It still looked as though the spy was going to be stubborn. He sniffled, an odd whistling sound that shafted through his half-formed beak and practically came out of his ears as frustrated steam, and turned his head up and away so he could dodge Ellery's piercing stare.
Maaike left her grandparents to it, still too numb to really get on board the torture ship or do much more than soothe her hands over Aiden's shoulders and through hair that was straggly from being caught mid-shift to fur. She watched Dioghna's fangs drip blood-pink drool into the leaves crunching under her paws, watched the tension swing and sway through the muscles in Ellery's sooty, sweaty back, but it was with a sense of distance and greyness as if her eyes were just as reluctant to recover from the Apali's light as her brain was reluctant to jolt back to its normal speed.
“Are you freaking kidding me?” Ellery flung up his hands in despair and aggravation when the spy still refused to look at him or give up whatever he knew. The way he pressed his lips together suggested he was being mutinous and stubborn just for the sake of being stubborn and mutinous, now.
Someone limped by with a bladder of water. It took Maaike a second to realise it was hovering in front of her face or that the girl was offering it to her, and Maaike winced as her arm came up -- slow and stiff from seized muscles even though she hadn't been caught by the 'bane -- to take it, staring at it dumbly for a second before taking a swig and then pressing it gently to Aiden's mouth. It took her another second for her to realise the girl was saying something -- “Well, no, actually I meant for your burn... You know what, never mind.” -- and Maaike huffed a half-laugh despite herself, shaking her head a little at her own stupidity. The girl trotted off, carrying another bladder to someone else. Maaike took another drink, offered it to Aiden again in the hope that the water would help wash the 'bane out quicker, then set about pouring sweet, cooling relief over her arm to clean it.
Dioghna sat back on her haunches and whuffed. It sounded like there might be a little snarl in there, too, but she'd given up on convincing the spy by "gentle" means and prodded her snout into Ellery's thigh in silent communication. Ellery huffed and squared his shoulders, flapping a hand at one of the larger clansmen who hadn't been caught 'shifting.
“Fine. Fine. Since you're so useless to us, you Xanth-damned traitor, you can feed the kumo instead.”
Maaike sat up straighter, a little of the grey sinking out of her vision when the clansman started forward, big and menacing in a way Aiden couldn't manage because his baby-faced ruined the menacing part, and the spy started blubbering.
“No! no! Don'tI don't likeyou can't!” The clansman -- Maaike couldn't remember his name, what was his name, she knew his face -- grabbed him by the ankle and heaved him across leaves and twigs and blood-soaked detritus, turning his back to hide the half-smug smirk. “Please! You can't, you can't, please! I'll doI'll do anything, I'll tell you, censored, I'll te--”
Ellery scoffed and shook himself, much like the wolves the Sullivan clan favoured, in disgust. “You are truly a paragon of family values.”
If the spy heard the sarcasm or Dioghna's own wolfish scoff, he was too busy begging and clawing at the ground -- even though the big guy had stopped dragging him -- to acknowledge it.
OOC: Maaike's being a numb whiny baby right now so I'm not sure how to do the clawed gut thing. We may have to skip that part, or throw it in later?