Princess of Dragons

Chapter 13

She smiled and laid her palm against the warm, crimson scales. "Hello. It is nice to meet you too." She internally breathed out in relief herself. No one got seriously hurt this time around. So far, at least.

There was just one more thing she had to figure out.

"Now, what was it that got you so enraged?" Her eyes left his and swept over the angled, brown horns and down his neck. All the way down his back and tail were small spikes like those of Sunrose's, only in a warm, white color. His belly seemed to be the same color as his horns.

None of which showed any signs of why he'd gotten so angry. Not on the part of his torso and tail she could see from here, not on his head and not on his four legs either.

The explanation became apparent, however, when the fire dragon rustled one wing a little, lifting it from being tucked in close to his body. A cascade of blood fell, trailing down his side and landing in a splatter on the ground.

She gasped at the sight of it, her heart wrenching when she saw the damage that'd been wrought the wing when it was spread out for her to see.

"O-oh my..." She rested one hand comfortingly at his snout, which breathed heavily in exertion. This explained why he hadn't simply flown away. The skin of his wings had been torn up by what could only have been another dragon's claws. Three deep rifts in the skin from this far up and all the way down made it completely impossible for him to fly. He must have crashed down right here in the square. Pained, confused and enraged.

She tore her gaze away from the weeping wounds and back to meet his gaze. "I will help you fly again. I will do everything I have been taught, please just bear over with me for a little while longer."

The fire dragon nodded slowly before collapsing right where he was, leaving his wing out to her free disposal.

Smiling encouragingly at him, she turned back to the crowd behind her, seeing the common folk had been drawn in as well, much to her relief. This would make things much easier.

"I need a bucket of clean water, a clean rag, a needle and some thread to mend this dragon's wing. Please help me, everyone!"

She saw people turn to each other, whispering and murmuring about things she had no chance of hearing. However, none of that led to anyone offering their help.

"Please help me help him." She swept her eyes over them. She couldn't do this without them. "The sooner I can help him, the sooner he will get out of here."

That changed something because the muttering sounded a little different this time.

"I have a needle you can use, princess!" a young woman finally called out.

"Then I got a bucket of water and a cloth," a grown man said, immediately going off into one of the nearby houses to find just that.

"I believe I have some thread lying around at home for you," a woman said.

Though all three had already turned to leave, she bowed deeply to them. "Thank you so much!"

Luckily, they all seemed to live nearby. The man was the first one to come back, surprisingly enough.

"While I do not mind sharing some water and a rag, I am not too keen on approaching a dragon, so one of you Dragon Slayers will have to man up - this is not something for a princess to carry around. Not even one of dragons," he said as he unceremoniously put it down on the ground.

Silence reigned amongst everyone for a long moment, and she was just about to either go and pull it over herself or have Kaisog help her somehow when someone finally spoke up.