It was a bit of a daft question in retrospect. Ethan knew everything that went into disaster relief - how could he not, having had it drilled into his head during training. Help the wounded, make sure people were safe, aid in the efforts of first responders however you could; he really didn't need to ask. They needed to be quick about this, open wounds had risk of getting infected and he doubted they had much in the way of medicine on shore. Maybe it would be a wise idea for him to use his magic, race ahead and get to town. That way they'd have supplies coming.

[i]“Perhaps we should stop and take a short break.”[/i]

Come again? A short break was a fine idea. Surviving a shipwreck took a toll on the body, and none of them had really stopped since getting to shore; adrenaline alone drove them forward. But they didn't have the luxury of stopping - or setting up camp, not when people were dying. It stunned Ethan that not only did the Ydran suggest such a thing, but the others agreed to it. 

"W-Wait, camp? We need to keep moving! There's people depending on us!" The Ydran woman was already off into the woods and everyone else settled. Unreal, were they not worried about the others? Contemplating going on ahead, Ethan looked down the road and sighed. Even if he got there could he do anything? Besides, his lack of direction made it certain he'd get lost, even if he followed path. Stopping wasn't an option, not when they had barely traveled that far from shore. If someone needed to go back or stay then fine, but the injured weren't going to stop bleeding because they wanted to take a breather.

Ethan didn't want to give orders - he'd never been terribly good at it. "10 minutes, then we need to go." Nowhere near as forceful as he'd hoped, it got the point across. Maybe. Too restless to relax, he began to pace back and forth, watching the forest for the Ydran. When she finally emerged he'd half the mind to say something, only to stop when she mentioned a tiger. Here? In this part of the kingdom? He'd heard of them being further south, sure, but he'd figured it was too... Not hot up here.

"If there's a predator lurking around is it a good idea to be eating...?" Shaela snarled at something just then, and something snarled back in turn. Unfolding his staff and looking into the forest, Ethan's eyes widened seeing a moorcat at the forest's edge. More alarming still was a child beneath it, cowering. His instinct was it had attacked her and he was quick to move, holding his staff out defensively and slowly approaching the animal.

"Are you okay?!" Perhaps a dim question to shout at a child trapped beneath a beast. As he drew nearer, a realization struck; the moorcat wasn't attacking the girl, it was defending her. Dirty but unharmed, perhaps she and it had strayed too close to camp, alerting Shaela. Ethan looked back at the panther and smiled uncertainly, holding a hand back and gesturing for her to settle down. The last thing they needed right now was a fight and more injuries, especially involving large animals.

He could salvage this, no problem. Giving the moorcat an uneasy smile he slowly lowered his staff, holding up his hands. "Hey there buddy, I'm not going to hurt you, okay? I'm your friend, see?" Crap, did he have some way of showing that? Ethan looked around and snatched a strip of meat from a trembling sailor's hands, offering it out to the animal. Tentatively, he took another step, lowering himself and keeping his other hand in view. He sure hoped this meat looked more appetizing than he did. 

Ethan placed the meat down on the ground before the animal, glancing at the child beneath him. She looked awful, wearing ragged clothing and appearing in desperate need of a bath; how long had she been out here like that? "Hey uh... Kid? If you can hear me, it's alright. We're good guys, we're not going to hurt you. Come on out, okay? Let me see if we can get you cleaned up." Poor girl must be terrified - as was he, just not of other people. Ethan glanced again at the moorcat and smiled weakly, carefully nudging the piece of meat closer. 

The clink of metal on metal was unmistakable, and out of place. It sounded like someone in chain or armor was running towards them, but all the way out here? Ethan frowned and turned his gaze away as the noise grew louder, puzzled to see a boy running towards him. In fact he was running alarmingly fast, and wasn't at all watching where he was going. 

"H-Hey! HEY! Watch where you're going!" The only thing Ethan could think to do was hold out his hands to stop the boy, bracing himself. Hells did it feel like he'd been struck by a runaway cart! Before he knew it he found himself sprawled out on his back, stuck beneath the other boy. If everything didn't hurt before then it certainly did now. Dazed, he stared up at the darkening sky, smiling out of his mind. The universe was actually trying to kill him today. What was next? A land shark? "O-Ow..."