Warmth in an Arctic Jungle

by HonorInDefeat

Soaring Emotions

Soarin didn’t like to give up, but willingly allowed himself to pass out from pain after bringing his friend deep within the cave. He dragged himself back to the entrance hoping to get a bearing on his location, a task he failed at without his wings. As his friend lied passed out from a head injury somewhere in the caverns below, Soarin vowed to stay awake, it wouldn’t be safe for both of them to sleep at once. But sick with blood loss, exhausted from running and mind numb with fear, he begrudgingly allowed himself to sit near the cave entrance and rest his eyes. 60 seconds later, he was fast asleep.
Upon reaching the Cave entrance, Armor assumed the worst when he saw his friend, injured, bleeding, pale and unmoving near the entrance of the cave. Liquid Pride built up in his eyes when he approached Soarin and violently shook him awake. Soarin didn’t understand why his friend was crying and shaking him from his recurring ApplePie dream, but it didn’t matter. They were both safe. Soarin was relieved to see Armor awake, Armor was happy to see Soarin alive. They ignored their own pain and with tears in their eyes, held each other warmly in the cool cave air. Eventually, Armor asked what happened.
“When you fell down the mountain, you ended up going through a wall of ice vine” Soarin explained “The vines had overgrown the entrance. Armor looked over to the cave mouth, Soarin was right; even with the tear he put in the wall of vines, the outside world was nearly invisible. “When you fell through those vines, it gave us enough time to hide.” Shining Armor still wasn’t sure.

“Do you think it’s safe in here?”

“Safe? In here? In the invisible hideout inaccessible to vehicles shielded by a fucking mountain? I think we’re safe

” Shining armor tried to look smug in the face of Soarin’s sarcasm, but was distracted by a throbbing pain in his head. He reached up to feel it, but Soarin stopped him.

“Don’t touch that, it needs to heal a bit more. When you came in here you banged yourself of a rock pretty hard”. Armor gently touched his forehead and was greeted by a rough band aid, slightly damp from the most cave air.

“You patched me up?”
“Why wouldn’t I have? By the way, that totally counts as your favor.”
“You sort of left yourself a bit...open...”
Soarin had cleaned out his wound, but still haven't applied any medicine or bandaged it.

“Why would you patch up me and not yourself?”

“Well I...ummm...it hurt...” Soarin mumbled.

“What?”

“It hurt too much, okay? I just...Ugh I couldn’t do it myself...”
Armor couldn’t hide his smile. His best friend has been shot in the wing, dragged his lifeless body over to a cave all in one go, but winced at the idea of putting on his own bandages.

“OK then, I’ll do it for you. Where’s-”

“NO!” Soarin shouted. “I mean...n-no. You’re bandages need to changed anyway. Let me do you first.” Normally Armor wouldn't have any of it, but it seemed like this was the only way that Soarin would let him near his wound.

“Fine then, fix me up” Armor said. Soarin began to walk deeper into the cave and Armor trailed closely behind. “OK, the makeshift med bay is in here.” Soarin said as he approached a curtain of hanging moss. Armor walked ahead of him and pulled the curtain aside, but he didn’t enter the room. Instead, he stood awestruck. The massive room was dominated by two key features: a massive entanglement of tropical trees that only let in light and wind, and a large blue pond, presumably melted glacier ice. Shining Armor looked intently at the walls above the pond, which caught the dancing light that skipped across the surface. Armor was still trying to comprehend the amazingly beautiful scene in front of him when he reached the smooth stone slab in front of the mass of trees.

“This room is great, with the trees and water, the light in here is perfect for pretty much anything” Soarin’s thoughts trailed away. He could help but stare for a second at his friend, still looking around at the scene in front of him. Between the sunbeams peeking through the trees and the light scattering through the pond, he was right; the light in the room was absolutely perfect, and so was his good friend sitting on the stone table in front of him. Again, he tried to push the thought out of his mind, but it was proving harder and harder with each passing minute.

“The bleeding on your head stopped. You’re healing quickly”

“Well, I have a great doctor”
Armor didn’t know what to make of the sudden silence of his friend, as much as he enjoyed the quiet moments, he couldn’t help but feel that he just said something incredibly stupid. Soarin’s mind was racing too, when he hit upon an idea.

“I need to put this on you to keep the wound clean” He said holding up the fresh bandages “Do you mind scooting in a bit?” Shining Armor leaned in close to his doctor, Soarin wondered if he could hear his heartbeat. “Ok, you’re all cleaned up. That cut should be fine in a few days.” Shining Armor didn't respond immediately, Soarin was right. Shining could hear his heartbeat and wanted nothing more than to just rest his head on Soarin’s chest. Soarin’s felt his heart burst as Armor slowly lifted his head up, brushing along his chest for only a second. That was all the time he needed, he couldn’t put the thought out any longer. He was always in love with his friend Shining Armor, but it had taken him until that one instant to realize it.

“Soarin?”

“...Hmm?”

“You said you’d let me patch your wing now.”

Soarin had forgot that, but as much as he hated it he wouldn’t break a promise he made to his friend. With a grim look on his face, Soarin climbed up on the table, and lied flat on his stomach, painfully extending his broken wing. Shining Armor was no Doctor, but he could at least apply painkillers and bandages. Armor couldn’t help but notice Soarin’s strong wing muscles; even with a one broken, they were still a sight. Armor began to inspect the wound, to see if it could be helped.

“Ok, so you’re clean, but just to be safe, I’m going to use some disinfectant.”

“Alright, it’s over here”
Soarin motioned to the front of the table, near where his head was. Armor began to pour some on a piece of cloth. Soarin braced himself, hoping that maybe if it was someone else doing it the medicine wouldn’t hurt. He was wrong.

“Ssssssshhhhit!” Soarin muttered through exasperated breathes, his wing twitching wildly in pain.

“What’s the matter?”

“I-I’m sorry, I just can’t deal with all this”

“All this?” Armor asked?
Another odd silence.
“Just forget the medicine Armor”
“Soarin I have to put disinfectant on that.” Armor stepped a bit closer. “We’re in a cave in an ice jungle in unknown territory, God knows what’s out there.” More liquid pride. “I’m not going to let you catch something I can’t fix. It’s already happened too much on this mission” Soarin knew that he had no real choice. Then Soarin got an idea

“I have an idea”

“Oh?”

“Maybe I can lie on my back. That way gravity keeps my wing open”
Armor knew that medically, it wouldn’t work

“Ok Soarin, maybe that’ll work”
Soarin struggled with himself; careful not to bend with wing, he slowly made his way onto his back. With only a slight bit of cringe, he managed to let his injured wing fall open. Shining Armor began to clean the wound. It still hurt, but far less than it did before.

“Shh-aaha...”

“You Ok?”

“Yeah, I’m fine. Just keep going”
Armor continued to clean out the wound before finally moving on to covering it with bandages. As the procedure went on Soarin twitched less and less, when the procedure was done, he couldn’t feel any pain at all. As long as he could see Shining working, he doubted he could ever feel anything bad.

“Alright, finished! You’re wing should start healing soon.”

“Thanks Armor, I’m pretty sure if you hadn’t done that, I would have caught something bad.” Soarin said, sitting upright on the table.

“No problem. I mean, it’s what friends do right?” Armor said, hopping up on the table with him.

“So how long do you think we’ll be down here?”
Soarin mulled over his answer for a while.

“Well we clearly have water” he said as the patterns of light from the pond skipped across Armors face.

“There’s probably plenty of food in the jungle, fruit in the trees and stuff.” Shining tried to sound confident, not easy to do when the sunlight gives your friend an angelic glow. Shining moved closer.

“There’s still medicine” Soarin followed suit. “Just in case” he said as he begun to lean on Armors shoulder.
“We have radio beacons and maps” Armor said, gently pressing the side of his muzzle against Soarin’s face. “We’re probably not as lost as we think we are”. Soarin’s eyes met with Armor’s, he thought they shined as bright as the midday sky.
Soarin touched the tip of his nose to Armor’s

“I kind of wish we were”.

Armor draped his arms around Soarin's shoulders, their eyes closed, they felt each other’s warmth in the cool air as they slowly drew closer, and in the cold light of a hidden cave, far away from their old troubles and obligations...they heard Flash Sentry yelling about Team Kitten Whispers in the distance.