#and 2. a bit more on the inside and it would have hit his femoral artery which would have been... not good

[spielzeugkaiser]

Continuation of this.

(I am always ready to hurt the bard and @anythinggoesfandoms egged me on, so...here we are! Jaskier lost a lot of blood, his hands are badly bruised and he’ll probably limp for quite some time, but both of them surrived.) ... Jaskier probably would have gone for that thing with bare hands, if he had to.

[atlas-of-a-human-soul]

T&L part 5: His secret

Warnings: blood? violence?

Word count: 2510

Part six

And above all, watch with glittering eyes the whole world around you because the greatest secrets are always hidden in the most unlikely places. Those who do not believe in magic will never find it. - Roald Dahl

Arya’s POV

I woke up sweating profusely, heart pounding, gasping for air and looking around trying to find something to anchor me to my waking state. I had that dream again. It wasn’t exactly the same, some things changed. For instance I could see the furry creature a little bit better. It was huge, almost like a bear, but bears can’t move that fast and definitely aren’t as agile. Maybe it was a gigantic wolf or something considering the howl I heard in the dream. This time that howl wasn’t distant and it wasn’t a lone wolf. There was a chorus of „singing“ filling the air around me even before I came to see those dreaded red eyes. This time I tried taking a different path while I was running, but no matter which path I took, the end result was still the same.

Looking at the clock I could tell it was time to get up and go to work. That’s right, Monday was finally here and I was the new part time resident in Forks Trauma center. I got ready and grabbed a muffin Emily left for me on the kitchen table with a good luck note before quietly exiting the house so I wouldn’t wake anyone up.

Driving my teal peugeot or ‘Seal’ as I liked to address him (yes, I’m one of those people) to work I could clear my mind. It was a rainy day and the roads were rather slippery with a thick foggy cover so I counted on at least one big trauma today.

„Good morning Dr. Cullen“ I said politely.

„Morning Dr. Johnson. Since the E.R. is deserted currently, we can do our morning rounds on the trauma floor. And if there are no incoming traumas by then I’ll show you to the cafeteria for breakfast.“

I nod and walk beside the incredibly handsome doctor. During rounds he introduced me to patients and asked me a few questions to keep me on my toes, and we agreed on new tests for  some of those patients as well as a new course of therapy for another select few. After rounds we went to grab some breakfast, well I did, Carlisle said he wasn’t hungry, so while I ate he talked to me about the usual number of cases per day and told me about a few most frequent injuries based on different times of the year. Even tho’ he made sure I knew that this was a small town and nothing too big ever really happened around here, I just knew things would pick up soon. It was like a sixth sense, and don’t get me wrong I’d never want anyone to get hurt just so I could have something to do, but if they did get injured I wanted to be there to fix them. They say all doctors are in a way adrenaline junkies and I agree. The rush you get when a patient comes in screaming bloody murder while looking like there was an actual freaking murder is exhilarating.

However it seemed as if my sixth sense was a bit off today, and by 2 pm there were only three cases: a cut that needed stitches, a broken toe and a sprained ankle. I was driving home when all of a sudden my pager went off. I sped back to the hospital only to find a full E.R.

„Dr. Johnson! Over here.“ A nurse spotted me. „ There was a big car crash just outside Forks, they brought about 7 people so far, but there are 5 more coming our way. Bed 1 and 3 are in the worst shape, till Dr. Cullen comes you’re in charge of them.“

I went straight for the 1st bed and from the looks of it there was a huge head laceration on this guy, his leg had an open fracture of the femur and after a quick physical I could tell his abdomen was distended which meant internal bleeding. After a quick ultrasound I noticed a ruptured spleen and I ordered a head CT to rule out any brain bleeds and I notified Carlisle that we will have to operate on the man soon. I wasn’t permitted any unsupervised surgeries for a few more years so I waited for him to come for as long as I could. While an intern took that patient up to the CT, I tended to the patient in bed three. It was a man with a developing tension pneumothorax. After I put in a chest tube and relieved the tension he was no longer in any immediate danger so I just paged an attending to take over.

Carlisle met me in the OR and we spent the whole day inside. Turns out there was a brain bleed and I got to watch a neurosurgeon do a craniotomy, also I assisted in a splenectomy and in the repair of the open femur fracture. There was a complication while the other resident was resetting the bone where he managed to rip the femoral artery, but thankfully we managed to stop the bleed and fix it.

By the time I got out of the OR it was already 10 pm. Grabbing a cup of coffee with Carlisle we rested up and decided to work the night shift too and that way we could oversee the patient since most deaths occur during night.

After such a long night, I was back on the road home at dawn. Rain stopped but the fog seemed even thicker. A vast blanket of white hung heavy over the hills suffocating and swallowing every distant object and vanishing around every corner, covering the trees and the road ahead. This enveloping whiteness hurt my eyes as I could barely see where I was going. Finally recognizing the road to my brothers home I drove slowly so I wouldn’t accidentally drive straight into the house.

„Just a little bit longer and I can finally crawl back into my warm bed and just sleep this foggy morning away. Just a“, suddenly I heard a loud thump on Seal’s hood. My heart was racing..did I just hit someone?! No, no, no, no, no, no!

Jumping out of the car as fast as I could I stopped when I saw a tall figure getting off the wet ground. The man was shaking and growling, but I could barely see him through all the fog. I just started my usual nervous rambling:

„Oh my God, I am so sorry, I didn’t see you this damn fog made me almost blind. Are you hurt? I’m a doctor I could take a look at your injuries if you are?“

But the man didn’t turn around, instead he kicked Seal, thumped at the hood with his fists and started screaming at me, his words spat out with the ferocity and rapidity of machine gunfire in a voice that was barely more human than a growl.

„You idiot! You could have killed me! Who the hell gave you a license?!“ His voice boomed as he hit Seal once again breaking the headlights.

I knew I should just stay quiet and wait for the storm to abate since it really was my fault, but I couldn’t help sparring with him. I know that when tension is high I should inject love instead of anger, give him an olive branch instead of enmity, but sometimes it just isn’t that easy, because as he hit Seal over and over again destroying one of the side mirrors in his rage, I got this urge to smack him down. So I walked up to him and slapped him with my open right hand full across the face with as much force as I could muster. It rocked him and he took a step back and that’s when I knew I’d pushed him harder than was wise. For every pound I weighed he weight three and it was all solid muscle. I couldn’t even make myself look at his face because all of a sudden his body was shaking violently while his breathing was labored and moments later he jumped back and I could hear a loud crunching sound with a growl. The fog surrounding us cleared as the growl grew louder and before me stood a huge wolf with dark silver fur with his teeth bared and a stance that told me he was ready to pounce.

As fear took over my body I was frozen to the spot. Did it eat the man I was just with or did he somehow turn into this wolf? That’s not possible, right? It can’t be! I can feel the sweat drench my skin as my fingers are curled into a fist, nails digging into my palm. I can’t hear my rapid breathing, but I can feel the oxygen flooding in and out of my lungs. Hesitantly, my eyes meet his. I could feel my heart beat… every single pound in my chest. I could not move, I could not even breathe. I took breathing for granted until he stole the air from my lungs. Then it came in short and shallow bursts.

As my eyes were glued to these dark chocolate brown eyes, my brain was racing. I knew him. I saw him before. That creature in my dreams….I suspected it could be a wolf, but looking at the one standing right in front of me I was sure I dreamed of him. I could see his stance change as he made eye contact as well. He wasn’t angry or shaking anymore, he was docile. Growling stopped and it seemed as if he was in some sort of a trance, with his tongue slightly protruding out of his snout. The wind gently brushed my hair and grazed my face, almost soothingly. This is what I needed though, some adventure. Even with the risk and danger my brain warned me off, my feet were already moving towards the majestic beast. I slowly reached out a hand for him to sniff and he nuzzled into my palm with a small whimper. I couldn’t fight the small smile playing on my lips as I reached out again with my other hand to caress his thick fur, gently running my hand up on his head to scratch that spot behind his ears. His head cocked to the side, his eyes shifting to look at something behind me.

„Arya! What the hell happened?!“ Sam runs up to me and soon spots the wolf next to me. He looks to the wolf with surprise and then frowns as if he knew something I didn’t.

„I am standing next to a horse-sized wolf and you’re not freaking out! As crazy as it seems I think this wolf is a man I hit with my car about five minutes ago.“ I bluntly stated with a blank expression on my face. 

„ I hit a man with my car, and then slapped him and he turned into a gigantic silver wolf, the same wolf from those dreams I have and you are not freaking out! Why are you not running, screaming? Why are you acting like this isn’t a freaky magical werewolf thing?“ I yelled while gesturing to the wolf.

He just looks at me opening his mouth a few times to say something, but closing it soon after without a word. His eyes dart behind me and the wolf.

The wolf whips around as well and I follow their gaze only to see two more wolves heading straight towards us. The silver giant steps in front of me in a defensive stance as Sam grabs me and pulls me behind him telling me to back up.

The big russet wolf jumps at the silver one, snapping his teeth near his head managing to throw him to the ground. But the silver one springs back up fast and snarls at the other one. All of a sudden Sam burst up and shifts into a black wolf faster then my eyes could register. Soon they all move towards the forest, teeth snapping and rolling. As they disappear a realization hits me. That’s his secret. That’s the complication he has yet to explain to me. Were all his friends wolves? Was this genetic? Was I going to turn into a gigantic fur ball?

All the thoughts are accelerating inside my head and I want them to slow down so I can breathe but they won’t. My breaths come in gasps and I feel like I’m blacking out. My heart is hammering inside my chest like it belongs to a scared animal running for its life. The world spins and I squat on the floor, trying to make everything slow down to something my brain and body can cope with. I feel so sick. I want to scream for help, but no words come out. I fall to the floor my head between my knees as I rock back and forth trying to make it all stop. I feel someone hugging me tight but I can’t even register what is happening. Think….think….breath.. I look up to see Emily saying something to me, but I can barely hear her from the ringing in my head.

„Emily, I can’t , gasp, I can’t brea….Sam…wolf..I can’t. How, how, how..“

I closed my eyes, trying to focus on something, anything, just to find one thing to anchor me to this world, but all I can think of it that wolf. Is he okay? Why did the russet one attack him? No! Focus! Focus on the way his fur felt against my skin. Focus on his eyes! His eyes stained with the color of hot chocolate on a cold, winter night that engulfs you in its warmth and makes you feel right at home, seizing the depth and heaviness of a thousand untold stories. When I was brave enough to meet them a shiver of golden light racing down my spine, his gaze reminding me of cool waters on flames, the sky lightening after a storm. Those eyes, that wolf, the man underneath…he was my anchor.

Finally breaking out of the fog surrounding my brain I looked to Emily.

 „You guys have a lot of explaining to do.“

She nodded. „When they come back, we’ll tell you everything. Come, let’s go home, you should rest up. It will take them a while to cool down.“

We got into 'Seal’ and drove to the house that was already visible on the horizon in utter silence.

When we came in, I collapsed on the couch to make sure I hear when Sam returns, because no matter how tired I was, I had questions. And this time, he was going to answer them. All of them.