Ryathane held his breath when the elf did not move, only the gentle flutter of her hair around her mouth displaying proof of life.

	With the manticore dead, the sounds of the forest floated into the clearing, hesitant at first until the crickets and other insects regained their confidence and ventured closer.

	When she finally moved, Ryathane released a relieved breath he had not realized he had held. He straightened slightly, the elf’s pain and fatigue visible in her delay and sluggish movements as she propped herself up, then spoke.

	He snorted at her question. “It’d better be.” He looked to the beast’s carcass--his ticket to food and other supplies--then back to the wounded elf. With a low, frustrated growl, he ran a gloved hand down his face. Ignoring the foul scent of the manticore’s fur that the fabric had absorbed, he let it linger over his mouth. She needed help, but he couldn’t leave the manticore out in the open like that... His eyes lingered on the manticore, then he looked back to Aeylisia, his often neglected conscience nagging at him with a vengeance.

	“Fine,” he muttered under his breath, then let his hand fall away. [i]But I’m getting my sword back,[/i] he finished silently. He quickly strode to the manticore, pausing as he neared it to make sure it wouldn’t rear with sudden life.

	Deeming it safe, he wrenched his short sword from the creature’s flesh and stepped back toward Aeylisia as he cleaned the blade on his coat. “I have some bandages back at my camp.”

	He quickly sheathed the weapon and went to retrieve his bow laying on the ground. He scowled at the limp string still connecting two halves of the bow, the wood snapped by the manticore’s giant paws.

	Glad to have the frustration to display, he cautiously approached the elf and unwrapped the light fabric of his black hooded scarf from around his neck.

	“Unless you want to bleed to death through your leg,” he began, crouching down as close beside her as he dared, “tie this around the wound for now.” He nodded to the blood-stained garment and offered the scarf to her.