Page 121 of Guiding Desire

But ahead, there was nothing, just more forest. It parted when they approached, then closed behind them.

“Forward, come. He’s right there.”

“Who…what?” Orrey said.

Then, from behind a scraggly tree, a Hound stepped, tall and muscled, yellow-eyed. His ears were pointy and pierced, the rings in them white and shimmery.

He wore a coat not dissimilar from the man’s though it had short sleeves. He was also carrying what Orrey recognized as a bow.

Orrey froze. On Loquin’s other side, the man sighed, lowered Loquin to the ground carefully.

“Blade in the chest. You can help, ma?” he said and looked at the Hound.

The Hound kept his eyes trained on Orrey for a long moment.

“No dick measuring, please. Help him, ma?” the man said.

The Hound broke eye contact and approached. Orrey watched, stunned. The Hound was already kneeling at Loquin’s side, putting his bow on the ground next to him. Only then did Orrey remember he had a gun and knew how to use it. He put his hand on the handle but didn’t draw.

“I—I am armed. I will shoot if…if he tries to harm this Guardian.”

The man with the funny hair looked up. He seemed not exactly pissed but certainly annoyed. Underneath the expression, he looked profoundly normal. Tall too. Guardian tall, though not as broad.

“My name is Rose. This is Anandas. He’s a good healer when he wants to be. If we wanted harm to find you, we’d have left you and your friend there, caught between a blade and an axe.”

“W-what?”

Anandas—the Hound—pulled a bag from his back, rifled through it. “It is not deep. I think nothing major was hit, but it’s poison. One I know and can cure.”

The Hound spoke in a peculiar accent, sharp and rhythmic in the way normal speech wasn’t. At the same time, he enunciated clearly, as if he were afraid of making errors.

“Good. You can patch him up so we can send these two right back to their group, ma?”

The Hound glared at Rose. “No. If I heal him, he is my patient, and I cannot send a patient into harm. You know this. Why would you ask when you know this, ma?”

Rose pointed. “Because that one says he has a gun and wants to shoot you.”

Orrey took a step back. The Hound looked at him, then focused on Loquin, pulled the blade out. Loquin jerked, his eyes flying open before they closed again.

The Hound applied something to the wound and bandaged it, Rose helping him get the bandage around Loquin’s middle. Orrey was relieved to see that the bandages were clean and not bleeding through right away.

The Hound looked at him again. “He says he would shoot if I harm this man. You can see now, Guardian pet, that I am not harming this man, ma?”

“I, ah, y-yes.” Orrey had never spoken to a Hound, had never imagined that they would talk to a human at all.Although Col said he’d talked to one.

“I will have care of him until he is healed. You can agree to this also, Guardian pet, ma?” Anandas asked.

“But we…we should really go.”

Anandas shook his head. “The earth shaker took my arrow, but we saw several more. They have their vehicles by the river. It is not safe.”

Rose stood. “Advice from someone who has tried before, you’re not going to get him to budge. On the plus, we don’t want to keep you around.”

Anandas snorted. “No. Much not. Once this one is healed, we will show you to the nearest city, and you can continue fighting your own kind.”

“Wait, wait,” Orrey said. “Our own kind?” Then it sank in. The tectonist. The attack. “Fuck. Alesa? He’s fighting with fucking Hounds.”

“You mind your tone. While a fucking Hound heals your friend,” Rose said.