I'm All In

The dust having settled, Shuule grimaced, her injured arm throbbing. Her left hand instinctively went and gripped her arm over her the bandages, and when she felt the strange, sickening soft feeling underneath her fingers, her breathing stopped. Under the bandage it did not feel like flesh and body, but more like boneless clay.

"It's okay" Harvey chimed in. "It's a poultice. I've packed the wound cavity in your arm. I think," He paused to gesture at her, "You will be able regenerate your tissue fast enough to keep your arm, like a male would. If you weren't who you are, I would have to try and stitch this, and I don't think without Human medicine, we would be able to keep infection back. I apologize though, there is not much I can do for the pain other than put you back to sleep if you wish."

Shuule vigorously shook her head no. She would bear the pain happily to be conscious and have her own free will. The girl looked backwards and up to meet the eyes of Set, who had not stopped holding onto her, as if he let go she may drift back close to death.

"Did the eagle male really help save me?" she asked in a whisper.

Set nodded, before flicking his tongue out, somewhat agitated but understanding that he ought to be grateful.

Relaxing, Shuule shifted from wariness to curiosity. She had absolutely no idea what these crystals were that had been brought up, but it certainly seemed important. Taking a step forward, Set obediently loosened his grip so she could walk away, though he let out a small frustrated hiss. Tentatively, the girl walked up to the two men, shoulders rolled forward, fox tail - which she hadn't bothered to pull back - low and sweeping. With a hesitated stutter in her motion, Shuule put both her hands out, one to each man, who in return both returned the gesture, grasping her palms.

"Thank you," Shuule said quietly.

Harvey's heart was warmed, but he had learned to never think too much into a woman's kind gestures. Ukko on the other hand flashed another awkward, over enthusiastic smile.

"Does that mean you've accepted me?!" he chirped.

Shuule didn't pull her hand back, but raised an eyebrow. "What?"

Harvey winced an apology, taking his own hand back from Shuule and placing it on Ukko's shoulder.

"I think we might have different....guidelines as a society, here. No pressure Shuule, but when a male saves a female by city rules, he's given priority to be one of her mates."

"I MEAN a LITTLE pressure," stammered Ukko, his smile whipped off his face.

"Oh," was the only thing Shuule could find in her vocabulary.

To Ukko's dismay, her face turned from puzzled to that of sheer suspicion, her ears tilting back slightly as she looked him up and down, still holding onto his hand, but stiffening up. The dark skinned male could sense the snake behind her starting to tense as well, ready to pounce if his mate felt threatened.

"It's not that I'm not grateful, I just don't want you to be stuck with me," the girl mumbled.

From the shadows, Set elaborated, not interested in dealing with the past much longer. "She was forced to take a mate in her old village and he threatened to drown any future daughters that could shift like she can," he stated plainly. "He's now rootless, so if you aren't all in on this, I'd leave her alone."

"I'm all in!" exclaimed Ukko, putting another hand on top of hers. In truth, he wasn't sure what was going on, but he was being driven by instinct of needing a spouse, fear of the contract he had created with the King, and the steadiness in the wise doctor's conviction that there wasn't anything wrong with this female, even if she had the wrong abilities.

Shuule smiled nervously, while Set frowned, snorting, the noise snapping her out of her own internal struggle. It wasn't his decision to make, but out of all the species she could have picked, it didn't occur to him that her second spouse would be an eagle.

The girl nodded, letting go of the silver haired boy's hand.

"If we stay here I would hide it all anyway," she shrugged. "....what?"

She looked at the color drain from the two relative stranger's faces, and turned to look at Set behind her who had a crooked smile. Uncrossing his arms, he gestured for Shuule to come back over to him, and she quickly complied, becoming uncomfortable with not being within his reach anyway. Set stroked her hair back, and then gently, traced a finger up the line from her jaw to the top of her cheekbone.

"You're going to have some trouble with that," he explained. "You have more stripes than our friend Harvey, here."

Wide eyed, Shuule placed her hand on top of Set's that was resting on her cheek. "How? I almost died, I had to be saved."

Harvey spoke up this time. "We've seen this in the past. My theory is it's partially the body's survival instinct, forcing a level up to try and save itself. The other is that facing adversity is an experience builder in itself."

Shuule's nostrils flared, her mind suddenly too heavy with everything she had just learned in such a short amount of time. Effectively she had lost two days worth of memory, to wake up and find her arm a pile of mush, promised to a new spouse, people she had never met knowing she could transform, standing in a house of a man who had known of her since she was a child, in the middle of a city of several thousand strangers, with a unconcealable warrior stripe on her face. It was more than her weakened body wanted to process right now. With a sigh, Shuule looked out the door, where the days first light was starting to peer through.

"You must be thirsty, and you still need to rest," the doctor said with authority. "Ukko, there is some fresh water in a basin in the corner. Set, as you two don't have a home here yet, you can rest here today."

"We can just go home," Shuule offered.

"We'll talk about it later," Set cut off the other two men. He wasn't sure how Ukko got the crystal, but he had an inkling that Shuule wasn't going to be offered the rare, life saving gem just to be allowed to walk out of the city. But he could also sense how uncomfortable she was, and he didn't want to stress her further.

Shuule glared at Set, who didn't give her anymore arguments, shifting his torso into his long black and red snake tail, picking her up carefully and slithering to the empty far corner and curling up to hold her as he would in their cave to sleep.