[open] IT'S TOO EARLY FOR SURRENDER, TOO LATE FOR A PRAYER

[pawper]

Who: Lys a wolf a big fluffy dog + you, random passerby, trouble
When: Early-ish April
Where: School grounds, First and Second Ring (public roads), eventually the Third Ring (docks)
What: BEEP BEEP DOGGO DELIVERY

[Did you ever see the movie Balto? More or less based on a true story, gets mistaken for the work of Don Bluth, was something of a childhood awakening for furries — ...wait. Anyway, there was a scene at the beginning of said movie where the part-dog, part-wolf protagonist traverses a small Alaskian town by way of various parkour tricks, like running across fences and jumping between rooftops. Quick, nimble, and sure-footed, he made clever use of his environment to circumvent a lack of opposable thumbs.

Imagine that, but with a bigger, fluffier, and not quite as graceful creature racing through the streets of Anastara on a beeline for the docks, a package clutched tightly between their jaws. Dodging, sliding, even jumping headlong over obstacles, the beast frantically attempts to navigate through districts that have, on today of all days, become absurdly crowded: spilled boxes, milling pedestrians, workers carrying gigantic panes of glass and crystal, random flocks of angry geese, spontaneous wizard duels, and so much else that it might lead one to wonder if the canine had been a very, very bad dog in a previous life.

Try to clear a path? Deliberately block the way? Attempt to steal the mystery package? Come one, come all!]

Comments

[pawper]

[Radical improvisation, my dude! Not that the critter got to see any of it, but she would totally be impressed if she had.

A moment or two of stunned panic, whining loudly from around the package still clutched in her mouth between desperate attempts to yank her head out from between the spokes. Then she seems to calm, quietening down as she steadies her back paws and arches her back. The pulling resumes in a much more calculated and insistent fashion, seemingly uncaring as to whether or not she'll break something in trying.]

[mithrarin]

[What else can he do at this point but offer what aid he can? Dust quickly steps to the canine's side, then grabs the spoke she's caught under with one hand and pulls. His strength is enough to make it flex a little, as he wraps his other arm around her to add some more power to her efforts.]

[pawper]

[She tense briefly at his touch, not afraid so much as startled. But only for a moment, long enough to process that his arm around her wasn't accompanied by a stabbing blade or something equally unpleasant. Sometimes her wolf form had a tendency to be....less than warmly received, in so many words.

The weakened spoke, combined with their mutual effort, ultimately gets the job done. Unfortunately, one of her large ears catches on a nail jutting from the cart's underside as her head finally pops free, tearing open from base to tip in a spout of dripping blood.]

[mithrarin]

[Dust recoils with the sudden feeling like he's been punched in the gut. Except this one is actually an effective punch to the gut, something that passes his guards and defense to leave his stomach roiling in pain.]

[He'd tried to help, and he'd done -- this. This is his fault.]

[The fingers of the hand he's leaning on curl, like he's trying to rip the street out of the ground.]

Let me bandage that. Then, we will get you where you need to be. Then I will take you to get that properly treated.

[pawper]

[Does it hurt? Of course it does. But she's also lived through a lot worse, come back from trauma that made a torn ear look like a paper cut. So she doesn't immediately understand what he's talking about at first, despite being fully cognizant of the pain: a sharp, stinging ache that throbs with every heartbeat.

She looks up at him, dark brown eyes widening in puppylike confusion, and flicks the injured ear in a careless sort of way. Would give his hand a reassuring lick if he wasn't just as furry as her and thus vaguely suspect for reasons that could wait until later to be turned over in the mind, examined from all angles. But she does gently headbutt him in the chest with a soft whine, nothing of pain or distress in the sounds. Even wags her tail enthusiastically for good measure, lifting it high and proud like a banner in the wind.]

[mithrarin]

[Ah -- jeez, don't flick that ear, it just spatters blood everywhere, come on. Dust flinches slightly, though then comes a headbutt that catches him by surprise. Yeah, this must be someone's familiar; too smart to just be an ordinary canine.]

You know where you're going, so lead the way. I'll be with you.

[And in the meantime, he'll be looking for something to bandage that ear with. A piece of cloth will present itself somewhere in this town, no doubt.]

[pawper]

[An agreeable sort of bark, a gesture that might be reasonably interpreted as a nod, and she lopes off to retrieve the package she had dropped shortly before getting stuck, hooking jagged teeth through the loops of twine.

As far as scavenging for bandage material goes, he certainly has his pick of overturned carts with cloth or canvas awnings. Assuming he doesn't feel too guilty over pilfering them from their mysteriously absent owners, of course.]

[mithrarin]

[And dramatically ripping his own cloak, but with other options available he might skip that one. Instead, he scoops up a piece that hangs loose from one cart, following the dog over to kneel next to her.]

Okay, here we go.

[The best he can really do is wrap it up, hold the two sides of the tear together, and let coagulation do its work. But he'll do his darndest, darn it.]