-Senka- So this is the other side of the mountain..... (FS w/CM + CS)

((I'll write the whole thing out, just for the heck of it.))

Senka had chosen to sleep under the skies with CrystalStream, his large pale body standing out just a bit too well in the nighttime. As the day had come around, Senka had awoken early with the sun, ready to go find his totem. Little did he know that he would not only find it, he would get much more than he bargained for.

In the mid afternoon, CrystalStream had kept to her promise and started him in the right direction.

Truth be told, it hadn't taken him too long to find a wolverine. He knew that many wolverines would act more as scavengers than actually hunt their own food, and had killed a small rabbit; near a wolverine's den. The smell of the blood had brought the vicious creature out. It was a male, simply looking for an easy meal.

Senka snarled at the smaller creature, his pale blue eyes flashing dangerously. The wolverine was the first to launch an attack, leaping towards him claws flying at the larger wolf's face. He dodged the claws, aiming to try and end this fight quickly as he aimed at the creature's neck.

The large wolf had grabbed hold of the wolverine's neck and as he tried to wrestle it to the ground, the wolverine thrashed and snarled, dragging it's claws over Senka's neck, chest, and throat trying to get free while it tried to bite at his white ears. The blood slowly ran into Senka's pale pelt, the red a stark contrast to the pale gold and white.

After a struggle, which involved the wolverine trying to run away from his challenger, Senka leaped on the creature, his large paws pinning the furry devil into the ground as he went back down onto it's neck, his fangs striking true as he took the wolverine's life from it in a swift motion. Senka panted when he was done, finally taking a much need breather as night had fallen on the first day. He decided it would be better for him to sleep before he went back to the pack. He took the claw that he need from the now dead wolverine, leaving the body for other creatures to a such consume.

As the sun rose on the second day of his stay in the forest, Senka woke again in the early morning, some of his fur had matted with a bit of blood from the day before but he paid it little mind.

During the course of looking for the wolverine, Senka had actually ventured deep into the forest, and as such; was trying to scent his way back out by trying to track the pack smell that was uniquely Swift River. He had caught small whiffs to lead him in the right direction and he started in that direction.

Senka had really only been awake for about a half of an hour when he heard it. A deep guttural growl that put every one of his senses on high alert and caused his body to tense up. The wolverine claw that he'd taken from his kill was still in his mouth as he slowly advanced forward, his eyes focused. It came from between the trees and right into his path; a large black bear, his pelt the very description of his name. The bear's muzzle was a sort of honey-ish color. This bear, Senka had to note was somewhat large, but a young bear, trying to stake his territory claim in the forest.

The pale wolf for a moment tried to think rationally, considering the bear in front of him. Senka was already tired from fighting with the wolverine, he didn't want to have to fight this bear to get out. He tried to move to the side to go past the bear, only to find the bear blocking his path with another great roar. Trying to go the other way ended with the same result accompanied with a great paw swinging at the pale wolf.

Senka had barely avoided the great paw as he figured that he wasn't going to get out of this. This bear was not going to let him get away easily, and would simply chase him down if he ran. The wolf was no fool when it came to matters like these. Looking around, the pale wolf tossed the wolverine claw into a cluster of tree roots where it could be kept safe for the moment.

Only a moment later the bear charged forward, a barreling mass of angry ursine power. Senka moved out of the way quickly once again, his speed propelled by adrenaline. The bear turned and swung at Senka, his paw actually catching the wolf's jaw on the upstroke and he essentially 'backhanded' him. Senka yelped for the first time as he was basically tossed like a ragdoll.

The bear came down quickly on him before he could get away and clawed at the wolf's legs, trying to keep him from getting away. Senka snarled as he launched the front of the body towards the bear's face. His fangs closed around the bear's muzzle, ripping and tearing what he could as his claws came upwards and dragging them downwards, blinding the bear in the process as his claws raked into his eyes.

The pain radiating through Senka's leg was ignored for the moment as the bear reared to his hind legs, taking Senka with him, who had retained a fierce hold the bear's muzzle. The bear swung wildly, his claws catching Senka in his right side as he tried to force him off. Only when the bear swung his head around did he dislodge the determined wolf.

Falling to the ground with a heavy 'thump'; head included in the impact, Senka shook his head to try and clear the stars that the impact had left. He stood, feeling pain radiate from a few places in his side and leg where the bear had caught him with his claws. The pale wolf looked upwards with only enough time to notice that the bear roared again in pain, swinging wildly, towards the tree roots that now held Senka's wolverine claw.

The wolf reacted as quickly as his now muddled senses would allow, running in front of the bear to try and grab at his wolverine claw before it was lost to the blind creature. He had grabbed it with enough time to spare, but then felt a deep and stabbing pain in the muscles of his right hind leg. Senka snarled again, throwing the wolverine claw away as he rounded on the bear, his jaws closing on the beast's neck and began ripping at the fur and skin with his fangs and claws until he was actually reaching muscles. The wolf continued to rip while the bear roared, rearing to his legs and running through the forest on all fours, trying to get the wolf off while he dragged Senka through the dirt and rocks.

Senka now, was not acting in normal mind. This was a survival mode, where Senka was trying to simply get the bear to stop attacking him and potentially kill him. He didn't really register when the bear had slowed and finally stopped, having lost enough blood through the wounds Senka had caused. Senka only noticed that the bear was no longer moving, and therefore no longer able to kill him.

The bear had slumped over, pinning one of Senka's back legs beneath it. As the wolf struggled to get free, he felt that same stabbing pain in his right hind leg. He tried his best to ignore, even as his vision swam in front of him. He moved as quickly as he could back to where he had thrown the wolverine claw, grabbing as soon as he could find it.

Again, moving as fast as he could on his three legs, which was somewhere between a trotting speed and running speed, he followed the scent of Swift River that only got stronger as he got closer to the outside. Senka only knew he didn't have much time left, that his time for the task would be up soon.

As the forest slowly gave way to the lands that were Swift River, Senka was quite the sight; running from the forest as fast as his three legs could go and covered in blood and gore both from himself and his enemies. Senka felt a great swell of relief as the trees thinned and then finally ended. He had made back in time! With the wolverine claw still between his teeth, Senka hung his head heavily; panting before he dropped the totem and raised his head and howled, calling for CrystalStream. He had made it back in time, with his token. Though Senka didn't realize it at that exact moment, he'd inadvertently brought back two, with a long bear claw having lodged itself in his right hind leg. How it had gotten stuck there, nobody could really be sure.

Senka was still standing, the adrenaline keeping him there and ignorant of the pain for the moment as he slowly picked up the wolverine claw again and began to move further into the packlands, a pronounced limp in his step and his vision seemed to swim every so often....

((C'mon Firestorm, you know me better than that! You know I would never pass up an chance to cause my characters some fighting and pain. But there you go, Senka's all beat up for you.))

CrystalStream had awakened a bit earlier than Senka, to make preparations, and as the hours ticked away, she had grown more and more eager. She didn't know what was happening out there in the forest, and she knew she was supposed to remain impartial, but she could not help but hope for Senka to succeed. She wasn't sure why, but she knew she wanted the best for him... as much as she wanted the best for her younger siblings, or even her older sister... She cared about Senka.

She couldn't help but bark happily as she heard his howl. She rushed to see him, only to gasp. Senka looked the worse for the wear. He'd fought more than a badger... either that or the badger had taken more out of him than she could have expected. "Senka, can you make it to Snakebite's den?" she questioned, rushing up and gently nuzzling him, trying her best to keep him awake... at least that's what she told herself.

Senka was really only vaguely aware of much, his eyes vision bleary and his body aching to lay down and go to sleep for a little while. He looked up as CrystalStream nuzzled him, for a moment wondering who it was until his brain slowly registered it as CrystalStream.

"Senka, can you make it to Snakebite's den?"

Her words seemed faded, and Senka's muddled brain had to wonder for a moment why he needed to go to Snakebite's den. Then he tried to put his right hind leg down to walk and the stabbing pain hit him again. Oh yes, that was right. The damn bear wouldn't let him leave.

Senka nodded slowly, replying with a soft "Yeah, I think so."

He was clearly tired, and his body ached while he limped in the direction of Snakebite's den, wishing that the black spots in front of his eyes would stop dancing around and making him dizzy. The trip to Swift River's healer seemed a much longer journey than it would've on a normal day, under more normal circumstances. He had stumbled a few times and he'd been able to catch himself on his front legs where his hind leg wouldn't.

As the den slowly came into view, Senka seemed to relax a little, though he still wasn't entirely aware of his injuries because the adrenaline was still coursing through him, he'd feel quite a bit of it once it wore off and his body would unblock his ability to feel more pain.

Senka stopped when the healer's den came into view, sighing lightly as he leaned against a tree to help hold himself up. He felt so very tired, and wanted nothing more than to go to sleep for awhile, and it was an alluring possibility too. The wolverine claw that he'd retrieved was sticking out of his mouth as held it between his teeth, and he dropped by accident as he tried to focus on staying awake more than anything else at the moment. Leaning down, he blearily picked it up again, growling as he began to feel more pain make it's way in.

The adrenaline was wearing away now that he felt safe, and Senka wasn't sure exactly how much longer he could stay awake to begin with.....

OOC: Mercury, you can go ahead and jump right on in.

CrystalStream kept close to Senka's side, using her own strength to help support him. He was injured, badly, and she knew it. She hadn't even seen the claw lodged in his leg yet, or she would undoubtedly be impressed with his heroics. As the medicine wolf's den enveloped them, CrystalStream led the new member of her clan to a bed of soft moss, where he would be able to lay comfortably and wait for SnakeBite's arrival.

Senka was bleary in general, but found that relying on his sense of smell was easier than his vision, given that it swayed on occasion with some black spots dancing in front of his vision. The scent that uniquely belonged to CrystalStream wafted through his nose, and he couldn't help but be grateful for the help.

"Thank you CrystalStrea..m.."

The injured wolf spoke a little incoherently, his voice trailing away at the end, an effect that probably came from smacking his head on the ground after the bear threw him off. As the bed of moss came into Senka's view, it suddenly felt like gravity had increased tenfold and Senka had that urge again to just simply plop down and sleep for a very long time.

He looked at the smaller alpha beside him before he slowly lowered himself down onto the moss, his teeth clenched tightly, leaning more on his left side than his right, his right hind leg still tucked upwards. Leaning his neck forward, Senka dropped the wolverine claw from his mouth to the floor of the healer's den, his eyes half lidded as he looked towards CrystalStream, his exhaustion trying it's best to win out, while Senka refused to let it; even if for a little while.

"Would've have been back earlier...bear stopped me...wouldn't let me leave..."

Senka's eyes seemed to drift closed more, taking long each time to open again as his body's need for sleep began to win out, even against his stubborn resolve. He seemed to be conceding the fight and slowly laid his head on his bloody paws.

"Tried not to fight it...think I killed it.....Sor..r...y..."

His last string of words were spoken from somewhere near half-sleep, nearly mumbled in their coherence. Senka's breathing slowly evened out into a steady rhythm, punctuated by a grimace when some part of his body twitched in the wrong direction, particularly that damn leg of his....

SnakeBite, as a habit, was an early riser. That morning in particular, she was out by the river gathering up some of the red hard-packed clay with split itself from the sediment and pebbles. They were useful bandages when the injured wolf could not be moved, packing it into the flesh to stop the bleeding once treated with disinfectants of honey and herbs.

These lumps of ruddy soil were packed in leaves and carried in her mouth; they could be washed off once she got back to her den...

That was, until she saw a trail of blood leading into her home. Dropping the balls of clay, she sprinted inside; who could it possibly be that was so gravely injured? It could not have been her father, she was sure of that; he was still in her den and dared not leave unless he needed something small.

"Who is in here?" she barked, not being able to discern much in scent on account of the blood.

"Who is in here?"

Snakebite's voice sounded so quiet on Senka's ears at the moment, like it was being called from a distance away. His white ears moved from laying down on his head to standing up enough to properly try and catch what was being said. His eyes fluttered slightly and opened only slightly, seeming for all intents and purposes to be made of lead. The wolf didn't make any attempt to move, his body simply too beat up and too tired. Doing his best to call out to Snakebite, the wolf winced as the bear slash on his right side pulled with the movement of his ribs.

"It's Senka.....CrystalStream's here too."

He turned his head on his paws to look at the mouth of the healer's den, looking at Snakebite's form at the entrance, his eyes still half lidded as he tried once more to stay awake....

CrystalStream's eyes widened. A bear?! A bear had attacked Senka?!

It wasn't truly unusual of course. Bears and wolves had almost as tenuous a relationship as cougars and wolves.... but for a bear to attack a lone wolf, and one that was obviously tired, posing no threat to it...

The alpha shook her head.

"Snakebite, thank the forest you're here!" she said, "Senka needs medical attention, and badly. He's completed his task, but was attacked on his way home." She leaned down, gently nuzzling his cheek. For the first time in her life, CrystalStream was truly afraid. This was something totally out of her paws, and even as alpha she couldn't do anything to ensure Senka's safety, beyond letting Snakebite do what she did best.

"Snakebite, thank the forest you're here!""Senka needs medical attention, and badly. He's completed his task, but was attacked on his way home."

Senka was so tired, but he felt like he needed to stay awake, for what reason he wasn't sure. It was CrystalStream's gentle nuzzle to his cheek that spurred awake a feeling that he'd not felt in a long time. He felt more than anything, how scared the alpha was; the feeling settling in his chest as he felt the need to take away that fear and to protect, something he hadn't had to do in nearly 3 winters.

Senka leaned his head sideways into her touch, his eyes closing a moment and opening slightly, his ears folded backwards. He was sure that he would be alright, once he was patched up. The pale wolf was fighter, though he'd never fought with a bear before, he was not going to allow himself to die quite yet. Senka moved his head upwards to touch CrystalStream's cheek in response, a feat in and of itself for his beaten body. He wasn't quite aware of the fact that some of the blood still present on his muzzle streaked a little onto the alpha's white cheek. The muscles in his neck protested as he very lightly nuzzled the alpha back. Letting the muscles finally relax, Senka dropped his head again, his eyes again finding themselves made from lead as he tried to keep them open and finding it extremely difficult....

"Attacked?" By what?" SnakeBite asked, the answer vitally important. Many little cuts could have been caused by a smaller feline of some sort, a few small swipes by a badger or (if accompanied by bites) a wolverine. If the assailant was larger than a wolf (she had ruled out another wolf beat him to a pulp after the War)... he could be in trouble. Broken bones, massive lacerations that cut through arteries and gushed blood and let in infection...

"First, we have to stop the bleeding. Alpha Crystalstream; you will have to help me with treating him. This looks like a two-wolf job," she barked in an authoritative manner. She knew that she was going to get flack for that response later on, but if it meant saving the life of a new member she was certain that the Alphess could let go of her pride. She trotted deeper into the den and came back out of the darkness with clumps of a mud mixture wrapped in large leaves. After setting it down close to the wound site, she looked again at Senka.

"Do not strain to talk," she said, "But I need to ask you if you there is any place on your body where you cannot move."

CrystalStream surprisingly didn't seem phased by the fact that SnakeBite was giving her orders. She had grown up, being raised in the tradition that in certain emergencies, the words of a medicine wolf could outrank even those of an alpha. Besides, right now it was not her pride that was on the line. Senka's life was, or so CrystalStream believed. Truth be told, she had no way to know for sure.

Nuzzling him one final time she stood up quickly and followed SnakeBite to see what help she could be to her. "He said he was attacked by a bear," she explained, "He killed it, he says but... he limped home, and limped into your den... I'm afraid one of his legs might be broken."

She took a deep breath and looked directly at the medicine wolf. "Tell me what I can do to help."

"Do not strain to talk,""But I need to ask you if you there is any place on your body where you cannot move."

"He said he was attacked by a bear,""He killed it, he says but... he limped home, and limped into your den... I'm afraid one of his legs might be broken."

Senka nodded lightly as CrystalStream spoke, before he spoke himself, trying not to strain as Snakebite had ordered him.

"I fought a wolverine for my totem yesterday, the bear attacked today..."

Truth be told, Senka hadn't received that many wounds from the wolverine, and most of them were centered in the area of his chest and neck. The bear had done the most damage, with those massive claws and all.

"I can't put my leg down, every time I try, it feels like something is ripping at it."

Although it would be a relief that his leg wasn't broken, the bear claw was just as bad. It hadn't hit any major arteries, because Senka would have bled out if that was the case. The bear claw had embedded itself in the thick muscle in Senka's leg, and that is what the 'ripping' pain as he so described it, was.

The large pale wolf kept his head on his paws, looking at the two other wolves in cavern every so often, his pale blue eyes at half-mast and tired....

[*pokes at teh Mercury with teh steek* ]

(I'm sorry! Didn't know much how to respond and lack of muse = ick)

"Crystalstream," Shifting Winds started and pointed towards the side wall of the den with her nose, "I need you to take those small containers of water I have there and do your best to pour them onto his wound. It is too muddy and matted for me to see much of anything."

As she was about to snatch a mix of herbs to sooth Senka's nerves, she heard him say something about a ripping sensation when he tried to set his leg down. It interested her greatly, enough for her to turn back around and take another hard look at his leg.

"Do you feel as if something is in your leg?" she asked gently as for him to match her tone, "If so, I have a suspicion as to what is causing the problem."

OOC: I think you mean Snakebite up there, Merc.

"Crystalstream,""I need you to take those small containers of water I have there and do your best to pour them onto his wound. It is too muddy and matted for me to see much of anything."

The pale wolf couldn't help but cringe slightly on the inside when the medicine wolf instructed CrystalStream to pour water into his wounds. The cringe was mostly from memory of home, since the water near the Shoreline pack was salt water, the salt had always caused the wounds to hurt when they were cleaned with it. But he could rest easy here, the water here was far enough away from the ocean to the point the water here was pretty void of most salt.

"Do you feel as if something is in your leg?""If so, I have a suspicion as to what is causing the problem."

Senka turned his head to look at Snakebite, nodding slowly. Now that he thought about it, it did indeed feel like something was in his leg, stabbing, poking, and tearing whenever the wolf moved. "It does feel like something is inside my leg. What do you think it is, though?"

CrystalStream quickly nodded her head. Whatever Snakebite suspected, she would do her best to help alleviate the problem. She made her way over to the containers Snakitebite had mentioned: old skulls of some of the Clan's past prey. The hollowed-out heads made perfect chewtoys for pups, and containers for water essential to medicine wolves' work.

One by one she brought them over to the injured male and began pouring them carefully over his wounds. Slowly the blood and mud and other filth was washed away, revealing the marks far better to Snakebite. CrystalStream was grateful the water was fresh from the river, and not salty, as water from Senka's home would have been... She had not known the wolf very long, but he was a part of her Clan, and CrystalStream already considered him something of a friend and confidant. If anything were to happen to him...

She looked up as he asked his question, her own eyes asking the same thing. What could possibly be stuck in Senka's leg?