Chapter Thirty Eight - Emergency First Aid

After a day of travelling towards the smoke, Noah still felt in relatively good condition but the smoke that was coming in the direction of where the capital was had increased. It was a lot thicker and had started to darken the sky, hiding the moon as it was coming out.

When Noah exited the first he had jogged for a whole day and was still close to maybe a day and a half's run to the capital from his guess. Around the forest he had come from was nothing but plains and even more plains. He was sure how was eventually going to bump into a Giant Hog or Dragon Trooper eventually but he couldn't see any signs of them in the sky nor any signs of them in the fields.

He sat on the ground and started to practice circulating his magic aura around his body, imaging the magic particles running through his body like it was a river. Alaric had suggested doing this before any combat or situations he would need to travel for a few days without rest as the magic aura would help fix any internal injuries and speed the process up.

After a few hours of doing this, he chose to continue on through the night and do his best to get to the capital to find out what was happening. He stood up away to jump and run but heard a deep thud into the ground from his left side.

Looking in that direction there were ferns growing taller than him hiding whatever had made the thump behind it. Taking the initiative is what Quin had managed to ingrain into him over the last few months they were together and was enforced even more into his system by Alaric.

He took his sword out and prepared to face whatever was hiding behind the bushes. Slowly moving forward as quietly as he could he pushed through the ferns and into the hidden area; without the moon shining down on the ground it made everything a lot more difficult to see.

Willing magic particles into himself he urged it to his eyes which helped him see, it was a small trick that Alaric had taught him where magic aura circulating his eyes would help give everything an outline even without the sun. A similar trick to how he could see that both Aurelius and himself were bonded.

There was barely any noise from where the thump had come from now, just a small wind blowing through and making the ferns hit themselves. Knowing to be careful just in case he tightened his grip around his sword and it pulsated a white aura around it, which glowed dimly in the darkness.

Noah stopped. Finding nothing where the noise had come from, just a deep mark in the ground where a giant flipper like implant was. Once he was completely sure whatever had left the indent in the ground was gone, Noah started running instead of jogging towards the capital.

Cursing Oliver's name for not making it clear how big this zone, he kept his head up and continued running; keeping his ears open for any more disturbances.

His legs started to feel a little sore after 60 kilometres of running [37 Miles] not willing to be prepared for anything he stopped and sat down again and meditated but it was only a few minuted before he heard the sounds of two giant wings flapping in the air.

Looking up into the air Noah saw a dark green dragon flying over him from the capital, taking his chances Noah emitted his magic aura along his temporary swords blade, waving it in the air side to side trying to get the dragons attention.

The dragon would have been atleast 500 metres [0.3 miles] in the sky but easily spotted Noah waving at it with his sword, it let out a roar before dropping like a rock towards him. Descending so fast it barely managed to pull up and land safely at 70 metres [230 feet] from the ground.

It had spread it's wings wide but the speed it landed was close to a grown stallion on a full charge. It crashed on to the ground and would have rolled over if it wasn't for it keeping its wings spread as wide as it could and holding them strong.

On the back of the dragon was a female rider, she was of average build and hieght with brown hair; wearing a full set of light metal armour. The cloak most Dragon Troopers use was torn and could barely be classed as scrap cloth.

The dragon roared at Noah before turning and looking at it's rider. She was slumped over the saddle her arms around each side of the dragons neck, her hair falling over face and down it's neck. Her body barely moving, the only sign of life was the he back raising quickly up and down.

Noah rushed over once he realised that the dragon was asking for help, its wings and and head had hit the floor making the dirt fly outwards. Letting out a little cry before it's eyes dropped.

Lifting the woman off the dragons back and gently dropping her on to the ground, he finally saw that the light armour that covered her chest had a deep slash in it. The metal the armour was made of seemed to have let the blood run off and between the plates of it.

Knowing some basic first aid from Alaric, he understood that he had to do as much as he could in the first five minutes to keep her alive; Stripping the armour off as best as he could, under the armour was a leather tunic about 2 cm thick but even with the metal armour and this leather armour she had a deep cut across the top left side of her chest.

Placing her between his legs and leaning onto his knees, he used the unconsious dragon as a way to support both her an himself while he prepared to do his best.

Blood was still gushing out the wound, so Noah removed the leather tunic as quickly as he could by cutting the strap on her shoulder and pulling it off enough to see the wound; her breathing had lightened and was slow.

Not knowing how long he had left to save her, he ripped the bottom of his shirt off into three long strips. Washing the blood that had dried in around the cut aswell as the wound he was angry that he didn't have anything to properly disinfect the wound.

Using the remaing strips of his clothes he tied them as tight as he could around her shoulder then under her other arm before finally back up her left arm pit and back over her shoulder. Trying to keep it as tight as possibe he would pull both ends of the cloth and make sure it was as firm as it could be.

He could finally rest a little, but saw that the blood was still coming out and starting to hit the final layer of make shift bandage he completely removed her leather tunic and turned it inside out before putting it back onto her. Using the uncut portion to clamp the bandage tighter onto her.

She let out a gasp and her face cringed. Opening her eyes to see nothing but plains and the head of her dragon on the ground blowing the grass over. She could feel one sharp pain across her chest and two smaller pains on her back.

Looking up she saw Noah was smiling at her trying not to scare her but it wasn't very effective. He had to quickly grab her and hold her still so she didn't injure herself more. She tried to struggle but clearly didn't have the strength.

Fainting and laying back against Noah's knees, he moved so it was just the flat scaly surface of her dragons knee she was against. Making sure to keep an eye on her Noah back off a little and took some deep breaths.

Looking down at his hands they were covered in blood, the smell finally hit his nose and he scrunched his nose up; taking out his flask and dousing them in some water to clean them up before pouring some water into his mouth and swallowing.

He turned back and looked at the two resting a chill running down his back at what could do this to a Dragon Trooper.