Page 119 of The Pushy Pixies Are Going Down
A small clearing where Chaos was lying on his back with Clucky on his chest.
“Oh my god! Are you okay?” I crashed down beside him and ripped my gloves off so I could undo his suit and find where he was injured. “What hurts? Do you know if you’re bleeding anywhere? Fuck. I’m so fucking sorry, Chaos. I’m so, so, so sorry.”
Clucky jumped off Chaos and started hopping around anxiously. Sola and Clucky chattered back and forth, but foronce, they didn’t sound like they were arguing or being mean to each other. Maybe they were so concerned about their humans that they decided to set their beef aside—even though I had no idea what said beef was about.
My hands were shaking as I grabbed Chaos’s zipper to check him out. Yes, it would be a risk with the pixies everywhere, but I could keep them off with the spray while I triaged him. It wouldn’t be easy, but what choice did we have? I couldn’t risk moving him without knowing what was injured. What if he had a spine injury?
Just as I started to unzip his suit, he grabbed my wrist with his gloved hand, stopping me. “I’m not bleeding. I’m okay.”
“But you’re lying on the ground, not moving.”
“That’s because a bunch of bitchy pixies dragged me away, just like they did to you, and I finally got them off of me. I was catching my breath.”
“You sure you’re not injured? Maybe I should call an ambulance so they can put a neck brace on you and—”
“Miles.” He cut me off with a gentle voice and a squeeze to my wrist. “I’m okay. Probably a little bruised, but I swear I’m okay.” He gave my wrist a push, so I relented and let go of his zipper.
He released my hand and sat up, so I helped him and brushed some of the dirt off the back of his head and back. Sola tried to be helpful, picking things off him with her beak. He scooped Clucky into his arms, hugging her like she was his security blanket—she probably was since Sola was quickly becoming mine.
“How do you feel now?”
“Honestly? I feel like an idiot for letting pixies of all things get the drop on me.”
I snorted. “You and me both. Are you okay, though?”
“Yeah. Fine.”
“Do you know where the others are?”
He shook his head. “No. I saw them grab you, and the next thing I knew, I was on my back being dragged in a different direction. I assume they did the same to Ace and Win.”
I nodded since I figured that too. “Probably.” After a few seconds, I asked, “Can you stand?”
He sighed but started to get up. “Yeah.”
I stood, ignoring the pull on my ribs, then helped him up, hiding my wince of pain.
As soon as he was standing, he said, “You’re hurt.”
“Just some bruises, like you.”
“No, something’s wrong. Is it your ribs?”
I sighed. “How are you so smart?”
He snorted. “Are you okay to walk? I can go find the others and bring them back here.”
That made me snort this time. “Ha. Yeah, like I’m going to let you go off alone? Now that we’re back together, I don’t think we should separate.”
He nodded. “That’s fair. These pixies are a lot smarter than we gave them credit for.”
“Right? Let’s follow your track marks back to where we started. We should be able to find their drag marks from there.”
We headed that way with our familiars wrapped around our necks, calling their names as we went.
“Morty?” A yell came from the right, and Chaos and I immediately went that way. Obviously it was Aeson if he was calling Chaos that.
“Ace!” Chaos yelled, moving a little faster than me and crashing through a copse of baby trees.
