Dolphus’ muscles were taking turns contracting and releasing aggressively, in whatever parts of his body happened to be dealing with the brunt of the suffering at the moment. Surely this was a fatal wound; surely he was going to die any second now, surely he…
…Very slowly, reason was conquering his other thoughts. But very slowly. He was so convinced that this was the end for him, that somehow his heart had been sliced clean open even though that didn’t make any sense, that the blatant and obvious facts of the world slowly coalescing back into a consistent form and the blood seeping out not nearly quickly enough to constitute a mortal injury taking quite a bit of time to get past all the panic and symptoms of physical shock he was suffering from.
He needed something to cut through the noise and emotion, to get to his actual brain instead of the reactionary static overwhelming him at every turn. Something like…
Well, like that.
Or more accurately, what happened right after that, as Dolphus fought his repeatedly constricting neck muscles in order to look up at Ari, who was eyeing him with all the whimsy and wonder of a child watching the stars at night now don’t you get started on that again, this is not the time or place for that melancholy. See, it was already doing wonders.
Dolphus pulled himself slightly up with his wing, only for his stomach to suddenly contract at the added pain and force him right back where he was, almost completely flat on the ground, save for his wing acting as an elbow. “He- I don’t-”
WING.
The feathers all jolted along with the rest of his body. Dolphus tried to suck it towards his body purely as a reactionary measure, but he was simply leaning on it too much for it to do anything other than pull at his side again. The clarifying thought had cut through everything else; she could now see the wing.
And I missed with it as well. The guard saw it too.
Dolphus blinked as his head rotated back towards Ari, in stiff, shaky movements, his uncaring brow now contorted by the grief of this revelation. He couldn’t see it, but his eyes were starting to grow red again, easily visible on his pale, cold skin.
Wing. She can see the wing. The wing is out because I was being attacked. I got hurt. I’m bleeding. Blood is… On my hand…
Dolphus slowly pulled his hand away from the fresh wound to find… Less blood than he had expected. He gripped the soil to get as much of it off his hand as he could, but this action’s true purpose, which was to break eye contact with Ari, could only keep him looking down for so long. The return trip was even more awkward than the first glance towards her had been.
“I’m okay,” Dolphus tried to say, but in between the red around his eyes as liquid built up behind his lids, the cold sweat building on his forehead, and the scarlet-stained palm now facing the soil, it was clear that - regardless of how hurt he actually was - he evidently wasn’t doing okay.
ooc: I think this is the first post I’ve made in this topic without quoting someone at the start of it. That’s wack 