Healing Ties (Ties, Book 2) | ✓

Chapter 46

Fanner had stayed up late into the night working on healing Yore, long past everyone else had gone to sleep, until Duran had briefly stirred awake and dragged him down, cuddling him like a teddy bear so that he had no choice but to rest. Fanner might have worked all night if Duran hadn't done that. He'd never been very good at focussing no matter what the consequences for failing were, but he often found he had the opposite problem when it came to healing. He wasn't very good at self monitoring and putting limits on himself.

Still, when Yore got up, stretched, and experimentally rotated his hips without cringing from pain, it was all worth it.

"Better?" Fanner asked.

"Much," Yore said. "They still hurt a bit, but I physically did not have that range of movement in my hips before. Thank you."

"My tooth hurts," Harrison said. "Can you fix my tooth?"

Fanner beckoned him over. "Show me."

"The long one here," Harrison said as he exposed his huge, sharp teeth, gesturing with a paw. He immediately shut his mouth and shied away when Fanner leant in closer. "Don't touch it."

"I won't. I'm just looking. Show me."

"Hm," Harrison said, but he bared his teeth again.

Fanner leant in once more to get a closer look. The gum looked a little inflamed and the white of a new tooth pressed down from the gumline. "I'm not really an expert on... well, a lot of things, but I think that's your adult canine growing in. You're not hurt."

"Yes I am! It hurts."

"Well... yes. You're not injured, though. The old tooth will fall out soon and the new tooth will grow in, and then it won't hurt anymore."

"Why do I need a new tooth? My old tooth was fine until it started hurting."

"Your mouth is bigger than it was when you were a baby, so you need bigger teeth to fit in it."

Harrison made a grumbling sound and ran his tongue over his sore tooth, but he didn't seem to have a rebuttal to that."

They ate the rest of the food from the bag for breakfast and then started out as they had the day before, with Harrison carrying Fanner and Duran. Fanner knew from yesterday that trying to hold on while perched upon Harrison's shoulder would get more than a little uncomfortable after a while, but to start with it wasn't bad at all. Harrison, for all that he was a big scary beast of a monster, was actually quite cuddly.

Yore was back in wolf form, and he was much more focussed on scouting and sniffing today. They'd all feel better if they could catch up to the others. Yore had assured them that Danya was fine and it seemed unlikely that had changed when he was with so many powerful allies, but Fanner still wanted to see him for himself. Besides, he was looking forward to the three of them finally being together again.

Lunch ended up being some big, ripe red tomatoes they found growing wild around a long collapsed wood cabin.

Harrison wanted to explore around the cabin and Duran decided to follow him around to stretch his legs, so Fanner took the opportunity to have a quiet moment alone with Yore while they ate their tomatoes.

Fanner sorted through the tomatoes he'd collected in the little hammock he'd formed using the bottom of his shirt. "Do you think there will be a war? When the humans come, I mean. Will there be a proper battle?"

Yore swallowed his mouthful of tomato. "It seems likely."

"I don't know much about wars, but... that means people will die, doesn't it? On both sides. Even if our side wins, half of our people may be dead by the time it's over. That doesn't feel like winning."