I woke up to the sun streaming through the window.
I looked around. I was alone in the living room with the box of medical supplies and a blanket over my legs. The last thing I remember was Erin fixing up something on my arm before I probably passed out.
As soon as I had woken up, I immediately felt the stinging of my burn and I felt it. Underneath the frost on my face, it was rough, and I felt skin peeling. I knew there wasn't much Erin could do for that, but by the looks of it she had fixed my other injuries up just fine.
I twisted to try and stand up, but an aching pain started to pound in my chest and arms. "Oh gods this is gonna hurt." I pushed up from the armrest of the couch and stood up. I was a bit wobbly, but I definitely felt a lot better than yesterday.
I made my way towards the door. "Erin?" I called. She must have gone up to her room. I entered the entrance hall to head up the stairs when the door to the palace creaked open. Erin slipped inside and didn't even notice me as she closed the door as quietly as she could. "Erin...?" I asked.
Erin jumped and her head snapped toward me. "Scott! Your supposed to be sleeping!" she said. She was clutching a black velvet drawstring bag and my eyes were immediately drawn to it.
"What's in the bag?" I asked.
Erin glanced at it before hiding it behind her back. "What bag?"
"Erin, the bomb didn't make me blind." I said and made an attempt to cross my arms but winced as my chest began to ache even worse.
"Scott you should sit down-" she started.
"Don't change the subject. Give me the bag. And while you're at it give me the crystal. You know you're not supposed to hold onto it." I held out one of my hands.
Erin sighed and walked the entrance hall in a few strides. She pulled the crystal from around her neck and placed it in my hand. It seemed to dim as it left Erin's possession. "How long have you been up?" I asked her.
"I couldn't sleep." She shrugged.
"You've been up all night?" I asked.
"Pretty much."
Now I felt bad. She had tried so hard to take care of me and I didn't even ask how she was after the battle. Not so good considering she had bandages from her hands to her elbows.
She must have read the look on my face because she rolled her eyes. "Scott. I'm ok, alright? Now imma just-" she tried to slip past me, but I stepped in front of her.
"Not so fast. The bag. Hand it over."
Erin slowly extended her arm and dropped the bag in my hands. She cringed as I pulled it open and started to take out the objects. The first thing I grabbed was a thin vial filled with a scarlet liquid that looked suspiciously like blood and almost exactly the same shade that stained my clothing yesterday.
"Erin...is this dragon blood?" I asked.
"Maybe." She said and cracked her knuckles almost nervously. I reached inside again and pulled out a glass jar. Inside was an eyeball. Why was I not surprised Erin was carrying an eyeball around? It wasn't just any eyeball. It was much larger than any elf or humanoid creatures. The pupil was a thin slit, and the iris was bright orange.
"Where the hell did you get this?" I asked.
"From the decapitated dragon head in the valley." She said and slumped slightly.
There were two more things in the bag. They were both plastic bags. One was filled with grey and orange dragon scales from the two she had killed yesterday. The other was filled with sharp, off-white rocks.
No not rocks. Teeth.
"Erin. Did you spend the night ransacking dragons for body parts?" I asked.
"No- Yes." She sighed. "But they're really rare Scott! I could do so much cool stuff with it-"
"Like dark magic?" I said.
Erin stopped midsentence. Then, "What's so horrible about dark magic?"
"Erin-"
"I mean come on! The stuff you can do with it!? And I have an amazing idea for the dragon I drove into the valley-"
"Erin enough." I said, cutting her off. "You will not be doing any dark magic. I'm keeping this." I said, dumping the dragon parts back into the bag and pulling the string.
Erin's face contorted in anger. "Scott you can't-"
"I can't what? Stop you from practicing a dangerous tier of magic?" I asked. "Yes. I can. If you've really been up all night, I want you upstairs trying to sleep. Now." I pointed up the staircase.
Erin gave me a glare of hatred before she stormed up the stairs, leaving me alone with my crystalized brother and a bag filled with dead dragon parts.