Put back together

27. First shift

Warning: Blood and Injury! Stay safe.

Patton let his fingers run over the perfectly smooth surface of the dragon egg.
It had been warmed up by his coat and hand by now.
He hoped Logan had been wrong when he had assumed that it was already dead.
He didn't quite understand why he so desperately wanted the dragon to live, to at least get a chance at live.
He just did.

And it gave him something to focus on, other than the pained noises coming from across the small clearing he sat on.
Roman swore through clenched teeth as Logan pressed the wet cloth onto the deep cut in his arm again and Patton felt sick.

He had no idea what the thing had been that had appeared out of the shadows seemingly out of nowhere.

He hadn't even gotten an actual look at it.

He only knew that it had long thin blade-like claws, and that only because one of them had stayed deep in Roman's arm as it had fled from the prince's sword, and that it bled green judging by the stains on the silver blade.

Logan was carefully cleaning the wound, muttering apologies whenever Roman hissed in pain.
Softly explaining why he was doing it, why it was important and that it would be okay, in an attempt to calm someone.

Patton couldn't tell if that someone was Roman or Logan himself.

Maybe Logan didn't know either.

He tried to focus on the egg again.

Tried to think about what kind of dragon was hidden behind the shell instead of whether Roman could die from a wound like that or if a human was supposed to bleed that much.
He couldn't remember the last time he had actually bled but he was pretty sure that blood wasn't supposed to stain an entire white sleeve crimson red.

Dragon.

Focus on dragon.

Logan wrapped a strip of one of the blankets that he had cut off tightly around the wound.

"You need to give it some time to heal if you don't want it to rip open over and over again," he told Roman and Patton noticed the way his hands shook. "We should stay here for the night. We're all exhausted and as long as Virgil isn't conscious we can't get far anyway."

"Sounds good," Roman said barely above a whisper. He was pale from the blood loss and leaned heavily against the tree he was sitting under.

"What if any of those things come again?" Patton asked.

"Then we have to defend ourselves," Logan said and his voice sounded heavy. He grimly stared at the blood on his hand.

They didn't light a fire again and instead warmed up their soup over the lantern. It didn't work as well as an open flame might have but was better than nothing.
Roman fell asleep quickly afterwards and Logan and Patton were on their own, Roman's sword and dagger between them.

There was a tension in the air and for a while neither of them said a word.

"Will he be alright?" Patton finally asked.

"I hope so. If the wound doesn't get infected or worse, most likely," Logan sighed. The blood on his hand was beginning to dry and made them sticky as he tried to rub it off.
The metallic stench made him want to throw up. "We should take shifts. One stays up until midnight, then wakes the other who then stays up until morning."

Patton didn't feel like sleeping but he could see Logan's point.

"I can take the first shift," he told Logan. "You can go to sleep."

"Are you sure? If there's an emergency do not hesitate to wake me up."

Patton only nodded and picked up the knife.
It was heavy in his grip.

Logan wrapped a blanket around himself: "Good night and good luck."

"Good night," Patton responded.

And then he was alone with two weapons and three people who trusted in him to keep them alive until midnight.

He sighed and shifted into a more comfortable position. He'd be here for a while.

For a long time nothing happened.
Patton sat there and listened, glancing up at the sky every few minutes, waiting for the moon to appear directly above him.

He was tired and his feet hurt from the long hike but he kept his grip firm around the knife and didn't let himself doze off.
The fear won over the fatigue.

Then, the trees began to whisper.

It was different from the quiet whispers one could hear in the forests of Sallerow, where it could almost be mistaken for the leaves rustling in the wind.
No, this was deeper.
Patton could feel the vibrations of the voices in the ground and even in his bones but he could understand the words.
It was all around him, drowning out all the other sounds and making him shiver.
Even the lantern flickered slightly and turned dark blue.
Patton tried to press his hands over his ears but it did nothing to mute the voices.
It was like they weren't just around him but also inside of him.

It scared him.

He had no idea how long it had been when they finally stopped.
The ground stopped vibrating.
Patton couldn't seem to stop shaking.

He wrapped a blanket around himself and glanced up again to get an idea of what time it was.

By now the moon was in to opening between the trees.
It was almost full moon. Or it had been lately.
He had known the difference when he was younger but couldn't tell for sure these days.

He wished midnight would come faster.
He wished he could wake up Logan and talk to him.
He wished...

He wasn't sure what he wished for.

Maybe he just wanted for this to be over and to be back at home.

He wondered what Mama would say, if she could see him now. Dirty, tired, on the run with a dragon in his coat pocket, lying next to a prince and a mage.

This situation was almost too strange to be true.

Patton took the knife and watched it shimmer in the moon light.
He lightly touched the blade.
It was cold.
He felt a sting and pulled his hand back.
There was a small cut on his fingers.
A dark drop fell onto his lap.

Oh.

Whoops, my hand slipped.

I can't believe this is already the 27. chapter. Like, holy shit.

As always feel free to comment, ask questions or roast me for spelling errors!

Have a nice (gay) day!