//------------------------------//
// Chapter 36 REVISED 
// Story: A Journey Unthought Of 
// by Hustlin Tom 
//------------------------------//

"He's coming to," I heard a muffled voice say from what felt like miles away.  

The first thing I felt as I came back to the waking world was a burning sensation around the knuckles of my right hand.  Next came the scratches on my torso.  There was a strange feeling on my left arm though, almost like it had fallen asleep or something.  Maybe I'd lain on it for too long.  I stiffened a bit and my facial muscles flinched again.  My head rolled to the right a little and tentatively I opened my left eye to look at the world around me.  Everything was blurry at first, so many different colors all around: pinkie and purple, orange and blue, yellow and white, brown and grey, all a big murky splotch.  "Lyra," I said softly.  

Things became a little more crisp as I waited.  From above the Doctor's face came into my view, upside down from what I would have expected.  "Lyra's safe," he said calmly as he glanced over to the left.  I tried to follow his gaze but I felt a strong hand grab my temple and gently hold me in place and a soft blue light appeared before my eyes, "Ah-ah-ah!  Not just yet.  First I need you to follow the light; eyes only, no turning your head."

First it went to the left, then right: up, and then down.  I tracked it all the way.  "That thing's not going to make my brain melt through my ears or something, right," I murmured.

"Only if I put it on setting 1023," I heard him say, before the light went away, and I heard, "Hm, oops."  

My eyes were completely open at that point and I craned my head up to look at man looming over me, blurting in agitation, "Did you say, 'Oops?'  Because out of all the things any medical person can say, that is the most stupid thing I expect or want to come out of your mouth!"  

He put his hands up and smiled a little before he said in a sing song voice, "Kiddiiiing!"  His voice then returned to normal, "Don't make such a fuss; just bedside humor, and also a pretty good indicator of how responsive you really are.  No additional concussions, proper tracking of your eyes, basically everything in good order.  All things considered, you're doing great!"

My eyes came down to glance at everypony in the room.  Fluttershy was looking at me closely, and I noticed that her mane and coat had recently been wet.  I was surprised to see Rainbow just standing around, since almost any other time I had ever looked at her she was hovering a few inches off the ground at least.  Pinkie...Pinkie's entire mane was hanging near limp.  Moreover, she was still.  No jitters, no energy, just stillness.  All the ponies were silent.

With a sudden lurch I looked to the bed not so far from mine which had the Doctor in alarm.  There sat Bon Bon at Lyra's bedside.  Before I had awoken she had clearly been looking at an IV bag hanging from a rolling rack.  Her eyes were staring straight into mine, except for a brief moment when she glanced downward.  It was at that point I realized something new about myself: in spite of the sensation of tingling I felt in it, my body was not against my arm as I leaned over it.

I looked down for my left hand.  There was nothing there to see.  Shocked, but somehow compelled through it regardless, I brought the rest of my limb up to look at it.  No hand, no forearm.  I still had the remnants of an elbow, but all that was left beyond that was an inch or two of stump.  I looked up to the Doctor in silence, and he looked back at me, his jaw set, but his eyes full of regret and sadness.



With a mighty heave the Doctor was able to get Adam's unconscious body onto the hospital bed.

"He won't stop bleeding," Fluttershy declared in alarm, the very evidence of which stained her yellow creme coat, "If we can't get his blood clotting in the next few minutes he is going to die."

Quickly taking off his coat jacket and rolling up his dress sleeves, he then walked over to a cabinet tall enough to have a full length mirror as its reflective doors.  "Give me something good," he murmured before he cast them open.

The doors that would normally be populated with all sorts of medical devices were nearly empty, save for a few things: a roll of opaque rubber and gauze, some green paste in a jar, and what looked like a handle hanging across two stainless steel spokes, with nothing else seemingly attached to it.  The Doctor looked at the handle for a brief second before he whirled back around and pointed his sonic screwdriver at the wounds on Adam's arm.  When he brought it up to his face to analyze the data he saw now they had little time and no choice.  Reaching into the cabinet he chucked the glass jar towards Fluttershy, who nearly fumbled it out of her hooves, "Start spreading this on his arm.  Malvarian Extract has anti-toxin agents in it; will slow the bleeding and keep the anti-coagulants from getting any further into his bloodstream.  All the way up the arm: stop just after the elbow."

After twisting the jar lid open with her teeth, Fluttershy set the jar down on the nearby surgery table, dipped her hooves in the paste and began to evenly apply the substance along his forearm.  Ripping the rubber hose out of the cabinet he ran around the bed to get to the patient's arm, wrapping it around tightly.  After tying it off he ripped the rest of the hose away with his incisor.  

"Up to there," he said breathlessly, "Leave some room for the gauze."  

Blood mixed with the paste and formed into a hard brittle substance.  It looked as if Adam's arm had been encased in a brown stalactite.

"It's working I think," Fluttershy said hopefully.

"Yup," he grunted as he started wrapping the gauze tightly around the arm, leaving a little space between it and the rubber hose, "Sure looks like it."  Fluttershy looked at what he was doing, and instantly she knew.  Her face fell and her eyes grew wide.  The Doctor saw her look, and he said with a firm tone, "It's the only way to keep him alive.  The extract only bought us time; it's not permanent."  He then glanced back to the cabinet before looking at her, "I won't think any less of you if you leave now."

Sad as she was for what was about to happen, behind her sorrow was a determined glint in her eyes, and she stood her ground, "Tell me what I need to do."

"Hold him down," he said as he reached into the cabinet and plucked the handle of it's rests, "Even though this is quick and he's far enough gone he shouldn't feel it, I'd rather be sure."

Fluttershy flew to just above the bed before she laid splayed across the human's chest, her hooves bracing against the bedside bars.  She had never dreamed things would get this bad, but a timber wolf's bite was a grave matter indeed.  Hoping for sure that the Doctor would have had some miraculous antidote, it seemed that that idea was completely dashed, and there was only one treatment if there was truly nothing else.

Before he started he looked down at Adam's vacant, near lifeless face.  "I'm sorry," he said with a whisper, before he pressed a button on the handle, and a bright blue blade of light extend from the handle to form a round parabolic shape, "I'm so very, very sorry."



"You have to understand that the bites you received were laced with some sort of blood thinner," the Doctor said as I continued to stare at my newest feature, "With the limited time and resources available to me this was the best I could do."  I looked up at him slowly, my arm still raised in the position I had put it in initially.

"I...I thought I was going to die back in that grass-patch," I said blankly.

"You certainly would have if it weren't for Fluttershy," he said before looking to her, "She and Rainbow Dash rushed you here as soon as they found the two of you.  She also made for an excellent assistant."

I looked to the pony of whom he had spoken such high honors and said simply, "Thank you."

For a moment her silence continued as she looked at me, but finally the dam seemed to burst, "We all heard what you said earlier about humans, and I don't know if you think that way about yourself too, but after what we saw I don't think what you said is true, or maybe not the whole truth.  You ran to help find Lyra, and you put her safety above your own even to the point of risking your own life!  That kind of selflessness proves you're not as bad as you may think.  I think you deserve to give yourself a second chance, because I don't think you can be all that bad, and neither can humans in general."

I blinked a little, as did the others after she was finished.

The yellow pegasus, suddenly very self-conscious, pawed at the tile floor meekly for a moment, then with a nervous breath she said with conviction, “Adam, I don’t think you give yourself enough credit. You did as much as I’d expect of any pony, and that can’t be bad, right?”

I wasn’t sure of how to respond to what she had said, and all the passion she had put into it, but I tried with another small “Thank you.”  At last I said to the Doctor as I looked to him, "Can I get up?"

"Sure, but take your time," he cautioned, "You've lost quite a bit of blood."

The ponies surrounding me backed up a little to give me space as I slowly drew up my legs and brought them over the side of my bed.  

"Slowly," he said as I placed my boots back on solid ground.  I stood up too quickly though, and I felt my head grow fuzzy.  His arms braced me as I began to lean too heavily to the side, "Sloooowly.  You're not trying to run a marathon.  Just focus on the next step."  

My sense of equilibrium returned after a little bit, and i was able to stand up straight.  I took a small, tentative step; then another.  Walking around the end of the bed I brought my right hand across my body to brace me against the handle at the foot end of my bed.  The Doctor was just behind me, giving me space but ready to catch me should I faint from exertion.  Bon Bon was right there in front of me, standing just between me and the bed.

"I think," she said slowly as she looked at me, a slight catch in her voice, "I finally understand just how much I misjudged you."  She looked over her shoulder to Lyra, "How I misjudged you both."  

"I saw her save you," I said quietly.  

"She saved us both," and then she stood on her backlegs and gently leaned into me, giving me a hug, "but we all saved each other."  

Though we hadn't noticed it, Lyra had gently awoken.  She blinked heavily, her eyes truly coming to life when she saw my lacking an arm.  An involuntary noise came from her as she breathed in deeply.  We all looked to her, Bon Bon immediately at her side, with Fluttershy and Twilight now coming to the other side of the bed to make sure she was fine.  

"Hey," she said shakily.  

"Hey," was my equal and identical reply, "Are you okay?"  

"She'll be fine," Twilight said as she looked up to me, "She's had a pretty bad case of magic exhaustion.  She just needs some fluids and some calories and she'll be okay."

"You-" she stopped as she pointed to where my arm used to be, "You lost your-"

"So long as you're safe that's all that matters," I replied softly, before a weak smile grew on my face, "After all, what's giving a hand between friends, eh?"

She was quiet for a couple seconds, before she gave a small chuckle, and I let out a small breath that turned into a long sigh as my gaze turned back to my stump.  Lyra raised herself up while I was focused on it, and I only realized what she was doing when I heard the others warn her of not moving so much.  She gently reached as far over as she could and gave me a hug right around my midsection.  By the way she held me close, and the gentleness of it, this hug carried more meaning to it than the average one did; it was an embrace laced with sadness, true, where she was sorry to see my state, but more importantly she held me close.  There was no fear between us now, no doubt at all.  All that was wrong was right now.  I gave the best one armed hug I could manage back, patting my stump against her back softly.

"Adam," I heard the Doctor say softly but abruptly, "I know that this is important to you, but we lost two hours while you were out.  I'd have both of you on bed rest, and I’m sorry to ask so much of you right now, but we have no choice: time is running out."