Chapter 33: Mistake
The arrow sunk deep into the tree it was fired at and was only a little off target. He had to say, getting Harrow to make a few more of the bows might have taken a while, but it was worth it.
The orange-furred female was the best marksman of the group. Tel wasn’t far behind, but apparently complained about the draw weight, which was something they weren’t really worried about with their first ranged weapon. Jax was actually quite proficient with the item, his attempts tending to be the most rapid in sequence, but his shots were somewhat inaccurate at times with only a single eye to aim with. Sahari could operate it in a pinch but made it clear she wasn’t comfortable using one, something about her shoulder after the wolf attack. Finally, Pan couldn’t draw the bow enough to use it as more than exercise, a revelation that discouraged the Lilhun immensely until Joseph pulled her into a hug and scratched the fur behind her ears for a while. After that, she purred contently and promised to practise with it.
Joseph himself was a fairly mediocre shot, the design of the bow was adjusted from his initial descriptions to accommodate Lilhun physiology and thus felt awkward in his hands. He didn’t mind though, he was already trying to puzzle out what could be done to make a functional crossbow but kept running into issues with ironwood snapping under the extreme pressure while keeping the size of the weapon reasonable. He supposed he could invest the time in a ballista eventually, but it was far from something he wanted to spend the time on.
“Nice!” Joseph patted Harrow on the shoulder after her fourth arrow joined the fairly small branch she was using as a target. “I need to make a sharpshooter medal or something for you.”
The female flashed him a grin while running a claw over the profile of the weapon. “I want to make some improvements to it though. That ‘compound’ bow you mentioned sounds like it would be better for hunting.”
He nodded, grabbing his own bow and trying to fix his grip so it didn’t feel so off. “Yeah, it’s great for that since the maximum resistance is felt part way through the draw. It lets off most of the weight after, so it’s easier to hold it and aim for more than a few seconds. Great for lining up shots. The recurve, however, is the best we’re going to be able to make until we get some fine metalworking underway.” He scratched his chin. “Well, we could try with ironwood but i don’t think the release will play well with the pressure we could get away with.”
“The impulse?”
“Impulse.” Joseph confirmed. “It’ll snap. Ironwood is great and all, but... actually, if we slotted a few types of tempering into each other and sealed it with that moss stuff, it might absorb enough to survive.”
Harrow’s ears perked up. “What if we use palm as a buffer?”
The Grand Hunter grabbed her in a loose headlock with her yelping at his enthusiasm. “I love you, you beautiful bitch! That’s a great idea, we’ll start on that next. How’s the ink doing?”
Harrow wrestled her way out of the hold with a pout, her tail giving away her excitement. “Yeah, yeah. You only like me for my brain.” She stuck her tongue out at him, a childish action he was guilty of introducing to her in response to one of Jax’s jokes. The Head of Technology fixed her fur as she reported the progress. “The ink is doing well. I think we should try mixing in a bit of the moss stuff so that it doesn’t wash away so easily in the rain, though. Would make further cartography easier.”
“You got the map done?” He asked, placing the bow on a table they had Mama make for them. It was more of a workbench with all the cubicles and pockets they had to store things in, but it was a flat surface he could reach, so there the bow went.
“The immediate surroundings, yes. I want to make a finer map and move it to the production building. Put it on the wall or something for people to reference.”
Joseph placed a fist to his lips. “True. Maybe turn it into a hunter’s lodge for animal processing and the like. Let them place warnings for wherever they find predator activity and the like. It’s nice in the hub, but i agree it’s a bit big right now. We’d want something of a meeting hall anyway, so it would be best to start clearing all the extras out.”
Harrow cocked her head. “Expecting guests?”
“Eh.” He waved a hand dismissively. “Hopefully Atrox starts making semi-regular runs, so it’d be nice to have somewhere set up where we could actually receive people. Even if not, it wouldn’t hurt to fix up the place. Its been a bit of a mess since we had Mama cut up all those trees.” Harrow nodded thoughtfully.
“That sounds fair. Anyway, I’m done here for today. I’m going to go hang out with Jax before me and Tel check the snares.”
“Any luck?”
She shrugged. “It’s been pretty hit-or-miss but we do get some on occasion.”
“Gotcha, you go chill out. I’ll drop down and see how Mama is doing with the newest work stations. Maybe convince her to give me a haircut.” He dismissed her, watching as she gathered the few finished products before she walked into the dorm’s outside door.
Mama was in the workroom cutting some logs to size for the future stations. They had settled on a fairly universal design like the one outside, deciding that it would be better if they could set them up for whatever task needed them rather than specializing and having one sit around for a while. She seemed to be teaching Violet the trade, the Atmo child taking the time to cut out the smaller pieces that her blades were more suited for.
“Hey Mama. Hey Violet. How’s the tables going?” He called from the doorway, noting that Pan wasn’t in there to work on whatever garment she felt they needed at the time. He had given her free reign to make whatever she wanted since he wasn’t really one to know much about clothing. She had commandeered all but one of the sheets he had brought from the pod to make loose cloaks for the rescue mission and it looked like her latest project was salvaging them into something new.
Mama laid down her work and gave him a rumbling hug that he returned. He really should put some more time aside for them. He had been pretty much flat-out since the pack joined. Violet, not to be one to miss out on skin-ship, dropped her work with less care and almost knocked him off his feet when she joined the embrace. “Vi, watch the blades! I don’t want to end up as Harrow’s experiment. There are way too many medicines that neither of us can identify and she’s itching to try them out on me.”
Violet backed off, making doubly sure her blades were folded before renewing her assault and actually taking him down this time, the den-daughter chittering away as he lay under her while Mama chuffed her own amusement while looking down at him.
“I thought you’d be heavier.” He commented. “While I’m here, do either of you want to help me with a haircut? It’s getting to the point where a ponytail would be reasonably possible and the beard needs to be trimmed if not just gone.”
Violet snuggled into him while he spoke, relenting once he patted her base for mercy. She wasn’t as heavy as her size would suggest but she weighed enough to make breathing uncomfortable. Mama tilted her head as he described what he would like them to do, briefly seeming alarmed that he would cut anything off until he explained that it was a regular thing humans did to keep it out of the way.
She seemed to consider doing it until agreeing, with a resigned nod, under the condition that he would let her know if she hurt him. It may have taken a few attempts at finding a solution she would accept, and far more feeling questions to determine her requirements, but he figured it was better to ask the craftsman to use her tools than Violet. At least until she got the fine precision down.
The process was a bit of a toss-up until she got comfortable with the idea, the ineffectual prodding serving to mostly just muss up his hair. Once she got used to it though, she started cutting it down to a fairly rough cut that she wouldn’t be satisfied with until it was fairly uniform. It looked like a bowl cut. His laughter at the style prompted her to attempt again, this time managing a fairly respectable result. It wasn’t top of the line or anything, but it was on par with anything he would expect from a random barber.
The beard was a bit of a different story as Violet insisted on being the one to do it. She stopped once it was trimmed somewhat close after a few accidental nicks on his throat threw a stick in the spokes before she got it low enough to really shave it off. He did manage to convince Mama to hold her blade out for him to dry shave around his throat though, so overall the experience left him feeling much more civil than before. Clean up was a bit of a pain though, since they had yet to make cleaning supplies beyond swapping out damp towels to mop the floor. Maybe they could use some heated palm? That might work for a broom. They could use some wrapped in old cloth for a proper mop as well.
It was a little surprising that they were getting along well enough for him to think about making new janitorial supplies, but it was a needed change since he landed. A few days to simply spend time with his family and worry about things less severe than starvation or survival was certainly welcome in his books.
Once he was all touched up and Violet was properly reassured that he wasn’t mad at the small cuts, mentioning that he had done it to himself a number of times helped, she was willing to show off her work and accept suggestions, as well as any measurement corrections that he noticed. Mama used her own measurement system, often being that she would line the item up with her blade and cut to some memorized size, but it worked well enough that he had started adapting some of the sensibilities involved. Humans used to measure some things using their body as reference, so this wasn’t much of a departure from the realm of the reasonable. Hell, he still measured things with assorted body parts. Usually his leg or palm for times when the exact measurements were more of a suggestion.
Once the show-and-tell portion of their work was done, he made a point to bring in some jerky for them and spent a few hours simply enjoying their company. Mama had pretty much pulled him into her when he went to sit on the floor, his back rested against her torso. The familiar warmth and gentle purring they defaulted to was rather soothing, especially once Violet received the message that they were doing a cuddle pile, regardless of what Joseph thought the rest of the day was going to consist of, and laid across his legs. He wasn’t about to complain, the soft give of her shell actually relieved some of the pressure on his muscles that had built up and the purring was doing wonders as well.
He stirred after a while, the warmth that covered him had decided that it was time to do other things and had left his legs comparatively cold, Violet choosing to leave for something or other. He was about to ask when he remembered that today was supposed to be the first mixed class of his CQC training and Violet was either excited to watch or hoping to get a few rounds of sparring with the new combatants. With a minor protest from Mama, apparently having dozed off while they were occupying the floor, he set about collecting the hair off the ground and depositing it in the fire outside to burn off. It smelled terrible and the cold quickly started to sting the newly naked flesh on his throat, but not having to brush hair out of his face every so often was a reasonable compromise.
He didn’t see Tel in the kitchen nor lounging in the hub near any windows, so he figured that her and Harrow were still out checking the snares. It seemed like it had been a while since they left and decided that he would gather the rest and have them warm up before the duo returned. Sahari was the only one in the central section of the base, having taken a seat to test the first batch of ink.
“It’s working pretty well, all things considered.” She commented, likely hearing him approach from behind. “I think using those quills would be preferable to manufacturing a dedicated writing implement right now, though.”
Joseph placed a hand on her shoulder and leaned in to observe the results. The ink didn’t bleed outside of the strokes by much, they could reduce it further to thicken it up later, and it stained a deep purple colour on the silver plank of wood they had set aside for the testing. “We can do that. I’ll get Mama or Violet to cut them to shape some time, right now we’re just getting the ink down pat.”
She nodded, turning an eye to look at him. Her face shifted from contemplative to mildly alarmed. “What happened to your fur?”
He furrowed his brow until it clicked. “Nothing happened,” He started chuckling while he responded. “I got Mama and Violet to help me trim it. How’s it look?” He framed his face several ways with dramatic flair until Sahari couldn’t hold her laughter.
“You look different.”
He pouted as hard as he could with faux offence. “You’re supposed to call me beautiful. I worked hard for this perfection you see in front of you.” She burst until she struggled to breathe, holding up a claw while he waited for her to speak with a smirk on his face.
“Pardon me, Grand Hunter. You look divine.” The sarcasm oozed from her like thick honey. The slightly french accent adding even more emphasis to the disagreement in her voice. Normally the accents fade away after a few days, but Sahari’s had stuck for some reason. Not that he minded, it suited her rather well and was far from unpleasant to listen to.
“Ow, my feelings.” He chuckled to himself, absentmindedly reaching to flick a stay hair that no longer existed. “I thought it looked fine. Better than anything i could do.”
“It’s fine.” She nodded, giving it a quick once over. She frowned for a moment before licking a pad and using it to flatten a patch that had decided to defy gravity during his posing. Confirming that the fix had stuck, she gave a second nod, this one far more confident. “There.”
He patted down the area with a half cocked smile, mildly caught off guard with the help. “Thanks. We’re doing cross training tonight. You can start getting ready in a minute while i gather the rest up. Tel and Harrow should be back soon but we’ll start without them for now.”
Sahari gave him a curt confirmation and started putting away the ink and tablet while he entered the dorm wing. Jax and Pan are probably sleeping or working on things in their rooms, and Nalah had spent the last day or so using a bit of the ink to draft out rough guidelines for future expansion of the base. Nalah was quick to find, her door ajar and her humming clearly audible as she mused out potential avenues they could work on. He had tried following along with her thought process before, but lacked much of the required background to really do more than approve of her initiative.
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Her ear twitched in his direction as he pushed the door open, the Lilhun turning in her chair to reveal that she was indeed drafting the next proposal for expansions. She did a double-take when she notice his hair, making a point to gesture towards the anomaly. “What hap-”
“Haircut.” He stopped her with a raised palm. “It’s normal. Mama helped. I’m not getting any prettier but it beats having hair in the way.”
Nalah lowered the claw pointing at his face. “I see.”
“Joint training tonight. Take your time getting ready. Sahari is gone ahead first to warm up.” He thumbed towards the facilities wing and left the room to the sounds of a rushing Nalah while chuckling to himself.
With those two down, he moved down the few doors to retrieve Jax. He had taken to napping throughout the day to accommodate his patrols and fire watch shifts, so it wasn’t too surprising to see that he had his door closed to drown out some of the noise from the rest of the building and its occupants. He gave the door a quick knock and leaned into the knob, resting one arm on the door frame as it swung open. “Hey Jax, wake up. Joint train... ing.” His voice faltered as his eyes widened.
Joseph, apparently, had the worst timing for trying to rally everyone. He also learned far more about both Lilhun biology, as well as the particulars of two of his pack than he had ever expected to when he was simply trying to wake his friend up.
Jax laid on the bed, two paws resting on Harrow’s hips as she was positioning herself. Her back was facing the door as she was bent over, giving Joseph a far more in-depth familiarity with her and Jax’s anatomy than he was expecting. Loose leathers lay strewn about the room from an obviously hasty disrobing. Harrow snapped her head to see who was entering the room, surprised that someone had intruded before turning to point to his head with a questioning look. More information that he didn’t want to know was given to him until he managed to blink and shut the door before she could speak. “Joint training tonight. Take your time.”
He made sure the latch engaged and rested his back on the wall as he struggled to process what he walked in on, his stare with furrowed brows burning holes in the floor.
“What’s with his fur?”
“I didn’t see.”
“It’s shorter.”
“Human thing?”
“I guess. Should we get ready?”
“He said to take our time.”
“Mmm, that sounds like a good idea. Where were we?”
Joseph took an exaggerated step towards his room while he fought back the burning redness on his cheeks, wishing for all that he was worth that this wasn’t going to be something he was going to get shit for and that he could get his hands on bleach to burn that from his retinas.
He paused outside of his room, muttering under his breath. “It’s a lot closer than i expected...”
He sighed.
Yeah, he was going to get shit for that.
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The strike to the head left her dizzy for a moment, the punch slipping over her guard and landing cleanly on her temple.
“Nalah, Hands up! Sahari, keep it light! No need to knock someone out in a spar.” Joseph called from the bench. The rest of the pack were dispersed around the edges of the room and cheering for whoever was in the lead at the time, switching as the momentum shifted.
Nalah shook her head and bright her arms back to their positions, her feet gaining back the placement that used to burn at her calves but now felt more comfortable than standing normally. She felt the bleed-over of guilt from Sahari but shot her a grin to reassure her that she was fine. Sahari returned the smirk and reached out with a fist to signify a continuance of their spar.
The moment the wraps touched both fighters pulled their fists back. Nalah braced her weight forward to allow her core to absorb the high kick to her arms and threw a low cross with the intent to strike her opponent’s extended abdominal muscles. Sahari pulled backwards, her tail pushing on the ground to support her weight as she narrowly avoided the contact and reset her footing before feigning a straight, using the flinch of Nalah’s block to get to her side.
Blind to the approach, the female felt the impact as Sahari’s follow-up kick landed into her side, causing her to buckle slightly. It wasn’t a full-power kick, but it had caught her during her exhale and drove more air out than she had intended to release. She spun with the hit and threw a few jabs to cover herself while she caught her breath, two hitting past the guard.
Seeing an opportunity, she rolled herself low towards where Sahari had been showing a preference to dodge and threw her weight into a heavy body hook, having to call it as it would have likely broke a few ribs.
“Alright! Set to Nalah! Good job, dude! That was a great read.” Joseph clapped a paw on her shoulder as she relaxed and let her heart rate catch up to the lull in activity. “Need to keep your guard flexible though. Her job is to mix you up, get you used to something harmful so she can line up something devastating. If she didn’t stop at that cross-counter, it would have been one hell of a head kick.” He pointed a finger at her with a concerned frown.
“Yes, Grand Hunter.” She gave him a smirk, her mouth too dry to give him more sarcasm. He patted her shoulder.
“Get a drink, you look like death. Have some fun watching someone else get their shit rocked.” Joseph grinned and gave her a light push towards the benches where she allowed herself to slump against the wall with heavy pants. Pan quietly offered her some water.
“You did well.” She complemented softly. Nalah accepted the water and nodded in thanks before dousing her throat.
“Yeah, not bad.” She polished off the rest of the water, using the empty cup to gesture to Joseph. “How would i do against him?”
She glanced to where the cup was pointing before pondering her answer. “In a spar or a fight?” She finally asked.
“Both.” Nalah replied instantly, more than a little curious at the response.
“I think you might get a few points in a spar. I do not like your chances of victory in a fight though.” She decided with a nod. Nalah shrugged, that was fair. Joseph might be weaker than some of them, but the way his muscles worked was just different. Sahari, Jax, and herself could lift more than he could, sure, but Joseph was built to punch things. He has said on several accounts that Lilhun legs were better for kicking, but were limited in power due to the high ankle breaking up the mass distribution, and making it a more fragile point of impact. Having goaded him into kicking her, Nalah agreed. Joseph’s kicks were more limited once started but hit much harder. A few tests after the fact had Joseph devising a training routine to even out their kicks and it was starting to show results, assuming Sahari was anything to go by.
“Harrow. Pan. You’re up.” Joseph’s voice boomed out to cut through the chatter. Sahari walked over to take Pan’s place as she joined the centre of the room.
“Good fight.”
“Yeah, my stomach hurts.” Nalah replied while rubbing the new bruise under her fur.
Sahari winced. “Apologies, i have not tested the kicks i was taught since Joseph started with us. Well, on him, but he does not seem to care.” Nalah waved her off with a chuckle followed by a wince of her own.
“It was a good kick. I deserved it.”
“So, Pan or Harrow?”
Nalah quirked a brow. “Harrow went under the same training as you.”
Sahari bumped her with her shoulder. Nalah enjoyed the brief contact more than she would care to admit. “Yes, but i do not know what he has taught his mate.”
“We seen her in action not long ago.” Nalah pointed out, taking the chance to lean on her bond.
Sahari gave her an unimpressed frown. “That is true, but we were all busy at the moment. Also, it was only two moves.” Nalah conceded the point with a shrug.
“Harrow. If she fights like you, then she’ll have the speed advantage over Pan, as well as power, since she’s bigger.”
“Pan has more training and spars with Violet.”
The argument was valid. No one besides Pan has actually fought with the Atmo, but from what little the rest had observed, Violet was a difficult opponent. “She has almost no experience fighting other people though. I’d imagine very little carries over.”
Sahari mulled it over for a moment as the two fighters finished wrapping their paws and got ready. Joseph reiterated the rules before raising a hand, ready to start the match. Sahari’s expression matched Joseph’s expectant grin. “Pan.”
“Fight!”
The two started by slowly circling each other. Pan held a lower stance while Harrow used one that was closer to Joseph’s than the in-between that Sahari utilized. Harrow felt out the engagement distance with swift jabs and shifted forward quickly to attempt to bait out a reaction but Pan simply stared at Harrow’s chest. It was an odd place to focus. Nalah preferred to see where her opponent was looking to strike so that she could react or tense the muscles to absorb the hits better, but that was a natural habit ingrained into her and refined by Joseph. She was about to ask Sahari what she thought of the choice when Harrow tossed out a short jab and stepped into a second.
The fist met empty air as Pan simply shifted backwards, the two furs touching without any transfer of force into her slightly tilted jaw. Harrow followed it with a straight that Pan slipped by lowering herself under it, using the opportunity to close the distance and slip behind her. Nalah caught a slight twitch that looked like a bit of muscle memory had been suppressed. Harrow spun in place to chase the slip and received a tap on the muzzle from an open palm.
Sahari’s laugh brought a smile to Nalah’s face. Even if that interaction had been quick, it was pretty impressive. Pan hopped in place a few times, a habit Nalah remembered Joseph partaking in during his fight with Jax. Joseph explained that it was something he did to work off excess energy or to refocus himself. Whichever reason Pan was doing it for, she held the same placid expression until they touched wraps for the second round.
Harrow took the initiative the second round as well, this time skipping over the range finding and opting to force Pan to block with a barrage focused on her head. Pan slipped or leaned out of range for most of the attacks, only raising her arms to deal with a crescent kick Harrow fired off once she had gotten to the side of her. The kick looked to strike the muzzle from the front and likely be followed up by something else while Pan’s arms were busy blocking or she was otherwise preoccupied dodging. An inhaled hiss from Sahari suggested she had been hit pretty hard by the upcoming combo more than once.
Pan brought up and arm with her palm facing outwards. Just as Nalah was about to question the ability to absorb a hit like that by catching it, Pan’s paw met the kick.
In a lightning set of actions, Pan caught the foot on the swing and redirected it above her. The moment the kick left its original course and was no longer a threat, Pan fired out her back foot and landed a straight kick into Harrow’s grounded ankle, forcing it to buckle under the shift in pressure before putting her own weight on it. Catching the still-kicking foot with the opposite paw, Pan rose to her full height and pushed the leg upwards, sending Harrow to her back on the ground. Before Harrow could finish breathing out the air that was pushed from her lungs, Pan had a toe claw pressed to her throat and the rest of her was held at an awkward angle that Nalah doubted many could recover from fast enough to do much of anything useful.
“Point.” The white-furred Lilhun called softly, releasing Harrow’s leg.
“That was impressive, Pan!” Sahari called out with a wink at Nalah. Jax winced as Harrow allowed herself to flop out on the ground and catch her breath.
“Ow.”
Joseph chuckled and offered her a paw that she accepted before turning to Pan. “Careful with take-downs. It doesn’t take much to cause serious damage.”
Pan’s fairly upbeat but quiet posture deflated slightly. “Yes.”
Joseph pulled her in for a sideways hug. “It was fucking textbook though. Good job. Go on now. Match point!”
Pan smiled softly as she rejoined the circle, taking a gap in the action to bounce again, this time rolling from foot to foot with her hips instead of taking to the air at all. Harrow took a moment to stretch out and work the leg that got pressed down on with mild discomfort until she felt it was as good as it was going to get. The two touched wraps and repeated the circling of the first round, though Harrow closed the distance much slower now.
Pan claimed the first strike this time; a close leg kick with her front leg that locked Harrow’s motion for a moment as she checked it. Nalah tensed in her seat as she awaited the next move but Pan disengaged from an uppercut that Nalah had failed to notice. Pan retreated a few steps and maintained her distance with careful prods with her foreleg, occasionally closing the distance momentarily to bait out a strike. Harrow refused to toss out anything she couldn’t quickly withdraw after learning her lesson twice.
Harrow eventually closed Pan into the corner of their little ‘ring’ and forced her to retreat past her, using the chance to block a high exit with a jab that Pan barely leaned back to avoid and followed it with a body hook to the stomach that landed deep, causing the female to buckle and cough violently with agony written on her face. Joseph rushed to her side, sliding across the ground on his knees and wrapping her in a protective hug even though Harrow had already distanced herself with a concerned expression.
“Hey, Hey. You okay? Did it hit... Yeah, that looks about there. Hey, deep breaths.” Joseph took a moment to observe the area of impact and started rubbing her back with his own pained expression as Pan fought to regain her breath.
Harrow crouched next to the two and laid a paw on Pan’s shoulder. “You okay? Is she okay? What happened?”
Joseph shook his head. “She’ll be fine in a second. Big hit is all. You good to keep going or do you wanna call it? It was a nasty blow, no ones gonna say anything if you need to sit the rest out.” He cupped Pan’s face in his paw. Pan took a few shaky breaths before shaking her head and getting to her feet. The Grand Hunter looked conflicted but eventually nodded. “Point to Harrow. Next round.”
“Sorry Pan.” Harrow offered sheepishly. Pan gave her a weak smile.
“It’s okay. I should not have allowed myself to be cornered.”
The response didn’t do much to mollify Harrow, but it was enough to convince her to continue.
They touched wraps again and resumed their positioning, Pan slowly gaining confidence in her footing as Harrow took it easy pressuring her. When Pan gave her a soft smile, Harrow picked up the pace and started mixing kicks to the legs. The first few landed pretty cleanly, Pan failing to judge the distance correctly and taking them to the thigh or calf. A kick slid higher than the check Pan prepared and scored a pretty solid landing on her ribs, causing her to buckle into it. Harrow failed to capitalize on the opening as Pan reflexively kept the area covered with a threat of a straight, circling each other again to find a new opening.
Pan bounced in place twice, using the third bounce to gain a bit of distance and feign a kick. Harrow fell to a sprinter’s form, her torso low to the ground and tail high to counterbalance for the launch. Nalah noticed Joseph glance down towards Harrow and the subtle blush that flushed his cheeks and was mirrored to Pan. Harrow lunged with the hesitation presented and launched herself into a deep uppercut to Pan’s unguarded chin.
Out of the corner of her eye, Nalah watched Sahari’s fur prickle and her muscles tense. Joseph’s eyes widened as he registered that Harrow had no intention at the moment to call the heavy strike.
“PAN!”
The result was instant.
Pan’s pupils dilated, her fur bristled in a millisecond wave from her spine outwards, and her eyes zeroed in on the incoming threat. She slipped her jaw to the side, the skin under the fur pushed with the friction of fur-on-fur.
Pan struck the bottom of Harrow’s jaw with the wrist of her paw to offset her, followed by a sharp punch to the throat that sent the orange-furred female stumbling a step backwards. In a blindingly fast spin, Pan had levelled a full-power high kick to Harrow’s temple with her claws extended. Before anyone in the room could say anything they watched in slow motion as the thick muscles hidden under the fluff unleashed themselves. Nalah closed her eyes in fear of the worst.
The impact was deafening compared to the silent room.
“JOSEPH!”
Nalah flinched her eyes open as Sahari flew from her seat screaming his name. Joseph stood between Harrow and Pan with his arm braced against his neck and the opposite arm bracing the elbow. Pan’s foot lay almost embedded into his forearm as the claws had pierced into his flesh to their full depth.
Pan came down from her adrenaline shot, lowering her leg as her mind caught up with what she had almost done. What she did end up doing. She stared at her foot, now tainted by the crimson red of her bond that left prints in the wood below.
Sahari started barking commands at Jax and Tel as Violet, previously content to watch the action, had rushed to his side with a small whimper. Jax crossed the hall to grab healroot while Tel fetched some hot water to wash the wound. Joseph looked to be in pain but kept asking if Pan was okay.
Nalah knew a traumatic experience when she seen one, taking the moments that the female would be dazed to pull her into a tight embrace. It took a second for the full gravity of her actions to hit Pan, the tears and wailing accompanying the obvious self-hatred. Nalah held her firm as she tried to escape the situation, knowing that she would either do something stupid or irreversible. Hunt Mother knows Nalah has been through it enough times. She cupped the back of her head and held her tight to her breast, easing her to the ground with soft reassurances. Eventually Pan stopped resisting and gripped her with muffled sobs.
“It’s okay. It was an accident. Everything is fine.”
Joseph wrestled his way out of the concerned bombardment of the pack to crouch down with them. “Pan, are you okay? Are you hurt?”
Nalah shot him a venomous glare. “She’s traumatized by what your fucking bond almost made her do.”
Joseph closed his mouth and averted his gaze while looking far more hurt than when he received the gouging blow to his arm. He nodded and left the room with a quiet address to the rest of the pack. “Sorry guys, I’m calling it for today.”
Nalah glared at him as the crying bundle in her arms got quiet. Sahari watched him leave while gripping her own shoulder as tight as she could. As soon as he was gone, she stomped over to Nalah.
“What the Void did you say to him?” She gripped Nalah’s face firmly and stared into her eyes.
“I told him what he did. His bond caused this.”
Nalah’s head spun from an impact, the sound of the slap registering after. Sahari’s cold voice pierced through the haze as Pan was removed from her arms. “He was scared, Nalah. Terrified. Sleep in your own room tonight. I’m going to go stop him before he beats himself up too badly.”
Nalah’s vision cleared as the emotions hit. Rage, sorrow, fear. Each lingering in her in varying amounts with none of it her own. “He made her do it.”
Sahari stopped in the door way with an arm around Pan. She spared Nalah a single glance. “He stopped her from going too far.”
She walked out of the room, followed by Violet who was more concerned about Pan at the moment than whatever else was going on in the den. Harrow was helped out of the room by Jax. Nalah called out to him.
“He almost killed your mate and you have nothing to say?”
Harrow rubbed her throat as she responded, her voice strained and raspy. “He literally just saved my life, Nalah. Get your head out of your ass.” She dragged Jax out with her, the male giving her a pitiful look on his way.
Nalah sunk against the wall, Tel’s voice being heard from her side. “Well then. I’m going to go see if i can’t get myself some of that. Later.” She skipped out of the room in a chipper mood, tail spinning wildly behind her. Nalah stared at the floor until she noticed Tel peek her head back in. Her expression had faded from childish glee to a cold stare. “And Nalah? What Harrow said.”
Tel left the room again, leaving Nalah alone on the floor.