My nose kept dripping blood, and while I tried to wipe it off, I was getting more and more tired. A cough rattled my chest, and a breeze coming from a small window in the tower felt like a winter wind; it bit my scales and seeped into the core of my body. Everything felt too sensitive, but at the same time my senses were dull, and everything seemed murky.

When the door banged open with urgency and everyone came rushing in, I flinched back from the sound and chill the outside air brought. Katelynn came to a stop next to my neck while Kieran carefully examined the slash on my leg.

“Hey, little bro, how you feelin’?”

“...cold. Very very cold. Close th’ door,” I said through clenched teeth.

Kalde rushed to the door and shoved it closed, making another bang and eliciting another flinch from me.

“I cleaned it and wrapped it up… why’s it got an infection?” I mumbled, motioning my tail in the direction of the leg.

“Well, I may have uhm… misjudged where the infection was coming from,” Kieran answered. I could hear the wince in his voice. “It’s not in your leg; it looked like that since it was the deepest wound, but it’s actually your chest. There’s some sort of poison on it. But this wasn’t made by our guards… Were you attacked by anyone else after Ric, uh, took Katelynn?”

“Yeah, some fucking Hunters-” I cut off with a growl when Kieran tried touching the area around the slash from the Hunters’ weapons.

“Well. That explains the poison. It must have been made especially for Dragons; I’ve never seen this sort of chilling effect on any other creature.”

“You haven’t seen many effects before though, your majesty. You haven’t even seen a Dragon be treated, so I doubt it was made just for me, and I doubt your ‘skills’ to help me, so please just fuck off!” I ended up snarling.

“Zairyn.” Katelynn did more than pull out her mother-voice. She sounded just as cold as I was feeling.

Everyone else started to slowly back away from her, sensing my imminent ass-whooping.

“Zairyn. These people are trying to help us. He does not have medical training. But he’s the best we have right now! SO STOP BEING A BRAT, AND LET THEM HELP YOU!” Lynn had been gradually getting louder, until she ended at a yell. She had never yelled at me like that before.

I looked around the room and saw that everyone else’s faces mirrored mine. Shock and scared surprise. I was so startled I didn’t even fight it when Kieran slowly shuffled towards me to check my chest again. I kept my mouth shut the entire time, only able to watch with wide eyes as my sister stalked out of the room, slamming the door behind her.

I looked down at the floor to avoid the awkward stares from everyone else.

“Sorry. I am grateful,” I mumbled to Kieran. I was, but I knew better than to trust a Human. Especially a Royal. Their parents were the ones that legalized Hunters; without them, Katelynn and I wouldn’t even be in this position. It was rude, and it was petty, but I still believed that all this was their fault. They were nice now, fixing everything they ruined, but what about later, when they married Lynn off to Ric? I was grateful, but only for this.

“It’s fine. I can see where you’re coming from. You’ve never had any good interactions with Humans yet, have you? They’ve only hurt you?” Kieran asked gently.

“And kidnapped my sister.”

“And kidnapped your sister.”

“I didn’t kidnap anyone!” Ric squeaked.

“You dragged her away from me and ordered your guards to attack as I was trying to protect her,” I deadpanned.

“I was trying to protect her! From-”

“From me?”

There was another pregnant pause, awkwardness permeating the room.

“...Yes. I didn’t know who you were. I am sorry about that,” Ric said softly. I knew he was sorry. I could smell the guilt, even if I couldn’t hear the sincerity in his tone.

The guilt from being such an ass warred with the pain from my injuries; should I trust these Humans? They had been kind to me, but more importantly, Lynn, and they were trying to make things right. But they were the reason we suffered, had to live like we did. I didn’t want to trust them honestly. I would have been just fine moving on with our lives, going back home, and never hearing another Human again. But Katelynn trusted them. She trusted them enough that she had a plan of some sort, and it involved them. But did they know? Were they in on this plan? Or was Lynn just being a manipulative genius?

All the thinking and mistrust made it feel like my head was splitting, and it was only worsened as Kieran started cleaning my chest wound. I tried not to make much noise as he did so, but I couldn’t help the few pained grunts that escaped my throat.

“Okay, I’m going to try and take a sample of the poison from your muscle. It… will probably hurt. So brace yourself,” Kieran eventually said.

I closed my eyes and clenched my jaw. But I wasn’t expecting the sharp pinch of pain to radiate so deeply in my body.

My eyes shot open as I let out a ragged gasp.

“Oh, shit…” Kieran muttered.

“What, what’s wrong?” Ric asked.

“There’s an actual shard of metal in here. The blade must have broken off and that’s what led to such huge amounts of poison being stuck in his body. I-I have to pull it out.”

When they heard this, Kalde and Jillan ran over to hold down my tail, which I only just noticed was thrashing around. Kieran must have pulled harder on the shard, because the painful pinch only became worse, spreading through the entirety of my neck. My wings shuttered, and Ric ran over; I assumed to hold them down too.

But instead, he ran over to my face and, after a moment of hesitation, wrapped his arms around my snout.

I was about to yell at him, asking what he was doing, but his arms were too strong around my mouth.

Then he started stroking up and down my face, muttering soothing, albeit shaky, words.

“You’ll be okay, you’ll be okay, just hold on for a bit more. Katelynn was just worried for you, but she won’t need to be after this. Just a little longer. Just hold on Zairyn, okay? We’ve got some good news for you after this is done, just a bit more…”

And a few moments later, what felt like a huge pressure was lifted from my chest. Or more like pulled out. I slumped down against Ric in exhaustion as Kalde put salve on my chest, and Jillan wrapped it in gauze. Kieran was carrying the tip of a blade, covered in my own blood, to a blanket behind us. I got a glimpse of the shining steel; it was a good half-foot that was lodged in my body, and now that it was gone, the poison would eventually wear off and my wounds would close and heal faster.

Ric was still slowly caressing my face, hugging my snout so tightly I couldn’t open it.

Not that I would have; I was too tired to even say anything. Don’t even think I would have wanted to. I don’t know what I would have said. A blade stuck in my chest, especially tipped in poison, would have killed me, and… I technically owed them my life.

‘I don’t want to trust them… but maybe I can.’