Lost

Chapter 6

I spot a drinking hole and collapse next to it. I drink huge gulps of water and look at my surroundings so I remember where this water hole is for the future. This area reminds me of Toothless, and my heart starts to ache even more than before. I can't imagine what he must be feeling right now, being all alone and badly injured...
Then there's a sound.
The faintest of sounds but I still grasp onto it. I painfully manage to get up and move towards the sound. As I get closer, I hear it more clearly. It sounds like a soft moan. A dragon moan.
"Toothless?"
I move forward cautiously, being very careful with my footing. I have never noticed before how many objects there are on a forest floor, but it's definitely making it so difficult for a crippled, one-legged Viking like me to get around.
When I break through some bushes and reach the other side, I almost collapse. The sight before me makes me sigh with relief.
"Toothless! Oh my gods I'm here bud! I'm here!"
I limp towards his head and realize he is unconscious. He is laying on his stomach. His right wing is folded up and he is slightly leaning on it. The left wing is laid out at an odd angle, and it looks horrible. The wing is split in the middle separating it into two sections, and the tip of the wing is dangling off. And there's blood everywhere. His wing and the ground below it is covered in a dark sticky red. The rest of his body seems fine. I look in the saddle and find nothing missing, thank Thor. I pull out the thick bandage wrap made for dragon injuries and the small water canteen. I also grab the small bowl and the sowing needle and thick thread I packed mainly for outfit fails, but it'll have to do for now. I find a Asclepius tree next to us and collect some leaves, vines, a grinding rock, and a few white snowdrop flowers near the trunk used for pain relief. I use the leaf to collect some of Toothless' saliva and sit down next to Toothless's wing to grind the ingredients together. I use the water in the canteen to wash most of the blood and dirt away on his wounds. Next I get to working on stitching his wing closed. It takes a decent amount of time trying to stitch through the thick dragon skin with a small needle, and I had to sharpen the end a few times with my knife. Eventually, I finished as best as I could with little tools I had with me. Through all of this, I've gotten no response from Toothless, but I need to fix this wound before I focus on anything else. Grabbing the bowl, I gently apply the healing ointment onto his wounds, completely wrap the entire wing, and secure it with vines. The wing itself is only broken at the tip, and the tear in the middle of the wing only affected the skin. It's still a really bad injury, but at least the main bone isn't broken. I hobble back up again and slowly head towards the water hole with the canteen.

I collapse next to the watering hole out of breath. Reaching for the canteen I dropped next to me, I see a glimpse of what I look like in the water and cringe. I don't even recognize myself. With a huge painful sigh, I splash water in my face, and try to wash off the dragon blood from my hands. I've never seen so much dragon blood from one dragon before, and it kills me inside knowing that the blood is Toothless's. I refill the canteen with water from the water hole and make my way back. If cleansing his wounds didn't wake him up then I don't know what will.

When I get back to Toothless, I manage to build a small fire. I decide to use the extra ointment on my leg, so I sit down next to Toothless's head and unwrap my leg. The bleeding has slowed and it only bleeds when I move around. The bandage is red from the blood. I tighten my jaw and silently scream as I apply the ointment to my wound. I rinse out the bandage and rewrap my leg. I'm already warming up from the fire a few feet away. I lean back on Toothless and rest my head on the top of his. I close my eyes and drift away to the sounds of the crackling fire.