Chapter 8: Grounded

Felix Sythias’ POV (continued):

When I finally got back to the treeline, I had to make the awful decision of either going straight for Alex, or taking a detour to grab our supplies first. On the one talon, he could be bleeding out and the few extra seconds I took to get the supplies could be his death. On the other talon, if I didn’t have our medical supplies, what could I do when I got to him? Watch him bleed out?

That made the decision for me, I’d take the detour.

I walked along the treeline to the old burned tree where we’d stashed our stuff. I didn’t have time to search through it so I just put everything on my back, being very careful not to disturb my… my… No, don’t think about it. Focus on something else. Think about Alex.

I continued limping to him, and as I got close, I could see he was still lying where he had fallen. Been thrown? I didn’t think he had moved at all since I fought with the dire bear.

When I arrived, Alex looked mostly fine. He was breathing steadily, and there were no excessive amounts of blood. The armor had deflected most of the claws. The bear had shredded the chestplate, and there was little left of the shirt underneath. I could only imagine the reason he wasn’t hurt more was because of his [blunt force resistance].

Now knowing he was mostly fine, I took a moment to unstrap what remained of his armor and laid it aside. We might still need it, even if it was damaged. On his chest were a few large impact spots where scales had cracked, and he was scratched up, but it appeared he had fared way better than me.

I didn’t remember much from my first aid training years ago. I simply hadn’t needed the knowledge of how to treat humanoids. But I remembered enough to check for broken bones. His scales made it remarkably difficult as I got less detail from what laid underneath, though. I was relieved to find there weren’t any. At least, none that I could find.

Aside from his chest, he had a nasty cut on his leg where the armor hadn’t quite protected him. But he wasn’t bleeding from anywhere else. We weren’t in an immediate emergency anymore, so cauterization was a bad option. It was great to do while in a fight or when bleeding out was a serious risk, but now? I’d use bandages.

Using my talons, I cut away his shirt and pants. Saving them like I’d done with the armor wasn’t possible, not without serious risk of injuring him further. There wasn’t anything to save, anyway.

I carefully cleaned the cuts and scratches with water magic—why didn’t I think of magic during the fight? I was sure I could’ve done something useful with it. I shook my head and focused on Alex, sterilizing the wounds with the salve from the first aid kit.

I grabbed a few rolls of bandages and wrapped his chest up first. It was difficult. The bandages were thin and not made for talons. I ended up having to pierce the end of the bandage with a claw so I could wrap it around him without it constantly slipping out of my grasp. The cloth caught on his scales a few times, but there were no other problems.

Wrapping up his leg proved even more difficult. His tail made it very awkward to wrap the bandages around the leg, as it kept trying to curl around the area, instinctively protecting the wound. Eventually I had enough and just pinned it down with my other talon.

While I was busy with the bandages, Alex woke up, though he was a little dazed and confused. I told him to stay awake and rest. He laid his head back down and stared up at the clouds.

While Alex dazed, I finished applying the bandages. My handiwork wasn’t the best, but it would have to suffice until we got to a healer. Only after bandaging all his cuts and checking them all twice did I check on my own injuries.

Aside from the obvious one, I had a large wound on my left hind-leg, making it difficult to move, and numerous cuts and gashes all over. My ribs also hurt, but there was little I could do about that. I’d already cauterized the wounds, but it was a stop-gap solution, and a bad one at that. They would quickly get infected if they stayed this way. I had to do something.

I took a few painkillers, and used more water magic to clean my own wounds, but I soon ran into a problem I rarely had: my mana pool was getting low. Between the air magic on the flight here, the water and earth magic with the goblins, all the fire magic to close my wounds, and now the water magic to clean them, I was running on wisps.

I prioritized the biggest, deepest, nastiest cuts and gashes, but ran out halfway through. I’d just have to hope it was enough.

Bandaging them up proved to be an even bigger issue. There simply wasn’t enough. I had used most of what we had on Alex, and it hadn’t been much to begin with. I bandaged up my stump with what remained and considered using the tatters of Alex’s clothing for my other wounds, but they were a worse option than just letting the wounds be.

All in all, I had only one usable wing and three completely usable legs. Considering my general resistance to healing, this was going to be very difficult to deal with once we got back to campus. I shook my head. I’d deal with that when we got back.

I focused back on Alex, who was moving now, slowly sitting up. I think he suffered a concussion when he hit the ground.

“Argh... My head. What ha-happened?” He rubbed his head, wincing.

I moved back to lie down beside him. I held a talon in front of him. “How many claws am I holding up?”

“T-two?” he said uncertainly.

“Good. Your vision is fine then. What’s the last thing you remember?”

“Do you ha-have any water?”

“Sure, here.” I handed him his flask. It was still half filled with water, but I could always get more from the pond. The pond! There were still goblins near the pond!

I glanced back at the cave. There weren’t any there yet, but the smell of blood would lure them out soon enough and I wasn’t sure I would be able to fight them off by myself. They were weak, but right now, so was I.

What then? I wasn’t sure Alex could move right now. And where would we go? This was one of the safest places in the entire zone. I shook my head; it wasn’t a problem yet. I’d deal with it when it became one.

Alex handed me the flask back and laid back down. I shielded him from the wind with my body and repeated my question.

“I… I’m not sure. You were fighting the goblins and doing well. No, you were doing amazing. It was my turn, but there was a… loud sound. A roar? Yeah, there was a roar. Something large and black ran from the trees. I think it was a bear. I tried warning you, but it swiped you aside. I was able to dodge a few times, but eventually it hit me and I went flying. Then I woke up here. Is it gone? Did it leave?”

I shook my head. “It wasn’t a bear, but a bear monster variant. A black dire bear, maybe? I’m not sure.”

If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement.

“Oh, right,” he said. I didn’t need to explain what that meant. Monsters didn’t just leave. They killed or were killed. “Are you okay?”

I shook my head “Don’t worry about me. I’m not easy to break.” And yet the bear had done it in one hit. I didn’t know what would’ve happened if I hadn’t gotten such a good few initial hits in on its belly and shoulder. Nothing good, I guessed. “How are you feeling?”

“Not well. I hurt all over, and I have a headache. Didn’t we have painkillers?” he asked. “Could you give me one?”

I shook my head, feeling sorry for him. “I think you might have a concussion. The wrong painkiller could make it worse.”

He sighed. “Damn.”

“Yeah.”

He laid his head back down to rest, and I let him. I occasionally glanced back at the cave, but there were no goblins yet. After some time, Alex started shivering. So, I shifted around so I could cover him with my remaining wing. It wasn’t much, but it would have to do.

After resting for maybe thirty minutes, Alex moved the wing off him so he could sit up again. His movements were livelier and his eyes brighter.

“What happened to the bear?” he asked.

“I killed it in the forest. It took a while. Sorry.”

“No, that’s okay. I’m fine, or will be, anyway.” He checked himself over, tightening and correcting the bandages where necessary.

“Sorry, I’m not really equipped to deal with bandages,” I said, gesturing with my claws.

“It’s fine. It worked. Do you need me to check your—” He frowned. “Oh, you don’t have any.”

I shook my head. “I used most of it on you.”

“So you did use some. Do you need me to check?”

“It’s fine. Don’t worry about it.” I didn’t think it was a good idea to reveal I missed a wing. It had some unpleasant implications. Concern grew on his face.

“Alright then. I think I’m feeling okay enough. I think I’d like to take you up on your offer, now. I want to go back.”

Damn the stars. I had wanted to avoid this for now.

“About that,” I said, not meeting his eyes. “We’re… um… stuck here.”

“Stuck? What do you mean stuck? This better not be a joke,” he said, glaring at me.

I sighed and twisted around so he could see the stump. He gasped.

“What in the stars happened to your wing?!”

“It broke,” I said with a shrug, which I immediately regretted doing as a sharp bolt of pain shot through me.

“Your wing broke off?!” He stood up to take a closer look, but I grabbed him and kept him seated. There was a good chance he’d fall and injure himself further if he started walking around.

“Calm down, you’ll hurt yourself. And no, it didn’t break off. When the bear threw me across the field, I hit a tree and my wing broke. You were about to get killed and I couldn’t fight with a limp wing.”

“You amputated your own wing?!” Then it hit him. “We didn’t tell anyone where we were going, did we?”

I shook my head. “No, we did not.”

Alex was silent for a bit, thinking, and then his face lit up with hope. “We have the emergency beacons, right? I remember reading about it earlier in the booklet!”

I looked down at the ground, my voice small. “No. I… kind of forgot to bring any.”

Alex let out a strangled groan of frustration, then took a deep breath. “Fuck,” he said, mirroring my own thoughts.

We sat in silence for a time, while I figured out what to do. The valley was one of the best options to stay, and we wouldn’t have to stay too long. Someone would notice us missing soon enough.

The valley had its own problems though. The chances of another bear were insignificant. Probably. But the goblins would be a real problem. There wouldn’t spawn any more while we were this close, but I didn’t know how many were still in the cave. Five or ten I could handle, but any more would become an issue.

“What happened to my clothes?” Alex asked, breaking the silence. He looked around and saw them lying on the ground in tatters. He shook his head. “I know I’m handsome, but take a guy out to eat first next time before you rip his clothes off.” He joked with a chuckle, then winced as if he said something he shouldn’t have. He brought a hand to his head and groaned “Ugh, I think that bear hit me harder than I thought.”

“What, lunch didn’t count?” I joked back, trying to lighten the mood. Not that he was wrong. He was handsome.

He frowned. “Heh, I suppose we did go out to eat. But in all seriousness, you couldn’t have taken them off instead of cutting them open? Walking around a monster infested forest in my underwear seems like a poor idea.”

I shook my head. “I couldn’t have taken them off without hurting you,” I said, gesturing with my sharp claws. “And they were ruined already, anyway.”

“Hmm. I’ll have to make do. What now?”

“I’m not sure,” I said, shrugging. “They’ll come looking for us eventually when we don’t return, but that might take a while.”

“How will they know? I didn’t tell anyone where we were going, and I’m not sure you even had the chance.”

“Tracking magic.”

He frowned. “Tracking magic? They have tracking magic on us? Can they even do that?”

“You didn’t know? I thought everyone was informed beforehand.”

“Clearly they forgot.”

“I… sorry, they should’ve told you. I’ll make sure this won’t happen again.”

“What can you do about it?” It was a fair question given that he hadn’t realized who my father was. He didn’t need to ask it like that though. Hurt must have shown on my face, because he apologized. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to say it like that. I’m just frustrated with myself that I didn't tell anyone we went down here.”

I shook my head. “No. If anyone is to blame, it’s me. I’m the one with the experience, I should’ve remembered to take a beacon with us and to tell someone where we were going and for how long.”

He glared at me. “I’m not a mindless slave just following your lead, you know. I invited myself. We’re both to blame.”

I wasn’t sure I agreed, but I let it go. It felt nice to share the sense of guilt, weird as it was. It just proved we were truly in this mess together.

“And to answer your question. I can talk to my dad about it. He’s very meticulous about paperwork and policy. He’ll make sure it won’t happen again, his pride depends on it.”

“Hmm. So by evening they’ll realize something might be wrong. I think we can manage until then, don’t you—what is it?”

I rubbed a talon over my neck. It was a very humanoid mannerism that I’d picked up. “About that… they, uh, probably won’t notice anything until tomorrow early afternoon.”

His frown deepened. “What? Why?”

“I sometimes go camping here. Dad will assume I needed space and went down here to spend time away from the house. And he’ll think I brought a friend along.”

"Really? As if it couldn't get any worse. I should've stayed at campus." Alex rubbed his forehead, pain clear on his face. “Urgh! I think I’m starting to regret becoming friends.”

I was at a loss for words. Maybe we had only known each other for about a day, but I’d grown used to his company and warm presence. He’d made me feel like I could be myself around him, without judgment, instead of who everyone expected me to be—even if I wasn’t quite capable of being that vulnerable. He said it in a moment of pain and frustration and probably didn't mean it, but it still hurt.

I took a deep breath and did my best to push the issue to the back of my mind; we had bigger fish to fry.

“We’ll n-need to find a place to stay for the night,” I said, trying my best to keep my sadness and disappointment out of my voice.

"Sorry, I didn't…" He took a deep breath. "Yeah, we do. Do you have any ideas?"

“I t-think it would be best if we stayed in this valley. We’ll be able to see what’s coming and there’s a cave we c-can use as a shelter. There’s one issue though.”

Alex sighed. He looked sad and guilty. “The goblins?”

I nodded. “The goblins.”