Beauty, Beasts and Balance

Part Three

Caitlin saw through her haze of pain as she was carried through a village of crudely built stone homes in the valley between two mountains. More men, mostly naked except for caveman style fur skirts, with headbands and butt plugs of various animals, appeared as the leopard man circled a lake and followed the dirt path through what must have been the village entrance. A village of furry larpers was not where she wanted to be but she held hope that they might have a medical center somewhere with certified professionals.

It took longer than the Parker liked to get back to the village using two legs instead of four. He desperately desired to have had the time to cover his female's face with mud and avoid the greedy, covetous glares of the single males, but her injury was too severe. So, he did his best to ignore the stares and comments and focused on his destination.

"Look its Parker."

"He brought a female."

"Parker has a female now?"

"Did you see her face? She's beautiful!"

Maybe he should scratch her cheek, just a little, so no one else will want her.

Caitlin was oblivious to the man's violent thoughts. She'd heard the comments of onlookers and not wanting these psycho hobbyists to remember her, pulled her hood up to at least partially cover her face. It made it so she couldn't see, but after witnessing how much skin they all showed, she didn't think that was a bad thing; no matter how drop dead gorgeous they all were.

A.N.- I want to make it clear that Caitlin nor I hate larpers or furries. She's just pissed that their dedication to their character could endanger her.

The man stopped in front of a simple hut and banged on the wooden door with a foot. "Harvey! Open up! My female is injured! Harvey!"

A soft gentile voice spoke from inside. "Parker? What are you-? Stop it. You'll break my door down." The man inside whipped the door open wide but before he could say anything else, Parker pushed his way in and set Caitlin down on a bedding of straw and animal furs. Dazed from blood loss, she slouched over her bent knees and rested her forehead on them.

Once he had his hands free, Parker anxiously grabbed at the healer's wrist. "Hurry up and heal her!"

"Alright! Alright. Let go. Let me see." The healer put a hand over Parker's and pulled away from the bruising grip. The healer approached Caitlin then got down on his knees in front of her. "Hello female. My name is Harvey and I'm the healer in this village. Can you tell me where it hurts?" He peered up into the hood covering her face and froze.

Half lidded, unfocused hazel eyes looked at him from beneath long dark lashes and softly arched, full eyebrows on a smooth round face. The blood loss had darkened her eyelids like eyeshadow and made her already pale skin look translucent. Her slightly opened graceful lips were as pink as summer flowers, and even the high bridged nose ended cutely in a button. She was the most beautiful female he had ever seen and he could do nothing but stare.

Caitlin looked at the healer, just as memorized. He had blue-green eyes, a teardrop face, cupid's bow lips and long golden hair tied in a loose braid. He was also fully clothed in a soft white leather outfit. Just the fact that he wasn't exposing his nips to the world made him seem trustworthy in her book of ever decreasing standards.

"She has a wolf bite on her leg. Don't even think about doing anything else, Harvey. She already has a mate." Parker's possessive tone brought Harvey out of his trance.

Harvey couldn't help but smile sadly. Parker didn't have to say it. The healer knew that a beautiful female like this would never choose a stripeless beast as a mate. Refocusing on his job, he looked down at the long legs covered in strange and tight fabric. He saw a blood stained, light blue cloth encircling her right leg mid-calf. "I need to remove this. Is that alright?" He asked, unable to avoid the temptation of looking into her eyes again.

Caitlin nodded weakly. With careful and gentle hands, Harvey undid the knot and pulled the fabric away from her skin. The half-dried blood stuck to the cotton and a stomach turning squishy sound filled the room. Harvey took in a breath. The bite was worse than he'd expected and the leg was swelling to almost twice the size of her left one. Why wasn't she screaming and crying like most females would have? Luckily, it looked like the skin had only been torn and not bit off. If he could stick the edges together with honey and pack the wound with mud, they may heal without leaving large divots in the skin. He didn't have much of the golden liquid, as it was hard to get, but he had enough.

When Caitlin saw how much her leg had swelled and discolored, she knew for sure that the bone was likely fractured. "Can you just call for an ambulance please. The bleeding has mostly stopped. I just want to go to the hospital." She pleaded weakly.

Harvey, had already gotten up to fill a stone bowl with water, grab the small jar of honey and jar of medicinal mud blend, along with some cotton to dress the wound, but turned to look at her when she spoke. She was too polite. Especially for a female in pain and though he didn't understand her words, he felt compelled to do whatever she asked.

"What is ambulance? Is hospital the name of your village?"

Caitlin put a hand to her temple. "Ugh. Can't you guys give it a rest! If you aren't going to help, I'll find someone who will." Angry at their seeming lack of empathy, Caitlin tried to stand, but putting even the slightest bit of pressure on her leg caused a lightning storm of pain to rage throughout her entire body. She immediately collapsed back onto the bedding, laid back, put an arm over her eyes and finally gave in to the urge to quietly cry.

Were these role-playing lunatics planning to kidnap her and keep her prisoner? Even that theory seemed better than the other one rising in her mind. Too bad it was also the less likely. No matter how much she wished to deny it, the evidence that everything was real and not in her mind was becoming too much to pretend otherwise. The animal ears on their heads that she initially thought to be headbands, moved to catch sounds and show emotion. The tails that swung about like they had lives of their own, did not in fact start between the cheeks. They attached at the spine. The presence of those things in addition to the absence something very important, were pushing her to accept reality. Not a single person had human ears. And the pain was also too much to me imaginary. She didn't want two and two to equal four but she herself, as an avid fan of anything fantasy, had read too many portal world stories to not understand her situation. She'd transmigrated to a shapeshifter world. But how?