Ryder escorted the large wolf towards a barn she built. It was open and held nothing but storage really but he would fit, barely. The wolf slugged behind her, he was close but it took him a while to make his way towards the barn. "I'll be back, I need to get some bandages from my kitchen.." she said, opening the bard door. It made a loud creek as she dragged it. "Don't make a mess. I'll be back soon." And with that she walked back to her home. Looking back and seeing the wolf walk in.
It was going to be a long night. She took her time when she got the bandages and other things she needed to patch up the woods. She contemplated putting the knife away but decided against it. She couldn't trust him. Once she gathered everything she needed Ryder took her time to leave her home and to the barn.
She had expected to see the large black wolf taking up almost the entire space of the barn, but instead she saw a man sitting against the back wall with nothing but one of her old blankets covering him. It was going to be an extremely long night. She looked around, trying to see if the wolf just magically fit into a smaller space in the barn and this man just appeared out of nowhere. The man was clutching to a wound on his left side and said, "I'm over here." He was annoyed. Ryder nodded. So he could shapeshift. It's not like she hadn't heard of animals that could do that, she had just never seen it.
As she walked over to him she could take in his features better. His hair was long and brown- it looked mangled up, he had stubble on his face, his skin was white, and his eyes...his eyes threw her off. When she kneeled down by his side she could see that they were brown with specks of gold. She looked down and began to clean his wounds. He winced ever so often when she did.
"Half of these wounds got infected. You shouldn't be moving around much if you want these to heal fast. Meaning you're not gonna be able to hold up your end of the bargain for a while." She said, trying to sound calm. She glanced every now and then at his face. "I can heal faster than you think. How do you think I survived this long?" His voice was low and somewhat gravely. Ryder moved a bit so some of the candles light in the barn would help her see what she was doing better.
"...Your capes brooch...it's got a wolf on it." He said, trying not to think of the stinging pain of his wounds as she began to sew some of them up. "It's a family symbol. We own a bakery." She said simply. She didn't want to look at him, or hear him, or continue to make small talk with him. She just wanted to finish patching him up and go to bed. "Kind of ironic isn't it?" He asked her. "A bakery's symbol being a wolf." Ryder looked up at him when he said that and saw the dim lights dance on his face.
She went to grab the bandages and said "it was my mom's idea. She thought it would be funny if the cute little family owned bakery had an intimidating wolf as the symbol." The ghost of a small smile crept onto the wolf's face. Ryder couldn't help but blush. She quickened her pace and finished up wrapping the bandages around him. "Alright you're all sewed up. Hopefully you'll heal soon and until then it's best if you just sit and wait. I can... bring you food and some more blankets if you need them." Ryder stood up and waited for him to make the request for food and such but he didn't.
He didn't push the little generosity she was already giving him. "I've got one question before you head off." He said. Ryder tilted her head. "I didn't catch your name when we first met." Ryder was somewhat shocked by the question. That was it? That's all he wanted for now? "...Ryder...Ryder Riding Hood..." he laughed. "Creative name." He said. She couldn't help but smirk but she quickly looked away, hoping that he didn't see it. "And you?" "Just wolf" he responded. She nodded and left the barn.
