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Things up top hadn't changed much. Kaito was still sitting near Kyrie and Shiro, eyes wide, face pale, unresponsive. Kyrie was pressing cloths, red now, to Shiro's wound while she waited for Lin, though she was also keeping an eye on the two who were still by the trees.

It looked like the smaller one had given up trying to get away from the other, though both of them were watching, bows in hand. They jumped when Lin and Daeron appeared out of nowhere. The younger one reached for an arrow, but the bigger one knocked it out of his hands and started telling him off.

Daeron swayed a moment before he regained his balance. That was the first time he'd ever been teleported, and it was a startling experience. Once he was steady again, he drew his sword and faced the two elves.

"Go help Kyrie, Lin," he told her. "I'll watch them now."

They didn't look like much of a threat so far, especially the way the bigger one was telling off the younger one and had knocked his arrow aside, but it was still better safe than sorry. Shiro had already been shot.

"Good." Kyrie shuffled aside to make room for Lin. "All right, this has to be done quickly. I'll need you to hand me things as I ask for them."

While Lin had been gone, she had also laid out a number of instruments so that she could ask Lin for them by location rather than by name, since many of them were similar.

It took a while for Kyrie to perform the needed surgery, though the first bit of it was rushed (very carefully). She had to clamp off the artery so that she could remove the arrow and stitch up the nick, and she had only a matter of minutes before it would cause permanent damage to Shiro. She managed it well, though, and once that part was done it was a matter of making sure it was clean so that she could close him up and finish.

By the time she had finished, most of the cloths were bloody, and Shiro was nearly as pale as Kaito. Still, he was in one piece.

"He needs rest now," Kyrie murmured with a sigh. "We should stay here for a few days." She looked at Kaito. "And he needs to be checked out, too, but not before I wash. Daeron, what's going on with those two?"

Daeron looked back at Kyrie. "They still haven't moved or done anything more," he told her. "I really don't think they mean us any more harm. If anything they look like they want to make sure Shiro is all right."

Kyrie pulled a canteen from her bag and uncorked it with her mouth so that she could use the water to wash her hands. At Lin's words, her brow furrowed slightly.

"Something else?" she repeated. "What else could it possibly be?"

She poured water over her hands and rubbed them in the grass to clean them.

"Really?" Kyrie's eyes narrowed in surprise. "Now that's something I've never seen before."

Of course, she would never be so presumptive as to assume she had seen everything. Still, this was beyond anything she had ever imagined.

"Still, I'd better check him out," she murmured. She pushed herself to her feet and stretched as she stepped over to where Kaito was still sitting.

"Thanks," Daeron murmured, accepting the canteen gratefully. "I don't want to worry Iorlas when she gets up here."

He washed his hands, still keeping an eye on the two elves who were by the trees. Now that Kyrie had finished with Shiro and was looking after Kaito, the two had set down their bows (at the older one's direction) and were stepping tentatively in their direction.

Daeron blinked. "A hunting accident, then?" he questioned quietly. "It would certainly explain why they didn't run away, or keep shooting."

He was momentarily startled when Andarien appeared at the top of the cliff behind them, just in his peripheral vision. The boy scrambled up, dropped his bag, and ran over to his mother and uncle.

"You didn't need Eon or Ponydash?" he asked, seeing the balls but not the Pokemon.

Daeron smiled and shook his head. "No. It seems it may not have been a real attack."

The strangers, who were now only a small stone's throw away, called out to the small group in a language that the Four Landers and Gaians did not recognize.

Andarien looked up at Lin, looked at the strangers, and then looked back up at Lin again.

"They asked if Shiro is okay," he told her softly. His expression grew worried. "Is Shiro okay, Nana?"

He glanced down at Shiro. The neko's chest and clothes were covered in blood, his clothes torn away from the wound, and the wound was covered in gauze, which was the only unbloodied spot on him now. His face was pale, and his eyes were closed, and his forehead was creased slightly, the corners of his mouth turned down.