Eric had broken his leg once. Those memories of pain were some of his first, when he was too small to understand the world and his sister could still walk.
Being bitten by a wolf of wood and fury wasn't quite as bad, but it was definitely similar. But there could be no trip to a hospital for skilled doctors to tend to her wounds—instead, she had to make do with the best ministrations a horse could provide.
She could do worse than Iron Feather to look after her. The stallion seemed to know what to do—how to clean a wound, and how to assess the damage.
"You need stitches," he said, after several painful minutes spent laying exposed on a camp blanket. "Otherwise, this might not close properly. We can't risk you getting an infection out here."
"There's a..." Her words trailed to silence, as he wiped a little more hydrogen peroxide on the wound. Did it have to hurt so bad? "Sewing kit," she finished, a few seconds later. "In the car. I don't have any of those dissolving sutures though, my medkit is just for hiking."
The stallion circled around her, standing at her front side. "Deep breaths, Lotus. I need you to relax. The damage is not serious. You will be fine, okay?"
She whimpered, wiping the moisture from her eyes. She forced a nod. "You expected this to happen, didn't you?"
"Eventually, yes. With a whole new planet to search, the sorceress might take a long time to find us. But when you burned that home down—the Nirik manifested. Hellfire burns bright enough that she found us."
Gus was nearby, with a large stick resting over his shoulder. He had escaped the encounter without injury, other than to his pride. The wolves had managed to take some of his feathers out during the attack. "And if she sent monsters against us once, she could do it again. There will be more attacks now."
"Yes. That first group was probably a scouting party. I don't know how much power she has for her necromancy—but if I had to guess, she will gather much more of it for a second attempt."
Iron Feather settled something down on the dirt beside Lotus. Even covered with ash, she recognized the old tome instantly. The spellbook that had tormented her first, then Gus. "Get some water boiling. I'm going to find the thread."
They did. Time blurred to Lotus, spent with the painful throbbing of her heartbeat as the wound pulsed. That gave her plenty of time to be alone with her own thoughts. Whether it was the otherworldly whispers of the cursed spellbook or her own imagination, it was still true.
"It's my fault she found us," she whispered, though whether to herself or her friend, she didn't know. And didn't care, for that matter. "If you don't hate me now, you can start."
Gus's voice came from nearby—a strangled laugh. She looked up just long enough to see him hunched over a little camp stove, with water heating inside. "You screwed up, Lotus. I'm still not sure how much."
"It was talking to me," she said. Iron might be able to hear her while he searched through the truck, but this was her best chance for him not to. Whatever it was worth. "It tried to stop me from interfering. Wanted to just let the monsters eat me. But I didn't want to die."
Gus appeared in front of her, looking solemn. He glanced at her back, then quickly away again. From the way he tucked his tail, she guessed it didn't look good. He might have the sharp beak and claws that could rip someone's stomach open, but her friend had never been particularly good around blood. He hadn't once gone hunting with Eric.
"Feels kinda like a one ring situation the more I take it in. Frodo didn't get all feminine and he didn't get to breathe fire, but otherwise it could be similar. Do you think the book tricked you into changing me, too?"
It would be so easy just to blame it. "I'm not sure," she said. "The magic in there is... real. I can tell that much. It's like looking in a math book, there's nothing 'false' about what it says, even if you don't understand it."
"Well. One day maybe we can take account of everything you put up in smoke. But if this gets as big as I think it will, that little house won't matter. We're the first explorers to a new world. We're about to bridge a gap between universes—show people that there's more to life than what you can prove with math and science. If there's one good thing to come from all this, you made me part of the story now. I'm not just watching from the sidelines."
He picked up his stick, swinging it vigorously through the air in front of him. "We have an evil wizard hunting us! How cool is that?"
Lotus inhaled sharply, to another burst of throbbing pain. "I mean—her first servants almost killed me. What if they had got my neck instead of my back? I would love a gun right now."
Her hunting rifle was ashes now, like the rest of her life. But if she could just throw fire around whenever she wanted, she might not need it.
Iron reemerged, with the little plastic box in his mouth. The next few hours were spent with painful, makeshift medical treatment, stitching her wounds by a propane lamp. The process was as awful as she imagined. Lotus suffered through most of it biting a stick so she wouldn't accidentally take a piece of her tongue off as Iron worked on her. Then came the final layer, which the horse didn't understand but she insisted on—the liquid bandage.
It burned as much as pouring superglue into an open wound, because that was basically what they did. But when it was done, so too went her worst fears of infection. "Bandage would get wet..." she said, collapsed onto her belly now. "We're not in a hospital. The only way to keep it clean is glue it. That's what my dad taught me."
"He's a hardass," Gus supplied, unhelpfully. "Never takes a day off."
"We need to move," Iron announced, when the grueling task was done, and they were all recovering around a small campfire. "I don't know how much Searing knows, but she clearly found us once. Where can we go?"
"Through to your world," Gus suggested. "The spell worked, didn't it? Lotus knows where to make the portal. So, let's sleep this off, then go in the morning."
Lotus laughed. She was exhausted, and bitter with pain, but that idea was so stupid she had to say something. She kept as still as possible, so she didn't stretch or move her back. "I know you can't do magic, Gus—but no. I will need at least a week to study the real portal. If you think being transformed into a bird is bad, you should read what it says could happen to you if a worldgate fails."
"So we have to move," Iron repeated. "Your vehicle is large and could contain our whole camp. We should transport it somewhere more defensible. A cavern, or some friendly allies of yours. Can we call on any for help? You must have family."
They shared a look—Gus and Eric more than whoever she had become. "I don't have anyone we can call," Gus said, without hesitation. He kept his voice flat when he said it, but Lotus knew the pain underneath. Her friend's sudden wealth had given him many things, but it could not return all that was taken.
"Me neither," Lotus lied. "They would never help me like this. All the proof of my identity is gone. And even if I could, I wouldn't—I'm not going to put them in danger. My parents are old, and my sister is in a wheelchair. None of them can fight if more monsters like those come for me."
Assuming her dad didn't just pull out the old shotgun and fight them off with that as soon as they stepped out of the truck. He would probably think she was a fugitive from justice even if he believed her story.
"I can... understand that," Iron eventually said. "But we can't stay here. Searing was ruthless, determined, and powerful. If we can't do something to protect ourselves, she'll make the next attack far worse."
Lotus thought it over or tried. It was hard to focus on much of anything when she was in incredible pain. But Gus wasn't saying anything. "We can't just go where we want, when we want," she eventually said. "We ran away from the fire. Even if there were no bodies in there, the police are looking. We have to drive at night and try to stay away from anywhere we might be spotted. I can think of... one place."
"Please no." Gus covered his face with his forelegs, turning away. "You're going to say it, aren't you?"
"There's a large abandoned building off the freeway," she said. "A few miles from where we turned off. "Storm ripped the roof off a few years ago, but the lower floors are in decent shape. Still had services last time I was there."
"You went to an abandoned building?" Iron asked, confused. "Any structure sounds better than none. But I am struggling to understand why it would be left in such a state. If it is intact, then..."
"It's an old insane asylum," Gus said, loudly. "Everyone thinks it's haunted. They do spook alleys every Halloween. And the rest of the year it's mostly teenagers who want a private place to—"
Lotus cleared her throat loudly. She tried to kick him to shut him up, but her foreleg wouldn't reach. She had to stretch and doing that sent another wave of pain rippling down her back.
"Oh." Iron glanced between them, then nodded knowingly. "I understand. There are parks in Equestria for something similar. Young ponies who wish for privacy but have nowhere else to find it. Won't that make it a poor hiding spot?"
"No. The garage is intact, so we can hide the truck from sight. Then we can set up on the roof. No one goes up there."
"Because it's not safe," Gus added. "Because the building is rotting apart and might collapse at any moment and the parts getting rained on will be the first to go."
She shrugged. "Probably. But all three of us together probably weigh about as much as one person. And if it does start to collapse, you two can just fly off. Is your wing almost better, Iron?"
He nodded. "I'll be able to get the splint off soon. But I won't be able to fly on it for weeks more. Only short glides, nothing to strain the bones and break them again."
"I can't believe we're going to live in the Valland Asylum," Gus groaned. "This is so stupid. Just hurry up and cast the spell now!"
Lotus didn't want to move, but she could still lift up one of the sticks from their pile of fuel and toss it at his face. "Dude—I almost burned you alive last time. I want to get through way more than you do." She waved her tail through the air as dramatically as she could.
"I'm a horse girl, you're a cool bird. You can wait it out."
"You're not a horse," Iron argued. "You're a kirin. That's half pony, not half horse. More importantly, you're also hurt and need to heal. Which is why you're going to lay here while we pack up this camp." He leaned over, then turned the light up to its brightest setting.
Gus groaned, shielding his face with one wing. "Not so bright! It's hard enough to see in the dark without a spotlight. We don't have to move now."
"We do," he said, unzipping one of the tents. "Lotus says we need to move only by night, or risk discovery by the authorities of your world. Is she wrong?"
"Well, no, but—"
He emerged from inside the tent with a bedroll, then dropped it from his mouth. "Then help me."