A Tall and Small Collection | Soren

Plea

His heart seized in his chest, the wind escaping in a wheezing breath. There was no mistaking him – the Borrower kneeling on the ground was Soren's younger brother, Dorian.

Soren collapsed to his knees, eyes not leaving his brother. From where he was, it was hard to see the finer details. What Soren could see, however, were the dots of some dark liquid leading up to the figure of his brother.

An overwhelming panic seized control. What happened? How hurt was he? Where had Dorian and Rey been for the past two weeks? And where was the youngest brother, Rey?

Soren wished he had his hook at his side or, better yet, that he could simply leap off of the edge and fly to his brother's side like some fairy tale. Sadly, that wasn't the case, and he was bound to walk and bound to his own injuries. Doing the only thing he could, he called out to his brother as loud as he could.

"Dorian! Dorian can you hear me?" He strained his ears and focused, barely picking up the sounds of gasping sobs. The sounds tugged at his heart and made his chest ache. "Dorian, listen to me! You're going to be alright! Hang on... I'll..." Every solution Soren came up with left him with one severely obvious problem – he couldn't get down off of the counter; not on his own.

Soren heard another heart wrenching sob. He clenched his fists and pounded one of them against the countertop in frustration. He knew what he had to do, and he didn't like it.

He pealed his eyes from his brother's visibly trembling form and directed his attention to Ashlynn, who had not said anything and remained as stationary as possible. Her body was tense, eyes fixed on the small injured person a few feet away from her on the ground. A look of barely restrained sorrow in her eyes.

"Ashlynn, you have to help me get down there. Please." Ashlynn's attention flickered between the young injured Borrower on the ground to Soren.

"Wh-what?" she asked in a partial daze.

"Please!" Soren pleaded. "There's no time. Just grab me and put me on the ground!" Soren wasn't sure what possessed him in the moment. Perhaps the concern for his brother overrode his own apprehension of being held willingly by a human. After a few seconds, Ashlynn shook the glaze from her eyes and glanced over to the box.

"Are you... sure? What about your rules?" she asked hesitantly. Soren heard his brother's whimper and steeled his nerves.

"Ashlynn," Soren's voice broke in his throat as he said her name. "Please." Ashlynn nodded stiffly and, with a nervous tremor to her hand and her eyes, reached out.

"Right." Ashlynn didn't grab him, thankfully, and instead laid her hand palm up for him. Soren swallowed dryly and forced himself up just enough to stumble forward onto Ashlynn's open palm.

Soren's entire body shuddered when he realized what he had just done. The sensations hit him simultaneously. The warmth and softness of her palm against his. The subtle beating of her heart which he could feel in the veins his hands now rested on. Being able to see each individual line constructing her fingerprint. Most of all, feeling the way her hand shook as she quite literally took his life into her hands.

Every instinct pulsed energy into his body, both to leap off of the hand of the human and to aid his brother. A tingling sensation rippled through every nerve and made him shiver involuntarily.

Before he could convince himself to address Ashlynn again, his stomach dropped and his heart hit the top of his throat as Ashlynn lowered him from the counter onto the ground mere inches from his brother. She was careful, yes; but she still moved much faster than Soren was used to.

Now that he was closer to his brother, he could see the full extent of the damage. Along Dorian's back were four long, but thin, scratches which had slashed and torn his shirt open. There were several small puncture wounds on the front and back of his arms and legs along with five larger and much deeper puncture wounds on his torso. There were also bruises forming all over Dorian's body, which Soren noted was noticeably thinner than the last time he saw him.