Saving An Unusual Life
You may have heard the old saying that, dragons eat humans; this is an un-truth. No self-respecting dragon would dare to dishonor his dragon clan with such an uncivil behavioral act. The fact is that dragons are herbivores. One dragon that comes to mind when I think of this falsehood about dragons is my old friend, Dracomides.
I first met Dracomides, one hot summer day in the plains just beyond Marchalle wood. I had just been hiking there when my eyes fell upon something large, golden brown and not moving. It lay about seventy feet from the woods end, upon the plain and it wasn’t moving. I could not see it breathing at all.
I felt no fear so I approached it and to my amazement, I knew what it was, with four legs and those great wings, it had to be a dragon!
It was out cold so I pulled my camera out of my backpack and took a few shots, walking around it so as not to awaken it, if it was only sleeping. I found it unusual that such a great beast would be sleeping on the plain, in bright daylight when I’d always heard that they lived in caves. I had just made my way back around to the front of the dragon when I noticed something scarlet red just beneath its stomach. It had been bleeding, no doubt for quite awhile. Standing there so closely, I could feel the breath coming from its’ huge nostrils, it was certainly alive, yet I felt no fear, whatsoever.
I put away my camera and took out my first aid kit. Though I am not a veterinarian, I thought, I could at least, stop the bleeding. I had a gun with me but, being a conservationist, I was not about to allow a living thing bleed to death and I wasn’t about to kill it if I didn’t have to.
I fumbled about in my first aid kit for some gauze, cotton and a small tube of antiseptic that I had not yet used. Then, I approached it and underneath I saw something protruding from beneath its’ stomach; the poor thing was impaled by a three foot tree limb. It probably hit it while flying.
I considered how I might remove the thing without awakening
the dragon. I knew that one swipe of those two foot long claws would instantly kill me but, as a conservationist, alone, with no one else around to help, I’d have to do what I could to help.
Hoping that if it did awaken, it would be too weak from the loss of blood to harm me, I began slowly and easily, twisting the branch while trying to pull it out of the beast. I must have worked with it for about 15 minutes before it finally came free. I breathed a sigh of relief, as the blood of the thing flowed over my foot but, the creature did not move or seem to notice. I took off my hoodie and stuffed it into the wound; a temporary fix while I prepared the bandaging and used bottled water to clean the wound. Then, I carefully stitched as much as I could; closed with some thread and a needle I’d had in my SUV glove box.
In the end, the wound was so large that I had to use my shirt instead of the gauze, to hold the antiseptic and I tied it like a bandage with some rope that I had with me, though it was not easy getting the rope around the dragon’s great girth. I had to toss the rope in the air several times before I finally made it over the body. I used my walking stick to carefully and very slowly, push the rope from his backside, towards the front of his stomach. Throughout my work, the dragon never moved though it was still breathing; it had apparently lost too much blood.
When done, I used the small amount of gauze to soak with water and placed it on the thing’s tongue to prevent dehydration. I doubted that it would actually help but, I left the creature that way. I decided that I would come back the next day as it was still the weekend and see if it
had survived or not.
The next morning, I packed several bottles of water, several rags and old sheets for bandaging and antiseptic and some food and something for taking bodily samples in case it had died. I headed to the other side of Marchalle wood in my SUV, to see if the poor dragon was still alive or dead. If he was dead, I would take some samples of tissue and donate it to the local University. Perhaps they could preserve what was left of the body and study it.
I drove straight out to the plain and as I approached, sure enough, the dragon lay right there, in the same spot where I’d treated it; parking my SUV close enough that if I had to run to it for protection, I could. I grabbed my equipment and approached the dragon slowly. My previous days bandaging had been soaked through but, the jacket was actually dry so the bleeding had stopped. I leaned near his huge head to see if I could feel breath; it was very light but he was still alive.
I used one bottle of water to soak the dried bandage so that it wouldn’t stick when I tried to remove it. It was slow going but, working diligently, I managed to get it to come away easily once it was saturated. I used a second bottle to clean the wound again then, proceeded to tie together the sheets. This time, I’d also brought waterproof tape to hold it on his stomach.
With the sheets together and well folded, I placed a wad of gauze containing the antiseptic upon the wound; it was a good eight inches in diameter. Since it didn’t look infected, I placed the sheets over the gauze and taped it all to his great mass.
Removing the gauze from his tongue, I doused a clean, rag with another bottle of water and lay it back on his tongue.
I’d brought a small pan with me and emptied the rest of the water bottles into it, leaving it there beside of his head
so that if he came to, he could drink then, gathered my things together and headed towards my SUV. I will check on him again tomorrow night after work, I thought to myself as I got into my vehicle. I felt bad that I couldn’t do more to help him but, feared that if I said anything to anyone, they might kill and dissect that poor creature and I couldn’t stand that.
My job had always been to preserve, not destroy and it so irked me, the way the human species went about destroying things instead of trying to study them in their natural habitat, so I kept quiet.
Monday was pretty ordinary; I spent my workday, completing forms for funding and on the telephone with potential backers for our work. At home that evening, I changed, re-packed my backpack with the previous days essentials and some fruit. It was theorized by many believers, that dragons were probably herbivores, like many of their land-dwelling, dinosaur ancestors. Of course, I knew that if he was alive he might not eat much, so I took several bananas and some grapes, as many as I could carry, in a second backpack and headed out see how the poor old creature was doing.
Again, I parked nearby and grabbed the packs and headed towards him; I suddenly stopped dead in my tracks. I stared for a few moments, noticing that his mouth was now closed and the wet rag was laying about three feet from his head. Obviously he had moved at some point.
I stood there a few seconds, and then approached more cautiously than before. When I got up to him, I noticed the breeze from his great nostrils; he was breathing better, much better. Then something happened that had me gripped in terror, one of his eyes opened!
I turned and ran and had gone about seven feet when I hear a voice.
“Please, u-mon, do not fear, I need help.”
I stopped and turned, looked at him; he repeated his plea. I slowly walk back towards him, this time, I don’t know for certain why, I just felt I should.
“Please, I need water.”
“You, you speak?” I said.
“I am Dragon Dracomides, of the Dragon Clan, Avir. You were here before, weren’t you u-mon?”
He was straining to speak, taking gasps of air in-between his words. I answered, “Yes.”
“You stopped my blood?”
“Y...yes, I did.”
A glance at the pan I’d left full of water showed that he had obviously tried to drink some. I poured more in, as much had evaporated in the sunlight and moved it closer to his great head, which he was able to lift and he drank for the longest time. “Agnoh.”
I must have looked confused because he repeated, “Agnoh. It’s my language for, “thank you.”
“Oh,” I said and laid down an unpeeled banana. “Can you eat something?” I asked.
He looked at me, so I picked up the banana and peeled it for him, and then laid it upon his tongue. I watched as his tongue rolled into his great jaws and he seemed to chew it partially then swallowed.
I thought, this is too amazing; I can’t believe this is happening. Feeling no more fear, I asked if I could re-bandage his wound and he allowed me to do so. He lay quietly, never attempting to harm me, as I dressed his wound. Surprisingly, it was beginning to heal fairly quickly.
“My kind heals fast.” He said, observing me.
I sat down by his great head and peeled more bananas for him, also placing an occasional grape upon his tongue. I asked him how he could speak my language and learned that
dragons, among their other talents, have one for reading human minds, which is how he learned our language. He told me about how he flew into a great oak branch, quite by accident and he’d passed out because of the pain. That if I hadn’t come along, he would have bled to death; he admitted that he had seen me that second day and realized that I was trying to help him. I told him my name was Rob and he repeated it back to me. We got so engaged in conversation that I failed to notice that dusk had arrived.
Before I left him, I promised to come the next evening, after work and bring some more water and fruit for him. I noticed that he was now able to move his legs and he folded his wings against his great body. I left contented that he was gaining some strength.
The next day, I found an empty area where he no longer lay. I looked around, wondering where he’d gone and somewhat happy that he was able to get around again. A noise from the wood startled me and I looked to see his great bulk, slowly walking out of the woods.
“Rob, my friend, I needed shade.” He stated and walked over to me and he lay down on his side so that I could see
the bandage. Again I peeled a couple of bananas for him, and then re-bandaged his wound. It had healed enough for the stitches to come out so, I removed them and we sat and talked until dusk fell again.
He told me all about his clan and dragon life. Why so few humans ever see dragons anymore. so many in the past had been slaughtered by humans who mis-understood them. I planted fruit trees for him next to those woods, where he now stays and we are still, the best of friends.
Copyright, 2020, M.L. Kiser
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