Chương 55: Chapter 54: Triage

Things had happened very quickly after all that, and a lot needed doing before people could leave the keep properly, but the remaining staff who had volunteered to stay on for the transition took time to do a few things for us. Ms. Birchwood led us to a parlor with hardwood floors and good old furniture that very definitely wasn't made with my massive frame in mind. I sat on the floor and leaned against one of the couches.

Roxala took up station at the door, because of all of us and despite fighting several knights and a Gotthardt, she was in the best shape. Felorikaan was clearly still aching, but he was caring for the one of the three strong trio that was the worst off - Torch, whom had been nicked several times by the Duke's magic blade. Apparently, the wounds it inflicted could be cared for. I wasn't in any kind of danger, I figured - I'd more or less healed myself, right?

- but though Torch hadn't taken any individually life threatening hits from the sword, he had taken more than a very few fairly minor ones that seemed to add up.

"Cleaning the wounds and dissolving the enchantments they leave upon flesh, that is the trick. Fortunately, water magic is good for that." the Wizard Felorikaan said, as if sensing the question I hadn't yet asked him. Gelidia, cradled in my arms with her head on my chest despite the blood soaking my fur, reached up and touched my Wolf Pendant carefully. pressing her power into it to enchant me, and I felt the gift of speech fill me once more.

My rumbling alto voice was soft when it came as my tongue touched and interacted with the spellwork Gelidia had given me. It was such a strange feeling, but between my lips and what was heard, the sound changed shape as it had before, and carried my will into words. Despite my concern for her, I felt my tail wagging a little because that was just too cool. Could I learn how to do that for myself?

"Will he be alright?" I asked, looking to the brave Torch. I felt a brief sting of heat in my eyes, and admiration in my heart for the man - he'd saved my life. Quite literally. I didn't want anything to happen to him afterward - how lame that would be!

"I'll be fine." Torch grumped, and opened his eyes a slit to look at me.

"You okay, fuzzball?" he asked "You took a way bigger hit than me." he said. I considered the crack-shaped scar on my breast, and looked into Gelidia's blank, ghostly eyes, able to see her concern for me, entwined with her sadness and anger. Not at me, but at what had happened. I pressed the tip of my snoot to her forehead, and she made a soft noise as I kissed her brow. Her hand reached up, guiding my snout into a kiss to her lips instead after that, and it was... well, it was weird.

Snouts weren't really made for kissing. She didn't care, and after a beat, neither did I. My heart fluttered, and... ached. Literally. He'd hurt my heart. The external harm... was definitely not the only harm that had been done to me. Later on, I realized what a premonition that would turn out to be. At the moment, though,"I'll do for now." I said, voice a little husky.

"... But when you get the chance, Fel, once our brave friend is in no danger, I'd appreciate it if you had a good look at me too." I said. I sounded... somber, sort of flat in my own ears. I felt so tired. Felorikaan nodded at that, and I saw, in my wolf-ren, as he smiled a little.

"Blade like that, it cut his ability to recover. Health, Mana, and Stamina, each wound from it makes you recover more slowly." he said.

"I'm pleased to say that the enchantments are relatively easy to dissolve... but he has quite a few. Once he is out of danger and in need of triage, I will tend you as well." Fel said. I checked my status. [Health: 140/240] [Stamina: 215/275] [Mana: 10/115] Oh. I'd actually lost mana, and my health and stamina... were not recovering quickly at all. That didn't look good. Again my chest ached. I was so tired.

"My health and stamina are recovering very slowly, but my mana's fading." I observed aloud, and Fel glanced up at me.

"How quickly?" he asked, and I thought about it. As I waited and watched, my mana ticked down by 1 after about three minutes.

"A point every three minutes or something like that." I said, and Fel shot me another glance.

"I'm almost done here." he said firmly, and resumed working. I looked at his hands, glowing blue like lights dancing over flickering waters, and something about the action spoke to me. I could see something... my eyes could not. It was faint, but it was like he was plucking spider's webs from each wound, and each time the little cord went taut, Torch tensed and winced. In this first example of it, it was a small cut on his arm.

The wound was shallow, but it had lots of little green fibers like the one Fel pulled woven into the gap of his flesh, and as the cord was snapped, he bled a little. Trying to hold onto that sensation, I tried to look down at my wound again and... still couldn't, of course. Gelidia made a soft noise of equal parts worry and mildest irritation, and turned in my lap to face me.

"My love... lay down, please." she asked of me politely"Maybe I can help?", and I blinked at her as she straddled my hips. Blushing... I turned so the couch wasn't to my back, and laid back. As I stretched out my injury doing so, I got a red-hot flash of pain that teased a cut-off yelp from my lips, and I felt things shift around inside me.

It was like I ducked my head into water because all I could hear was the poom poom poom of my straining, racing heart in my ears as my vision darkened around the corners and my eyes went unfocused. Then, an intractable amount of time later, a strong pair of hands were hauling me upright by my neck and shoulder, hooking behind me to drag me up with apparent great effort! I sat up again, and found myself staring into Roxala's broad, strong features, her expression one of anxiety as she eclipsed Gelidia, who was...

standing? When had that happened?

"Sit up." Roxala instructed, and I tried to stay sitting up, but it was hard - harder than it should have been. I turned my bulk - my body felt so, so heavy - and put my back to the couch again.

"Okay..." I croaked softly"... bad idea."

"I'm so sorry!" Gelidia said, and I smiled at her a little, then checked my stats. [Health: 155/240] [Stamina: 230/275] [Mana: 3/115]"N-not your fault" I said, and even in my own mouth, the malformed syllables on my lips sounded weak. When they came out, they were no stronger shaped by Gelidia's magic. Roxala looked from my lupine bulk to the shade, and nodded at her." She's almost out of mana, girl. You gonna do something about that?" she said"I know you can, I seen you." she said.

Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings. Gelidia started as she realized that she COULD help me after all! With a pressed palm over my heart, I felt something cool and green and sweet flow into me once again, and it was like getting a breath of fresh air, like a crisp spring morning as her power flowed into me.

Suddenly, it was like I could fully breathe and my head cleared. My wolf, in my mind's eye, lifted her head from the stillness of something that hadn't really been sleep - more like she'd... fainted! To be fair, I'd blacked out or something too. The rest of the wait didn't feel nearly as long. I didn't take much from Gelidia - just enough not to decay past 20 or so. Roxala resumed her vigil at the door without another word.

"Are you... okay? Don't you need your mana, love?" I asked, my basso alto rumble making her look up from her look of quiet concentration to my face. She smiled, and nodded her head a little. I could see the sadness in her still, but it was further back now.

"I don't even really notice the difference." she assured me"My mana recovers... very, very quickly." and it meant that... her hands had to keep in contact with me. Oh no! Gentle contact over my breast became... pets to my ears and to my shoulders as the minutes wore on until eventually, Fel stood from Torch's side. The scout looked exhausted. He dropped unconscious in pure relief after the last of his wounds were bandaged up. Now, I supposed, it was my turn.

Fel looked at me, his mouth a thin line, and then to Gelidia.

"She won't like this, Gelidia... will you help me to keep her calm?" he asked, and the shade nodded. Given how Torch had reacted to the treatment of the wounds on him, as minor as they'd looked, I figured this was going to be a blast. I let out a doggy sigh that terminated in a little whine, and sat up.

I didn't dare lay back again onto my back, but Gelidia and Fel helped me to recline so that my head was pillowed on her breasts, and my bulk on her thighs, so she could give me a full nelson hug and bury her face in my neck, exposing my chest.

"I don't think I can restrain you, love, please be still" she said softly, voice entreating.

"Felorikaan will take care of you and fix you right up, but... I don't think this will be fun at all." She said. I let out another sigh, and buried my face against her. Then... Fel reached for my chest. At first, his fingers were just warm, and gentle. I was braced for pain, but that's not what came at first. At first, it was... his gentle touch, his probing of my wound, but then... he brushed something that sent an electric shiver through my body.

It was an incredibly odd sensation, like something was squeezing my lungs from inside as he pulled the cord taut and...! Pain wasn't quite what happened next. No, it was more than just... physical discomfort. Have you ever had a really bad tooth ache? Like, so bad you feel sick to your stomach as you get a flash of heat to your face? Imagine that to every inch of your body all at once as your tummy rebels and your body aches all over as if you had a fever. That, times ten or so.

Gelidia's grip tightened on me and she made a soothing sound as a cry that didn't sound remotely human croaked out of me, and then... snap! Something broke. Wolf buckled inside me, her legs going rubbery in my mind's eye as she sank to the ground. I did, too. The relief of the snap was profound, and I was left panting like a steam engine. Then he did it again. All we could do was writhe in agony as it was pulled taut... and broke. He did it aga in. An d again. An d again. Each time, it got no easier to bear.

Each time the little strands of green mana snapped the wound site itched and burned a little. Distantly, I heard Fel say "This is bad... I think there are some on her heart-" and I passed out. My dreams, if you could call them that, were disjointed and strange. After the bombs, I'd had fever dreams like these - they just jerked and jittered about seemingly at random, bits of memory and ideas strung together haphazardly as my mind tried to cope with what I was experiencing.

Each time it changed to something else, each time it stabilized a little, I felt something cold in my chest that seemed to spread through me, and I heard... something like a guitar string being plucked and snapped. After it broke, things would disjoint again and off I'd go into the sea of chaos. There was no up or down or direction, no sense to be found in that place, only bright colors and loud noises. I didn't fight it.

Even now, part of me knew that Fel was still treating me, but I couldn't hold the thought for long. After a subjective eternity, it was over. the world seemed to become... something that had sense again, something with purpose again. My wolf, in the glade with the pool of water that became a mirror when I became human, shakily got to her paws, and with a groan, I sat up as well. WHAT WAS THAT I... think it was the sword. It hurt us bad, and we almost died to it... but it left things behind on us.

Remember the green fibers that were on Torch? I think it left a lot more of them behind on our heart. I DID NOT LIKE THAT Me either. You alright? She pushed under my hand and pressed her cold nose to my bare side. I squeaked, and hugged her tight. DIDNT SEE IT COMING she said, and she meant the Duke's strike, I knew. People didn't expect a blow to come in the middle of a sentence. I think I'd seen a movie where the villain or somebody said'if you're gonna fight, fight, if you're gonna talk, talk.

Don't fight and talk'. Guess that was true! Me either, my friend. Let's try to never let that happen to us again. She licked me. I licked me? She kissed my face and I chuckled as my own inner wolf gave me affection. We did it. We got her home, to see her family. SHE IS SAD I know... her father died. Sort of. I AM ANGRY Why? Wolf seemed to think a long time about that. I sat beside her, and just let her mull things over.

She got up, and circled a bit, her expression hard to read but I knew she was upset, and thinking more than she was accustomed to. She wasn't used to thinking like this, to talking like this, to introspection... like this. DON'T KNOW Wolf said eventually. Is it because... he died anyhow, after all that? That we weren't allowed to give him what he had coming to him, but he died anyhow? She thought about it for a bit, and her ears perked a little. NO BUT THAT IS CLOSE SO YES.

I nodded respectfully to her, I knew what she meant. I DO NOT KNOW WHAT I AM FEELING Me either. We're a team, though. Nothing's gonna change that. Her tail waggled and made a whish whish whish noise as it swung through the air. NOTHING she affirmed, and butt her head against my face affectionately, not at all hard enough to hurt because she knew how hard that would be, I realized. Can we wake up? WE CAN TRY she said BUT I DON'T THINK SO - NOT YET I think... dawn is soon. I can feel it.

ME TOO Hey, should we call each other something? Wolf made a passable impression of a chuckle. World, she sounded like Scooby Doo, kind of a modulated puffing wheeze with a doggie grin, but she thought about it. Eventually, she came out with WE ARE THE SAME BUT WE ARE SEPARATE TOO We both think so differently but we're a team - more than the sum of our parts. GESTALT I was impressed! But then I realized I shouldn't have been - she was just as smart as me, she had my memories and ideas and... vocabulary, I guessed.

Exactly! More than the sum of our parts. YOU ARE EMILY And you are Goldie I guess. Goldtail. WE ARE EMILY GOLDTAIL TOGETHER Makes as much sense as anything else. Hey... I always feel a little weird when people say things like 'GOOD GIRL' and pet me and stuff. Do you feel weird about that? NO she said IT IS AFFECTION FROM PEOPLE WE TRUST. IF WE DO NOT TRUST WE WILL BITE THEM I guess so, but... YOU ARE BEING HUMAN ABOUT IT she said, and there was such... sass to the statement. She was grinning, the little shit!

ITS STUPID and she play-bowed to me, tail wagging high as she panted! I laughed and she did that wheezy scooby doo laugh again! You little shit! I jumped her, and wrestled her around playfully as she made a cheerful growling noise, biting playfully at whatever part of me she could reach as we tussled and bumped around the clearing, playing rough because it suited us. Things had certainly changed for me in the last few weeks of my life, but... it'd be alright. Everything was going to be fine.