Restless far from a Wine Dark sea - Day 22 - Sirens
Military medic Ernesto is tasked with taking in an injured sirena, creature of myth
Alternative view of the prologue.
@medwhumpmay
Tw captivity, serious injury, fainting/unconscious, blood loss, tranquilliser dart
≪ °❈° ≫
The sirena wobbled ungainly down the street, streaked with blood.
Ernesto had been surprised to hear the army was being deployed to deal with a terrorist attack in the sea-side city of Clearwater, only to discover the perpetrators were apparently inhuman sea monsters of legend. The attacks by the creatures had been bad, the air of the city was cut with the wail of emergency vehicles attending to the victims. But Ernesto had been called in as an army medic, and had a more dangerous task to perform than his civilian counterparts.
They were going to take one alive.
He looked like a normal man, thin cotton trousers and a loose shirt, but he was heavily injured, clasping his left arm to his body as copious quantities of blood flowed out his right leg. They had been assured he had been seen fighting another mermaid, both using siren magic until only one had emerged alive from a small cafe on the corner of the street.Now, Ernesto was sure that without medical intervention, the sirena man would be also be dead soon.
The sirena stopped to stare up into the sky, and covered his eyes with one hand.
“I have him in my sights. Taking the shot.”
The tranquilliser dart hit him in the shoulder. The man stumbled and fell to his knees.
“Hit.”
The sirena started taking off his shoes. An unusual move, but people did strange things when tranquilised.
“It might take a moment. These darts are for a normal male human dose, but once he is down we are going to have to move fast. He may have hidden injuries, but the amount of blood that is coming out of his right thigh is the biggest concern once his airway is secure.” Ernesto told the other military personnel, though he had already briefed them in the medical truck. There was no room for mistakes once the sirena was down.
Finally, the creature slumped onto his back.
“Let’s go.” Ernesto ordered.
They approached carefully, the tranquiliser rifle trained on his still form, along with several more deadly weapons should the sea monster try to rise again.
Oxygen was the most important - the wrong dose of tranquiliser would shut down the sirena’s instinct to breath, and -more importantly to Ernesto- the oxygen mask would prevent him from speaking, singing, or biting.
The sirena seemed to be unconscious, not opening his eyes Ernesto approached.
“Ready.”
Ernesto pounced, slamming the O2 mask onto the seamonsters face, forcing the rubber bit between his teeth while burly soldiers pinned his ankles and shoulders to the ground, avoiding the places where the mercreature had appeared most injured.
The sirena groaned in pain, but didn’t open his eyes.
“Still unconscious, but can feel pain. Let’s get him secure.”
Two other medics rushed over with a spinal board, fabric restraints already secured in the metal frame. It was designed to hold people far stronger than the short and slight man in front of Ernesto, but he hoped the sirena would not wake and demonstrate whether the mer had superhuman strength.
There was so much they didn’t know.
They needed this sirena alive.
The merman was swarmed, hands lifting him onto the board and straps being pulled tight.
“Not too tight on his legs; we may need to manoeuvre them when we bandage them up…” The straps were loosened, but not enough to allow a great range of movement.
“Let’s do an emergency assessment, just for life threatening injuries. Roy, get some gauze on his right thigh, try to stop some of that bleeding.” Ernesto ordered, “Ogunyemi, can you check the bleeding on the right thigh?”
“Left thigh has serious bleeding, hit something important. I reckon he will need surgery and a transfusion asap, as the rate of blood loss is life threatening…”
Getting the sirena off the street and into the military ambulance was already high on Ernesto’s list of priorities. They could stabilise him in the truck.
“His left arm is broken, probably a complex fracture of some kind. It did not move correctly when I restrained it,” Ogunyemi informed him as she started to dab away blood from the sirena’s left leg, “Right leg doesn’t look too bad, bloodloss minimal. But there appears to be a symbol drawn on the skin? Let me wipe some of the blood away…” Ogunyemi patted the injury with a piece of gauze.
Abruptly, there was a tearing of fabric, and the man’s legs were replaced by an expanse of deep blue scales, stretching 2 metres, culminating in a fan-like fishtail the colour of freshly spilled blood.
The sirena showed his true form.
“Ok,” Ernesto breathed, not letting the transformation shake him, “let’s get him moved into the ambulance. We just need to keep him alive…”
a/n tried to do a double reference to sirens with a hispanic first-responder, then realised military trucks probaly don't have sirens, but it's an abulance so it has the vibes.
sleep time
5 notes
·
View notes