Tal was not the one who found Alys first.
Finishing up his last delivery for the day, the messenger wasn't far away from the gate but it was Boreal with her draconic senses who smelled the blood and went to investigate. The dragon circled overhead in confusion at the conflicting sensory information; 'blood' and 'Alys' were not usually smelled together, and though she smelled the lingering trace of Sascha's scent from Alys's person there was no sign of the little bear. Worried, she folded her wings and dropped to the snow nearby and bounded over to the kneeling Seer. This close she could smell the sweat and fear and grief and a croon was startled from her throat, a low rumbling keen of anxiety as she reached out for Tal and pulled, even as she pressed herself to Alys's side and spread her wings wide to curve around her. She wasn't large enough to cover her human's mate fully beneath their shelter but she offered what comfort she could in the minute it took Tal to arrive.
He careened around the corner of a building, something close to panic on his face as he tried to parse Boreal's jumbled mental call. The dragon couldn't explain what she didn't understand, but as soon as Tal saw his partner it no longer mattered. He flung himself across the intervening distance, skidding across the snow on his knees as he bundled Alys into his arms, pulling her tight against his chest as he buried his face in her hair, heedless of sweat or ice that might cling to it. "Hey, hey, I'm here. We're here. What happened? Are you hurt?" He was babbling and asking too many questions too fast, but he was too frantic with worry to realize what he was doing. Something had happened, had gone wrong, and he was terrified that Alys was hurt somewhere he couldn't see.
Finishing up his last delivery for the day, the messenger wasn't far away from the gate but it was Boreal with her draconic senses who smelled the blood and went to investigate. The dragon circled overhead in confusion at the conflicting sensory information; 'blood' and 'Alys' were not usually smelled together, and though she smelled the lingering trace of Sascha's scent from Alys's person there was no sign of the little bear. Worried, she folded her wings and dropped to the snow nearby and bounded over to the kneeling Seer. This close she could smell the sweat and fear and grief and a croon was startled from her throat, a low rumbling keen of anxiety as she reached out for Tal and pulled, even as she pressed herself to Alys's side and spread her wings wide to curve around her. She wasn't large enough to cover her human's mate fully beneath their shelter but she offered what comfort she could in the minute it took Tal to arrive.
He careened around the corner of a building, something close to panic on his face as he tried to parse Boreal's jumbled mental call. The dragon couldn't explain what she didn't understand, but as soon as Tal saw his partner it no longer mattered. He flung himself across the intervening distance, skidding across the snow on his knees as he bundled Alys into his arms, pulling her tight against his chest as he buried his face in her hair, heedless of sweat or ice that might cling to it. "Hey, hey, I'm here. We're here. What happened? Are you hurt?" He was babbling and asking too many questions too fast, but he was too frantic with worry to realize what he was doing. Something had happened, had gone wrong, and he was terrified that Alys was hurt somewhere he couldn't see.
