The Mute Runt

Awake

It had been months, they got Winter back to Blue Moon at the beginning of January and it is now July, she was still in a coma. Phoenix had not had to pull her out of a terrifying memory into the calm clearing in the past two weeks. He wanted to believe that was a good sign. Rosary had put in a feeding tube after the first week that Winter was here so she had some more meat on her bones from the nutrients she was getting through the tube. The nurses and Rosary had bathed her before putting in the tube. Her arms and legs were covered in scars, the scars told a story of her life. Rosary had estimated that she was first cut, at the age of 6 and received her first broken bone at the age of 12. She was also able to confirm that her vocal cords and voice box had been removed not long after birth. Phoenix felt a nudge against his mind, it felt like Storm. He closed his eyes and focused on the clearing.

The beauty of it always stunned him, he had been back to the clearing this summer, this was not the first time he had felt Storm follow the bond and nudge against his awareness. Each time he had tried to come and meet her in her mind, in this field, but she was unable to hold on long enough for him to speak with her. This time, she was waiting for him in the centre of the clearing.

"Hello, Storm. I am glad to see you." Phoenix told her.

"Thank you. I enjoy your help. I am asleep?” She asked, her speech had improved slightly. Her thoughts were more coherent, and clearer, easier to understand.

"You are correct, you are in a coma. How is Winter doing? Has she been aware of this clearing?" Phoenix asked her.

“Sometimes I am aware of her, sometimes not. I have showed her this sometimes when aware of her, she like this place. She feel calm here. She not aware you. Why I or her not able to speak to you always? Will remember you when wake?” Phoenix waited for Storm to stop talking before answering.

"It was likely an energy thing, Winter’s body was badly injured. I do not know how much you will remember when you wake up. I truly do not. I do hope, if nothing else, you remember my name when you wake up." He told her. 

"Thank you. I hope remember you.” Storm told him. He felt her release him from her mind, and he let go of his grasp on her mind.

Phoenix opened his eyes and looked at his mate lying in the bed, Rosary walked in and looked at him. "That was quick." She stated.

"Yes, Storm contacted me. She may be waking up soon.”

"You did not have to pull her into the clearing?" She asked, she was startled.

"No, I have not had to do that for a couple weeks now. This is not the first time that Storm has reached out to me. Just the first time that I was able to speak with her, she lost strength the first few times before I got there." He told her, he was excited. Phoenix was looking forwards to meeting his mate soon. 

"Well, either way, it is time for you to go and eat as well as get some sleep yourself." Rosary told him. She was right, it was time for him to take a break. The only way she would agree to have him sit next to Winter these past few months was to make him promise to take breaks when she told him to. "I am going to remove the feeding tube, if she has the strength to contact you it is possible she will wake up. If she does not wake up today I will put the tube back in over night." Phoenix sighed then reluctantly left the infirmary. 

Showered and rested Phoenix was getting ready to return to the infirmary when he felt the link between him and Winter become blocked. He knew this meant that Winter was awake, and was not immediately concerned. He was excited though, he quickly dressed and headed outside only to freeze. The sky had turned a deep purple and thunder could be heard, power could be felt in the air.

"All city sentries, get to your shield points and cast the shield quickly! This is not a natural storm! I repeat. get to the shield points and cast the shield." He called through the pack link.

"Yes Alpha." Phoenix heard the sentries answer. Moments later a multi-coloured shield appeared over the city, and none too soon. Just as the shield formed blue lightning edged in white struck, the bolt would have caused damage and possibly killed anybody caught in the storm. He turned towards the infirmary and ran, his mother quickly joining him.

"I think Winter may be awake. Perhaps it is best for me to go in first, your father startled her. A female may have better luck approaching her." She told him. He just nodded in understanding.

"Rosary, what is going on in there?" Phoenix asked desperately.

“I do not know yet, I am heading to Winter’s room now. We have no other patients that have this amount of power.” Was her quick response.

Back at the infirmary Winter had woken up to find herself in a strange bed, in a strange room. She sensed a link in her mind and blocked anybody and anything from her mind, it was something she had learned to do quite young. She tried to move and discovered that she could not move her legs, she could sit up though. As she sat up Danté came into the room, his golden eyes went wide as he realized that she was awake.

“Hello, glad to see you awake, let me go and get the doctor.” He told her. Winter did not really hear him, all she knew is she was in a strange room unable to move and now there was a male way to close. She snapped her wings out and caught him in a net. He yelled in pain as the lightning in the net touched him, he was able to enclose himself in a tight shield to prevent more damage to himself. Her face formed a silent snarl and more lightning crawled over her wings and body.

A storm formed outside, vicious winds blew everywhere and nearly took down a couple of trees before the shield went up and blocked the worst of the storms rage. Winter was focused on Danté, she was panicking. Rosary arrived in the doorway at a run.

“Let him go. Please, we do not mean you any harm. We are trying to help you.” She told Winter, truly hoping that Winter would believe her. Unfortunately her hopes were not to be realized.

Winter could not believe that any pack would be a safe haven, being unable to run she kept throwing power at Rosary and Danté. She was attempting to destroy the two of them, she could feel her wings and knew she could probably attempt to fly out on her own power once she got rid of the two people in front of her. She attempted to expand the net she had around Danté to include Rosary. Abruptly a deep red shield surrounded the two of them, Inferno had arrived.

Winter became more afraid, and as a result she grew even ore angry. She had spent far too much of her life afraid, she refused to be afraid anymore. With more individuals in front of her Winter grew even more desperate. A thick black cloud formed around her, lightning flashing inside the cloud. The windows of her room blew out with the force of her rage, abruptly Angel flew in through the now blown out window. She landed in the room and looked at Winter, who stared back at her. Winter’s eyes were black, the lightning was taking on purple tones and the black cloud around her was thicker. She threw lightning at Angel, who blocked it easily.

“SLEEP!” Angel commanded, putting her power behind it. Winter reeled as the force of the command hit her, but the command did not take. Angel cursed and blocked another bolt from Winter. She threw a golden shield around the room, enclosing just herself and Winter inside it. Lightning struck the shield as Winter lost complete control and desperately started attempting to break Angel’s shield or just destroy Angel. “ad somnum nunc!” Angel gave Winter the command to sleep in latin this time, strengthening the spell. This time it worked and Winter dropped down onto the bed, out cold.

The storm died down, the skies began to clear and the feeling of dangerous power left the area. Angel took several deep breaths as she sensed the power leaving the room, she dropped her own shield and turned to look at the other three.

“You guys okay?” She asked. Inferno and Rosary nodded but Danté whimpered as the adrenaline wore off and the pain from his burns reached his awareness. Rosary caught him before he dropped, and led him to a different room so she could treat his burns.

Inferno and Angel looked at each other then over at Winter. “Well, that was not what I expected to happen. How on earth did you know to come here?” Inferno asked Angel.

“I saw the storm while on patrol, we have been patrolling in pairs so I asked Blaze to wait while I came to check on what was happening here.” Angel replied. She continued to look at Winter for awhile. “Were her nightmares improving before she woke up?”

“Yes.” Phoenix said from the door. “I have not had to pull her out of a nightmare in a couple weeks.”

“Okay, I am going to bind her power for now. If I had not been nearby you guys would have had a major problem. Once she wakes up again have a female in here to speak with her, and maybe calm her down. You will need a member of the Phoenixes, Gemstones, Leafgem’s, Stars, or Griffins to unbind her power. You guys will not be able to unbind her on your own.” Angel told Inferno and Phoenix.

“Her mind speech has been better, her sentence structure has improved, her thoughts are more together. But I can still hear madness. And I have only spoken with Storm. That did not look like Storm just now, I think that may have been Winter.” Phoenix told Angel.

“Well, I will bind her power until such time as she is stable. Keep speaking with her when she is asleep if you can, even if it is just Storm. Maybe one day somebody will be able to unbind her.” Angel told him. She was very concerned, Storm and Winter should be bound together not separate like they currently are. “I am going to alert Sapphire to the situation, she is the only one currently trained as a mind healer. It could be awhile before she gets here though.”

Phoenix and Inferno nodded in understanding. Rosary came back into the room as Angel worked to bind Winter’s power. “Danté will be ok, the burns were not too deep and he has no broken bones. What is the plan here?” She asked.

“Angel is binding Winter’s power and alerting Sapphire that we may need her help.” Inferno told her. Rosary nodded in understanding before leaving the room again.

“All done, I have made sure that Storm cannot use their power either. I cannot do anymore than I have.” Angel informed them. She stepped away and looked around the room, she waved her hands and the glass in the windows returned to the frame. She then looked at them again and said “Good Luck” before leaving to resume her patrol.

“Perhaps I will stay with her, she defended me in the woods so maybe she will be calmer with me instead of somebody else.” Inferno suggested. Phoenix sighed.

“Alright mother, be careful.” Phoenix told her. Inferno nodded and took a seat beside Winter’s bed.

A couple hours later Winter stirred and opened her eyes. Immediately she sat up again, this time she was unable to grab her power. Frightened she looked around and saw Inferno, she froze.

“I am not going to hurt you, I promise. I want to start by thanking you for helping me in the woods.” Inferno told her, “My name is Inferno. Would you like to tell me your name?” Winter did not move, just continued to look at Inferno. She had no way of knowing if Inferno knew sign language or not. She could not write down her questions as she had never been taught to do so, no more than she had been taught how to read.

Inferno looked away from Winter, her green eyes sad. Then she spoke again. “We know a little bit of what you have been through, I know you are afraid. I completely understand why you are afraid, I want you to understand that you are safe here. Let us start with basic yes and no questions. Do you understand?” Winter nodded her head slowly, unsure where Inferno was going with this.

“Okay, good. At least you understand me. We know that you cannot talk. Can you write?” Inferno asked. Winter shook her head.

“Okay, that is fine. Have you ever been taught how to communicate?” Winter considered Inferno for moment then just turned away from her and looked out the window.

Inferno sighed then told Winter, “I know sign language. We all do, I do not know if you know how to sign or not.” Inferno answered. Winter made no movement to indicate that she understood, she just listened.

“How about I just tell you where you are.” Winter simply nodded in understanding as she realized that Inferno was not going away, “You are in the Blue Moon pack, the Haloing pack. You have been in a coma for 6 months.” She told her.

“You are here because you saved my life when you threw that shield around me, that gave time for help to arrive. Also because you are a Haloing wolf without a pack, everybody needs a pack.” Inferno hesitated a moment then asked, “Are you able to communicate with or even feel Storm?” Winter shook her head no.

“You were badly injured, your back was broken so there may be some nerve damage. There is a chance you will walk again but it will take time.” Inferno told her. Winter nodded in understanding. “Can I bring Rosary in? She is the pack doctor who has been treating you.” She asked. Winter hesitantly nodded in agreement, she was truly unsure as what was going on. She was not sure if she was being treated and made healthy just to be hurt again later or if she was actually safe.

“Ok, I will be right back.” Inferno then stood up and left the room to retrieve Rosary. Winter looked out her window while she waited for Inferno and Rosary to return.

A few minutes later Inferno returned with Rosary, Winter looked at the two of them feeling very nervous with a second individual now in the room.

Getting Rosary from her office Inferno carefully let the healer know through a mind link, “I have not address her by name, I do not want her thinking we have invaded her privacy in any way. I think it best if she tells us her name when she is ready to.”

“That is probably a good idea.” Rosary admitted through the mind link with a sigh, she then spoke to Inferno out loud. “Will you go let Phoenix know what the plan is?”

“Of course.” Inferno replied, she then left the infirmary to go speak with Phoenix.

“Hello, my name is Rosary. I just want to test your limbs and see if you have any sensation at all through your legs. I will have you close your eyes while I check, when I ask you to I need you to give me a thumbs up if you can feel my hands on your legs. Do you understand?” Rosary asked when she entered Winter’s room. Her calming voice instantly put Winter at ease, surprising her. She hesitated then nodded in answer to Rosary’s question.

Winter closed her eyes and listened as Rosary approached, she then felt as Rosary touched her left leg. “Can you feel this?” In answer Winter gave her a thumbs up. This continued as Roary checked for sensation up and down her left leg, then again on her right leg. “Okay, good. You can open your eyes. You have sensation in both legs, which is a good sign.” Rosary considered Winter for a moment then added, “I would like you to try moving your legs around a bit. Start with your toes, I want to see how much movement you have.” Winter obeyed, they discovered that she had movement in her toes but was unable to bend or extend her knees. She was also currently unable to move her hips around. Rosary assured her that this was okay for now, she expected that she would make a full recovery. She then introduced her to an aid named Lacey who would take her to a guest room and help her with day to day activities as well as help her regain strength and mobility in her legs. Lacey had white and red hair, her eyes were a pale grey colour. She was tall and heavily muscled, but her presence was soothing.

“Shall we get you into a wheelchair so I can move you to a guest room?” Lacey asked Winter. Winter did not make any move to reply, she simply stared at her. When Lacey tried to approach Winter snapped her wings out in warning. Lacey stopped where she was then sighed. She told Winter “I will not hurt you, I will be helping you recover. I will wait until you are ready for me to come closer and help you into the wheelchair.” Winter studied Lacey for awhile, then gestured for her to approach. She was very unsure, she truly had no idea what was going on. All this kindness was foreign to her.

Lacey carefully lifted Winter out of her bed and into the waiting wheelchair. She then wheeled her out of the hospital ward and outside. Winter looked around as Lacey wheeled her across a courtyard to a building with automatic doors.

“When you are ready I would like to know your name.” Lacey told her as they got outside.

“I am a runt, a mute runt, not worthy of a name.” Winter signed to Lacey. Lacey froze in shock, that was not the response she had expected. What shocked her even more is it seemed a trained response, something that she had learned to tell people when she was asked what her name was. After pausing for a moment she continued towards the main pack house.

“Well, if there is a name you would like to be called please let one of us know.” Lacey told her after a long moment.