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I blink my eyes quickly and take a few more deep breaths until the tears are gone.
I need to stay sharp and focused right now so that I can figure out what to do next. Especially since I’ve been dumped here by Draggar.
I eat another couple of handfuls of the jerky mixture until my stomach no longer rumbles before setting it aside. I’m still a little hungry, but I probably shouldn’t eat all of it. Now that I’m hydrated and my stomach isn’t empty anymore, I can think a little clearer, and I realize that my first assumption was wrong.
If Draggar left his belongings behind with me, then he’s probably going to return. My spirits, which plummeted when I woke up alone, perk up at that thought. He really didn’t seem like the kind of guy to just abandon me here in the middle of nowhere. I mean, he risked his life to save me.
And while he is an alien who tossed me over his shoulder and spirited me away and I know I shouldn’t want to see him again – I do. I’m mature enough to admit that to myself.
In the short time we spent together, I felt safer than ever before. Protected. Even while being carried over his shoulder, it was obvious he was trying to be as gentle with me as possible. But the magnetic pull I felt towards him was so strange, and I wonder if it could have been a figment of my imagination.
A shuffling noise reaches my ears making me still with alarm.
There it is again.
The noise is coming from the front of the cave at the entrance. I tense and make myself as small as possible, crouching down on the pallet. I don’t know what’s out there, but this is a cave and there are bound to be animals that might call it home. Maybe it wants its home back.
For some reason, the advice about what to do if you ever encounter a brown bear flashes through my head. Play dead. So, I stay as still as possible and try to even out my breathing until it’s barely noticeable. With the way my luck is going, this planet definitely has some weird bears on it just waiting for a tasty snack.
Out of the corner of my eye, I spy a large shadowy shape stumble into the cave before it braces itself against one of the walls. The beam of sunlight that streams in from the entrance blinds my vision for a few seconds, but when my eyes adjust, I can see the shadowy figure isn’t a bear after all.
Speak of the devil.
“Draggar?” I call out to him softly, but he doesn’t seem to hear me. It’s like he’s in his own world.
He takes a couple of lurching steps inside the entrance and then, he falls to his knees with a hard thump and a muffled grunt that makes me wince in sympathy. I scramble to my feet in alarm and rush over to him.
Placing my arms around his massive shoulders, I jerk my hands away in shock. His skin feels like it’s on fire. He’s burning up with fever.
My mind flashes back to the dinosaur and the sight of its sharp claws swiping across his chest. But when I glance down at his chest, I notice the jagged wound I expected to see has already scabbed over and looks as if it is well on its way to healing. There must be something else going on, then. I quickly look him over, searching for any other signs of injury.
His silver hair is damp and his brightly colored skin that glowed with vitality looks dull and that worries me.
Then, I see it.
A deep wound on his side. It looks almost like what I imagine a bullet wound would look like, but it can’t be. This planet seems to primitive for guns. Leaning closer and studying the torn skin, I notice a putrid smell emanating from the wound and green pus that looks like slime leaks from it. My stomach turns over and I gulp down the urge to vomit up the food I just ate.
Shit, it must be infected. Where’s a bottle of antibiotics when you need it?!?
Draggar mumbles something in his deep voice, but even with the translator, his words are so slurred I can only understand a couple of them. Something about poison and a kit.
Wait, poison? I freeze with before pushing down the thoughts flying through my head and helping him up to shuffle over to the pallet. It’s slow going but we finally make it and he collapses on top of the soft fur with a deep groan of pain. His eyes close as I wrestle his heavy sword and its sheath off his back and a belt housing a couple of wicked looking daggers.
Geez, this guy is like a walking armory.
I untie his boots next, and when I’m through, I nearly panic. He is so still and quiet that I reach out to check for his pulse. As soon as my hand touches him, his eyes pop open.
The brilliant silver color of his irises is darker, almost black and his eyes are glazed and unfocused from the fever. His full lips are held in a tight grimace as if he is gritting his teeth hard against the pain as he gazes unseeing up at me.
I need to clean his wound somehow.
The satchel! Maybe there’s something in it that can help. I quickly search through the bag and find a small treasure trove. Some things I recognize and others I don’t. There’s a metal cup, another bag of the jerky mixture, a little metal box with strange writing on it, and a few other items.
I open the metal box and discover a tin of green goo that emits a sharp herbal odor. It reminds me of the healing gel that we used on the ship. There are also a few small scraps of some type of silky fabric that look like bandages and a few dried leaves that mystify me.
Taking one of the bandages, I pour water on it and sink down beside Draggar and begin to wash the dirt and dried blood off his side, trying my best to ignore the massive swells of muscle on display. His large hands which look like they could crush walnuts lie still and lax against his hard stomach and I wonder what those hands would feel like gliding over me. I shake my head and push away the thought. It feels wrong to gaze at him with anything other than concern when he’s so vulnerable.
His eyes are open, but he doesn’t seem to be aware that I’m even here or of anything else. His gaze is focused unseeing over my shoulder, and when I call his name, he doesn’t respond. It’s like Draggar is completely focused inward on fighting the pain and sickness that is ravaging his body.
