Greetings Readers
I hope your week has been less stressful than mine has been. Working with a client that seems to have only filled in half an outline and now wants things changed and extra words added, even though we are already beyond the word count. I am tired.
At least I have some time to write a little, which really helps. I hope you all enjoy the next chapters of Fell Dragon.
Barik could barely understand what the doctor was telling him about Saita’s condition. He had hoped that Kiai would be here, but she was now taking care of a near hysterical toddler. Hell, he was near hysterical when he saw what they pulled from the debris. He muttered a prayer that Saita had been unconscious when they got her free.
“I don’t understand what you are saying,” he said to the doctor. “Give it to me so that a three-year-old can understand it.”
“Her lung had collapsed and was torn to pieces. Now we have managed to close the lung off from breathing for her so that it can have time to heal but she has lost a lot of blood. Far more than what we had in stock for her. She has unique blood, and we need more, plasma can only last so long.” the doctor frowned. “Multiple other broken bones, concussion, and what I suspect to be a broken jaw. We did not have the time to scan her fully before she just about started drowning in her own blood. Get her more blood. Is that simple enough?”
“Is she going to live?”
“She is critical but stable.” The doctor said.
“I know a medical recited speech when I hear one. I have fought enough wars to know when doctors are unsure of their own skills.”
“I...look, very few of us have access to Jarah’s schematics with what is going on inside of her body. We have no idea if something crucial has been damaged or not. All I know is that for now, she is in a critical but stable state. That is all I can tell you. Get more blood.”
The doctor then moved away from him before he could ask if he could see her. “God, damn it.”
There was nothing more he could do but head back to where he knew Kiai was with the boys. He nervously gripped a medical file in his hands as he walked. He hoped that Kiai would be able to make heads and tails of it because the words were all foreign to him.
When he got to their abode, he found Kiai sitting on the couch with both boys’ heads in her lap. She was silently crying so he assumed that the children were asleep. He closed the door as silently as possible and put the file on the kitchen table with a sigh. Kiai’s head snapped in his direction, and she looked at him for answers, any answers.
He was forced to use the very words that the doctor had used on him. “Critical but stable. They need more of her blood.”
“I will have to ask Myla. I don’t know how we can hide this from Karesh anymore.” she wiped her face.
Barik sat down on the couch opposite his wife and looked at the fire-haired boy that curled his body inwards toward Kiai.
“Our Queen has a son that has parts of his hair that colour. It is quite rare in our species, what about yours?”
“It’s rare enough.” Kiai stroked his hair and he curled tighter. “What am I supposed to tell him? What am I going to tell her? She knew his name.”
“Well of course she does, she named him, didn’t she?”
“She also has no memory of the last four years. How would she have known his name?” she stroked her son’s head. “I know Myla said that they travelled through time but…”
“She is alive, and we have the boy after months of playing nice with the creep. It could probably have gone a little better but for now, this is what we have. You will need to figure out what to do when Karesh gets here because he is going to want answers or bodies. Either way, you have a late night coming up. Let me put the two of them to bed then I will help you.”
“What if she dies?” Kiai clenched her teeth and tried to not cry.
“Then she dies, there is nothing you can do about that. You saved him from suffering her fate. That was what we needed to do. Now you need to do what you need to ensure that our two species don’t kill each other. Saita cannot be in better hands than what she is in now. Do what you must.”
Barik got up to collect the boys from Kiai. “And right now, the boy couldn’t possibly be in better hands than what he is right now.”
Constant dreams were marred by pain before more dreams took over. Most of the dreams were of images, unmoving, of people, places, and darkness. Then there was the pain that progressively got worse as the images changed to those of her nightmares. Just when she couldn’t take any more there was a pair of blue eyes that looked up at her from her chest and there was peace. Though the pain didn’t leave her there was peace. Those eyes were the same colour as the eye that she had lost. Then they disappeared, taken from her.
She grabbed at them and found herself unable to move due to restraints. She wanted to scream but found herself struggling to get any sound out. Terror and pain mixed and all she wanted to do was hide and cry but there would be no comfort from this.
Then a hand. Out of nowhere. Gently lay itself on her left wrist. The fear dissipated as her eyes shot open. Her body had instinctively tried to take a deep breath, but she was able to do nothing more than a half gasp.
“Slow breaths don’t try to breathe too deeply. It’s going to feel like you are drowning but just keep breathing.”
“Mom?”
Her voice was barely above a whisper and sounded harsh to her own ears. Her throat ached and felt cold. The room was too bright, and it was so difficult to draw a breath. Her chest and head ached. She groaned and tried to rub at her head but found her arms restrained.
“I’m sorry Sweetie, I’ll remove those now. We just needed to keep you calm while no one was around. Your nightmares were getting progressively worse, and nothing seemed to be helping you.” Myla removed the left restraint and then came to her right. “Are you okay? You were just about screaming a few minutes ago.”
“Nightmares, like you said,” she rubbed at her face.
There was a sharp pain in her nose, and it triggered a coughing spasm that caused her chest to hurt even more.
“I will get some tape to hold that down. Now that you are awake it is likely to move and cause pain.” Myla took her hands and held them. “You got hurt. Do you remember?”
Saita flopped back onto the pillows and groaned as her head echoed the soft blow with a throb. “Edzeeker. He found me. I couldn’t control myself. I wasn’t paying attention to my surroundings. Tripped, fell down a hole. Hit my head and got...stabbed? It gets a little fuzzy after that. There was...no, I don’t know.”
“You were not stabbed. Stabbed implies one entrance and not an exit. You were impaled.” Myla indicated a circle with her thumb and forefinger, it was about an inch in diameter. “You would have been less injured had you not tried to move.”
The Queen made her way to the foot of the bed and tapped Saita’s right leg. Smirking when she grunted in pain. “Broke your ankle.”
She came to sit down on Saita’s left side. “You had all your common sense knocked out of you and you have a hairline fracture in your jaw. There were more internal injuries but for the most part that seems to have stabilized.”
“Here.” Saita tapped her right chest, under the collar bone. “It was here. When things fell around me, it hurt and echoed in my chest though nothing landed on me. A pipe?”
“A pipe,” confirmed Myla.
“I lost a lung? Feels like I lost a lung.”
No.” Myla half laughed. “The doctors blocked off your right lung from your own breathing. It will need a few more days to heal enough to work again.”
“So, I’m breathing with one lung.” She felt her right side with her left hand. “And there is the chest tube. Fun.”
She then touched her nose and felt the pipe that was there. “Extra oxygen; still feels like I am not getting enough breath, but it is fine. This is fine.”
“Fine…” Myla shook her head and muttered once again. “Fine.”
“I messed up. I know.” Said Saita softly, waiting for her mother to say something other than single words.
The young woman looked at her mother and realised she had aged far more than the four years that she had been gone. She was starting to go white at her temples.
“Are you trying to become less human?” Asked the older woman after some time.
“Hmm?”
“You now have a replaced right eye, a replaced right arm, and three ribs,” Myla took a deep breath and put her head in her hands. “Three ribs needed to be replaced as a whole.”
“We can do that?”
“Saita!”
She jumped at her mother’s stern voice.
“You gave yourself up to Edzeeker. You never gave us a chance to help you, and now you throw yourself into battle with him again!” Myla’s voice was heavy with tears, and she couldn’t look at Saita. “Are you trying to commit suicide?”
“Uhm…”
“I just got you back, and in a few short weeks of you leaving my care, you are like this. What were you thinking?”
“I…” Saita didn’t know what to say to that.
“I thought that if I let you go to Kiai, you would find something else to fixate on but now this. You almost died! Do you understand that? This isn’t a game. There is no mythical piece of paper that is going to bring you back. I need you to realise that.”
“Sorry…”
“Sorry? Sorry! Saita, you are not a child anymore. We are going to war, and I am trying to stop your father. I need you to support and protect what Kiai is doing here. You cannot act on your own.” Myla looked her in the eye and added. “I understand you are angry, but we cannot deal with what is going on in your head at the moment. There are bigger things that need to be dealt with. Stow your anger, stow your hate and show the family the support we need from you.”
“Oh, come on Mom! I didn’t do this on purpose!” Saita burst out and regretted it immediately as pain flooded her body.
“Saita, you need to realise that you have…” Myla took a shuddering breath. “Responsibilities.”
“Yeah, to stop Dad from starting a war with the Saith.”
“Is she awake?”
Saita sat up and looked to where she heard Kiai’s voice, and she felt the blood drain from her face. Kiai was holding the hands of the two toddlers. Her dark hair son looked very bored, but the red-haired one couldn’t look Saita in the eye. The machine, which was monitoring her oxygen level, started beeping alarmingly.
“Breath in and out dear.” Said Myla.
“I...I…”
“You recognise me?” Asked the boy softly.
Saita looked at Myla with a look of disgust and terror, Myla finally relented and hugged her. Once she was close, she whispered. “Sweetie, he is genetically yours, but your body shows no signs of past pregnancy. He is likely exactly like you.”
“How is that any better?” She hissed.
“Excuse me.” The boy said again.
Myla let go of Saita, and the boy came to stand next to her. He looked up at her with fear, his blue eyes wide with what Saita was sure was her own fear at seeing him.
“Do you remember who I am?” He asked.
Saita scratched at her right arm, unable to look at the child. What did he expect of her? If what her mother said was true, he was her son, but she felt nothing but absolute fear at how he had come to be and why he was made.
“I…” She started.
But the boy beat her to it. “My name is Aidan, and I’m glad you’re okay. Thank you for keeping me safe.”
“Hmm…” Was all Saita could muster.
The boy looked heartbroken as if he were expecting some kind of heart-warming connection with her.
“Maybe this is a little too soon.” Said Kiai as she picked up her son to sit on her hip.
“No…” Saita said softly. “Aidan, hey?”
Myla pushed a chair closer to let Aidan get up on the bed to talk more with Saita. She then took Kiai’s arm and steered her from the room.
“Jarah is concerned about her mental wellbeing. Right now, we don’t have time to deal with what has happened to her. The boy will keep her distracted until we can make our move.”
“You are placing a vulnerable child in the care of another vulnerable child. Myla, this isn’t going to make her better. This isn’t even a band-aid. The boy may not be of her body, but he was created without her permission. Dumping all that on her is not fair and is going to make her…”
“What else can I do? Karesh is talking about cutting her out of the family completely because she is not doing what he wants of her. I’m begging the Saith to hold off, but they are seeing red. I cannot be concerned about her mental state at this moment! The boy is something that can help anchor her here in the present instead of the past.”
“That is also not fair on him.”
“What else would you have me do?” Begged Myla.
Kiai slowly shakes her head and says. “I don’t know, but you are going to have to tell Astec about the boy.”
Yes Myla, this is exactly how you deal with two traumatised people. Well done. How will this affect the two of them? I guess you'll have to continue reading to find out!
For those of you just joining us, please note that this is the follow on book from Fell Dragon. Follow this link to read it
Fell Dragon Book 1
As the series continues, it will combine with another book series I wrote. To avoid confusion about what is happening, introductory chapters will be introduced separately so that you don't have to be lost. However, these chapters will contain spoilers. You can find these chapters here:
Races Explained
Banishment
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Part 19>>You are Here>>Part 21