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"Ha... Ha..."

Amber's breath gradually slowed back to her normal pace as her body relaxed and she leant back into Tomorrow's chest, closing her eyes tiredly as she flinched with a small snarl at the foggy headache that clouded her vision and the shearing pain that ran in spurts down her shoulder and along her spine. Her nose twitched as John's familiar scent filled her senses and she relaxed further, feeling herself become sleepy as the extent of what had just happened caught up on her. Her body willed her to sleep, to heal and though she fought it the anthro could feel it slowly overwhelming her.

"Sleepy..." she managed to whisper quietly.

As the couple shared the quiet moment, the graceful woman rose quickly and threw something over the tooth that had ejected itself from the small anthro's shoulder. It had begun to move, a little unsubtly over the floorboards.

The cloth that covered it now made it stop, and suddenly there was a rattle, before both the fabric and the tooth were alight with blue fire, turning everything in the tiny patch into ashe. There was a far off howel of something left unsatisfied and a smile quirked along the womans lips.

"Hungry little b*****d, it seems." A sentance said with complete disregard to the grace that she had before. Finding the time now appropriate she pulled out various jar's and again sat opposite to John, rubbing healing medicine over the wound, which had already recovered from the nasty magical infection feeding on the blood. The bandages were tight but not uncomfortable afterwards, made for mobility...no one could get left in the cold over stiff bandaging up here.

"You came all this way without a majiker...you are brave souls..." She left the statement open, waiting for him to fill in the blanks.

"...There were two others...a young neko-jin and a...man." John said quietly, his deep voice in his chest rumbling straight through Amber's body as she leaned against him. "...They should have survived...i ehop ythe dsurivive..."

"...I'm sorry to ask more of you, but could you look after Amber while i go out to look for them? I wont...be...long..." He said, his voice suddenly whittling down to a whisper as he felt it.

It wasn't much. Nothing but a roll-over as it slept on after a tiring few minutes.

But he felt it. His hands untwined themselves from Amber's fingers slowly and slid under her hands, stroking the smooth skin of her belly under her shirt...

Before feeling it again.

Duel emtions rose in the pit of his very soul. Elation and regret. Happiness and shame. Love...and anger.

He'd dragged her into this. Once more, reality had come back to bite him on the a** - but this time, if things turned sour, he would die. It was as simple as that. He couldn't bare to think of this world without her. His loyalty unbounding. His love unrelenting.

But it was his fault that she was here.

He shook his head, the tears dripping onto her shirt. No think for thinking. Only for action. "Etak ecar fo rhe." Tomorrow muttered, easing the anthro gently back onto the table before standing, her warmth on his bare chest like a baptism of fire. "L'il eb kbac."

Half-naked, scraped and sore, his soul wrenching to be free and to be with her, he gently pushed the big man away from the door and walked out into the snow, gathering his bearings for a moment...

Before leaping. Hard.

Common sense. It wasn't exactly something that John was known for. But what the woman had said was true - any damage that could be done was now done. Even though he was a Tribal, there was a very slim chance on him going out into the blizzard, finding the two in the raging storm, and making his way back thawed.

And that infuriated him.

It took all his will not to knock the head off the healer-woman. His fingers dug into the rock-hard ice covering the ground and crushed it in his palms. His fore-head bled slightly from the rude return to the earth - the woman's magic, obviously, was powerful.

Rolling onto his back, he sighed as he looked up to the sky, dropping snow like white flakes of cotton-fluff. He closed his eyes, trying not to feel like he'd betrayed his little sister. Saving people was hard...but when the person you love is in danger, all reason goes out the window. He'd done it for Meryl, he'd done it for Tellus...he had simply done what was natural.

So why feel so guilty?

He caved into the wanting of his soul, yearning to be with Amber. A little voice within him told him that Mere had it covered. That Juuni would be able to take care of herself. That he shouldn't worry and be with his love, care for her like he was thinking when he scooped her up and ran her away from danger as fast as he could.

Rolling to his knees, then to his feet, he wavered uneasily as he stood. Taking on an entire orc army...getting little to no rest last night...then being pounded and forced to escape using everything he had...leaving one of his dearest behind to save the dearest he had...no wonder he was feeling tired.

A gloved hand ran through his blond locks as he turned slowly. Anybody who hadn't taken shelter in their huts were now staring at the mad-man, naked from the waist up, his dangerous-looking tattoo's running slightly in his sweat and blood like mascara following a tear down a cheek. His many cuts and gashes were frozen, the blood like crystal around the open flesh, but he seemed to pay it no mind.

Blank, weary blue eyes turned to the healer's milky gaze, as if searching for an answer - before realisation overcame him slowly. She'd already given him a purpose. The purpose he'd had when he'd first come here.

Turning, he trudged slowly to the healer's hut, the snow crackling and crunching under his boots as he moved into the hut once more. moving over to the supine body of Amber, he fell to one knee and grasped her hand, placing it on his cheek. Thanking the gods that it felt so warm on his freezing skin, he placed it back over her belly gently before slowly lying down beside the bed onto the floor, his eyelids feeling like they weighted ten tonnes each.

Questions. Always questions. They rose in his mind, tugging at his conciousness, poking his brain to stop it from shutting down and allowing rest to overcome it.

How did they know Amber's name? But more importantly...how did he know he was from the Tribe?

The questions nagged at him, causing his eyelids to flutter, his left hand rising slowly to grasp the edge of the bed - before falling down limply, his blood-stained Rune on the inner-part of his elbow now evident for anybody to see.

He'd passed out. Finally.

OOC: Oh, it wasn't the Tundra, huh.

Oh yes, the blizzard was in full swing indeed, in fact, its strong winds were enough to unwedge a hefty rock. Or well, not heavy, but still weighted. The rock fell from its cozy little precipice, bouncing down the mountain, the sounds of its rebounds masked by the howling winds, its presence blurred by the flurry of snowflakes, enough to blur most anyone's vision.

The rock finally bounced up off a coincidentally angled ledge, flying straight for the back of that poor crow's head. It'd crack against it, strong enough to shatter the small bird's skull, killing it outright with a single strong blow.

Amber twitched slightly in her sleep, a warm sweat evident on her brow as her body worked long and hard through the night to repair itself, aided by the magical remedies the healer had provided.

As the sun began to rise and the storm lessened the anthro's eyes began to flutter as she awoke. She sat up very slowly, one hand remaining on her stomach as the other supported her. Her large blue eyes blinked a few times to clear the blur of her vision as her nose and ears twitched.

Testing her shoulder with a small and slightly apprehensive roll Amber was surprised to find that it didn't really hurt perhaps as much as it should. Then her gaze fell on John, slumbering on the floor in a very awkard position on the floor. The anthro smiled fondly with her head cocked to the side slightly as she stroked his hair.

At some point in the night, someone had actually cleaned up Tomorrow, bandaging all visable areas, easing a fur blanket over his body, and keeping the fire in the chimney stoked and warm.

As Amber looked around, not too much would be visible, only vauge shapes of medical herbs and extra blankets and furs. They seemed to be in the "hospital" of the tiny village. The peaceful smell of lavender filled the whole room.

Then light shone in as the door opened, only to be shut out again as it closed quietly. It was the pale lady from the night before. She seemed to shed a cold light all her own as she moved forward.

"And how are our patients this morning, hm? Has he purged it yet?" It was a direct question towards Amber, even as she went to the other side of Tomorrow and put her own hand against the girls along the forehead of the bigger man.

~~~~

"Juun-ack!" Henry actually had moved towards her as she changed, before realizing again that he wasn't actually going anywhere...to give the dwarf credit, the needle didn't stop once all through the change and Henry's need to move.

"Hullo lass, you'll find drink next ta ya, sorry tis in a bowel, but I dinnae know ye'd wake to be a wee lass." There was amusement coloured all through the grizzled voice. This was the most entertainment he'd had all year.