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Nyxis woke up to Denara shrieking his name.
He groaned as he sat up and mussed his hair. The curtain flapped open and Denara's blue head poked through. "Oh, you are awake. Good," she was huffing. "Come with me and bring splints with you."
Then, she was gone as fast as she came. What now? Confused, Nyxis gingerly edged off the rock and tramped into the pile of healing supplies Denara had left in his cavern. He remembered asking her about it and she answered rather cheekily that it was tiring to haul those things in and out of the kitchen.
Nyxis blew a breath as he picked his way into a pile of chopped branches atop the keg. He palmed a roll of white cloth bandage and went on his way. Denara screamed at him to hurry from the garden. Dread coated his throat as he emerged through the curtain separating the kitchen and the cavern that led to the open ocean. Could it be...?
"What took you so long?" Denara demanded as she yanked the supplies off his hands. "He could have died."
Nyxis knitted his eyebrows. "Who?"
Denara rolled her eyes and trudged into the lip of the cave where a boy no older than twelve lay. Nyxis froze in his tracks as he beheld the bruised skin, the bluish lips, and the broken arms. Images of him with his wounds peppering his form like that flashed in angry screens across his mind. He had to clamp his jaw and squeeze his eyes shut to regain control.
He was fine. He should be helping the child.
He forced his feet to move. Denara looked up at him as he reached them. She was breathing hard; her hair was all over the place. It looked like she dove into the waters to rescue this boy. Nyxis stole a glance at the ocean beyond and true enough, the waves beyond the banks were nothing but a violent storm. By some familiar instinct, he dropped next to Denara and examined the boy.
Pale red hair hung in sopping, rigid locks on the boy's head. His eyes were closed; his chest rose and fell in shallow gasps. A trail of blood ran down the corner of his mouth. His arms and legs were bent in strange angles.
Nyxis clenched his jaw. How in the world did this child end up here? Surely he wasn't battling the Heiress on the edge of the cliff, was he? Denara finished securing the splints on the left arm and moved to the right. "If you are just going to stand there, at least get me the stretcher," she said. "It is behind the kegs in the kitchen."
Nyxis nodded and moved to stand up when he processed what she said. "Stretcher?" he turned back to her. "Were you able to use it on me when it required two people?"
"Why do you suddenly want to know that?" Denara clicked her tongue when the boy began coughing. He must have suffered organ trauma. Denara answered nonetheless. "No, I treated you by the banks until I can move you without leaving your leg here."
Nyxis winced. The image of his leg lying alone on the shore was disconcerting. It must have been hard for her. He trudged back to the kitchens to look for the thing Denara ordered him to find.
