Wolf: Bite: Arm

The shake did what the teeth started: the cords in your forearm tore clean through, and your hand fell open like a dropped glove. The doctor probes the wound by lamplight and won't meet your eye, silk and splints may save some of it, or none.

• Hand will not close, no gun, no reins, no rope in that arm for 7 days, and maybe not after
• Forearm splinted and bound from elbow to knuckles
• /me stares at the fingers, willing them to curl. They don't.

Recovery 7 days splinted under a doctor's care to learn what's left; untreated, the hand is lost for good·Doctor, urgently

You heard it more than felt it, a wet green crack as the jaws clamped and the forearm bone gave. The punctures weep around a swelling that's already turning the color of a storm.

• Forearm bone cracked, splinted stiff, no lifting, shooting or riding hard for 7 days
• Six deep punctures that must be kept open and draining, cleaned with carbolic twice a day
• Fingers swollen too fat for glove or trigger guard

Recovery Set and splinted, 7 days before it bears weight; unset, it knits crooked over weeks·Doctor, urgently

It wasn't the bite, it was the shake, the wolf whipped its head and the punctures ripped sideways into tears. Meat shows through the sleeve, and your whole arm trembles like a struck fence wire.

• Torn forearm muscle stitched with silk, arm in a sling, one-handed for 5 days
• Bleeding soaks a fresh bandage every few hours the first night
• /me cradles the slung arm against the jolt of every step

Recovery 5 days in a sling with sutures and rest, 10 or more if you work it raw·Doctor required

Two fangs found the gap between the bones and grated on the cords that work your fingers. The hand still answers, but slow and wrong, like it belongs to a drunk.

• Grip at half strength, no fast draw, no knots, dropped cups for 5 days
• Paired punctures on both sides of the forearm, packed open with carbolic-soaked lint
• Forearm bruised black from wrist to elbow

Recovery 5 days of care and daily draining before the fingers wake up; a week and a half untended·Doctor required

The bite looked honest enough when you washed it, but wolf mouths are dirty things. By the second sunrise the punctures have gone hot, red streaks crawling toward the elbow, and you can't stop wondering if the animal was foaming.

• Low fever and a throbbing arm, no hard labor for 4 days while it drains
• Punctures reopened and flushed with whiskey, then carbolic, it hurts worse than the bite
• /me presses a palm to the hot skin around the wound, jaw tight

Recovery 4 days if a doctor opens and drains it clean; blood poisoning stalks you if you let it close dirty·Doctor required

The fangs punched through the meat of your forearm and out the far side, and the twist tore the muscle between. You can make a fist, but lifting a saddle sets the whole arm screaming.

• No lifting anything heavier than a coffee pot with that arm for 4 days
• Through-and-through punctures bandaged loose so they drain from both ends
• Sleeve cut away, the wound's on show at every camp

Recovery 4 days stitched and slung, 7 stubborn and swollen without care·Doctor required

It caught you low, across the wrist and the back of the hand, and the little bones grind when you flex. Of all the places for a wolf to sink teeth, it found the hand that feeds you.

• Gun hand swollen and punctured, shooting, dealing and writing all off the table for 3 days
• Knuckles too stiff to button your own shirt the first morning
• /me flexes the bitten hand slow, counting which fingers still answer

Recovery 3 days splinted and clean, 6 if you keep dragging iron with it·Doctor required

Four neat holes, two either side of the forearm, deeper than they look and already sealing over the dirt the teeth carried in. The doc says the worst thing you could do is let them close.

• Punctures kept open with lint wicks and drained twice daily for 3 days
• Arm carried stiff at your side, no roping, no wrangling
• A sour ache that flares every time the bandage is changed

Recovery 3 days of draining and carbolic; sealed over dirty, it festers within the week·Doctor required

The full arc of the jaw printed itself in your forearm, top and bottom, but the shake never came, something spooked it loose. Deep enough to bleed free, shallow enough to thank whatever saint watches over fools in the timber.

• Forearm bandaged wrist to elbow for 2 days, rolled sleeves are off the menu
• Dull deep bruise under the punctures that hates cold mornings
• A curved double row of tooth scars to show at card tables

Recovery 2 days clean and covered, 4 if it's left to scab over trail dust·Doctor advised

Your coat sleeve blunted the fangs but nothing blunts that jaw. The crush caught the bone itself, and the ache runs deeper than any cut, a bruise you can feel in your teeth.

• Forearm tender to the bone, blocks, punches and rifle recoil all misery for 2 days
• Two shallow punctures where the fangs beat the leather
• Swelling that rounds the forearm like a loaf

Recovery 2 days of rest and cold creek water on the swelling, 4 if you keep swinging it·Doctor advised

It leapt and you swung, and the teeth raked the upper arm instead of closing on it, three furrows through the bicep and a puncture at the end where a fang caught. Bloody, dramatic, and shallower than it has any right to look.

• Upper arm bandaged, full swings and heavy lifting sting for 2 days
• Blood-soaked sleeve that makes a better story than the wound deserves
• Furrow scars that will show whenever you roll your sleeves

Recovery 2 days bandaged, 3 or 4 letting it scab in the open·Doctor advised

You tore the arm free at the cost of a wrenched elbow and a pair of gashes where the fangs dragged. The joint swells fat by nightfall and complains every time you reach behind you.

• Elbow sprained, no roping, throwing or hauling for 2 days
• Drag-gashes down the forearm, shallow but ragged, stinging under sweat
• /me works the elbow in slow circles, hissing at the top of each one

Recovery 2 days wrapped and rested, closer to 5 if you keep hauling on it·Doctor advised

Two punctures in the meat below the elbow, small as pencil ends and twice as deep. It's not the wound that keeps you up, it's remembering how the wolf moved, bold and wrong in broad daylight, and every old-timer's rabies story you ever heard.

• Punctures washed with whiskey and left open to drain for 2 days
• You watch the wound morning and night for red streaks, and watch yourself for worse
• Jumpy around dogs and a flinch at every distant howl

Recovery 2 days to close clean; the worry takes longer than the flesh·Doctor advised

Good wool and a layer of luck: the teeth had to come through your coat before they found you, and most of the bite spent itself on cloth. What reached skin left dents, one bleeder and a mean pinch-bruise.

• A single shallow puncture and a bruise like a boot heel for a day or two
• Coat sleeve ruined, torn through and wet with wolf slobber
• Forearm tender when you shake hands

Recovery A day or two and a clean bandage does it·No doctor needed

A single fang found you, in and out, clean as an awl through harness leather. It bled honest, you flushed it with whiskey that hurt worse than the tooth, and now it's just a small hole with a big story.

• Small bandaged puncture, barely slows you, aches for a day
• A little round scar you'll point to in bars for years
• /me thumbs the small bandage on the forearm, almost proud of it

Recovery A day, maybe two, kept clean·No doctor needed

The jaws closed over your bracer and squeezed. Nothing broke skin, but the crush left a bruise in the shape of a bite, purple and precise, every tooth accounted for.

• Bite-shaped bruise on the forearm, sore to the touch for 2 days
• Grip aches when you haul on rope or reins

Recovery 2 days and it's just a yellowing curiosity·No doctor needed

Fangs skated along your arm without catching, leaving two red lines and taking ten years off your life. The mark is nothing; the sound of jaws snapping shut beside your elbow will visit you for a night or two.

• Two shallow scratches, cleaned and all but forgotten by tomorrow
• Sleep comes shallow the first night, every rustle is a wolf

Recovery A day for the skin; a night or two for the nerves·No doctor needed

The wolf got cloth and nothing else, your arm slid out of the sleeve as the coat tore, and the beast stood there shaking wool while you found your rifle. You keep the ruined sleeve. Proof.

• Unhurt but for a red pressure mark that fades by morning
• One coat sleeve torn to ribbons, tailor or trading post, your pick

Recovery Nothing to heal but the coat·No doctor needed

You got the rifle up crossways and the teeth met walnut instead of wrist. There are grooves in the stock deep enough to hold rainwater, and your hands didn't shake until after it ran.

• Not a mark on you, just a fang-scarred rifle stock everyone wants to hold
• Wrist jarred from the impact, stiff for a few hours

Recovery Stiff wrist eases by supper·No doctor needed

You did the thing the old trapper told you drunk one night: drove your forearm deeper into the bite so the jaws couldn't work, and put your knife in the wolf's neck with the free hand. It died still holding on, and you had to pry it off tooth by tooth.

• Shallow tooth-dents in a leather bracer and not one drop of your blood spilled
• A wolf pelt with a story attached that nobody believes until they see the bracer
• /me taps the tooth-marked bracer. 'Deeper in, not out. That's the trick.'

Recovery Nothing to heal, you're buying your own drinks off this tale for a month·No doctor needed