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Wounded Wings - Chapter 5

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Chapter 5

Straith


            It was well into the night by the time she was finally getting tired. She had read through Professor Wyndstone's field guide several times and Ulysses had eaten his fill and was now resting peacefully. A proper meal meant his body would heal faster. That peace didn't last long, though. They were startled by the distinct sound of an aggravated bear not far from where they were. A few seconds later they could hear it crashing through the woods towards them. They stood up and backed away from the edge of the trees where the sound was coming from, but the bear had already emerged. Something must have set it off to made it angry like this. Usually if someone encountered a bear it would just try intimidate them, but not directly attack them. This bear was actually intent on causing harm.
            Ulysses stood in front of Clara and tried to stare down the angered beast that was many times his own weight. In the time he had been lying there in the woods he had not seen a bear until now, so he wasn't familiar with their behaviour. The bear roared at the strange creature before him and Ulysses roared back, believing he could intimidate it, but it wasn't deterred and charged at him. It knocked over the lantern, breaking the glass and spilling the kerosine resulting in a small fire lighting up the plateau. The bear stood on its hind feet and swiped at Ulysses, who wasn't quite fast or strong enough to avoid the full force of the bear's paw slamming him flat onto the ground, leaving him dazed. With him out of the way, the bear's attention was drawn to Clara. The bear took a swing at her and bashed her several feet away and hard against the stone wall of the plateau. She was unconscious when Ulysses got back to his feet. The bear was about finish Clara off when Ulysses got in front of it and tried to use his body strength to push the bear away, or at least draw its attention away from her. Ulysses was strong enough to move the bear for a few feet, but it quickly shifted its weight and knocked him onto his back. Before he could move, the bear had placed both its paws on his chest and it was crushing his ribcage. Ulysses tried to defend himself with his dewclaws, but they had little effect through the bear's thick fur. In response, the bear dragged its claws across Ulysses's chest, tearing though his bandages and leaving a set of large gashes with blood streaming down his sides. Ulysses howled in pain as the bear then stepped on his right wing and tore the membrane to shreds.
            At this point, the enormous beast was trying to bite his throat and Ulysses was using the last of his strength just to hold it off. His vision was starting to blur and he could barely breathe. The pain from the gashes along with the weight of the bear still on his chest was so agonizing, he felt his heart starting to falter. All he could do now was scratch wildly at the bear's face. Miraculously, it seemed to do the trick. The bear shook its head and snorted at the sting of his claws and retreated back into the woods.
            
Ulysses remained on his back for a few painful moments. It was a terrible effort just to breathe after having the massive animal crush the air the out of his lungs. It felt like his skin was splitting with each breath and the warm sensation of fresh blood streaming down his sides made him dizzy. Through his blurred vision and the flickering flames of the kerosine fire, he could see Clara laying on the ground. His heart lurched as he slowly rolled over onto his hands and feet. His wings hung limp at his sides. One was barely healed with the splint Dr. Gazz had attached to it, the other now in bloody shreds. With his last bit of energy, he picked up Clara and positioned her onto his back and started on what would feel like an epic journey into Riverlark.

            The bear's baying was loud enough for Kale to hear it from the edge of town. He bolted across the field and headed up the path into the foothills, but was halted by a most shocking sight. Before him was Ulysses on his hands and feet carrying an unconscious Clara on his back. Kale had his gun pointed him, but Ulysses didn't seem to care. He looked like he had already been through Hell. He was breathing heavily and there was blood dripping from the wounds on his chest onto the ground. He appeared to be struggling just to stand up. Kale's first instinct was to pick Clara up off the beast's back, but then he thought the creature was bringing Clara to Dr. Gazz and was going to need help himself. Kale could get Clara there a bit faster, but he needed to keep the town guards from shooting him. After a moment of Ulysses staring at him while he deliberated, Kale stepped away and raced back towards the town while Ulysses continued slowly but steadily following Dr. Gazz's scent.
            
Kale found Sheriff James Hendricks easily. Sheriff Hendricks was young dark-skinned man with an impressive coiffure of curly black hair. When he wasn't in the prison office, he was relaxing by the fountain playing his guitar even at night. He looked startled when Kale came running up to him. “There's something coming into the town,” he said breathlessly. “It's carrying Clara and it's hurt. I need you to keep the townfolk away from it; and don't shoot it!” As Kale quickly ran back to the edge of town, Hendricks was very confused, but Kale wasn't the type to make something like that up. He pulled his alert whistle from his pocket and blew it. Any and all town guards in earshot were to report to the centre of town when this whistle was heard. He relayed Kale's instructions just as he saw him returning to town with an unfamiliar creature in tow. The town guards were hard-pressed to keep the curious eyes at bay whilst keeping their own curiosity contained. Word-of-mouth spread quickly and a majority of the town had come out into the night air to watch Kale lead the wounded and exhausted beast as he walked steadfastly down the cobblestone road without letting the attention of the town residents faze him. Even while leaving a trail of blood drops behind him, all he had on his mind right now was getting Clara to Dr. Gazz.
            
Once it looked like the townfolk were willing to keep their distance, Kale stopped Ulysses and picked Clara up off his back. He carried her the rest of the way while Ulysses followed. Even from several feet away, Kale could hear him wheezing. He must have lost so much blood he was on the verge of passing out. Dr. Gazz had already come out of his office in his nightrobe when he heard the commotion. “What happened here?” He asked, very concerned.
            
“I'm not sure,” Kale said as he carried Clara up to him, Sheriff Hendricks in tow. “I think they were attacked by a bear.”
            
Gazz looked Clara over. She had a few scrapes and and bruises, but she seemed to be okay. “Bring her inside.” Kale obeyed as Gazz knelt down to Ulysses's level. Just as he did so, however, Ulysses gave into his exhaustion and collapsed onto the ground. His eyes were barely open while Gazz asked Sheriff Hendricks to bring him a bed sheet from his medical linen cabinet. He wasn't breathing heavily anymore, in fact he was barely breathing at all. Gazz feared he would likely go into shock if he did not tend to his wounds. Hendricks brought out the sheet and spread it onto the ground then he and Gazz carefully picked up Ulysses and set him onto the sheet. They then picked up the sheet, cradling the nearly unconscious beast.
            They carried him inside the medical office and passed Clara laying on the couch in the waitroom with Kale knelt next to her. Gazz and Hendricks brought Ulysses into the examination room and set him onto the table so Gazz could tend to him. Hendricks informed him that he would have some guards stationed around his office to keep prying eyes from disturbing him and then took his leave.
            As Kale was stroking Clara's head while trying to revive her, she awoke very suddenly. “Ulysses!” She yelped, much to Kale's surprise. “Where is he?!” Kale could only assume she meant the winged creature that brought her here. He gestured to the closed door to Dr. Gazz's examination room and she immediately got up at ran into the room. Ulysses was laying on his back on the medical table while Dr. Gazz was cleaning the large gashes on his chest. Blood was dripping down his side and onto the cloth covering of the table. Within a heartbeat she was at Ulysses's side. He was struggling to keep his eyes open, but he seemed pleased to see her. She stroked the side of his face as Dr. Gazz sprayed the topical anaesthesia/coagulant onto the wounds.
            He was preparing to stitch the gashes closed when Kale stepped into the room, looking a bit miffed. The tension in the room was immediately apparent and Dr. Gazz eyed both of them with caution. Clara nodded in his direction. “I'll take care him,” she said softly, herself unsure she meant Ulysses or Kale. Dr. Gazz set the needle and thread on the medical cart and quietly left the room.
            For several seconds, the only sound in the room was Ulysses's breathing. “So,” Kale said finally. “Stray dog, huh?” Clara bowed her head. “Why did you want to keep him a secret from me so badly?”
            “I was afraid,” she said, shaking slightly as she picked up the needle and thread. “I thought that if you knew, you would tell Capt. Soune and the military would come take him away.”
            “I wouldn't have told him if you asked me not to.” Kale was hurt that Clara didn't trust him.
            
“I'm sorry,” she said sadly.
            
Kale just stood and stared at her for a moment before sighing heavily. “I'm sorry, too.” He approached the table Ulysses lay upon on the opposite side of Clara. “Do you know what he is? Where he came from?” Clara didn't answer at first while she was preparing to stitch the gashes on Ulysses's chest closed.
            “Yes,” she said finally. Ulysses grunted as the needle pierced his skin. “Dr. Gazz had a copy of Professor Wyndstone's field guide. We call them Straithconians. You know about them?”

“Yeah,” he said, tapping on the shackle on Ulysses's left wrist. “One of my text books mentions them, among other alien life forms the Space Corp has found. So far, they're the most advanced race we've encountered. They're very intelligent, but they don't even use basic technology. They're essentially like our Stone Age ancestors and yet we still managed to find a way to screw with them.” He took hold of Ulysses's left arm and held it up, displaying the shackle. “Poachers. An organization called Wraith has been capturing them from their homeworld and smuggling them back here. They get tortured, brainwashed and sold into slavery.”
            Clara looked up from her stitching and looked up with her mouth agape. “Torture?” She said in shock. She looked down at Ulysses, who had his jaw clenched as he bore the dulled pain of the needle. “No wonder he looked like death when I found him.” She sighed sadly as she stroked his head.
            
“This is why I want to be a Peacekeeper,” Kale continued as he set Ulysses's wrist down. “I want to help stop this from happening. Even before I found him carrying you into town, I knew his species was far more peaceful than humans ever were.” Kale shook his head. “They don't deserve this.” Clara paused. She had been unconscious up until a a few minutes ago. She didn't even stop to wonder how she got back into town. He had carried her; nearly bleeding to death in the process.
            
“You see these scars?” Kale said, pointing to Ulysses's ribs. “It's from a chest brace. A long-term torture device meant to reduce their lung capacity so it's harder for them to fight.” He looked Ulysses in the eye. “I don't know or care how you escaped, but you're one of the lucky ones. I can only imagine how that first breath of free air must have felt.” Ulysses watched Kale as he went to sit down on a chair against the wall before closing his eyes while Clara methodically treated his wounds.
            
They spent the next hour in silence until Clara finished stitching the gashes closed, but her hand remained resting on Ulysses's chest. His breathing was much calmer now. She hadn't noticed before, but in the bright light of examination room, she could see that Ulysses's scales had a dark blue sheen to them. They looked almost like small smooth sapphires embedded in his skin.
            She asked Kale to bring her an empty medical cart so she could spread Ulysses's torn wing onto it. She thought about how she would repair it and she remembered reading in Prof. Wyndstone's book that in their natural habitat, Straithconians used tree sap and leaves to bond torn wing membranes until they healed, meaning she didn't need to stitch them together. Medical tape would do the trick. Carefully, she and Kale aligned the edges and covered them with tape. It was almost like taping a big piece of paper together. Despite Ulysses being nearly torn to bits by the grizzly bear, his overall health seemed to be improving nonetheless. The blue colouring she saw in his wings earlier was more than just a tinge now; it covered nearly half of the wing membrane.
            
Clara wondered how she was going to reattach the wing membrane to his sides with the cut edges already healed, but upon close examination, the split appeared to be healing from the top down regardless. Perhaps just stitching the membrane to the scar that ran from his shoulderblade to his lower back would be enough for now. She had Ulysses turn over onto his front while she used a few stitches to tack his wing membranes to his back in order to hasten their regeneration.
            
Just as she was finishing up, they heard voices on the other side of the door. Dr. Gazz was apparently trying to turn away some people who had somehow persuaded their way past the guards and come into the office. Clara listened at the door and recognized one of the voices. “Etho?” She whispered to Kale who had a nervous look on his face.
            “This has nothing to do with you,” she heard him say. “We're just here to collect the beast for my employer.” They were here for Ulysses! The panic in Clara's eyes was enough to signal to Ulysses that he needed to get out. Kale opened the window just as they heard a thud on the locked door. Someone was trying to open it by force. They could hear Dr. Gazz insisting that the intruders leave.
            One of the unfamiliar voices said, “I got this, boss. Just let me...” Before he finished, there was a loud crack as the latch broke and the medical room door swung open. Etho himself stood in the doorway as if he had kicked the door in. He stepped inside and quickly scanned the room. Clara was standing stiffly in front of the window and Kale was barely resisting the urge to point his shotgun at him. Etho took note of the bloody sheet on the medical bed before turning his eyes to the window behind Clara. He made a beeline for the window, callously pushing Clara aside. He stuck his head out the window as his two henchmen peered into the room. They looked just as shocked at the broken door latch as Clara and Kale were.
            “Ssshit...” Etho hissed. “He's headed for the hills!” The two henchmen retreated to the front door of the office. Etho was about to climb through the window himself when Clara made the connection.
            “It was you!” She said angrily. “You provoked that bear! You almost got us killed!”
            
“You look fine,” he said passively as he slipped through the window like a cat.
            Clara panicked. “I have to stop them!” Before Kale could protest, she bolted for the door and past the two guards who had apparently been incapacitated after the townspeople had been threatened. She disappeared into the night while Kale gave chase as best he could, but once she got into the forest and he lost sight of her, his efforts seemed to be in vain.

            Clara ran up to the stone plateau where she believed Ulysses would go, but when she heard voices, her heart sank. She was too late. Ulysses was on his hands and feet and backed against the stone wall. Etho was standing across from him. “Just come along and we'll leave this town in peace,” he said, but there was no kindness in his voice. He was going to bring him back to the prison. Etho didn't appear to have any weapons. Ulysses could easily take him down, yet he was... submitting? His head was bowed and she could clearly see sadness on his face.
            Suddenly, Clara felt a rough hand grab her shoulder. She was so focused on Ulysses, she didn't even notice Etho's henchmen had come up behind her. The man who grabbed her dragged her onto the plateau. Upon seeing her, Ulysses's expression changed to shock and horror. He made a high-pitched, almost pleading roar at Etho. “Hey, it's her own fault,” he said callously.
            Clara struggled free from the man and ran towards Ulysses. He made a similar pleading sound towards her. He wanted her to leave him, but she wouldn't. She had to protect him. “Stay away from him!” She shouted at Etho.
            
“This doesn't concern you!” Etho shouted back. “Get out of the way or we're taking you with us.” The two henchmen approached her. Clara didn't budge. She placed herself in front of Ulysses. If they were going steal him away, she was going with him. It was the only way she could think of protecting him.

                                     


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