Chapter 2

CHAPTER 2

The Wing’ed Equine

I dump my collection of wood on the floor. Grabbing one of the sturdier boards I gathered, I use it as a shovel to dig a small pit in the center of the room. Then, I search through the ash for any rocks I can find and line them around the pit. I push all of my wood and kindling into the pit and pull out a spark tablet. All the spark tablet needs to catalyze is a single.. drop, of, water… Drip. I toss it into the kindling. Within seconds the spark tablet sizzles and pops into life, igniting the thin splinters and tinder. I gently blow on the youthful embers to help them grow, help them spread. They breed into a small, dancing flame. It flickers and mingles with the wood. Soon the little dancing flame, having blazed through its infancy, grows and matures into a lively, roaring fire. The radiant warmth steadily swells and embraces me in its kindly hospitality. Before long the entire room is teeming with warmth, illuminated, repelling back the malevolent gloom and chill of the twilight hours with flickering orange radiance.

Ironic… The same force that wrought so much chaos to this world.. Is the most comforting and soothing thing I’ve experienced in a long time. All my troubles.. All my worries and fears melt away with the fervent enthusiasm of the fire. As ever present as those danger still remain, for once I find myself able to relax and take my mind to a different, more receptive state. I feel.. Safe. I feel secure protected in my little hovel. I feel.. At home.

I can’t speak for the Equine however, still motionless on the floor across the fire. She’s probably a long way from home, missing her friends, her family, her loved ones… I can’t imagine what she must have been through to have made it so far in this world. Maybe, over time, after she is revived from her dire slumber I can work to gain her trust and have a companion to keep with me in these dark times. She will be difficult to convince however. I need to show her I’m not like the rest of my kind. Show her that surviving together with someone else is more meliorate than on one’s own. That’s probably going to take a significant amount of effort. All she knows of my people is violence, slaughter, and barbarous savagery. But maybe over time she will come to and see that I’m not the malicious villain she will receive me to be.

Now would probably be a good time to treat some of her injuries while she’s still out cold. I grab my first aid kit and slowly make my way over to her. She remains comatose, numb to the sound of my footsteps. I kneel down beside her and inspect her injuries. There’s not a whole lot I can do for her other than basic treatments to make her more comfortable and prevent infection. But after a meticulous examination, it looks like that's all I’ll have to do.

I start off my treating a small cut lining her cheek. The blood is still fresh, soaked into her thin, creamy yellow fur. I pull out some disinfectant and a cloth, and gently wipe away the blood. As the disinfectant comes to contact that wound, she winces slightly. I reel back, afraid she might wake up but still she remains unconscious. After a brief moment of apprehension, I continue my treatment. At least I know she’s receptive to pain, that’s a good sign that there’s still something going on in her little head. A few small douses of water help wash the blood away. Next I peel open a small band-aid and place it over the cut. That’s all I can do for that, now onto the next.

The bottom of her hooves are also in poor condition. All cut up and burned, probably causing her troublesome spikes of pain as she walked. I do my best to clean and disinfect them. Again, upon contact with the stinging disinfectant she winces but does not awaken. After cleaning her hooves I wrap them in a few layers of bandage tape. That should at least make it a little less unpleasant to walk around. On to the next..

There are only two other injuries I find. Her wings are in a crippled state, the feathers mangled and crooked, and there’s swelling in her front left knee, likely from a breakage or fracture. Now, I’m not exactly an expert in Equine physiology. Treating feathered wings, or any kind of wing for that matter, was definitely not covered in my Combat Lifesaver courses. Nor was ever having to treat an alien creature and nurse it back to health. I can’t be certain I’m actually helping her at all so I decide to skip the wings and treat her leg instead. I can’t blame myself. After all, I’m just a Scout, not a doctor.

The swelling in her leg isn’t too severe. Hopefully her knee has only been fractured. The only thing I can do for this with what little aid equipment I have is fashion an improvised splint. I grab two long pieces of spare wood from the rubble pile and place them parallel to either side of her leg. I use more of the bandage tape to secure them somewhat tightly, and tie the bandaging at the top and bottom of the splint. There. All these applications should at least make things a little bit more comforting for her when she wakes up. Maybe she’ll see my handy work and that might help further with gaining her credence.

I leave her to what is now her side of the room and go back to mine. I find it funny.. How something so meek and fragile can be so unharmed after having been through so much. An atrocious Invasion of her home, an orbital bombardment, a building collapse and who knows what else has transpired in her time.

I still have no idea how she’ll react when she wakes up. She’ll obviously be very frightened of me but it’s not clear where that could lead. My presence might provoke some sort of hostile response which would not end well in her favor. Should I.. build a cage or something? Keep her contained just in case? Maybe bind her so she can’t escape? No, I need to gain her trust through fair treatment, not handling her like some animal. Besides, she’s pretty crippled and even if she did turn hostile there’s not much she would be able to do in her condition.

I spend the next few hours watching over her. I end up opening my spaghetti meal and heating it up for dinner. How amazing it tastes.. Warm food. I never realized what a morale booster that would be. I only eat half of it, sealing the rest back in the container and storing it for later. It wasn't exactly a kitchen prepared meal but who am I to complain. It’s warm food on a cold night, and it’s one of my favorite edible delectables. Eating only half is more than enough to quell my languishing appetence for the time being.

12:30 am

Enough time has passed, I’m sure that she won’t be waking up anytime soon. I pull out the two sheets of fabric I picked up at the sew shop. They’re both tattered and full of holes, but layering them over each other covers most of it into one solid blanket. I hold the sheets over the fire, warm them up a little bit and then curl up tightly with them on the floor. Ah yes, so warm, so comforting. Their embrace staves off the cool night air, leaving me in a state of coddled, jubilant serendipity. Finally, after all this time I might be able to have my first peaceful night of sleep. The only thing that could possibly keep me awake is excitement, anticipating the revival of my little Equine rescue. I begin to think that at some point I should name her. They say it’s dangerous to name things in dark times because of attachment, but what harm could that possibly bring me? But that idea passes. Excitement turns to withering fatigue. My eyes, already closed become heavy with debility from the lack of sleep. Soon, I begin to slip into the welcoming abyss of a good night’s rest..