Red Rivers and Nightmares

19. Grief (Part 1)

"Shizua!," Iien's yell sounds urgent so I look in his direction as I wipe my mouth across my dark sleeves.

I immediately try to stand but collapse as my hurt leg refuses to support my weight. I fee like yelling because the man bleeding out from his cut off arm needs my help, now. Akun pulls my arm over his shoulders and he helps me to hop over. Iien looks more worried now, but I ignore it.

On the ground I place my hands on his chest and immediately fall into my power to feel the state of his body. I exhale shakily as I see that he still has a chance. Soft movement jostles me and I look to the side to see Akun putting my medicinal pack next to me. I nod thankfully and immediately dig for what I will need, then I stop.

I look up at Akun. I swallow hard before I dare to ask him the thought that just passed through my mind, "Can you give him some blood?"

I hear others making sounds in disagreement. Akun looks at me then the man. He licks his lips, cleaning the blood still smeared across them. Without a further word he sits by the man's head and takes his hand off the gash that is sluggishly bleeding on his forearm. With a pained grunt he squeezes the skin around and blood begins to pour more freely. The man tries to move away but I keep his head still. In this way he is forced to consume some.

Only then do I construct a tourniquet above what is left of his upper arm. With that I make the quickest poultice I have ever done out of what I have left. For good measure I add a couple drops from a vial simply labeled oregano but it has been manipulated by mages to help the body fight off all but the nastiest bacteria. I feel like I am racing against time as I leave that on my lap to debride his wound. I thank the All Mother that blood loss has made him so groggy as I am able to do it with no screaming from him, just agonized groans until he passes out.

He is fortunate that I have been moving fast as by the time I am done with cleaning I can already see his body clotting to form the scabs he will need. I apply a liberal amount of the poultice to a pad that I firmly press to his stump. I worry about keeping it on and out of the dirt for all of a second when Akun places his own firm hand on the pad. I smile, relieved as I take some of the makeshift bandaging back from Littlefoot and deftly apply it around his stump.

Done with that I immediately turn to Akun, "Let me look over your wound."

My brother grimaces, "It is no problem. We should look you over."

"Akun...," the warning in my tone only makes the expression on his face more mulish.

I can nearly hear the pout in his voice, "But you are bleeding too!"

I actually pause at that and Iien and Rion stop what they are doing to look at us. Iien actually strides over to us and plops down in the dirt next to me, looking me over with concern and worry overrunning any other emotion.

"Where?," his word is so tight that it sounds strangled as his eyes rove over my body.

That is when I realize that my sleeves are feeling quite tight on me. I turn my arms over as I remember taking the pellets of rocks to them. I grimace as the cloth pulls on the many wounds. Looking at my arms this way it is hard to see I was wounded because the blood has dried and the dark material hides this fact. Still, I cannot keep this tunic on, not if I do not want to risk making things worse.

I dump the poultice on Akun's lap. Then, ignoring the tugging I pull the fabric up from under my belt and over my head. Both of my brothers make a fuss that I ignore as the movement pulls the fabric free, causing whatever clots that had formed to be ripped apart and the wounds to bleed sluggishly anew. The pain is entirely different compared to when they were originally made.