The Swan's Song.

Chapter 15

The CASEvac had just arrived and were carrying a stretcher into the main lobby. Fourteen guards disembarked from the Chinook that landed expertly in the small plaza just outside and set up a small perimeter.

The other bodies were moved to the side and thoroughly disarmed all the while Swan still had his finger in the neck of the wolf.

A medic came to attend to the wolf and eventually took over for Swan, freeing him of his 'obligatory' positioning. And now, both of them were standing to the side of the whole operation.

"Nice shooting, Sako." Said one of the guards as they passed by.

"And, uh... nice medicine... human." The voice of the guard purposefully lowered unrelated to the fact that he was walking away. Echo felt that the guard was just being respectable while being lowkey, wanting to have his voice heard but not creating a big scene.

Echo felt that Swan wouldn't care much, and she looked down to see that he was wiping his finger with a wet wipe provided by one of the medics. His bloody glove was placed in a small plastic bag which had been shoved into his pocket.

"Thanks." Muttered Swan. The guard nodded once and kept walking, keeping a focused eye on his surroundings. Echo appreciated such a thing greatly.

"Good job, Swan. I'm sure that the General will be happy with how you handled this mission." She said. The human nodded, but remained quiet as the wolf was carried away on a stretcher.

The bloody wipe was tossed to the floor, discarded without care.

Echo placed a hand on his right shoulder and squeezed it lightly. She found herself, in a surprising fashion, oddly proud of the human.

He had really come out of the remarkably terrible exterior that he had set up, and the hyena felt that she had seen a small portion of the actual human that stood next to her.

A glimpse of the kind of man that Swan truly was.

She looked down at him once more and noted how he stood with his G3 low but still ready. He was on guard as well.

He also did not seem to be reacting to how much she was touching him. She was constantly wanting to test the smaller limits with him, like how much he could be touched by an anthro or how long he would tolerate the presence of someone not human.

So far, nothing seemed to be wrong with what she was doing, as she knew that Swan would have no issue speaking if there was.

But another part of her wondered if there was something else.

"Hey, you're not injured are you? You didn't pull any muscles or strain anything?" She asked. It would be pretty bad if the reason that he wasn't reacting to her touch was because his shoulder was injured or that he couldn't feel anything with it.

"Nope. All's good." He said. He glanced her way, and she saw him look at her hand in his right shoulder for a moment.

"Guess you guys really do like physical touch more than anything." He said.

Echo nodded. One of the big things about anthro society was the more open nature of customs. Hugs, cuddling, and all of the things related were common between friends and family. Touching was extremely relevant.

Swan certainly didn't experience much of any of those things, if what little Echo understood of his background was true. Human society was more reserved and less affectionate regarding that nature.