“Sorry. It’s nothing personal. Please, leave. I can’t have you disturbing my customers.”
Furis glared at the whispering humans, furious at the females who scurried away as if they were somehow a threat. He let out a snort of disgust. Just as well that Yeril had not chosen one from among them. Females who had been all over them moments ago now desired to see them forced out.
He would not give any of them the satisfaction, much less the triad smugly watching from their corner. Females were pressed against them, no doubt seeking protection. Furis’s nostrils flared. There was no way he could prove it, but he was certain those males had done this. They were eliminating competition. No doubt they would do the same to the other triads in the tavern. They would kill any Ragoru or human who got in their way.
He hoped that someone would take notice and do something about their presence in the Citadel before they left with a female. Despite the way they were now acting toward his triad, he did not wish to see any of the females harmed. Unlike a larger, more vicious female Ragoru, the humans were small and delicate, easy to harm. He couldn’t leave without at least saying something.
Furis shifted Yeril’s weight higher against him, grateful when Bero did likewise. He jerked his head toward the triad.
“Very well. We will depart. But I highly recommend that you do not allow that triad to stay. Keep watch for any other sickness and make them leave before they can get a female alone. Please,” he growled.
The human squinted but nodded firmly in silent agreement.
Huffing again at the pitiful humans, Furis and Bero turned together, leaving the tavern. The moment they stepped out, Furis turned his head and scowled when he noted that the females that had previously been clustered around them had already descended upon the other triad, giving their attention to the gray males. The small consolation was that the human male who governed the tavern was watching the triad with a carefully neutral expression.
A male of a particular dull gray pelt pulled a curvy female with hair the color of sunlight into his arms as he leered at Furis through the window. His grin widened as he made show of sliding extra coin to the server. Fury rolled through Furis as his suspicions were confirmed. He wanted nothing more than to go in and kill the male, but Yeril’s heavy body shivering against him made him reconsider. His lead was more important. With a low growl, he turned away from the tavern.
Bero could not disguise his worry. “What are we going to do?”
“We will keep moving,” Furis muttered.
Step by step, they slowly made their way down the street. Anyone they asked for help shied away when they spied Yeril’s condition. Though he begged and pleaded, no one paused to even so much as listen. Furis’s anger grew with every encounter until he began snapping his teeth at any human who glanced at them with abhorrence rather than continue appealing to uncaring ears.
The humans were not going help them. He felt that in his bones. The people of the Citadel were still too afraid. Because of that, Furis and Bero were going to lose their lead. Furis bowed his head, a feeling of loss filling him. In one terrible tragedy, they were going to lose both part of their family as well as all their hope for the future. It was ironic considering that hours earlier he had been eagerly looking forward to the happiness finally so near at hand. He had been almost arrogant about it, confident that all they had to do was reach out and pluck what they wanted.
Now they had nothing.
Bero nudged Yeril’s jaw with his muzzle and exchanged a concerned glance with Furis.
“I don’t know how much longer we can pull him through the snow. We need to find shelter and hope that whatever is happening can work out of his system.”
Furis gnashed his teeth, frustrated.
“Nothing is going to work out of his system. Do you not see that Yeril is dying?”
“We do not know that” Bero insisted, a low growl punctuating his statement.
Furis snarled and lunged forward to shake some sense into his brother. As he did so, he felt his foot slip on a sheet of dark ice. Off balance, he skidded sideways into the iron handrail of a staircase leading up to the doorway of a building, and he realized all too late that he had inadvertently pulled his brothers with him. Furis let out a painful breath as their bodies collided with his, making the intricate lacing of metal dig into his spine where he was pushed up against it. Glaring at Bero, he bared his teeth.
“Get off,” he gasped.
Bero hissed in pain but pushed himself up, ears twisting in a contrite expression as he glanced down at Furis. Shaking out his fur, he leaned down and gripped Yeril, pulling him up with a strained groan. The relief was almost immediate, and Furis staggered to his feet as he added his strength to lifting Yeril once again between them.
Once they were all on their feet, Furis grunted as the large white head of their brother drooped against his shoulder. He grunted, shifting beneath his brother’s arms as he slid his feet farther apart to support the weight. Bero muttered an apology, but Furis waved it aside. Their tempers were both noticeably short, for good reason. With grim determination, he strode forward, and they were once again marching against the mounting wind and snow. Gradually he became aware of the fact that his vision was failing as the weather turned worse.
Furis dropped his head as he stopped in place, his paws buried in snow and his sides heaving with exertion. Bero turned, glowing golden eyes just barely visible in the snowfall. He hated to admit it, but he had lost his bearings long ago. He had no idea how to make it back to the trade station to find shelter within the travelers’ dorms, much less find a healer for Yeril. His body shook with sudden weariness, certain he would collapse into the snow. He winced when light flooded over him from a doorway, and a sole silhouette stepped out from it with a pail in hand. The human stopped and looked at them. Furis shivered and blinked as he returned the regard through the ice coating the fur around his eyes.
“Oh, my blessed Mother, are you all right?” a feminine voice inquired, shock abundant in the dulcet tones. A slender arm lifted a lantern, and he caught the barest glimpse of soft skin peeking out from beneath the voluminous gray material wrapped around her.
He spared a glance at Bero. His brother’s eyes were now closed, and he was nearly bowed under Yeril’s weight, one of his secondary arms buried in the snow of a stoop to keep himself from collapsing. He could also tell that their lead’s condition was deteriorating. Breath panted out of Yeril in weak, icy fogs as he lay lax and unconscious between them. Furis looked back to the female and cleared his throat.
“We require aid,” he said, his voice raspy and thin even to his own ears. “My brother is sick.”
She hurried back up the steps, and he watched after her bitterly, certain that she was yet another human abandoning them, but to his surprise, she returned. She was barely visible, a silhouette nothing more than a shadow as she approached with empty arms and waved them forward.
“Hurry! Come in before you all end up sick. No one should be out in this weather.”
With great effort, he roused Bero, who did little more than bare his teeth at his harsh slap, and together they hauled Yeril through the small, narrow doorway.
Although he struggled to keep his senses about him, Furis noted that the den they entered was unnaturally small. That hardly mattered when he could have bowed and thanked the Mother for the blessed warmth filling the room. The human female pulled her gray wrap off, showing her small, feminine frame as she rushed to the fire and prodded at it with an iron poker to raise the flames before throwing on more fuel. It was only once she was certain that the roaring flames were producing enough heat that she flitted to a large, cushioned bench, upon which lay a stretch of fabric. At her invitation, they maneuvered their brother over it to and dropped with him onto the thick cushions.