I gulp, then nod into his chest.
"If you start to slip, I'll grab you. I promise," he says with a purr in his chest.
It turns into a soothing rumble against my cheek as he gets closer to the tree.
His purr suddenly cuts off and his body tenses.
It's the only warning I get before the roar of a gun echoes across the forest and a searing pain blooms in my left bicep. It pulls a scream from me as another shot rings out and tree bark explodes out from the tree behind me, grazing my cheek with a stinging impact.
A moment later Thivoll has me crushed up against the tree, one arm gripping me tight as he scrambles up it.
Another shot and a deep groan from him lets me know he's also been hit, but he continues his mad scramble.
A glimpse of the forest lets me know he's moving us to the far side of the tree as he climbs it.
"Can you hold me?" I don't understand right away. "Ree! Are you too injured to hold on?"
The question knocks me out of my shock and I cling hard to him, my adrenaline helping me ride out the searing pain.
"I'm alright," I hiss out through gritted teeth.
We are high in the canopy when he lets out another pained groan and launches us away from the trunk, twisting us around so he can grab onto the branches of another tree.
Our impact is jarring and the swing of our bodies almost jolts me out of his arms. I have to clamp down hard on a chunk of his mane with my good arm to keep myself from falling before he wraps his tail around me.
It pulls me tight to him as he moves us up into the twisting thick branches of the tree.
His tail unwraps again and I let out a small mewl of panic as I frantically pull all my weight to his chest, gravity trying to pull me down and his moving limbs jostling me from where I'm clinging to his chest like a baby ape.
"I need it, sorry," he pants out.
I can't reply.
All of my focus has to be on making myself continue to grip him as I get increasingly dizzy from the pain and rapid changes of direction.
A small, agonized eternity later he slows down and wraps an arm around me.
"We should be fine now if we aren't too loud," he tells me in a whisper.
I nod against his chest as shivers of fear and agony wrack my body.
I push through them to ask about his wound. "Where'd they get you?"
"Nowhere dangerous. You?"
"I'll have to stop the bleeding quickly or I'll pass out."
"So soon?" His low voice sounds panicked.
There's no reason to risk an answer, so I focus on staying conscious and not screaming each new torturous time he bumps into me.
Eventually we stop moving and he repositions me as I hiss in a breath through my gritted teeth.
"Ask your suit to recede?"
I realize what he means after a long, dumb moment of confusion. A quick image of a sleeveless black shirt and my wound is exposed. The blood flow is sluggish, but my arm is coated in it, as is his fur.
"Is there an exit wound?" I ask him.
