I slipped out and slammed the door behind me in a single fluid motion, not taking my eyes off the rodent-thing. It let out its weird birdlike call again, and started charging toward me. I swung my spear down, holding out its point as I moved to meet the animal’s charge.

Immediately, I began to see problems. The strange animal wasn’t huge; its back was less than knee-high. Holding the tip of the spear down to threaten it meant I was holding the whole weapon at an angle, rather than straight out, and the back edge of my knife wasn’t sharpened. If it jumped even slightly, it would just hit the blunt back edge of my blade. I fumbled with the spear, trying to rotate it without losing my grip. Turning the sharp edge upward seemed like it would be an improvement, at least. Or maybe I should crouch down? I wasn’t keen on bringing my face in easier reach, but…

Distracted by these thoughts, I didn’t manage to adjust my blade as the rodent nimbly sidestepped, dashing past it to rake my boot. Up close, I could see that its claws were actually nasty two-inch weapons. The rubber tore, but the thick footwear slowed down its strike significantly. I felt my sock pull a bit, but I didn’t think it had cut my foot.

I clumsily dragged my spear around, trying to strike at it, but I missed, hitting the ground. In desperation, I swept my other foot forward, channeling decades-old memories of soccer practice.

The rodent was much heavier than a ball. My muscles complained at the unexpected weight, but desperation must have given me strength. The animal didn’t fly through the air, but it did tumble sideways, ending up on its back under the oak tree.

For once in my life, I reacted quickly, charging forward to stab my spear into the rodent’s underbelly. It screeched as I stabbed it, now less of a bird call and more of a painful siren wail.

I didn’t take my spearpoint out of its belly. I wasn’t sure where its vitals were - or if it even had any the way I understood it - but I was pretty confident that as long as it was at the end of a spearpoint, it wouldn’t be able to reach me with those nasty claws. Better to let it get weak. A dark red liquid was leaking from the wound, darker than human blood. I couldn’t be sure what it was, but I was sure the animal preferred not to have it leak out. I twisted the spear ruthlessly, trying to widen the wound as much as possible.

Suddenly, a huge weight hit my back, knocking the breath from my lungs and making me gasp. Pain blossomed in my shoulders and I screamed, almost dropping my spear. I let go with one hand, waving it behind me, trying to dislodge whatever had assaulted me.

My efforts were useless, but just as I was starting to truly panic, the weight suddenly vanished. I stumbled in surprise, then spun to see another rodent behind me. Its back was turned and it seemed to be clawing at its own face. I swept my spear around and into its side. It didn’t sink in deeply, slowed by the springy outgrowths that coated it like fur, but I did see a trickle of dark maybe-blood. The animal turned toward me as I readied another strike, but it lacked the focused aggression of the other rodent. It took a swipe at my weapon, but its motion was wild and off-target, and I managed to sink my speartip into one of its strange shoulder-eyes.

I felt pain in my ankle and looked down. The half-gutted monster I’d left under the tree had managed to pull itself over to sink its teeth into me. I stumbled backward, dragging my foot out of its grasp. I managed to sweep my spear into its back as I stepped away, and it dissolved into a cloud of smoke.

I hoped that meant I had defeated it, not that it had morphed into some kind of gaseous terror, but I didn’t have much time to worry. The half-blinded rodent made another lunge for me, and I managed to get my speartip in front of it. The spear clattered off its needle-teeth and sunk into its body through its open mouth. After a moment, it, too, evaporated. My spear sank into the ground in front of me as the enemy vanished.

As I took a few deep breaths, I noticed the muffled sounds of my kids yelling my name. I shook myself. I should get inside. I wasn’t ready for another fight.

Seeing nothing behind me, I opened the door, holding my spear out sideways to keep the kids away. Gavin and Cassie were straight-out crying, and Micah’s eyes glistened in a pale face.

“Stay back, stay back! Mom’s covered in demon pepper, remember?”

“But Mommy,” Gavin sobbed. “You’re hurt!”

His words made me blink. I realized that, yes, I was hurting. Quite badly, too. I guess adrenaline had kept me from truly noticing. Owwww… I wished Gavin hadn’t pointed it out just yet. Both my shoulders were in agony, and I felt pain in my lower back and left foot as well.

“I’ll be okay.” I gritted my teeth in an approximation of a smile. “Let me just wash these out before you heal me. You’ve got your ability, remember? I just need to try to get the bacteria out first.”

I had to bite my tongue to keep from screaming as I pulled my coat off. Light peeked through several gashes where the fabric had been shredded and partially pushed into my body. The coat was red anyway, but my blue shirt was clearly stained around the lacerations, red and sodden. A huge chunk was missing from the part of the hood that covered the back of my neck, and I was grateful the rodent had only gotten a bite of jacket there. I rubbed my neck, checking for any unnoticed injury, and was hugely relieved when my hand came away clean.

After I got the snow stuff off, I headed to our walk-in shower as I continued to disrobe, the kids behind me like a trail of worried ducklings. In deference to the boys, I left my underthings on as I stepped into the shower. One bra strap was mostly severed, but it was staying up for now.

Our water heater had been off all day since the power had gone out, but at least we still had running water. It wasn’t bone-cold, either, just tepid. I tried not to complain as the water hit my wounds, but I couldn’t keep a whimper from escaping.

“Are you okay, Mommy?” Cassie, this time.

“Yep! Gonna be fine!” I managed through gritted teeth.

“That water is really red…”

“Yep, good noticing, Micah! That’s just a little tiiiiiny bit of blood looking like a whole lot as it spreads through the water.”

“If you say so…”

Yeah, I was lying through my teeth. It was quite a bit of blood, even knowing that the water was spreading it out. It really hurt, and I was praying that Gavin’s Healing Touch would work some kind of miracle. I couldn’t afford to half-ass cleaning out my wounds, though. Injured was bad. Infected? Much worse. It wasn’t like I just had antibiotics lying around. We always made sure to finish the whole course when prescribed them.

I was lucky the shower was still working. Next time we went out, I’d need to have a pitcher waiting by the tub. Who knew when the water would cut off? We’d still need to wash wounds even after that happened.

I hoped I wasn’t losing a dangerous amount of blood, but I was no expert. Even if the I wasn’t, getting this injured the first time I stepped out was… bad. Wounds this size on me would be far worse on a kid half my height. And even I probably couldn’t take injuries like this often. I remembered hearing that people could donate a pint of blood, but how often could you do that? Every couple weeks or every couple months? I regretted that I’d only donated blood once or twice in my life, and not recently. It was just one more thing I wasn’t sure about.

I detached the showerhead and grimly sprayed it point-blank into each of my wounds. Just raising my arms to lift the showerhead almost made me scream.

Job complete, I stepped out of the shower. In the mirror, I could see that four sets of gouges graced my back, one on each shoulder and two more lower down. Most of them were short, and the lower wounds seemed shallow as well, but the set on my right shoulder seemed quite deep and close to three inches long. I wrapped a towel around myself loosely, taking care not to rest it on my back. The last thing I wanted was to get lint in the freshly-cleaned injuries.

“Alright, Gavin! Ready to give that ability of yours a try?” I said, voice under tight control.

I was a little afraid it wouldn’t work. Micah’s conjured fire was one thing. I could imagine a stage magician finding a way to do something similar. The interface in my mind was definitely outside of my experience, but it still seemed mundane compared to something as complicated as healing.

My words released Gavin and he shot across the room like an arrow, thudding into me, his small hand pressing against my back in a hug. The impact was painful, but I was soon distracted by a strange itchy feeling. I tried not to squirm beneath his touch. Something was certainly happening. I put my arms around him and twisted, trying to see what was taking place in the mirror.

Pale new skin had formed over the smaller wounds, and the larger ones had scabbed up and were shrinking as I watched. The punctures on my foot seemed gone entirely. I stared in shock. “Wow, Gavin, buddy! That’s amazing! You really helped Mommy!”

There was no response. Gavin went limp in my arms.