The Safe Haven

Wounds

I made it all the way to the camp. Blood leaked through the shirt pressed against his chest in an attempt to slow the bleeding. His condition worsened, but somehow, he's still alive, for now at least.
"Belarus! Ukraine!"
Just hold on a little bit longer.
Bela and Raine peered outside the makeshift house to see why I called for them.
Their eyes widened at the sight of blood coating my arms, hands, and chest.
None of the blood on me was my own. It all belonged to the fragile and unconscious male in my arms.
They just were trying to evaluate what was happening. Their eyes widened as they looked at the unconscious body in my arms.
I guess they weren't expecting me to be holding a dying young man in my arms. Their instincts finally kicked in as they saw the situation.
"Bring him to the healing house," Ukraine said, bolting off into the direction of the house, I followed close behind.

Once in the house, I put him down on the cold metal table while my sister and brother took over.
Bela put a cloth soaked in chloroform over the striped country's mouth to make sure he wouldn't wake up during the treatment.
Ukraine glanced up at me with his blue eyes while he tried to stop the bleeding. "What condition was he in when you found him?"
"He was already unconscious and bleeding out when I found him. It looked like he had a bad encounter with a cougar." I said as I remembered the scene of finding the blood-soaked body of a dead cougar not too far away from the dying boy.
Bela nodded and mixed up an ointment to put on the bleeding injuries.

"When did you find him?"
"15 minutes ago."
Belarus hummed.
She spread the ointment on the boy's open wounds. I could see a noticeable reaction on his face when she applied it. His eyebrows furrowed, and his face scrunched up in pain before he relaxed again.
I want to help, but don't I don't know how. My siblings were sewing up his open wounds and checking for broken bones or for any internal bleeding.
I know how to clean and heal injuries, but my siblings have more experience and have already taken over the situation, so all I can do is get out of the way and stand off to the side.
But I still want to help somehow.
I saw his face wince in pain, and he was shallowly breathing again as my brother started to stitch a wound on his chest.
I sighed and went over to the pained male and stroked his multicolored hair.
His hair was... softer than I expected.
His face soon relaxed, and his breathing normalized.
I continue running my hand thru the soft hair.
My sister looked up at me. "You wanna keep him," she smirked. A slight blush dusted my checks.
"I'm just helping him cope with the pain."
"Sure, that's the only reason Mr. Alpha man."
"Yes. And please stop calling me that."
"What about Sir Cука?"
I let out a light growl.
"Het. Stop mocking me."
"I'm not mocking you. I'm patronizing you."
"Прекрати, умная задница (Stop it, smart ass)."
"Can't both of you cram it?" Ukraine snarled at us and continued to heal the injured male.
Belarus then shut her mouth and continued feeling for broken bones. And I just stood there playing with the soft hair and stroking his cheek here and there to make him feel relaxed.
This is oddly soothing to me, too. Probably because I was doing something helpful.
Yeah, that's why.

I feel bad for him.
I looked at his body.
Poor thing. He's already covered with old scars and bruises. I pushed his hair out of his eyes and evaluated his face. He had 13 red and white stripes with a blue square patch on the right side of his face with 50 white stars within the blue patch. I think I'll call him "Stars" until he tells me his real name. I noticed a little scar under his right eye.
Wonder what happened.
I brushed my thumb lightly over the scar.

He flinched.

I quickly retracted my hand and continued stroking the fine hair.

"He's had a lot of blood loss. He also has a fractured wrist and forearm," Belarus said grimly.
My face fell. I don't know why I feel so attached to him. I haven't even spoken to him yet.
"But he looks stable now, and for some reason, he didn't die yet. So, there is a chance at a full recovery. The only thing we should be worried about is a stitch breaking or infection, which seems unlikely."
I smiled and looked down at Stars.
He has a chance at full recovery after everything he has gone through.
Hopefully
He'll be a survivor.