With a resounding crack, the tusk tore loose from my jaw, knocking me prone with the pain.
"I told you, cadet." Dagon said, "When you washed out, I was taking this as a trophy."
You think so? Too much of a time skip? I've skipped weeks before...
Fine.
Fine, I'll go back to when we first made it back to the Kennel. I couldn't truly say which of us was carrying the others. During the long march back, each of us had taken our turns; I think Nikita did at least half of the carrying.
I think; I don't know for certain.
Actually, Leto did very little complaining on our way back. She tried to apologize for something, and I just turned my head to look at her.
"I have no anger toward you. You need not say you are sorry."
It was true; in the wake of my emotional outlet, I felt nothing. No rage, no irritation, no sense of injustice. Nothing.
Catharsis.
Yes, the original plot had Dagon NOT rip his tusk out and Rhishi finding the poor goat in a ditch and deciding to spare it. And THEN I took a look at the damage as well as the health.
And I realized that even though it's hard to actually KILL Rhishi (well, unless you're an immortal and venomous scorpion spirit), it's really easy for him to lose consciousness. And I didn't even have to run the numbers; Dagon hated him, and wanted that tusk. Rebis might have healed him, but she doesn't know yet how much he helped her cadets.
So... sorry to those of you who have lost a tooth; I'm sure it's much worse than what I've written.
As always, thank you so much for your readership; I'm about to finish February out strong, at least one chapter every day. Not looking forward to the begging session, but I'm sure one is required to restore good-author-ness.
Hey, I'm a writer, not a thesaurus. I don't know ALL the words.