Private Kane x Allora 1/1

After making sure Kane was out of sight, Allora pulled her pack across her body and unzipped the top. She pulled out a stick of charcoal, keeping her eyes on the treeline in case he were to come back. After scanning the forest one more time, she began to rub the charcoal on the tree bark to rough it up, afterwards rubbing it on the tip of her tail and left paw. When she was satisfied, she rubbed it on her paws, soon after re-covering her ears and eyes.
Suddenly, she heard rustling to her right. She quickly put the charcoal back into her pack, just in time too. Kane came stumbling out of the woods, holding his left shoulder in pain. "Kane!" she gasped, standing quickly, not even wincing on her leg due to the adrenaline. "What happened??"
She walked towards him holding out her hands, trying to get him to let her see it, when she heard more rustling behind her. Her ear swiveled as she paused.
"He went this way!' a voice called. "I thought I heard him shoot!"
"Well move then we don't want him taking it all for himself!" said another. There was some snickering. And without warning, three more bandits appeared in their clearing.
"Where is Sean?" said one of the bandits.
"Who cares, look what we have here!" said another. He spat on the ground. "Fuckin' animals." They started making their way towards Allora hungrily.
"Take care of the wolf," said one, who appeared to be the leader. "I don't think I want to kill this beast just yet." His eyes travelled up and down Allora's body.
She shifted then, startling the men. Her scarf stayed on her, but she was tangled in her armor. It took her a second for her to wiggle out, but the men were already on her. "Rowl!" she growled, snapping at his ankle. He let her go when her teeth broke skin, and she slipped between his legs to turn and face them from behind.
Two were headed towards Kane, and she sprinted in their direction.

Kane's eyes dilated, seeing the two bandits coming his direction. Despite the pain he was in, his reaction time was still as sharp as ever. He pulled out the dagger on his front torso sheath, baring it with the blade pointing upward, holding it normally.
The first bandit came at him swinging with the second not to far behind. Kane ducked as the bandit swung his sword at him, missing completely. Kane once again avoided being stuck by the bandit's sword, deflecting the blade strike with the dagger, having to have excellent precision to make sure he didn't end up getting his hand chopped off while at the same time have enough strength to stagger the bandit back.
As the first bandit stumbled backwards, the second came at Kane with a lunge, with Kane's side being grazed with a cut, barely scratching his armor.
Kane kicked the second bandit in the knee, making a cracking sound as the bandit fell down on his side. Kane in his rage literally threw down the dagger at the bandit, stabbing him right in the heart, killing him in an instant as he laid on the grass below.
Kane's ears stood up, hearing the sound of air swooshing behind him. He ducked once again with the remaining bandit's blade nearly cutting his ear. Kane raised his fists, being unarmed, still with the bandit waving a sword at him, with Kane dodging out of the way every time.
"Quit! Fucking! Moving!!!!" the bandit yelled, saying a word with every swing. Kane had no intention on allowing himself to be sliced in half with his blade however, continuing to make his way out of the potential blows.

"Kane!" Allora cried in beast-speak. She lunged onto the back of the bandit that was attempting to fillet Kane. Her claws dug into his armor and skin as she literally climbed his back to his neck.
"Get off you animal!" he snarled, swinging his sword up behind his back, attempting to bludgeon Allora off of him with it. She held on, and dug her teeth into the back of his neck. It wasn't a lethal bite, because she only bit into his bone, not his jugular, but it sure was painful.
"Argh!" cried the bandit, dropping his sword. He had backed into the tree, and began slamming his body against it, smashing Allora over and over again. But she refused to let go. She kept her paws extended, trying to soften the blows to her ribs. Faintly she remembered that she wasn't supposed to shift to beast form because of her ankle. After this, Kane would really need to show her how to use daggers.
"Yipe!" she whined, with it being muffled by the skin and blood in her mouth.

Kane quickly reached down, taking out the dagger that had been plunged into the dead bandit he had just killed. He yanked out the blood covered blade, turning to see Allora being bashed up against a tree in her beast form. Knowing that it was too deadly of a risk to use a blade with Allora so close to the bandit, he sheathed his dagger, running up to the bandit who was more focused on getting Allora off of him then Kane himself.
Kane swung his fist into the bandit's face, hitting him square in the jaw. With a fury of angry punches, Kane had made the bandits face fairly bloody, also kneeing the bandit in the nuts, something he typically didn't do. However, this man had harmed Allora, therefore there was no honor in this fight.
With Allora letting go, Kane grabbed the dazed bandit by the neck, lifting him in the air, then proceeded to throw him over his shoulder with a grunt. The bandit hit the ground hard, soon with Kane on top of him. He pinned him down, soon whaling on his face. The bandit stopped fighting after what must have been the ninth punch to the face, soon with Kane covered in blood. The bandit was dead, with Kane having killed him barehanded.
Slowly Kane stood up with blood still on the fur of his hands. He was breathing hard, actually letting out growling noises as he tried to calm down, unable to help but snarl at the brute that tried to hurt Allora. It took him a minute, forcing himself to settle down. He could feel Allora's eyes on him.

Watching, slightly terrified, mostly impressed, the fox girl shifted back into her anthropomorphic form, tying her scarf around her body before Kane turned and saw. She couldn't walk, her ankle having been badly damaged in the fight. She sat on the ground, finding her pack and attempting to wrap her ankle as best she could. It was throbbing, a painful beating pulse, and she winced when she finally tied the not.
Soon, she began to process the anger and violence that she had just witnessed. There had been three of them, and with Kane having come out of the forest injured in the first place, she suspected there had been more. But they were all dead. All of them.
"Are you okay?" she asked cautiously, wondering if he were still feral. That was what they called it, at least the Ebony's. When a furry was enraged, losing too much of their senses, going wild... it usually died down, but the adrenaline was usually still there. "Do you need help?" she asked again.
She remained sitting on the ground, looking around, conflicted. 'How are we supposed to get to Bray Lake with my ankle like this?' she thought to herself. Dejected, she looked down, feeling like a burden. Again.

For a second Kane had almost forgotten where he was. The smell of blood was in his in his nose and all he saw was red. With each breath he released a growl, sounding like a feral animal. He blinked, realizing how terrifying he sounded. Kane shook his head, taking a deep inhale and tried to get his breathing back to normal. Forcing a smile, he asked for Allora to repeat herself.
After she did, Kane looked down at her wounded ankle with a frown.
"That's certainly going to slow us down a bit," he told her honestly. He thought to himself for a moment. Completely disregarding his own injuries, Kane tossed the bandit bag he'd taken over towards Allora, once again turning in the direction of the woods.
"I'll be right back," he told her. "There's some dry meat, bread, and some fruit in the bag I got. Help yourself; I know you said you were hungry."
Without looking back, Kane hurried into the deeper part of the woods, looking for what he needed.

"But what what-" she tried to ask, but he was already gone. Having no idea what he was doing, she took out a bit of meat and fruit, gnawing on them while she thought. After a bit of waiting, she decided to be useful and search the bandits.
She wasn't disappointed. While they didn't have much coin on them, she found some beautiful shiny jewelry, a few glittering stones, and some glittery black powder. The powder she soon realized was a smoke powder, one that exploded when thrown hard enough at the ground, providing a smokescreen and allowing the user to make a quick getaway. She, having an idea, sprinkled some of that in her tail fur. If she needed to, she could whack her tail against something, causing the powder to react and explode in an emergency.
There was one more thing she was particularly interested in. It was a sun shaped symbol, with a shaded in heart in the center... "Gods," she mumbled. It was the sun-dancer crest; the symbol of the white hand. They must have been hiring bandits to capture their victims, performing their dark magic on unwilling travelers.

Kane returned from the woods, holding something green in his hand. He walked steadily, feeling himself get a little tired; he had been running around a lot more than usual. He saw Allora still under the oak tree, still holding what was in his hand with a firm grasp.
"Looks like we're in luck. I found some tonic leaves. I can make make a syrup-like goo out of these things to help heal your ankle."
He said this with a faint smile, though was a little distracted by the bodies. If they didn't want to attract anything their way he knew they had to either leave before nightfall or toss them elsewhere. He glanced down at them, suddenly realizing they had the sun-dancer crests on them. How he hadn't noticed before was beyond him.
"Looks like there's more to this than we thought...." he mumbled to himself, still holding onto the tonic leaves.

"I don't think they're after anyone specific," Allora mumbled, staring at the crests herself. "They're just after blood. Fresh blood." She looked up at Kane. "The White Hand needs fresh blood for their dirty magic, and furry, human, dwarf, or elf, any blood is going to suit them."
Noticing what he carried, she nodded. "If you say so..." she said, trusting his intuition. At this rate, anything that could numb or heal her leg was going to help. It continued to pulse, though was dulling. This would be comforting, if the sensation in her pads wasn't going too. She knew her body was simply numbing the pain; it wasn't getting better. "We're going to have to cut where the injury is... and let the sap get on the inside." Nervous, she pulled out one of her daggers. "I... I don't know if I can cut into myself," she admitted.

Kane was taken back by this with his mouth dropping open. Instinct told him he should take the dagger from her by force in fear she'd hurt herself, though he knew better. His eyes were widened in fear, quickly shaking his head to the point of his ears wiggling a little.
"N-no!" he told her quickly. "Are you insane?! You can massage it in through your skin! J-just put the knife away!"

A few minutes passed, with Kane successfully creating a tonic paste,putting it into a small vial (luckily he found one on one of the bandits). He looked at Allora, holding the paste in his hand.
"This might sting a little," he told her. "Avoid moving too much."

Allora, of course, immediately tensed up at this warning. Kane took the paste in his palms and rubbed it together, warming it. He then parted the fur on her ankle, rubbing the serum into her skin. There was a dull burn, but the new pain replaced the throbbing ache and felt much better. "Ah..." she sighed reflexively, enjoying the feeling.
The serum wouldn't heal her ankle completely, but it would numb the pain, and help the process along. She took her wrap that had fallen off from her shifting, re-wrapping her ankle nice and tight, both to seal in the serum and set the joint. "I think it's gonna be fine," she said, getting slowly to her feet. She could put some weight on it, almost as much as before the fight, and she knew she would be able to walk.
She picked her pack off the ground, slinging it on and taking a few steps forward. "We should be heading out soon," she said, looking to the North. "We've been here longer than we should have.

Kane nodded, knowing that leaving before dark to cause as little suspicion as possible would be best. He stood, his own pack already on, with him having applied the same healing serum to his shoulder in the forest.

"Well, let's get going then."

It was just at nightfall when the two reached the creek. It had no name, but was their landmark they had been searching for. They continued to travel north until they were simply too exhausted. The darkness mattered not, for both furries had excellent night vision. They stopped to make camp just at the fork in the creek. The water split, with half of it flowing east, meeting the Gyra River and the Sea soon after. The other half flowed north, downhill into a valley and into Bray Lake, where their destination lay.`

Kane yawned, feeling his eyes burn a little from the long day they had had. The thought of a warm bed was too much to think about. He looked at his surroundings, only seeing a few trees near the river. Kane put his hand on the back of his neck and scratching his fur, staring at the makeshift fire he had made. The blaze illuminated light around them, some of it reflecting off of the creek, being so close by.

"Today was a little rough, huh?" he laughed, trying to make light of the situation they had found themselves in. He looked towards Allora, smiling at her.

The walk to the new campsite had gotten harder and harder on Allora. Her ankle was throbbing once they reached the site, and she immediately had sat down and unwrapped her leg. She had it elevated now, leaning against a tree, watching the fire flickering in the dark. The golden light reflected in her eyes. It took her a moment to realize Kane had addressed her.

"Yeah, it was, wasn't it," she said, still looking at the fire. She moved her tail onto her lap, stroking her own fur in thought of what was to come. Kane was smiling at her, and she registered this, but couldn't bring herself to do the same in the situation. She was exhausted, injured, and apprehensive.

She knew firsthand that the white hand wasn't a group to be messed with. They were conniving and analytical. The fact that they had let any report of a missing person get out to another city was either a total mistake on their part... Or they had done it on purpose. But why?

"Does anything strike you as odd about this whole thing?" she mused, halfway to Kane, but also to herself. Maybe they just wanted to get their name more widespread with the report of a minor kidnapping? Or maybe they wanted to attract stronger sacrifices...

This was a little unsettling to Kane. Everything that had happened felt more than just bad luck. There was something more to this, and it wasn't adding up. He finally nodded his head, feeling his body tense up a little.

"Something certainly is fishy," he said aloud. "Whatever lies ahead is sure to be more than just a missing person. I get the feeling we may have bitten off more than we can chew."

Kane looked up at Allora, feeling somewhat concerned for her well being.

"I won't lie to you," he told her, "if things go poorly, we could very well die. I know that's not something anyone would like to hear, but I don't feel it would be right to lie to you about the dangers. I've had my fair shares of close calls, even today. If you want to head back, you can. I'll even escort you. I'm willing to meet my end if that's what fate has in store. However, I'm not sure I'm willing to risk you loosing your life. At least you have a life to live for."

Kane quietly lowered his head, looking down at the dirt below them at their campsite. He watched the fire crackle, with his past running through his mind. He shook his head. He needed to stop thinking about everything so much.

"We should probably get ready for bed...." Kane spoke, leaving it at that.