Calm,I ordered myself.Stay calm.I was going to be dealing with this kind of stuff on a regular basis when I graduated. But that was a long way off—I was still only in my second year of pre-med. I didn’t have any experience triaging injuredpeople.
“Okay,” I murmured, straddling Raiden so I could use my legs to keep him upright. I pressed one hand against his chest to keep him against the tree trunk and slid the other behind his head to check for injury. I found a large knot on the back of his head and swallowed hard when my hand came awaybloody.
“Dammit!” I figured he had a concussion, but I’d really hoped he’d avoided cutting his head. How bad was the injury? Did I dare move him again to check on it? It wasn’t as if I had anything to stitch it up with, or even a bandage to put around hishead.
I knew from my studies that it was best to keep concussion victims upright and not move them too much. Brain bleeding was a serious thing and could result in death if the damage was severeenough.
“Oh God,” I breathed, tears stinging my eyes. Raiden wasn’t going to die, was he? He couldn’t die. I didn’t think I could bear it if he lost his life trying to protect me. Why wasn’t there anything I could do to help him? I could do areikihealing, but that wouldn’t help much, not for an injury this severe. He needed medical attention, and I was powerless to provideit.
A sudden ache burned in my chest, and I pressed my hand against the pain. Right where I’d been stabbed yesterday. A jolt of excitement hit me as I remembered thefuri, and how it had healed me. Was it possible it could help Raidentoo?
Trembling, I lifted my wrist and touched the monkey charm dangling from my bracelet.“Maji,”I said, willing thefurito appear with all mymight.
The tiny charm flared, and thefuriappeared next to me in a swirl of blue light. It blinked its bright red eyes as it took in the scene, its black and yellow spotted tail swishingcuriously.
“Am I interruptingsomething?”
My cheeks flamed as I realized I was still sitting on top ofRaiden.
“It’s not what it looks like,” I snapped, pressing my hands against his chest as he began to slump forward again. “He’s hurt. I need you to healhim.”
Thefuri’seyes widened in alarm. “I cannot do that,” he protested. “You must get him to ahealer.”
“There is no healer around here!” I cried, my frustration boiling over. “You healed me when I was stabbed with that knife. Why can’t you do the same thing forRaiden?”
“I did not heal you,” thefurisaid patiently. “I simply absorbed the blow in your stead.”He pressed a hand to the dark fur on his chest. “I heal much faster than you, and the knife did not go into your heart, so I was able to survive the blow. Had the knife gone into your heart, or your head, I would have still absorbed the blow, but I would have died. It is not the same thing ashealing.”
My stomach sank. “So you don’t have any healing powers?” I asked, my voice sharp with desperation. “Nothing at all that can helpme?”
“No, but he does.” Thefuriglanced down at Raiden. “Check hispockets.”
Frowning, I did as thefuriasked. His right pocket held only his wallet and some loose change, but in his left were a few of theyokaicharms I’d seen in the lacquered box. “What is he doing withthese?”
“I do not know,but—”
Several loud, animalistic shrieks ripped through the still air, sending a bolt of fear through me. Thefurishrieked back, jumping in front of me just as a group of monkeys burst from the tree line. They began lobbing stones and hard, green persimmons at us, and I ducked as thefuriblocked and caught the projectiles, flinging several of them back at ourattackers.
“Run!” thefuricried. “Get out ofhere!”
I jumped to my feet, then slung Raiden’s arm over my shoulder and tried to drag him to his feet. But he was still out cold, and I could barely move him an inch. “Comeon!” I wailed, tears streaming down my cheeks. “Wake up, you big idiot! I can’t leave you here todie!”
A strange scuttling sound came from behind me, and the monkeys’ screeching instantly turned from angry to pained. Whirling around, my mouth dropped open in astonishment as I saw a horde of crabs rushing up the beachside, swiping at the monkeys with their clacking pincers. They were gigantic, each one the size of a Saint Bernard, with purple-orange shells and a strange pattern on their backs that looked like the face of an angryguy.
“Are those...samuraicrabs?”
“Raiden!” My heart jumped at the sound of his voice, and I looked over to see he was staring blearily at the monkey-crab battle. “Come on, stay with me now,” I said urgently as his eyelids began to droop again. “You have to get up!” I hated to move him, but it was clear we weren’t safehere.
Two of the crabs scuttled forward, nearly scaring me out of my skin. “Get back!” I cried, holding Raiden tightly against me. But to my surprise, the crabs didn’t cut us into tiny pieces. Instead, they arranged themselves in what looked like a two-crab conga line, stopping right in front ofus.
“Put him on our backs,” the first crab said, his voice echoing in the air. “We will carry him tosafety.”
I hesitated for a split second. Where was “safety?” How did I know I could trust these crabs? But it was clear that the monkeys were our enemy, and the crabswerefighting the monkeys, so accepting their help was probably a safe bet. The enemy of my enemy and allthat.
“Furi!”I screamed, trying to get my own monkeyyokai’sattention. He was right in the middle of the fray, bashing two monkeys’ heads together repeatedly. “Helpme!”
Thefuritossed the two monkeys effortlessly aside, then leapt over the battling animals so he could get to me. Without asking questions, he grabbed Raiden’s legs while I slid my hands beneath his armpits. Together, the two of us lifted him onto the backs of the samuraicrabs.
“Hurry!” the lead crab cried, scuttling forward. But three of the monkeys saw us, and they attacked us in earnest. Thefuriscreamed, launching himself at the monkeys, but this only drew the attention of the other monkeys, and more broke away to get tous.
