My Little Bird | Blue Eyes (Under minor grammatical editing)

Chapter 19

"Blue Eyes! Blue Eyes get down here!" I shouted.

Ash moaned, then his chest heaved as coughs started raking through him. I shushed him and started stroking the side of his head to try to calm him. When I heard Blue Eyes' alarmed hooting, I looked up to see him staring down.

"He's alive!" I cried.

"What?!" Blue Eyes barked.

"He's alive! Go get the Obas!" I shouted back.

Ash was disoriented, his head lolling back and forth. I didn't think he had been awake for long, I think he had been conscious for only a few minutes before Blue Eyes and I decided to just stare down at the space that occupied our friend. But it was lucky that we did, what if we'd passed Ash up all together? I pushed the thoughts away. I didn't have time to think about that, I needed to check over Ash's condition. The fact that he was alive was a miracle in his own. It was very likely that many, many bones in his body were broken or fractured. Another miracle here was that his limbs weren't bruised and bleeding and twisted. But that didn't go for all his limbs.

I noticed something going on with his shoulder. His left shoulder was laying lower than his right, and at first I thought nothing of it, but then I noticed what his fur mostly covered. There was a bone protruding from his skin, not breaking the skin but I could see it straining against the thin membrane. His shoulder was dislocated. That must have been the reason he hadn't stopped whining and moaning, the pain he was in was clearer than day. I shushed him again and started talking, trying to keep him awake. There was risk he had a concussion, and I didn't want him to slip into unconsciousness again.

"Ash, can you hear me? Please, you need to stay awake, okay, Ash?" I grabbed his hand on the side that wasn't dislocated. "If you can hear me, I need you to squeeze my hand. Can you do that for me? Stay awake, squeeze my hand."

I looked up, hoping Blue Eyes would hurry. Ash needed to get his arm set back in place, and I couldn't do it by myself. Ash's head had stopped rolling, and he seemed to be looking at me.

"Ash?"

I felt a pressure around my hand, and I looked down to see him flexing his fingers. I looked back at his speckled face. His eyes were open a little more, and in those brown-green pools I could see how much pain he was in. Ash let out a shriek of pain when he tried to lift his hands, I assume in an attempt to sign. The sound of the pained screech tore through my ears,
and I quickly and gently shushed him.

"Don't move. I know it hurts. Help is coming. Blue Eyes will bring help. Just stay awake, okay?" I murmured.

"R-Ray..." He started trying to speak my name but he was cut off by coughs. I didn't doubt that he had breathed in a good amount of dust while down here. I shushed him again, and told him everything would be alright. I started to groom him while we waited, to try to calm him down and soothe him. I looked upwards, looking for any sign of someone up there. I tried not to fidget, but I wanted to get to resetting Ash's shoulder. The longer we waited, the longer recovery would take. I sighed and started looking him over for other injuries. From what I could see in the dim light, he was intact, aside from his arm. I had no doubt his entire backside was bruised badly. I started looking for any reason that could have allowed Ash to survive that fall. I looked to the ground and was shocked to see that the ground was just a huge pile of unfolded cardboard. That must have been it. The cardboard must have absorbed the shock and maybe some of the trauma from the fall. I felt a sigh of relief run through me. Just as I was about to start grooming through Ash's fur again, a barrage of hoots, barks and a scream or two echoed above us. Apes skidded around the edge of the hole above our heads.

"I need some Obas down here!" I called up urgently.

It only took seconds for several thuds to fill the space around us. I recognized Aria and Brent. "His shoulder is dislocated. We need to reset it. Now. It can't wait." I got right to the point.