Return of Sebastian Sallow | 10 Yr After Hogwarts

Chapter 78: Let Yourself Heal

"April is bleeding?" Ominis says from close behind. "What happened?"

"I'm fine," April says with frustration. "Poachers. The thestral–" As if on cue the beast cries out again in heart-wrenching agony. April hastily gulps two vials of wiggenweld potion at once. She hoists her body to standing and bounds towards the great beast that is struggling behind us, attempting to flap and stretch its wings, straining its head in agony. "Thiago, the tail." April directs. "I need to use my magic."

"Slow down, amor! The arrow!" Thiago says as, after he's sure of April's steady footing, follows her directive, loading his arms with numbers of the supplies on the ground in front of me and moving around to the back of the thestral. "Vishe maria..." I hear him sigh in disbelief at what he finds.

Suddenly I feel a pair of hands on my back.

"Sebastian—" Ominis says with a directness and urgency that stops me in my tracks. He spins me decisively to face him, and his expression is wide, ashen with shock. "Are you alright?" he asks with intense concern. His hands move from my shoulders to my face in a frantic way and I'm overcome to paralysis by his worry. "Are you alright, Sebastian?" he asks again, even more urgently. "Are you hurt?"

"No." I'm finally able to say. "I'm fine–" but before I finish my words, Ominis' arms are wrapped around my shoulders, his posture stooping the couple inches needed to accommodate our height difference and his additional slight advantage on a mild incline in the field. His fingers are clamping into me.

I let my arms reciprocate the embrace and for the first time since April took off from me as an eagle in the sky, I feel like my consciousness has returned to my body.

I can breathe.

"Must you be so reckless?" Ominis sighs into my shoulder. His refrain is a familiar reprimand, but tonight it doesn't feel like an admonishment so much as almost a kind of prayer. More quietly, he adds, "you've only just returned, for heaven's sake."

I don't know what to say and stammer like a bloody idiot, and grasp at words, starting, "I....I..."

"You need to heal April," Ominis says, clearing his throat, and stepping back from our hug. "She told me what you can do."

"Yes," I confirm, completely bloody bewildered. "Erm...I – thank you," I stammer as my legs stumble backwards, eventually turning me towards the others. I don't even register that Ominis turns to call behind his shoulder, and not all too loudly, "they're alright!"

Thiago and April work together seamlessly. Being slightly less frazzled than I was before, I am able to appreciate the ease of their rhythm, and the give-and-take of their communication. Within a matter of seconds, April holds the creature's head in her gentle hands, and Thiago makes a veritable laboratory of the potions, salves, and powders. April coos softly to comfort the thestral, holding it firmly as Thiago cleans its wounds. April speaks to the thestral as though it were sentient – like an equal – outlining every detail of what they intend to do before they do it. And when Thiago is faced with the task of applying salve and wrapping a large bandage around the gash created by the goblin's shears, April waves her wand to temporarily suspend the animal's wings and silence its cries, quickly removing the spell when Thiago is finished.

After the worst of it is over, I am able to cut in, drawing April's focus for long enough to ask if I can use my magic on her wounds.

"Yes, but I won't stop working," she says matter-of-factly and I know there will be no bargaining with her.

"No matter, we'll work together" I explain, taking a single knee to the ground to work at April's leg, raising an immediate eyebrow upon seeing the wound. I wonder what Thiago would constitute as 'deep' if this isn't it. Perhaps he said it for April's benefit.