Within you I found home

two

        A wooden sign was now lodged into it, painted with black drippy writing which read:

he is safe

on the first day of the week we will 

bring him here to return to you

we mean no harm

        You nodded in approval. Messy, but it got the point across.

        You placed the crate on the ground and sat on a fallen tree log nearby.

        Jessa joined you.

        And then you waited.

༓･*˚*･༓☾ NOW ☽༓･*˚*･༓

        You stared in horror at the blood drenching Mithun's snout, the droplets wetting his black fur.

        Your thigh throbbed thanks to the arrow impaled in it.

        A dead guard laid in front of you, flesh torn and shredded. Crimson splatters stained the forest floor, dripping from surrounding leaves. A puddle formed under him. . .or what was left of him. 

        A pile of meat and cloth.

        Not even the chain mail had helped him. You had closed your eyes at that point, not wanting to witness the brutality of it. Your pup was either too smart and chewed around it, or you'd severely underestimated the strength of his teeth.

        You had thought you'd lost them, only for the now-dead man to sneak an arrow through you as you began to slow, needing a rest.

        Mithun had reacted instantly. Snarling viciously, he'd attacked like an animal possessed. You listened as the man cried and begged for his life but the shifter showed no mercy.

        It was hard to believe your nine-year-old son was capable of such violence but then you remembered - it was written in his DNA.

        Groaning, you struggled to your feet using a nearby tree.

        Glancing down, you saw the arrow sticking out of your right leg, caught in the fat and muscle of your inner thigh.

        You were lucky you realised very quickly because any further to the right and it would have hit a major artery.

         Blood drained from your wound, leaking down your sandy cloth leggings and clinging onto the arrow itself, following a path along the wood and dribbling off the sharpened tip.

         You didn't have time to tend to it here. If you pulled it out in a hurry, you'd risk doing more damage. Your only choice was to tourniquet it and find something to support the arrow itself so it didn't move too much when you started running – or attempting to – again.

        Mithun's body went stiff when he finally turned to you.

        His ears flattened on his head and his eyes sad and fearful. You knew he was about to shift from the way his shoulders stood just that bit higher than his body and you shook your head at him.

        "Don't shift," you ordered through gritted teeth. Gods, your thigh burned. "Mithun, you need to be ready to run. If it comes to it then you go on without me. I won't allow you to put yourself in danger for me. I am your mother and I will protect you no matter the consequences."

        You'd said those words to him his whole life, wanting him – needing him – to understand you've always known the price of hiding him from the townsfolk and you were more than willing to take that risk anyway.