In Scotland

Copacetic Subpoena (Part 16)

Thrashing about, Zeb finally managed to tumble out of their hold. When he landed onto the unforgivingly hard forest ground, he hissed in pain. He inched towards the raft, dragging himself on all fours, moving at a pitifully pathetic rate.

"No!" Shenanigan yelped, dashing after him. She realized that he hadn't noticed that his wound was still fresh and open, spilling blood slowly in a thin trail on his pants.

Matt was alarmed. He hadn't expected someone as experienced at hunting as Zeb to do something so irrational that it was, to be frank, stupid. He was only going to get more hurt doing that!

Zeb didn't care. His pride and dignity was pretty much at stake. He could just see a wisp of it, about the width of one of Shenanigan's hairs.

He just let a girl, a GIRL who couldn't hunt for her life, to carry him! Not to mention the help of her guy friend. It was his stubborn pride that kept him moving, letting him ignore the piercing pain that erupted with every slight movement of his leg.

He knew that Shenanigan and Martin (was it?) cared for him, but he didn't want to look weak. Yes, he wanted to care for them, but he didn't want their care. He was independent. He had gone through much worse.

Ignoring the shouts of Shenanigan and Matt behind him, he pressed a shaky hand onto the floor of the raft and with a final burst of energy, hoisted his body onto the raft. And then he blacked out.

~~~

Natty, having started up the engine, turned around to look. Instead of the peaceful, safe arrival of the three people that she had been expecting, one was lying unconscious on the raft, bleeding all over the raft, while the other two knelt over him, one trying to rouse him, one trying to make a makeshift bandage.

Surprisingly, Shenanigan was the one trying to bandage his wound, and she was doing quite a good job of it. Having ripped off two bits of her long kilt, she had used a piece to mop up the dark, crimson blood off his skin and the raft, although the raft was already bloodstained. Using the other piece, she wrapped it tightly around Zeb's leg and was tying a knot with the fabric. Matt was by now at a loss of what to do, pacing about the raft.

Natty shook her head, realising that she had spent too long staring at Shenanigan. "Hey, Matt!" she called to him, "the unicorn detector has a map. You want to check it out?"

Matt, relieved that he could help, grabbed the detector and settled himself down in a corner, scanning the map.

Rushing over to Shenanigan, Natty asked out of pure curiousity, "How do you know how to bandage that?"

Shenanigan, done with tying the knot, blushed a little, "I read about it before."

Natty nodded appreciatively, and furrowed her brows, "What happened?"

After relaying the whole scene to Natty, Shenanigan remarked, "I have no idea why he did that, really."

Shrugging, Natty did not say anything. Zeb was probably just too used to living alone to appreciate help. Natty thought that seemed slightly ridiculous.