Page 63 of Sea of Stars

“The dragon must h

ave been venomous,” he said distractedly.

“What are you doing exactly?” I asked as he lifted up a needle.

“I think it’s called a transfusion,” Denton said. He sounded unsure of himself, and definitely nervous.

“And that is...?” I asked, more confused than ever.

He crouched down next to Mahlia’s body. He lifted up the needle and drove it into one of the cuts on her ankles. He was slowly stitching up her skin. He ignored my question since he was deep in thought.

“Get the rest of the salt water from my bag and pour it down the hole in the tooth,” Denton instructed. “We need to make sure we remove any traces of the venom.”

I grabbed the tooth and poured the small amount of liquid into the hole. “There wasn’t very much. Was it enough to sanitize it?”

Denton wiped the sweat from his brow. It was growing hard to breathe in the heat. He finished sewing up the cuts on Mahlia’s ankles. "No, I'm sorry. That was probably a bad idea anyway. We can't let any salt get into her bloodstream. He paused. I know!" he yelled and snapped his fingers. "Pee in it real quick, okay?"

"What? No. Denton, what are you talking about?"

"It's the best way to sanitize it. Just do it, Breghton." His voice was stern.

I turned away from him and undid my pants. This was completely ridiculous. How is salt any worse than pee getting into your bloodstream? I thought to myself. I had a rather shy bladder but eventually I was able to urinate into the dragon's fang. I tied my pants back up and walked over to him, feeling awkward. "It's done, but I really don't see how that would sanitize it."

"You're right, I'm sorry. That was probably an even worse idea."

"What the heck, Denton! What is the matter with you?!"

"I'm trying to remember how to do this! It's complicated." He took a deep breath. "This is what I need you to do. Grab a bottle of fresh water from my bag and put it on one of the crystals until the water boils. Then pour it down the fang. Make sure to get the salt and urine out."

I didn't pester him about this option. At least I didn't have to pee on anything. I pulled out a bottle of water from Denton's satchel and placed it on the hottest cluster of crystals I could find. It only took a few minutes to boil. Using a piece of my pants as a glove, I poured the hot water down the fang. I sniffed it to make sure it no longer smelled like salty pee.

“What’s next?” I asked.

Denton was thinking hard. I knew he had never performed a transfusion before. We’d have to do it purely based on whatever details he remembered from reading about it. He looked incredibly tense.

“Well...” He picked up the empty water bottle and tossed it at me. “Pour the blood from the vat into that.”

I picked up the large, blood stained bucket and tipped it over. The small amount of blood poured into the bottle. It filled it up about an inch. I took a deep breath. I was beginning to feel queasy around the blood.

Denton was rubbing the scruff on his chin. “It’s not enough.” He looked over at Harish and then up at where Mahlia had been hanging from. "Maybe we..."

But I cut him off before he could finish. “Denton, we can’t do that.”

“Why not? He was going to kill her.”

“No. I saw him standing there staring at her. He couldn’t do it. He didn’t want to.”

Denton looked even queasier than I felt. He looked down at one of the daggers and then looked at his own wrist.

“Denton, no,” I said. “You can’t.”

“There aren’t any other options.”

I took a deep breath. “I don’t know how to do the transfusion. You need to take my blood. You have to save her.”

Denton shook his head. “I don’t even know if it will work.”

“You have to try,” I said. I picked up the dagger that I had dropped down next to Mahlia’s body. "Tell her that I helped save her okay, Denton? Make her understand why I left her in the mountains. Tell her that I love her." I held my breath as I brought the blade down to my wrist.

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