There was tension in the air.
Like a coiled two-leggers rope, the heavy feeling of wary anticipation hung over the Elderwillow Camp like a snake twisted about its prey. It was smothering, but there was little anyone could do to alleviate it. They were quite literally at the mercy of a force of nature, for there was no other way to describe the inevitable carnage that waited in the shadowy future. Skinwalkers, two of them at least. Their bloody footprints and the mangled remains of their victims left little room for suppositions or questions of identity. Everyone knew they were out there.
One, a purewalker, had followed a member of the Elderwillow Camp all the way from the distant deserts and the ghostly City of Thieves, preying on the weak and the infirm as he went before finally setting his vengeful sights on the unicorn Toujours. The other, a cursed skinwalker who had once claimed blood ties with the band wanted only to cause pain. A pact among devils, leading to a series of attacks and bloody massacres that littered the Elderwillow borders. Help had been summoned, but was slow in coming.... and this night Amarinne had been tasked with the job of seeing to the injuries of what few forest allies the Elderwillow had left.
All around her were the wounded bodies of a pride of mountain lions, relatives of Tai's familiar Edelsteine. Some fared better then others, and after a whispered word or two, Amarinne left them to treat the most seriously wounded, such as the young male she was mending now. Several inches of the feline's tail were missing, along with his left eye and part of his face, and the healing so far wasn't looking good. She'd even gone as far as to draw some of her own blood to help speed the process, but even that hadn't slowed the flow of the mountain lion's life-blood into the earth below.
She needed help, and she needed it fast.
"Stay with me Starpaw. Keep telling me about your sisters, how old are they now?" She asked, pushing all that she had into just stopping the blood flow and keeping the tawny-gold cat concious. "What did you like doing with them most?"
