Page 34 of Trapped By Claws
Oh! It hurt just as much the second time.
I gasped, all the breath rushing out of my lungs. What little breath had been in them to begin with.
"No." Corvin sighed in frustration, covering his face with his hand. "Don't sit on her! Where did you learn to comfort people?"
Tagger shook his head and trilled again. He then started rubbing his face against mine. He patted my cheek with his withered paw.
Corvin shook his head again. "What was I thinking?" he muttered. He picked Tagger up and set him down. Then he handed him the pale-blue orb. "Hold this."
My eyelids slid shut again, the heaviness intensifying.
"Hey, don't go to sleep," he said sharply. "I'm furious with you." He lifted my arm from the wound and then swore, his words a garbled mess.
Everything was fading. The cold had moved up over me, far stronger than any pain. A faint cutting sensation and pressure registered in my side. He had put his hand on me again, though stopping the bleeding wouldn't accomplish anything.
A vague panic flared through me as my hearing faded.
This wasn't how I wanted to die.
Down here.
In a cave.
Never seeing Mama again.
But soon I'd see Erryn.
Maybe.
Tears leaked down my cheeks as the cold darkness swallowed me.
HELD
The world rocked. My stomach twisted.
Corvin's voice growled in my ear, hoarse and thick rather than smooth and melodic. "Don't you dare die on me." He cradled me against his chest. "You're much too clever and far too beautiful to just die. You know that, don't you? I'll never forgive you if you die. Don't leave me, clever girl. Please."
I tried to speak, my head spinning. My eyelids refused to cooperate.
Wait.
I was alive.
How?
The pain had mostly gone as well. No wounds or bruises bellowed for attention. All that was really at issue was the cold and fatigue. "What did you do?" I murmured. My eyelids cracked open.
He scoffed, his yellow-and-green striped face paler than usual as he peered down at me. "Saved your sorry hide, you ridiculous creature. For someone so clever, that was foolish. What were you thinking?"
I cringed, startled at how the harshness in his voice stung me. No, not the harshness. The disappointment and the pain.
"Why were you trying to run from me?" he demanded. He shoved the something out of his way, glaring at me.
"I fulfilled my part of the bargain. I came with you to your home."
"And you thought you'd just leave?" He scowled, his breaths rough. "Of course you thought that." Another sharp breath followed, the lines in his face hardening.
My eyelids drifted shut. I tried to lift my leg. My leg resisted, but my toes twitched. The muscles ached. Relief flooded me—then darkness claimed me.
