Wow. That was quite a debate.
First of all, when Nar said 'three people', Purvis, I think he was including Kips, who managed to avoid this debate, but also wanted to fall back, as I recall.
Second of all, having had some time at work to consider the situation, I recall what Draco parsed when we were chasing the first little one. That we could have overtaken it had we wanted. I have no reason to suspect the bigger ones are any faster. Which means that if we get ambushed us again, and we decide to run, we can outrun it. And in military terms, it is best to have information about what you're preparing for before preparing, such as location and numbers. So here's what I propose.
We take a moment to rinse off our wound with canteen water, then go forward again, try and find the big source of scent. Along the way, we look about for more water. There has to be something in here - a brook, a stream, a gully, SOMETHING - that hasn't been contaminated, that we can use to refiill our canteen and wash our wounds more throughly. We probe deeper to try and find the lair, and find out just what we're in for. Assuming we find it before getting attacked again, we can decide then what we do from there.
BUT, if we get attacked again on the way to the lair, we fall back and regroup. I'm willing to risk being ambushed once more with the gear and wounds we have, but not twice. That would be pushing our luck too far.
Does that sound fair to everyone?