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A piercing noise woke Reya up from her sleep. It was a hiss. A sharp, aggressive hiss. Her eyes snapped open as soon as she realized what she was hearing. She looked up through the light of early dawn to see Torren's back arched, ready to pounce at any second. His muscles were taut and his fur bristled. She couldn't clearly see what he was looking at; the large otter was shielding her from whatever it was.

"What's happening?" She whispered.

"W-who else's there?" The voice was high pitched, but clearly male.

Reya reached out her good paw and gently pressed it underneath Torren's chest. He relaxed his muscles and lifted himself up slightly to let her look underneath him. Two young skunks stood shoulder to shoulder, both looking just as tense as Torren. The one on the left, a female, was bigger and had an intensity to match her size. The male next to her didn't seem to have his heart in it. He was obviously the one who had just spoken.

"Torren, calm down. I don't think they want to fight," she spoke a bit louder, making sure that both of the skunks could hear her. They both seemed to let out a breath of tension when she said that. Torren's muscles were still coiled tight.

Reya pulled herself to her feet with a wince. She steadied herself and then hobbled out from behind Torren. The male skunk completely dropped his guard when he saw her.

"Ok..." Reya said slowly, "everyone relax. Just sit down and relax. Torren! Stop being so scary and stuff! Geez, they're half your size!"

Torren nodded and sat down. The two skunks nervously followed suit.

"Alright, now what's going on? What did you two do?"

"Nothing!" The female protested, "We were walking through here and that big friend of yours just jumped up and looked like he'd kill us if we move! What were we supposed to do?"

'They weren't just walking through!' Torren signed, 'They were trying to sneak up on us.'

"He says you were trying to sneak up on us."

"Of course we were being quiet!" The female snapped. The skunk looked down at the ground. "You wouldn't believe the shit going down in Lenwick right now," she added with a hiss. Reya sighed in relief. That definitely didn't sound like something one of the rioters would say.

"You're not one of those people attacking the ungulates?" She asked. Even Torren looked at her funny when she said that. "Hooved people! Ungulates! Whatever, you know what I mean!"

"Ye-" The male skunk tried to answer, but the female stuck her paw in his mouth.

"What about you? Whose side are you on?"

"The ungulates - I mean horses and stuff - I'm on their side." Reya said with confidence. They male had already given her their answer anyway. "Why would we be out here if we weren't?"

"They're... They're not just murdering the - um - ungulates? The ungulates in the town. They're hunting them down. We barely got out ourselves."

"We?" Reya interjected, eyeing the female skunk suspiciously, "Why would you two be worried?"

"I - um - me and my brother and - we... you wouldn't hurt an innocent animal, right?"

"Huh? No. Of course not!"

"Uh... Jack? I think you can come out." A tall buck deer strode out into the clearing. The buck seemed strong and sturdy from the front, but Reya noticed that he wasn't putting any weight on his right hind leg. His back was bloodied in several places.

The surprised look on Torren's face told Reya that he hadn't seen the antlered animal either.

"I trust Mydya's judge of character. I'm Jack."

"I'm Reya and this is my friend Torren. Nice to meet you!" Reya said cheerfully. Torren nodded his head in greeting. "He can't speak, so don't be upset if he doesn't respond to you."

"Oh!" The male skunk gasped. "That's why he was so quiet!"

The female next to him just nodded in acknowledgement. "Like Jack said, I'm Mydra. This is my brother, Mephit."

"Nice to meet you two!" Mephit added.

"Alright, I'd love to chat a bunch more, but - no offense! - your friend Jack doesn't look too good right now." She paused and sheepishly looked to Torren. "How far from Lenwick did we make it? I - I couldn't really keep track of the time."

'I took us deeper into the forest; I figured that it would be safer than the river. We aren't far enough, I think. Not if you're gonna spend a while fixing up his leg.'

"Torren thinks that we need to keep moving. We aren't safe this close to the city."

"Wait? Since when were you traveling with us?" Mydya asked incredulously.

"I know a cave nearby. It's well hidden. We should be able to hide out there for some time," Jack suggested, "we were on our way there before we ran into you two."

"What? We just met these two, you can't be serious!" The skunk protested.

"Perfect! Lets go!" Reya wasted no more time and turned tail and started walking in the opposite direction.

"Otter girl!" Mephit called, "we were going this way!" Reya turned back around, her cheeks burning.

"Really, Mephit? You too?" He whispered something to Mydya and she reluctantly nodded. "Fine, whatever."

After a few seconds of awkward silence, Jack started walking in the proper direction. Reya leaned back against Torren and let him support her as she moved to follow the deer. He sympathetically brushed his muzzle against her.

"So, don't mean to be rude, but what happened to you?" Mydya asked.

Reya's mind started racing. She'd answered this plenty of times already, but it still made her nervous. "Don't worry, I don't mind! I mean, I've been getting asked that a lot, but I totally get it! If I saw someone else looking like this, I'd ask too! Um, they're burns, what these bandages are covering. I guess you haven't really seen me in a good light yet. I've got more than the bandages can really cover, but the worst of them are wrapped up. I - uh - broke my paw too. I tried to run after something after I got the burns and I sort of ended up tripping on a root! My paw got snapped to the side, and I got an acute oblique fracture in my left ulna! Uh... I mean, I broke my front left paw!"

"Damn!" The skunk laughed as she replied. "That's gotta suck. What's with those weird words though? You a doctor?"

"Well, kind of," Reya said, blushing. "I learned everything that I know from my brother and... and another guy who did something terrible and was sent to Fenbury for trial. But... my brother knew a lot though, so I can handle a lot of what comes my way. That's why I wanted to come along with you guys, you know? Your friend Jack really needs those gashes cleaned out so they don't get worse. I'd like to take a look at that leg too. But we can't really do that out here with people hunting ungulates down.

"Oh!" The otter continued, "We should really move through a patch of water or something. I never even thought of us being tracked by our scent! Wow, that's so stupid! I guess I'm not used to running away from people." She chuckled nervously. "I mean, you don't - ow!"

She stopped talking when Torren knocked his head against her's.

"Sorry, I can get a bit carried away sometimes!"

'Understatement!' Torren signed.

"It's fine," the skunk said, "this is pretty damn stressful, isn't it? I'm still can't even think about what's going on in Fenbury." Her gaze dropped down to the ground. "But you're right; we should really do something to hide our scent."

"There's nowhere around here where we can do that. We need to hope that either they won't find our trail, or the otter girl has time to fix up my leg before they do," Jack said.

"Well, I probably won't be able to just fix it, you know! Everything takes time! I'll take a look, though. I can tell you what to do to make it heal fastest. I can help with the cuts though! I can actually fix those. I mean, I'm pretty sure. I'll need to have a look, but you should be fine!"

"That's good to hear," Jack laughed.

"So what about you guys? What happened to Jack?"

"We were pretty lucky, to be honest," Mydya replied, "We live on the edges of the town and Jack doesn't stay in the housing with most of the other hooved animals. Also, we didn't wake up until late, so a lot of the... massacre... had already happened. Jack knew something was up, everyone's been super tense for the last week or two, so he sent me out to see what was up. Anyway, I came back and my bro and I helped get him out safely, but not without a few rocks thrown at him... It was probably pretty good timing. If we'd woken up earlier, there probably would have been more people out looking for blood. Wouldn't have been as easy to get out."

"So, um... what was it like? In the town center I mean. What did you see?"

"God, I don't think you want to know. You're a doctor though, so I bet you've seen some gruesome things too. I mean, I won't get all gory; you don't look like a sick fuck like some of them. It was really bloody, there were some corpses in the square there, but the poor creatures looked like they'd been tortured. They were tied up and... well I don't really want to go into it."

"That's fine, you don't need to," Reya said, shuddering, "D... Do you remember the species' that you saw? I'm worried about a friend."

"I didn't look for long, so I don't remember very clearly. I - I didn't tell Jack or Mephit this yet..." Jack worriedly glanced back at Mydya, Mephit kept walking with his head low. "There was this great guy, he was a foreigner, a food peddler."

Mephit gasped. He looked up at his sister, eyes shimmering. "Ch... Chagi?"

"God, Mephit, I'm sorry. Yeah, he - he's gone."

Reya's stomach flipped. She felt like she was about to throw up. She was sure that it was the Etresian lion who sold her the flatbread. Melly said herself that he was holding the mob back, that he was trying to keep them off the animal that started the riot. She shook her head.

"You knew him?" Mephit sniffled.

"I - I didn't really. I bought something from him yesterday. He, I don't know, he seemed like a great person. Torren and I haggled with him a bit and now I kind of feel bad about it." Torren had his eyes on the ground as well.

Mydya laughed half-heartedly. "I'm sure he had a great time with it. He told me that the satisfaction of out-haggling a customer is one of the few things that he missed from Etresia."

"I... I thought that we haggled him too low. I feel guilty now," Reya admitted.

"Don't be! He loved it! Having someone bargaining with him was probably the best fun he's had in a while."

"Ah," Reya muttered.

The five animals continued traveling in somber silence. Reya's paws were sore, but Torren made sure to keep their pace slow and steady. Mephit, Mydya, and Jack were careful not to outpace the two otters, although Jack himself was slowed down by his hurt leg.

"Did any of you notice any of the rangers?" Reya asked.

"No, why?" Mydya looked curiously at Reya.

"I was traveling with a beagle, his name's Aris, but he went off to try to stop all that stuff from happening."

"Beagle ranger? Oh yeah, I think he came in with another guy a few weeks ago. It's not that big of a town, you kind of notice when a new ranger shows up. Didn't see him, though. None of the other rangers either."

"Another guy?"

"A cat - seemed like kind of a jerk, honestly. He stayed here when the beagle left. Before that it was just Melly. Don't worry about her though, I guarantee that no one from Lenwick would ever lay a single paw on Melly!" Jack and Mephit both chuckled along with Mydya.

"Yeah, I can't believe that Melly couldn't just stop the whole thing!" the male skunk yipped.

"What do you mean?"

Mydya answered for her brother. "Melly's like the town icon. Everyone loves her! She pretty much has more power over the town than the government itself! Not like she'd ever use it though. She's really sweet, almost like a mother to all of us. She kept us from sleeping on the streets when we were kids. Can't ever repay everything she did."

"Wow, that's really great. She did seem like a great person when I talked to her! We didn't get to talk to her long, though. Really unfortunate isn't it? I would have loved to be able to spend longer staying with her. I'm glad I met her though!"

"You stayed with her?" Mephit asked.

"Not really! I don't think I 'stayed' stayed with her, really. She really just let Torren and I stay in the attic of the ranger building! And, um, we didn't really even get a night there. This whole fiasco happened overnight the night we arrived. She was super sweet though! She made us stew and everything!" Reya tried to keep a straight face as she remembered the stew. It wasn't terrible when she was eating it, but... Melly didn't seem to care what went in to it. She didn't know if she'd be able to stomach it again if she had the chance.

Jack's cave was fairly well hidden. It was tucked away in a rocky outcropping halfway down the side of a foothill of the great mountain range to the north. Jack limped inside and nosed around the cave.

"It doesn't smell like anyone's been in here in a while, we should be OK to rest inside." The otters and skunks followed him in. Torren set down the knapsack slung around his neck and began to dig through it.

"That's all right, Torren! I won't need anything until I get a look at the leg." Reya hobbled over to the deer. "This'll probably hurt a bit. You stable and in a non-kicking mood?"

"Don't worry, I'll be fine!" he reassured.

"Actually, never mind. Get some horsetail for me please! It looks kind of like asparagus with ferny leaves. You got it?"

'OK,' Torren signed.

"Alright! Jack! I'm gonna start now if you don't mind." She didn't wait for his confirmation. One thing that she picked up from working with her brother was that actually giving a patient the choice of when to start only made them more nervous. And the more nervous a patient got, the worse they dealt with the pain. It was better to jump right in.

After propping herself up on a smooth rock, Reya gently pressed her good front paw near his ankle. "Ah! I'm sorry! I don't want to work you up like this and get you all nervous, but I can't feel anything through the bandages! I'm sorry! Give me a moment, I'll have them off in just a second!"

The small otter rolled onto her side, careful not to press against her broken bone. She slipped her teeth into the strand of fabric that was tucked into the wrapping and pulled it loose. She nearly spat it out - it tasted disgusting. She wound her paw around the loose wrapping, unwrapping the rest of the coiled fabric and letting it fall to the ground.

Her paw looked terrible. There were only a few chunks of fur left below her elbow joint. Most of her burned skin had settled down to a mild discoloration, but there were several, very visible and very large patches of nasty looking blisters and ugly brown dead skin.

Reya could almost physically feel both the deer and the pair of skunks staring at it. She wanted to say something. She wanted to tell them not to look, that there wasn't even anything to look at. Her whole body trembled.

The small otter was trying to look at her paw, but she couldn't. She couldn't focus, she couldn't breathe. Her body felt so hot and clammy, why was it so hot out? Everything was so unsteady and uneven. She wanted to get back up. She wanted to roll off of her side and stand up, but she couldn't. Why couldn't she move?

People were talking. The skunk girl, Mydya, she was talking. She was nosing at Reya's face. Reya said she was OK. She thought she did, at least.

Torren was curled around her. He was nuzzling her head, trying to get her to move. Why wasn't he uncomfortable? She was so hot and sweaty. Didn't that bother him? She couldn't move away, though. Why couldn't she? Was she going crazy? Was this what it was like to go insane? She couldn't do anything; she felt so helpless.

"Breathe," Mydya said. She said it slowly. "Breathe." She could hear Mydya, why couldn't she hear her own words?

She took a breath. It was hard, her chest hurt and she felt like she couldn't, but she took a breath. There. She did it. She tried to tell them that she did it and it was ok, but she didn't think that her voice came out.

She breathed again. Mydya was repeating herself. She felt Torren's chest rising and falling against her back, each strand of his fur weaving into her own or sliding away off of the contours of her bandages. She turned her head to look at her friend.

"Torren," she tried to say, "I feel so dizzy."

"Can you hear me?" It was Mydya again.

"Yeah," the otter gasped. Everything was so unsteady. "What's happening to me?"

"It's OK. You're going to be perfectly fine soon. We got you some water. Can you drink?"

She said that she could. Or, she thought she did, but she couldn't hear anything with her ears buzzing. There was a saucer in front of her. She stuck her tongue out and drank.

"What's happening to me?" Reya repeated. She tried to roll over, she wanted to stand up.

"Just stay still, it'll be over soon." This time Mephit was talking. Reya almost didn't believe him. It was terrifying. She had no control over her body, she didn't know what was happening to her. But she stayed still and tried to breathe. That's what Mydya told her to do. She just breathed slowly, in and out.

"I - I think it's going away," Reya's voice was a whisper, spoken as much for her own benefit as anyone else's.

"That's good. Just wait it out. It'll just be another minute."

"OK..."

When had things gotten clearer? She didn't notice when she started to see things again, when she was able to focus enough to recognize what was happening around her. She lifted her head from the ground. When did she lower it? Was it before or after she drank from the bowl in front of her?

"This is so confusing," she said. She could feel the cool cave breeze against her skin, her clammy sweaty skin. The two skunks were in front of her, worried expressions on their faces. Jack was laying on the ground, but keeping off his bad leg as he watched her. Watching her. There was a lump in her throat as if she was having trouble swallowing something.

She turned her head away from him. Torren.

"Hey you," she muttered.

He nuzzled her in response. He couldn't speak anyway with his paws out of sight.

"I... I think I'm feeling a bit better."

"You should drink more," Mydya said worriedly. Reya obliged her, dipping into the water bowl again.

"What happened to me?"

"It... It was a dizzy spell," Mephit answered for his sister, "It happens to me sometimes too when I - when I remember something bad happening..."

"I... yeah... I remember my brother talking about those," Reya said, "I can't believe I couldn't remember. I - I never thought it would be that... intense. You know?"

"Yeah. I know what you mean," he said somberly.

"How long did it last?"

"It was a long time. You were muttering 'I'm OK' for almost a minute at one point. I'm just glad you're feeling better," Mydya said.

"Someone's out there," Jack whispered harshly, interrupting the skunk.

Reya felt Torren pull away from her side and tense up. He moved closer to the entrance, muscles taut and ready to leap.

"H - hey! Reya? Torren? Are you there?"

"Aris!"