Loveless: Day 5

Word Count: 30,020

Summary of Events:

Le Démon frustratedly moped over his lack of progress. Thérèse managed to make a getaway from the castle, although she was somewhat frightened by the wolves. Le Démon, having woken, discovered her missing and tracked her through the forest. Thérèse came on some wolves, which frightened her, but was rescued and brought back to the castle by Le Démon. Henri, having been told by his grooms of wolf activity to the northeast, went and searched; they found dead wolves, and a blanket, which his hunting hounds tracked as to have come from Château Montegnard, which Henri found eerily unoccupied, which quite strongly disturbed him. Le Démon lay on his bed, aching and sore from the night before, particularly his shoulder, which had been gashed deeply.

Excerpt of the Day:

"Now he was sore and aching from defending his territory and stopping his escapee, and he couldn't bring himself to get up.

But he had to. He needed to get up, otherwise he would surely become all seized up and his shoulder wound might well heal improperly and lead to him being unable to move about painlessly.

Setting his teeth, he took a deep breath and gathered his sore hind legs under him; they weren't too bad, it was mostly muscle soreness from the heightened state of intense activity the night before.

Slowly, growling and snarling in pain, he drew his forelegs under himself.

He lay, panting, and valiantly resisting the urge to shift back to the way he'd been laying so as to ease the pain, for a few moments before managing to shift himself up into the sitting-laying position.

The pain in his shoulder was almost blinding. It was terrible, he clenched his teeth, closed his eyes, and growled savagely.

Finally, with a great and agonising thrust, he surged to his feet for all of five seconds before collapsing down to the nest again in sheer agony.

Again, this time a little faster, he tried, and managed to hover shakily on three legs for a few moments before collapsing again, exhausted, his body screaming in pain, and blood from his shoulder wound soaking into his fur again.

It took five more tries, each standing a little bit longer, before finally he felt like he could keep his feet and maybe actually try travelling somewhere.

He wanted to go out and see her, and give her the retribution she deserved for trying to get away, but walking was a whole new, and even more blindingly painful process that caused him to collapse again.

Several times he rose and walked a few steps before collapsing, eventually just making his way back to his nest.

Sitting down — a more painful position than sit-laying, he found — he bent his head around and licked at the blood seeping from the separations in the scab, and between the scab and the flesh.

With his tongue being an abrasive, he tried to get the hair out of the wound, but unfortunately he was unsuccessful.

Gently using his teeth, he gnawed at the wound. He had to get the hair out of it at least, that would surely ease a great lot of the pain, as there would be no tugging and pulling of the hair out of the scar tissue.

He growled at himself because of the pain as he used his longest canines to peel as gently as he could, alternately licking to help lift more gently and keep the area clear.

Finally it came free and he licked profusely to direct the hair away from the wound, which now hurt even more than before, having been exposed all over again."