Ayaz awoke slowly, groggy and achey. No, more than achey - everything hurt, especially his wings. For a moment he couldn't remember why everything hurt, but as he carefully, blearily, looked around him, his eyes fell on the mare next to him, still asleep.
Oh. Right. Right, he'd almost died.
That wasn't entirely unusual, in his line of work. It wasn't common, though, either, because he was good at his job, but it was hardly his first brush with The End.
However, it was the first time that someone not in, as they called it, 'the business' had saved him. The vast majority of times he'd been in such a scrap, he'd saved himself, but occasionally, another trained mercenary or otherwise-armed Soquili had been around to help him out of his tight scrap.
Not this time. Ayaz had managed to get himself so stuck that if the unicorn hadn't been around, he would've probably died down on that stupid ledge. And for what? Because he wasn't watching his hooves?
He sighed to himself, more heavily than he meant to - the noise woke the mare up with a start, and she seemed even more confused than he had been upon first waking, until her eyes landed on him. Then everything seemed to set upon her at once, and Ayaz offered her what he hoped was a sympathetic smile.
"Good morning," he said quietly. "I'm glad you were able to get some sleep." In truth, while he was glad that they both had been able to sleep, he was mentally kicking himself for not forcing himself to stay awake, so that someone would be on guard. How horrifying would it have been if she had saved his life, only for them both to die at the claws of a mountain lion?
"Good morning," Pacha answered softly. She realized with growing horror that it being morning meant that her 'little adventure' had turned into an almost 24-hour affair. Her family was going to be worried sick, and she was going to be in so much trouble.
"How are you feeling?" Pacha asked, as she herself stood up slowly. Her body was sore, but not entirely unpleasantly so; she just felt as though she'd exercised muscles she didn't know she had.
"It hurts," Ayaz admitted, seeing no reason why he should try to put on a brave face for the one who had already pulled him up from certain doom. He paused a moment, squinting at her in the early-morning light. "Wait. You're a unicorn." At her raised eyebrow and slow, confused nod, he continued, "You can heal me."
"What? No," Pacha said quickly, shaking her head sharply. "No, no. I can't. I mean, I guess I'm technically - I mean, like, I guess I technically have the ability, but--I--I've never done it before. I can't. I don't know how."
Ayaz blinked at her. A unicorn who had never healed before? Where had this mare come from? He sighed softly and thought about standing, but his entire body protested the movement, so he just fixed her with a firm glance.
"Have you ever pulled a stallion over the edge of a cliff using nothing but that stallion's clothing and your own grit?" When she shook her head, he continued, "Well, you did that, and you did it perfectly fine. So why don't you give this a try?"
"I don't know how," Pacha repeated. "I've never done it before. I don't know the first thing about how to fix..." Pacha looked at him helplessly. "I don't even know what's wrong with you to try and fix it!"
Ayaz sighed, and with great effort, got to his feet. He'd landed on his back, after all, so at least he didn't have any broken bones in his legs - that would be as close to a death sentence as he could get. Little miracles, or something.
As he stood, he tried to flex out his wings, but he flinched when a bolt of pain rocketed through his left wing. The one he'd fallen on more directly. He let out a soft hiss, then looked back at Pacha, who was looking at him with wide, frightened eyes.
"You remember what I looked like yesterday, right?" At her nod, he continued. "Look, you don't need to completely fix me. Can't you just do something to take the edge off, so I can get home and get to my own healers? It's going to take me an age if I can't fly there, but it'll take me even longer than that if it hurts every step of the way. Can't you just try? Please?"
It was alarming - bordering on surreal - having a stallion like the one before her asking for her help. For her help. Pacha stayed quiet and kept to herself, but somehow in the past day she'd wound up in one surprising scenario after another that put her in the crosshairs of more different kinds of creatures than she'd ever dreamed possible.
And this one was asking for her help.
Belvy tugged on a strand of her hair and nodded at her, his little hands twisting anxiously. If Ayaz thought she should do it and Belvy agreed...well. Who was she to say she couldn't? It was her birthright...or something.
"I'll try. No guarantees," she finally said with a heavy sigh. Ayaz beamed at her, and Pacha approached the wing in question, studying it thoughtfully for a few moments. Yes, she remembered what it had looked like the day before; she knew what parts looked...wrong. There were no bones sticking out, for which Pacha was extremely grateful, but she could tell that there was some inner part that had been...crushed or twisted or snapped. Something was at an angle that it shouldn't be at.
She closed her eyes. She took a deep breath. She thought of her parents, of her sisters and her brother. She thought of Abigail, the leader of her herd, so proud and fierce and brave. She thought about their unicorn horns, and her own; how it was a symbol of goodness. How the wing before her was not good - it was wrong and bad. It should be good, instead.
Because she kept her eyes closed, she missed the faint, struggling light that emerged from the tip of her horn and slowly, haltingly, traveled the distance between her horn and the broken wing. Because her eyes were closed, she missed the light slowly sink beneath Ayaz's feathers, under his muscles, and into the structure of the wing itself. Even if she'd had her eyes opened, though, she wouldn't have felt what Ayaz did, which was immediate relief.
"Oh," Ayaz said, not realizing how tense he'd been until he was able to relax a tiny bit. "Thank you. Thank you." He turned to look at her, and Pacha's eyes fluttered open, looking between him and the wing. "Thank you, for whatever you did. It's better. I don't think I can fly on it, but...it's better. Thank you."
Because she'd had her eyes closed, Pachamamma was dubious that she'd done anything at all. She was fairly certain that Ayaz was mostly feeling better due to the placebo effect - a unicorn had 'healed him', so he felt better, even if no healing had actually taken place whatsoever, but...well, even if it was a lie, if he felt better, that was what mattered.
"Do you think you can get home alright?" she asked. "Even if you can't fly on it?"
Ayaz nodded. "I do. I'll walk you to your herd as far as I can, as well. It is truly the least I can do, for one as brave as you."
Pacha bluhed under the compliment and she shook her head. "You must have hit your head pretty hard if you think I'm brave," she said. "But...you're welcome. For whatever it is you think I did. I'm glad I could help."
And she really was, too. Helping felt good. Helping felt very good, in fact - almost good enough to have made everything else before meeting Ayaz worth it.
Almost. There was no way she could avoid telling her family what had transpired, but...well, she would worry about that when she got there. For the time being, she just wrapped up Ayaz's torn hood as best she could, and joined him on the path that wound first toward her home, and then toward his.
Ayaz thought she was brave. Ayaz thought she'd saved him. She had saved him!
For now, that was enough.
((wc: 1419))
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