Get Her Arm Healed

"Aaaah!" Cora screamed. The sound tore through her throat, raw and panicked.

Years of chugging soda and living a sedentary life back on Earth had left her bones as brittle as dry twigs. A ten-foot drop into the arms of a solid, muscular beastman was all it took. The sheer impact snapped her right arm.

Zarek froze. His usually lazy, half-lidded eyes snapped wide open. Shock rippled across his striking features. He stared down at the small woman trembling in his grip.

*What just happened?* he thought, bewildered. He had barely caught her. He had not squeezed. Yet her arm had cracked like dead wood. He had never encountered a female cub this fragile. She felt like she might shatter into dust if the wind blew too hard.

A heavy wave of guilt hit him. He had offered to catch her, to keep her safe from the drop, and instead, he had broken her. He gently lowered her to the damp earth, treating her like cracked glass. He stepped back, afraid to touch her again.

"Oww, it hurts," Cora whimpered. Hot tears spilled over her cheeks. She cradled her right arm against her chest. The throbbing agony made her vision swim.

Zarek scowled, a deep line forming between his brows. He turned and vanished. He moved in a blur, much faster than Cora could track. A heartbeat later, he reappeared. He held a bright, exotic red flower in his large hand.

"Eat it," he commanded, holding the bloom out to her. "The whole thing."

Cora sniffled. Her arm throbbed with every beat of her heart. She did not argue. She took the red flower with her good hand and shoved it into her mouth. She chewed and swallowed.

The effect hit her bloodstream almost instantly. The sharp, blinding agony in her fractured bone began to dull. It felt as though someone had injected a heavy dose of industrial-strength painkillers straight into her veins. The pain plummeted from a blinding hundred percent down to a dull, manageable thirty. She let out a shaky breath, blinking away her tears.

"I will take you to get healed," Zarek said. He took a half-step forward, then stopped. His hands hovered in the air. He did not know where to grab her. If he picked her up the wrong way, would another bone snap?

Cora wiped her wet face with the back of her left hand. The pain was fading, and her survival instincts kicked back in. She glanced toward the edge of the lake.

"Wait," Cora said, her voice still trembling. "Can you bring my suitcase? And that zebra."

Zarek blinked. "Sure."

Cora let out another quiet sniffle. She stared up at him. "Can you keep my zebra alive?"

Zarek fell silent for a second. He looked from her small, tear-stained face to the half-drowned beast by the water. "Well, okay."

Cora exhaled a breath she did not know she was holding. She relaxed her tense shoulders.

*Wow,* she mused internally. *They really treat female cubs like royalty around here. I just fell out of a tree, and they are granting my every wish.*

She had been an independent adult for years. But here? If playing the weak, helpless cub earned her VIP treatment and a personal bodyguard, she would milk the role for all it was worth. She had zero shame about it.

In truth, she cared nothing for the zebra. That striped menace had used her back as a springboard to save itself, nearly drowning her in the sacred lake. She hated the thing. She only asked about it to test Zarek's boundaries. She wanted to gauge how much power she held in this weird dynamic.

His immediate compliance told her everything she needed to know. If this terrifying beastman was willing to lug around her luggage and keep a random animal alive just because she asked, her own safety was guaranteed. The magical red flower had already taken the edge off her panic.

"I am freezing," Cora muttered, shivering as the cold air hit her wet nightgown. "Let's go."

Zarek stared at her for a beat. Then he turned his gaze toward the massive pythons lingering near the water's edge.

"Keep your mouths shut about today," Zarek ordered, his voice dropping into a low, authoritative rumble. "I just happened to find this female cub outside the tribe and brought her back. Understand?"

The giant serpents bobbed their massive heads in unison.

Zarek turned back to Cora. "Come. The healer."

He set off down the path. Cora hurried after him, her bare feet padding against the dirt.

Behind them, the pythons hissed, exchanging confused glances. Zarek was the guardian. He never left the Sacred Lake. Yet here he was, abandoning his post for a fragile female cub.

The path winding away from the lake was wide and smooth, flattened by the constant slithering of giant snakes. The dense trees and thick bushes formed a canopy overhead, blocking out the sky.

Even with the clear trail, Cora struggled. Zarek was well over six feet tall. His legs were thick columns of muscle, and his stride ate up the distance. Cora had to jog just to keep him in sight. She had almost drowned an hour ago. She had fallen out of a tree. Her arm was broken. Her energy reserves were gone.

She fell behind.

Zarek stopped. He let out a long sigh and turned around. He looked at her small, panting figure, his patience wearing thin.

"Transform into your true form and follow me," Zarek said. "You are way too slow like this."

Cora froze. Her heart skipped a beat.

*True form?* she panicked internally. *This is my true form. I am human. I do not have fur or scales or wings.*

She forced her expression to remain neutral. She swallowed hard, trying to keep her voice steady. "I would be even slower if I did that."

Zarek furrowed his brow. He looked her up and down. *What kind of beast form is slower than this?* he wondered. *Is she from the Grubfolk?*

The thought puzzled him. He stepped closer, casting a shadow over her. "What tribe are you from?"

Cora fell back on her default defense mechanism. She flashed a sly, mysterious smile. "Why don't you guess?"

Zarek studied her smooth, pale skin and her round face. "The Swinefolk?"

Cora’s smile cracked. Her eye twitched.

*Swinefolk?* she screamed in her head. *You are the pig. I am a delicate human woman, you giant jerk.*

She kept her stiff smile glued in place. "Tsk. Good luck guessing. I am not telling you right now. Can we just go get my arm healed first? It still hurts."

Zarek let the subject drop. He glanced down at her bare feet and her shivering frame. "Should I shift into my beast form and give you a ride?"

The image of his monstrous beast form flashed in her mind. Giant, terrifying, deadly. Panic flared in her chest.

"No," Cora blurted out, shaking her head. She gestured to her broken right arm with her left hand. "Look at me. I only have one working arm. I cannot hold on. I will fall right off and break the other one."

Zarek nodded slowly. "I will carry you, then."

"Good," Cora answered instantly.

Zarek paused. *She agreed fast.*

He gave her a long look but did not take back the offer. He stepped into her personal space. He raised his arms, but his hands hesitated in the air.

He remembered the sickening crack of her bone. She was pieced together from fragile wood. One wrong squeeze, and she would snap in half. He moved with agonizing slowness. He slid one large, warm hand under her back. He slid the other under the back of her knees. He lifted her.

He waited for the sound of snapping bone. Silence. He let out a breath he had been holding.

Cora stiffened in his grip. She had never been carried like this before. The bridal style lift left her feeling exposed and vulnerable.

Her cheek pressed against his bare, solid chest. His muscles were firm like carved stone. His skin felt incredibly smooth against her face. She could not help but notice his pink nipples just inches from her nose. The chill of his body seeped through her soaked nightgown, sending goosebumps racing up her arms and legs. The intimacy of the position was overwhelming.

*Why do I feel like I am taking advantage of him?* Cora thought, a flush creeping up her neck.

Zarek felt just as out of place. Cora was soft. She was warm and squishy, lacking the hard muscle of beastfolk females. Carrying her felt like holding a giant, fragile marshmallow. He had never held a female like this. His heart beat a little faster.

"Close your eyes for a bit," Zarek muttered, his voice rough. "There are a ton of pythons along the way."

The Serpentfolk territory crawled with giant snakes. Given how easily she broke and how jumpy she acted, Zarek worried she might faint from sheer terror if she saw the writhing masses in the bushes.

Cora did not need to be told twice. She squeezed her eyes shut.

Behind them, two massive pythons slithered into motion. One had its massive jaws clamped around the scruff of the half-dead zebra, dragging the limp animal over the dirt. The other python balanced Cora's pink suitcase on its broad head, winding behind Zarek like a dutiful servant.

Cora cracked one eye open and peeked over Zarek’s shoulder. She watched the giant snake carrying her luggage. It was weirdly cute, but the sheer size of the reptile sent a spike of primal fear through her veins. The cuteness was unsettling. It made the hair on her arms stand up. She quickly clamped her eyes shut again and buried her face deep into the crook of Zarek's neck.

Her soft breath puffed against his skin. Her body heat pressed into him. Zarek swallowed hard. The awkwardness intensified. He tightened his grip on her back and knees, took a deep breath, and launched forward.

He ran.

The wind whipped past Cora. It was late autumn, teetering on the edge of winter. The temperature hovered barely above fifty degrees. Cora was soaked to the bone, wearing nothing but a thin nightgown.

The freezing wind cut right through the thin fabric. She began to shiver. Her teeth chattered. Her pale face turned blue around the edges.

She had lost track of time since the flood swept her away. The only thing saving her from immediate hypothermia was the layer of fat she hated back on Earth. If she were a skinny, runway-model type, the cold would have killed her by now. Her fat was her armor.

She drifted into a numb daze, her cheek bouncing against his collarbone.

The rushing wind stopped. The motion ceased. Cora groaned softly.

"You need to change into some dry clothes," Zarek's voice rumbled from above her.

He lowered his arms and set her on the ground. His movements were slow and precise, ensuring her bare feet found solid earth before he let go.

Cora swayed, hugging her good arm across her chest to trap her fading body heat.

Zarek reached into a pouch at his waist. He pulled out a small, pale blue gem. He held it out to her.

Cora stared at the stone in his palm. It was roughly the size of a two-carat diamond. It caught the dim light, shining clear and bright despite lacking any faceted cuts.

"Take this," Zarek instructed, pointing a long finger toward a structure in the distance. "That is Ms. Alma Voss's place up ahead. She is a gentle old female. Ask her for two sets of fur clothes. Get changed inside."

Cora took the cold gem from his hand. She rolled it between her thumb and index finger. Her brain, sluggish from the cold and the pain, struggled to process the situation. She looked at the sparkling stone, then up at Zarek.

"What kind of gem is this?" she asked, her voice raspy. "It is so pretty. Are you sure I am supposed to use this to get clothes?"

Zarek gave her a flat stare. "It is a Rank 1 beast crystal."

"Oh." Cora forced an awkward chuckle.

She wanted to slap her own forehead. *Great job, Cora,* she berated herself. *This is clearly standard currency here. You just outed yourself as an ignorant outsider.*

Her head felt fuzzy and hot. The chill in her bones clashed with a rising fever. She shoved the embarrassment aside. *Whatever. I will just play dumb. They already think I am an idiot anyway.*

She gripped the beast crystal tight in her left hand. She turned her body toward the path, expecting Zarek to walk beside her. When she realized he remained planted in his spot, she paused and looked back over her shoulder.

"You are not coming with me?" she asked.

Zarek crossed his muscular arms over his chest. He shook his head. "That is the female-only area. It is not proper for me to get in."

He noticed the immediate spike of panic in her wide eyes. The female cub was a bundle of raw nerves.

"Relax," Zarek added, softening his tone in a rare display of empathy. "Alma is nice to female cubs."

He was not the comforting type. He preferred silence and solitude. But looking at Cora—shivering, pale, covered in dirt, nursing a broken arm, and looking like a stiff breeze would snap her in half—threw him off balance. She looked pitiful.

His reassurance did not work.

Cora slowly turned her head to face her destination. The wooden hut stood thirty feet away. It was tall, built from thick logs. The door was wide open, but no light spilled from inside. The interior was a wall of pitch-black darkness. It looked like the mouth of a cave, waiting to swallow her whole.

Fear locked her joints. She stood frozen in the dirt. Her heart hammered against her ribs. She looked back at Zarek, her eyes wide, silently begging him to come with her, to protect her, to just skip this part.

"Go ahead," Zarek said. He stepped forward and gave her a gentle, firm nudge in the center of her back. The push made it perfectly clear she had no choice.

Cora stumbled a half-step forward. She felt a flash of childish resentment. This was exactly like being a shy kid at a family gathering, feeling her parents' hands shoving her forward to go talk to strange relatives.

She shot Zarek a glare full of silent protest. He merely stood there, unmoving, watching her.

Cora swallowed the lump of dread in her throat. She gripped the blue beast crystal so hard her knuckles turned white. She turned back toward the dark doorway, forced her trembling legs to move, and began the long trudge forward.