Noah attempted to be ginger with his talons when they came down on Elann’s bracers. He wasn’t sure on the material but it looked thick enough to withstand the deadly points. The thing was, his grip wasn’t as sure when she hoisted him up and brought the wrapped eagle into her warmth. His own wasn’t fleeting, but there was a sure weakness in him. Usually it didn’t take any energy to shift between the forms, but when he was laden with an affliction, it was difficult to put himself through the bodily changes. It was the same as a Kelvic woman being pregnant, in a way. Towards the end of her pregnancy she wouldn’t be able to shift without risking miscarriage; an affliction or injury nearly handicapped them.

Towards the camp they went and Noah noticed Elann had forsaken her bow for his sake. It was a sad thing to see, yet there was no time to delay. Zulrav was above watching Elann with his Stormwarden carefully, or watching Noah’s condition as his Benshiran partner trekked hurriedly through the wood and onto the road. In this moment he was but a silent observer, near powerless to help his warden because life was not within his domain of control. He held the winds, the storms, and the sounds of thunder, not life.

The eagle heard Elann speaking to the slowing caravan and knew that aid would come to him relatively soon. He remained passive in the moment, partly afraid to do anything, but also knowing that he could not help himself. In the next moments Elann called to a man named Emery and mentioned Noah. The Kelvic listened to their exchange of information as Elann gave the briefest and most direct summary of what had happened. The mighty eagle had been felled and was now under the care of a doctor he didn’t know. He supposed it wasn’t entirely different from Devi, and that calmed him slightly. Attempting to compare this situation to the last time he was gravely injured didn’t entirely quell the anxiety within him however.

Elann set him down and Noah assumed he was supposed to shift again. Instead of shifting right away Noah looked at the doctor with a wary gaze. His eyes flicked between Elann, the doctor, and his daughter. Devi had treated him to the best of her ability in this form and so he had assumed this one could as well. After his own consideration, Noah willed himself to transform another time, unsure of what the suddenly taxing action would entail for him.

The transformation happened at the same slow pace as Noah forced himself through it. When the white dispelled and his human form sat on the bench, Emery looked over his wounds under Noah’s careful eyes. Emery called upon his wife to fetch his medicines, tools, and poultices as he maneuvered the Kelvic into a semi-comfortable position on the bench. First, he was placed on his left side so that Emery could address the most serious wound on the Kelvic’s right side along his ribcage. The flesh was mangled and torn once the blood was cleaned away. Noah didn’t have a problem with the cleaning, it was when the wound was being touched did he react in a low but aggressive growl produced in the barrel of his chest.

Emery had slowed at first, making sure that it was okay to proceed before doing so. Noah calmed when his eyes set upon the doctor’s child, a young girl that he had seen Aimee playing with before. Though the mother was seemingly afraid of Noah and his reactions, the girl was fascinated and the eagle could plainly see that. As her father worked, she approached Noah against the wishes of her mother and father.

“It’s okay,” she assured Noah quietly, reaching her hand up to place her small one into Noah’s. “My daddy’s a good doctor.” She smiled despite the situation and nodded to affirm the answer though Noah didn’t outwardly question it.

There was something in the girl that Noah saw and aligned with. Perhaps it was that they were the same age, though appearances could hardly denote that, or perhaps it was her fascination for him that was innocent. She held his hand by the thumb and he held hers weakly, a look of pained concentration on his face that softened the longer the girl was there tending to him. He let out a small stifled grunt that the girl shushed caringly. Her other hand came up to place warm fingers on Noah’s cheek, where they stroked delicately.

Sometime during the procedure and cleaning he slipped away into a lightly breathing state of unconsciousness, the girl’s warmth and smell acting as an anesthesia of sorts. While she had come up to him, he didn’t have any strong emotions radiating towards the girl. All he could focus on beforehand was the pain in his side and back and the doctor probing around to fix him. The girl brought a calm to him and that was seemingly it. For the duration of the procedure she stayed near Noah, holding his hand loosely with one of hers and stroking his face with the other.