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She didn't know how much time had passed when her eyes finally reopened. The girl lay on the floor of the bar, a pool of blood matting her short auburn fur to the dark slats beneath her. The object of her pain, a half-charred, rather sharp piece of wood, was stuck firmly through her left shoulder, coming out just to the side of her collar bone in the front. She lay on her back, barely breathing, chest moving up and down slowly in ragged gasps. How had she ended up this way? Pain pounded through her entire body from the area that the wood was stuck through.
She closed her eyes. Her throat itched like she needed to cough but she tried to fight the urge with whatever strength she had left. Where had that guy gone, the one who had been in here with her? She'd been so drunk--she barely remembered his name. She didn't remember slipping and falling onto the floor of the bar, being impaled, or anything past that point. She must have hit her head. The moment that the thought came to her her head began to pound as well. The semiconscious wolf tried to lift her arm so that she might be able to get up, but her limbs felt like lead. She was weak. She kept her eyes closed. She could feel the pounding pain...but she couldn't do a single thing about it.
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He wondered how anybody could do it. The wolf had gone to the city to find the wool shop that he had visited with Ember, but Halifax had wrapped her spindly streets around him and spun him round a few times before letting him go. Hemming was absolutely lost, now, wandering the streets without any sense of where exactly he was. If he knew whether it was before or after noon he would at least have an idea of what direction he was travelling, but the season of darkness was upon him and the sneaking hours of night, gradually transgressing into daytime, confused the wolf. Anyway, it wasn't like he had anywhere to be, and he wasn't in any rush to reach some imaginary destination. Wandering was nice.
It was wandering that pulled him down streets that seemed, on the face of it, uninteresting. His mind wandered as he did, reflecting briefly and with happiness on the summer that had passed. By now, the leaves were almost all on the ground, covering the roots of their trees like a crispy blanket. It had been a good summer, and he had learned a lot about himself and others. This was, perhaps, better than the learning he had done from books summers prior. Hemming was finding that he was more of a social animal than he figured, and was finding interactions at least as fulfilling as the deep thinking he had previously occupied his mind with.
His thoughts started to meander to one of his newest friends, and he reflected on the day they had spent at the beach, and the subsequent day they had spent excavating the whale bones from the sand. It was only a moment later when he realized that these thoughts had not emerged randomly from a cloud of ideas in his mind. Suffocated beneath a heavy iron blanket of the stench of blood was her scent. In the moment before he could consciously react, his hair stood on end.
Hemming found her quickly, kneeled at her side and resisted the urge to shake her. Instead, he carefully turned her on her side so that she wouldn't ingest and choke on her own blood. "Addison?" he urged with wide eyes. He had read how to take care of various injuries in books, but all that knowledge seemed to escape him in the moment he needed it. Nothing ever seemed this bad, anyway. "What happened?" Dumb question, perhaps, but though the facts of how the piece of wood found itself in her body wouldn't affect how Hemming dealt with it, her response would give him a good idea of how she was doing.
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"Daisuke?" Her mouth was so dry. She tried to lick her lips but her tongue was devoid of any moisture as well, and it didn't help one bit. She wanted to ask him why he had left, why he hadn't given her any help or brought anyone here to her. Maybe that's where he had gone, to go and get help! She nodded, though the movement was underplayed outwardly. Her chin barely moved.
Mismatched eyes opened to see not Daisuke but a different wolf, Hemming, which confused her. She tried to speak again, but her throat was too dry and the words came out as a small wheeze. She looked up at him with dazed eyes, trying to work up a bit of spit in her mouth so that she could talk again. A few swallows left her with enough to work out a word, at least. "Water"
The pain in her shoulder was one thing, but the pain in her head was another. She had the worst headache she'd ever experienced in her life; it felt like she was bashing her head into the floor over and over and over with each pump of her heart. The pain was a good sign, perhaps, a sign that she was alive and conscious, but she almost would have welcomed the alternative at this point.
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Hemming shook his head as the girl ventured a guess at who he was. The name didn't sound familiar, but he figured it had something to do with how Addison had ended up in this situation. His heart was beating faster than it had ever been, perhaps, even faster than when they had run across the beach trying to escape a rogue crab. The wolf had held lives in his hands before, but they had been small birds with broken wings, rodents with nasty cuts. This was completely different, and required more than just supportive therapy, bandaging and a couple splints. Hemming was slightly nauseated, but he knew it was not the time to let himself give into that.
He was relieved that she prompted him to get her some water, and he stood up quickly, tiptoeing around broken glass to a refridgeration unit of some sort. Hemming thought water in bottles was kind of an odd thing to have since water came out of the taps, but in this case it was a godsend. Whatever water came out of the taps wouldn't be clean, if it came at all, and this bottled water was sealed and, hopefully, mostly resistant to the time that had passed since the humans stopped guzzling water out of plastic.
The wolf kneeled at her side again, cracking open the water bottle. Choking on the water was surely a possibility, and he didn't want to make the girl any worse off than she was. Tipping her head up slightly, he drizzled some water into her mouth, slowly and carefully. He still didn't know what to do about the spike of wood through her shoulder.
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The world seemed all spotty to her, little pieces of it fading into darkness every few seconds. Then she would snap back, and realize what was going on. Addison drank the water gratefully when it came, trying not to gulp it but failing. It was refreshing and quenched her thirst, but now that her thirst was gone she could only focus on the horrible pounding pain.
"You're here. I..."she couldn't seem to form any words past that, the darkness confusing her. It kept blotting out parts of his face, kept dragging her deeper and deeper. She felt sleepy, exhausted, even. She would close her eyes for just a second. One second.
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As the girl started to shut her eyes, Hemming started to worry. "Stay with me here, buddy, come on." He was having a hard enough time to stay coherent himself, and couldn't imagine what a hard time Addison was having of it. He looked around to find something to keep her focused on so she wouldn't drift off into sleep - something the male thought wouldn't be good - and after a moment prompted, "Hey, tell me what you were up to last night." The male had considered asking her to count the stains on the ceiling, and there were many, but it was likely that her vision was fading in and out of focus and such a game would be frustrating.
Hemming knew that he had to get the girl to someone that knew how to deal with the stake protruding from her shoulder. He was a layman's doctor, one that could sew up lacerations and splint broken wings, and he had no clue how to make Addison better. The thought was painful. For now he would have to do his best to get her stable enough to take her somewhere. A bandage of some sort would be nice, but the best he could find were long towels, evidently for wiping off the tables after a long night.
Leaving her side momentarily, he grabbed a few of these towels before coming back quickly. Kneeling beside her, he lightly pressed one of the smaller towels against the wound, trying to remove any loose splinters and other bits of foreign material that he could without causing a blistering amount of pain. After this was done, he took the longest towels he could find and wrapped them around the girl's body, stabilizing and stiffening it as much as possible. The male had decided he would have to pick her up and carry her away to somewhere where there was a healer. AniWaya and Dawali were far away, but there were plenty of packs on the way there that might be able to help. In the worse-case scenario, he would reach AniWaya before he found anyone else. Dawali was a skilled healer, but Hemming doubted his own ability to carry her very far while keeping her body in a safe position.
Having wrapped the wound the best he could, he said, "I'm gonna pick you up and take you to someone that can help you. Take a deep breath." As she did, he heaved her gently into his arms. Standing up from his half-kneeling position as he exhaled, he tried to readjust her in his arms without moving her too suddenly. He didn't want the stake to snag on anything - that was probably the worst possibility - but he had wrapped it tightly and it seemed to be fairly stable. Eyes on the ground to make sure he didn't step on broken glass, he made his way out of the odd building.
To his surprise, it was still light out. A few clouds drifted across the blue sky, momentarily shielding the bright light. Hemming oriented himself towards AniWaya and started walking, rapidly but carefully. As he made his way out of the city and into the wild he howled for help every once and a while, hoping that, by wonderful luck, there was someone nearby that could help.
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ooc: :] Alaine to the rescue!
Early morning light broke through the thick foliage overhead, it's dim rays casting strange dappled shadows across the forest floor. With the rising of the sun came the soft sounds of life that Alaine adored so; Birds began to sing, their sweet voices lifted in ethereal harmony to cast away the gloomy feeling of a long and bitter cold. Closer to the city, frost had yet to steal the ground, and the young woman was grateful for the warmth her red hooded cloak provided. Winter was on it's way, and with the last of autumn came her final opportunities to stock up on healing plants for the long, dark weeks ahead.
The cream and ivory lady hummed softly to herself, piercing and strangely bewitching eyes spun of jade and emerald scouring the dimly lit land for particular leaves and berries. Finding a neat clump of creeping bellflowers, the dainty healer set about plucking the white stalks from the soft earth, before tucking them away in her fattening pouch. The leather satchel held most of her equipment, and was very precious to the too-young mother. She usually carried it nowadays.
The howl startled her, and the slender collie-woman dropped her collection with a sharp inhale. Her eyes, now wide, scanned much alike a doe as heart fluttered behind her breast. There was a long moment of silence, and then the sound came again, stronger now.
It was a desperate plea for help. Even as she recognized that, the lady was peeling away, ready to run all the way back to where she'd come from, where her son and her newest adoption lay curled with sleep. The urge to return to that safety was overwhelming, but for some reason, she remained perfectly still, waiting till that sound set her heart a frantic flutter again. And then, much to Alaine's shock, her body began to move of it's own accord - TOWARDS the sound! Silent as a hunter she slipped between the trees, pausing only occasionally to press against the rough bark of a trunk and wait for the call again.
Then, there they were. A male, walking briskly as if the day was weaning, not growing, and he had someplace to be. But his face was taught with concentration and worry. He carried a bundle of material in his hands... Bleeding material? She gasped silently as the woman's face was revealed as the man came closer into view, the shrouding shadows parting momentarily to give the young healer a good view. Her stomach clenched; The wound was clearly bad, and she was loosing a lot of blood.
Her brain drew two conclusions. Either the man had hurt her (unlikely, she couldn't see any malice in his expression and he seemed to be carrying her rather courteously) or he was helping her. But the wounded feo would likely die of blood-loss before he reached anywhere...
" Wait- Excuse me! Just wait, right there, Sir."
Soft accented voice was surprisingly strong as she stepped from the shadows, the red cloak hiding her wary expression. She approached with palms held out, just so that the other could see she meant no harm to him or his barely-conscious cargo.
" Please. I can help her. I'm a healer."
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[html] Yay  I love the way you write! I don't think James will reply for a while, so you can go ahead!
It was if the other had just materialized in front of him, her voice seeming sudden and unexpected. In surprise, Hemming pulled Addison closer to his chest as if to protect her, stopping in his tracks. His breathing was shallow and rapid, and he merely stared at the female before him, waiting for her words to finish coming out. Even after she was done speaking, her phrases seemed to spin around in the air, and Hemming took a moment before he was capable of stringing together what he had heard. When he realized what she had said, and what it meant, his stiffened, panicked face turned into an expression of great relief and he huffed, "Oh, thank the heavens."
Addison's blood was starting to seep through the towels, now, the old white rags becoming stiff with drying blood. The male hurried to find a place where he could set her down without damage, and after a moment he placed her, as carefully as possible, on her side on a patch of earth. He held her head as he crouched down, and let it rest on his knee as he kneeled beside her. "I found her like this," he said quickly, "I don't know how long she's been hurt." He would have attempted to give some estimate of how long ago it had been when he had found her, but time seemed choppy and erratic and he had no clue how much had passed.
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ooc: Thank you *blush*. Alright, James, this should give you something to reply to <3
She hadn't realized just how quiet she'd been. The male jolted as Alaine's soft voice spun out, his own expression becoming as wary as her own. Chagrined, the younger woman tried to smile, but her face felt stiff and false. There was no time to spend wondering whether the stranger was harmful; It was a leap or die situation, and they both knew it. Another second of breath-holding silence passed, and then the fellow seemed to crumble slightly, his breath expelled in a warm jet of air.
Alaine watched as he settled the wounded feo down, as carefully as if she were his own. Emerald eyes were wide and innocent, her hands clasped nervously before her. Now was not the time to let her fears rise again; Avoiding any eye contact with the stranger, the healer waited till he moved to the wounded's head before she knelt to the ground. As he spoke, she nodded, let out a soft sound of agony as the wound was finally revealed between layers of sodden ivory cloth. Then, t'was as if a determined thought stole over her, for the timid beauty of before was now brisk and businesslike.
" Put her head down gently, and listen to me very carefully. I need you to do as I tell you, for I shant repeat myself. She's gone into severe shock... There has been a lot of blood lost. You need to elevate her footpaws, please - prop them up on something, so long as they are above her body level. She needs all her blood to head back towards her core..."
Her words were a constant stream, ivory hands now ruby-dashed with blood foraging mercilessly through the small leather pouch. She began to pull out all sorts of odd things - Wide leaves, little bottles of crushed powder, crystalline substances and a variety of roots and leaves. Occasionally, her eyes would dart to the young man, just to make sure he was competent in her orders. A small, scratched bottle of water was brought out, the lid popped off even as her other hand grabbed pinched of different powders. After adding a few pinches of strange-smelling items, she handed to bottle to the nearby male.
" Shake this till it bubbles. Then, I need you to get her to swallow a good mouthful or two... Be careful, it has a very bitter taste and she may try to spit it out," As she spoke, ivory hands rummaged through for a flat wooden disk and a large black rock. Emerald eyes lifted to the bleeding wound, and Alaine made a sympathetic sound in the back of her throat before continuing with the stream of instructions, " It's going to bring her back to consciousness. I need to know if her breathing is obstructed and if the splinter has nicked her lung, and only she can tell me that."
Her face was grim, but determined. A strange bulbous root, it's pale surface glittering in the light, was quickly ground to a paste beneath the skilled fingers of the young woman and her broad-stone. Valley radish to stop the bleeding, broad-silver leaf to prevent infection, crushed bainstalk to minimalise permanent muscular damage... With her mind whizzing, the putrid-smelling poultice was set aside. Her hands lifted to the protruding splinter, and gingerly began to prod about it. Brows creased in concentration as she drew back, and began to cover the edges of the wound in the mixture. That completed, her gaze turned back to the young male expectantly.
" You've given her the broth? Good, she'll come awake, hold her head now... Miss? Can you hear me, miss?"
Her voice, though melodic, was firm. If the lady didn't awaken, then there was no hope for her survival. Even if she did, the broth wouldn't keep her concious long - They were going to have to remove the wood...
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He had been stirred from his oblivious anxiety into urgent determination. As carefully and sofly as he could, Hemming placed Addison's head onto the ground. The words spoken by the healer gave him a direction he had previously lacked, and he set to work on the first order. The scant snow was the material from which Hemming forged a pile to prop her feet up on, and his large hands had worked seemingly without the input of any conscious thought. Her feet were lifted gently onto the pile, and the male was already clutching the bottle that the healer was handing him. As he shook it, he moved closer to her head, kneeling with his folded legs parallel to her body. He moved her head up onto his legs, trying to make her as comfortable as he could before administering the solution.
Holding the side of her face with one hand, the male tipped some of the bottle's contents in her mouth, pausing to place the bottle down beside him and hold Addison's jaw as to cause her to swallow. As soon as it appeared to be down her throat, he gave her another mouthful, holding her head again. "'Kay, Addison, come back now," he coaxed beneath his breath, more as a mantra to himself than to her. In the moments as he waited, her head cradled in his lap, he wondered frantically what she had been doing before she was injured and who she had been with. She had muttered another's name before she realized that it was Hemming, but he didn't remember what it had been. Had the other abandoned her after she had been hurt, or had they left before? The thoughts were quickly cast from his mind - either way, it didn't matter right now. The male couldn't help but feel a twinge of paternal rage, but he kept calm.
He nodded at the healer when she asked if he had done his duties, and he nodded gently, turning his attention back to Addison as he waited for her to wake up.
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When she did come awake it was with one large gulp of air; she felt as if she had been underwater for a long time and was just coming up for a breath. There had been a hard pressure on her and it released for a moment as she panted, eyes opening slowly. She looked here and there, trying to figure out where she was (for it certainly was not the bar that she had passed out in!), and met the eyes of the healer. ”What the fuck kind of dream is this?” She muttered. She couldn’t quite see Hemming from where she was, and tried to look around a bit more but was halted by the pain in her shoulder.
She had never seen a creature like the one who stood over her, but noted that the other had a rather caring look in her eyes. This made Addison want to trust her more; the girl was in a vulnerable position, laying out on the ground, and anything could have happened to her. Was this lady a healer? Or some kind of angel? She thought about this for a few moments before taking another quick glance around. Hrm. Nope. She could still see some buildings and run-down houses. She was in the city.
”Ahhh, crap. Who are you? And where am I?” She demanded in a low growl, her voice sounding pinched from pain. ”Where’d that featherhead get off to?” Her pet-name for all Aniwayans crept through in her dazed state, and her eyes looked frantically about for the male before she caught sight of him and relaxed.
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ooc:
There was a terse moment of silence, thick like smog that settled about the throats and eyes of the two conscious individuals. Within the grasp of that silence was shallow breathing, and the biting sting of uncertainty. Then, just as she'd begun to move back, the stone dread in her stomach clenched with remorse, the deadly-still body moved.
And burst back to life.
The girl came awake with a great spluttering, as if the darkness that had shrouded her mind had been a deep pool, and her reluctant body was just now surfacing for the breath of life. Alaine's white hands fluttered forward, immediately checking for her pulse even as the feo croaked out words. The collie-woman's gaze warily sought out the pupils of the wounded, subconsciously checking her sclera for signs of paleness, the size of her pupils for shock. The girl returned her look with bleary caution, before finally growling out some more words.
Alaine studied her carefully for a moment, suddenly aware of the situation she'd wandered into. These two were wolves, of course, and even the girl would be taller than her when standing. Each had far more brawn than the soft-voiced dog healer, though she considered with dark humor that the wounded wouldn't get too far if she tried to attack. With her safety momentarily assured, the cream lady finally spoke.
" You are still with the living, that's where you are," She frowned disapprovingly at the young lady's broken language, but continued to speak even as she checked for broken ribs, " And I am the healer who's doing her best to keep you here."
The girl had relaxed when she noted that the male was still in presence, and that somewhat eased Alaine's qualms. He can't have been the one to harm her so, then. She'd not responded to the healer's prodding, and Alaine was relieved that there had been no broken ribs. Leaving the male to re-acquaint with the momentarily conscious girl, the young healer began to rummage through her leather pouch and retrieved a thick wad of strange-smelling leaves, a small strip of material and some more of the poultice she'd mixed. Emerald green eyes dropped to her patient and welled momentarily with sympathy, before hardening as they turned to her make-shift assistant.
" You are going to gag her with this material, and then hold her down. I'm going to remove the wood. She must remain absolutely still, or the wound will deepen," She knew that what she was asking was very difficult. This pain would most likely make the girl thrash and writhe, and she knew how one would plead to have pain ended, but it was essential that the male remain strong and do as she directed, " The gag is to stop her from biting you if the pain brings out her instincts... Don't look shocked, I've seen it happen."
She sighed, then, and turned to the girl with wary but patient eyes.
" You must try and stay awake for as long as possible, alright? This will hurt, but I need you to try and stay still. I will try and take the pain away as quick as I can..."
She nodded grimly to the male, handing him the strip of material. It was up to him if he used it or not (and should he choose not to, then she'd not argue), but she would wait for him to pin the girl before she began removing the wood.
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”I can hear you, you know. And fuck you, no way anyone's stuffing anything in my mouth you weirdo! I ain't stupid! You think it didn't hurt when I was laying there on top of this thing? I won't lose control." She had been through pain before and had her own ways of dealing with it. She would clench her teeth together and bear through it, just like she had with Halo and the rats. Why wouldn't the healer ask Addison directly if she thought she could take it before deciding to ask Hemming? Hemming wasn't anything to her! He was her friend, but that didn't mean he could make decisions to her when she was right here, awake! The healer lady probably didn't think that she could make decisions in this state...but Addi knew when she was getting the bad end of a deal. She wouldn't let them hold her down or shove anything anywhere! She would run away first!
"What are you, anyway, some kind of torturer? Already been there, thanks, didn't like it too much. I think if I went through that shit I can go through this. Hemming, you sit behind me. Pull this thing out through the front, lady. Just grab it and pull it out real quick.” She could lean on Hemming if she needed to. He could support her with his arms and torso, but getting held down...she'd rather die than have someone hold her down.
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Addison had been much more pleasant when she was unconscious. Perhaps it was Hemming's quiet sensibilities, but he scowled slightly as the girl swore and cast the healer apologetic glances. He could understand her confusion and displacement, but it was a little unnerving that she would express it in this way. Oh, well, Addison was Addison, and the male couldn't do anything to change her (at least, not at the moment). The healer's reply was gracious despite the injured girl's rudeness, and Hemming continued to sit and do nothing but provide support for Addison's head. He said nothing, feeling it would waste time and also feeling a little embarassed by his friend's behaviour.
The male furrowed his eyebrows as it was explained to him that he should gag Addison, and even moreso as the younger female burst into sound, once more. He really didn't want to be bitten, but he was even more scared of what Addison might do to him if he did try to gag her. That was possibly even more dangerous, so he merely held the cloth in his hands, feeling immensely nervous. The plan sounded painful and dangerous, but he was sympathizing more with the helpful female than the injured one. Feeling sheepish, he said sternly, "Be quiet, Addison. She's helping you and she knows what she's doing. You're lucky she's here." It was only now that Hemming realized he didn't know the other's name; so far he had been so wrapped up in saving Addison that he didn't even think about it. He could get it later, when he was saying his bashful thanks.
Timidly, he waited for the other to extract the wood. He was interested in medicine himself, but the wolf didn't think he would ever be able to remove an object from someone else's body, and so he watched with admiration for her craft.
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ooc: XD !!
The girl was talking as if her maw was on fire, and hell hath given no fury as her scorn. Too shocked to be outraged, Alaine's emerald eyes opened wide as she waited for the wolf-girl to finish spitting hatred from her viper's tongue. In the silence that fell then, the young healer recalled the young man's name - Hemming. And from his soft, almost embarrassed tone, she caught the girls - Addison. It seemed they knew each other well enough, but were perhaps not quite as close as she'd first assumed. Those strange inverted optics rose nervously to this Hemming fellow now, but he seemed reluctant to give any more words.
Well, one thing was for sure. If the girl had enough air in her lungs to give the healer whom was helping her such an earful, then Alaine figured it would be unnecessary to give her the numbing herbs.
" As you wish."
It was difficult to project 'miffed' into her accented tone, but the collie-woman did so with regal disdain, her blood-stained hands brisk and skilled as they sought to slather a little more of the poultice on the raw edges of the wound. She cast a quick look up at Hemming from beneath lashes to check that he was wary and attentive, before nodding slightly. Regal green eyes met those of the girl in warning a moment, and she gave her a quick, grim smirk.
Then, twisting her wrist to achieve a clean exit, Alaine pulled the evil-looking stake from the wounded she-wolf's chest.
She moved quickly after that, snapping back into the healers facade and forgetting all emotion. The bundle of leaves were applied evenly to the wound, seeping red the second they met her flesh. The young lady continued to apply them, layer after layer, one hand held tight to the open wound to stop blood from gushing out. A little bit of red oozed between her fingertips, but Alaine had withdrawn right down into her mind for this, and where some would feel queasy at the task she felt only a bland twinge of sympathy.
" You, Hemming, put your hands where mine are - You must keep the pressure constant. Not too hard, or you'll crack her ribs."
She shifted to retrieve a thick band of heavily-woven material from the pouch, it's hue a contrasting bone white against her bloodied hands. She gestured for Hemming to prop Addison up, and quickly wound the rag in a bandage across her torso, tying it sharply in a tight knot.
" Now, lay her back down... Are you still conscious, Addison?"
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