Seyn soared through the skies, easily maintaining his height thanks to the hot air underneath him. Hopefully for him. His broken ribs didn't allow for much effort, and he was glad to finally get out of this hellish region.
At his side, Baldirak was also flying. It was a wonder he even was able to fly with a rock inside his flank... If he had a punctured lung, flying probably was as painful as it was for Seyn. Good thing they didn't have much effort to put in this.
Seyn remained silent, sparing his breath. He was too wounded to be able to talk while flying, and Baldirak probably was in a similar state. The Golden dragon wondered if the Earthwing had a place in mind where they could rest. This would be a nice thing, because Seyn absolutely didn't know this region. He only knew a bit of a region slightly north-west from the Firewing territory... and it was the last place he wanted to go to.
Baldirak almost sighed in relief when he saw the FireWing border. Beyond it was his own territory... technically. His tribe lived below it, underground. With no hot air to create currents to glide on, they wouldn't be able to go much further. Baldirak had to begin flapping his wings more to reach the rocky outcrop overlooking a small valley. By the time he landed, he was gasping with pain. But he walked; putting pressure even on his broken leg, he walked down to the bottom of the outcrop and roared. It sounded like he was being stabbed by a spear--or a giant rock. It was all he could manage but it served its purpose.
The mountain behind the forest nearby was home to the Great Eagles that guarded the territory, making sure Dragons didn't get too close to certain places. They heard the roar and scrambled from their nests. Half went right down to the two Dragons, the rest surveyed the land. One, Dwenal, was the first to reach the King. "My liege, you are hurt! And this LightWing.. was it Humans? No, wait... You are in the Tournament, yes?."
Baldirak sighed and silenced the Eagle with his own voice, "Go... get... the... Healers." Dwenal and the others flew off. They relayed the message to the mutant animals, who in turn relayed the message to the EarthWing Scouts.
Seyn followed Baldirak until the two of them landed somewhere. From the moment the hot air from the Firewing territory wasn't lifting them, it has become harder and harder to keep flying, and it took a lot of will to actually manage to get that far.
Once they landed, Seyn got surprised as Baldirak let out a painful roar. He was about to ask if he was alright - which in retrospective was stupid, of course none of them were alright - when he noticed a large bird flying toward them... and talk to Baldirak. Seyn was so surprised he stood mute for a small moment, not answering the bird's question. But as Baldirak requested the healers, it flew back to somewhere - Seyn didn't care as long as they brought back a potent healer.
"A talking bird? I've never seen anything like this before..." the Lightwing finally commented.
Since waiting was all he could do right now, Seyn laid down in a more comfortable position. He lied on his side, avoiding as much as he could to press on his chest. His burned paws weren't touching the ground anymore, Seyn had almost forgotten how painful they actually were.
Baldirak sat and finally lifted his right leg to take pressure off of it. "The Eagles came with my sister. Whether they were simple before or are that way naturally, I don't know. But they are a great ally. How are your paws?" he asked as two Healers made their way across the valley to their King and the visitor. One was carrying as many supplies as he could and seemed to be studying his patients already.
Seyn nodded at the explanation. Sentient birds, uh? If these kind of creature naturally existed it was weird no one knew about them. Or did some people know?
"I see. That's how the Earthwings remain hidden, right? My paws are, well rather well I guess. It's going to take a while before I can walk without pain..." he smirked.
"Hurry, hurry! The King needs us!"
Nara was flying ahead, the other healer behind her carrying the herbs and other remedies they would soon need in a rather heavy satchel. Visibly, the other healer wasn't too thrilled at the fact he was carrying everything.
"I can't fly any faster with all those supplies on me! Why don't you take them and see what I mean?" the healer harshly replied.
"Don't be silly! If I had to carry that, I'd be slower than you and I'd be the one being told to go faster!" Nara replied.
The other healer swallowed, trying not to reply to this sentence. The look on his eyes was clearly showing he was already fed up by this trip with the head healer.
They soon arrived where the two big dragons were resting, Nara darting toward them.
"Baldirak ! And, Baldirak's opponent I guess. Wow you're both pretty wounded! I bet it was a nice fight! So, who won?" she asked straight away.
While talking she was fluttering around, examining the two bodies. There was quite a lot to heal. But what concerned her at most was the stone in Baldirak's flank. She would have to be cautious with this one.
Seyn was a bit surprised to see such a short healer coming to them. Was that was an hatchling? Her high pitched voice and really short size for an Earthwing seemed to indicate so, maybe she was an apprentice of sorts? Well he would take any healer that could help him with his own wounds. Strangely though, as she fluttered above him he felt his breathing becoming easier and his pain slightly subsiding. Was she the one causing that?
Sitting wasn't his best idea. While it took pressure off of his extremely painful leg, it caused the rock in his side to sit at an angle which aggravated the injury more. In turn, his breathing was more shallow than before. Needless to say, he wasn't in the mood for talking by the time Nara and the other Healer, Sarik, arrived. In fact, he hadn't even answered Seyn, yet. Baldirak kept still as Nara fluttered about; with his breathing, it took just a little longer for the tiny Healer's powder to work. When it did finally, he moved to lay down. And then he realized that his options were few; if he wanted to avoid pain altogether, he would have to lay on his back. Otherwise, his only option was to abuse his right foreleg even more by laying on it. With a sigh--or something close to it--he resolved for a third option and laid on his stomach. His every breath made the rock brush dangerously close to the ground, and his broken leg was still... well, broken, but at least he was slightly more comfortable.
Nara frowned as Baldirak didn't answer to her questions. Usually, when someone wasn't replying it wasn't a good sign, even if the rock stuck in the dragon's flank was already a clue big enough for this. The small dragoness fluttered toward her satchel, gathering some bandages and other stuff to treat the problem.
"It is going to sting. Keep ready, removing the rock..." she announced.
After a few minutes, Nara let out a sigh. It had proven a more difficult task than what she had thought, but it went well.
"And here Baldirak! The rock is removed and your leg is taken care of, so Baldirak should not force on it." she chirped.
The King had his claws dug into the ground while Nara and Sarik did their work. He felt vastly better when the rock was finally removed, though breathing was even worse for a minute until Nara repaired the punctured lung. Then came his leg. Almost immediately, he hated having the splint on it; the wood poked and scratched his scales in an irritating way. But at least your leg won't heal deformed' he could almost hear Nara say as he opened his maw to complain but quickly shut it. His tail still needs tending to, but now he demanded that Nara tend to Seyn, as he had wanted to begin with. Of course he knew that if he had been able to speak when Nara arrived, she still would have insisted on seeing to her King first, so much greater were his wounds compared to the LightWing's. "I won, of course," he said finally in answer to the Healer's question, and hoped it didn't sound like he was gloating, as it wasn't his intention.
Nara let out a pleased chirp as Baldirak announced he had won the Tournament match.
"Yay ! Good job Baldirak! Nara is proud of you!" she exclaimed as she checked again Baldirak's wounds.
Those didn't need more healing, so Nara went toward the Lightwing and began to tend to his wounds.
"Hehe, it was... a close match I'd say." Seyn replied with a chuckle.
Which he instantly regretted. His chuckle caused him to let out a cough, some blood coming out of his mouth. Nara soon understood the problem and frowned.
"Oh, Mister Lightwing has broken ribs... Let Nara take care of that!" she said.
And with that Nara tended to the Lightwing's wounds.
As she was done, Seyn felt immensely better. Even the pain in his chest had greatly diminished, and he knew it couldn't be the beverage she made him drink that alone could have had this effect. Seyn had no idea what was this powder the dragoness constantly emitted, but he was sure it did play a part.
"Thank you." he thanked the healer.
Seyn rested his head on his paws, suddenly feeling exhausted. The match plus the flight back here had taken their toll on him.
Baldirak called for Dwenal again and asked for him to bring some food for Seyn. He then thanked Nara for her help and sent her away. "Are you feeling better, Seyn? You can rest here for the evening and if you need anything at all, just signal the Eagles."
Seyn tiredly raised his head to look at Baldirak. All the tiredness from the fight was hitting him hard, and finally being able to rest was pretty nice. Despite all the wounds he had, though.
"Yes, I am feeling much better. Thank you, Baldirak. I might need more than a day of rest to be able to make the flight back to the Lightwing territory, though. Getting through an ocean while deeply wounded doesn't seem a bright idea..." he replied.
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