A Ghost's Healing Hands

                In some ways, Blight thought of himself as lucky compared to his brother. He had only known his birthmother for a few days whereas Relic had known his mother for a solid month before he had gotten lost.

                There were nights when Blight would hear Relic crying. His breath would go from normal to ragged and shuddering as he attempted to hide his pain. The leaves that made up his nest would gently rattle together as he shivered, which would lead to Ghast getting up and going over to lay with him.

                She would sing to the two boys, humming a song to ease their worry and sadness and would gently pet them to soothe them. Blight and Relic both had come around to the Oviraptor and her oddly colored hide. She was kind and loving, and reminded them both of their mothers.

                The massive pale Acrocanthosaur that had scared the boys initially had said his name was Hunter. Blight had wondered if that was because he apparently loved hunting, or would commonly hunt other dinosaurs. No matter the reason, he ensured the boys were kept safe and would actually show them survival techniques. For being blind, the Acro was rather active and would bring the pair out on patrol with him constantly where he would then teach them about the outside and life in general.

                They were mom and dad.

                Even if Ghast was flighty, and insisted they run back to the safety of Hunter at the first sign of danger.

                Even if Hunter snapped at them for what they thought were little things.

                Ultimately the pair cared. They had not asked for hatchlings, but they did their best to ensure the pair were loved and cared for.

                “So, are you two dating or something?” Relic asked as he and Blight sat in their homecave with Ghast, helping her mash up a few berries that they would then put on top of the chunks of meat that had been ripped from their past hunt.

                The question made Ghast laugh, and they even heard an amused snort from Hunter as he lounged nearby ‘looking’ out the cave entrance. The Oviraptor shook her head with a smirk on her face as she coated one of the meat chunks with some of the berry paste that they had already made.

                “No, small one. That’s just silly. We’re not even the same species! Hunter and I are very close because we went through stuff just like you two did. I helped heal him up when he got into a fight with an Albertosaurus, one that took his eyes. That…took a lot out of both of us.” Ghast replied and smiled.

                “Oh. Do things like that happen a lot?” Blight asked and looked between the two adults.

                “Events that change you happen to everyone. To various degrees. Some have it worse than others.” Hunter replied, folding his arms under his massive heft and craned his neck, resting his chin against his lower neck and chest as he went into a resting stance.

                The two hatchlings were quiet, thinking over what was said but also focused on trying to make the paste as perfect as possible before Blight pulled a piece of meat over to the leaf that sat in front of him and stood to try and grab a handful of paste and slather it onto the meat chunk. His arms far too short to fully help him out in that situation or do as good of a job as Ghast was doing.

                “Will I ever not miss my mom?” Relic asked after a moment, not even attempting to help prepare the meat with the arm-nubs he had in comparison with the others.

                “Oh, baby. No. You will miss her in some way for your life. But it will come and go and you will find yourself mad at her sometimes, too. But it’s all a form of missing her. I miss my parents daily, but mostly in the form of wondering what they’re up to. If they’re still alive and loving life. If they had more hatchlings after me. But. I choose to think that yes. They’re happy wherever they’re at. They’re living their lives, doing what they can to go on with life.” Ghast said and smiled, leaning over and kissed the top of Relic’s head, rubbing her face against him to comfort him before she went back to the meat in front of her and glanced over at Blight.

                The small Acro now having made a complete mess of himself with berry paste all over his arms and belly as he attempted to wipe the paste off of his arms. “Child. You are a mess. Go and get cleaned up before you get berry everywhere else.” Ghast said and chuckled.

                Blight looked up at her and quickly gave a nod, running over to Hunter and stood in front of him and looked deep into his eye sockets. He wondered if the older male longed to see green grass again, or the blue of the sky.

                “Can you come with me? I don’t want to go down there by myself.” Blight asked.

                “Of course, come on.” Hunter replied, opening his mouth slightly and started that all to familiar rumble that the pair had grown accustomed to. His head kept pointed directly down at Blight as he stood up and stretched his legs out behind him one at a time before lumbering out of the cave.

                Blight skittered along after him. The cave that they lived out of set high up in one of the mountains of Isle Pera where very few trees grew. The ground littered with bones of dinosaurs that Hunter had killed. Ghast had assured the two brothers that it was all for show. It bothered Hunter to not put all parts of a carcass to use. Apparently it was disrespectful to keep the bones of the dead out in the open, uncared for.

                He wondered how true that was, though. Hunter didn’t seem to care for the bones as he stepped on them and only cared to avoid skulls. Blight’s feet had grown hardened to the bone shards over the last few months, though on occasion he would still find his foot cut and he would track blood everywhere until Ghast could get to him and bandage his foot up.

                It was a half mile of walking before the pair came across their ‘wash’ stream. The particular section they were at was shallow enough to let Blight and Relic get into the water without being swept away. He quickly skittered forward, jumping into the water and started to flail his arms around and scrubbed his stomach to get all the paste off. The paste having already starting to stain what little white hide he had on his neck and belly.

                “Did you have parents? Do you miss them?” Blight asked once he had finished washing off and ran back to the battle scarred male. The massive creature turning and started back into the forest.

                “No. I was born from a lone egg in a cold cave. There were others with me, but we all were different. When you are older I will tell you more. But you’re too young now to understand the place I came from.” Hunter replied.

                “Can you carry me? I won’t slow you down then.” Blight added quickly and stopped in front of Hunter but found the male didn’t stop.

                “You have legs for a reason, child. Come along. I do not tolerate weakness. And I distinctly remember when Ghast and I found you and your brother, you were not weak. In fact you were going to fight me.” Hunter replied and smirked, turning his head as if to look back at Blight before turning his head to face forward again. Blight just frowned, snorting, before running after Hunter.

                “I’m old enough to not be carried, so I’m old enough to be told where you came from!” Blight said and nipped at the back of the adult male’s foot. The Pale One just laughed, rumbling in amusement at how Blight tried to act ferocious.

                “This is true. And old enough to try and formulate a plot to get information from me. Too bad your trickery will not work on me like it does Ghast.”

                Blight just grumbled, flicking his tail tip in annoyance as he skittered along. By the time they got back up to the cave, Ghast and Relic had finished with the meat and had wrapped the pieces up in the massive leaves that Ghast kept on hand. The Oviraptor taking all the chunks into one of the back caves and put them away until who knew when. Neither juvenile understood how the Ovi cooked meat, only that her meals were to die for.

                The rest of the day was spent messing around the cave with his brother. Blight and Relic practicing their fighting skills before they had started to settle in for the night. The pair snuggling up with Hunter as Ghast brought out chunks of meat that they had prepared earlier in the week. The great Pale One made quick work of his food and rumbled happily as he listened to the two boys eat.

                “Why do you do that? Rumble all of the time and growl? You always have your head down when you do it.” Blight asked after a bite of food and looked over at Hunter.

                “It’s how I see. The sound bounces off of things and I can hear the difference in how far things are.” The Acro replied, making Reli look up quickly and swallowed his mouthful.

                “Can we do that? I want to try!” Reli said, getting up without another word and started to try and reproduce the same rumble that Hunter did while running around with his eyes closed. The result was the Carno tripping over a stone on the ground and flipping head over heels. Blight laughed until he noticed how odd Relic’s leg looked.

                He immediately stopped laughing.

                Ghast looked over quickly to see what had happened and noticed Relic’s leg as the juvenile moved to get back to his feet and screamed in pain, the bone shifting noticeably under the skin. In an instant, Ghast was on her feet and had rushed over to the Carno, picking him up and brought him back over to where they had all been sitting. The massive Acro male was already back onto his feet, Blight getting up and running over to stand and look up at Ghast, watching as she knelt down and carefully placed Relic in front of her.

                “What do you need.” Hunter asked. Quick and demanding. It unnerved Blight. How badly hurt was Relic? What could he do?

                The sound of Relic yelling and screeching in pain broke Blight. He hated the noise and brought him back instantly to the first night they had met. He was helpless…

                “Bandages. Hunter get me the bandages. And the bitterroot. Blight. This is very important. I need you to listen.” Ghast said, gently petting Relic to try and comfort him. Blight’s eyes widened as he was addressed, glancing over as the older male Acro as he turned and ran to the storeroom before Blight looked back at Ghast and gave a quick nod as tears threatened to stream down his face.

                “I need a stick, or piece of wood that is the length of his leg, but a little longer. The wood has to be sturdy. It cannot break easily but it needs to be able to have some bend to it. So it’ll need to be a fresh stick. Do you understand?” Ghast asked and smiled. She spoke quick, but her expression was kind and calm. She didn’t look worried at all, but she was quick to act. It calmed Blight slightly as he gave a nod and walked over to look at Relic’s leg as Ghast held him down to keep him from thrashing and hurting himself more.

                Once he was sure he had a good idea of how long the Carno’s leg was, Blight turned and ran from the cave. He had to be strong, like Ghast and Hunter. Neither were crying, neither were panicked. They were commanding and in complete control of the situation, so Blight needed to be as well. Relic would be fine, but he needed to find the stick. Not finding the perfect stick was something he could not think about in that moment. He didn’t know what would happen if the wound wasn’t treated, but he couldn’t think about it.

                Blight stopped by the closest tree, looking around it for sticks that were the right length and found none. He moved on, stopping at another tree and found one that was the right length, but when he went to step on it to test its strength, the stick broke quickly. Dry. He groaned, worried that he wouldn’t find the right stick that has enough bend. He looked around quickly, panic starting to creep in before he looked up. The freshest sticks were still connected to the tree. They would have enough bend and would last longer than a branch already on the ground.

                He quickly ran at the trunk of the tree before grabbing the closest small stick-branch that he could with his mouth and started to fall towards the ground. It didn’t break off. Blight thrashed, bouncing up and down, and did everything he could to break the branch from the tree. A moment later he fell back to the earth, fresh stick in maw as he started to run.

                When he got back to the mouth of the cave he couldn’t hear Relic anymore. And when he entered he saw Relic chewing on a root, his eyes half open as he stared ahead of himself at one of the walls. He was completely relaxed as he laid on the ground, bandages piled up beside him for Ghast to get to.

                “You have-good! Blight! Good job. Come here.” Ghast said and smiled, beckoning the juvenile Acro over. She took the stick from him once he got close enough and held it up to Relic’s leg to ensure it was the right size.

                “What are you going to do? Is he okay?” Blight asked quickly.

                “He will be. But I have to straighten his leg out. He won’t like it, even with the effects of the root. I need you to sit in front of him and make sure he keeps chewing that root, okay?” Ghast said and smiled over at Blight as Hunter made his way over to sit on the other side of Relic, opposite Ghast. Blight gave a nod and did as he was told, running around to sit in front of Relic and looked down at his brother. The Carno’s eyes were glazed over, staring straight ahead and through Blight as he simply kept chewing.

                Until Hunter had reached over and forced the juvenile’s leg to go straight with a horrific popping sound.

                Blight’s eyes went wide as Relic seemed to come-to in an instant and looked as if he was about to start thrashing. He quickly reached over and went to shove the root back into the mouth of Relic only to have the Carno chomp down on his hand.

                “Breathe through it.”

                Blight couldn’t even scream in pain, too surprised by the even and looked over at Hunter as the male kept Relic’s leg straight but was looking over at Blight.

                “Pain is temporary. It means you are alive and in good enough health to feel it. Breathe, you are not going to die. Pain is your body warning you to flee. Fleeing is weakness. The hatchling that was going to fight a full grown Acro is not weak. He would not flinch with a little pain in his hand.” Hunter said. Ghast glanced at him, the look in her eyes told Blight she wanted Hunter to be kind. She hated when he told the two kids to be strong in the way that he did.

                Blight closed his mouth and inhaled through his nose quickly, breathing quickly to try and get over the pain but it was hard. He looked over at Ghast to watch her quickly bandaging Relic’s leg to the branch, keep it straight and bound to the branch tight enough that he couldn’t move it. How would he run? The Carno loved to run. Was he going to be like that for the rest of his life?

                He felt the world spinning after a moment. His breathing still rapid and a moment later the young Acro had blacked out. He awoke a few minutes later, laying nose to nose with Relic who had settled back down and was sleeping peacefully. Blight felt hands caressing him, Ghast using all her strength to pick up the young Acro and pulled him over to lay in front of her as she rested beside Hunter.

                “It’s okay, child. You did so good. Your brother will be right as rain because of you. Good job. Let me see that hand of yours.” Ghast said quietly, humming as she carefully moved her hand down to cup his inside of hers so she could look at what Relic had done. Blight flinched in pain, looking down as well and saw his hand bleeding and mangled.

                “And I will make your hand feel better, too. But we have to clean it first. It won’t feel good, but it won’t hurt as much as what your brother went through.” Ghast said, gently letting go of Blight and got up, disappearing into the next cave and returned after a moment with another little bowl of oddly mashed up leaves and roots that she had mixed a bit of water into to make a paste.

                Blight bared his teeth and hissed as she delicately put the paste onto his hand, rubbing it into the wounds and then took the bandages that had been scrounged up from who knew where and wrapped his hand up. She kissed the top of his head once she had finished and laid back down beside him, curling up around him and hummed a song as Hunter curled around the entire group to block them from the outside world.