Fallen Summer

Chapter 20 Hands

They all sat down on a bench. Neil just watched them see what'll happen. Sage took the gloves off and rubbed her hands gently to ease her 

"Well, it started with Nerris saying that her 'powers' were better than Harrison's and then he sparked up a fight. After that, you know the geez- Ow- Ow- Sage! The hell!"

"Explain."

"Explain what?"

"Why is there a bruise on your hand?" She said pointing at it.

"My hand wasn't injured by a rock or anything."

"We've talked about this. You can't just brush everything off as fine. The more you do this the more I get concerned about your health. Why didn't you tell anyone about this until now?"

"I didn't want them touching my hands. It's not that bad it's just a small, sorta swelled up, bruise. No big deal."

"No big deal?! That's a horrible response to your injury. Do you want me to get some bandages for it? It's swollen and there's a chance it won't end well untreated."

"Fine. Just be quick."

Sage left Hazel and Neil there and knocked onto the counselor's cabin door. After a minute or so it opened and Sage saw David for the first time. To her, he had the 'always happy' look to him.

"May I help you?"

"Can I have some bandages please?"

"What for?"

"My scaled friend hurt herself and doesn't want anyone to touch her hands. So I'm just here to get the injury taken care of as quickly as possible."

"Alright then. Does it matter what kind?"

"The ones you can wrap around the cause of the injury would be fine."

He went inside and she heard a cabinet door opening and minor shuffling in the background. He soon came back with some bandages and a warm grin on his face.

"Ok kiddo just make sure to bring it back when you're done!"

"Thank you."

Sage took a good look at the thing of bandages that David gave to her. When she knew it was the safe kind she took it back to Hazel. She sat down on the bench and made a hand motion so she could wrap it up. All of a sudden she pulled her hand closer to herself.

"How do I know I can distrust you?"

"Look it's either that or peeling that lose scale right off of you."

"Fuck you."

"I'm only doing this because I care. Besides, I saw how Gwen does it and it's not to your liking."

"Nerf was lucky I didn't fully poison him."

"Wait what?!"

"I bit Nurf. I can poison him with my fangs. They only show when I'm pissed off or stressed out. But I mostly show them for intimidating people."

"There's no way you can do that. That's impossible!"

"What you want proof or something? Here. You can't imagine how many times I bite my own tongue and it goes through it."

"W-wow, those are real sharp aren't they."

"Yeah,"

Hazel then pricked her finger on the tooth making it bleed a bit. Sage rolled her eyes as the poison was caught onto it. Neil's eyes widened as he saw the dark poison go into the small bead that she made. Instantly healing it.

"You said that was poison."

"It is."

"Then how did it heal in like three seconds!?"

"It doesn't have any effect on the one who's producing it. Which is myself- Agh! The fuck are you doing there Bookworm!"

"Sealing it. Sorry was it on the place that it's most affected? If so I can redo it."

"No, just do whatever you need to."

"If you say so." She said ripping the extra off flawlessly. "Finger too?"

"No, it's healed. See."

"Well stop pricking it. It'll hurt the finger the more you do it."

"Fine, I'll stop."

"And no biting people unless there's a good reason to. Got it?"

"Fine, thanks for wrapping it up Sage."

"No problem. Neil, you got any questions?"

"Yeah, how sensitive are your scales from 1-10?"

"Depends on who's touching then someone I trust or not."

"Not."

"9/10 don't touch the or the hand comes off."

"What if it's someone you trust?"

"3-5/10."

"Okay, what does the poison do?"

"It either kills whatever I bite or make them pass out so it's a 50/50."

"You've made them disappear before yes? What's it like?"

"Well, for starters it feels like the snake part is holding its breath. When it's out it can breathe again. It's not uncomfortable I've been trying to learn how to tame the other side for years now."

"I see."

"Oh hey, what's happening here?" Max said coming over there where Hazel and Neil were.

Hazel noticed that Sage wasn't there. She was returning the bandage roll to David.

"Oh, it's nothing. What are you two doing?"

"Nothing really. I'm surprised you're hanging out with Hazel." Nikki replied.

Nikki tried to touch her hand to see the scales on it. When she felt it Hazel pulled away from her and sent her a death glare.

"Don't touch me!" She hissed.

"Damn, Nikki what did you do?" Max asked.

"I just wanted to see what they looked like and she just flinched and took it back."

"It's called she doesn't like her scales being touched. Surprised she didn't bite you."

Sage saw the commotion so she said that behind Nikki making her jump a bit.

"Wait she bites!" She said with her eyes lighting up.

"Yeah, welcome to the club. You're late to the party but we're accepting new members." Hazel said in a sarcastic tone.

"You're sarcastic remarks are unexplainable sometimes."

"That's the fun in it."

Sage often was the protective parent of the sides. They usually come to her for advice. It's the only way for her to feel important among the others.

"Who the fuck are you?" Max questioned Sage.

"I'm just Hazel's friend. I won't be here for long so relax. Call me Sage or whatever you want really. I don't really mind."

"Alright, whatever. Neil wanna go light ants on fire?"

"Sure. See you two later then?"

They just nodded in response and Neil took his leave with Max. Neil still questioning how Hazel part snake. It didn't make sense to him.