Sorry for the delay. And, Merry Christmas, guys!
Chapter Nineteen
Horse left the Urgent Care section the next day, the scratches mangling her back weren't too deep, it was the gash on her face that had worried them and sent her there. But, apart from scarring, she would be fine. Besides, she had freed up one bed. The doctors had wanted her to stay, but she had insisted no. They had enough to worry about.
"Cloaky?" Horse called, and winced. The gash ran over her mouth and hurt every time she spoke. But her concern for her friend was greater. "Cloaky? Where are you?"
"Nobody's seen Cloaky since the battle," a hoarse voice croaked. "Believe me, I've called many a time for many a RAFian. No one's seen Faerie, or Mike either."
Horse whipped around, and stared. "R-Richard?" She said, disbelievingly.
Richard looked exhausted. He leaned against the crumbled wall as he spoke, his eyes were dull, his hair tousled, his clothes ratty and still caked with blood. It was obvious he hadn't slept since the Battle for RAF, as it was starting to be called. Richard shook his head sadly and started limping off to the sad looking little repair crew patching up the door.
Horse deftly flicked a flipper, and teleported herself and Richard into the Hospital. "Wha...Seal, what are you doing? There's work to be done..." Protested Richard.
Tocade took one look and shoved Richard gently onto a bed. "Oh, no you don't." She said. "You're getting that leg wound cleaned and bandaged. If it gets infected, you might need an amputation, and we don't want to call you one-legged-Richard. Makes you sound like a pirate."
Richard tried to get up from the bed again, but KitsuneMaire, a new member and luckily a nurse, pushed him back down again. "And, you need sleep." She said, picking up from where Tocade left off. "There's no use in you helping the repair crew if you fall alseep on every brick."
Horse left. Short as she was, people didn't tend to see her, then they tripped over her. No use in her getting underfoot. Literally.
Faerie shook her head and dragged herself off the ground. She felt like a thousand tiny roadworkers were beating tiny jackhammers all over her skull. Not a fun feeling.
Time to start establishing information. Who am I? Faerie Larka. Where am I? Um...On the top of the main tower in RAF, I think. Why am I up here? Because I flew up here to chase another enemy. Just a normal, boring old fairy. Why was I chasing that fairy? Because of the battle...
The battle! Faerie sprung upright, instantly sitting down again because of the pain in her head. The body of the dead fairy lay on the spire beside her. She distastefully pushed it off the tower.
A particularly superstitious minion of Queen's who had been taken prisoner of war stared at the dead body who landed with a thump beside him. "NOOOOOOOO! PLEASE, I NEVER DID ANYTHING WRONG, GOD!" He screamed, thinking it was the apocolypse, and he would be punished.
Faerie slowly stood up. Good! Her head had stopped pounding. But why was it pounding in the first place? Oh, right. She had reached the top of the tower, when a dragon had flown up, having spotted her. The dragon thwacked her out of the air--she had still been chasing the fairy through the air--and thank god, she had landed on the tower. With her last act of conciousness, she had slewn the fairy who came to check if she was dead.
Fae tested her wings. Still...mostly operational. Her left one was rather ragged, but she could still fly, and that counted. She launched herself off of the tower, and landed practically on top of Seal, who had just teleported here. "Seal!" She said. "What's happening? Did we win? Where is everyone? And Jess?"
Horse started talking over Faerie. "Faerie! Richard said you were missing, but now you've dropped from the sky? Where were you?"
They both attempted to talk over the other until Faerie raised a hand and said "This is going nowhere, you first."
Horse repeated her questiones.
"Well...I was on top of the tower."
"What?! The TOP?!"
"Ya."
Faerie related her story, then repeated her questions.
"We did win. Now we're healing and cleaning up. Most people are inside resting. And Jes...why do you ask?"
"I saw her. Queen...Aloth...the y ganged up on her. Is she alright?"
"I...I don't know, Faerie. I really don't know."
Blue moaned softly. He cracked open one eye.
Two shadowy blobs were leaning over him. How strange.
He forced another eye open. Turned out to be two people. Tocade, and someone else.
Time to try to talk. "Whr'm I?" He mumbled incoherently.
"He's awake!" Cried a voice.
He tried to speak again. "Wher'm I? Where'm I? Where....Where am I?" He said, finally coherent.
"Thank heavens," said Tocade. "Thank heavens you can talk. There's a gash on your throat. It might affect your speech. I thought you would never speak again."
"Tocade? Wh'happened? Wh...What happened?" Said Blue, his treacherous lips forcing out the wrong words first. "Battle...ended? W'win? Did the battle end? Did we win?"
"Yes," Said the other one. "Though I just joined. My name is KitsuneMarie."
"Nice to meet you," said Blue, and him and Kitsune shook hands.
"We won, and I don't think Queen will be back anytime soon." Continued Tocade."
"Yeah right," said Blue. "If sh'dsn't...If she doesn't...cm'bck...come back...then I'm a keymon...monkey's uncle." This is going to be very annoying, thought Blue. He couldn't speak right. He inverted syllables and slurred words together. Hopefully it wouldn't be like this forever.
"Now, get some sleep." Said Kitsune. "You need to rest up, get your strength back."
"I don't know how many times I've heard you say that." Said demos from the bed next to him. Blood slowly leaked from a nasty, very deep gash on his shoulder. Brad was bending over him. The Brit glanced at Blue. "Glad to see you're awake." Then he bent back over demos, who gave a slight hiss of pain. "Look, hold still," said Brad. "I'm trying to get a very long claw extricated out of your shoulder. It's not my fault you went beserk after that dragon nearly killed Blocky."
Blue sat up quickly. "What?!" He said. "Did you say nearly killed Blocky?!"
"Yes," said Brad softly. He pointed to a very large bed where an unmoving lump of scales and blood lay. "It's still touch and go. I'm...I'm not sure if we can save them."
"Them?" Repeated Blue faintly. "What do you mean 'them?'"
Brad pointed to another unmoving figure. "She's holding up a little better. I think."
Blue craned his neck. "No..." He whispered. "Not...not Jess."
"Yes." Said Brad. "Jess."
