"How did this even happen? Who is she?" Kota's mother, Fujin, was demanding in Thanati as she bustled over to where Kota had laid the girl. The girl's wound was obvious, and not just because it was dripping all over her clean floors. She cursed under her breath, both at the situation and the mess as blood spilled all over her rug, too. "Kota! The rug?! Really?"
"Ya want me to put her in your bed?" Kota answered, also speaking his native tongue. "Ma, please, just help her!"
"You come in here after a year of nothing carrying some foreign girl—!" But even as Fujin ranted, she was kneeling down to examine the wound, sucking air through her teeth. "How did she manage that?"
"She, uh, fell."
Fujin's eyebrows raised and she shook her head. "This is bad. This will take a little time...remove her boot, I'll be right back. Goddess above, just wait until your father gets home!"
As she rushed about gathering up supplies, Kota took a deep breath and mentally prepared himself to take off her boot. Every time he looked at her injury, he wanted to gag—which was so not helpful. He had just worked up the resolve to get it over with and started to reach down to do the job when Morgan came back to life.
Oh no...why couldn't she stay unconscious?
For her own sake!
"Hey, hey, I'm not going anywhere, alright?" he said in Common, and clasped her hand, something he thought he would never do--because she was a bitch! But right then she looked so small, so vulnerable, so hurt and scared, that seeing her like this made his heart ache. Don't leave me, she'd begged; it made an unexpected lump lodge in his throat. "We're in my home, we're getting ya help. I'm not leaving, okay? Just hang on. I...I'm so sorry, this...this isn't gonna feel great..."
He let go of her hand so he could work at taking off her boot, hands going slick with blood and nose filling with the strong, coppery smell. His throat tightened, mouth watering, and he swallowed hard against the urge to retch. Desperately, he focused entirely on her boot and tried not to look at her mangled, gory leg.
By the time he got her boot off, he was pale and sweaty. Which was also about the time his mother returned--with a bottle of strong rice wine, a thick piece of wood, sturdy lengths of cloth, a knife, and some incense she gave to Kota to light. He quickly set about doing that as Fujin knelt beside Morgan and swiftly cut away her pant leg.
"She's losing blood fast," she said. "I have to be quick. Give her the wine, then have her bite down."
Kota, regrettably, was familiar with the procedure. He flashed Morgan a sympathetic look, then slid a hand under her head and tilted the wine to her lips. "C'mon, drink this," he said. "Big gulps."
She wouldn't want to be sober for the next part.