The Questing Game

Tarrin looked at her and almost laughed, but he caught himself. With a hole in his chest, laughing would be excruciating.

"She's ruthless, my brother," Allia told him. "She fully intends to kill any Wikuni stupid enough to remain in the city, but she's already declared all those that took part in the attack on us dead. Any Wikuni in a military uniform is marked." She looked at him. "Anyone with a silver sword is dead, as is anyone in his company. She knows about those men, my brother, and that they hire local cutthroats to aid them. And since she doesn't know which cutthroats are working for our enemies and which aren't, she's ordered all of them killed or chased out."

"Wow," he breathed after a moment. Triana didn't play around. "She's, thorough."

"Systematic," Allia agreed. "My people could take lessons from her on the proper way to exact revenge."

The door opened again, and Triana entered with Dar and Dola

"You don't have to go out of your way for me, Triana," he said mildly.

"Perhaps, but it's a mother's privilege to go out of her way," she said with a direct stare at him.

"I'm not really your child."

"As far as I'm concerned you are," she said flatly, challenging him with her gaze. "I say you're my cub, and that makes you my cub. Do you want to argue about it?"

"N-No," he said meekly.

"Good. I hate beating sense into people when I can avoid it. Now, we're going to change your bandages. Dar here is going to see how we do it, so he can help in case Dola

"Why do you need Dar?"

"I use Sorcery to ensure the wound does not open while we remove the bandages, dear one," Dola

"We heal fast, Dola

"Let us prepare," Dola

The changing of his bandages was a remarkably quick affair. It was the first time he'd been awake for it. Dola

"And that is that," Triana a

"It hurt some, but I'm alright," he assured her in a tired voice.

"Let's get you some broth, and then you can rest a while," Triana a

"I can do it now."

"You're not ready yet," she told him. "I can see right through you, cub. It's all you can do to keep your eyes open, and you haven't been awake more than ten minutes. You'd last about five minutes if I started droning on about obscure laws. You may think you're resting, but in your condition, thinking rationally and talking take alot of effort."

He couldn't refute that. He was tiring himself out, and them changing the bandages hadn't helped. Fighting against the pain was strangely exhausting, and it was exacerbated by his attempts to remain coherent.

"You'll have some broth, then you'll sleep. If you're feeling better tonight, I'll read for you." She looked at Allia. "Go get us some broth, Allia. And make sure the i

"Yes, Triana," she said obediently, squeezing Tarrin's paw in farewell before scurrying off to do the elder Were-cat's bidding.

"Dola

"I will make sure of that," Dola

"She shouldn't talk to you like that," Tarrin said weakly. "It's disrespectful."

"Dear one, that she will trust me with you is saying a great deal for what she thinks of me," Dola

"I know, but still-"

"Hush, dear one," she said quietly, patting his arm. "Do not waste energy on things you ca

He leaned his head back against the pillow a bit more, feeling his cat ears bend against the pillow. He really didn't have any energy to waste. He had never been wounded so badly before, and he decided that, even if there wasn't any pain involved, it still was nothing he ever wanted to go through again. When it exhausted him just to speak, it told him how weak he really was.

Allia returned with the broth, and Dola

It was a combination that his weaked body just couldn't ignore. He drifted off to sleep mere moments after Dola

For some reason, Tarrin was worried about this.

Triana turned a wooden chair around and then sat down on it, folding her arms on the chair's back and leaning against it. Her tail slid back and forth behind her rhythmically, and she looked right at him with one of those stares, her expression sober and assessing.

That morning, she and Dola