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“Bless it all!” Time cursed, kicking the dead end.
He let out a furious growl as he slammed the side of his fist into the wall over and over. This whole dungeon could only be a cruel trick, he thought. The hallways had to have changed or shifted, the heroes walking for ages only to find no more doors or steps. There were only long, winding corridors and rooms they had to duck to get into.
“Time,” Twilight managed, easing his weight against the wall. “We should just stop—”
“Stop!” Time barked. “ Stop?! We can’t stop!”
Twilight nodded, grimacing in pain. His hands pressed into a wound over his hip. Broken chain mail prodded his bracers, the sharp metal ends poking through the fabric. Blood spread through the green twill, saturating the seams so thoroughly that they began to weep. More blood seeped between the rancher’s fingers, coating his hands and gloves. He was losing too much blood. He knew it. Time knew it.
“We have to get you back,” Time hissed. “Or just—just someone with medicine.”
Twilight tried to fight the nagging fatigue. He’d been plodding behind Time for what felt like a small eternity, doing his best to not panic though he was losing that fight. It was getting harder to breathe, he noticed, and his face was flushed with heat and sweat. Black fuzz nibbled at the edges of his vision as his stomach turned and lips tingled.
“I gotta rest,” Twilight murmured, sinking his weight down.
“No,” Time ordered, grabbing Twilight’s arm. “You can’t.”
Time dragged Twilight back up to his feet. He knew he was pushing Twilight too hard, that all the walking only made things worse, but they had to do something . Time had to be able to say he tried .
“Please,” Twilight groaned, resting his forehead on Time’s shoulder. “Just a minute.”
“We don’t have a minute.”
“I can’t—”
“You can ,” Time implored.
Stubbornly, Time drew Twilight’s arm over his shoulders as the eldest hooked his own around the rancher’s waist. He would get Twilight back to the others, even if he were only carrying a body in the end. Twilight failed to swallow a whimper as Time set an urgent pace. Blood dripped to the floor, leaving a trail. Infuriatingly, despite walking in what seemed like circles, they had yet to find the trail again.
“Time,” Twilight managed, “I’m gonna be sick.”
“Keep it down.”
“I can’t,” Twilight whined, his voice breaking in desperation. “ Please jus’ lemme rest for one doggone second.”
Time tightened his grip on the rancher. In response, Twilight shuddered with a quiet sob. The panic was beginning to bake in. No matter how strong-willed Twilight could be, he was only just a man. Time learned that one’s body was an intricate system of warnings and alarms. The panic with blood loss was one of those—a sudden kick of adrenaline to propel the need for survival, even when there was nothing to survive beyond the bleeding. Hot skin, shallow breaths, nausea. Soon there would be a change in Twilight’s complexion, confusion, and possibly fainting. Time couldn’t allow it to get that far. With every drop, the rancher’s chances of seeing it through grew slimmer and slimmer.
Gritting his teeth, Time all but dragged Twilight through the labyrinth. He was certain the hallways were leading him astray, intent on trapping them both and digesting them. Whether the dungeon itself was a creature or something lurked at its center, he didn’t know and it wasn’t his concern. His only concern was finding an exit.
“Time!” he heard.
Time perked up, gasping. That was Warriors’ voice. The exact person he needed just then.
“Captain!” Time screamed back.
“Time!” the voice came again, closer now.
“Captain!” Time replied, tears stinging his eyes.
His heart thundered in his chest, hope swelling into nothing short of excitement as Warriors appeared with his lantern in hand. The captain looked as disoriented as the other two and just as relieved to see them—
Thud .
Time paused, glancing down to the floor. Twilight had sagged from his grasp, crumpling to the ground. He was heavy and slack, the blood beginning to puddle at his side.
“Pup,” Time uttered. “Twilight! Get up!”
Time took a knee, shaking the rancher. He only got a brief groan and a groggy mumble. Warriors cursed, throwing himself at Twilight’s side.
“What happened?” Warriors demanded.
Time shook his head. “I don’t know—when we found each other, he was already injured.”
“Did he say anything?”
“No, he said he handled it and that’s all.”
Warriors nodded, face grim. The captain took Twilight’s pulse first, cursing at its quickness.
“Twi,” Warriors ordered, “stay with us.”
Roughly, he tore away Twilight’s sash and pushed up the man’s upper layers. The wound was deep and ragged, no bone visible though it was plenty enough to kill him given enough time. The wound scabbed along the edges, the blood visibly slowed at its shallowed parts. Still, there were two deep pockets as if the man had been gored by a trident or fork of some sort.
Warriors scowled in determination, pulling out his medical kit. He sifted through his things, cursing as he drew out a few empty bottles, one of them still stained red with the potion it’d held. With little time to waste searching all of his things, Warriors resigned himself to plain medicine.
“Hold pressure,” he ordered Time.
Time nodded, taking a rag from the captain which he pressed to the wound. Slowly, its rough texture soaked with blood. As Time did his best to stop the bleeding, Warriors pulled out a roll of tools. They were meant for pinch surgeries and dentistry work, rarely used among the heroes. Included in his roll, stitched in after it was issued to him, there was a small assortment of glass phials. Strong pain medicine, an anesthetic, and among other things, a chemical to stop bleeding.
Warriors rinsed his hands with alcohol and then drew out a thin rod with a flat tip at one end. He dipped it in the alcohol first to clean it and then pried open the phial. The captain swirled the flat end in the tincture to prepare it.
“Alright, pull back,” Warriors grunted.
Time obliged, his hands trembling as he did. With Warriors there, Time couldn’t help but allow himself to feel dread and worry. He was terrified that any of them might die, but especially that Twilight—his boy—might die. They’d come close enough once. Time could hardly stand it again.
Warriors spread the wound open gently with one hand. With the other, he began to stamp the rod against the weeping flesh. Twilight’s fingers twitched slightly, but beyond that, he had little reaction to it. The process was agonizingly slow for Time. He felt like he was going mad as he watched Warriors’ diligent work.
The captain would tamp the wound with the rod, rewetting the end of it as needed. It seemed to take ages for the tonic to even work . Slowly but surely, a gray-black eschar began to scale across the deepest parts of the wound. It was a thick scab-like plate, simply blocking anymore blood from leaving the rancher. The fine work left little flecks of other scabs along the wound, but Warriors did his best to keep it concentrated.
Finally, the captain was done. “Sit him up.”
Time nodded, lifting Twilight beneath the shoulders. The rancher was cool to the touch and paler than Time cared to see. He slouched as Time lifted him from the ground. Warriors packed the wound with gauze before he wound a taut bandage around Twilight’s midsection.
“That’s all I can do,” Warriors said plainly. “It should be enough, but we need to find our way out of this horrible place.”
Time nodded, holding Twilight to his chest. “If you can take point and stay armed, I’ll carry Twilight.”
Warriors frowned. “Is your back—”
“It’s fine,” Time snapped.
The captain nodded, sighing through his nose. “Fine, I’ll take your word for it.”
It was clear Time was fighting his own panic. Warriors wasn’t going to take anymore security from him, so if Time insisted on hauling the rancher, the captain would allow it. Warriors wiped his hands and tools, packing his things up again. As he did, Time took care to tuck away the rancher’s sash and clean the man’s hands and face with a damp cloth.
Warriors draped Twilight over Time’s back. The eldest fought over a seize in his own lumbar at the weight pressing down on top of his arm, but he forced himself upright. His arms hooked beneath Twilight’s legs, he leaned forward slightly to keep the rancher from slipping off.
Warriors took up his lantern in one hand and sword in the other. With Twilight stable, they could focus on getting out of the dungeon.