38-Soft monkey, warm monkey, little man of fur...

6/2/5/4353 M.A.C - Great Western Rainforest- Hours before Dawn

"I need some light to see clearly, my dark vision isn't cutting it. Get the fire starting kit and sort it out while I get what I need from Sun Hanukon's first-aid kit."

A bit under a minute had passed since the panther's demise, but Arctic and Emi couldn't rest on their laurels quite yet. Upon making her way to Sun Hanukong, Emi found their protector unresponsive, his clothing and fur saturated in a worrying amount of blood.

Still, silver lining, looks like he is breathing.

Emi quickly unfurled the first-aid kit and spread out its content as Arctic rejoined her to start working on a fire.

First, I need to strip his armor around the wound to have a better view of the damage.

Emi picked up the knife she had dropped during the combat and made a large cut above Sun Hanukong's ribs. It took longer than she would have liked, but as Arctic was not done with his task, she took her time cut away at the ties as gently as she could.

Emi felt a last bit of resistance as she pulled off the left pauldron and was easily able to finish cutting away the strings that fastened the damaged wooden cuirass. Arctic finished sorting the fire and brought Emi a lit torch.

"Will he be ok!? It can't happen again...Please tell me he isn't going to die because he saved me!"

Arctic was shaking as he handed over the torch, a look of desperation on his face as he started imagining the worst outcome. Emi didn't need any special powers to understand that the situation was triggering something along the lines of a phobia or post-traumatic stress disorder for Arctic.

"He is still alive, and we have resources. Trust me, he'll be fine!"

Emi brought the torch closer, and what she saw did not look promising. Three of the panther's claws had managed to penetrate his wooden armor, leaving a large and deep gash running the length of his shoulder's socket, where it connected with his pectoral muscle.

Shit, what do I do? I need to stop the bleeding, but I'm fairly sure the shoulder is dislocated, and some ligaments look like they were torn or ripped. Do I put the anti-coagulant ointment first, or the honey? Stopping the bleeding is the first priority, if it stops the honey from working well as an antiseptic, at least we'll have that anti-fever tea to try and get him to hold on until we find a proper healer.

Emi positioned her knife on the edge of the fire as she picked up one of their gourds and started washing the wound, temporarily speeding up the rate of blood loss by washing away splinters and slightly congealed blood.

"Arctic, sit on his chest and keep his left arm still. Do not let him move if he wakes up."

Emi inspected the wound once more and saw that the largest blood vessels in his shoulder had been severed, the dislocated shoulder pulling both ends an inch apart.

I have no idea how to get his shoulder back in position...and with the speed at which he is bleeding out...Shit, gonna have to use the blade to cauterize both ends before I use the ointment, the two ends of the blood vessel are too far apart for it to work on its own and I can't risk having to wait for the ointment to take effect as I watch him slowly die.

Arctic winced and grimaced as he saw Emi bring the heated knife in contact with Sun Hanukong's flesh. Sun Hanukong could not scream, and he had lost enough blood that his limbs felt like lead, but his now wide-open eyes, the crazed grunts coming out of him, and his twisted expression betrayed how much pain he was going through.

"Hold on Big Bro Sun, resist the pain. If you move, it might get worse, do your best to bear with it."

Sun Hanukong gritted his teeth and did his best to remain immobile as Emi moved the knife to the other end of the torn blood vessel. The smell of burned flesh, fur, and blood turned Arctic's stomach and he turned his head to the opposite side as he began to throw up, all the while keeping a secure hold of Sun Hanukong.

"Done! Breath deeply and slowly to try and lower your heart rate while I spread the ointment and the honey. Arctic, you can let go now, good job bud. Now, go cut out a long strip out of one of the spare tunics."

Emi started singing a gentle lullaby-like song as she gingerly spread the ointment, taking great care to avoid getting any of his nearby fur matted into it. Emi brought an old memory, of her mother nursing her when she'd caught a fever during her childhood, to her mind and transmitted the emotions through her song in an attempt to appease Sun Hanukong and make the treatment more tolerable.

"Soft monkey, warm monkey, little man of fur..."

***

Emi's treatment was nearing its end as the first hint of the morning sun began seeping through the canopy. Emi retrieved the straps of cloth that Arctic had cut, from the pot of boiling water she had placed them in, and wrung the now tolerably warm water out of it. Emi applied a coat of honey to one side of the cloth strip before wrapping his injured shoulder in what ended up being 5 layers of the makeshift bandage.

"Here you go, will this help?."

Emi quickly noticed that Arctic was badly affected by the situation, as his condition had deteriorated whenever she'd left him to his thoughts, so she had decided to keet him busy with a project. Arctic offered Emi the sling he'd been making with two loops of ropes and a few sticks, according to her instructions, and she inspected it thoroughly.

"Yeah, this plus the bandage should help limit movement and keep weight off his shoulder. He lost too much blood to walk on his own for now, so let's have a big breakfast, since we won't be able to carry much food, and then we'll quickly sort out some sort of stretcher. If we want to avoid shaking Big Bro Sun too much on the journey, due to chances of his wound worsening, we'll have to leave before lunch to make it to the next shelter without rushing."

***

Sun Hanukong had been waning in and out of consciousness over the course of the day as his companions did their best to get him to the next shelter as comfortably as they could. Luckily, the forest had been as good as deserted and no nasty surprises had cropped up along the way.

Emi had taken the lead position to keep watch over oncoming dangers from either side of the road, but it had turned out wholly unnecessary. During the previous days of their journey, Emi had often noticed small animals scampering away from the noise of their convoy, dashing deeper into the forest using the undergrowth as cover, but not today. Even the few peckish mosquitos that had often been attracted to the scent of their sweat were nowhere to be seen.

Strange... Smaller animals running away after a panther moved in makes some sense, but why even the bugs?

The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

Emi was starting to feel like something was off, making her grow more nervous with every passing minute, but as the shelter came in sight with a bit over an hour of sunlight left to spare, and no new signs of nearby predators, Emi let go of her tension as she decided she was just being paranoid.

This time, the shelter was sound, meaning the trio would finally be able to catch up on a night's worth of missed sleep, with all the fatigue they had accumulated through the fight for their lives and the subsequent journey. Upon getting themselves settled, Emi decided to give Sun Hanukong a once over and was not pleased by what she saw.

Although they had done their best, between the movement from the travel and the lack of sutures, Sun Hanukong's wound had apparently seeped enough blood throughout the day that a red section had started appearing on the outside-facing layer of the bandage. She put her hand on his forehead to check for temperature, but the dampness of his facial fur, his bloodshot eyes, and the labored quality of his breathing, all gave her a good enough idea of his situation before her hand could make contact with his skin.

"Arctic, set some water to boil, I need to make the special fever tea. Also, we are out of cloth for bandages so we are going to have to boil these and reuse them, so we need the fire for that too. This part of the forest seems pretty empty of danger, so I'll quickly scout around for some food or water before I completely run out of stamina, since we'll be running low on water after cleaning the bandages."

***

After an hour had passed, and the sun was once again dipping below the horizon, Emi returned from her trip without any water but with an armful of what she had decided were very plump and juicy-looking mango-like fruits. The eery feeling had crept up again and Emi felt a tingle at the back of her spine until she was once again safely within the confines of the shelter.

Am I being stalked by something dangerous everything else but me notices? Where are all the critters gone?

"How about this? Any good? Please tell me they aren't poisonous because aside from a selection of dubious-looking mushrooms and this, I couldn't find anything else. "

"There is a lot out in the forest, you just don't know how and where to look. No problem though, this is good and should be enough until tomorrow. How is Big Bro doing? Is he going to be fine? "

Big Bro? Good job Sun! Guess life and death moments can be worth months of natural development when it comes to affecting relationships... I don't know if he'll make it through, and if he'll get full use of his arm again if he does, but Arctic doesn't need to know that.

Although she had mostly been part of the technical crew in the school plays she had participated in while growing up and in university, Emi channeled all the limited acting experiences stemming from her few on-stage appearances to lie as convincingly as she could.

"Now that he's had the tea, he should be fine. we should make it out of the forest in a day or two at most, I am sure we can keep him well enough that a doctor can properly fix him when we get there. Have a bite to eat and then go to sleep, I'll do the same after changing Sun Hanukong's bandages."

Sun Hanukong kept drifting in and out for the evening, and even though he hadn't managed to regain a bout of clear coherence, the tea appeared to have had a noticeable effect as his sweating and shivering reduced drastically. After seeing the state of the wound as she changed his bandages, Emi had a sinking feeling that the tea was only helping fight the symptoms but not the root cause. Sun Hanukong's wound had developed a distinctive foul odor coming from a yellowish milky fluid that was seeping from the inflamed edges of his wound.

That is definitely infected...Come on buddy, if you can make it through the night, we might be able to get you to a healer in time...Don't give up now that you are finally fixing your mistakes!

***

*BANG* *BANG* *BANG*

The sounds of something hard hitting the door three times in quick succession jolted Emi awake with flashbacks of the panther crashing into their shelter the previous night. As she looked around and saw nothing was amiss, she let out a sigh of relief, hearing nothing but the falling rain, thinking the sound must have been part of a nightmare.

*BANG* *BANG* *BANG*

Emi jumped to her feet and Arctic shortly followed suit, the two staring at the door with trepidation. Sun Hanukong was still in his makeshift cot, apparently too deep in sleep for the out-of-place noise to wake him. The door handle started rattling as someone, or something, on the other side attempted to make its way in.

"Hello!? Anyone in here? Please let us in, we are two two forest rangers and five free legionnaires out on assignment. We won't harm you or steal from you, we just want to shelter from the rain and get a few hours rest before we move on."

"Oy ranger, you sure there is someone in there? Maybe the door is just stuck, I could always give it a good shove."

"Don't, this shelter belongs to the guardians of the forest. They can't speak, that's why they aren't ans-"

Emi chose that moment to interject.

"DO YOU HAVE A HEALER WITH YOU!?"

In her excitement, Emi failed to adjust the volume of her voice accordingly and screamed her question through the closed door. The ranger who had started the conversation was perplexed by the situation. He respected the guardians of the forest and often worked with them, but he had never heard of one that could speak, let alone scream. The legionnaire behind him chuckled at the timing of the answer.

"I am the Decanus of this contubernium, we don't have a general healer but we do have a Medicus with us. Let us in, I am sure we can come to an arrangement."

The Decanus then continued in a quiet enough voice that he obviously thought Emi could no longer hear him.

"Are these guardians of the forest rich? Wouldn't say no to a little bonus payday if we get our medicus to work."

The ranger replied in an equally quiet voice, Emi smirking on the other side of the door at the uselessness of their precautions.

"Nah, not in coin. They are quasi spirit beasts of the monkey kind, they usualy trade in labor, mundane crafts, food they forage, hunt and grow, or in rare resources from the forest. Still, since they normally can't speak, reckon it is a human or other sentient species in there. The guardians leave the shelter free for everyone's use after all."

Emi pulled the lock bar away from the door and opened it a crack, the emotional auras surrounding the people outside seemed to match their words, and she could see no sign of violent emotions from them. In fact, most seemed to have their auras made up of the dreary grey Emi had begun to associate with extreme fatigue. Emi pulled the door open the rest of the way, using one of her feet, after slipping her arms back beneath her feathers.

"Greetings weary travelers, please come in and share our fire for the night. Please do what you can for my guardian friend over there, I don't really have anything worth trading as far as I know, but we can come to an arrangement."

The newcomers found themselves face to face with what had to be the biggest owl they had ever encountered, and none managed to quite hide their surprise.

"I thought you rangers were supposed to be our guides on this assignment...Mistaking a giant dark purplish owl that talks for a mid-sized mute white monkey...Better buy me a drink if you don't want me to start spreading your blunder when we get back."

Emi remembered that Arctic had taken a memento from the larger of the two panthers and went to retrieve it.

"Well, we don't have much because we got attacked last night and had to ditch most of our supplies at the previous shelter to carry our injured friend here. It might not be worth much, I have no idea really, but we do have these four large panther fangs."

Emi forgot that she had been keeping her arms a secret and lifted one up to offer the fangs to the Decanus. Everyone one in the room suddenly gasped in shock as they looked at her hand.

"Oh yeah, I'm a full-on spirit beast, the arms are just part of my Abilities."

The Decanus reacted to Emi's justifications with a mild look of confusion on his face.

"Nah Owl-Lady, your arms do look weird, but that's not it. You came from the next shelter over and you killed the panther that attacked you there? These are its fangs?"

"Yeah. I thought we were gonna die, and Big Bro nearly did, but we barely managed to get it in the end."

The mood in the room suddenly turned somber as the legionnaires started a chorus of complaints upon realizing that somebody had already completed their assignment and that they were going to be missing their payday.

"We left our mounts outside but we rushed here today. There had been reports of the markings of a large panther found the area further down the path, but it was unconfirmed and a few days away from the forest's edge so the job was considered low priority. Two nights ago, these two rangers were out scouting for dangers when they barely heard the tail end of an enormously loud animal's roar and then all hell broke loose as a mass stampede of the animals in the area started forming as they ran away in fear. We have three other contubernia dealing with the displaced panicked critters that are leaking out into the neighboring farms. We were sent to take care of the source to avoid a repeat incident."

Oh no! The panther isn't the one they are after, I am! Guess my "big boom" traveled a lot further than I thought. Now that I think about it, if I was nearby and I head such an impossibly loud voice carrying emotions that literally translate to "fuck off", I'd also run for the hills. Gonna have to be careful with this use of the Ability.

"Oh yeah, It did make an extremely loud noise after I....."

Emi just realized that the excuse she had come up with would require her to reveal her deep dark secret, what exactly she had done to the panther when all sense of right and wrong had gone out of the window and survival had become her only worry.

"...stabbed it in the backside with a pointy stick..."

Emi said the second half of her sentence so quietly and timidly that only the decanus was able to clearly make out what she said. He obviously found the situation a bit too much fun a he immediately feigned ignorance with some of the worst acting Emi had seen in a while.

" After you what? Sorry, couldn't quite catch that. Can you repeat it, louder, so everybody can hear."

Well, if I give him this win maybe he'll be less pissed off that he moved his team for nothing.

"Fine, I used a splintered spear shaft to skewer it from behind in the one weak point I could find! Yes, you can call me "Spear of the brown star"! Happy that you made me reveal my shame!? Now, please, save my brother! I'll let you have the fangs and claim the bounty on the panther if you do."

The Decanus gave Emi a large smile as as his entire contubernium, the rangers included, doubled over in laughter at the revelation, their mood lightened up from both the joke and their renewed hope for remuneration.

With the medicus, whatever that is, and their mounts, we might just manage to save Sun-Sun.