It was late afternoon in the village and Azrael had gone out to hunt for some mushrooms in the woods for a few hours. She had been successful in finding small groups of mushrooms and was now heading back to the cottage as the sun began to set. The day had calmed thankfully. No one that Azrael knew of followed her back home from her escapades in the city and she was thankful.

As Azrael hit the tree line near the cottage, she saw a bright light streak across the sky. She watched it for a second and thought it would disappear, but it continued its path to the ground. She watched it hit with a small explosion.

"Well there may be some valuable resources there," Azrael whispered to herself. So she dropped off the basket of mushrooms and took a side bag with her to find the meteor.

The sun cast golden rays over the earth as Azrael walked along the tree line. The further she walked the more she realized that the meteor landed quite a ways away from the village. The sun was beginning to set lower and the light was now fading after only ten minutes of walking. Azrael thought about turning back and trying to find it in the morning, but then she saw a small glow a few yards ahead. She smiled and rushed over a bit quicker. What she saw next made her freeze in her spot. In the small crater lay an unconscious man. Azrael cautiously walked closer to investigate. She was greeted by large wings that lay limp and seemed almost fragile.

She walked around them carefully and bent down by his feet. "Hey, mister." Azrael lightly shook one of his feet, but he didn't move. The pit of her stomach dropped.

Don't be dead. Don't be dead. Don't be dead.

Azrael tried getting a better look at him, but the sunlight was fading quickly. So she placed a hand on his chest hoping to feel a heartbeat. She closed her eyes said a little prayer and waited. There was a slight rise in the stranger's chest and Azrael let out a sigh of relief. "Okay. I can work with this." She touched the stranger’s chest again and whispered "Supernatet." The man rose a few feet from the ground and Azrael stood with him. She slowly made her way home with a wounded stranger, but at the time she didn't realize just how wounded.

Somehow, she managed to get him home without much trouble and into the cottage. She laid him on her bed and was better able to assess him from there. The first thing she noticed was the blood dripping onto the floor. She opened his shirt and saw the massive stab wound in his side and her eyes went wide.

"How the hell are you going to keep this man alive Azrael," she said outlaid to herself. Soon enough she went to work to get the bleeding to stop.

She started a fire in her fireplace and went back to the stranger with clean cloths she had found stacked in her workshop. She placed an overabundance on the wound itself and attempted to wrap his torso to keep the pressure for a few minutes. She then took a silver knife that had been gifted to her from her travels and placed it in the fire to sterilize and heat up. Azrael was going to try a trick she had learned from a human doctor. Once she felt the knife was ready, she quickly unwrapped the wound, wiped away some blood, and lightly pressed the knife's side flat to the edge of the wound to cauterize the wound than to the other side. This stopped some of the bleeding and Azrael seemed pleased. She took some fresh water and started cleaning the rest of the wound before wrapping it again with a clean cloth. At this point, she started to clean his other smaller wounds with some water and made sure he was still breathing by the end of it. When she had finished it was the early hours of the morning and she collapsed into a ball of exhaustion on the floor next to the stranger.

The thick metallic smell mixed with a lingering fire woke Azrael up. It was almost unbearable to stand. She looked around and remembered what had occurred the night before and saw the stranger was still lying on her bed. The light rise and fall of his chest sent relief through Azrael as she watched him for a few minutes before getting up and starting the day. She cleaned up all the soiled cloth and threw them into the fireplace and started another fire. Both to get rid of the cloths and to warm the cottage as it was a cooler morning. She went downstairs and found some fresh lavender for a new simmer pot and smiled.

Climbing back up the ladder she had a small bundle of lavender in one hand. “I’m not sure how you like lavender but I thought this would be nice to have. Many calming properties.” Azrael began to talk. The room stayed quiet. She frowned just slightly as a small part of her wanted the stranger to answer her. She took a deep breath of the lavender and placed it in the pot with fresh water and over the fire it went. She took another fresh bowl of water and a rag and went to check on the stranger. “So I thought I would just clean you up some more given I don’t think I did a great job last night.”

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Azrael focused on the smaller more superficial cuts on the stranger's face and exposed chest. As she did, she studied him closely. Olive skin and black hair that was matted with blood. His chest was covered in fresh cuts but also deep scars that had been there for years it seemed. His even breathing filled the silence and it brought a strange comfort to Azrael as she sat there. Once she finished there, Azrael went to investigate his wings. It was nothing she had ever seen before. Inky black feathers seemed to reflect the light hypnotically. A few scratches and feathers were missing from the impact from last night.

She carefully ran her hands over a few feathers and realized she had no idea how she was going to bandage this. She looked at the stranger’s face. “It would be nice if you could tell me how to help you,” she sighed. A few minutes passed and Azrael decided to go down and look through some books hopefully finding something to help.

~~~*~~~

Raden felt an intense pain shoot through his side that initially woke him. Soon enough that pain spread through his body and he let out a groan. He reached down and brushed his side jerking his hand back as the pain grew. He lay back for a minute before really becoming aware of his surroundings. Raden opened his eyes and slowly looked around the room. He realized this was not a tent back at the celestial camp and he had no clue where he was. He sat up slowly and saw the ridiculous amount of wrapping around his side.

“What the hell?”

He looked around the small bedroom. A few books were stacked in the corner and a wardrobe sat against the far wall. There was a small window that outlooked across a field but other than that there wasn’t much. He saw a few supplies he could only guess were used to bandage him up. Raden was still very confused as to where he was or why he was even here.

He took a deep breath. “That’s it.” He went to stand but the shooting pain sent him to the ground. “Fuck,” Raden groaned. He held his side as he tried to stand but the pain was too much. He sat up on his knees letting his wings fall limp behind him. He was still weak and lifting his wings took too much from him. He lifted his hand and saw there was blood and looked down to see blood staining through the wrapping. “Fuck me.”

Azrael stood in her workshop flipping through book after book trying to find any kind of potion or concoction but was coming up empty. She sighed in frustration and then heard a loud thud followed by muffled cursing. She snapped the book she was holding shut and raced upstairs. Her eyes went wide as she saw the stranger now sitting on the ground covered in fresh blood. He looked up with a shocked expression to match Azrael’s. His hands were now covered in blood as he tried holding pressure. She raced over without another thought and assessed the bandages. Azrael quickly unwrapped the wound as they sat on the floor because lord knows she was going to have a much more difficult time getting him back into bed now. The wound had reopened.

“Well crap,” Azrael explained in frustration. She ran out of the room and back downstairs.

“Where are you going?”

Azrael didn’t answer but went to grab some wrappings and try this all over again. She came back with an armful of supplies. “Just stay still okay.” She assessed the wound again but two large hands folded over hers.

“Can you get me some water?” Raden was calm. Azrael paused for a second before nodding and fetching some fresh water. “If you’ll unwrap the bandages for me.” Raden placed his hands in the water and then onto the wound. He began to whisper in a language that Azrael couldn’t understand, but she watched. Raden removed his hands and the wound was closed properly now but still a fresh cut. He lifted his head and looked over at Azrael who was in awe of what had just happened. “Would you?”

Azrael snapped out of her daze. “Oh.” She began to wrap his side again.

“Not too tightly now. We’re not trying to cut off circulation.” Raden said in a low voice. She could feel his breath on her cheek and she blushed. Once she was finished, she sat back and Raden looked over her work. He nodded. “This’ll do. Now…” He looked up at her with tired eyes. “Care to explain who you are and what the hell I’m doing in a witch’s cottage?”

“Um… yeah.” Azrael looked around at the mess. “Could we get you off this floor and everything cleaned up first?” Raden nodded. There was no need to sit in his blood. “Great and I’ll make some tea as well.”

Raden was very intrigued by this girl. She was a bit scattered but he could sense deep care in her.

Slowly Azrael and Raden worked together and managed to lift him back onto the edge of the bed and she went to work cleaning up as fast as she could. Raden watched her quietly.

This is an introduction huh? Azrael thought to herself. She was still blushing.