Your body now reacts when you are hit. A wolf bite or a blow rocks you back, the struck side gives, and you spring back without a pop. A hard shove makes you stumble a catch step or two toward where you are falling before your feet come back under you, and the body steadies once its feet are home instead of snapping back on a timer.
A big hit, such as a wolf lunge or a falling tree, throws you down for a second or three: you fall loose, lie there and get back up on your own, sitting up from your back or pushing up from your front. Your arms reach for the ground and your chin tucks before you land; thrown backward you sit down hard with a hand slapping the ground behind you, and knocked from behind your hands hit first and you land face down. Shoved into a tree, a rock or a wall, your shoulders take it and you push off, and a tool in your hand stays there. Hit while swimming, you flinch in the water.
Animals take blows the same way: strike a wolf, a sheep or a hen and its hip buckles or its neck snaps aside before it runs, and from October 8 an animal hit with a pick or a spear shows it every time. Friends see all of this on your body, and you see it on theirs.
