Chapter 15
Blake
The pain creeps through every inch of my body, burning it from the inside. I'm in a daze. Only a few colors dance before my eyes. Most of my world is black. I hear muffled voices, but that's all my ears are capable of. All I can feel is the rising and falling of my chest. None of my muscles will obey. My mind is foggy, but somehow, I know I'm not dead. One single thought reverberates through my mind. The Hyper Beam. Memories flood me, recalling the feeling of immense power slamming into my back, scorching parts of my feathers and severing my skin all over. I survived it. I don't know how I did it, but I survived.
Time comes to a standstill. The burning pain still courses through my veins, tormenting my body. And there is nothing I can do about it.
Yet, with every passing minute, I start to gain something from my senses back. A twitch of a wing. A picture that fades in and out of my vision. Words that I can actually make out. My body still won't move, but eventually, I can hear full messages. I hold onto each one like a precious gift. "He's holding steady...get that revival herb tonic! Stat!" The words float into my head like a cloud, lingering as long as I let it. I feel something bitter trickle down my throat. It burns in my mouth and stomach, but I drink it like honey. Anything, any sensation is enough for me.
Words start coming my direction. "Blake...move your wing...if you can hear me." A female voice tells me this. I make my wing twitch. "Hearing is...normal." More voices. More words. More tonics and herbal remedies burning in my throat. Pictures become clearer and I can find and identify shapes. Soon, I find out that multiple Togetics are at my aid, their red and blue shapes a dead giveaway. They keep talking to me. "Blake? Can you say anything?" Same female voice.
"Mmf" is all I can let out. It's not my fault, though. It's the bitter medicines.
"Keep trying. Please." She urges me on. I try again. This time, I can see her delicate face in a blurred state. I feel a cool substance being spread around my injured wing. I sigh in relief as it soothes my screaming wing. "Blake?" I'm snapped back to reality. The nurse waits patiently for my words.
"H-how's t-this?" It stings my throat, but I'm glad that I can still talk.
"That's great, Blake. Now, we're going to be wrapping a bandage around your wing." I nod and she stays with me as other medics wrap a cloth on my wing. It stings. The screaming returns. I grimace. "Stay strong, Blake." Her voice is light like the wind. I bear through the pain. "That's it. You're doing great, Blake." I stare at her, feeling the cloth pulled taut.
All senses return and I find out that I'm on my back, staring up at the rock ceiling which is blocked by the nurse. I turn my head to the side and see a white, woven-silk sheet covering the rock that I'm lying down on. More silk acts as a divider. Is all fabric silk here? I turn back to my nurse. She smiles. I smile back, but my eyes warp into a Ty-stare. How long have I been here? What happened after I blacked out? What about the pokemon that helped me out on the battlefield. I'm not gonna get answers lying here on my back.
I sigh and start to pick myself up off the examination rock. The nurse looks a bit panicked. "Blake, let's take this slow and steady. You're still badly hurt." I don't want to listen to her. I want to get up. Her hands press me back down. "You have to allow you injuries to heal." I fight against her hands. She pins me down with more force. I want out. More doctors come to the nurse's aid. I want to get out. I want to find them. I want to find the real Togetic that saved me and the Dragonair that fought with me. I want to know that they're okay.
A male Togetic who holds my wings down onto the white rock-table speaks to me. "You're wounds need to heal. You have to stay in bed." I glare at him, then look around. A few more have come into my little closed-off room of the infirmary. More are probably ready. I give up. I let my muscles go limp and the medics sigh in relief. There's no use trying to get out. I wouldn't make it through the curtain, even if I had two working wings. These are professionals. They probably had cases like me before. Eventually, the doctors go off to where they are needed, leaving me and my nurse until she leaves too. I don't blame her. After that battle, the place is probably packed with beaten-down pokemon. They need her more than I do. My wings lie flat at my sides, my eyes make shapes in the rock ceiling. I still feel stiff. Stiff and useless.
Time becomes non-existent once again. It must have been days. Days that will never come back to me. The only way to tell time is when my nurse comes in to spoon-feed me mashed Oran berries. It's a long process that takes forever. My stomach isn't strong enough to hold a whole lot down at once, so she has to give me little bits until the bowl she holds it in is gone. Judging by how many times she has fed me, it's been about four days.
Typically, a patient would sleep a lot. Not me. I can't sleep at all. Thoughts of the battle still race through my head. The Rayquaza holding the Dragonair. The plan. The hammering on Moltres. The Hyper Beam. Mostly the pokemon I saw when I was high up in the sky. They were all dropping to the earth, just like I almost did. Tears flood my eyes. Then, I trace back to the morning before that. Jiroh's false encouragement. Sheetsu's warning. Sheetsu... I miss him already. I think all pokemon are supposed to be fighting, so that includes Sheetsu. It hits me that he might of died, too. More tears come. I shake my head. I can't afford to think like that. He's a strong Swellow. The Wings of Legend couldn't take him down that easily, could they?
The next morning, the nurse comes in early. She doesn't have any Oran berries. I stare at her as she comes next to my wing. My eyes in wonderment, she carefully unwraps the bandage from my wing. I start to get excited and it shows in my expression. "Hold your Ponytas, Blake! I'm doing it as fast as I can." She jokes at me and talks to me as she unravels "We think the medicine we rubbed on has done it's job already." The last section of bandage falls to the floor. Underneath is a scar, but I can still move the wing without difficulty. My eyes are filled with gratitude as I stare at the nurse. She smiles and crosses her arms. "There. Now, was that so hard to wait?"