I took my backpack off as I edged closer to him. “I’m really sorry about making you crash. No wings,” I said, hooking a thumb at my back, “so I don’t know what I was doing falling from the sky.”
He nodded as he looked up. “How were you up there?”
“I think it was a fairy ring.”
“But those are all closed.”
“Are they?” If I could keep him talking, maybe he’d stay calm through what came next.
He nodded slowly. “The curse cut us off completely.”
I took the first aid kit out of my pack and found the slim rods for temporarily setting a bone. “There’s a curse on this place?”
“Yes. Barriers all around us.” He eyed the rods. “What are those?”
A curse with barriers? Maybe he’d hit his head. I focused on answering his question. “Well, I assume—and tell me if I’m wrong—that we should get your wing standing back up and brace it so it stays that way.”
He made a sound like a man resisting the urge to puke.
“You need to hurl, just aim that way.” I pointed away from me.
He sucked in a few breaths, in through his nose and out his mouth, so I figured he was trying to stay calm.
I tucked the rods between my fingers and twirled another finger around it all. “Ordinarily, I’d tape it up like this for a broken arm or sprained ankle, right? But since we can’t do thatwith your wing, what do you think about taping the rods to either side of the wing? Think that’ll work?”
“I don’t know what tape is,” he said a little breathlessly.
“Oh. Well, okay, it’s this.” I set the rods down and got the tape out. It was medical grade stuff, so easy to tear and pretty sticky. I tore off a piece to let him examine it.
He tested the stickiness and gave a nod. “There’s a dust coating my wings, so um, maybe wipe that off first?”
I smiled, glad he was calm and participating. “Sure. I’ve got some wipes in here that should do the trick just fine.”
They were alcohol wipes, so I moved around behind him to check for a break in…the skin? I didn’t know what fairy wings consisted of, but I could see that the stiff thing that had broken was encased in something skin-like that hadn’t broken. The wipe wouldn’t aggravate an open wound, then, but I still had to straighten up his wing to wipe it down.
I took a deep breath and told him, “I have to straighten your wing to wipe it off and then attach the rods. You do whatever you need to when it hurts, but try not to move. Okay?”
He nodded. “This isn’t my first broken wing. It’s usually a wavy break,” he said while his hand made a surfing the waves motion. “If you can notch it back together in the right place, that will provide some stability.” He sounded breathless and definitely like he knew this was going to be bad.
“Okay! Okay, that’s great.” I gave his shoulder on the opposite side of the broken wing a squeeze in both appreciation and support. “I’ll be as quick as I can.”
“Go.”
I did, straightening the broken part upward. He gave a little scream, but didn’t move. I felt along the break as I tried to position it and could actually feel that I needed to turn it a tiny bit. Trying to ignore the fact that this was torturing him, I fitted the two pieces together and found that it did stay upright. Itlooked like a good breeze would knock it over again, but it let me use both hands to open one of the wipes.
“You’re doing great,” I encouraged.
“The fuck I am.”
I bit my bottom lip so I wouldn’t laugh and carried on wiping the multi-colored dust from a few inches of his wing on both sides. It was like a super fine powder in yellow, green, and blue that clung to the tiniest little feathers I’d ever seen. For a moment, I wished I knew more about butterfly wings. But once I was done wiping, they were ready for the rods and tape.
“I’m going to hold a rod against it now,” I warned him.
He nodded, his head down. I saw a shiver go through him.
I pressed a rod to one side with a couple fingers and used the rest to help tear off strips of tape. I went for speed and taped it down in a few spots before getting the other rod in place. A few more strips on that one, and then I taped the rods to each other. It looked a little rickety, so I added more tape. He hadn’t made a sound the whole time.
“Okay, I think we’re done,” I said. “How’re you doing?”
