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"It is cute."

The Kelvarin bared a mouthful of small sharp teeth.

Alex leaned away. "Adorable."

"Don't mock it."

"I wasn't."

"You were."

"I respect its commitment to violence."

I held out my hand without touching it, and the pup watched me while its heart hammered beneath everything else I could sense.

"It's alright," I murmured, remaining still when its nose twitched. Nobody behind me moved or tried to hurry the moment, and eventually the pup stretched its neck just far enough for its whiskers to brush my fingers.

I touched the side of its shoulder.

Magic moved. Damage unfolded beneath my awareness. Electrical burns through the nerves of the forelegs. Muscle tears from fighting the restraint. A small fracture through one paw.

I repaired the nerves first, then the muscle and finally the bone, feeling the pup gradually relax beneath my hand. When I pulled away, it remained still for a moment, as though testing the absence of pain, before scrambling backward into the ferns.

The second pup was larger and angrier and attempted to bite Nykos.

Dannian released the restraint while I kept the animal focused on my hand. It snapped once, missed, then allowed me close enough to heal the damaged tissue through its chest.

The third was the smallest.

By the time we freed it, exhaustion had taken most of the fight out of it. The pup sagged against the wet ground, its breaths coming too quickly while its tail lay limp behind it, and my chest tightened with the urge to grab it. I didn't. I forced myself to check the ground, the wire, the restraint and Dannian before I moved. Corian saw me do it, but once again, he said nothing.

I slipped one hand beneath the pup's chest only after it failed to pull away. Its fur was impossibly soft under the mud, dense enough to keep water from reaching the skin beneath. I repaired the electrical damage first and then the torn muscle around its rear leg where the restraint had tightened.

The pup's heartbeat slowed.

Its eyes opened properly.

Bright cyan.

"Hello." It blinked at me.

Alex whispered, "Do not boop it."

I looked over my shoulder.

He grinned.

"I hate you."

"You absolutely considered it."

I had, but that felt irrelevant now. The three pups remained close once they were free instead of disappearing into the jungle. They pressed together beneath a broad fern, all of them facing the same direction.

I felt it before I heard it. Something larger moved through one of the nearby waterways heading toward us fast.

Smoke poured off my wrist before I finished the thought, and Ashter hit the ground solid beside me, ember eyes already fixed on the water.

"Everyone back."