Page 139 of Once Upon a Fable

“Come on. Just open your eyes, and I’ll do whatever you need. I don’t know how to help you if you don’t tell me.”

Silence.

Stillness.

A forest empty of his existence.

“Anon, please...”

Nothing.

An hour passed while I kneeled beside him and hoped.

I spoke to him often. I checked his pulse and assessed his bruised body. I thanked the thunderstorm the night before for softening the ground and turning hard dirt into squishy mud.

I racked my brain on what I could do to make him wake, going over my basic first-aid training and coming up blank. I had a simple kit of needles, surgical twine, an EpiPen (not that I was allergic), antiseptics, a ten-day course of antibiotics, gauzes, bandages, and painkillers.

None of those things would help with a head injury.

You can’t stay here all night, Gem.

I looked up, noticing for the first time how dark the world had become.

The sun had quietly gone to bed, letting darkness creep shadowy fingers out of the trees toward us.

Twilight made everything seem so much worse.

If he hadn’t died by now, perhaps...

Hope flared.

Fear crushed it.

I was paralyzed.

I didn’t know what to do.

I couldn’t carry him back up the cliff to civilization.

I had no way of going for help that wouldn’t take days.

He needed treatment immediately, but I didn’t know how.

All I could offer was comfort.

Take him home.

How?

Brushing aside my tears, I let my mind cling to the task. I’d always been a doer instead of a worrier. If I could somehow figure out how to get Anon inside his home, then I could problem solve other things along the way.

Glancing down at him, I ran my hands over his cooling skin. Morebruises had appeared, mottling his old scars. His breathing seemed to be stronger, even if he hadn’t opened his eyes.

The fact remained he was still too big and heavy for me to carry him.

I’ll have to—

My head whipped up and darted toward the trees.