By the time Hawk reached them, the red light had wrapped fully around Aram's body, and he'd sunk down to lie in the grass, trembling. Blood was bubbling up around the base of the blazing projectile lodged in his thigh, but that didn't seem to be what had brought him to his knees--instead, the light itself seemed heavy somehow, as though it was weighing him down to the ground.

Kim had dashed around Aram's side to meet a pair of dogs that had come charging up after the shot. She feinted at them, her horn generating a thin film of gold light which didn't exactly form an opaque barrier, but which the dogs seemed reluctant to cross. They paced, barking loudly, on the other side of the light as Hawk glided down to land at Aram's side.

In one quick motion he'd grabbed the end of the projectile and yanked. It came out swiftly, and the red light streaming from it was immediately disrupted, but as Aram gave another hoarse scream Hawk realized that the spear he was now holding--a thin, unadorned metal object--was barbed at the end. The red light crawling on it started to die down, and as painful as removing it must have been, Aram was now free of its weight. His animal scream turned into panicked human breaths as the large ox-creature flickered out of existence, replaced by a human figure writhing in the grass, hands feeling for the now very significant wound in his thigh.

Hawk threw the spear away and reached down, grabbing Aram's wrist to pull him up, murmuring, "C'mon. You're okay."

Kim had seen the spear fly past and had begun backing up very slowly towards Hawk and Aram, head lowered towards the dogs, which continued to advance to stay just on the edge of her light screen. Hawk half-lifted Aram to his feet--blood was already soaking his sweatpants to the ankles, and blood and the leftover bits of red light dripped from it as Hawk guided him towards Kim.

Kim was not shaped like a horse, and she was barely big enough to carry Aram, but Hawk got him onto her back all the same, and he wrapped his arms securely around her neck. Without pausing, Hawk signed 'building' to Kim, knelt by her head, and pointed. She followed his gaze and then was off, loping quickly across the dark valley floor, haloed in a gold light. The dogs ignored Hawk and went running after her, keeping pace but still unwilling to get too close.

Hawk turned and lifted his wings to take off again, not seeing the red glow now dawning just behind him.