Nina's Discipline

Unnatural Women

Unnatural Women

"Bite down on this." Nina lifted the piece of wood from a fallen tree branch and held it up to Manon's mouth. She had dusted off the dirt and insects, but the princess still appeared averse to putting it into her mouth.

Nina sighed, giving her a dull look. "Your elbow is out of place, Manon. If I don't push it back in, you could lose your ability to use it. It's going to hurt, and if you clench your teeth too hard, you could break them. Bite into the wood, and try not to scream."

Behind her, at hearing the cold, clinical way she explained herself, Erec stopped in his pacing.

"Nina, maybe we shouldn't. Let's just splint it and keep going."

"It's already been out for a few hours. It's going to be hard enough to push it back in around the pain and the swelling. We can't leave it for any longer."

"Oh, whatever!" Snatching the stick with her free hand, Manon shoved it into her mouth and bit down into it as though trying to chew through a tough steak. She nodded once to Nina, giving her permission to do what needed to be done.

Nina pushed gently back against Manon's chest, forcing her against a tree so that there was nowhere she could flinch away towards. She took her injured hand gently, put her free hand on her shoulder and told Manon to shut her eyes so she didn't see it coming.

After a moment, Manon shut them tight, her entire body tense in preparation for the pain. But she didn't request that Nina not do so.

It was over in a second.

But the sickening pop, almost immediately drowned out by Manon's muffled scream, echoed around the sparsely placed trees for a long minute afterwards.

Manon's entire body spasmed once in pain before she collapsed forward. Erec and Nina were both there to catch her and hold her weight. The stick fell from her jaw as it slackened and only her panting and mumbled curse words assured Nina that she hadn't passed out completely.

"Crash the ship, he says..." She growled as Erec took her weight on her uninjured shoulder so that Nina could put the elbow into an improvised sling made from the med kit that Manon had thankfully thought to put into her knapsack.

Most of its contents had been raided already. Nina had been forced to bandage her inner thigh where the bleeding from the rope hadn't stopped despite the time that passed. Likely due to the fact that the skin of her thighs would agitate the wound with each step she took.

Erec's belly had needed to be similarly bandaged, but it wasn't overly affecting his ability to walk. Most of his other wounds were superficial. And, while Nina would have preferred to have been able to bandage all of them, they simply didn't have enough in the kit to do so.

Manon's elbow was the last thing that had needed to be set. Nina had no doubts that it was broken after being knocked out of socket so roughly. Setting it and letting it rest in a sling was the only thing that she could do for her.

With the limb suspended, Manon glared down at it hatefully as though angry it had dared to become dislocated in her fall.

"You did well," Nina praised, patting her opposite shoulder. "Most people pass out."

"Don't temp me," Manon grumbled. "We've got to keep moving, right? Let's just go."

"Are you sure?" Erec frowned over his sister. He wished that he could give her some time to rest, but he knew better than to think they could afford any more than this.

The trees had been thinning out for some time now. Full darkness had fallen, and the sights and sounds of the cargo ship fire had long faded into the distance.