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I let the creature trot slowly along the road. It seemed happier that way and moved at a lumbering pace.
Worse than that, Chax needed proper rest to recover. Bouncing around in an uncomfortable saddle wasn’t going to help with that.
He was still unconscious but the fever had broken. It was only when we slowed that I noticed his blood seeping from his shoulder. It stained the arjath’s matted fur and made it sticky. I checked the wound and found a large shard of wood embedded in his back.
I thought about pulling it out but knew he could easily bleed to death if I didn’t have the right equipment to hand. Riding on the arjath this way was only serving to push the shard of wood deeper into his flesh, making it bleed more. I knew Titans could heal fast but some injuries were more difficult to overcome than others.
Even for them.
But with no other means of transport, I kept the arjath moving. I ensured to always follow the flashing beacon on my device. Once we reached the shuttlecraft, I could airlift him to a hospital…
Except I didn’t know where the hospitals were. Or even if there were any. I would worry about that when we came to it.
For now, I had to get him somewhere to rest, preferably where I could get that shard of wood out of his system.
Finally, I hit on some luck.
Someone had left an old cart by the side of the road. It wasn’t the first one I’d seen but it was the first with the wheels still in place and capable of being pulled along.
I pulled the arjath to the side of the road and kept hold of its harness. The last thing I wanted was to lose him. He’d take Chax with him and then where would I be?
In the middle of nowhere, waiting for Iron Hoof to come pick us off.
I brought the arjath alongside the cart. That meant leading him down the embankment, which it wasn’t keen on doing, not until it saw how wet and juicy the grass was down there. He munched away quite happily after that.
Okay. Now I needed to shift Chax off the arjath onto the cart. Easy if I was a powerful Titan. But I was an average female human. I didn’t have the strength to carry him.
I needed to ease him down as carefully as possible onto the cart’s bed. I had no idea how deep the shard was in his body. If it got knocked deeper, closer to his heart, he might well be a goner.
With my engineer cap on, I devised a way to lower him slowly. With no other wood or ropes or pulley system, I was going to have to use my legs as the ramp he’d slide down.
It wasn’t going to be easy.
Please, gym training. For once in your life, be of some use to me!
Okay, so it’d already proven its use by getting Chax’s interest in me. And then there was riding him like a banshee last night. Definitely not possible if I hadn’t spent so much time on the cardio machines.
But now, I needed my strength training to pay off.
I released the rope that lashed his legs to the arjath and slid my right leg underneath him. I placed my foot on the side of the cart to brace his weight. Then I followed with my right leg.
The first part was easy. The harder part was leveraging his ass—and what an ass—up so I could roll my thigh underneath him.
His legs were less heavy than his torso, so their weight might help me move his body onto the cart. The worst thing that could happen was for him to slip off the arjath and onto the ground. It would drive the splinter deeper into his soft flesh.
“Okay,” I said out loud. “On the count of three. One, two…”
I released the rope lashing his hips to the arjath a little and worked my right leg underneath him. I let out a breath.
So far, so good. But it wasn’t enough yet. If I released him anymore, he would slide off the saddle and onto the ground.
It would be so much easier if he was still awake!
I released the rope a little more, around his chest this time, and slipped my knee under him. I could feel how sweaty his back was but I took no notice. I slid my left leg up under him to join the right.
Then, I braced my feet on the side of the cart and held his weight firmly on my thighs. I grunted.
Boy! You need to lose a little weight!
