Page 120 of Moonless
I let go of her hand, but she’s holding her back too straight.
“And the tree?”
“I’m all right.”
My ears flatten. “You couldn’t breathe.”
“I can now. It knocked the wind out of me.”
She turns to show me her back, then stops with her hand pressed to her side. The shirt’s scraped where she hit, with a bit of bark caught in the cloth.
I growl at the bark and pick it out with the tip of a claw. “It hurts there.”
“Yes, Rauk. I hit a tree.”
I set my palm against her back, above the scraped part. She leans into it for a breath.
“The shoulder?”
“Pulled. It isn’t bleeding.”
There’s fish scales on her hands, dirt in the shirt, and her old blood under the dressing, but I can’t smell fresh blood on her. That’s something.
She turns back and looks at my leg.
“Yours is. We need to get that washed. And your arm.”
I bend and get my bitten arm under her knees. She catches my shoulder with her good hand while I settle the other arm behind her back, clear of the sore patch.
“Rauk. I can walk.”
“I know.”
I get her up against me, my claws careful of her skin. My thigh burns when I straighten, and I stop until I’ve got my weight over the other foot. I’ve carried her farther than this.
She leans out to see my thigh.
“You’re the one with a hole in his leg.”
“More than one.” I shift my arm under her knees so her weight’s above the bite.
“That’s not helping your argument.”
The old wound in my other arm aches too, but I can hold her.
“You hurt when you turn.”
“And you hurt when you stand. Put those together and we’re going to take all day.”
I stand there holding her while she looks at me. Her fingers are still in my shoulder fur.
“I’d rather carry you.”
She sighs and slides that arm around my neck, keeping the bad one in her lap.
“Fine. Slowly. I’ve been thrown at enough things today.”
Slowly. I can do slowly. I start along the level part of the path, and my left leg holds if I keep the steps short. She settles against my chest and keeps her sore back off my arm.
