With smooth working of the gears and pedals, they rolled back into camp, when Jayde suddenly stomped the brakes once more, repeating the impact with the front passenger headrest once more.
As jade apologised profusely, Valentin just grinned.
“You managed to not hit the stump and keep the engine going while doing so. no need to be sorry about that.”, Valentin remarked, as he looked out of the windshield.
“So… for reverse… clutch to one.”, Valentin began as he reached for the gear lever to feel how the gates behaved when trying to go into reverse. It turns out that it wasn’t protected in any way from the other positions or neutral.
“Okay… reverse works the same way as any other gear. Let the spring find neutral, then away and back. If you want to go into reverse, stop the car fully first, otherwise you’ll be brushing gearbox teeth.”, Valentin explains as he plops back into the rear half, making way for Jayde to see out the back through the center, if need be.
Soon, the truck was parked and shut down.
“Well i was seven deeds deep. Now it’s six…”, Valentin countered calmly after Jayde thanked him for the driver’s-ed class.
Over at Robert the Redneck Railcar, the window work was finished up, with Kaylie handing the test duties over to one of the remaining team members.
“You are already in there, you might as well try it.” Tim said, turning around and looking past the boiler into the vehicle’s cabin, spotting Kayle still strewn diagonally across most of the driver seat and rear bench.
“Plus, it’s Val’s car with Val’s problem, so there’s that as well.” he added.
“Not a problem,” Kaylie said. She reached up and carefully turned the key to the accessory position, then reached over to the switch on the door and carefully pushed the down button. With a sudden whirr and a squeak of glass against rubber, the window slowly rolled down. She released the switch, then pushed the up button, watching as the window just as slowly rolled back up. “Looks like your window is fixed,” Kaylie said, looking over as Valentin returned to the rest of the team.
“I’ve got your driver’s side window working, Valentin,” Kaylie said, gathering up her tools. “Just give me a couple of minutes to collect up my stuff and I’ll be out of the way. Also, you’ll be glad to know that both front door cards have had their screws tightened to the proper torque specifications, thanks to Connor giving me some accurate information.” She carefully switched off the ignition key, grabbed up her two wrench kits, then made her way out of the car by squeezing between the front pair of seats and back into the rear bench.
“I can see why you want that window fixed, though. Climbing in and out of there over all of that stuff has got to be a real pain,” Kaylie said.
Some minimal applause from Constantin and Tim followed Kaylie’s successful window “repair”, rending the other side non-functional.
Valentin approached the Dione as the window found it’s way back up, mentally breathing a massive sigh of relief, but not showing one bit of it on the outside.
“Oh the window’s done, i see?”, Valentin says, walking over to the now-operational driver side. He lowers himself a bit and looks at Kaylie through the now-closed window as she crawls about the interior trying to get out again.
“Now to see if it actually beats going in from the passenger half…”, he adds, waiting for Kaylie to get out.
Tim leans over to Constantin and whispers: “Bet you 5 bucks he either smacks his head somewhere or his massive hairdo gets caught on the chain.”
“Deal”, Constantin replies, equally quiet, followed by them nodding ever-so-slightly.
Kaylie looked over the car to make sure she had all of her tools, confirmed to herself that she had, and climbed out of the back seat. She then looked back at the car and sighed. “Aw, man. I am so sorry that I’ve gotten fur all over the seats. I think I’ve got some duct tape back at the truck, I can try to create a lint-roller to pick all of that up, if you’d like,” Kaylie said.
Tim and Constantin get up to take a view of what was now fur-sprinkled seating. The worst offenders were the rear-right and driver seat, with the fireman’s seat also having gotten some of the treatment. They then look, almost stare at Valentin, who now was the person in charge of Robert.
“Yeah i think we’re good, thanks. My fathers dog has phases where he basically dumps all his fur in one go.”, Valentin politely says, thus politely declining the offer of cleaning it up.
The other two just shrug and continue watching, awaiting the result of the five-buck-bet that is ongoing.
Valentin sighs, unsure on if his idea of entering through the driver window was a good idea. After all, a window offers far less area than the entire door.
He takes a seat on the fireman’s position and leans over, turning the key to the first position, followed by him leaning that bit further to roll down the actual window. His long wingspan makes it surprisingly easy to reach the switch from the other side. He gets out and heads around to the other side, intently watching the opening and mentally trying to figure out how to get in with some semblance of grace.
Kaylie nodded. “Fair enough. Just, well… You saw the inside of the Bricksley. I swear, after every stage, it’s like we go through half a roll of duct tape just getting the fur off the seats and out of the carpet. Malavera’s easily the worst offender, his white fur gets everywhere,” Kaylie said.
As Valentin rolled the window down, then headed around to the driver’s side, Kaylie realized his plan and gave a light grimace, recalling the last time she’d seen someone tall go through a window. Her older brother hadn’t handled it well, and now she was watching someone a bit taller try it himself.
Valentin takes a semi-deep breath and starts the process of getting in through the window.
Natural 1 moment incoming.
First, he grabs the brass piping of the roof rack with both hands, followed by his right foot being placed on the bottom edge of the hole where the window would be if closed up. His weight bends the door panel and window frame a bit as he lifts the other leg over and into the car, propping it up on the far side of the driver’s seat. The foot previously placed on the edge follows suit, but as he tries to slip deeper into the car, his hands lose grip.
In a split second, he tumbles backwards and away from the car, trying to grab the B-pillar in an attempt to save himself. Said pillar is missed by quite the margin as gravity took over.
The back of his head hits the ground next to the Tangerine Tank Engine, his chin being folded to the chest as a result of the upside-down angle his torso was at. His lower back is dragged across the chain next to the door. It being exposed didn’t help, as his unbuttoned shirt was, like all things, affected by gravity as well. Still inside the car, the chain of events wasn’t any more pleasant. With his upper back being pulled down, leverage took the better of his lower half, sending both knees careening into the upper frame of the window. Adding to that, his left lower leg was loosely finaggled between the blinker stalk, steering wheel and steering colum. “Surprisingly”, the stalk actually stayed together, which doesn’t help Valentin though.
Valentins immediate reaction was a looong-labored groan as he momentarily lost his senses, although not truly going fully unconscious. This was followed by an intense soundscape somewhere inbetween moaning and groaning in immense pain.
Immediately, Constantin rushed over to help as best he could, knowing nothing about what exactly happened to him. As he looks at and around Valentin, he sees a small puddle of blood forming on the floor below his head.
“Fucking hell he’s bleeding!” Constantin shouts, not yet touching Valentin in fear of a potential neck injury. “Get some… a lot of water and some bandages!”
The instruction was both directed at nobody specifically, but also everyone in the vicinity who was able to act and help.
“Shit!” Kaylie yelled, seeing Valentin taking a tumble and hitting the ground. As Constantin instructed that he needed a lot of water and some bandages, Kaylie dropped her wrench kits to the ground with a crash, then took off toward the Bricksley at a full sprint. She grabbed the small normal first aid kit from inside the glovebox, seeing that it had a roll of gauze bandages inside it after a quick inspection. She slung the strap over her shoulder to carry it, slammed the truck door, and grabbed four of the 5 gallon cans of water off of the roof rack, making sure not to grab any labeled cans.
Then, now burdened with 20 gallons of water and a first-aid kit, Kaylie made her way back to the Dione as fast as she could.
Aa Kayle bolted off to the Bricksley to get water, Connor’s led went to a vividly blinking yellow, making his way over to both Schrants in the process. Valentin, by this time had “raised” one arm down to his head to check the impact site himself.
“He’s safe to move”, Connor stated calmly as ever.
“Then let’s get him the fuck out of that car, goddamnit!”, Constantin blared back, looking at Valentin.
“We’re gonna help you as best we can.”, he adds in an attempt to calm Valentin down a bit.
“
What is happening?”, Valentin moans, now looking at the as-of-yet only slightly bloody hand.
“ You tried and failed to enter through the window. Now we are providing first aid as best as we can.”, Constantin replied, employing emergency dragging tactics by crouching down at the head-end of Valentin, lifting him up slightly to rest on Constantin’s thighs. He then reaches under both shoulders and wraps his arms around Valentin’s chest. He then practically dead-lifts Valentin’s upper body and backs away from the car in an attempt to drag the remainder of him out of the vehicle.
“Fuck…”, Valentin moans, his read resting against Constantin’s shoulder, staining it with blood in the process.
Tim only now realizes what actually is going on.
“HOLY SHIT ARE YOU ALRIGHT?”, he shouts at Valentin, rushing over himself, followed by Valentin looking at him blankly.
“Everything hurts like shit…”, he moans in response, the pain clearly visible in his elongated face.
Kaylie set her containers of water down near Valentin, Connor, and Constantin, then looked around for where Jayde was. “Twin Suns, he’s going to hate me for this,” Kaylie muttered under her breath, before taking a deep breath and saying to the group in front of her, “I’m going to call Jayde over here. He has some sort of healing magic, he’s told me about it, I’ve even seen him heal in seconds from something that should have taken him weeks to heal, and he doesn’t even have a scar to show for it.”
Kaylie, knowing she’d just betrayed Jayde’s trust, turned toward the Bricksley, a tear in her eye as she knew this might be the last time she was on friendly terms with Jayde, yelled out to him. “Jayde! Valentin’s hurt and we need your help!”
Jayde, despite the pain in his left leg, got up as quickly as he could, grabbed his staff, and ran toward the Dione, not caring that he would feel a lot worse later for having done that. He dodged around the rail axle, arriving just in time to see Constantin dragging Valentin out of the window and over the chain running along the side of the Dione. Likewise, he saw Valentin being at least somewhat alert and moving, a sign he probably wasn’t in any real danger.
“Come on, Jayde, why aren’t you using your magic to heal him?” Kaylie asked, staring at Jayde. “He’s clearly hurt and in a lot of pain.”
“Kaylie, he wouldn’t want me to use magic on him. Unless his life is actually in danger, I won’t betray his trust like that,” Jayde replied. “From what I can see and smell, this ‘first-aid’ kit will likely be enough,” he added. “So unless Valentin himself asks me to heal him, or unless someone tells me his life is in danger because of his injuries, I will let nature run its course.”
Upon hearing magic being mentioned, everyone except Constantin looks at Kaylie, confused as to what exactly is meant by “magic”.
“He needs medical attention, not some hippie-juice essential oil shit.” Constantin quips at Kaylie, now giving Valentin as a whole a good yank out of the car. The idea, in theory, was good, but backfired a bit as Valentin’s left foot got snagged on the blinker stalk, breaking it’s limit-stops in the process. As a result of the load applied to the ankle, Valentin yelps out in pain.
Soon after, both legs simply plonk onto the ground after their entire length was dragged across the chain, followed by Constantin also lowering the upper body again to a semi-seated angle.
Connor then went to work examining other damage done either by the fall itself or the less-than-elegant extraction.
“Right, because extracting an injured person by dragging them out of the window like a gorilla is going to be better than ‘hippie-juice and essential oils,’ let alone what I’ve seen Jayde do. At least turn him over so someone can clean up the wound on the back of his head and the mess you just made,” Kaylie quipped back, grabbing one of the 5-gallon cans of water.
As soon as Valentin was turned over and the extent of the damage was made a little more obvious, Kaylie flipped open the lid on the can and carefully started pouring the water, trying to wash out the wounds as much as she could.
“YOU try getting a good hold on a greasy, seven-foot noodle with absolutely zero visibility!”, Constantin blared back, finaggling himself around Valentin, this time more graciously, and moved him into a forward-leaning seated position. After that, he cleared the now-dirt-coated blonde hair away as best he could to get a view on the impact site. On the back of his head was a large, although at least rather superficial wound, visibly bleeding out of there, staining a substantial amount of the surrounding hair in the process.
As Kaylie went ahead and started pouring the water all over Valentin’s head, he didn’t really react all that much. The soothing, warm water made him feel at ease for the time being as he just let it run all over, drenching his entire hairdo, shirt and the surrounding area in water.
Connor, meanwhile, went back to the car to retrieve the vehicles first-aid kit out the back, just to discover it being expired. By 40-odd years. He returns to the car, not holding anything. Spotting the kit Kaylie has brought along, he briskly walks over and takes a look at it.
Valid until August 2041
He immediately opens the box, digging about for what is useful, eventually pulling out copious amounts of bandages and a compressive pad used to apply pressure in an effort to stem the bleeding.
Jayde picked up one of the cans of water, feeling tensions rising between Kaylie and Constantin and trying to keep himself from intervening unless it was absolutely necessary.
Kaylie laughed. “Getting a good hold is not a problem, it’s making sure I don’t grab too hard,” Kaylie shot back. “It’s why I didn’t try, because I knew that I couldn’t move him safely. Any ape could have done what you did, and make the problem worse. Hell, even I could have done that. But no, because you’re military, you have to be tough and can’t wait for someone to come and help. Even if you don’t trust in Jayde having magic, you can’t deny that he,” Kaylie said, pointing to Jayde with her right hand while maintaining a steady grip on the metal can with her left, “might have had an easier time of lifting your teammate.”
As the water ran out in the first can, she slapped the lid closed with a metallic clank of her chrome-plated palm against the cap, then grabbed the can out of Jayde’s hands, unaware of how cold the contents had gotten. She flipped the lid open, then tipped it to continue the process of getting Valentin’s wounds cleaned up.
“OOOOhhhhh, so you were just gonna have him hang there like a cow, upside down and his wounded head sat in the dirt. Just gonna let him there and bleed for a good two minutes. Sounds like the best thing to do.”, Constantin countered, watching Valentin’s reactions to the treatment, which weren’t exactly plentiful, except for a still continuous groaning in pain and some movement of getting wet hair out of his face.
As the second can was opened, the ice-cold splash was very unexpected to both Schrants.
Valentin immediately was filled with Adrenaline, his gaze shooting up and around, trying to figure out what was really going on. All the pain he had was washed away, literally. Though as his face rose quickly, the water flow naturally ended up there, resulting in him leaning further forward in an attempt to get away from it.
“WHUUUAUAAAAHH!!!”, he exclaimed as the cold water was running down and around his neck, traveling further across the shoulders, chest and back.
Constantin also got splashed by some stray water, immediately letting go of Valentin and sort-of heeling back in response.
Tim, at this point visibly concerned about Valentin, couldn’t hold in his laughter and heartily chucked at the impromptu ice-shower he got.
Jayde sighed as Constantin and Kaylie kept fighting, constantly trading insults and verbal jabs. He pointed at Kaylie and Constantin in turn, then said, “Stop. Fighting.”
Kaylie startled as, right before she could reply to Constantin after apparently dumping cold water down Valentin’s back, Jayde told them both to stop fighting. It wasn’t that she’d forgotten he was there, but instead hadn’t expected that he’d get involved.
Jayde waited a few seconds to see if either of them had something to say, and when neither of them continued, Jayde asked, “Now, can the two of you work together in a civil manner, or not?”
“Both of you have been fighting since Valentin was injured,” Jayde continued, trying to keep his voice calm. “What good is fighting going to do for helping Valentin? Yes, you’ve washed out his wounds with water, but you’re fighting, back and forth, about how he was removed from the window. Meanwhile, Connor is the one who is preparing bandages.”
Constantin was equally thrown-off by Jayde intervening. Granted, the vocal battle was very heated by this point, though in Constantin’s defense, so was the stress involved with trying to help Valentin.
He just blankly stares at Jayde for a moment, then at Valentin, sat on the ground as Connor hobbles over to actually provide useful help beyond simply brute-forcing him out of the Redneck Railcar.
Valentin, still being drenched in cold water, was absolutely baffled by the heated argument that had unfolded around him. He shuffles away from the stream a bit and actually starts to shiver ever so slightly to regain some of the lost heat.
Connor took note and approached Valentin calmly, completely ignoring the others above.
“I’ll have to take your shirt off so you don’t cool down even further.” he explains as he makes his way around the back and helps Valentin rid himself of his Hawaii-shirt.
“What in carnation is even happening?”, Valentin asked, now actually alert and mentally functioning.
“They are apparently discussing what is ‘good first aid’ and what is not.”, Connor replies as he starts applying the bandage to his head, using the pad as a pressure point to stop the bleeding from getting any worse.
After a short-but-awkward silence, Kaylie sighed. “Ever heard of verbal fencing, Jayde? It helps some people get through stressful situations,” Kaylie said. “I’d suspect Constantin’s one of those people. If he’s not, well, I know I am.”
Jayde looked over at Kaylie, then mentioned, “With a major injury, the faster you can get it cared for, the better off they’ll be. A few extra cuts, scratches, or bruises will heal. You can’t heal the dead.”
“Exactly. Time is paramount when it comes to first aid, so helping quickly is the most important bit of all.”, Constantin pauses for a bit, folding his arms and completely ignoring his wet arms and blood-stained chest.
“Verbal fencing, as you call it, is what you get when you suddenly are questioned about your decade of training.” he adds in minor annoyance at Kaylie.
Connor was in the middle of wrapping what seems like a mile of bandages around Valentin’s head, but took note of the discussion above.
“Valentin would’ve lost blood much more quickly if left as he was. Gravity would have drained blood from the legs, pooling in his head, shoulders and arms. The added pressure increases blood-loss.”, Connor explains as he neatly finishes up the bandage with a strip of what is the medical variant of duct-tape.
With the effects of adrenaline brought on by the splash of cold water fading away, the pain returned, making Valentin visibly uncomfortable…
“Everything hurts… knees, back, left ankle… everything”, he moans, looking down the stilts that are both legs.
“I know the importance of time all too well,” Jayde said. "Sure, I have a leg that lets me walk almost-normally again, but if there wasn’t an active battle going on, I might still have most of my leg. I may have lost my knee and below to a propeller shard, but,” Jayde mentioned, before rolling up the leg of his shorts and showing that at least half of his thigh was also gone, replaced with black metal and brass, “I wouldn’t have gotten the infection that required a second amputation.”
As Connor mentioned that Valentin would have lost more blood if left as he was, Kaylie nodded. “Damn. Well, it’s why I’m a mechanic, not a field-medic,” she admitted.
“Sorry, Constantin. I guess you did do the right thing,” Kaylie said. “I’m so used to rushing like that causing more damage to the things I’m trying to fix. And yes, I know the story about my arm, but I can’t recall the actual event. But I remember waking up feeling like hell because someone hit my head on two door-frames and cracked both of my knees into another bulkhead door getting me into the medical bay. I guess that’s part of “If she’s mad later for the pain, at least she’s alive enough to be mad about it,” and part of healing in general.”
Constantin respectfully nodded, now knowing that the ‘conflict’ was settled.
He turned a bit to get a look at Val and despite not having heard that Val was in pain again, he immediately could spot the scratches that were caused by the chain sliding down his lower back with Valentin’s full weight resting on top as it went down. He flinches a bit at the sight of it and sort-of-but-not-really regrets having gone that aggressive with the extraction.
Connor went about focusing on Valentin’s knees first, as they were more critical for his mobility and ability to operate Robert as the driver. The initial examination doesn’t yield anything of note, which is why he gets up and paces about the accident-site to piece together what exactly happened.
Jayde grimaced as he saw the scratches as well. “He might get some scars out of that,” Jayde admitted. “I wish I could do something for those, but everything I have might not be safe. A lot of it is meant for me.”
Kaylie looked over the scratches, then said, “I’m not sure they’re deep enough to scar. At least, not permanently.”
“If he keeps his back clean, they shouldn’t,” Jayde mentioned. He then looked to Kaylie. “Where are the drying cloths, again?”
“The towels? Under the front seat. Keep out of the clear bag, those are Malavera’s towels. Get him one of my pink ones, please,” Kaylie said.
Jayde nodded, then grabbed his walking staff and made a quick walk back over to the Bricksley. He looked under the front bench, grabbing one of Kaylie’s pink towels out of the blue plastic vacuum bag, then carrying it over to the Dione. “I’m not sure how to go about drying someone off with wounds like that, but I’ve got a towel in case that’s safe,” Jayde said, leaning on his staff with a grimace.
Valentin just sat there trying to keep calm and deal with the pain while Connor carefully reconstructed the events. At some point, he crouches down to Valentin again and re-examines the knees, coming to a conclusion afterwards:
“As he fell out of the car, both knees impacted the door frame, followed by them being put under a constant load as the force that prevented him from sliding out further. With the available equipment, not much can be done other than minimize load. The same applies to his left ankle, which got caught on the blinker stalk during extraction.”, Connor explains, just as Jayde returned from the Bricksley with a towel in tow.
Constantin and especially Tim just stood there, watching the process happen and unsure as to how they could be of added help, given that Connor seemingly took over medical duties.
“Leg injuries,” Jayde said with a pained grimace. “If he’s lucky, they’ll heal, but that’s not a fast or easy process.”
Kaylie looked around to see if she could find her brother, Kayden, anywhere, but couldn’t see him. Like Constantin, Tim, and Jayde, there wasn’t much she could do as Connor worked to do what he could to help Valentin.
Valentin was bummed out upon hearing the description Connor gave regarding his knees and ankle.
“[] Goddamnit… [
] Time to spend a good month off the bike again…”, Valentin muttered. At least the pain was reasonably bearable at the moment.
Connor took the towel from Jayde and gracefully went about drying off his back. Valentin winced a little every time the towel was tapped onto the area, but it didn’t take too long to finish the drying process. Valentin’s hair was still soaking-wet, but simply moved forwards to his chest, to which it promtly stuck.
“He sure does seem over the hill now…”, Tim commented, looking at Valentin sat on the ground, trying hard to refrain from claiming his winnings.
“It still hurts…”, Valentin mumbled. “Still… thanks for helping. Or attempting to help.” he added, having been aware enough to notice the verbal fencing that followed his extraction.
Jayde winced, understanding that losing a preferred method of getting around was bound to be almost as bad as the injuries that Valentin had sustained. Especially with the knee injuries he’d picked up and the injured ankle, Jayde believed that Valentin really shouldn’t even be walking if he didn’t absolutely need to.
“I wish I could have been of some help,” Jayde admitted. “By the time I got here, Constantin already had you out of the window, and Kaylie had already grabbed water and the red bag.”
Kaylie gave a light shrug. “Sorry for fighting when I should have been helping,” she said.
“At least you weren’t like the millions of asshat-motorists that see a car wrapped round a tree and blissfully ignore it because they don’t feel responsible for that. Trust me… barrel-rolling across a B-road, spreading bits of carbon fibre bicycle everywhere and ending in a ditch ain’t fun if you spend about 20 minutes there with no help whatsoever…”, he explained, both disappointed in the lack of aid given by the motorists and glad that the members of Shift Happens tried their best in helping immediately.
Valentin then began trying movement while sat on the floor, which for the knees worked reasonably well, albeit in substantial pain, but the ankle was worse, with only minimal movement being viable within his pain tolerance. With that done, nobody knew how well loading them would work.
“Can someone get me up please? I’ve been sat in the dirt for this entire time.”, Val asks, looking up and over his shoulder at the others.
Jayde nodded. “Yeah, let me help you up out of the dirt and the mud,” he said, sticking the end of his walking staff into the dirt before walking over to Valentin, leaning down and hooking his forearms under Valentin’s shoulders. “On three,” Jayde said, taking a deep breath. “One. Two. Three!” Jayde slowly rose to a standing position, taking care to hold Valentin’s weight and slowly letting him take more of it himself to see how injured he was.
Kaylie looked at the first aid kit, the four containers of water of which two were still full, the green shirt and gray tank top covered in grease and dirt, and over where she knew the two dropped wrench kits were. Then Connor handed back the pink towel, and Kaylie gave a groan. “I hate asking for help, but, Constantin, I could really use some help getting some of this stuff back over to the Bricksley. Whatever you feel like you can manage or you’re willing to do, I’ll appreciate it.”
Jayde helped Valentin get up, albeit less than gracefully from either of them, as Jayde failed to use his legs to assist in providing lifting power and Val could not help all that much either, not knowing how much load the legs were even able to take. As such, Jayde was forced to practically deadlift Valentin to a height where he could his feet below his body to make an attempt at supporting himself.
It immediately became obvious that mobility would be severely limited, as Valentin rebalances his entire weight to the right leg, with the left one only loosely resting on the ground.
He winces in pain and shakes his head in disdain as he discovers his left ankle to not be load-bearing. At least for the moment. The right leg wasn’t any more comfortable, but at least able to take his weight without agonizing pain bringing him back down into the wet, slightly muddy ground.
The weather taking a turn for the worse was the icing on the cake of misery today.
Constantin, meanwhile, nods a little.
“Sure, i can do that.”, he agrees and heads over to collect the greased-up pieces of cloth before taking them to the toolboxes and draping them in the clothing Kaylie brought along. He then picks the toolboxes up with ease and carries them over to the rest of the group for the time being.
“Now where exactly do you need those?”, he inquires, looking vaguely at the Bricksley parked a few yards away.
Kaylie grabbed the two empty water cans, then said to Constantin, “In the cab, under the rear bench, beneath the radio console. Doors should still be unlocked.” As she got to the truck, she put the two empty containers onto the roof rack, then headed back toward the Dione.
Jayde looked to Valentin, who was able to at least stand and take his own weight. He carefully led Valentin over to the Dione, grimacing as more water trickled through his fur, then once he was sure Valentin wasn’t going to fall, he looked through his bag to find a pair of leather and brass crutches. After pulling them out, he made a couple of adjustments to fit Valentin’s height, then said, “I know how much anyone hates having to use these, but… I spent the better part of half of a year learning to walk again, which is why I had these. As I got better with my leg, I used them less, and eventually, left them in there. The healer who got me patched up after the battle that cost me my leg told me if I ever saw someone who needed the crutches, pass them on.”
Kaylie grimaced as she picked up the last two containers, still full of water, making her way back over to the truck. “Of all the times it could fucking rain!” she grumbled.
Jayde retrieved his walking stick and waited to help Valentin out if he needed any other adjustments done to the crutches.
