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// Chapter 13: The Wounded 
// Story: Blood Moon 
// by The_Darker_Fonts 
//------------------------------//

Hemorrhage watched Joint basically prance down the hallway, following the guidance of Nightseer to the guest room.  He smiled dreamily as she left him, her tail slightly swishing as they turned the corner and out of sight.  Still having blissful whiplash from their kiss, he had led her back towards the main lobby, where Nightseer had suddenly appeared.  Catching the look in his eye, she knew what had probably happened, to an extent, and the slight blush to Joint’s face hadn’t helped at all.  Blood of the moon, he’d just barely met the mare and already the two had locked lips.  It had taken almost a year for Nightseer to finally seal the deal with Argon, and in a matter of minutes, they had already shared their first kiss.
He almost giggled at that, but a quick breath cut it off, trying to contain his real emotions for a moment.  This new mare wasn’t even half of the equation, and as such, he could only give her as much thought until other matters were resolved.  He determinedly set off towards the baths, where he figured Ailade would have brought the lycan for treatment.  He moved quickly, realizing that he’d spent too much time with the mare, and had left Ailade alone with the rather large beast for too much time.
Arriving at the solid stone doors, he forced them open with magic, barging in and nearly toppling over Ailade.  The lycan whipped around to face him, his wet hair slapping across his face as he was startled by the sudden noise.  The lycan quickly shook himself out, spraying water all around him as he got the hair out of his face.
“You scared us, Master,” Ailade exclaimed, standing back up and giving him a cheerful look.  “Just as he was getting used to the water as well!”
“My apologies,” Hemorrhage excused, bending down and picking up some of the items she’d dropped.  He felt himself cringe slightly at the sight of a needle and several different sized knives, all to be used to help rid the lycan of the metal spoke.  “I came to help you with the operation.”
“Sh-sh-sh,” Ailade quickly hushed, pressing a hoof to his mouth.  Hushing her voice, she insisted, “Don’t let the poor dear hear!  He may not understand everything, but he knows that I’m trying to get a look at his wound, and he’s being very protective of it.  I’m guessing he’s had it for quite a while, considering his attitude towards it, as well as how bad it is.  I mean, I’ve seen infections before, but never to the point where it’s drawn maggots!  He’ll definitely have to be out for the procedure, and it’ll take a long while before he can be as active as he wants afterwards.  Otherwise, I think he’ll recover well from it.”
“That’s good to hear,” Hemorrhage commented, staring at the curious lycan, who panted happily as he sank into the water again.  There was already a bunch of muck in the water, and judging from the scruffy fur, it still hadn’t been scrubbed yet, so he had a bit more time in the warm water before they put him to sleep.  
Ailade looked over at the lycan and commented, “He couldn’t get over the fact that the water was surrounded by wood and not whatever he was used to.  He didn’t seem surprised by the fact that the water was warm, just everything around it.  Why do you suppose that is?”
“Well, the cave he was residing in was quite a wonder,” Hemorrhage remembered.  “There were veins of pure gold in the walls, and a stream ran through the entire cave.  There were several chambers we didn’t explore, but the main one was filled with all sorts of plants, and was almost muggy.  I think that the water was warmer in the other chambers, and that it filtered into the other rooms.  I wouldn’t quite say that it was necessarily an artificial cavern, but it certainly wasn’t one you happen to find on your own.  I haven’t thought about it much, but now I’m beginning to theorize that, well, perhaps somepony had led him there, either to imprison or conceal him, I don’t know.”
“I believe you’re overthinking this whole thing,” Ailade proposed, walking over to where the lycan was watching them with interest.  She held up a soft brush to him, allowing him to sniff it before she began running it through his long coat, pulling out small clumps of soot and straightening the gruff fur.  “Personally, I think he’s just a big guy who’s a bit lost and doesn’t quite know what’s going on, but still is happy about it.  He’s been grinning ever since we entered here, and I can tell already that he doesn’t much care if we’re trustworthy because he knows you’re the leader of the pack.”
“So what do you propose we do with him then,” Hemorrhage asked, watching as the lycan tried to sniff the brush, but had his face softly pushed away so Ailade could continue washing him.  
“He should stay with us, Master,” she firmly stated.  “He’s too young to be left out on his own, and if we hadn’t found him, he would’ve died anyways.  He needs us to help him balance his beastiality as well as his ponified self as well.  And if it’s true that he was the one that destroyed the town, well… he’d be a very valuable member to our coven, if that other one ever turns on us.  Let’s just say that he’s one of ours for now, and if he needs to go, then we’ll let him, huh?”
“Fine, he’s one of ours, but I’m still going to warn you not to get too close to him,” he cautioned firmly, giving her a sharp look.  “We don’t know for sure what happened to him in these last few years other than he’s been living in that cave with wolves and whoever else.  Might I remind you of what he was able to do to an entire village?”
‘No, no need,” Ailade said with dismay, glancing away from him, still brushing the muck out of the lycan’s fur absently.  
A sudden growling from the lycan suddenly echoed through the bathroom, causing both of them to turn towards him alarmedly.  The young monster was bent over, slowly prowling out of the water and placing himself between Ailade and Hemorrhage, baring his teeth fiercely in defense of the mare.  Hemorrhage raised his eyebrows at the motion before suddenly baring his own fangs and hissing sharply at the lycan’s challenge.  This startled him, causing him to jerk back a little, and for a moment, it looked as if he were going to back down, but he stiffened his stance and crouched slightly lower.  
“No no no no, he’s not threatening me dear,” Ailade tried to clarify from behind the lycans large body.  One of her hooves suddenly appeared on the top of his head, brushing between his ears softly and reassuringly.  “Don’t be foolish, please.  You’re still hurt, right.  Neither of you want to fight each other!”
The lycan turned his head to his caretaker questioningly, not quite sure what he was supposed to do.  Hemorrhage breathed in deeply through his nose before letting it out through his mouth, relaxing himself and allowing his fangs to recede.  He reached out his hoof towards the lycan, who saw that it was merely the chitin of his hoof and not any claws.  He sniffed it suspiciously before straightening up and giving Hemorrhage a shameful look, turning his head down, realizing he had been in the wrong.
“Oh, don’t be afraid now, it was a kind mistake,” Ailade reassured him, pulling his face down and planting a small kiss on his snout.  “You really are a sentimental fellow, aren’t you?”
“Yes, he is,” Hemorrhage agreed, side stepping the both of them and glancing at the spot in his coat where the wound was.  The wound looked less dirty, but just as bad with several maggots still visible as they motionlessly feasted on his infected skin.  He set his jaw and pointed at it, saying, “This needs fixed right now.  Is he clean enough?”
“Well, yes, but he needs to dry off first,” Ailade told him.  
“He can dry off while we wait for him to fall asleep,” he instructed absently, keeping his eyes locked on the viscous wound.  The lycan noticed that the mordigan was staring at its most vulnerable part and defensively curled himself around it, hiding it from view.  He gave Hemorrhage a pitiful look, and feeling himself soften up a little, assured him, “We’ll fix that up for you.  For now, are you hungry?”
The lycan perked up, his ears sticking up as he identified the unmistakable mention of food.  He sat himself up straightly as he licked his chops, attempting to look as proper as possible to receive his food.  Ailade giggled lightly at the sight, but Hemorrhage was suddenly sobered by the canine action.  Even when Leper was his most beastly and enveloped in his canine self, he had still withheld a sense of equinism, and had sourced his attitude back to that.  This action wasn’t something that a pony would do, and the fact that it was his instinctual reaction to act like a dog would concerned Hemorrhage.  Returning this poor lycan back to his equinite form would prove a difficult task for him and Leper.
“Do you think he’d notice a bit of green in his food,” the stallion asked Ailade hushly, maintaining eye contact with the lycan.
“Well, not if it’s in in his food,” she replied cleverly, the sound of her hoofsteps retreating following the comment.  He didn’t know whether or not she had food set aside in the room already, but for the moment, he was alone with the young lycan.  He was still sitting upright in the water, though his posture had relaxed, he was still watching for the proposed food.  Hemorrhage observed the lycan’s strange behavior with concern.  Indeed, this would be a challenge to return him to his ponified self, and the process would probably take longer than he wished.  It had taken almost two weeks to remind Leper that he had a second half of him, and with the current behavior of this lycan, it would take at least a month.
“Who are you,” he asked the lycan quietly, knowing that his words were heard, but not understood fully.  “Why are you here?”  The lycan turned his head towards the mordigan, tilting it slightly in confusion.  “Who were you?”
Before the lycan could do anything else, however, the door burst open as Ailade brought in a plate of meat.  The smell that would usually fill up the room in an instant was drowned out by the smell of the soapy water and soggy fur beside him, but the lycan’s heightened smell allowed him to pick it up.  In an instant, the young beast was out of the water, hungrily rushing over to the food, splashing water everywhere.  Hemorrhage smiled halfway as he wiped some suds off of the side of his face, standing up and walking over to the sloppily eating lycan.
Ailade was giggling again as the hungry lycan knocked the plate from her hooves and began lapping it off the floor. “At the rate he’s eating, he’ll be looking for seconds by the time he’s out,” Ailade lightly joked.  “He doesn’t even suspect that there’s anything in there, he’s so hungry!”  Her voice lost its cheerful tone as she realized the dark connotation behind the statement, and glanced at him with a pleading look.  
“We’ll let him stay until he’s healed at the very least,” Hemorrhage forcefully reassured her, shaking his head slightly.  The mare was probably the closest thing he had to actual family, being the first member of the coven and being with him for almost three hundred years.  She wasn’t that young anymore, not by pony standards, but she still resembled somepony about half of his age, sometime in their early thirties.  The impression that she might be mistaken as his daughter wasn’t lost on anypony in the coven, and as he got older, the more he thought about it.  
He didn’t have any real family, neither parents or children, only the nocturnals he’d collected over time.  He had always wondered what would happen to them when he was gone, what impression he’d leave on the world, if any impression at all.  As a matter of fact, it was part of his biggest fear, that one day, he would just be meaningless, forgotten by history.  Perhaps it was that reason he worked so hard to find a place that would remember him when he was gone.  In these small areas, still undeveloped completely, he could easily become a legend to the locale, a wealthy noble that was mysteriously in a place they thought was uninhabited who supported the settlers.  Those settlers were dead and gone now all thanks to the lycan that they were taking care of.
“Master,” Ailade softly questioned.  When he looked up, she nodded to the lycan, who was now lying down on the stone floor, asleep completely.  The meat was completely gone at this point, and the large nocturnal was now completely under the affects of the plants in his meal.  “How are we gonna lift him?”
Hemorrhage frowned before saying, “With some help.  Go fetch Argon and Leper.  Nightseer is tending to our guest, so those are the only ones who’ll be available.  And yes, I know what might happen if the mare saw us in our nocturnal forms, but I think it’d be worse if she found out that on the same day we were hosting her, we also had possession of an untamed lycan.”
“If you say so then,” Ailade sighed.  
“Oh, and Ailade, stop calling me ‘Master’,” Hemorrhage commanded as she opened the door to leave.
“Yes sir,” she responded lively, exiting the room.