She looked over at me briefly before collapsing back into a seated position. She took an extra second to kick Calum’s leg then sighed and rested her arm on her knee. I couldn’t help but notice her eyes and the lines etched into her face had stopped glowing, as if she had gone dormant.
~~Previously~~
I hadn’t moved; my arm still shaking as I held it up, pointed at where my target’s face had once been. My eyes shifted from my would-be partner to the man she had just knocked out. Or perhaps he was dead. I finally allowed my arm to drop with the release of a heavy breath, and I slumped back on my elbow, awkwardly lying on my side with my wounded leg splayed in front of me. My mind barely had time to drift toward curiosity before the shooting pain from my thigh reminded me of my own wounds. Still, I needed to help her. I needed her…
“Hey,” I turned my head towards my would-be-companion. What was her name? Had I gotten one?
My eyes flew to her bleeding arm, her wrist flopped onto the dirt and her hand splayed out. Blood trickled down from several deep gashes down her shoulder, bicep, and forearm, and a small pool of red was expanding beneath where her hand rested on the rough mountain soil.
Fuckin’ great. I gritted my teeth, twisting myself enough to be able to shimmy myself along the ground toward her. From the looks of it, she had already passed out from blood loss; hell, it was a wonder she had managed to stumble her way through the forest to get back to me while she was losing that much blood. I positioned myself next to her so that I could get a better look at her wounds.
No surprise; deep lacerations. Like massive claws. Wrap it. Pressure. My sleeves would do. Moving around the way I wanted with my leg lagging behind me was the problem. And I didn’t have my damned kit on me either!
Her bloody arm lay in my lap while I attempted my best at pulling the makeshift tourniquets as taut as I could.
“Hey!”
Nothing. Probably dead…or slowly dying. I took in a deep breath and sighed only to remind me of my own wound that needed treating. I turned my head down and tenderly reached for the knife lodged in my thigh. My entire leg screamed as soon as my fingers nudged it.
“Fuck!” I grumbled between clinched teeth, followed by a heavy sigh.
As if on cue, my would-be-companion opened her eyes, grumbling similarly. She lurched immediately, reasonably, but flinched as she tried to move her arm away from my grip.
I let her go, but she could barely move her arm. I frowned; I’d seen enough wounds like it, “we’ve a long way to go. That–“
She held up her unwounded arm, “yeah. I need stitches. There’s wire in my staff. Barrel end up, compartment on the left, a third of the way down.” She paused and sighed, “I’ll get it, though. Your leg’s fucked.
It’s not like I could do much to stop her; I could only watch her. She was moving fine, but her arm hung limp; at least it wasn’t dripping blood everywhere like before, but I could tell it pained her to even move it. She went to grab her staff and then further still to pick up the rest of what she had dropped before ascending the cliff-side, barely able to get it all back on with one functioning arm. As she came back, I looked up at her.
“Aren’t you supposed to be killing me?”
“Pfft,” she made her way back over and tucked her legs under my own wounded one. I groaned as it moved, “not until you stop being useful.” Even without her mask, it was hard to tell if she was joking. She managed some sort of vial from her pouches, “you’re gonna want this.”
I tilted my head, but took it. “Do I..drink it?”
“Oh, no. You’re gonna pour it on your leg in a bit.” She said casually as she eyeballed my wound. “Might as well and go ahead and pop that open.”
I started working the cork out, “fine, but what the hell are you–“
Unceremoniously, she grabbed and pulled the knife out of my thigh in one swift motion. The searing pain was enough for me to half-assed unconsciously pour whatever the voids was in the vial on the wound. There was a moment of agonizing pain before it soothed over, and I glared at her, “somebody needs to work on your bedside manner!”
“Yuuup.” She stated. Sometime when I was delirious from pain she had worked a needle and wire together and was now holding it in her teeth. She held the end of the wire out to me. “Gonna have to hold this. I’ll start. I know it’s a lot easier when you don’t have to do it yourself.”
I flinched inherently but took the end of the wire. It took three of our hands and her teeth to seal the wound. The muscle damage was just going to take time to get over. From there, we moved onto her arm, which she had an extra vial on her to pour over. The damage to her arm took a lot longer to stitch up, and I had to re-bandage it. By the time we were finished, it was nightfall. By my calculations, it was going to be morning by the time we got back.
She stood, taking her staff and handed it to me.
~~ToBeContinued~~
Kuma House 
[…] ~~ToBeContinued~~ […]
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