A Dragon's Heart (on hold)

Chapter 6

-cassian- 

The sound of a branch snapping and the subtle presence of someone behind me woke me up. I quickly jumped to my feet and pulled my sword from its sheath to spin around and face the intruder.

Violet eyes stared back at me as I stood there in a defensive posture with my blade pointed at them. 

The girl was awake. She was standing next to a tree using it to support herself with one arm while holding a blanket up to cover herself with the other.

Her legs were straining just to hold her up and she looked exhausted as she stared at me confused. She must have just woken up. She was covered in bandages and hunched over in pain.

 My instincts were on high alert telling me that there was danger, that SHE was dangerous. But in my eyes she looked weak. Confused. Maybe even a bit scared.

I was trained to trust my instincts over my senses. I knew my eyes could deceive me, that I need to trust my instincts above all else, in order to survive. This ideal was engraved into my very soul. It's kept me alive for years. Yet I still lowered my sword.

She's a dragon, she's supposed to be my enemy. We are supposed to kill each other. She could easily shift to her other form and eat me if she really wanted to, I was still badly bruised from the fight earlier and getting to my feet so quickly hurt.

But she seemed so frail, at the moment, like she could barely stand, let alone attack. It's a mistake for me to underestimate any dragon or enemy, but she doesn't hold any kind of malicious aura.

She took a step towards me and I tightened my grip on my sword briefly. 

Her knees buckled and she collapsed forward and without thinking I rushed forward to catch her, dropping my sword in the process. "hey!" 

I barely caught her before she fell to the ground and I could already see some blood bleeding through her bandages. Dammit she's reopening her wounds by moving around!

"Ivan-" her soft feminine voice mumbled. I stopped and looked down at her, holding her up as she struggled to sit upright. 

"w-where's Ivan?" she looked up at me pleadingly and I grit my teeth seeing the helpless look in her eyes. Dammit Cassian snap out of it, focus!

I carefully readjusted our sitting position, and wrapped the blanket over her shoulders. "Was Ivan the knight you were with?"

"y-yes, he was hurt! I need to see him-" she winced, holding her abdomen in pain and I kept her from falling over once more.

"Hey, focus on yourself for a moment, you're in really bad shape, you're gonna reopen your wounds if you keep moving around." 

Grabbing her bedding I dragged it a bit closer before helping her to lay back down. By now her breaths were coming in short pants and she had a cold sweat taking over her body. 

Covering her with the blanket I moved and grabbed my canteen and unscrewed the cap before bringing it up to her lips. "drink"

She sipped the water, some of it dripping down the corner of her mouth before I pulled it away to let her breath. "you need to rest and recover from your wounds. There's probably still poison in your system and you're struggling to fight it off." I informed her calmly.

"But Ivan-" she tried to sit up once more but I stopped her with one hand, gently keeping her down. Her eyes were unfocused and half closed. She was barely even staying conscious in this state.

"Your knight is gone…his last wish was for me to keep you safe and Alive. So unless you want his death to be in vain I suggest you stay down until your body manages to fend off the poison flowing through it."