Page 36 of Dragon Fire

“Lady Shara, may I look at your wing?” Seth asked gently.

Shara shied away from him. Not good.

“I only want to help you, milady,” Seth tried to reassure her.

“I prefer to wait,”Shara said softly.

Wait? Seth had no idea what the dragoness was waiting for. It didn’t make sense. Why wouldn’t she let him help her?

And then, the answer came clear when a tall blonde woman came down the treacherous path from the cliffs and walked into the firelight. Seth frowned. He couldn’t see her that well across the dancing flames, but as she drew closer, he saw that she held a satchel much like his own.

“My dear Shara, what have you got into now?” asked the woman, clearly familiar with the sea dragon.

At this, Shara extended her bleeding wing, trembling badly. Seth moved to support her, knowing she could use his help.

“I will hold your wing, if you allow it,” he offered to the dragon, not wanting to touch her without her permission.

Shara looked at him in surprise and nodded her great head just once.

“Thank you, Sir…?” the newcomer asked, moving closer.

Seth could see her a lot better now, and she was definitely one of the fair folk. If he hadn’t been convinced by her melodic voice, her lithe blonde beauty made a believer out of him. She was stunning.

“I’m not a knight,” he told her. “I am the apprentice healer from the Southern Lair, milady. My name is Seth.”

“My mistake. I’m Lizbet, a fellow healer. I mostly work with gryphons, but some of the sea dragons allow me to help them when needed.” She approached Shara on quiet feet, her hands moving gently over the dragon’s scales in what Seth recognized as a thorough examination. “Oh, Shara, sweetheart, what happened to you?”

“It was the diamond blades,”Shara admitted in a small voice.“Sir Hrardorr warned us all, but I got too close to Mattie when she was tugging one of the big blades free of the wreckage, and it sliced me up.”

“Is she badly hurt?”Hrardorr asked Seth privately.

“The web of her wing is sliced open between the third and fourth joint,”Seth told Hrardorr honestly as he got his first good look at the injury.

Hrardorr winced.“A flight-ending injury if not healed correctly.”

“Don’t worry, my friend, I’ll see to her,”Seth promised. He would make sure this young dragon didn’t suffer permanent effects from this injury if at all possible.

“I have not dealt with many wing injuries on dragons,” Lizbet admitted, coming up behind Shara’s wing, near Seth.

“I have,” Seth replied confidently. “This is bad, but not impossible. It can be healed, but we’ll have to stitch her up, and she cannot go in the water until the cut is knit together properly.”

“You have a needle that will go through dragon hide?” Lizbet looked at him with wide eyes.

Seth nodded. “I brought along my kit. I have all the tools we’ll need, and Sir Leo and Sir Xander can help us.” He remembered to address his patient. “Milady, will you allow Sir Xander to support your wing while we work on it? I have more of the ointment that will numb your wing so you will not be hurt further by our work, and I promise you that, in time, you will be healed, though this will leave a permanent scar, I’m afraid.”

The young dragoness looked scared, her head swiveling from Lizbet to Hrardorr, and then to Xander, surprisingly, before she turned back to look at Seth.

“Have you done this before, truly?”she asked, clearly frightened. He had to remember that these sea dragons did not interact with people much.

“Yes, milady. I grew up in the Lair with three human parents and two dragon parents. I apprenticed to the healer at ten years old and have worked on almost every dragon in the Lair at one time or another, including my dragon parents. The Southern Lair is different from most Lairs in that we have a lot of older dragons and knights and many young ones, like Leo and Xander, who are gifted fliers that need the training of the more experienced dragons like Sir Hrardorr and Lady Genlitha. The changeable winds along our coast are exceptionally good for learning, from what I understand, but training means pushing oneself to one’s limits and often results in injuries until skills are mastered. As a result, I have seen and treated many different kinds of injuries.”

“Seth sewed up my wing when we first got to the Lair,”Xanderanth put in helpfully, spreading his right wing out to show Shara the jagged line that had healed well.“I tore it doing something stupid and was very afraid I would not fly again, but Seth fixed me up, and as you can see, the rip was a lot crazier than your straight cut. Seth does good work. You can trust him.”

“We are taught to fear humans and stay far away from them,”Shara admitted.“But maybe that is wrong. You seem like a nice human, Seth. And your touch does not hurt.”She looked over at Xander and Hrardorr.“And land dragons like you and vouch for you.”Shara lowered her head to the sand.“Please proceed. I want to fly, even though I spend most of my time underwater. I like sunshine on my scales more than they say is good for a sea dragon.”

Seth had to smile at her declaration. “So then, you’re a bit of a rebel, eh, milady? That’s good. So am I.” He lowered her wing into Lizbet’s care with gentle hands and went to fetch what he’d need from his pack. With a nod, he motioned Xanderanth over to help support Shara’s wing. Lair dragons were used to helping each other in such situations, and he knew what to do.

“How are you a rebel, Seth?”Shara asked as she watched him take things from his pack, a few feet away from her on the sand.

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