ORIGIN

Her reassurance. Hers. She shouldn't have to be reassuring him in this moment. He closed his eyes, gathering himself, shame briefly touching him as he determined to remain strong, not to simply collapse into the lost child that he was. He opened them again, a touch more tranquil, and looked over the leg with a somewhat calmer mind.

Right. It was twisted-... There. He could gather his magic don't panic and focus. Concentrate. Gather it--yes, there; energy around the leg. Delicate, gently! tender, careful, cautious...

Gently! he urged himself, again.

He had a magical grip around it--he could feel it, the tentative tendrils of his mind able to touch upon and feel the leg. He winced, internally; he was sure this would hurt, but there was little he could do to spare the puppy this pain. Only to prevent further. He wasn't sure how broken bones worked; he assumed that it was just... wrong, and once he put it back, it would work again.

With a sharp but careful movement, he did his best to un-twist the leg, to revert it to how he thought it was meant to be. How he thought it looked before.

His teeth were tightly gritted. Nothing else in his life had ever scared him so badly, nor had him so tightly focused. Please-... don't mess up.

Once more, when Pride didn't speak any further, Aster shut her eyes and waited. She felt magic grip onto her leg and she hesitated, realising all at once that this was probably a bad idea. Before she could speak, however, there was a soft crunch as the limb was twisted back into place.

The pain was worse, somehow. Her mouth, previously opened to voice a change of mind, now had a shriek of agony tumbling out of it. Did it help? Did it make it worse? Aster had no clue, but she sure as hell knew that it hurt.

She twisted around painfully, instinct telling her to try and move away from Pride, who she now knew was the one currently responsible for increasing the pain. Though, unable to really move the leg, she flopped uselessly on the cave floor.

.. which made it worse.

After a good minute of squirming and crying, Aster fell still, wide-eyed and breathing heavily, exhausted. The leg continued throbbing with pain, but she did find that, when she lay still, the pain seemed less extreme. Silent, Aster shut her eyes.

Pride watched, immediately distressed, as Aster began to writhe and scream once more. He started to rush forward, to reassure her, but she was trying to drag herself away from him and he spoke, quickly and hurriedly.

"No--no no no--I am not--harming you. Do not move! You might--" make it worse, she was definitely making it worse--but she stopped, after a moment, and lay squirming and whining. He himself stood panting and wide-eyed, grimacing as he watched, again helpless to be of any aid.

And did I make it worse..? Or better? Deeply concerned, he glanced to Aster's leg--but it... looked better? Not good, no--it still wasn't quite right and it looked oddly swollen up (or maybe that was the fur that had gotten tousled in her movements)--but... not totally backward, at least..? "It doesn't look--as bad."

The pup, however, seemed more likely to just... fall asleep at this point. Not die, please don't die. He still wasn't entirely sure what death was and how it worked but it seemed to be fitting, here, and he feared it. Quietly, he moved forward, trying to curl up beside her and lay down, to offer her nerve-wracked licks of his tongue on ruffled black fur, grooming her briefly.

"Just--rest, if you can? Sleep. When you wake I will--bring you water, somehow. And rats." He would have to hunt, for her--but he could do that.

Quiet, he moved to lay his head over her back--but he would keep watch. "Sleep-... Sleep and I'll keep watch."

Keep watch, he thought to himself with a note of bitterness. They were just two newborn gembounds, exposed, in the open, small and helpless--with terrible injuries on one preventing her escape. No-... Not helpless. And he wasn't--not exactly. If anyone attacked, he had his magic to fend them off.

He would keep watch, and wait, and stand guard, and if anyone attacked them he would do his damndest to drive them off with surges of pure power and the strength of his mind alone.

He would not abandon her.

Aster's leg-- though twisted and a bit swollen --was indeed just about in the right place. Not perfectly, but it would have to do. For Aster, however, she had no idea if the efforts made by Pride had made it better or worse.

It didn't look as bad was probably a good thing, at least. The pain, though still present, was very gradually reducing. That was also probably a good thing, but Aster was also beginning to feel herself drift off. If it were into death, or sleep, she had no idea.

She jerked a bit as she felt Pride lay next to her and groom her ragged fur, eyes snapping open to peer back, though she felt herself too exhausted to actually move. She felt a little stiff, as if she were being weighed down by something heavy.

The borzoi was silent for a moment, watching Pride's white head. Then, slowly, she huffed once, amusedly. "Do you know how to hunt...?" She asked quietly, turning her head back to the cave floor and shutting her eyes.

The puppy let out a long exhale, feeling herself begin to drift off to sleep. Or death. She wasn't sure, and she had only gone to sleep once prior. For a moment, she scanned her mind, searching for the right words.

"Thank you," she managed, quietly rasping, before Aster went still and fell asleep. Or died. But her breathing was fairly loud, so she likely wasn't dead.

Pride lay quiet, gray eyes open. He was not suffering the aftereffects of pain, but the unpleasant thrill of adrenaline still lingered and he did his best to calm his racing heart. Could he hunt? It could not be that hard. Find the rats... kill them. Bring them back for eating.

"I will learn," he answered softly. To "thank you," he felt faint pride--and faint guilt. He was afraid, a little, that this had been a bit his fault--to want to practice, to show her his magic, how to use it. He couldn't remember exactly how it had come about, not now, not in the confused rush of all that had happened--and perhaps it didn't matter.

He resolved to be careful in the future, to practice with caution, and to be somewhere fairly safe and sheltered in case he smashed his own leg. At least then, he could hide while he recovered--hopefully.

The rise and fall of Aster's black-coated flanks before him reassured him somewhat, and he continued to simply lay there in silence: watching the cave, and watching over his nameless friend.