“…broken ribs, several lacerations on his back, but no concussion, just a simple head wound. I don’t suggest he do much for a little while until his back starts to heal.” Said a voice that Ash couldn’t recognize in his foggy state.

Why does the ground feel so soft? He wondered. Before the pain that would inevitably kick in, kicked in. He gasped, and his eyes flew open when he felt a severe burning in his back.

Something was definitely wrong as it hadn’t hurt this much last time he was awake. He flinched when he felt a hand touch his shoulder.

“Calm down.” A man said, as he shook with fright. “It’s alright. We won’t hurt you. We just want to help.”

Then he felt a cold hand touch his back and nearly shrieked. “It’s okay.” Said the same man. “She just wants to check and see how your back is doing. Can you tell me what happened for you to get that?”

Ash started to shake even more than he had before, and his eyes started to fog over with tears. “I can’t help him like this.” The woman said. “I’m going to have to put him back to sleep before he’ll even let me try.”

Ash felt something prick him in the neck, causing him pain, but not as much as the slices on his back did. Thankfully, he drifted into unconsciousness.

…

When Ash woke up again, he didn’t seem to hurt as much but he felt like his entire body was underwater, and it seemed impossible to move. There was only a slight sting, and the rest was pretty much numb.

Opening his eyes, Ash groaned as he tried to take in his surroundings. The room was not very bright inside and yet he could see everything almost perfectly. There were many things in the room that he could not recognize, like the soft thing he was laying on, or the thing in the corner which seemed to show another room, but not at the same time.

He noticed he wasn’t cold and looked down to see the softest and heaviest blanket he had ever seen in his life.

He was feeling the fabric of the blanket when he caught the door opening in his peripheral vision. He slowly pulled the blanket with his tired limbs over his head and pretended to go back to sleep as he did not know what this person wanted.

“I know you’re awake.” Said a vaguely familiar voice.

Ash just stayed tucked under the blanket as he shivered in fright. Please leave! Please leave! Please leave! He thought.

“It’s alright.” The same voice said. “We don’t want to hurt you. We want to help you. We’ll answer any questions you ask if we can.”

At the prospect of answers, Ash’s head peeked up over the covers. “That’s it.” The man said. He was a bigger guy and he had blond hair with green roots.

“Who are you?” Ash asked in a hoarse shaky voice.

“My name’s Andrew, but most people call me Drew. I am a dragon mage.”

Ash cocked his head to the side. “You can control dragons?” He asked quietly.

“That’s right. Can you tell me your name?” He gently prodded.

“A-Ash.” The boy stuttered out. “Where am I? How did I get here?”

“Well, you are in the heart of the dragon mage base. You’re in our queen’s castle right now while you recover. I brought you here.”

“Why?” Ash asked skeptically.

“Because my dragon wouldn’t attack you. Did you know that dragons are fiercely loyal creatures?” Ash shook his head no. “Dragons refuse to attack anyone that is even distinctly connected to a dragon. From time to time, they do have to kill other dragons, but most of the time it works that way. Same goes the way for dragon mages; dragons will not attack dragons or dragon mages unless they have seen with their own two eyes that they are not good. My dragon thought that you were a dragon mage. Are you a dragon mage?”

“Me? No. I don’t think so. I can’t even control anything that’s why they made me…”

“Made you what?” The man asked angrily.

At the look on the man’s face, Ash shriveled back into the covers and moved as far away from him as he could.

“I’m sorry.” Drew apologized seeing the look on his face. “I didn’t mean to scare you. You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to. Listen, I have to go get the doctor. She’s going to take a look at your wounds.”

“Doctor? What’s a doctor?” Ash asked curiously.

“You don’t know what a…? Of course you don’t. With the condition you were in. There was no way they had a doctor there.” Drew said to himself. “A doctor is a person who knows how to fix cuts and things that hurt you. They can also help if you aren’t feeling well.”

“Oh. Okay.” Ash conceded.