The sled shimmied. “I’m–oaf!--coming.” She groaned and gripped and grunted her way out of the sled and crawled to him. The snowflakes were half the size of his hand and they came down so fast he was already half-buried.
Felix stomped his feet:Get up.
“Easy for you to say,” he told the impatient reindeer. His weight on the harness wasn’t comfortable for either of them. “I’m stuck.”
Felix huffed impatiently.
Clove hovered over him. “Nutcrackers! Your head.” She looked around for something.
Drake touched his head and felt something warm. He drew his hand back to see a dark stain on his fingers. “I’m bleeding,” he said in disbelief. He couldn’t feel the wound and didn’t have so much as a headache. “How bad is it?”
“I can’t tell.” Clove found his stocking hat, packed some snow on it and used it as a compress over his wound.
He hissed. He felt it now. He looked around them. They were out of the trees, in a field of some sort.
“We need to get you out of this weather so I can see what the damage is.” Her forehead wrinkled with concerns she didn’t have to voice.
They couldn’t both go to the hospital and leave Felix alone.
Felix was acting strange, and they didn’t want to leave him at all.
The weather would make it near impossible to find a hospital.
How would they explain his wound?
He put his gloved hand over hers. “We’ll figure this out.”
She pressed her lips together and nodded once. Her faith in him was enough to get him moving. “Help me get out of all this, would you?”
Felix stomped his front hooves.Can we go inside?
“Inside where?” Clove asked.
He stretched his neck out and jerked his chin to the right. Drake squinted that direction. Did the bump on the head make his vision blurry or was the fog coming on? A spot of red appeared. A square spot.
“Is that a barn?” Clove asked.
He lifted the shoulder that didn’t hurt. “It’s something. At the very least, it’s a wind block.” He pictured a lean-to full of hay. That would protect Felix–at least a little bit. They could make this work. “Let’s go.” He began to work himself out of the mess he’d landed in.
Clove helped, her movements stiff from sitting for so long in the cold. “You’re pretty amazing, you know that?” He complimented her. “I can't believe how tough you are.”
She gave him a weary smile. “Not feeling so tough right now-–but thanks.”
He kissed her head. “You’re doing great. We can rest soon.”
She nodded, a determined line between her eyebrows. Darn it all if she wasn’t the most beautiful, tenacious woman on the planet. If someone had asked him six months ago to list the qualities he looked for in a woman, he wouldn’t have listed resolve and steadfastness—and he would have been a fool.
Once he was out, Clove hooked her arm through his and they started off, moving like they were in a three-legged race. Felix trudged along beside them, the sled bumping and listing to and fro. He wasn’t as worried about it being damaged in an open field.
The closer they got to the red blur, the clearer it became that it was a barn. An ancient barn with peeling paint and broken windows.
“It’s beautiful,” he mumbled, his heart full of gratitude for the half-rotten building standing up against the storm. He tossed the snowball he’d been holding against his head off to the side without looking at it. The bleeding had stopped and his head hurt, a heartbeat throbbing through his skull. The first aid kit called his name.
He grabbed the door handle and pushed his shoulder against the wood, feeling the jolt through his other arm. The door flew open, and he stumbled inside. The scent of hay hit his nose, and he sneezed.
Clove stepped inside and sneezed three times in a row.
He laughed. “You’re a three-sneezer?”
