Establishing Dominance

This situation was all kinds of screwed. This had been supposed to be a recon mission only, but after seeing this girl she couldn't have just left her there with those damn humans. And so there she was, stranded out in the middle of the snowy forest with this frail girl she didn't even know because she was too damn stubborn to just leave her behind.

She turned back to look at the girl that had been following close behind her for so long once she noticed that the sound of crunching snow had stopped. The girl turned back just in time to see the girl's eyes close as she starts to fall. Yvonne reacted almost immediately, lunging forward and catching her before she collapsed.

This made the rest of the travel inconvenient. She had already told Sable to report back to the White Fang regarding what they had found, and to find out what they were supposed to do next. There was still a good four or five hours trek between where they currently were and the safety of her camp.

"More like six now..." She corrected herself. Carrying this girl would slow her down considerably, but it had to be done. Part of her was annoyed, but then the logical part of her mind reminded her that she had just saved this girl from being a captive for god only knows how long.

Even through the ratty clothes she wore, Yvonne could see that she was malnourished and in horrible condition. She couldn't exactly blame the girl for not being able to keep up with such an exhausting pace for as long as she did. So Yvonne crouched down and threw the girl's arms over her shoulders and picked her up into a piggyback.

"She's so light..." She thought out loud, something she hadn't really noticed up until that point. "What the hell have they been doing to you..."

---

The sun had already set by the time Yvonne had made it back to her camp. She was absolutely exhausted, the last hour or so of the hike had been in an almost zombie-like trance. Her legs felt like dead weight, and the minute she saw the treeline that marked the way to her camp it felt like she couldn't even lift her feet anymore.

Still, she pushed that little bit further and she found herself standing in the safety of her camp. She immediately carried the girl she had rescued over to her tent and set her down carefully on the mat. She draped the one blanket she had over her and looked her her frail form with some mix of sympathy and disgust.

This served as a reminder of why she hated humans, they were monsters to do whatever it was they did to a poor girl like this. She was practically seething in anger.

Once she managed to calm herself down, pacing back and forth across her campsite on her dead legs, she looked up at the tree she had hidden her gear away in. She shook her head in defeat and sighed, "No way in hell I'm getting that down tonight."

So she crawled into the tent and zipped the opening shut, hoping to keep what little heat was in the tent there. She curled up in a similar position to when she had been forced to share the tent with Sable, leaving the majority of the space in the tent for the girl and curling up against the side of the tent. She closed her eyes and let the exhaustion sweep over her.

Step by step, Emilia trudged on, following her apparent savior. She still had an uneasy feeling about her, but under these circumstances, there wasn't much of a choice. She was tired, hungry, thirsty, and in pain. After what felt like hours of stomping through the snow, Emilia suddenly felt light headed. Without even the slightest struggle, she collapsed to the ground, out cold.

As she slowly came too, she lifted her heavy head off a very soft feeling mat. After her accommodations in the facility, almost anything to lay her head on was soft in comparison. As she attempted to look around at her surroundings, she fell back to the mat and began to shiver. The cold metal of the shock collar still clung to her neck. Through groggy eyes, Emilia could just make out what looked like someone just a little ways from her. Desperate for warmth, she pulled herself over to the mystery person, and cuddled up next to them. With the occasional shiver, Emilia slowly drifted to sleep with her new source of heat.

Yvonne's mind was not kind to her as she slept, in her dreams she had taken the place of the caged girl. It had not been a good night sleep for her, and she woke up in a cold sweat. As she jolted awake however, she became aware of a light weight draped over her stomach.

She looked down and saw an arm draped over her midsection, and she then looked at the girl who had at some point in the night ended up cuddled close against her. Her mind immediately flew into a panic as she realized she was caught between this girl and the wall of the tent. She didn't do so well with physical contact, especially not being this close to someone.

But at the same time, she couldn't rightfully disturb this girl from her sleep. She had to have been through hell, and after how long she had endured their trek Yvonne would feel awful for not letting her rest.

She was so conflicted, her heart pounded against her chest as every moment she spent trying to decide what to do she was painfully aware of the girl's presence curled against her body. As she was lost in a panic of wondering what to do, she realized the collar that the girl was wearing. She had noticed it before of course, but now that she got a chance to actually take a closer look at it and realize what it was, she felt like she was going to be sick.

"So that's what the humans think of us..." She growled under her breath, her fury was almost palpable. It was a god damned shock collar.

'We really are just dogs to them.'

That distressed look on the girl's face in her sleep though, she just couldn't force herself to pull away from that. 'I really hope Sable gets back soon... I have no idea what I'm going to do with her...' She thought, which was a bit of a surprise that she would even think something like that.

So she simply stayed where she was, letting the girl lay nestled up against her side as she stared up at the fabric of the tent.

Still feeling deprived of warmth, Emilia's desperation took hold. She began to fidget, trying to somehow get even closer, as her arm began to look for a warmer spot to come to a rest. After moving upwards a little ways, her hand came to a rest at a warm bump.

Unsatisfied with not being able to get closer from the side, Emilia's subconscious went for a different approach. Gathering up what little strength she could muster, Emilia pushed herself up on top of her source of heat.

Emilia's head took her hand's place that it had scouted out earlier, coming to rest in a spot that seemed to radiate heat all around her, and was even softer than the mats. Finally content with the spot she had found, Emilia was out almost as fast as she had passed out during her trudge through the frozen wasteland.

Sadly, Emilia would not be allowed to rest yet. Her body suddenly reacted on it's own and rolled her from her warm slumber onto the floor as her arms and legs began to stiff while her brain attempted to catch up. Before it hit her, she knew all to well from the many nights at the facility what as coming. A sharp pain suddenly shot through her neck, like someone was driving an endless knife into her. Her hands shot to the collar, pulling at it, trying desperately to pull off the collar as a blood curdling scream shot from her mouth.

Her body continued to act on its own as she jumped to her feet and attempted to run, only to smack into a cloth of some kind. She managed to burst through, but she fell to the frozen ground. Not able to get up, she could only yell out

"Stop it! Stop, it hurts!"

Yvonne nearly jumped out of her skin as she realized she was being groped. Okay now this girl was crossing a line and just as she was about to push the girl away or say something about it, she realized the girl was now climbing on top of her and using her chest as a makeshift pillow.

She felt her fury and indignation peak. Yes this girl was a bit weak and helpless, but now Yvonne's personal space was being violated after letting this girl sleep in her tent. The rational part of her mind had gone out the window, and just as she is about to push the girl off of her the girl suddenly went stiff and began to scream.

The arctic wolf-girl was shocked and had no idea what was going on, until her eyes locked with the shock collar. 'But how?' Was her first thought, after all they were way too far from the lab for any sort of remote signal to trigger it and she was almost certain she hadn't been followed.

She wasn't able to follow that train of thought for too long, as suddenly the girl stood up and burst through the side of her tent, destroying the fabric that had served as her home in this snowy wilderness. She tried to rationalize that this was all the fault of the humans that had collared her, and she realized that she was in such a state of panic that she didn't know what she was doing.

Still, that didn't change the fact that her tent was now wrecked...

She tried to force herself to calm down, her anger was getting the better of her and it wasn't going to help this situation at all. She crouched down to where the girl was and rested a hand on her shoulder, she didn't even know if she would be able to make a difference but she needed to try. She refused to just sit there and do nothing while this girl was in pain.

But in one of the worst moments of realization she had ever come to, she realized she couldn't do a damn thing to help the girl. She was going to kill whoever it was that did this to her, she knew that beyond the shadow of a doubt. She was going to get her hands on whatever son of a bitch was personally responsible for collaring this girl and she was going to murder them slowly. And then she'd deal with the rest of those sick bastards.

"Listen to me..." Yvonne spoke to the girl that was crying on the ground as she writhed in pain. Her words had come out more forceful than she had originally intended, although considering her voice was naturally very rough and icy that wasn't much of a surprise. "Focus on my voice, just try to ignore the pain and listen to what I'm saying. You're safe now, no one is going to hurt you anymore. I'm going to find a way to get that collar off of you I promise."

She was so torn at that moment, she couldn't be mad at this girl specifically, but this whole situation she was in as a result of saving this girl was infuriating her. She was still dead exhausted, she had experienced more physical closeness, no matter how inadvertent it had been, than she had in years, and now her home away from home was wrecked.

'One of those days you feel like just saying **** it...' She thought with a small amount of bitterness.

As Emilia laid on the ground in pain, all she could feel was the burning stab of the collar. Just when it seemed like she could stand it any longer, the pain finally gave way, but the damage was already done. Emilia laid there, crying and whimpering, as the sting of the collar still remained fresh in her mind.

Now fully aware of her surroundings from the sudden jolt, Emilia could see she was in some kind of forest, and with what appeared to be the faunus from before that had saved her, only this time there was something different that frightened her. As she drew closer, she could see the glow of her anger, which made Emilia pull her legs up to her chest in fear of what might happen.

As the woman began to speak, Emilia flinched at her words, thinking that she was about to be beaten like what had happened at the facility, but suddenly her tone changed. As Emilia opened her eyes, she could see that the threaten red glow had been replaced by a more calming blue. As she came to a finish in her words, Emilia's eyes grew heavy as she laid her head back down.

"S-s-so t-tired..." was almost all she could muster. She didn't even know if she could move on her own anymore.

"S-so c-c-cold..." she said with a tremble, as her eyes grew heavier.

"I-I don't-t wan-nt t-to die..."

Yvonne growled, she couldn't stay mad at this pitiful mess of a girl in the state that she was in. At least for the moment it seemed like that shocks of the collar had subsided, which she supposed was some small mercy for her situation. But at her stuttering words, the frosty wolf could feel her heart break for her.

As she noticed the girl's eyes start to close she realized that she found herself facing a very real problem. She pressed her hand against the girl's forehead lightly, and felt that she was practically ice cold. 'I need to warm her up before hypothermia sets in...' She thought in distress, realizing that she was now fighting against a timer that she couldn't sense.

She picked the girl up and set her down next to the remains of the fire pit that Yvonne had left behind. "I know it will be hard, but I need you to keep your eyes open, okay? Do not fall asleep, you hear me?" Her tone was deadly serious as she scrambled back and forth across the camp.

If the girl fell asleep before the scrambling wolf had a chance to warm her up things would get complicated. Yvonne knew all the essentials of cold weather and wilderness survival, and most of what she knew she had learned the hard way.

But this girl was so weak, so malnourished, that she wasn't even quite sure that anything she would do could stop the fact that everything was hitting this girl all at once. As much as she hated to admit it, that lab had been sterile and warm. Now this girl was exposed to the cold and the elements...

Yvonne looked over to see the girl's head starting to bob and she let out a harsh growl. She hated to do this, it tore her apart, but she knew what she had to do. "If you don't stay awake, I swear that you'll wish you were back in that lab." She growled, her eyes flaring with anger.

She hissed under her breath as she got the logs she needed to start a fire set up, as well as some smaller branches and moss to serve as tinder. She practically sprinted over to her day pack that she had taken off in the tent and dug threw it to find the lighter she needed, as well as pulling her cold weather jacket and another blanket from the tent.

The girl finally jogged back over and wrapped the girl up in the layers as best she could before turning and starting to the fire, tending to it carefully and making sure that it would stay lit. When she could see the flickering flames starting to lap at the logs she had in place, she sighed in relief and finally allowed herself to sit down in absolute exhaustion.

As the cold had set in, Emilia's breathing started to slow as her body shivered less and less. She could barely keep her eyes open when she felt a warm hand press against her forehead. Instinctively, she closed her eyes and pressed up into, welcoming even the littlest warmth. As the hand pulled away, Emilia whimpered for its return. Being so desperate, she was more than happy when the woman picked her up.

When she was returned to the ground, she wanted to just wrap her arms around the woman to keep her close, but didn't have the strength. The woman look her in the eyes, telling her to keep her eyes open. Emilia shakily nodded her head, not fully understanding her situation.

She sat still, watching the other run back and forth around the campsite, shaking her head every once and a while to keep herself awake.  The moment she started to feel her head fall, the woman snapped at her as she whipped her head back up.

Her shivering slowed further down as it became harder to stay awake, and just as she was on the verge of giving in, she was suddenly wrapped in layers of a jacket and blankets. She turned to see the woman sit down as the fire came to life.

She smiled as she felt the heat of the fire combine with the warmth of the blankets. Exhausted, she laid her head down on her, yet-again, savior's lap, still shivering and tail wagging.

Yvonne wrapped her arms around the girl and pulled her up into a sitting position, laying down in the snow wasn't the best option for her. Instead, she allowed the girl's head to rest in the crook of her shoulder and neck. She left her long arms wrapped around the girl, holding her close to share her body warmth.

'That's all I'm doing, just sharing body heat.' She tried to convince herself when her heart started to pound. She was practically fighting her own natural reaction to keep as much physical distance between her and anyone else as possible. Sleeping in the same tent as that Panther Faunus had been horrible enough for her, now she was comforting and holding a distressed Wolf Faunus next to a campfire.

Her ears twitched at the sounds of the forest, but for the most part she found herself staring into the campfire and realizing that she was still completely worn out from carrying this girl as far as she had. Her own eyes began to feel heavy as the crackling of the fire eased her mind and distracted her from the physical discomfort she was experiencing at that moment.

For the moment she was silent, but she still had so many questions. She needed so much information from this girl, but she couldn't in her right mind ask her any of the questions. She had just saved her after all, and to ask this tormented girl to mentally relive the trauma she had gone through was more than even her icy heart could bear to do.

And then there was how the girl had acted before she had been electrocuted, which still bugged Yvonne quite a bit. Was that rather blunt forwardness a result of whatever they had done to her, or was that some part of the girl's actual personality? It was something to contemplate, she'd rather not deal with someone who took it upon herself to mount the closest person in sight any longer than she had to.

Finally feeling warm and content, Emilia couldn't careless about the woman rearranging her, she had what she wanted, warmth. After bring brought to a rest on her shoulder, Emilia found her drifting in and out of conscious and cuddling up closer before finally falling asleep.


_________________________________________________________________

Emilia finally stirred as she felt a cold snowflake land on her cheek. As she turned to look up at the tree tops against the bright sky, that had started a slight flurry, she noticed that the both of them had fallen down over the night. They had both cuddled up to each other, and would be face to face if it wasn't for the size difference. It also seemed like the both of them had gotten a little tangled up.

Emilia could feel her arms wrapped around the woman who had saved her, and her hands had come to a rest on another set of fairly large bumps. It also felt like their legs were crisscrossed. Not feeling like leaving from her warm spot, she turned back to her 'pillows' and snuggled up close.

Yvonne muttered something in her sleep as she felt a heavy weight resting on her chest, the coldness of the snow combined with the light of the sun beaming down at her through the trees. She blinked the sleep from her eyes and realized that in their sleep Emilia had once again wound up on top of her. That was the second time the girl had been over her in the past few hours, and both times had resulted in her being pulled from her sleep.

Yvonne rested her hands on the girl's hips so she wouldn't go flying, and then shifted her weight as she moved to roll over on top of the girl. Her hands were bracing herself against the ground on either side of Emilia's head with one knee planted firmly between the girl's legs and the other on the outside to keep her pinned in place. The girl's light blonde hair frames her face as her ice blue eyes gazed down at the frail wolf girl.

"Let me make this perfectly clear." She growled, while her voice wasn't loud it was full of intensity to make it clear that she wasn't playing around. "That is the last time you will ever be over me, in any way, ever again." As pitiful as the girl was, it was time for Yvonne to assert the fact that she was the dominant one, and that it was because of her that the girl was even free.

Emilia took notice to her snuggle buddy shifting around, but didn't really care as long as she stayed warm. Suddenly feeling the woman's hands wrap around her waist, made her think that she must be cold just like her, all but assuring to Emilia that they'd stay like that. To her surprise, the woman under her rolled and swapped places with her.

As she pushed up from Emilia and looked down into her eyes, snarling at her that she won't be on top of her, in any way, ever again. At first, Emilia just pouted. As she thought about it, she came to a realization and gave into the demands.

"Okay..." she spoke softly. She then shot her hands up and around the other girl and tried to pull her down, hoping to take her by surprise.

"It's warmer down here anyway!"

Yvonne allowed her guard to fall slightly once it seemed like the girl had finally submitted, only for the Emilia's arms to shoot up and wrap around her body and pull her down. She yelped in shock as she felt herself suddenly falling and tried to brace herself once again, only for her left arm to slide out from under her. She tried to get a grip on the ground, and found her left hand was now firmly pressed against the girl's chest.

She instantly blushed and moved her hand down to rest on the ground brushing up against Emlia's side. The worst part about this whole situation was the fact that Emilia didn't seem to see anything wrong with what was happening. Again, she couldn't be sure if there was something behind this strange behavior or if this was just how she really was.

"I..." She spoke... Her heart was practically pounding against her rib cage at that moment. She was starting to remember why she hated getting so physically close to people. She hated being near people and now here she was, waking up after taking a nap curled up with another Faunus and was now looking down at her like some sort of hungry predator.

She edged her knee up slightly, a slight grin on her face as she forced the girl's legs open ever so slightly. Yvonne was an animal at heart, she loved giving into her instincts and what she felt like doing at the time and that never ended well when emotions and physical closeness came into play. That was one of the many problems she had, and certainly the one she was dealing with most at that moment.

She blushed deeply and pushed herself off and away from the girl. "I can't do this... I can't deal with this..." She muttered under her breath. This girl was so pathetic, so weak as she lay there on the ground that the Alpha part of her mind was screaming at her to take command of the situation. Yvonne growled and lashed out at a tree, splitting her knuckles open and watched as blood started to drip down her hand as bark splintered off the trunk like shrapnel.

The sharp pain served to pull her back to the current situation, but it did nothing to clear her mind of how cloudy it had become. She hadn't acted like this in so many years, but along came this girl and within hours the facade of control and humanity she had tried to put up was being unraveled like it was just a ball of yarn.

Emilia would be grinning at her successful plan, but the odd tingling sensation coming from her breast. Her eyes had closed and her ears pinned back as she tried to comprehend what the feeling was. Her body felt like it want to stretch out and tighten all of her muscles up. As her legs were forced apart, she gave into what her body wanted. She wrapped her legs around the back of the one on top of her.

'W-w-what's happening?!'

Emilia was completely confused. She couldn't concentrate on anything other than the feeling in her breast. She had even started to bite her lower lip without even thinking. When the hand finally pulled away, her thoughts returned to normal like nothing happened. As she sat up, she tilted her head and stared at her companion punching a tree.

"I've never seen that color before." Emilia murmured, referring to the rich color of red she could see emanating around her. Brushing it off, Emilia rolled over onto her stomach and attempt to stand up. After pushing herself up on all fours, she positioned her feet under her, and quickly tried to pop up straight.  After she awkwardly tried to keep her balance, her stomach let out a fairly loud growl.

Realizing she hadn't eaten for quite sometime, her hands rested on her belly as she started to sniff the air. She could smell something, but couldn't put her finger on it. Following her nose, she walked right over to her friend that had been punching the tree, and started to sniff her. Starting at her face, she started moving closer and closer to where the scent was coming from, down. Moving down from her face to her chest, she could smell herself, which didn't surprise her after how long she slept there. Moving further down yet, she was starting to make out the scent, which only excited her to get close to the source.

Coming to a stop around her waist, it seemed like she had found what she was looking for. She didn't realize it, but she had gotten down to one knee. Slowly she reached her hand up, before quickly shoot into the pocket containing what she was desiring, a bit of dried meat. Falling onto her back, she chomped into the little hunk of meat, chewing slowly to savor the taste.

A low growl rumbled in Yvonne's throat as Emilia approached her and started to sniff her. This girl clearly had no self preservation instinct to be egging her on like this, especially as the girl got lower until she was practically level with her waist. The Alpha part of her couldn't help but grin, 'Yeah, that's right...'

Then it was all over when Emilia grabbed the bag of Jerky that she had forgotten was in her pocket. She wasn't quite sure what she had been expecting, and wasn't sure if she was supposed to be relieved or disappointed.

Something about the sight of the girl desperately nibbling away at the jerky made her snap back into her right frame of mind. This girl needed more help, and Yvonne knew she could help with what she needed now. While Emilia was still distracted by nibbling away at the leftover jerky, the wolf crossed over to the tree she had her gear hidden in.

She made the long climb, which was considerably easier than it was when she wasn't dragging her pack up with her. The girl unstrapped her gear from the branch she had left it on and slung it onto her back and then dropped down from branch to branch until she was once again on the snow crusted ground. She dropped the pack next to her now ruined tent and fished through it, clearly searching for something.

She pulled out a small sack that held the majority of her food and cooking supplies, as well as the kettle that she generally used to reheat her coffee. The girl scooped up some of the fresh snow that was falling and stuffed it into the kettle, carrying it over to the fire that was on the verge of dying after not being attended in their sleep and set it down on some of the hot coals.

Emilia needed some hot food, "Hell, we both do..." She realized. There wasn't a lot she had to offer, since while she was in the woods like this she limited herself to instant food and dry supplies that required no preparation. Still, she had a bag of oats and spices that she knew was the perfect thing to wake up to in the morning and was quite filling as well.

The girl poured the servings of oats into two cooking cups and rested them in the snow next to the campfire, waiting for the snow to melt and the water to boil before stuffing the bag of food back into her pack and shoving it away in her tent. She came back to the campfire and sat fairly close to where Emilia was laying down and sighed, staring into the fire once again.

Emilia couldn't stop herself with the jerky. It felt like to feast fit for a king to her, and she was trying to make it last. As she came to the last little nibble of meat, she let out a sigh. Finishing it off, she sat up to see that her companion had rekindled the fire and was cooking something.

Picking herself off the ground, she joined the woman that had been taking care of her on the log next to the fire. Instead of cuddling up with her like she normally would, she just stared into the fire, watching the flames jump around the bottom of the kettle.

The mesmerizing dance of the fire seemed to put Emilia in a trance. A trance that took her somewhere that she felt like she knew, but couldn't remember. She stood inside of a wooden room, with several bookshelves filled with all sizes and colors of books. There in the middle of the room stood an old white wood desk, with a large chair that looked like someone was sitting in it, but they were turned away. The chair slowly began to turn around, and the sight of who was in the chair shoot her back to reality. Eyes wide, Emilia fell backwards off the log, and began to scream while she crawl away. As her screams subsided, she stopped crawling and curled up into a ball, eyes still wide and breathing very heavy.

Yvonne wanted to sigh in relief when Emilia finally realized it would be a good idea to keep her distance. But when she looked over, she realized that maybe the alternative wasn't that much better of an idea. The look on her face told the wolf that she had completely zoned out. That blank stare was mildly unnerving, considering this was a girl that had just been pulled from some god forsaken research and testing lab.

But even then, Yvonne was still slightly annoyed with the girl so she kept her distance. Maybe when the water was boiling the girl would snap back into it. Then again, perhaps not as the girl suddenly started to scream in terror and fall back off the log she was sitting on. 'Well at least she didn't ruin anything this time...'

As if on cue, the kettle started to hiss as the water began to boil. The girl pulled the kettle away and poured the still boiling water into the two cups of oats and stirred them up before letting the kettle sit in the snow to cool off. She mixed up the oats and sat back down holding both cups, but holding her right hand out, offering the cup and a spoon to the girl if she would come get it.

Laying with her legs pulled up to her chest, Emilia felt like she was going insane. She couldn't even understand what was wrong.

'What did I see..?'

And she meant it. She didn't remember seeing anything, her body just reacted on its own.

The sudden shrill whistle from the kettle brought her back to the real world. She tried to calm herself down, but still found herself shaking from the experience. When a cup appeared out of the corner of her eye, she just stared for a moment. Realizing that the woman was trying to give it to her, she sat up slowly and reached a shaky arm out for the food.

Bringing the cup to her body, she went back to just staring at it. Once again realizing what she's suppose to do, she took a spoon full of the oats and started to eat. After a few spoons, Emilia suddenly felt sick to her stomach.

Throwing the cup of oats to her side, she turned and vomited up what she just ate and began to dry heave, not having anything else to toss up.

Yvonne watched the girl shaking violently as she reached out for the cup. Maybe once she ate something she would start to feel better, who knew how long she had gone without any sort of real food? She shook her head slightly and dug into her own oats, glad to finally be eating some hot food after being on the move for the past two days.

That was when Emilia started to throw up, and before Yvonne could even blink she found herself standing up and at the girl's side. A mild freak out like what the girl had experienced could have been anything, but physical illness and rejection of food was yet another real problem. 'My god, this girl is a complete wreck...'

The girl rested one hand on Emilia's back and the other pulled her hair back to keep it out of her face as she continued to heave. "I'm going to need to take you to a hospital." She started to think out loud, "You're going to need help that I'm not qualified to give."

Yvonne looked down at the girl and rubbed her back slightly. She knew the girl wouldn't be able to walk, it would be a long hike back to Vale having to carry her. But even then, she wasn't sure she would be ready to set out while Emilia was still like this, she was going to have to wait until the girl stabilized at least a little bit.

As the heaving continued, the sudden feel of a hand on her back made Emilia freeze. She was back in the wooden room, filling an ominous presence behind her. She turned her head to meet the eyes of the person that had saved her several times. The adrenaline started to flow, with just a single thought in her head.

'Don't run again...'

Without even a signal, Incisor began to activate, forming a set of claws on her hands.  As quick as she could, she whipped around and slashed at the owner of the hand, completely lost in insanity.

Managing to get to her feet, Emilia stumbled backwards. She was holding her head in palms of her hands, murmuring the same line over and over.

"It's not my fault... I didn't do it..."

Her hands dropped to her side as she chanted "It's all your fault." louder and louder with every passing second. Overcome by anger, she charged.

By time time Yvonne heard the click of the weapons strapped to the girl's arms it was almost too late. She yanked her arm back just as Emilia turned and attacked. The only reason the wolf girl had even gotten out of that with her arm in one piece had been the fact that the girl was a lot slower than she thought she was. Still, those claws had ripped into her skin and left marks as she pulled back, blood dripping from the mostly superficial wounds.

Starvation and exhaustion wrecked hell on combat effectiveness, but at the same time this girl was desperate and most likely considered herself cornered and that worried Yvonne. People did very stupid things when they got desperate, and she wanted to try and stop those stupid things from happening. Thank god she chose now of all times to snap though, as opposed to when Yvonne had been asleep.

She growled and reached to her back, yanking her staff from the clips that held it in place. She didn't want to fight the girl she just saved, but she was sure as hell going to subdue her before she did something that could very likely injure the both of them. At the moment, the blades hidden in the staff remained concealed as she felt there was no reason for them.

Yvonne sidestepped as Emilia came charging towards her and let out a harsh growl. "Trust me Emilia, you don't want to do this!" She shouted, trying to talk the girl out of whatever temporary insanity had taken hold of her.

Missing her mark, Emilia stumbled by her 'enemy' and landed face first in the snow, injuring her ankle in the process. Struggling back to her feet, she kept on thinking out loud.

"Why... Why did you kill him..." she mumbled as she limped closer, tears forming in her eyes.

"Why did your ruin everything!" She yelled as she got close enough to raise her arm up to slash at her.

Yvonne held her staff in one hand, pacing back and forth and watched Emilia as she twisted her ankle trying falling. 'This is so goddamn messed up.' She hissed in irritation, raising the staff and letting it fall back into the clips that would hold it in place on her back.

She watched as Emilia started to limp towards her, the pain and anger were very clear in her eyes. At this rate the girl would end up injuring herself more than even Yvonne could do to her. The wolf's icy gaze never wavered as she reached out and intercepted the arm with her left hand, taking a pivoting step forward and putting as much weight and momentum as she dared to as she hooked her right fist into the raving girl's temple.

She dropped like a rock, but since Yvonne already had a grip on her arm and was able to drop with her and guide her down to the ground gently.

As soon as she was on the ground, the wolf checked on the girl's ankle. Luckily, it had only seemed to be a simple twist, a muscle strain that wouldn't cause any sort of permanent damage although it might end up hurting like hell to walk on for a bit.

Yvonne picked her up and walked her over to the wrecked tent, setting her down on the ground and setting some blankets on her. She then went back to sit next to the fire, throwing some more wood on it and staring at it.

"What the hell am I even doing trying to take care of this girl..." She thought out loud with a sigh, running her hands through her blonde hair in aggravation.

Not even able to react, Emilia found herself on the end of a mean punch that knocked her out cold.

_______________________________

When Emilia opened her eyes again, the sky had started to darken. As she tried to sit up, she was slowed down by a massive migraine. She also noticed a dull pain radiating in her ankle. She fell back to her original position, feeling like she wouldn't be able to move anyway.

Her stomach started to growl loudly as she strained her neck to look around. Not even able to do that, she laid her head down in defeat.

"What happened...?" she moaned as she rubbed her aching head.

It was a very long day for Yvonne while Emilia was unconscious, and yet she felt like she couldn't get anything done. Leaving the camp would mean leaving the girl all alone in the state she was in, and she wouldn't let that happen. So instead she tried to do what she could for the near ruined tent.

She scrapped one of her warmer shirts, tearing the fabric apart to serve as a single massive patch for where the tent had been ripped. She used the needle and thread from her first aid kit to sew the strips of cloth to patch the hole. It didn't fix the problem entirely, but it was definitely a start. There was still a slight tear in the canvas that let a draft in, but the side of the tent was no longer openly flapping in the wind so she supposed that would have to do for the time being.

She spent the rest of the day organizing her gear in her pack, as well as cleaning her weapon. She only left the immediate camp site for a few minutes to gather as much firewood as she could, and even then she always maintained direct line of sight with her tent.

And of course, the whole day had gone without any sort of contact with the White Fang or any news back from Sable. So she was in the same situation that she had started in when she brought the girl back to camp, and now that the sun was setting she started to get worried. This would be two days the girl has gone without any sort of proper care, and the only real meal she had gotten a chance to have she had thrown right up.

And then, of course, there was the fact that that frail and tortured girl had turned wild and attacked her. She was dangerous, perhaps not in a direct way, but certainly in the fact that she was so unpredictable.

When Emilia had finally woken up, Yvonne had just finished eating up the oats that she had added more water to and heated back up. It had been a long few days and the oats were the only meal she had gotten a chance to eat. Of course, she was still holding onto Emilia's cup, hoping that the next time the girl was hungry she wouldn't throw up the only real food that she had to offer.

"You attacked me, so I had to take you down." She answered flatly, displaying the tattered sleeve and the bandages that were wrapped around her forearm that were red with blood. As superficial as the wounds had been, they had bled fairly heavily. Those weapons were a nasty piece of work.

"Sorry about the migraine." She added with a small smirk, offering the half eaten cup of oats that was in her hand. "Do you think you can manage to hold down some food now?" You should really eat something."