Darkened Skies

He was, for the most part, oblivious to the turmoil he was inflicting on his new patient’s mind with the touches he gave. To her stammered question, he answered quite simply, “Home. I haven’t all the supplies I need to fully treat your injuries, and you’d be quite vulnerable out here alone in your state. We’ve plenty of alcoves, meant precisely for patients to reside in while they’re healing from wounds or illness.”

His words were so matter of fact that it was clear trying to change his mind would be pointless. He nodded as she announced the rib, making a mental note of its location. His find of Comfrey had been a good thing. Not only was it good for cuts, but it was also known for wonderfully healing broken bones and fractures when applied correctly.

He retracted his paw and rose, shaking his head at her queries. “No, not until I’ve got the travois set up. The path’s not too narrow, and most of your weight will rest on the ends of the saplings, so I should be able to pull it without too much trouble.”

He padded past her as he spotted two saplings that were both straight and old enough to be solid instead of flexible. He was certain now that she wasn’t bleeding inside. She was getting more alert as the minutes went by, and that certainly wouldn’t be the case in a severe internal hemorrhage.

“I haven’t anything on paw right this moment for the pain, but I saw a few willow trees a ways back. That should help take some of the edge off.”

He settled and twisted his head to the side, fitting his teeth around the sapling and gnawing. It took several minutes of his beaver impressions before he felt he’d thinned the sapling’s trunk enough to break it off. He slid his jaws up to a point above the gnawed point and braced himself before giving a hard, backward jerk and twist of the head, pleased to hear a squeaky crackling of severing wood. A few harder tugs and he had the first shaft of his travois.

The process was repeated once more with a second young tree, and a few more minutes were devoted to breaking branches off and chewing down the tops before he set to fastening them together with strips of hide he’d torn from the rabbit hides, making a square frame at one end with the long shafts pointing like the top of an A.

He glanced toward Sterling occasionally, checking in while he worked, and once he’d fastened a larger deer hide to the framework and lashed it down, he stepped into the shafts and picked the strip of hide connecting the ends up in his jaws, pulling the travois over to her.

He made a few last adjustments, forming a small harness for himself by merely fastening a long strip of hide further down the shafts to drape over his back. The first strip would go across his chest for better pulling leverage.

Finally, he gave her a lopsided smile and nodded to the hide frame, “If you get in, I’ll cover you with a deer hide. Should keep the rain from soaking your coat any further.”