//this is longer than I’d thought, so tldr at the bottom c;
Anyone who knew Val knew that he loved birds. In particular, he was fond of his hawk. After all, she was one of the few he’d met that hadn’t either flown away or tried to peck his eyes out. The fact she was so overprotective was nice, too. While she might appear unfriendly, it was always good to have a second pair of eyes on the lookout for danger - especially if the first set belonged to someone who was usually oblivious and never expected the worse from strangers.
But, Valemon had been worried for his almost maternal friend lately. Anytime she went hunting for the both of them, she was gone longer than usual. When she accompanied Val around on his shoulders, she often appeared to be asleep, her head hanging to one side. Only, her eyes weren’t always closed. Valemon first thought this might mean she wasn’t getting enough sleep, but that seemed to be just the opposite. While she usually checked on him at various points throughout the night, he had gotten up on several occasions to play when he couldn’t sleep, and she hadn’t even stirred. Then again, he couldn’t always tell whether she was sleeping or not with her head like that.
Maybe she was sick? Or, perhaps he was overworking her. This thought made him feel terrible. She hunted for the both of them, kept watch over him at night, and was always on the move to keep up with him.
One day, Val figured he might give her a break and see if it helped. He presented her a lizard from the prey pile, under the guise that he had caught it himself because she refused to eat what others killed. She somewhat reluctantly took the reptile and ate a few bites. Much of it was left, so Val finished the rest. He was still hungry afterwards but talked to his bird throughout the rest of the day to keep her from hearing his stomach growl. He was also sure to avoid the border, where strangers would surely stress River out even further. It was safe to say the day was extremely boring, but at least it gave him some valuable time with his hawk. And, she seemed pretty content, if not still tired-looking.
When the sun was at its peak, Valemon was meaning to go back to camp and snatch some more prey for them while River was busy staring down his clanmates, as she always did. But, his friend gave her the usual gentle bite on his ear to tell him she was leaving, and flew off before he could tell her to stay put. The cub let out a sigh as he watched her go. He had tried, but there was really no stopping the stubborn hawk from doing what she wanted.
Val waited in that spot for what felt like hours. Incredibly impatient, he had to stop himself from heading toward the border to see if he could meet a visitor who could serve as a distraction. No, he had to wait for River. What was taking her so long? It was a bit cold, but that hadn’t seemed to bother her much before. Growing increasingly worried, the young lion paced and fiddled with his paws. After a while, his tongue started to hurt and he realized he’d been biting it in his nervousness.
Then... finally... he spotted her familiar black and white feathers in the sky. But, there was something different about the way she flew - she was tipping sideways, as if she was being weighed down to one side. Valemon leapt to his paws and watched helplessly as his friend faltered in the air and started losing altitude quickly. Tumbling at an angle in midair, her side was battered against a high tree branch. In an attempt to catch herself, her wings beat twice as fast. A few more somersaults later and she had landed hard in front of Val. The cub moved forward as she stumbled. He might be impressed she had landed on her feet if not for the obviously terrible state she was in. For one thing, she had no prey with her. What had taken so long if she wasn’t hunting?
He looked at River, eyes wide and full of concern. His hawk stared back, her firm gaze a clear indication she didn’t want him worrying over her. This wouldn’t be enough to stop him, of course. The cub continued to watch his friend, who ruffled her feathers in apparent embarrassment... and noticed something. Lifting a paw, Val reached for River’s right wing. Quite unexpectedly, the hawk actually shied from his touch. His surprise and concern mounting, he wasn’t going to let this stop him, either. “River,” he said softly in an attempt to console her. She eyed him a few moments longer until she finally seemed to give up. When she lifted her wing slightly, Valemon let out an audible gasp.
Right beneath the place her wing connected to her body was a large wound. And it wasn’t just that. There was dried blood on the surrounding feathers, though Val would’ve thought there be much more than that with an injury like this, meaning she’d tried to clean most of it off. The gash itself was a dark, almost brown color.
Valemon looked between it and River’s eyes, but she wouldn’t meet his gaze. How she had been injured didn’t seem to matter. What was more important was how long ago it had happened. And, why hadn’t Val noticed sooner? It was covered when she tucked in her wings, but was rather obvious any other time now that Valemon knew it was there. He felt silly for missing it this long. Especially since it was probably the cause of his hawk’s other sickly behavior.
Now, he had to find a way to help her. Actually, he needed to find someone else who was able to help her better than he could.
//tldr: Val has noticed that his hawk, River, has been acting strange lately (being separated from him longer than usual, drowsiness, slow movement) and equates the issue to him being too dependent on her. As an attempt to solve it, he starts to fetch prey for her, avoid situations that would make her nervous, and do his best to behave. Unfortunately, River is still avid to provide for her friend and takes another hunting trip later. On her way back, she experiences a rough landing, which finally leads Val to convince her to show him what’s wrong. River reveals a wound under her wing which has gone untreated long enough to become infected. Thinking this is probably the rooot cause of her strange behavior, Val is now thinking of who he should seek out to get help.