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“That’ll probably do,” Merle said, gesturing Magnus over. The human man had grabbed a sturdy stick and a clump of long, wide leaves.
“Probably do? You're going to have to do better than that, hombre!” Taako, who was on the ground curled protectively around one of his arms, cried.
“I can keep looking—” Magnus started to say.
“No,” Merle interrupted, taking charge of the group. “We have enough to splint the arm and stop the bleeding, and that's the best we can do.”
“Yeah, cause our cleric ran out spell slots casting Zone of fucking Truth on the bad guys!” Taako said, voice reaching a pitch surely only dogs could hear. Merle refused to take his words to heart, the poor thing had had a arm cleanly snapped and the pain was getting to him. Whether Merle had, in fact, used up the last of his spell slots on Zone of Truth wasn't relevant.
“Don't be mean, Taako,” Magnus said, sitting down heavily next to the elf. “He needed to ask them if they were sure they wanted all our gold!”
“Oh, of course! 'Now that you ask,’” Taako said in a gruff voice, surprisingly scathing for someone who looked so queasy. “‘I guess all I want is for a paternal figure to tell me he's proud of me.’” He then affected a mean impression of Merle’s voice, which he thought was fairly unfair since he was the one trying to fix his Pan-forsaken arm. “‘Geez, kiddo, you only had to ask! No need to break poor old charming Taako’s arm and try to kill Maggie’s goldfish.’”
They said laughter was the best medicine, but Merle would advise against finding that laughter at one’s doctor’s expense. If he didn't like Taako as much as he did – not that he'd ever tell him, the elf didn't need more of an ego boost – he’d get up and walk away.
“Need help, Merle?” Magnus asked, recovering from laughter at Taako’s impression. Merle resolved to not heal his next injury. “I'm really good with wood.”
“Oh yeah? What kind?” Taako raised his eyebrows in a pantomime of suggestivity, but the comedic effect was undercut by a strangled scream clawing its way out of him when he shifted to try and get more comfortable.
“Just keep him distracted, would you?” Merle suggested. “Maybe hold him, this is going to hurt a lot.”
“Oh fantasy Jesus I should have learnt that healing spell,” Taako wailed dramatically, letting himself be taken into Magnus’ arms with only a short muffled yell.
“Alright, Taako,” Magnus said, voice gentle and sincere like he was talking to a small child or a dog. “I know it hurts, but you'll be okay. Good ol’ Merle will have it sorted in no time.”
“Stop that, I'm older than your dad,” Taako snapped, but he did seem to be relaxing into Magnus’ embrace. Just like any of them, he was afraid to admit he needed that comfort. “Can you just get it over with."
“I'm doing the best I can,” Merle said, arranging his tools. “But I really don't have as much material on hand as I’d like.”
“Sorry for the inconvenience, want me to pop to fantasy Target and stock you up? Oh wait— my fucking arm is in two pieces.”
“If you need more sticks I saw a good one out that way,” Magnus said, pointing. “I can go get it if you want.”
“You're fine where you are,” Merle said, unsure how to get Magnus to stay in one place for long enough to try and fix Taako’s arm. “Don't go anywhere.”
In front of him he had several long strands of rope, a pile of rags and shirts, a few tough fronds just in case, Magnus’ waterskien, a small roll of bandages, and Taako’s wadded up shirt. It had ended up too covered in blood for him to keep wearing it anyways.
Seeing the elf without a shirt on always sent a pang of worry through Merle. Both he and Magnus had scars aplenty, but Taako had never shared the stories behind his, and the reluctance to share from such an otherwise boastful and loquacious elf was concerning. Plus he was so thin. Merle knew elves generally were thinner than dwarves, but Taako looked almost like a skeleton. Merle would never mention any of this concern to his friend, because he knew it would only push him away, but that only made it take a firmer root in his heart. It was the fatherly instinct in him; Taako and Magnus reminded him a little too much of Mavis and Mookie and all he wanted was to keep them both safe. Of course, his friends were both fully grown adults, so he didn't have any excuse to take care of them even though they clearly couldn't do it themselves – not that he was much better.
Merle looked up at Taako and found him staring with poorly concealed fear in his eyes, bright pink hair plastered to his face with sweat and tears in his eyes. His charming, suave reputation was important to him, but Merle could tell Taako was about to start begging if he dragged out the process any longer.
“Bite down on this if you need,” Merle said, handing Taako his own bloody shirt. “Magnus, hold him steady.”
Merle scooted up to Taako’s arm, bringing his makeshift materials with him. It would have to do; Taako was far too out of it to do anything as grand as teleport them anywhere, and there wasn't a town within a day’s walk in any direction.
Magnus’ strong arms wrapped firmly across Taako’s chest and Merle sat down on his legs. Taako was not a strong individual, and Merle had no doubt that it would be enough to keep him from disrupting him while he worked, but he did really wish they had any form of painkiller with them.
“This isn't going to be fun,” he warned, pouring some of the water onto one of the rags.
“Just fucking do it, would you?”
Merle had already wiped away some of the blood when he'd first noticed the injury, but he needed to get the wound as clean as possible before padding and splinting it. The open fracture made it a lot more complicated.
“SHIT!” Taako screamed when Merle started cleaning the wound before promptly biting down on the shirt he'd been offered.
It was a painstaking process, carefully cleaning out the wound and ignoring the muffled screams and cries from his friend as he worked. He was right, his and Magnus’ weight kept Taako pinned but his writhing was still hard to work with.
“That's done with,” Merle said. He found talking helped calm him while he worked. It had been a while since he'd done any medicine without magic, and to have those old routines thrust back onto him in a time of such crisis was stressful, to say the least. “Now I’m going to quickly apply some padding, okay?”
Taako didn't answer, but Merle hadn't expected him to. He carefully wrapped Taako’s forearm in the softest fabric he had, layering as much as possible so he'd have as much padding as they could manage. That didn't seem to hurt Taako as much, thank Pan, but there were still tears streaming down his face that Merle knew Taako would resent.
“That wasn't so bad, was it?” Merle said. He'd been chattering while he worked, little inane comments that helped chase the shaking from his hands. He didn't know if it soothed Taako, too, but at this point the elf might be too far out of it to care. “This next part is going to be worse, but it’ll be over quickly.”
He was right, of course. When he applied and tied down the splint – which Magnus had really well chosen, thankfully – Taako whimpered and wailed, screwing his eyes shut.
Merle’s hands wouldn't stop trembling as he tried to tie the knots on the splint, painfully drawing out the process, and Magnus swooped in to save him. Magnus oftentimes had a sort of perfect charm, and that was one such moment. He started speaking softly, calmly, about absolute banalities: a bird he could see, a nice tree in the distance, the feeling of grass on his ankles. Merle didn't know if it had any effect on Taako, who just kept crying and letting out reedy sounds of pain, but it certainly helped him.
Merle tied off the rope on the splint and thankfully had enough left to pull together a makeshift sling with one of Magnus’ shirts and the last of the rope.
“It's over, Taako,” Merle said gently, moving off of Taako’s legs. “You’re all good for now.”
Merle thoroughly washed his hands more out of habit than anything and watched as Magnus carefully readjusted Taako so he was sitting more comfortably in Magnus’ lap. Merle helped pry the shirt out from between his teeth and gently wiped the tears off Taako’s face. His dark skin was noticeably paler, but not worryingly so. He'd lost a lot of blood and had thrown up twice before Merle started to help him, it was only natural that he'd still be a little ashen.
“Fuck…” Taako said, voice hoarse. “Remind me never to go to a non-magical doctor ever again.”
Magnus chuckled, draping a blanket over Taako’s shoulders. Merle couldn't help but feel a little uneasy, though. As cleric, it was his job to have healing magic on hand for just that scenario, and he'd failed them.
“I swear,” Merle said, trying and failing to keep his tone light. “No more Zone of Truths.”
“Don't make promises you can't keep,” Taako said, but he didn't seem upset. Just tired. Merle let him rest, packing everything up so they could keep moving with ease come morning.