“No,” The ranger told him. “Best not to touch him at all.”
“But won’t he hurt himself flopping around like that?”
“Handling him might hurt him even more. I know you want to help him, but no matter how gentle you tried to be, he’d struggle against you, and right now, the less he moves, the better.”
“How long before they get here?” Colin asked.
“Shouldn’t be more than a few minutes,” the ranger said, then lifted his radio in response to a call.
Colin knelt beside his husband. “He’ll be OK. They know how to treat eagles. I’m sure they see a lot of them.”
“Shotlike this?”
“Happens a lot more than you might think,” the ranger said from behind them, gesturing over his shoulder to where a helicopter slowly descended to the glacier’s surface. “There they are.”
In minutes, the group of rescuers had moved to where the eagle lay. Wearing protective gloves, they covered the bird with a heavy blanket, being careful not to handle his injured wing. Then, three of them lifted the eagle and placed him in a large, protective cage.
The four friends stood silently as the cage bearing the injured eagle was moved to the rescue helicopter and then watched as the craft lifted off and soared into the distance.
“Will he be all right?” Joshua asked the ranger.
“Hard to say. Depends on how badly he’s injured.” He patted Joshua’s back. “But he’ll probably be OK. From what I could see, it didn’t look too bad.” He gestured toward their helicopter. “It’s time to head back.”
Colin took Joshua’s hand as they trudged back to their helicopter, but neither man spoke.
“That made me sad,” Nate said as they climbed on board and fastened their seat belts.
“Me too,” Joshua replied, then linked his arm through Colin’s as the pilots fired up the engines.
“You OK?” Colin asked him as the craft lifted off, rising above the blue-white ice.
Joshua shrugged and hugged Colin’s arm. “Yeah.” He glanced out the window as the glacier receded from view. “I don’t feel all that anxious this time.”
“Eagle savior,” Colin teased, nuzzling against his hair.
“I didn’t do a damn thing except find him.”
“Yeah,” Nate said, nudging Joshua’s arm with a gentle elbow. “But what if youhadn’tfound him? He’d still be out there flopping around on the ice.”
“He could have bled to death if you hadn’t spotted him,” Colin assured him.
“Or frozen to death,” David added.
“Or both.”
“What’s next?” Nate asked. “Back to the ship?”
“Nope,” Colin told him. “We’re scheduled for a salmon bake dinner.”
“Please tell me we don’t have to get on another helicopter,” Joshua moaned.
“We don’t. It’s at a restaurant right next to the dock.”
“Thank god!”
* * *
Their dinnerof freshly caught baked salmon was made even more enjoyable by a stunning view of their cruise ship, illuminated by thousands of lights and docked only a few hundred yards away.
