As soon as she laid eyes on Niro it was as if her ankle had never been injured at all! Once his silvery visage was in sight she darted forward to greet him, barking and yipping like an excited pup. Her rump did have a peculiar swagger, a certain sway because she was favoring the leg, but it did not seem to slow Orin down one bit.
When she reached Niro she reared onto her hind legs, ignoring the burning sensation in her injured extremity, propping herself up by her forelegs on Niro’s stomach. Her tail beat the air relentlessly as she nuzzled her brother, jabbing his ribs a few times with her nose and licking him endlessly until his fur stuck up in great spiky clumps. “Niro, I missed you!” She was so animated that she threw herself off balance and had to drop back to all fours to right herself. It didn’t stop her, though, and she began circling her brother with little hops here and there.
“Oh, that, it’s nothing. Okay, well, it is a sprain but it’s not so bad when I’m on all fours.” She snorted a wolfish chuckle. “Guess what happened?” She froze for a moment, head cocked sideways as though Niro could really just pop up with the absurd situation of the tree. Well, Orin usually did expect him to read her mind. But before he could really consider it, her excitement shattered the brief statuesque act and she broke into hurried movements once again. On one round behind him, she nipped at his tail and gave it a gentle tug, playfully as she always had, though not enough to yank him off balance as she would have done if he was in full health. When she rounded to his front again, she peered up at him with sparkling, golden eyes.
“Too slow! I was visiting AniWaya and as I was leaving I found an apple tree,” as she talked she wriggled her front end, shrugging her backpack off of her shoulders and then stepping out of it. “that actually had ripe apples. So I climbed to the top to get the best one, and then guess what? The branch broke! Can you believe it? Me, falling out of a tree! Well, anyway, I caught myself on a limb, and my foot got wedged into the angled part of the trunk… you know, the Y-looking part of the tree? Yeah, so, I dangled there for who knows how long… probably days… when Shawchert,” she jerked her head toward the still figure behind her, “came walking by and rescued me! He saved my life, and my ankle. See? He even wrapped it for me.” She glimpsed back at her leg, but immediately returned her attention to her brother.
“Oh! Oh yeah! By the way, Niro, this is Shawchert. He’s an alpha! And a hero. Like Jac. Shawchert, this is my brother, Niro.”.
Jerking forward again, she pushed her head under Niro’s palm for another nuzzle, but when her nose brushed his fur she snorted, sneezed, then took a step back and stared up at him with alarm. “Niro!” she gasped. It was hard to tell if she was angry or pleased, for on his fur she smelled a familiar scent. The scent of a woman more deep-rooted into his fur than any friend’s scent would likely be.