"I don't care what you told him," Blue sassed, tearing at the dried meat with his teeth and chewing slowly, trying to build up some saliva. His mouth was feeling dry, his throat parched, but he didn't regret handing over his only source of water to his lover. Eivind needed it much more than he did. He couldn't be sure the last time his poor wolf had a drink. "He didn't trust me when I said something was wrong. He just assumed I was being clingy. If I had decided to listen to him, you might've been nothing but a rotting corpse by the time we found you." Blue sighed, his face scrunching up into an unseen look of displeasure at his own words.<br/><br/>The sound of Eivind retching onto the rock was disgusting and concerning, but Blue did not flinch. He gripped at the cliff's edge and tried to lean over to see more of his mate, but he could only make out faint lines of Eivind's hard, weakened body. "You have to slow down, Vin," Blue reminded him, gently, his fingers frenetically tapping at the ground beneath him. "I know it's difficult, but do your best." Things went quiet for a brief moment while Eivind cleaned out his mouth. Blue's heart seemed to seize in his chest, waiting, anxiously anticipating the sound of Eivind's voice. The silence bore into Blue's ears, leaving him aching for some sign that Eivind was still with him. A long breath left him, ragged and uneasy, when Eivind spoke to him once more.<br/><br/>"I know it'll be okay." Maybe it would, maybe it wouldn't. Eivind was alive, that was the most important thing. He was in one piece, nothing broken, though it was possible Eivind wasn't correctly evaluating his own injuries. Blue couldn't know for sure until they retrieved his body from the damned crevice.<br/><br/>Blue's bones began to rattle from the wind, but he didn't let the chill distract him from speaking with his lover. In an effort to keep Eivind awake and talking, Blue told the wolf about Devin's plans for his artwork, he spoke to him of the pieces he had begun working on, the shopping he and Sig had done. It was all painfully mundane, but Eivind didn't seem to mind, and Blue was just elated to hear his mate's familiar gruff voice once again.<br/><br/>After an indiscernible amount of time, Sig returned with Alaric and heavy machinery in tow. Blue scooted to a safe area away from the crumbly rock, watching with a critical gaze as Alaric maneuvered the tractor and winch on the narrow, slanted pathway beneath them. Hefting Eivind out of the crevice was slow going, mostly because Alaric was forced to rely on verbal instructions from the others, unable to see Eivind on his own. It was safer, at least, as the machine seemed to have zero issue lifting Eivind's unburdened body, and Alaric could halt the wolf's ascension when he needed to take a break from pushing himself away from the rock.<br/><br/>When Eivind's exhausted body finally crested the crag, Blue fell to his knees, helping pull Eivind up and over the edge. His mate's body collapsed onto the rock, and Blue held him, setting the werewolf's head on his lap and caressing his forehead. "Fuck, Vin," Blue murmured, looking to Sig as he cradled the older male. "He's burning up and covered in sweat. We need to get him home immediately."<br/><br/>It was dark now, dark enough that Blue couldn't differentiate all the grime covering his lover's body, but there was no mistaking the foul smell that wafting from Eivind's injured thigh. Blue knelt down, as close as he could, examining the wound, though he couldn't tell whether the sticky substance that appeared to cover Eivind's leg was dried blood or pus. Either would have been a reasonable guess.<br/><br/>"Come on, Vin, we're taking you home," Blue whispered, pressing a kiss to Eivind's feverish and damp forehead as he tugged on Eivind's arm, hefting the male into a sitting position and throwing the limb around his shoulders. The muscles in Blue's legs still burned from their long, draining hike, but Blue didn't care. He grunted as he stood, pulling the shorter up with him, making sure to support the side where Eivind had damaged himself.<br/><br/>Getting Eivind down the mountain was a delicate process. Though Alaric had carefully driven the tractor up the precarious pathways, Blue didn't trust the machinery not to tip on the descent with his mate's added weight, though in truth Eivind's taut body didn't pose much of a challenge. It didn't matter to Blue. The young male made it clear he wasn't going to release his mate until they were safely on flat ground, and Alaric didn't seem like he was in any mood to argue with the irate human. Blue and Sig did their best to ease Eivind down, going slowly to ensure no further harm came to the febrile wolf.<br/><br/>After a labor intensive trek down the mountainside, Blue and Sig reached the bottom, their feet sinking into soft ground and grass. Alaric wasn't long behind, and Blue handed his lover over, trusting Alaric more than he wanted to in that moment. "He has a fever, and I think his leg's infected," he snapped, bitterness bleeding from his words. "Is there anything you can do for him now or do we need to get him back to the cabin first?"