Guardian | Camp Cretaceous

Things Fall Apart 2/2

When Brooklynn finally came to, she looked around anxiously.

Clambering down the nearest tree with a trunk as thick as Brooklynn was tall, Kenji muttered curses and groaned, his hair ruffled and sticking out at odd angles. Sammy sat sideways in the grass, massaging her shoulder, her face made it obvious she was in pain. While that was happening, Darius was still out cold, his head in the grass, murmuring. Not too much farther, Ben rocked back and forth, hugging his knees and doing some breathing exercises.

And there, Yasmina sat on her heels with Azriel's head cradled in her lap. He had strands of coal-back hair hanging a little over his eyes, limp with sweat. Limping closer, Brooklynn collapsed to her knees beside them, looking down with concern at Azriel's achingly handsome face as it contorted in anguish.

"How long's he been out like this?" Brooklynn asked, brushing the hair from Azriel's face. He was having a nightmare that genuinely terrified him, and that scared Brooklynn to death; she hadn't thought anything could frighten Azriel.

"Don't know. A few minutes?" Yaz chewed her lip and looked down at him, stroking her thumb along his cheek. "I was on top of him when I woke up. He caught me mid-fall. I don't even..." Brooklynn didn't understand it, either—others in his place wouldn't have even thought to catch someone mid-fall, let alone actually do it.

She shook her head and remembered the last thing she'd seen before the line snapped. Azriel was zip-lining with his belt like some damn action hero, and he hadn't even looked scared! Like he'd done it before. Brooklynn had not even thought it was possible, and the crazy bastard wasn't even afraid!

"Back there on the tower," Brooklynn said slowly, touching her head, "how was he so calm?" It was a question for her sake more than anything. "Normal people don't watch unflinchingly when someone gets eaten." It was all too strange for her—Azriel was too strange.

A roar echoed in the jungle.

Everyone stopped what they were doing, like time itself had frozen with the roar. Ben whimpered. It broke the spell. A pained groan followed the panicked whispering between Brooklynn and the others, and they all looked down at Azriel as he sat upright, clutching his left shoulder and clenching his jaw.

She finally noticed the branch sticking out of his shoulder. A gasp tore from her lips as Azriel climbed to his feet.

"Merde," he said. "Ça fait mal."

The others were looking at him, Ben growing more green by the second. Brooklynn took a step towards Azriel, but he stopped her by clenching his jaw and grabbing the branch, tearing it out with a grunt before tossing it aside—the grey shirt he wore darkened to an almost black around the wound, and some blood ran down his arm as he shook it. The sight of crimson was too much for Ben, who fell to his hands and knees and emptied his stomach into the grass.

Azriel loosened the belt wrapped around his hand and put the leather between his teeth. Then, he knelt and took one deep breath before shaking his unharmed hand and reaching up to the wound, spreading it open and digging around while groaning and biting the belt hard.

"Stop that, you're hurting yourself–"

Yasmina was interrupted when Azriel pulled out a length of thin wood longer than Brooklynn's hand. He growled with pain, the belt muffling it, but stopped the second the branch was entirely out. Blood gushed from the wound, trail after trail of crimson sliding down the contours of his arm.

"Look at that," Azriel said after spitting the belt out, as shocked as the others were to see the bloodied wood. A pause let Brooklynn regain her composure after witnessing something like that. "No time for this." He got to his feet, holding his free hand over the wound. "Are you all alright?" He looked at them as if he hadn't just done that.