! Is it as dangerous as they say? If I were to go swimming there would I have to bring your claws with me? - I mean, not your claws of course! They're very nice claws but you don't need to give them to me! I'd be fine with any pair really!"

Aris laughed. "Its not really that dangerous until you get a good deal out. That's where all the sharks and stuff are."

Reya stared at him wide eyed as he was talking. She barely even noticed Torren coming back with a sizeable fresh branch. Fresh wood was good. It would taste worse, but it'd be a lot less likely to break. It was good that Torren had been able to get such a nice branch. With fall well underway, many branches were not lacking for layers of dead wood.

"I guess you're ready then?" Reya suddenly lost a lot of the glow that had been in her eyes just moments ago. She knew it would be fine, but pain was never easy. Especially when you knew it was coming. Especially when you knew a lot of it was coming.

The pain was starting to creep back again too. She'd been so caught up in her excitement over Aris that once again her mind had shoved the pain right to the side to focus on the super cool beagle with the awesome sharp metal stuff and green coat.

She started to shiver. She couldn't help it, and she knew that she couldn't. She'd seen a lot of patients of her own and of Gither that had gone through the exact same thing when they knew something painful or bad was about to happen to them.

She softly clenched the stick between her teeth as Torren gently pushed it into her maw.

"Bite as hard as you can right now and make sure that it holds up," Aris said, "when I splint this you'll bite with twice that strength."

Reya ignored Aris and set it down in front of her.

"Before you do anything, I need to tell you what to expect. I don't know how much they taught you Aris, but probably not enough."

"Hey! I -" Reya's glare shut the beagle up.

"There are three possible ways that it could be broken. It didn't break out of my skin..." she shuddered, "so it's not open and will be easier to set in place." Reya looked down at her arm for a moment. It was all the time she could stand to look at it before averting her gaze. "It looks kind of diagonal, so it's probably what G-Gither called an oblique fracture. If you straighten my arm out and set it tightly, it should grow back ok. If it becomes too disconnected, you might have to try to get the two pieces of bone aligned."

Aris gulped nervously.

"I could be wrong, though. I can't feel much of anything down there, it might be a comminuted fracture. If that's the case, there will be fragments of bone all around at the break. It should be pretty obvious as soon as you feel the break. Don't hesitate to feel it either. Its going to be really swollen and it'll hurt a ton, but you've got to figure out what it is. Don't worry about trying to fit it together, just immediately get my arm straight and splint it.

"It could also be just a straight fracture. If it broke and my bones ended up next to each other you have to get the ends pushed against each other. If not, we'll have to fix it at the cabin... and all that movement will make it that much less likely to set well."

Without any more words, Reya picked the branch back up and gingerly wrapped her teeth around it. It was pine. Her eyes squeezed shut and she bit as hard as she possibly could. She was ready. Gither had always used this trick. You tell them to bite into the stick to test it, and then you do the painful bit when they aren't expecting it. It was better for them that way. There wasn't as much anticipation. Reya kind of screwed that up.

She tried to prepare herself for the pain as well as she could. She squeezed down on the branch until she felt tears running down her cheeks. And then suddenly it happened. Another furry paw grabbed her own and gave it a light squeeze - trying to comfort her - as it tenderly lifted her limb.

"wrpf pfaw iffed!" She spat the stick out. "Wrong paw idiot!"

Torren very carefully set her right front paw back to the ground.

"It's the one underneath it. The one that's freaking bent. Dummy."

'We should roll you on your back.'

"Bad idea. The bone could shift in ways you don't expect. Its best to keep me the way I am until its splinted."

"He wanted to roll you over?" Aris asked.

"Yeah."

"Ah." There were several seconds of silence before the beagle muttered, "you should really put that stick back in..."

Crap. Reya had been kind of hoping that she could put it off a bit longer. She had already gone through that nervous tension. She had already prepared herself for the rush of pain. She was already shaking all over.

She leaned her head back down to grab the tree limb. A sudden feeling of irony swept over Reya as she imagined herself snapping the tree's limb between her jaws. She was a bit too far away from it though.

"Torren..." She muttered.

He moved over and picked it up in his own mouth. He brushed his muzzle against her own as he gave her the branch. The tan fur around his nose lingered against her for several second before he pulled away. He smiled. He didn't have to sign anything. It was going to be ok.

Reya bit down as hard as she could. She was biting into a fresh section of the tail length piece of wood. Once again, she wanted to avoid breaking it as best she could. She clearly tasted the pine sap as it ran along the inside of her jaw. It was bitter. She'd tasted pine before. Sometimes she needed to make a poultice out of pine bark.

Her arm was moving.

Aris was from the seaside. Reya wondered if he'd ever known anyone who'd had scurvy before. Scurvy tended to be common among a lot of sailors because it was so hard to preserve good fruits and vegetables well. Carnivores and a couple of omnivores work a bit different though and don't really get scurvy.

Reya was screaming through the branch.

Gither had mentioned scurvy once. There was a little guinea pig who had gone months just eating vegetables and grains! He'd tossed away all the fruits his parents had given him. It was only natural that he ended up getting sick.

A paw was grasping at the fracture. She almost fainted, but the pain brought her back.

He had been vomiting and had a high fever. His muscles were sore and his legs were swollen.

Her swollen leg was being compressed by something.

Gither had recounted some little story about a rare case of scurvy he had seen before he had come up north and knew the treatment right away.

She was biting so hard her maw was numb.

It was spring at the time, which was lucky. Gither had had some pine sap saved up, but he always liked to show off a bit. He took out a rough woodcutting knife and cut a nice long strip of bark off of a pine tree. He then boiled the bark with some herbs into a tea, letting the pine sap mix in with the liquid.

She could taste the pine sap mixing with her saliva.

He was better in almost a week.

Reya woke up back in a soft downy bed. It was sometime late in the day. The orange glow filtered softly through the glass window panes above her head. They etched out large boxes of light on the wall on the other side of the lodge. It was odd. Reya never really paid attention to those things. She liked to consider herself a take-it-as-it-comes kind of girl. Well, she'd sure taken a lot as it came.

"Is anyone there?" She asked.

There was silence for a moment, but then Torren jumped up to the bed next to her.

"Hey..." She smiled at him.

'Are you feeling ok?'

"Yeah, I think so."

'How's your paw?'

Reya looked down. She was lying on her back. Her paw was hung against her breast with what looked like a cotton sling. It was wrapped up tight with cloth wrappings and she was sure that there was a layer of actual gauze underneath. She could see from how the cloth was stretched out that it had been tightly wound around several splints that rested against a thin layer of fabric around her arm. It didn't feel like much. There was still pain there when she let her mind focus a bit, but after what she felt when she was getting the splint on it felt like it was barely anything.

"I - not bad. It looks like Aris did a good job on the splint."

'I helped!' Torren was quick to respond.

"I'm sure you did!" Reya replied, chuckling.

'I - I'm glad you're feeling better.'

"Thanks Torren. You know, you can come up here if you want."

He looked thoughtful for a second, but then he rebuffed the idea. 'I don't want to shake the mattress. It could hurt for you.'

"How sweet."

Torren grinned, 'I try!'

"Oh, shut it. You can at least try to act humble, you know."

'You're the only one I have to talk to! Normally my ego is divided among everyone equally!'

"So what's happening now?"

'What do you mean?'

"You know, with T-Talip... with Aris. Those things." She sighed. It was like by saying his name she was giving in somehow to the mole. Giving him some ground to stand on where he had none.

'Aris is very sharp. He figured out a lot of what went on right when everything happened. When you ran out to the forest, I went to find him.'

"Not me?" Reya teased.

'I couldn't keep up with you even with your burned paws!'

"Fair enough."

'Anyway, Aris sent out a memo to his superiors listing what was happening at that point. It was very vague; your pictographical writing system is a lot less clear than the writing I taught you.'

"And Talip?"

'He was no problem. We found him less than five minutes into the forest. You were a lot more difficult to track down. We sent out for support from the avian association to help find you.'

"That must have been expensive... you really didn't need to."

'Well, a.n.a...' He spelled the name out.

"Ana, the duck?"

'Yeah, her. She wasn't going to charge us anything, but Weisk insisted that they take at least a quarter of their standard price for search and rescue because, I quote, "Freeload off any other bird, not a fuckin' eagle. You payin' for quality right here."'

Reya laughed. "I can imagine him saying that."

'I think he ended up charging less than a quarter though, must've felt bad for you.'

The small otter stiffened a bit as he said that. From the look on Torren's face, Reya knew that he could tell that he had just messed up. After a moment, though, he just sighed and went on.

'Anyway, we didn't know what kind of shape you were in when Aris sent out the letter. He's kicking himself right now for not waiting on it until he found out what kind of shape you were in.'

"Why's that?"

'We're listed in the thing as witnesses.'

"Crap."