Chapter 7 – Broen

	The next morning, I woke to pain.  Burning, itching, intense pain.  I’d actually roused many times throughout the night as it got noticeably worse, but exhaustion had given way to deeper sleep eventually.  At least, until daylight broke into the lean-to, and the combination of pain and light overwhelmed all of that.  My body could no longer rest.
	I knew from the aching weariness in my limbs and the queasy feeling of full-body weakness washing over me as I attempted even the slightest movement, that I was not well.  And it was all radiating from the wound on my back.
	Finnegan was gone, but I could hear him outside, milling about.  With a heavy grunt, I willed myself to my knees and crawled out into the daylight, squinting against the sun.  I saw his silhouette and heard him approach before his figure came into focus, carrying something over his shoulder.
	“I figured to hell with even trying for a fire this morning,” he said as he trod through the snow into camp, clearly coming back from the river.  “If these fish are safe to eat frozen, let’s do it.  I’m tired of just carrots- hey,” he paused, putting down the small sack he’d brought with him, presumably with our breakfast in it.  “You look like death.”
	“What?”  I asked, hazily.
	“Sorry, it’s an expression,” He shook his head, crossing the distance between us and kneeling in the snow, reaching for me tentatively.  “You don’t look well.”
	“I don’t feel well,” I supplied unhelpfully, rolling my shoulder with a wince.  “My wound is acting up.”
	“The wound you weren’t particularly worried about?”  He chastised, sighing and tapping my arm lightly.  “Lean down, let me take a look.”
	I did as instructed and he scooched around to my side, peering at the injury on the back of my shoulder for a while in silence.  After a time, I began to worry.  “What does it look like?”  I asked, nervously.
	“Like an injury,” he said, sounding lost.  “I don’t know, Tulimak.  I’m not a Physician.  It looks redder than before?”  He sniffed.  “And it smells different.  Worse.  Not putrid, but not good.”
	“I’m not a healer either,” I said, wiping my paws over my eyes, trying to get the world to look less muddy.  I hardly felt like I was in serious danger, but I certainly did feel a little ill, and the spot hurt a lot worse than yesterday.  I didn’t know what that meant.
	“Hell, you’re not going septic on me, are you?”  He asked, voice laced with concern.
	“I don’t know what that means.”
	“It means the wound’s not clean,” he said, then after a brief pause, “as far as I understand it, anyway.  Like I said, I don’t really know much about this, but sepsis is something we’d worry about in the Risers a lot, any time we had an open wound for too long.”
	“Is it dangerous?”  I asked.
	“You don’t come back from it,” he said quietly.
	Fear lanced through me.  Death had been hovering over us for the last few days, but I’d thought- I don’t know.  I’d thought I’d be shot maybe.  Which I suppose I was, but I hadn’t thought of this graze as being enough to kill me.  I thought if we were going to die, it would be quickly.  The idea of disease had never entered my mind, even though it really should have.  
	It’s how my mother had died.  My otter mother.
	“A few years ago,” I said quietly, feeling Finnegan perk up from beside me, his ears going up, “some kind of disease came through our village.  A few of our hunters came back with it after a trip, and before long a dozen of us were sick.  My mother worked with our medicine woman, our healer, sometimes.  Mostly delivering pups, but she thought she could help.”  I looked down, stretching my shoulder and feeling a fresh wave of pain come over me.  “She caught it, too.  They all died.  Everyone who got the disease.  It took so long, and I wasn’t allowed to see her.”
	Finnegan was looking at me now, his gaze full of sympathy.  I wiped my nose, turning my muzzle towards him.  “A man from the nearby settlement came and told us what to do to avoid anyone else getting sick.  We had to leave food in a basket outside their door, and water in a bucket.  My father couldn’t even be with her.  When it. . . was over. . . we had to burn the hut they were in.  We couldn’t even bury them.  Just the ashes.”  I drew in a shuddering breath.  “I hope this isn’t like that.  I’d hate to put my father through that.  Again.”
	The wolfdog said nothing for a while.  When he spoke again, he did so with a far-off look, although he was technically still facing my way.  “My mother also died of illness,” he said, then snuffed, “although I suppose that’s not much of a coincidence.  I think Mikhail once told me it’s how half of all people who die before their time meet their end.  He was very. . . aware of it, given his profession.”
	“Was he a healer?”  I asked.
	“Not exactly,” he said with a sigh.  “He and my mother, and. . . well, most everyone in Ambrose Park are Courtesans.  I know you don’t know the word,” he said before I could speak up.  “Just think of them as entertainers.  Personal entertainers.  They travel a lot for their job, and spend time with a lot of different men.  Including a lot of military men and sailors, so it’s a risk.  Everyone picks something up eventually.  That’s why Mikhail got out of the work while he was still healthy enough to do so.  Sometimes you get lucky like that, and find someone who can take care of you, so you can stop working.”  He wilted a little.  “That never happened for my mother.  She caught something that. . . lingered. . . a long time.  She stopped the work when it got bad, but the disease was untreatable.  Better medicine and coin for a real Physician would’ve made all the difference near the end, but the man who sired me refused to send aid, he’d long since disavowed us by then.  I started working, making as much coin as I could, but. . . .”
	He curled a lip at that, revealing clenched teeth.  “The thing about working to make life better for the people you love,” he said with some difficulty, “is that you’re not around to enjoy the time they have left.  I wasn’t home, when. . . .”
	I instinctively found myself reaching for him.  When had that become so second nature for me?  Why was it so easy to touch him, when I’d spent most of my life terrified of moving into most peoples’ space with my big body?
	I grasped at nothing for a moment and dropped my hand.  He noticed, and went to reach for me, but I yanked my paw back.  “No,” I shook my head, suddenly feeling the need to put distance between us.  “M-maybe you should go.  I don’t want to make you sick.”
	He let out a breath and darted his hand forward, catching mine.  It clenched around my paw like iron.  I’d never known he possessed such strength in his arm.  “Tulimak,” he said intently, “I can’t catch blood poisoning from you, if that’s what this is.  I know that much, at least.  You need to have a wound.”
	“But you do,” I insisted.
	“My humors haven’t been exposed,” he insisted.  “I’ll be alright.”
	He said it with such certainty, I had to believe him.  I swallowed, and at length, nodded.  
	His expression softened and he released his grip on my paw some, turning it in his, then squeezing it again.  “And we don’t even know that’s what this is,” he pointed out.  “So it’s a little early to resign yourself to death.  Certainly not on my watch.”  He released my hand fully at that point and stood, with purpose.  “Now get up.  Help me pack camp.”
	I did so, albeit much more slowly than him.  He turned and grabbed up the bag he’d brought with him, doing an admirable job of covering the wince as he bent over.  “Are you hungry?”  He asked.  “You should try to eat.”
	“It’s hard to tell,” I said honestly.
	“You are,” he stated, pulling one of the frozen fish out of the bag.  “We didn’t eat last night, so you must be.  You need to eat to keep your strength up.  Do you think you can do that for me?”
	I nodded, taking the frozen salmon from him.  He pulled out the other, a far smaller one, and began to gnaw on the tail as he moved towards where his coat was lain out, the fish dangling from his mouth as he spoke through his teeth.  “I can pack us up.  Just eat and try to wake up some, alright?  We need to get back on the river, and I need you at your best there.”
	I nodded, head still a bit muggy.  But something about his sudden determination caught me off-guard.  He was acting far more purposeful than we had any right to be, considering we still didn’t really have a firm destination in mind.
	I must have said that part out loud, because he replied, “Yes we do.  We’re going to Broen.”
	“But the hunters looking for you. . .” I trailed off.
	“You need a Physician,” he snapped.  “To hell with them.  I have a pistol, and I’m pretty damn good with it.  We’ll manage.”
	“And the one following us?”  I said pointedly.
	He pulled free one of the oars holding up our makeshift lean-to, collapsing the pine boughs, the hide, and the layer of snow atop it all at once.  And then he fixed me with his sharp gaze.  “Didn’t you hear me?”  He began to lift a corner of the hide, shaking it out.  “Now eat.”
	I did so, finding the ill feeling in my body was subsiding somewhat.  Enough so that I could stomach eating, anyway.  Maybe it was because I was waking up.  Maybe it was Finnegan’s sudden command of the situation, making me feel more at ease.
	“I don’t know how well I’ll be able to row today,” I admitted.   “But I’ll try my hardest.  I hope I don’t slow us down.”
	“Tulimak, I don’t care if you do,” he said in a clipped tone.  “I don’t like living through my mistakes more than once.  We go together, at whatever pace we can manage.  I am not leaving your side until this passes, or until we’ve gotten you help.”
	That was clearly the end of the conversation, and I knew by the bark in his tone not to question him further.  I’d noticed it in the past, but at times like this it was even more evident.  Finnegan had a surprisingly deep voice for such a slender, small man.  Or well, smaller than me, which I guess wasn’t saying much.  I suppose amongst canines he would have been average.
	I found I rather liked his answering my uncertainty with certainty.  Even if I suspected some of it at least was false, there was a comfort in surrendering to his demands at a time like this.  I wanted someone to take charge, because I simply didn’t have the energy to.  And I wanted very badly for him to be right, as well.  It was harder to quiet the doubts that constantly plagued my mind when I was alone, but with someone with such a strong personality reassuring me, I found my anxiety receding.  Certainly not entirely, but enough that I felt better.
	That feeling improved further after the meal, just as he’d predicted.  It had been a safe prediction, to be fair.  We got back on the river, and that day passed as well as could be expected, given the situation.  Rowing was difficult.  Painful.  But Finnegan was giving all he had, and the gap between us was closing.  We found a pace eventually that I could slow to match that was easier on my body.  The wolfdog clearly struggled through mounting exhaustion to compensate, but he did so with quiet determination.  I had to admire his resolve.
	There was a lot I was beginning to admire about him.
	Spirits, how I wanted more time.  I wanted to know more of life, more of this feeling, this yearning growing inside of me.  
	I wanted to know Finnegan Ambrose better than I did now.
	I tried not to think about how the destination we were suddenly determinedly racing towards was also the place we were set to part ways.  Tried not to think about how or why I could justify knowing this man longer.  Survival was the goal right now.  Planning past that was pointless, until we knew there was a ‘past that’.
	I’d originally intended on us giving up on the raft after we passed the Twelve Sisters’ Rise, a break in the earth where twelve large rock formations split the land.  We passed them on that third day, and kept moving up-river.  As painful as rowing was, the concept of carrying our possessions with my shoulder the way it was the remaining ten miles it would take by land to reach Broen was simply inconceivable.  Broen was along the river, it just wasn’t as direct a route to get there.  It would take another two days as opposed to the one it would have normally taken me in good health on foot, using the game trails.
	Thankfully, other than aching from the exertion, I didn’t feel any more ill by the close of the day.  Just very, very tired, and very sore.  I hardly made it to shore before I had to sit, and despite my protestations, in the end, Finnegan pitched almost the entirety of our camp.  I had to help steady the oars and spread the hides, but he did all the labor aside from that.  He’d picked up on it fairly quickly for someone who’d only had a few days’ experience making camp.  He even managed to start a fire, although he once again used some of his papers to do so.
	“How much farther?”  He asked, voice thick with fatigue, as we watched the salmon laid out on a stone in the fire crackle and sizzle.  
	“Tomorrow,” I said drowsily.  “We should. . . end of day. . . .”
	He leaned forward and spitted one of the fish on a sharpened stick, holding it out to me.  “Eat,” he insisted quietly. 

	The next morning, I felt much the same.  Which was to say awful.  But I suppose not more ill-feeling than the day before.  Just intensely tired.  All my body wanted to do was stay lying down in that lean-to, warm and still.  Sunlight was filtering in through the hide flap, and not meager morning light like had been many mornings prior.  It was stark daylight outside, which meant we’d slept for a long time.  And all I wanted to do was sleep even longer.
	As bad as I felt, the little world inside our lean-to was still so comforting.  Unlike the night before, I’d slept soundly the whole night through.  Which might have accounted for why I was, at the very least, not getting any worse.
	The reason for our deep and restful sleep was abundantly obvious, at least as far as I was concerned.  Every night prior, Finnegan and I had slept with our backs against one another, or back to front, putting as much distance between us as we could in the small space.  I’d obviously closed the gap in my sleep the one night. . . but we’d tried to have some kind of propriety in the tight quarters.  As meager a bubble between us as we were able to, anyway.
	It was pointless, really.  We’d crossed every boundary that mattered already.  Finnegan had been hesitant since we’d talked to come anywhere near that kind of closeness again, and I suppose a part of me was glad for that.  But the nights were getting colder, and last night when we’d pulled the worn sheepskin over the two of us, and the cold had persisted, the futility of the distance we were putting between us had been too obvious to ignore.
	This wasn’t about whatever I felt for Finnegan, it was about common sense, and survival.  If I’d been well, the cold would have been something I’d have easily endured.  But it was one more pain we didn’t need right now.
	Without so much as a word to one another, we’d drawn in close and folded our bodies around each other.  It had so immediately made sense and felt right, I was tempted to believe a spirit was guiding us.  But it was probably something a lot more basic than that.  Instinct.
	I’d not slept this close with anyone since I was a cub.  Even now, in what I’m fairly certain was the early afternoon light, the canine was still pressed against my chest fur, arms tucked up against me, nose puffing warm air along my breast bone.  He was wrapped in one of my arms and the solid weight of him was quickly lulling me back to sleep.  I forgot about the throbbing pain in my shoulder, the nagging fear we were being followed, and allowed myself to bask in the moment.  
	This was the kind of comfort, I thought, that married people must feel.  Not that I wanted that with Finn, (obviously, it would be sheer insanity to think I could marry another man) it was just the only thing I could think to compare it to.  This total feeling of peace with someone who wasn’t related to you.  I was glad I got to know what it felt like this once, even if it wasn’t under the most ideal circumstances.  There were many comforts you could only have with a wife, and this was one of those things I thought I might never experience.  But here it was, unexpectedly.
	Of course, I’d experienced another ‘comfort’ reserved for marriage with Finn by now, as well.  And I hadn’t stopped thinking about it just because I was ill.
	In his sleep, alongside me as close as he was, I was able to study him in great detail with the advantage of not feeling awkward for staring.  Every moment, I found a new interesting thing about him.  Like how his eyelashes were longer than mine, or that some of his whiskers were bent.  And most intriguingly, that he had scars.  At least a dozen so far that I could see.  Three of them were on his face, one on his ear, the rest on various parts of his body I could see.  They were hard to spot on the previous occasions I’d seen him with his clothing off, both because it was dark, and because of his dark pelt.  But on his face, joints and limbs in particular, where his fur was shorter, I was able to make them out.  Most of them looked older, pink lacerations or divots in the skin that were shinier and missing some fur.  In a way they almost reminded me of my markings, which had been burnt into my hide.  But these clearly had not been intentional.  They were old injuries.  
	A few might have made sense, given what he’d told me about his difficult childhood.  But so many?  It was unexpected.  I’d have to ask him about them some time.
	Some time.  In the next day.  Because after that. . . .
	I shook my head slowly, trying not to think about it for now.  I should get a little more sleep, if I could.  Even if it was getting late in the day, I clearly needed it.  And Finnegan wasn’t even up yet-
	He was, actually.  At some point I’d gotten lost in my thoughts and failed to realize his eyes had opened.  He yawned slowly, his tongue curling, body flexing against mine.
	“Mnnhhhh,” he groaned.  “It’s bright out.”
	I opened my muzzle to say something, but he was already shifting up onto his elbow, fur tousled and flattened against his cheek on one side.  He brushed at it sleepily with his claws, making a half-hearted effort to preen down the black tufts.
	“Finnegan,” I said suddenly, my words coming before my thoughts had caught up.  “Are you certain you can’t get this illness from me?”
	“We don’t even know for certain that you have it,” he said, voice deep and still thick with sleep.  “And you’ve been able to hold food down, so I’d say that’s definitive.  We just need to get the wound treated before it gets worse.”  He reached down and pressed a palm to his back, stretching his hip.  “Why?”
	I’d asked.  I had to answer now, or it would seem strange.
	My eyes darted away from his as I spoke.  “You. . . said you felt the same things for me that. . . I felt for you.”
	That got his attention.  I wasn’t looking at them, but I could feel his eyes become more intense, more awake.  “That’s vague,” he said, tone far too comfortable for something that was so hard for me to get out.  “You mean attraction?”
	“Yes,” I said simply.
	“Then yes.  Although we’re both in a poor state of affairs currently, physically speaking-”
	“Can I kiss you?”  I asked, forcing myself to look him in the eyes when I asked.
	To say he looked shocked would be an understatement.  It took him a full three blinks before he replied to me, and when he did it was with a bemused, “Why-ever are you asking n- I am a mess.”  He gestured down at both of us, really, but he was clearly mostly referring to himself.  And presumably the mud and grit in his fur, the scent of exhaustion and river water soaked into our bodies, and the stale odor of woodsmoke permeating the lean-to from last night’s fire.
	I smiled, and I’m not really sure why.  “You always look handsome, Finn.”
	“That’s true,” he said, without missing a beat.  “And I’m not saying no, exactly.  But why now?”
	“We’re going to reach Broen tonight,” I said with certainty.  “And once we make it to town, I may never have another chance.”
	My forthright answer had the desired effect.  He immediately seemed to realize the truth in the statement, and leaned up on his hands, humming thoughtfully.  “Alright,” he said.  “You make a fine point.  But I’ve one caviat.”
	“A what?”
	“A demand,” he clucked, leaning over me. 
	“I-uh,” I stammered, “alright.”
	Maybe I shouldn’t have agreed to it so quickly, without knowing what it was.  But when he smiled at me, that long canine smile that went up into his cheek ruff, and leaned down over me, those forest green eyes boring into mine, I was certain I’d give this man whatever he wanted.  Which was probably a bad idea.
	Oh, I was done for.
	I reached up to cup my paw around his cheek, amazed by how perfect the contrast in our fur color looked against one another.  I wanted to see more of him. . . against me. . . .
	He was speaking.
	“I don’t actually, ah, kiss people often,” he said, his voice as uncertain as his got.  It was rather cute to see him awkward about something.  Anything.  “It feels like it’s something more reserved for people who are important to you, not dalliances.  And I’ve had more of the latter than the former.  So. . .” he cleared his throat, looking at me, his ears tipped back slightly,  “you have to swear to me that you’re not going to leave me with awful, tragic memories, alright?  Because I’ll remember this, I’m certain I will, and the bad memories I already have of people who’ve been important to me haunt me enough as it is.”
	He said it all so matter-of-factly, like he was making the simplest of requests.  He obviously knew the demand was a farce, what guarantees could I possibly give him that I wouldn’t let something unfortunate happen that would leave him with depressing memories?  But despite how nonsensical it sounded, I understood what he meant completely.  And it gave me some insight into him I hadn’t had before.
	“There’s only so much one man can take,” he said with a smile that didn’t fit how tired his eyes looked.  He laughed, dry and weak.  “I just. . . don’t prefer to have any more regrets than I already do.”
	“Finn,” I said with a huff, smiling as I realized I’d stumbled on at least one thing I could explain to the more worldly canine.  “Memories of people we’ve lost are like. . . stories.  Some parts make you sad, but it doesn’t make the rest of the tale any less wonderful.”
	“Sage wisdom,” he said in an unconvinced, dry tone.  “But I’d like to spend whatever time I have left on earth not being sad, if that’s alright.  I’ve had enough sadness.”
	“I believe you,” I said quietly, my thumb brushing over his cheek.  “But I think you know I can’t promise you that.”
	He dropped his gaze, and after a time, spoke again.  His voice was very small.  “Just don’t die because of me, then.”
	“I’ll do my very best not to die at all,” I promised.  “At least not any time soon.  I have so much left I want to do.”
	He nodded, and closed his eyes for a moment, leaning in to my palm.  “Then I guess. . . it’s alright.”
	That was it.  He’d given me permission.  I’d been the one to ask, so I couldn’t back down now.  That would somehow be even more awkward than attempting it and failing.  Oh spirits, could you fail to kiss someone?  If anyone could, it would be me.
	He’d said he hadn’t done this much before, but then any experience he had was more than mine.  How miserably would I compare to his standards?  Why had I been certain enough to ask for this in the first place?  Where had all my confidence from a few moments ago gone?
	His eyes were boring into mine, the color of spruce boughs and mountains in spring flush.  I could not possibly invent enough metaphors in my mind to describe his eyes.  They were the first thing that had drawn me to him, and now they were inches away, looking into mine expectantly.  And for just this moment, I knew I was allowed to want something, to take something, and that he was willing to give it.  There was such a. . .calm. . . in that certainty.
	There it was.  
	Still holding his chin in my palm like a lifeline, I leaned in the few inches remaining to touch my muzzle to his.  It didn’t matter that I was twice his size, or that we were different species.  Or that we were both men.  His muzzle was soft and pliant against mine, and it only took a short span of brushing fur and whiskers together before we found an angle at which our barely open mouths met.  I felt him on the tip of my tongue, dragged his scent through my nostrils, tasted him.  I was overwhelmed by him, overcome by how his presence was dominating my senses, so much so that I barely noticed when his tongue slid over the tip of my own.  But I hardly needed a coherent thought to know what to do from there.  I wanted more of him, more of that.  So I reciprocated, opened my muzzle more for him.
	And so it went for. . . I’m not certain how long.  But when we pulled back, it was because we were both panting for air.  I felt dizzy, my limbs loose and heavy.  Finnegan looked more disheveled than before, and as the haze began to fade from his eyes. . . surprised.
	“Damn,” he said at length, words almost slurred.  “I was expecting something sweet and simple, from you.  Little peck on the muzzle.  There is a bear in there somewhere, isn’t there?”
	“I. . .”  I was momentarily considering an apology, but I dismissed it before I got it out, remembering every vivid detail of the kiss, and how very mutual it had most certainly been.  Still, I wasn’t going to be held entirely accountable for it.  I gripped his paws, speaking to the baffled looking wolfdog.  “Finnegan. . .” my mouth was dry, but I persisted, “I-I’m really. . . fond of you.  And I’m worried about you.  I’m worried about what’s going to happen in Broen.  I still want to help you somehow, a-and I don’t know how, but I do know that I have. . . I feel. . .” I knitted my brow, frustrated.  “I have all of these feelings,” I settled on the simplest, bluntest way to impart how confused I really was, because there really was no better way to say it, “that I don’t understand,” I continued, helplessly.  “I know we have to go to Broen.  But I’m afraid we’ll part ways there, and then I’ll never understand. . . .”
	I let the thought run out intentionally, hoping he might explain in words what I simply didn’t have the means to.  But he said nothing, only looked down at our hands for a long time.
	“We have to get moving,” is what he eventually said, instead.  “You need treatment.  Broen isn’t far, right?”
	I swallowed back my disappointment.  What had I expected him to say, really?
	“Less than a day,” I said softly.  
	He nodded, standing and releasing my hands slowly.  “We row until we arrive,” he announced, quietly but firmly.  
	What then?  I wanted to ask.  
	But I didn’t.

	We arrived at Broen when the day was late and the whole world was purplish-blue, the snow catching the final colors of daylight as it faded over the mountains.  The lights of the large town were spread over the small valley on which it resided, the docks along the river ringed with lanterns.  I didn’t bother to hide my raft this time, we simply pulled straight up to the town and tied it off, alongside canoes and the sorts of larger boats the Otherwolves favored.  There was even a small barge.
	Our raft was, by far, the smallest and most ramshackle craft here, and a few stoats sitting near a crackling fire, cooking fish and a pot of potatoes, had a good laugh at our expense as we wearily stumbled onto the docks in near blackness.  I made sure to gather up everything we still had of value, because I wasn’t certain any of it would still be here if or when we returned.  I’d never had intentions of taking the raft all the way up-river to my tribe, anyway.  The water had become peppered with ice over the last day or so, as the temperatures dropped.  It would soon freeze.
	Despite it being dark, the dirt road alongside the docks was still bustling with activity, mostly men trying to make the most of the last waning hour to unload supplies, or gather water in bucket lines.  A cattle dog with a herd of mules was bringing them in for a drink before he presumably turned them in for the night.
	And there were a lot of women about, for some reason.  At least half a dozen, moving between firepit camps that had sprung up around the docks, some sitting with the groups of men, talking, laughing, and drinking.  We passed a wolverine amongst a group of Otherwolves, wearing a bright, if mud-stained, checkered dress.  She was smoking a pipe, and gave me a long look when I stared, lifting her muzzle to me as if challenging me to say something.  I quickly looked away.
	“I’ve never seen so many women out at night, in an Otherwolf town,” I said quietly, leaning down to Finn as we walked.
	He glanced briefly up at me, arching an eyebrow.  Then sighed.  “They’re working, Tulimak.  Don’t stare.”
	I shut my mouth and dropped my gaze to the ground, mortified.  He was right.  I forgot sometimes how my curiosity about the world beyond our tribe might be inappropriate.  These were people going about their lives, not a spectacle for me to behold.
	We were passing rows of drying and salting racks for fish, and I’d been keeping my gaze firmly on the dirt, so when someone approached us, I didn’t notice until she was right up on us.  Finn clearly had though, grabbing my arm and pulling me to a halt.
	It was a woman.  A coyote, by the look of it, lean and just a bit shorter than Finnegan.  She was wearing an Otherwolf dress with burgundy checkered patterns on it, over a dingy white petticoat and blouse, and a leather corset.  She was the most uncovered female I’d ever seen outside my own tribe, with her sleeves and most of her top pulled down to just below her shoulders, so that you could see the slope of her breasts.
	I was briefly worried I’d somehow offended her too, until I noticed she was smiling.  Although she was primarily focused on Finnegan.
	“Saw you sizin’ up Gina o’er there,” she remarked, gesturing in the direction of the wolverine.  “She’s spoken for t’night but I ain’t.”
	“We’re not interested in company,” Finnegan said politely.  “We have business in town.”
	“Ah’ve got a place in town if you prefer,” she said, tugging at one of her sleeves.  I wanted to tell her that doing so was just revealing more of her chest, which must have been accidental.  It was so cold out.  “Or a’least, I can.  For a few pence extra, I know a place I kin get us a room.”
	There was something in her tone. . . she was smiling, but also shivering a bit.  And her voice had a waver to it, a weakness in her throat.  It wasn’t desperation, but it was close.
	“That’s not-“ Finn began.
	“I kin handle two,” she insisted, wiping her nose.  “Even the big lad.  Ah’ll be good t’you both.”
	Finn had gone silent.  I wasn’t certain what it was the woman was offering, but I doubted very much that he was planning to take her up on her offer.  But that wasn’t it.  He was staring past her.  I followed his gaze, and caught sight of two eyes in the dark, peering out from behind one of the drying racks.
	The coyote woman saw where we were both looking, and snapped her head around, calling out.  “Ben, no.  I told y’to stay near th’fire-“  She frantically looked back at us, and did a quick curtsy, hustling back towards what I now realized was a small child.  A little coyote boy, clearly only a few years old.  She bent down and picked him up, shockingly walking back towards us once she had him on her hip, her tone placating.  “Ah’m sorry, lads.  He won’t get’n the way, ah promise.  He’s quiet.  He won’t touch none’o your things.  He knows better.”
	I had hardly known what to say before, I was even more at a loss now.  I looked to Finnegan, and found him equally silent.  Only he looked different, now.  Where he’d been polite and calm before, now he seemed. . . pained.  It was impossible to say what was going through his mind or why, but his eyes were unfocused, jaw tense.
	“Do you not have a place to stay tonight, otherwise?”  He asked of the woman, at length.
	“I don’t ‘ave fleas, if that’s your worry,” she insisted, far too quickly.  “I stay at the Church nights I can’t find board.  I’m clean.  M’boy’s clean, too.”
	Finnegan turned to regard me.  “You have coin, right?  To pay the Physician?  We’ll need at least a few silver.”
	“I have coin, yes,” I said, uncertainly.
	He turned at that and unbuttoned, then fished in his coat pocket, and produced a few pence, the copper flashing in the firelight from the nearby camps.  I happened to know it was probably all he had left.  He held it out to the woman, and after a brief pause, she took it.
	“Four’s all I can manage,” he said quietly.  “Not enough for your services, but you said you could find board for a few more, so. . . get somewhere warm.”
	“If I wanted charity I’d go to the Church,” she said, seeming quietly offended.  All the same, she pocketed the coin, and readjusted her son on her hip.  “I don’t s’pose the tribesman there’s willin’ to part with some of that silver, then?”
	“Let’s go,” Finn said to me, walking around and past the woman.  I followed behind him, glancing back behind us as we left her.  She stared at us a further moment, then began to move back towards the camps.
	I thought about asking Finn what exactly had just transpired, but he seemed in a dark mood, all of a sudden.  I walked beside him in silence as we made our way into the lantern-lit town.  After some deliberation, I put a paw on his shoulder and squeezed it.  I didn’t know what to say, but he seemed sad, and it was all I could think to do.
	He reached up and gripped my paw back, and held it for a brief time, before easing it down off of his shoulder.  
	We’d entered Broen’s main street, and it was far more intimidating, far more foreign to me than any place I’d been before.  There were people of all stripes (sometimes literally) milling about in the night market area, moving in and out of rooming houses and inns, sitting on the sprawling porches and leaning on paddock posts.  Broen wasn’t just some frontier town, it was a major trade post.  My father came here to trade for goods our tribe needed sometimes, but I’d intentionally avoided it to sell my fish, since everyone back home had agreed a place like this was too much for someone as young and inexperienced as I.
	I felt somewhat more comfortable being here with Finnegan, who seemed not at all flustered by the civilization around us, or the menagerie of different people.  And this was at dusk.  During the day it must have been. . . I couldn’t even imagine.
	I didn’t have long to take in the sights.  We bypassed most of the main street on our way to the trade district, which was not hard to find.  There were signposts up on the few street corners that comprised the square that was the town, (built around animal paddocks abutting most of the inns and rooming houses, as many towns were), and Finnegan seemed completely able to read them.  Unlike the sign on the Wayward Inn, these were only in Amurescan.  Which I could sound out if I took my time, but I was mostly good at picking out familiar words for inns, food, drink, words I already knew.  It would take me a good long while to make sense of all the signs in this place.  It was, after all, still a second language for me, even if my father has insisted all of his children become as fluent in it as possible.
	I’d never been more glad for that than I had been throughout this last week.
	“That has to be it,” Finnegan pointed ahead at a sign with a complex word I couldn’t immediately make out, and a weathered, painted sign on a plank that looked like a jar of some sort.
	“Ahh. . . p-p-ah-“ I tried my hand at reading the word, squinting.
	“Apothecary,” he finished for me, looking mildly surprised.  “You can read Amurescan?”
	“Not quickly,” I said bashfully.  “My sisters are all better at it than me.”
	He readjusted the strap of his heavy satchel over his shoulder, glancing down at his bag and holding it closer to his body.  “I had no idea.  Come on.”
	The doorway into the small shop, built into the side of a larger building with two other shops in it, was clearly built for a smaller species.  We found the door open, thankfully, but the main area was a cluttered, V-shaped counter ringing a ten foot room, at most.  There was barely room for Finn and I to stand in the center with our bags, and take in the shelves of molasses-brown bottles and jars.  The counter was equally cluttered with various-sized glass containers of tinctures and spirits, dried herbs and many different sizes of gauze and linen.  The air inside smelled like nothing I had ever experienced before, sharp and bitter, stinging to the nostrils.  And beneath it all, the unmistakable coppery edge of blood, from somewhere nearby.
	A bell above the door had rung as we’d come in, and we heard the sound of someone making their way down the stairs to the second story.  The man that emerged through the doorway behind the counter was a striped Maine Coon cat, with a thick fur beard and sharp, triangular ears.
	I recognized him immediately.  
	“I’m sorry if you were closing down for the night-“ Finnegan began.
	“We never close here at Carlton’s Apothecary and Barber Surgeon,” the cat snuffled, pulling down a stained smock from a nearby peg and tying it across his belly.  He wiped some crumbs from his thick fur, flicking his whiskers.  “Although you did catch me in the midst of supper, so apologies for the wait.  Now.”  He placed his meaty paws on the counter.  “What ails you?  Here for a night tonic?”
	“I’m. . . not sure what that is,” Finn admitted with a slight chuckle.  “But no.  We had a. . .” he glanced up at me,”. . . bit of a hunting accident.”
	“Couldn’t be too bad if you’re still upright,” the cat guffawed, lifting a section of the counter and shimmying through it, just barely.  “But let’s have a look.”
	I put down our bags, looked once to Finn, who nodded at me, then kneeled down to be at the cat’s level and slowly pushed back my cloak to reveal the wound on my shoulder.  Even moving the cloth aside stung, and I let out an audible hiss.
	“Ahhh, I see,” the man moved around behind me, his hands prodding at and pulling taut my hide around the injury, which hurt like hell.  But I suppose he had to get a better look.  He took some time, even leaning in to sniff at the wound, before stepping back and nodding.  “Corruption of the humors, yes.  Hmmm.  We’ll need to purge the wound, sear it, and prescribe you a tonic.”
	I saw Finnegan wince out of the corner of my eye.  
	“I remember you,” I said quietly.  “You came to my village once.  Told us how to stop the illness our traders brought back from spreading.”
	The cat’s eyes widened marginally.  “Ah, yes.  That strange plague that afflicted so many tribes along the river.  I traveled to many villages. . . many towns. . . .”  He patted my arm, indicating for me to stand.  “Never seen its like before.  Hope I never do again.”
	I stood slowly, and he continued, “Well, when we don’t know the nature of the beast, fire is always the best method.  Purges all impurity, all sin.  We’ll employ something similar for this affliction of your humors.  I’ll just have to get the brand ready. . . .”
	I blinked.  “Wh-what?”
	“C’mon upstairs, if’you can fit,” the cat chuckled, leaning down and grabbing up a leather bag from behind the counter.
	I watched him head upstairs, my shoulder still pounding with pain from his prodding at it, and fear now setting in fully.  
	“I’ve never been treated with Otherwolf medicine before,” I said quietly.  
	“We can’t let it get worse,” Finn put a paw out, taking mine.  “I’ll be with you.  You can endure this.”
 	Swallowing, I nodded.  And we made our way upstairs.