The Girl Who Cried Wolf [Archive]

[DragonSong]

Someone was in pain. Dusk could feel it.

It struck her suddenly as she was rounding a bend in the path, as though she'd run into a solid wall. She gasped and clutched at her wrist, then her neck, positive that something was holding her, biting into her flesh.

Then she realized it wasn't her pain, her fear, that she was feeling. It was someone else's, someone fairly close by, for her to have had such a visceral reaction. Letting out a long breath, she closed her eyes and forced her mind to calm, to focus.

There. Further into the trees. Shouldering her pack, Dusk set off, following the tendril of pain to its source. It didn't take her long to find it, an animal caught in a trap. A wolf. She scowled at the snare, stopping a few lengths away in an effort not to startle the poor creature.

"Hey there." She fed a bit of her magic into her words, hopefully making them understandable to the animal as she crouched down and let her bow and pack slip to the ground. "Hi. I'm not gonna hurt you. Everything's gonna be okay. I'm here to help..." She repeated soothing phrases as she crept closer, keeping low to the ground.

[Draconian]

Shit.

Shit shit shit.

Sindri gave shallow breaths, eyes closed while he tried not to whimper.

It was easy to keep his mouth closed when it was a human mouth, no cheeks and no voice made it harder when he was Wolf. Still, it was stupid and he deserved this. A little dug and he yelped, looking frantically around for how to fix the trap. Wasn't there supposed to be a mechanism? Another gasp at a wrong tug and he took a calming breath.

Though a voice had his head snap to the side and he stared, wide eyed at the girl. Woman? Human. At first his hackles went up but then he remembered, he could be Human too. Sindri forced his face to shift, smoother, a human tongue, a human vocal box. It was probably terrifying to see but he gave another panicked yelp and hissed, "Help me!"

And then he was Wolf again and he gave her a worried look. It was tempting to just chew off the paw, it would be easier. The blood pooled around the trap and Sindri gave another little look to the woman who was - as she'd said - here to help.

[DragonSong]

With a startled yelp Dusk reeled back a bit as he...changed. Her eyes were wide and it took her a moment before she could stammer out, "Y-you- y-y-y-you're-!"

Then she took a breath an forced herself to clam down. Whatever this creature was, he clearly needed her help.

"Alright. I-it's okay," she soothed, leaning forward to closer inspect the snare around his paw. "Th-this is probably going to hurt," she warned him as she started to tug gently on the trap, finding the weak points so she could free him.

[Draconian]

It hurt.

Sindri snarled and snapped his teeth when she moved the trap and the second there was enough give he pulled his paw from it and in a blur of white fur Sindri the Wolf was replaced by Sindri the man and he stood naked holding his bleeding mutilated wrist.

Hissing breaths while he cradled his hand to his chest, head ducked down. Tears filled his eyes because of the pain before he swallowed them back and ducked his head down. The fact he was naked didn't really dawn on him as inappropriate. It was flesh. No big deal.

Also he was in amazing pain and he looked towards the human and closed his eyes for a moment before taking another deep breath, "Thank you." A few hesitant steps towards her and he pressed his tongue to his wrist and began to lick at the wound, not unlike an animal would.

[DragonSong]

"Oh-!"

Dusk leaned back and her jaw dropped when he completely changed forms. A shapeshifter. She'd never actually met one.

And while logically it made sense to her that a naked wolf would become a naked man, that didn't stop her from blushing furiously and ducking her eyes to afford him some modesty. "Y-y-you're welcome," she stuttered out.

Then she felt another flash of his pain and her healer's instincts overrode her sense of embarrassment. "Here, let me see," she urged and she shifted toward him a little, holding her hand out for his wrist.

[Draconian]

Sindri gave her a look.

A look like she'd bite off his face and chew it thoughtfully.

Still, he handed his wounded hand over, frowning that it tingled something awful and that it hurt and stung and the licks weren't making it better. Licks always made it better. Maybe she had magic licks. "Do you have magic licks?" He asked, curiously, a tilt of his hair, white hair falling into his eyes, "My licks aren't making it stop and it's starting to go numb. A three legged wolf isn't worth much at all."

There was a pause and he looked alert, his ears turning into fuzzy wolfish ears at the top of his head before his hair bristled and he frowned deeply. Soon enough though, it calmed and he had plain old human ears on his head again.

[DragonSong]

Dusk really did her best to keep her eyes off most of his...nakedness, but there was only so much she could do if she was going to heal him, and her cheeks were positively scarlet.

She smiled slightly at his words and took his hand gently, soothingly. "No, no magic licks. More of a magic touch." Her eyes flicked up to his face and watched with unabashed fascination as his ears shifted back and forth from human to wolf. Shaking her head to focus, she looked down at his wounded wrist.

"Don't w-worry, I won't l-l-let you be a three-legged w-wolf," she murmured encouragingly. With a deep breath, Dusk reached for her magic and pulled at a few threads of it, pushing it out through her fingertips and into him. Silver and lavender sparks danced across his skin, knitting flesh and muscle back together.