Jake helped his wounded sister out of the truck and walked with her into the hospital. "Hey! I've got a victim of a canine attack here! Anyone?" He called out.

Nicole felt like she was about to faint and still had the feeling that she was being attacked. Her eyes were wide, but her legs were weak. The flesh on her neck was torn and her shirt was covered in blood. "Where's Fox?!" She exclaimed again.

With the swift, efficient sympathy that is leant to medical personnel, a swarm of nurses and emergency room staff swooped out to take care of Nicole. A short and stocky african american nurse with a booming voice began to issue orders, and when she was finished, she spoke to Nicole. Easy there, now. Fox'll be okay. An easy, soft lie from nurse to patient, because after all she had no idea if Fox was fine, or even, indeed, what Fox was. She flashed a look to Jake that told him not to contradict the idea that Fox was fine. After all, to a nurse, it was most important to keep the patient calm. Her brown hand held out a clipboard and pen to Jake, on which there were some basic forms as to what sort of allergies Nicole might have and any other particulars they might need to know.

Then she ignored him, turning back to the girl. With a gentle hand she steered Nicole toward a waiting guerny, voice soft and almost gentle. Let's get you on my rolling patient-lamborguini. As she began to assist the girl down onto the guerny, she snapped a few more orders, and about six hands grabbed hold of the cart and began to roll her into the emergency room. Even before they reached the door, the booming nurse wordlessly stretched out a hand, and a large peice of gauze was promptly placed into it. This she pressed down on Nicole's neck wound, snapping out a few more orders as they rolled her inside.

As they began to work, a physician came to greet Jake, voice firm and self-assured. Dog attack, you said? Did the dog appear well, or did it look to have some disease? Important to know, so they would know what to treat for. After all, a simple antibiotic that would be administered to fight off one kind of infection would actually make another type of infection advance more quickly. So it was vital to know exactly what happened.

Jake looked down at his sister, fearing that she may not come out of the hospital alive. "Fox is fine..." He said softly, taking the clipboard. He began to fill everything out.

Nicole remained calm while the nurse wheeled her down the hall. She only thought about her dog, and how he was doing.

Jake looked up at the physician. "They seemed perfectly fine as far as health goes. They just came to kill some chickens and attacked my sister and some of our dogs while they were at it. I don't know if that's normal behavior." He wasn't exactly the animal person. That was Nicole.

In this part of the country, it is. It was not the doctor, but Tahmores who answered Jake's question of normal behavior, melting out of the shadows and sliding up beside the doctor. Hello, Laura.

Doctor Laura smiled at Tahmores, for though he was not a physician like herself, he had significant survival knowledge, and was one of the area's leading experts on wolves and their behavior. At seventeen, he had many people coming to the ranch to consult him about pack behavior. Laura had gradually gotten used to his presence, and welcomed his input on the many occasions when they had non-human inflicted wounds here at the hospital. Leaving them to talk, she moved inside.

Laura's soft, assured voice could not have been more different from the booming nurse's. The slighest tone rang clear in the room, and the staff raced to obey. A mild sedative was injected into Nicole's shoulder. It would not knock her out, but it would calm her and start to fight any shock, as well as making it less painful to inject any painkillers and antibiotics close to the neck wound. Next, a nurse prepared a clotting agent, and everyone with a hand available grabbed a hold of some peice of Nicole, because they needed her to hold still and the sensation of the nurse swiping it directly onto the wound would be... unpleasant. But they had to get the veins to clot so that the girl would not bleed to death.

The wolves of this valley are... of a different variety than the wolves found elsewhere. They are more intelligent, more cunning, and for the most part, unafraid of humans. They also attack humans and livestock more readily. In the wild, most wolves will only attack livestock if they are starving and there is no easier prey. Here, it seems to be their dinner of choice.

Snapping a few more orders, Laura came back outside just in time to catch Tahmores' last words. A slight twinge of worry plagued his voice as he absently played with air with his left hand, calling the attention of Laura's tried eye to the empty gap at his side. The wolf... what was his name? Brother? She'd never seen Tahmores without him before. Nevermind, she'd ask later. She took the clipboard from Jake and read it quickly, and then headed abruptly back inside.

Jake looked off in the distance for a moment before looking back at Tahmores and the nurse. "I thought so. The animals here are psycho." He sighed.

In the ER, Nicole was behaving quite calmly, but still clenched her teeth. She knew that if she struggled it would take even longer. Once the sedative was injected, she relaxed and stopped clenching her teeth. She closed her eyes when the clotting agent was applied.

Out in the waiting room, Jake kept his eyes on Tahmores. He was clearly afraid for Nicole. "So I suppose there's no way to avoid them..." He said distantly. "They just came to get some chickens, and they mauled my sister in the process." He wished he would have been there sooner. This may not have happened if he was.

As Nicole began to relax with the effect of the sedative, hands began to bustle around more swiftly. Drawers were opened and closed, things removed, and delicate, well-trained hands began to sew, cleanse, and bind up the gaping neck-wound. The booming nurse stitched with the quick efficiency peculiar to that fashion of humanity, murmuring soft and low under her breath the whole time. That done, she called the doctor back in.

A few local painkillers, fluids and minerals to counteract shock, and an antibiotic to stave off infection she loaded into several needles, injecting these in quick succession into the muscles surrounding the wounds. Finally, she stood back, waiting for these treatments to take hold so it would be safe to move Nicole into a room.

Nicole looked at the nurse. "Thank you..." She whispered as the pain began to go away.