Kuromaru gave Raidou an even more injured betrayal look. Nothing could pull off hurt like a canine, even one as big and ferocious as an Inuzuka familiar. If anything, while Kuromaru's attempts at looks often fell short due to his sheer size, at that moment he seemed even more pitiful than any canine in the history of canines.

Tsume was immune to it. "C'mon, pup. We're halfway home." And she wanted to be all the way there. Twilight was approaching; their late start meant they were getting in late, and she'd be flea-bit if she was going to spend another night outside village walls. "Come on, cubs. Back on the giant dog."

Kuromaru gave her another look of injured betrayal. She ignored it, scooping the boy up under his armpits and plopping him back down on Kuromaru's broad back.

When Aoi was seated they started off again. They got another twenty feet--Kuromaru limping heavily, and Tsume ignoring him completely--before the canine yelped and collapsed.

She turned to look at the two children sitting on the heap of demon-dog. She didn't look at Raidou behind them all. No doubt he was taking notes for the next time embarrassing missions came up. "Kuromaru?" she growled, then realized he was no longer whimpering. Her gaze sharpened, and she picked Aoi up off him, bracing the girl on a canted hip.

He only complained when nothing was wrong. When something was, however...

She glanced at his face and noted dilated pupils. Wordlessly, she handed Aoi to Raidou and pulled the boy up as well. "Kuromaru?"

He panted, blunt claws digging into the earth. "I think I threw my back out."

Some days, she wished she had a younger dog. She still didn't look at Raidou, just gave Kuromaru's spine a visual check. There was nothing obvious, but that didn't mean he hadn't done something. She set the boy down--he ran to Raidou and clung to his leg again--and pressed her hands through the thick fur, feeling the ridge of bone. "Tell me when it hur--"

A large head whipped up and around. Teeth snapped shut six inches from her shoulder as a yelp keened from his throat.

"...Right." She felt that bit of spine again, frowning at the way bone shifted sideways where it should have gone straight. She looked up at Raidou--the girl in one heavily muscled arm, the boy clinging to his leg. "He's not going to be able to carry them home."

Kuromaru whined, put his head on his paws, picked it up again, and began to pant, lips pulled away from his gums and the whites around his eyes showing. Stress and pain panting, not heat panting. Tsume petted him absently, scratching between his ears.