Framework of the Frontier, Sain Artwell [read me a book .TXT] 📗

the flames and re-directed them to spit out through the nose.

Ember gawked at her kill, mouth open. “Gods… They went right where I aimed…”

“Yes, you were a badass.” William chuckled. The relief of victory, however, was short lived, quickly overtaken by the pain singing around his chest and arm.

Ember dropped on her knees. Fear and amazement sparked in her enchanted eyes as they stared at his wounds. “Oh no. Wow. That’s… It looks painful.”

“Ayup…” Adrenaline faded. Damage from the fight trickled into William’s senses like the beginnings of a pain rain. It looked bad, but the muscles still responded to his thoughts and the fingers had feeling. Sure, it was ten times worse than any wound he’d ever gotten working in security. Part of him was amazed he was still conscious, but then again his body had gotten sweet upgrades all around.

“I think you’ll be okay, but, let me help. I have some medical supplies,” Ember began.

William nodded towards the cabin where Eren was entering death spasms. “Help them. I’ll wait.”

One glance at the faun brothers was enough to fill her with a distressed urgency. “Yes, oh no. Oh no that’s bad. Okay. Hold on, William. Don’t die, please.”

“Aww, damn. There goes my plan.”

She gave him an angry look, which shut the joke from his face. Ember hurried to join Duhie in resuscitating Eren.

William wiped blood from his arm and chest, getting his palm and tunic sticky red. “Damn. These are gonna need stitches…”

“Wanna wait for your girl for them?” Trotto asked, producing a needle and string from his bag.

Orien plopped open a waterskin to wash William’s arm and pull his shirt off. “No time for pleasantries here hubby. Gimme the needle.”

“Huh?” William blinked. “Thanks… You have painkillers or something for the— Fuck.”

“Don’t wiggle, Ranger. I’ll get this quick,” Orien said.

“Thanks…” William bit down as the feeling of a needle made dives into his flesh and string knit his flesh together. It was pain — nothing big. The actual wounds were worse. Focusing on something else, William noticed the light flickering and diminish in Ember’s eyes. though she seemed to ignore the effect, focusing on the dying faun. Seemed like it lasted a minute or so on her.

Trotto bound William’s arm and chest with strips of cloth after. William worried that bacteria might infect the wound, but at this point stopping the bleeding was probably more important. Hopefully his new body came with a matching immune system.

“Here, but only a little sip.” Orien offered him a mouthful of concoction so foul it had to be effective.

“Thanks a lot.” Burning tingles radiated from William’s stomach.

Orien mouthed a ‘you’re welcome’ and put the bottle away.

Trotto helped him up on his feet. “Anytime Ranger.”

“Did anyone bring an antivenom base?” Ember’s shout was wrought with urgency.

Orien and Trotto shared a worried look. The triton girl went to rummage through her bags. “No. We only brought chut root powder.”

“Chut root won’t cut it. That chimera had a nasty bite. We need a specific antivenom,” Ember said, biting her nail.

Duhie pulled out a red wand. “I could try to draw some of the poisoned blood from the wound, but this was not exactly made to save a life. ”

“We do have some. Antivenom base I mean,” spoke a mellow feline voice. Nevija and Raia were back.

“You…” Orien’s face went bright blue and her fin-like ears flaring up wide as she grit her teeth in anger.

Trotto stopped her by the shoulder, though William could see lines of fury tightening on his face as well. Heck, he felt a touch annoyed at the kitties himself, even if he couldn’t blame them for not endangering their lives in the defense of strangers. It’s like they’d broken an unspoken rule of the train trip.

“Please, we would be grateful,” said Trotto.

“Of course.” Nevija smiled, producing a thin metal vial from her bag, which she hurried to bring to Ember. “Here, take it.” She met Orien’s glare with a soft look that concealed a dangerous confidence. “Never know when you need a friend out there. I hope you’ll remember this one.”

“Thank you,” replied Orien, still clenching her jaw.

Ember and Duhie milked drops from the limp snake’s teeth and mixed it with the antivenom base. They cleaned Eren’s mouth of foam, before pouring some in his mouth and sprinkling a bit more over the bite marks. His spasms eased slowly over the span of several minutes, though his breaths remained short.

The brothers were left to rest under blankets as the camp began to recover from the fight.

Nevija crouched by Ember and held out her palm. “Mind giving me the rest of the antivenom?”

“Ah… Yes, of course. Here you go.”

The kitty smiled wide as her palm closed around the vial. She and Raia went to the snake, pulling back its lips to extract venom into empty vials of their own. They probably had the right idea. Looting monsters was a no brainer in any video game and even a better idea in the real world where you could actually eat the meat and wear their hide.

If that stuff is even edible. That mane would look insanely cool as a cape though…

“We can dump it at Nastall if the Ranger wants it,” Trotto said.

William had no clue how to even begin butchering it, but he didn’t want to miss the opportunity. “Thanks. That’d be helpful. You don’t want a cut?”

“Nah. We’d rather not get bogged down by small money,” Orien said. “If we’d been after chimera pelts we wouldn’t be going to Nastall.”

“I bet the nest is full of treasures from its prey,” said Raia, staring at the backdoor of the cart with the shine of gold in her eyes.

“And they can stay in its nest,” Orien spat. “Fuck loot. We’ll sit here and rest.