Prompt: Setting a Broken Bone
Hurt Character: Suki
Comforting Character(s): None
Characters: Suki, OCs
Relationships: Suki & Kyoshi Warriors
Warnings (Aside from the Self-Evident): Somewhat graphic descriptions of injuries, hypothermia
Other Tags: Pre-canon, Kyoshi Warriors, Kyoshi Warrior solidarity, wilderness survival, accidental injury, no male characters

Auntie Kyoko was going to kill her when she got home… of course, that was assuming that she actually did get home.

That was the first thing the rookies were always taught: the Kyoshi Warriors worked as a unit. There was never a good excuse for anyone to be out patrolling alone. Pairs were good; more were better. That way, if one of them got into some sort of trouble, her sisters in arms would be right there to help her.

Guess which piece of advice Suki had recklessly decided to ignore.

According to all of her instructors, she was the best in her age group. Many of the older Warriors had praised her dedication and discipline, and even Auntie Kyoko had occasionally gifted her with a rare smile or word of praise. When they sparred, she'd put students twice her age flat on their backs on more than one occasion. Point being, Suki was good, and her teachers had always emphasized that while there was no shame in knowing that one was good, it was also important never to forget one's own humanity. That was the part of their advice that she'd forgotten when she'd let her skills go to her head, and now she was paying the price, looking up from the bottom of the impossibly deep ravine she'd fallen into when an unexpectedly unstable ledge had crumbled from under her feet without any warning.

Under normal circumstances, she would have simply walked the length of the ravine until she found a good place to climb back out, but that brought her right back around to her other problem: namely, the throbbing pain in the leg that had taken the brunt of her weight when she'd fallen, and the unnatural angle at which it was bent.

She wasn't going to be walking anywhere with her leg like that, much less climbing. She was going to be stuck here until she starved to death, or was eaten by wild animals, or—

Suki took a deep breath, and forced herself to remember the rest of her training—she'd already made one serious mistake; she couldn't afford another.

Step one: assess her situation. The good news was that, while she was alone and seriously injured, she was not in immediate danger of dying. The bad news was… well, that she was alone and seriously injured.

Step two: do whatever she could do to keep herself alive until help arrived, keeping in mind that help might be a very long time in arriving. Right now, that meant finding water and shelter before the sun went down… and it also meant doing whatever she could do to tend to her injury.

Kyoshi Warriors were by no means career healers, but they were taught basic field medicine, at least enough to hold someone together long enough for her to get to a real healer. Suki knew, roughly, what had to be done next—she'd just never anticipated having to do it on herself.

Gritting her teeth, she straightened her leg out as best she could before slowly easing off her boot, pausing every few seconds to clench her teeth and let the throbbing subside. It must have taken her nearly half an hour, but at long last, the boot was off, and Suki was able to get a decent look at the injury.

Thankfully, the bone hadn't broken through the skin, and that was at least something. There also didn't seem to be any more serious damage done; she could still wiggle her toes. That still didn't mean her situation was good, but it hadn't gone past the point where it could be made better.

With a grimace, Suki drew her dagger and used it to cut one of the leather straps that held her armor in place, placed the leather between her teeth, and bit down. Then, she wedged her foot between two rocks, braced herself, and pulled her leg backward.

There was a searing flash of pain as the bones realigned, right before darkness overwhelmed her vision.

When Suki came to, it was raining.

Slowly, she pushed herself into a sitting position. It was impossible to tell either how long she'd been out or how long it had been raining, but the light was fading, and the rainwater had gotten under her armor and begun to soak into the cloth of her dress. Within seconds of waking up, she was shivering violently.

Even worse, she still hadn't done even half of what she needed to do about that leg. Looking around, she could only find one stick within a reasonable distance that looked to be sufficiently sturdy, so she ended up sacrificing the sheath of her katana in order to make a splint, which she tied in place with strips torn from her dress.

After that, there wasn't much she could do but wait.

She knew she was supposed to keep warm—but she had no tent or bedroll, and her clothing was already soaked. She also knew she should secure a source of water, but she wasn't even within hearing range of a stream, and doubted she'd be able to stay on her feet long enough to find one. The best she could do was unstrap her chestplate and use it to catch the rainwater, and hope that it would be enough.

Shiver. Sip water. Wait for rescue.

Given how late it was, Suki had probably been missed by now. She'd certainly be missed come morning, when she didn't show up for training. She knew her village, and she knew Kyoshi Island didn't leave people to fend for themselves; once it was realized that she hadn't come home, search parties would be organized and sent out to comb the island. The only question was, how long would it take them to actually find her?

Between Oyaji and Auntie Kyoko, she was sure that the search parties would be well-organized, and would be logical in terms of the ground they covered, but a day's worth of walking distance was still a lot of ground to cover. Kyoshi Island was small, but it wasn't that small, and she'd been nowhere near the area where she was supposed to be when she'd had her accident. Suki tried to do the math, but couldn't come up with anything more substantial than that she'd probably be pretty hungry and thirsty by the time anyone found her.

That prospect, in and of itself, didn't particularly bother her. When you committed to the life of a warrior, occasional discomfort was simply a part of the job—and that included the possibility of missed meals or unclean water. She was far more worried about the cold, which could do far worse than just make her uncomfortable, and about how vulnerable she would be come nightfall if any hungry wild animals were on the prowl for an easy snack.

The thought of freezing to death within sight of rescue, and that having a pack of lizard-crows pecking chunks out of her flesh one bite at a time was not allowed to be how she died, was enough to motivate her to push herself to her feet (well, foot) and start hopping her way down the ravine in search of a more defensible position. Before she started hopping in earnest, though, she had the presence of mind to tear yet another strip out of her dress (it was already ruined anyway, might as well put what was left of it to good use), tie it around a rock, and fling it up over the edge of the ravine. Once people started looking for her, she wanted to make it as easy as possible to actually find her.

In the end, the best she could manage to find was a space between a pile of rocks and the wall of the ravine, situated under a ledge that would keep at least some of the rain off. Though her warrior training was screaming at her that this was barely defensible and that she needed to sleep somewhere more sheltered, the light was fading fast and she had enough common sense to know that her limbs were now shaking from far more than cold, and that if she forced herself to press on in the hope of finding something better, there was a good chance that she would exhaust herself and collapse before she found anything. Even barely defensible was a far better option than unconscious out in the open in the middle of the night.

So, Suki wedged herself as comfortably as she could manage in between the rocks and the wall, the handle of her katana gripped firmly in her hand.

She tried to stay awake through the night. She really, really did. For one thing, there was still the danger of wild animals. For another, she was already injured and chilled, with no blankets and barely any shelter, and she knew that if she slept in these conditions, there was a very real chance that she would not wake up again. In the end, however, her body had other ideas, and for all of her valiant efforts to keep her eyelids propped open, in the end they fell shut and Suki simply did not have the strength to force them open again.

When she finally blinked awake again, the first thing she was aware of was the touch of sunlight on her face. The next thing she was aware of was someone calling her name.

"…uki? Suki?"

"Hhhh…" She opened her mouth, but the only sound that would come out was a croak. Determinedly clearing her throat, she tried again, and this time managed to get out something that was just above a whisper. "I'm down here!"

It wasn't very loud, but someone must have heard her, for the voices above her went into a sudden flurry of frantic conversation. She must have drifted off again, for the next thing she knew, a rope slapped down on the ground next to her, and then Auntie Kyoko came rappelling down into the ravine.

Her hair was a mess, her makeup smudged in several places; she looked as if she hadn't slept all night. Nevertheless, she radiated authority and her bearing was perfectly controlled as she gave Suki a quick once-over with her eyes, and then shouted up at the others above her, "We're not going to be able to move her very far. Bring a tent and some blankets down here, and someone go send for a healer!"

Her orders were immediately followed by a flurry of activity. More ropes were thrown down, followed by Kyoshi Warriors bearing supplies. No sooner was the tent set up than two women were gently lifting Suki up and moving her into it, where Auntie Kyoko immediately began cutting off her wet clothes.

"Kaede," she said without looking up, addressing the youngest of the fully-fledged Warriors.

Kaede didn't ask any questions, merely shrugged, stepped to the back of the tent, and began to strip off her own uniform. By the time that Suki, now down to her underwear, was wrapped up in blankets, Kaede was right there next to her.

"What's your girlfriend going to have to say about this?" Suki joked weakly as Kaede wrapped her arms around her waist and pulled Suki close so her back was pressed to Kaede's chest.

"Knowing her?" Kaede grinned. "She's probably going to be jealous she didn't get to join in."

"Heh." Suki smiled weakly. "Maybe we can have a threesome after I get better."

"Which isn't going to be for a very long time yet," Auntie Kyoko said firmly, holding a cup to Suki's lips. "Now drink. The healer will be here shortly."

Suki didn't argue, and drank. It was hot herbal tea, sweetened liberally with honey. She'd barely even finished the first cup before Auntie Kyoko poured her another.

It was maybe a few minutes, or maybe a few hours, before the healer, Yoko, finally arrived. Though not a Kyoshi Warrior, she was the one who most commonly treated them, and was possibly even sterner than Auntie Kyoko.

"You are not going to be moving anywhere for a good long while, so you might as well try to get comfortable," she informed Suki in her most no-nonsense voice. She turned her attention to Auntie Kyoko. "You can move her into a proper shelter in the village once she's warmed up a bit, but for now, she needs to stay put."

"Oh, she'll stay put, all right. As for you…" Auntie Kyoko had a very stern look on her face as she turned her attention back to Suki. "Whatever it is you were doing, I take it you've already figured out for yourself why exactly you weren't supposed to be doing it?"

Suki felt her face heat. Now that she was no longer in fear of her life, there was much more room for embarrassment. "Yes, ma'am."

Auntie Kyoko didn't respond, only stood over Suki with her arms crossed, long enough for Suki to start to squirm—and then to hiss in pain as the motion disturbed Yoko's ministrations.

"Normally, I'd have you scrubbing the floor of the training hall for a month," Auntie Kyoko said at last. "As it is, though, I think that the rehabilitation you're in for will be punishment enough—provided, of course, that you've actually learned your lesson."

"Believe me," Suki started, only to hiss again as Yoko admonished her to "Stay still!" "This is one lesson I won't be forgetting any time soon."

"I wouldn't keep you on if I thought that you would. Kyoshi Warriors have to face enough danger without getting ourselves killed." With a curt nod, she turned on her heel as if to walk away… only to stop and look back at Suki with a mischievous twinkle in her eye.

"When I was your age, I broke both legs after your mother bet me I couldn't climb to the top of Kyoshi's statue without chickening out." Then, she was walking away with one last wink, leaving Suki with a smile in spite of the pain.