Reborn as a Side Character in the Beastworld

Chapter One Hundred and Thirty

As we waited in the clinic, I helped Olly and Harvey prepare the beds, sutures, bandages, and medicines. There was plenty of work for everyone as we mixed and ground herbs into pastes, and Winston kept Baek, Tora, and Kit from running off. Though the other females knew of the dangers and had allowed their mates to go, they stayed in their homes protected by their other males.

Lance was the first to arrive and I felt the wind get knocked out of me as I saw who he carried in his arms. Shuu, with his head falling limply over Lance's forearm and glistening segments of intestine bulging from his split stomach, looked dead. My world swam and my legs gave out from under me. I collapsed to the ground in shock.

Lance, seeing my grievous state, quickly spoke to reassure me. "He's not dead. It will be alright Bailey. We won't let him die." He laid Shuu on a bed and Harvey unhesitatingly approached to inspect our wolf's wounds.

While I watched and tried to keep my heart from failing, Harvey lifted Shuu's eyelids, checked his breathing, and his heartbeat, and shifted the fur to see the gash in his abdomen. "I need him to shift. Did you give him a crystal?"

"I gave him three," Lance replied. He sounded as though he was waiting to be praised for his generosity. Harvey obliged.

"That's extremely helpful." My leopard turned back to the wolf and placed an herb under his nose, rousing him from unconsciousness. Shuu whimpered in pain and didn't seem as though he'd be able to keep his mind from falling into darkness for very long. "I know it hurts but you have to shift." Harvey pressed.

On the precipice of life and death, the strict voice of the healer worked as a tether to keep Shuu from falling over the edge as he forced his body from his animal form to his beastman form. The wounds looked far worse without the long thick black fur to cover them. A sob inadvertently escaped me, and despite being covered in Shuu's blood, Lance moved to comfort me. He tried to wrap me in his coils, but I pushed him away. I didn't want to be comforted. I needed to comfort. Drawing up my courage from the bowels of my soul, I stood up and walked over to Shuu's side. I brushed his long black hair from his ghostly pale face and his blue eyes fixed on me as though my face was a buoy in an ocean.

"Thank you," I whispered as I leaned down to kiss his forehead. "Thank you for coming back to me."

While I distracted him, Harvey went to work manipulating the intestines back where they were supposed to be. The muscles of Shuu's jaw stood out as he clenched through the pain. Once his insides were inside, Harvey started to stitch the gaping hole closed. When that too was finished, the healer reached for a pasty concoction of herbs with antibiotic and pain-relieving properties but Lance stopped him. He stretched his hand out to the healer and in his palm law an emerald the size of a penny.

"Use this too. I doubt your plants will be enough." Lance said with certainty. The snake, with all his many years of killing and trying not to be killed would have seen many wounds had likely knew that this kind of damage was too much to heal naturally.

Harvey's eyes widened in surprise. "Are you sure?" He asked, knowing the rarity of such gems.

Lance nodded. "It's the last one, but I can always get more." He answered confidently.

Harvey took the emerald and moved to Shuu's head. Instead of giving the emerald to his patient himself, he handed me the stone so Shuu wouldn't have to turn his head or move his eyes from me who had become his soul's anchor. Gently, I stroked my wolf's face and as his jaw began to relax, I placed the tips of my fingers with the stone held between them at his lips. His mouth opened the smallest degree and I slipped the stone in to meet his tongue. It melted instantly and Shuu's face, which had been lined by pain, relaxed. "You've done so well. Rest now." I said, letting what I felt for him fill my eyes. "I love you."

At those words, Shuu's tail wagged weakly, and the corner of his eyes and lips raised in a smile. Then he let a darkness, that comforted instead of claimed, envelope him and fell asleep.

In the time it took to patch Shuu up, the first group of males returned. Assisted by Tony, Carl was led into the clinic. The tiger's tail dangled lifelessly, and his arm looked as though it had been dipped in red candle wax up to his elbow. Only a slight indent showed where a piece of his skin and muscle were missing. Despite the painful injuries, the tiger kept his face taciturn as Tony nagged at the tiger to rely on him more. The bear carefully helped the tiger get seated on one of the other beds in the clinic and Olly got to work right away inspecting the wounds to gauge what remedies would be needed.

I was glad to see Carl. He had been by my side, diligently guarding me for many months now. But he had always been accompanied by Patrick. The two were like a pair of shoes. When one was missing, you couldn't help but try to look for the other before going anywhere. When Patrick didn't come in, I turned to Lance with a question in my eyes. I didn't want to give voice to my concern but when Lance shook his head confirming my worst fears, I bit my lip until it bled to keep myself from succumbing to grief then and there. I couldn't crumble when I realized that the loss of Patrick was the reason Carl wouldn't look anyone in the eyes, nor was he accepting any kind of coddling. He was simply trying to hold himself together until there was time later to remember and allow the emotional pain priority.

A short time later, Tristan walked in practically carrying Muir with his arm around the eagle's waist and Muir's arm around the fox's shoulders. The bird's wounds were nothing to scoff at either. It was apparent he had fought aggressively without a thought to defend himself. Claw marks covered nearly every inch of his skin as though he had flown through a crowd of beasts and each one had reached a paw out to leave bloody evidence of how close they had come to removing the bird from the sky. His leg was sticking out at an odd angle, likely dislocated at the hip. Evident that at least once, the bird had been dragged earthbound.

Harvey indicated to another empty bed and once Tristan had set him down, began to work on him. I gave my fox a grateful smile for both helping others and for returning unharmed before assisting Harvey as best I could.

An hour later therewas a commotion outside the clinic. I went out to look with Lance, and Winstonand the cubs following behind. I opened the door to see that the majority ofthe village males that had set out, had now returned with the bodies of ourattackers in tow. Twenty-three corpses of varying shapes and colors were piledoutside the courthouse across the way.