Chapter Text
The only problem with healing magic, Percy reflected blearily, was that it brought you back to consciousness immediately. This gave you plenty of time to feel everything, such as smashed bones snapping back into place and re-knitting and dislocated joints resetting themselves. It didn’t really hurt, strangely enough; healing magic or potions dulled the pain instantly, which was a mercy, because he was certain that if he’d been able to feel his shoulder re-setting itself and his broken ribs popping back into place he’d have been screaming himself hoarse.
He blinked dully for a moment; it was, unfortunately, the face of Grog that swam into view, and the bitter herbal taste of a healing potion on the back of his tongue told him what had brought him back after the damned dragon had hammered him into the ground. He winced as several more broken ribs popped back into place and something crunched back into alignment in his left hip. Still no pain, but there was always a part of your mind that knew it should hurt.
Also, he wasn’t dead, so things must not be completely fucked yet.
“Ow.” He managed weakly. “What happened?” He made a motion to rise, winced, and winced again as Grog helped tug him up to a sitting position. Not ten feet from them was the great white bulk of the dragon, unmoving. “Oh. We killed it. Good.” There was a cracked depression in the ice and stone of the cavern floor a few feet away, shaped rather worryingly like himself. There was rather a lot of blood about, and Percy knew most of it was probably his; he could feel his clothes soaked through in more than one place. Interestingly, there were also scorch marks and melted ice, and whatever had happened there Percy was very thankful that he hadn’t been conscious to feel it. His coat was slightly scorched in places; he scowled at it.
The healing potion had presumably done its work replenishing any lost blood, but he was still slightly lightheaded and rising brought a wave of dizziness. “Can we harvest this bastard for scrap and get out of here?”
The warm tingle of the healing potion faded, and the pain from his remaining injuries hit full force. Gritting his teeth, Percy groped around for his glasses, found them, and slid them back into place. The cavern came into better focus, save for one line running right through the middle of his left eye; he scowled at the crack in the lens.
He appeared to be very behind everyone else; Zahra was already working at the dragon, and Vex was helping. Still sitting, Percy drew the Pepperbox and inspected it anxiously; aside from a few minor dings that he could buff out later, though, the gun was undamaged. Bad News had similarly escaped any major damage, and he breathed a sigh of relief.
Over by the corpse of the dragon, Vex and Zahra were finishing up. As they did, Vex glanced over towards him and Grog. The look of immediate horror was both gratifying and somewhat worrying as she hurried over.
“Oh, darling.” She dropped to her knees beside him. She looked rather worse for the wear too, but she was moving just fine. A little knot in his chest unwound. “Your poor face!”
“Oh, hell.” Percy gingerly prodded the bridge of his nose, and winced at the spike of pain. “Is it really that bad? I liked my face.”
“Here.” She laid a hand on his cheek, and a little wrinkle appeared between her eyebrows as she concentrated intensely. There was a warm green-gold pulse of energy. Percy felt a strange crunch as the cartilage in his nose straightened and re-knit, and as the swelling subsided it was suddenly much easier to breathe. “There, darling. That’s better. Come on. We need to get out of here.”
Percy wholeheartedly agreed with that. He climbed (somewhat stiffly and painfully) to his feet, leaning on both Vex and the wall. He really could use another good dose or six of healing energy, he knew, but they were all nearly tapped out on spells and the gods only knew what other sort of horrible fortune they would run into before they got a chance to rest.
“Are you all right?” Vex was still hovering at his side.
“I’ll be fine.” He forced a little smile. “Come on.”