Page 40 of Right on Time
Because heading their way – again – were the rest of the younglings, riled up by his aggression and emboldened by his vulnerable position. The stampede would go right through them this time. Nitiel had failed.
“Run, Loe! Leave me!”
“No!”
It was at that moment that the adult cibiris descended onto the meadow, Cheyda in the lead. She landed right in front of Nitiel and Loe, shielding them. Buying them precious seconds.
Nitiel pushed up through the pain, somehow getting his bad leg to obey. He pulled Loe to his chest and picked her up at the same time as he pushed himself off the ground using both wing and leg power. He roared at the crippling agony in his thigh but managed to gain height. And just in time, because the chaos on the ground was complete.
The adult cibiris were trying to get the younglings under some semblance of control, but those untamed and intoxicated creatures would not be so easily herded. Some fought the adults while others ran off, too young to fly but full of energy to spare.
The Arboretum would be a dangerous place until all younglings were contained. Nitiel had to send a warning. He also had to fly Loe out of here.
But try as he might, the pain in his chest at every flap of his wings made getting all the way to the exit impossible. He couldn’t fly high enough to get above the canopy, and his flight was so wobbly that he could barely avoid the tree branches. Still, he would get Loe as far from the cibiris’ enclosure as possible.
“God, Nitiel, you’re bleeding!” Her hands clutched at the torn uniform over his chest. “You need to land, now!”
“Further… for your… safety.”
“Fuck my safety, I’m not letting you bleed to death. Land, Nitiel!”
He found himself obeying her command without second thought. Not that his brain was capable of thinking at this point, not with the pain and blood loss. Thank the Goddess, he managed to land rather smoothly between two trees; his bad leg gave out only after he had lowered Loe’s feet to the ground.
Then he slumped to the grass, unable to stand.
CHAPTER 19
A Healing Kiss
Chloe tugged and tugged at the hem of her dress but to no avail. In movies, tearing a piece of clothing took but a second, and here her minute of struggling failed to produce even a small tear. Damn it. Couldn’t she do one single thing to help today? All she had done while Nitiel had been fighting for their lives was scream and curse at those evil ponies, and now she couldn’t even bandage her man.
“Loe, are you... alright?”
She knelt again next to Nitiel, who was sitting with his back propped on a tree. “I’m perfectly fine, but you’re not. You’re bleeding, and I can’t do anything!”
“You don’t have… to do anything. Help… will come.”
“For goodness’ sake, Nitiel, your speech is slurred and you can barely hold your eyes open! You’re losing too much blood to wait for help.” He had activated his communicator immediately after she had helped him sit, and the badge was flashing red for what had to be an emergency, but who knew when the help would get here. “I’ll try applying pressure to the wound. It’s going to hurt, but… I’m sorry.”
Chloe lifted her skirts, there being enough length to just about keep her butt covered, and pressed the cloth over the huge bite on Nitiel’s pec. He bore his teeth in pain but did not cry out. He was staying quiet so as to not attract those nasty cibiris, she supposed. Nitiel was thinking of her safety while bleeding to death.
“Don’t you dare die on me, Subcommander,” she ordered. Or tried to: one couldn't sound commanding when sniffling back tears. “You’ve survived so many battles, you can’t let some evil ponies win.”
“Those cibiris… are not evil, Loe. Just untamed youngsters… high on gusafana leaves.”
“Don’t try to defend the drugged hormonal ponies! They were trying to turn you into an alien pancake and bite your head off. If you die because of them, I’ll mince them into meatballs, I swear.” She brushed a tear off her cheek using her shoulder, both her hands applying pressure on the bite wound. “I cook great meatballs, you know.”
He placed a trembling hand over hers. “I have no doubt… You have magical hands… I won’t die.”
Chloe laughed as she cried. “I wish I could heal you with a touch. Or with a kiss. Then I would kiss you a hundred times until you got better.”
“Thousand?”
She laughed again, her eyes blurry with tears. “A million, if that would do it. You can’t die, Nitiel. I won’t let you.”
“I won’t die. My wound is… not bad… Just… bleeding. Must be the gusafana… on the cibiri’s teeth. The leaves prevent… blood clots.”
“Splendid.” If she weren’t applying pressure on his wound, Chloe would have thrown her hands up. “And you say this station is a safe place to live? There are creatures that lick you in the bathroom, flying ponies that chomp on you in the park, leaves that make you high while also helping you bleed to death… And let’s not forget the constant dangers of space, such as dying a popsicle. I prefer the daily commute, thank you very much.” She brushed off more tears. “Is my babbling helping?”