Whoops.
Slowly, I leaned forward, keeping my balance on the flying Galadria, and lifted my pant leg.
Shit.
A main vein or artery in my leg might have been cut pretty good; I would need Ronnie to tell me for sure.
This was the part where I needed to pray that my mini wound stapler was still in my cargo pocket. I hadn’t felt it when I’d been searching for my knife at the bottom of the lake, but I’d also been in a fight for my life.
Gingerly reaching over with my one free hand, I dug deeply into my pocket and nearly wept in relief when I clamped my fingers around the stapler.
Stapling your own skin shut with no meds while flying through the air on a giant beast… not ideal. But I needed to do this or risk passing out and falling on my neck.
‘Clyde, I have to fix my leg and I might scream in pain, but don’t worry, okay?’
I felt a bristle of energy from him, and it also felt like Dawn too, which was weird.
‘Okay.’
Taking a deep breath, I lined the staple gun up to the most severe gash. The skin was torn quite a bit, and trying to staple it with one hand was going to be hard. But I wasn’t about to let go of this tub and make all of this for nothing. Dawn was getting her damn dinner!
The gun was poised over the leaking cut and I just froze. It was so weird to inflict pain on yourself.
1, 2 ,3, go, baby. Come on.
Without trying to overthink it, I smashed down on the handle that pushed out the staple.
“Holy mother!” A scream ripped from my throat as pain sliced through my ankle. Before I could lose my nerve, I did two more staples in rapid succession and then lay back on Clyde, breathing through the pain. My good leg was holding the left side of the tub, my right hand plugging the right side, and I was staring at the sky wondering how the hell this had become my life.
I didn’t want to do this anymore. I was a professional fighter. Day in and day out I just survived. I felt ninety years old and I was so over it. I needed my crew to heal so we could go back down to the surface and I could hopefully open a portal and get us home.
After lying there for what seemed like forever, Clyde spoke:‘We are almost to Skyhome. Dawn is worried about Kit.’
I sat up slowly, feeling a little dizzy, and held on to my bucket.
‘Dawn? I’m fine. We are almost there. Are you okay?’
‘Kit should not risk herself for Dawn.’Her voice came through loud and clear. She sounded… angry, which I’d never experienced from her before.
‘Dawn is important to Kit,’I told her. The tip of Skyhome was just visible now and I’d be so damn glad to get this bucket out of my hands and over to Dawn.
‘Kit needs to take care of herself,’Dawn growled.
Whoa, she was totally pissed.
‘I’m fine,’I added again.
Now we were flying up over the island and getting ready to land.
‘Over there.’I showed Clyde where the den was that we’d all been holed up in.
Ronnie was standing in front of Dawn and she... looked… pissed.
I gulped.
After we landed, Ronnie ran over to me, red-faced, arms waving.
“You little… bitch!” she shouted angrily. “Don’t ever do that to me again!”
