Beauty The Beast

19 | The Forest

"What happened?"

"The back of my head," She took her hand out of her hair and they saw blood smeared over its inside. "He's hit his head hard on something and passed out."

"Tie something over to stop the bleeding," Greg said.

"You think that'd help?" Luna shook her head. "Only way is to find and provide him with the aid. We better do it before I pass out." Luna said, already feeling a bit dizzy.

They were walking on the only path there which was on their right. Greg kept glancing at Luna from now and then. Suddenly she stopped and looked around them.

"You saw that too?" Greg asked having thought that he'd seen something fly past, she nodded.

"Look up," They did and saw vultures circling in the sky. "What scares boars away, Greg?"

"Wildlife and the ways of its habitants are yours to handle, I'm like bad, actually, very bad at it." Greg said though he'd no idea why she was asking about boars after seeing vultures. Then he mocked himself. "And I call myself a half beast,"

She smiled a bit, remembering how Alphard was always the same as Greg when the topic was wildlife.

Luna then pulled a few stands of hair from her head - making sure they weren't covered in blood - leaving a confused Greg in front of her and took her lighter out, handing it to him. She then had those strands spun around the branch she was holding; one end around the wood while the other hung loose.

"Hold this lighter up while I___"

"What are you going to, burn those strands?"

"Yep, just a little."

"Are you sure this'd help?"

"Not sure, but we've got nothing else to scare those away. Though we're not sure we'd run into one, there's a high possibility that there're boars around our unconscious friend if there're vultures up and not down." She reasoned.

That's sensible enough. He thought, then voiced his doubts out.

"What if there's another animal and not boars?"

"Then just fire would help," She assured and added when Greg seemed to relax a bit. "With a bit of fighting."

Greg sighed, but did as she said. The smell of burning hair reached their noses. They continued to walk ahead and in time to see the one they assumed they'd run into.

The animal had just reached Alphard's side and had to sprint back to where it'd come from due to the smell.

"Well, that worked." Greg whispered.

"I wasn't sure about burning it, but guess it helped." Luna said and stepped ahead. She walked up to an unconscious Alphard and lifted his head up, placing it over her lap. "You got something?" She asked Greg.

He searched his pockets and found the pack of pocket tissues. Generally prisoners aren't allowed to have anything with them, but Greg wasn't one and since Luna knew his habit of carrying those with him all the time, she'd let him.

She took those and pressed over the back of Alphard's head and on his palm to stop the bleeding while Greg stood in watch for any wild animal.

Luna dug a small pit to her right and closed it after having all the blood soaked tissues in it.

"Now, do you sense him?" Greg asked.

"No, why's it?"

"Maybe because he himself doesn't. We'd have to bring him back to his conscious state." Greg looked around. "The question is, how."