Chapter 10: Descent

The safe house filled with urgent voices and the sharp scent of antiseptic almost before the car doors slammed shut.

Three anthros burst through the front door, medical professionals summoned by Kiran’s frantic call. A lean lynx with silver and gray fur and striking green eyes led the way, carrying a heavy trauma kit. Behind her came a broad-shouldered wolf in dark scrubs, already pulling on nitrile gloves, and a tall dragon whose deep indigo scales caught the porch light, wings folded tight against his back as he ducked through the doorway.

They didn’t waste time on greetings.

“Kitchen table will do,” the lynx said, voice clipped and calm. “Now.”

Zariel carried Cass inside like he weighed nothing, laying him down on the cleared surface. The wolf medic ripped Cass’s blood-soaked shirt open the rest of the way. The lynx was already cutting away what remained of his pants, stripping him bare without ceremony, exposing him fully nude. Cold air hit Cass’s skin, but the pain in his gut burned hotter than any chill.

“Gut wound, deep lacerations, possible perforation,” the lynx muttered, shining a penlight into the gashes. “No major arterial bleed, but he’s lost a lot. Prep saline and sutures. Dragon, you’re on hemostasis.”

The dragon nodded, exhaling a thin stream of warm vapor. His clawed hands glowed faintly as he pressed them to the edges of the wounds, sealing capillaries with controlled bursts of heat. Cass hissed, vision swimming.

Roan stood at Cass’s head, paws cradling his human’s face, worried, even shaking a little. “Look at me, pup. Stay with me. These animals know their stuff, you just worry about fighting the pain, you’re gonna be fine.”

Cass tried. The voices blurred into a feverish hum. The lynx’s paws moved fast, probing, stitching, other feelings, some painful and sharp, some numb and tugging but still unpleasant. Needles went in him, some dulling the pain. The wolf medic murmured numbers and terms Cass couldn’t parse: “Peritoneal lavage ... no free air on palpation ... keep him stable...”

Pain flared laser-hot, then dulled to a distant throb. Cass’s consciousness flickered like a bad signal.

He was dimly aware of someone saying something strange, something about “the body knows what it needs,” “Not gonna recover fully,” but the words slipped away like water through fingers.

Then everything went black.

Cass woke naked and freezing.

Trees loomed around him, dark trunks rising into a starless sky that felt like it was trying to devour him. The ground was damp moss and pine needles that bit into his bare feet. His breath fogged. His balls ached from the cold, drawn tight against his body. He crouched low between two thick trunks, arms wrapped around his knees, trying to trap what little warmth he had left.

Alone.

Helpless.

His body shook, the air was soo cold, eerie, everything seemed distant. What is this place?

A soft sound reached him ... water. Slow at first, then rising. It seeped up through the moss, warm against his ankles, then his shins, his thighs. It wasn’t cold, it was actually warmer than a hot tub, gentle and soothing, glowing in it’s depth with a ghostly blue, melting away the cold in his flesh. There was suddenly a full moon out, and the water’s surface shimmered with it’s light. The water climbed to his waist, then his chest, the trees jutting out of the new lake like dark living pillars.