Blue-eyed Headhunter
Copyright© 2025 by Heel
Chapter 4: Splints in the Dust
The Barton brothers had quieted; the worst of their bleeding was bandaged with torn shirts and strips of saddle leather.
Mia lay on the ground nearby, still trembling. The pain in her legs pulsed with every heartbeat. When she tried to move, the shock of it made her vision swim.
The brother she had bargained with knelt beside her, wiping his brow with the back of his wrist. “All right,” he muttered, half to himself. “If you’re to live, we’ve got to stop those bones from shifting.”
He called to the others for a length of wood, a torn sleeve, anything that could serve as a brace. They returned with two straight branches from a nearby mesquite and a strip of torn canvas.
“Hold still,” he said, glancing at her face. “It’s going to hurt.”
Mia nodded faintly, lips pressed white.
Her foot was dusty and streaked with blood from the kick, heel scraped raw where the leather had rubbed. The brother brushed the dirt away, examining how the ankle hung. “Twisted, maybe cracked. You’ll need it bound too.”
He worked methodically, wrapping the canvas around her calf and ankle, sliding the rough wood along the outside of her leg. Each movement made her gasp. The broken shin bent at an angle that made even the brothers grimace.
“Straighten it,” one said quietly.
“I know.”
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