Umbreka

by Armanico Vita

Uncertified Self-Aid

A rush of cold air flushed over Fluttershy, tickling the raw wound engraved into her wing. Her fresh gash tingled and oozed with the constant breeze pushing up against her body. Her bruised eyelids peeled back into her head revealing the rising sun basking the world in it's heavenly glow. Its warm radiation tanned her skin and helped to warm her body up from the frigid vice-grip of death's osseous fingers.

She couldn't believe it, had she really been exploring the underground labyrinth all night? Surely she wasn't incapacitated for too long, she would be feeling a whole lot more refreshed if that was the case. She let her vision drift from left to right as she tilted her head to scan her surroundings. The gaping crater in the center of the field had once led led down into the heart of the mountain. Now it was a nothing more than a clutter of rocks sealing away the carnivorous eels into a tomb below her. It wouldn't be able to hold them in forever but it would give her enough time to exit the premise.

She groaned as she pulled herself up off the tree, wincing in pain as her wing throbbed with each passing heartbeat. She looked back, remembering the horrible unfolding of events that occurred to her recently. Her mouth gaped open in horror as she observed the bloodied mess she made of the forest. A pool of blood collected in the spot she was just sitting, just barely beginning to coagulate from the fresh morning air. She began to hyperventilate. The most blood she had ever seen was from the occasional scrapes and cuts her woodland creature got from exploring the Everfree Forest. The rusty smell of her own vital fluids made her nostrils flare up and her stomach gurgle.

Her mind began to wander off and she felt her head starting to lighten up, making her dizzy. The world around her began to careen like a boat in a monsoon. She stumbled back and forth trying to maintain her balance. She attached on to the nearest thing next to her, a thick, sturdy elm, and held on tightly, her front hooves digging into splintery tree as she tried to hold herself upright. Closing her eyes only made this sensation amplify. Her face went green with nausea as she fought to hold back her previous meal from rushing out of her system.

The muddy ground underneath her back hooves gave out, launching her face-first into the rough tree bark. The jagged wood scratched and tore at her skin all the way down the length of the tree until her head rested upon the soft fabric of her saddlebag. Her lungs gasped for air as she wallowed in the crimson-stained grass. Her brain was being denied the amount of blood it desperately needed and she was beginning to fade in and out of consciousness.

She clenched her teeth down on the button of her saddlebag and jerked her head back, tearing the solar insignia from it's rightful place on the sack. As she fumbled around inside the bag, she let it slip out of her grasp and all the contents of the celestial pouch spilled onto the floor creating an organized heap of chaos. Her nostrils flared up and her heart pounded heavily inside of its ribcage prison. She used one of her hooves to hold her body up and the other to rummage through the mound of supplies. Grabbing some bandages, gauze, and a thick branch lying next to her, she proceeded to sit up on her haunches. Closing her eyes, she took a deep breath in, holding onto it for three seconds before slowly releasing it back into the atmosphere. Fluttershy brought the thick branch up to her mouth and clenched her teeth down on it, the taste of dirt and nature saturated her tongue and parched her lips. She held onto her to her limp wing, letting it dangle in her loose grasp.

"One..." She braced herself for the consequences of her gutsy actions to follow.

"Two..." The grip she had on her feathers tightened this time, the necessity for bravery and brevity was ever so present.

"Three!" The shout of her countdown was followed by a grotesque popping noise as she forced the joint back into its socket. Her teeth bore down into the block of wood, cracking and splintering it. She could now fully feel every ounce of pain coursing through her wings; it stung her like a red, hot iron being pressed down against her flesh. She could feel the wound throb with each fluctuation of her heart.

She collapsed to the ground sobbing, she was in shock at what she had just done to herself. Her wing began to stiffen and swell around the joint. Most of her blood had clotted while she was unconscious, though her wound still managed to sputter blood and pus through cracks in the scabbing. She tore off a big enough patch from the gauze she picked up and firmly held it up against her injury. She continued to wrap herself up in the sterile cloth starting with her shredded wing. She carefully wove the bandage up and down the length of the laceration making sure she wrapped up every last inch of skin. She then struggled around for a bit, trying retract her wing fully to the side of her body. After a few attempts and a little force, she managed to hold her wing still long enough for her to splint it together with her torso.

The air filled with the faint sound of crunching leaves, the wind carrying the disturbance towards her. Her ears perked upright. The noise grew louder and louder as it approached its witness from behind from behind. This impetuous crescendo of rustling caught Fluttershy off guard, causing her heart to skyrocket up into her throat. She flipped herself around to brace herself for the intruder only to be shot down in agony by a large jolt of pain residing in her side. She picked her face up out of the mud and cursed her dumb decisions. She had brought everything she needed to keep a herself in good health except for painkillers and antiseptic, the former of the two she longed for right now.

She couldn't see whatever was stalking her through the thick caking of mud on her face; she could feel it though. She could feel its warm, bated breath causing the hair on her neck to jolt up. She could feel a thick, slimy appendage wiping back and forth across her face. All she could do was sit there and let it taste her, hoping she wasn't that appetizing.

A moment passed by and nothing, she was still there and her stalker was still licking away at her face. She tilted her head upwards and pried her eyes open. Hovering just a few inches away from her snout, she could make out the the face of a forest reindeer staring right back at her like he had been caught committing a felony. The deer cocked its head off to the side in curiosity before running off into the deciduous abyss. She nervously laughed the whole situation off. She was just a little shell-shocked from her scuffle with the quarry eel and the copious amounts of blood lost recently was making her a little edgy.

She stared out into the mess she had created while fixing her dislocation. Her green-bound book sat page down in a soft patch of grass away from the pile of bread, blankets, and bandaging. She walked over to the hardcover and picked it up, cherishing it. She did not wish to read it just yet, she wanted to save it for another time, one when she was in need of its salvation the most. She sat their cradling the open book in her arms like it was her very own foal. The hard-bound covers snapped shut and she slid it in perfectly at the bottom of the saddlebag.

The next thing she noticed was the apple.

She picked up the red delicious, her warm breath glossing over the top layer of its skin. It had lost some of the luster it carried with it back at the orchard and now she was trying to coax it into giving her one last little gleam of light. Rubbing it up against her coat she gazed into the reflection trying to make out anything. She noticed a glint of golden sun shimmer up off the top of the apple. Fluttershy contorted her face, the reflection she saw in the apple wasn't that of hers. The pony being mirrored back to her had their hair brushed and tied back, unlike that of Fluttershy's curtain-esque hairstyle. The other pony let off a warming smile at her, bearing six rounded freckles spread evenly across two cheeks. Fluttershy wiped the tears out of her eyes and glanced back into the apple, but this time she didn't see anything. Seeing this made Fluttershy unleash a gentle stream of constant tears, not out of sorrow or grief, but out of jubilation. With newfound hope, Fluttershy let off a huge grin though all of the tears and placed the fruit back into the bag, above the book.

She realised she needed to leave soon, remembering she had just stirred the hornet's nest down below her. She knew she didn't want to be there to greet the quarry eels when they eventually dug their was their way up through the surface. Everything else that held little sentimental value to her was tucked away into blanket-wrapped bundles and piled in on top of everything else.

The clasps on her bag gave off a loud snap, clueing her in that it was securely fastened to her waist. With everything buttoned down and prepped for the expedition, Fluttershy turned east and ambled off to continue on her journey.

Comments

[Regidar]

Nice descriptions, the wing popping back in made me wince.