The rain continued for a total of 3 days. The first day was simple enough, spent mostly sleeping and eating the leftover starberry arm. For the second, Mochi had to run out to grab food as quickly as possible, before returning back home to eat. While she enjoyed the rain and thought it was beautiful sometimes, getting wet was a major downside that she did not enjoy.

On the third day, Mochi spent some time messing around with some extra leaves to see if she could make an umbrella or something. Partway through, she notices that the sound of rain had stopped. Moving aside the door cover, the light of the sun shines down into her home.

"Good to see you sun! It's been a while!" Mochi calls out excitedly. While a few clouds still dot the sky, that's of significantly less concern. Leaving the umbrella project for later, Mochi climbs out of her home and checks around for any storm damage.

The little hole survived the storm unscathed, as did the trees nearby. A bit further away though is the charred remains of a tree, likely hit by lightning. Mochi checks for any potential embers, but doesn't find any. She then breaks apart and collects some crude charcoal from the stump and stores it. There's many potential uses for charcoal, and not too many ways to obtain any for a fox after all.

After confirming that there are no immediate threats to her home, Mochi next begins her daily search for food. This is promptly interrupted by a loud cawing right above her. Looking up, she sees a crow with s scar on their beak. "Oh, hello Jenny! Been a while, huh? How was the rain?" Mochi smiles internally, as actually smiling might be viewed as a threat.

Unfortunately, the crows neither know what Mochi is saying, nor can their response be understood by the fox. Cawing once more, Jenny flies away, but low enough to be seen by Mochi. She chases after the crow, assuming the cawing meant 'follow me'. It helped last time, and there was little risk after all.

While following, Jenny periodically landed and checked behind to confirm whether or not Mochi was still following. This was especially necessary when Mochi has to run around deep muddy terrain. Cleaning mud out of fur was too annoying, so she actively avoided mud as much as possible.

Eventually, the two reach a suspiciously loud tree. The leaves rustle constantly, a few branches shake now and then. Looking carefully, she sees that the tree is full of crows. And all of them are looking towards something ahead, something that smelled quite bad. As Jenny lands among the other crows, Mochi slowly creeps forward to get a good look at what the crows are staring at.

There, knocked into the base of a tree, lies something furry and gray. And big, several times larger than Mochi. A wolf, and an especially large one.

Mochi steps away cautiously. What is a wolf doing here? No, wrong question, this is a forest, of course wolves would be here. But what is it doing? Why is it just... lying there? As Mochi continues watching from a safe distance, she starts to realize that something is wrong with the wolf.

Reluctantly, she slowly steps closer. The wolf's fur is messy, still wet from the rain. Its whole body is motionless and stiff. It has several wounds on its legs, covered in blood. Is the blood new or just wet from the rain? With one last moment of hesitation, Mochi moves around to look at the wolf's head.

An eye watches, tracking her movement. The wolf was alive?! This changes her plans immediately. Mochi walks around the wolf several more times, noting everything. Injuries on legs, visible ribs indicating hunger or malnutrition, muscle paralysis...

Next, she inspects the injuries more closely. Most are shallow cuts, which have already healed into scars. However, there is a single deeper wound, which appears to still be bleeding. It'll need to be bandaged and treated to prevent infection. Of course, the problem is that Mochi is a fox. In a forest.

However, this won't stop her from trying. Mochi was a kind person in her past life, helping anyone and anything she came across. And while she may be a fox now, that didn't change her desire to help. And luckily, she knows a few things about treating wounds in forests.

First, she runs off searching for some particular plants and bugs. She only needs two, but finding any would have to be pure luck. Oh, and she should also grab some food as well. Meat... inedible, since they're paralyzed. Berries should do though.

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As the fox runs away, the watching crows are left with no idea what to do. They were here to see if anything special happened when the fox killed the prime wolf, considering its title, but this was unexpected.

Normally, anyone and everyone would've dived at the opportunity to claim such a valuable kill. It would've guaranteed several levels, and likely grant additional rewards. Not to mention the meat. Higher level almost always meant better meat. Even the crows, which don't usually care about flavor, would enjoy it.

However, the wise crow Wisteria had given them an order; no crow was allowed to kill the prime wolf, not even when it's in such a vulnerable state. However, there was a few loopholes to this order. Firstly, the crows were fully allowed to refuse any help to the prime wolf, and secondly, they can let someone else kill the prime wolf for them.

And so, the crows decided to have the fox take the kill. After all, the fox was so nice to them, and thus they should repay that kindness with an invaluable gift. This also had the nice side effect of empowering the fox, which hopefully would mean the fox will hunt bigger and better prey, and leave the leftovers for the crows!

Except, the fox didn't kill the wolf. Instead, the fox seemed to inspect the wolf, before running away? Troubled, the crows started arguing about what to do next.

"We should wait for the fox! Maybe it is planning something?" "No, it never refuses an easy meal" "Didn't you hear about the apples? This wouldn't even be happening if the fox took the easy apples!" "I'm going back to sleep. Stupid rain..." "Shall I lure someone else?" "No" "I'll follow the fox. Maybe they're planning something?" "You just want first dibs on whatever food they find!" "No-no? I-"

As the crows argue, the prime wolf silently sighs in frustration. He suffered through the rain, unable to move as winds dragged him up against this tree, uncertain of how bad his injury is, and worst of all, now some crows are arguing about who should kill him. Well, at least he can't feel anything.

After some time, the crows came to an agreement to watch what the fox does before deciding further what to do with the prime wolf tomorrow. Most fly away while a few stay behind to keep an eye on the prime wolf and their surroundings. It was mostly unnecessary, as even paralyzed the prime wolf's presence drives every other beast away.

Eventually though, that fox comes back. That same fox the prime wolf scared away several weeks ago. At the time, he had assumed them a child, as the fox was so small and seemingly clueless of the prime wolf. Now though, he is forced into a significantly different perspective, as this fox has full opportunity to kill him, as the crows said.

...Though, why is the fox carrying a branch? Specifically, it appears to be a branch of blueberries! The prime wolf's favorite, any other day. Now though, he feels a vague despair. Is the fox planning to torture him by dangling his favorite food so close while he can't do anything? Was this that damn crow's plan all along? The prime wolf curses, but nothing can be heard.

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The fox places the blueberry branch next to the wolf, just barely in view. They carefully grab one using their paws... and stuff it down the wolf's throat. If not for the poison removing all feeling for the wolf, he would've gagged or coughed violently. Now though, he can do nothing but panic.

One by one, the fox shoves berries down the wolf's throat. After calming down a bit, the wolf notes that the fox managed to not choke him. And while he hates to admit it, he is thankful for the food. At the very least, he won't die of starvation soon. The fox then runs off once again, with a few more crows chasing after them.

Maybe it's the desperate situation he is in. Or maybe it's due to gratitude. The prime wolf silently makes a promise. On his honor, he will repay that fox tenfold with the best meat he can hunt. That is, if he survives until then...

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For the next few hours, Mochi runs through the forest, looking for a specific plant or bug. While feeding the wolf proved to be difficult due to a lack of fingers, Mochi was able to do it without any problems. Putting her paws into a wolf's jaws was scary, but her desire to help outweighed all fear.

However, the bigger problem was that wound. It's still bleeding, though not as bad as that kind of wound should be. Either the wolf has lost too much blood, or blood flow to the wound is restricted, possibly due to paralysis. Either way, she needs to stop the bleeding somehow. Once again, she wishes she had proper fingers to work with.

Seeing as bandages or pressure will be very difficult, the next best thing is a salve or similar. Something easy to apply that clots blood. Luckily, there's a few things in the forest that can be used for that. Unluckily, Mochi has to find them.

As she runs throughout the forest, she periodically glimpses a crow flying above through the trees. "Sorry, but I'm busy. I'll get you food later!" She calls out, though she doesn't expect the crows to understand her. Regardless, the crows rarely stay near her for any more than a few minutes before flying away.

At some point, Mochi notes that she hasn't seen any other animal around. Sure, she wasn't exactly being quiet, but surely she'd see something by now? Her thoughts are interrupted by a faint minty smell. running towards the source, she finds lintmint. A plant with fuzzy seeds, but not useful right now. She continues running.

And so, for the next few hours, she scavenges for anything useful. Pepper peas, water needles, cunglestratem, mulberries... food, but not what she's looking for. Milkweeds, foxtails, tearvines, slikshrooms... useful if boiled, but that's not something a fox can use. Hemlocks, villies, mercy plums, poppies... poisonous.

So many 'useful' plants in many other contexts, but not right now. As the sky glows to a warm orange, the fox is left disappointed. But maybe, she'll be able to find something tomorrow... Or maybe, the wolf won't live until tomorrow. With meager determination, Mochi runs on. It's a gibbous moon, which should provide enough light to see. And luckily, plants all smell just differently enough to identify them even in darkness.

And so, she searches. As the sun fully sets, the light of the moon guides her way. Until eventually, she finds an odd plant. One with pale grey leaves, ensnaring around the stump of a long dead tree. Ghostvines, a dangerous plant that causes pain when touched. And its sap coagulates blood. Exactly what she needed.

Climbing up a tree and grabbing a large leaf, Mochi carefully tries to wrap the leaf around a part of the vine. Once she succeeds as much as she can, she pulls. The vine is too strong though, and the leaf tears before it. And so, Mochi grabs another leaf to try again. And it fails again.

Mochi tries again and again, but the vine proves too tough. Reluctantly, she wraps another leaf around the ghostvine, and then goes past it and bites down on the vine itself. A searing pain surges through her mouth as she tears the vine. As soon as its torn enough, she releases and recoils back.

The pain continues to spread around, burning her nose and throat. For a moment she thinks of resting it off, but quickly banishes the thought. The vine was damaged now, its sap is leaking. She needs to bring it back to the wolf.

Grabbing the vine by the wrapped leaf, she runs through the forest back to where the wolf is. Along the way the pain dulled, but it still spread to her ears and eyes. Half blinded by tears, Mochi placed the vine down and made some final preparations. First, she grabbed more leaves to be able to hold the leaf without direct contact. Then, she uses a single claw to cut along the vine. She has to repeat it a few times to get a cut deep enough that it reaches the sap inside. Then, she carries the vine over to the wolf's wound.

Even now, after a whole day, it remains bleeding. She hopes this will work to stop that. "Sorry mr. wolf, this will hurt. But I promise it's necessary."

Mochi then places the vine down onto the wound, cut section down. Slowly, a viscous sap drips onto the wound, solidifying slightly. The wolf shows no response despite touching the vine, much to Mochi's concern. Is the wolf already dead? She puts her head against its chest and listens close. It takes a moment, but a slow yet consistent heartbeat responds. She sits back and lets out a sigh in relief.

Next would be a way to treat for possible infection. While the sap can help, it's too weak against some of the more deadly infections. Standing up, Mochi pauses momentarily to stretch, her muscles starting to tire. However, it's not enough to stop her, as she runs out once again.

...

...

...

And so, for the next three days and nights, Mochi ran around looking for any useful plants. Along the way, she grabbed some more berries and forced them down the wolf's throat, as well as some static seeds to hopefully help with the paralysis. Granted, the wolf might run away once the paralysis wears off, but that just means it's recovered enough to run away, which Mochi would consider a success.

During this time, Mochi sleeps for only a few hours at a time. If she could, she would've forgone sleep altogether, but she is just a fox, and foxes must sleep. Luckily for the crows, she still ate periodically though. They were unbothered by her actions, though they did note her odd interest with the wolf, and so left them alone.

Today though, as the sun sets yet again, and the full moon guides her path, Mochi finds something important. Tucked hidden among the exposed roots of a long dead tree, is some blue glowing lichen. While otherwise seemingly uninteresting (other than glowing in the dark), Mochi identifies it as angel beard, a relatively rare specimen. While it was resilient and could grow nearly anywhere, its slow growth rate meant it never spread much.

More importantly though, it was known as a preventative panacea, believed to have guaranteed protection against even the deadliest of diseases. Mochi knows that that isn't true, but for the sake of protecting wounds against infection, it was perfect.

Mochi wanted to grab some immediately, but she knew that would be shortsighted. First, she grabbed some grass and leaves and even went around to get some berries. Then, she chewed it all together into a blob of plant material. Rolling it a bit until it became a small plant ball, she then rolled it across the lichen. Bit by bit, small amounts of the lichen latch onto the plant ball. Finally, she grabs a dry leaf and wraps it around the ball.

Only once she prepared for an attempt at farming the angel beard, does she grab the rest of it, scraping it into another leaf. Then, she carried both back home, stored the seeded leaf ball, and then carried the raw lichen to the wolf.

Luckily, the wolf was still there. For a moment, Mochi could've sworn she saw its tail twitch, but she ignores it for now. She chews up the leaf and lichen into a mushy paste, and then applies it directly to the wound. Then, she wraps several layers of leaves around it to hold the paste in place.

And with this, Mochi finally relaxes a bit. At the very least, assuming the wolf rests and whatnot, they should heal perfectly fine. It had been a long time since Mochi worked so hard, and for so long. As exhaustion catches up, she sits down to rest for a moment. She'll rest, before getting last food and sleeping back home.

In her warm bed... surrounded and safe... able to sleep until late... "mmmnnn~ warm. Comfortable~"

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Deep in the forest, lies a forbidden sight. A small, cute little fox curled up against a pitch black wolf. The prime wolf moves just slightly, hoping to get into a more comfortable position without waking the fox. However, he realizes a bit too late that the only comfortable position is to curl up as well, which would certainly be a bit embarrassing.

Oh, that fox. That damn savior fox. The prime wolf had complicated feelings about the fox. All generally positive, but more in a sense of wishing that the fox would at least consider the wolf's feelings. No, but the wolf could not complain aloud. After all, it might wake the fox.

Looking around, the wolf notes that there aren't any crows around. Well, it's not like his pride can be hurt any further. And so, Nikola curls up as well, providing the fox with a fluffy bed. In the future, he'd claim this was not intentional, but that would be a lie. After all, providing his savior a nice place to sleep was common sense for one with such a high level of Honor.

And with his head tilted down away from any hidden ears, the prime wolf whispered,

"good night, little fox"