BOOK II OF III: The Reign of the Sultan (38 page)

Ever since the day that she had first became
conscious in the egg did she recognize her super-consciousness’s
voice, as well respected it, and so for these two reasons alone did
she ignore those hungry-growling sounds inside her stomach, and
close her eyes.

Inside her mind’s eye, she saw a duplicate
dragon to herself flying in the middle of darkness, except that
this dragon was male—true enough, it was Mitanium. Just like a
five-star chef, Mitanium would arrive shortly before any and every
“special meal” she had or would come across, so as to wet her
appetite … he was also very useful as a trusted advisor or
companion.

Dreeak said not a word, but listened—even
though her stomach continued to get hungrier with each passing
second…

Mitanium began,
Your Unholy Greatness, as
always, that was a most-excellent battle! Your opponent now lies
mortally wounded on the ground in front of you, thanks to your
mighty claws. He will not be going anywhere, as he is paralyzed
from the neck down, but will live at least for thirty minutes
longer—I will be done reading off this menu in the next minute or
so…

Just so you know, tonight’s dinner should be
extra delicious, as its name and rank is Ruling-General
Humonus—Baltor Elysian’s #1.

Dreeak’s throat growled deeply upon hearing
that information. She not only hated Baltor with a passion, yet
even more, his master Trendon Harrn, because this man had killed
her mother when Dreeak was but a baby!

Once that growl had subsided, a few seconds
later, Mitanium continued,
Your Unholy Greatness, what you will
hear next will make your taste buds really drool, and your stomach
growl with eager anticipation, I guarantee! Though Humonus’s body
is completely broken, it still lives by willpower alone…this is but
a taste of the magic that runs through your dinner’s veins—it is
not only a fierce warrior, yet it’s even Baltor’s instructor and
mentor, and tastiest of all, best friend! Oh, might I add that this
meal has as a powerful soul?

Dreeak’s mouth uttered out the word,
“Yummy…”

Mitanium was not done, however, as he added,
Dinner will not end there, but will become a three-course meal,
which is that hawk and that human rider flying about a thousand
feet away to your southwest—both of these meals possess tasty souls
that will multiply your powers. I believe you will have enough
power then that you can best Baltor tonight—even without “The
Plan!” Bon appetite, Your Unholy Greatness
…

The inner dragon immediately disappeared.

Though Dreeak’s mouth had long ago been
slobbering and her stomach growling fiercely, she opened her
physical eyes and began to stomp her way toward the human—every
forty-foot step caused the earth around her to shake,
violently!

Only seconds before arriving at her meal,
which meal was now a hundred feet away, yet another voice popped
inside her mind—this time, it was her “Vompareus Creator.” Again,
she had to stop and listen, but this time, she had no choice in the
matter—her entire body had just become paralyzed from the neck
down!

He and she howled angrily,
Dreeak, so
sorry to interrupt your dinner, but did you know that Baltor is
only a couple minutes away from arriving at your location? No, of
course you didn’t because you were thinking with your stomach. Now
listen up!

You must stick with “The Plan” we earlier
arranged and go back to your Army immediately after we unfreeze
you—wait until the morning after the two new moons, which is only
in three nights from now. That is when your two armies will fight
on the battlefield and the rest of “The Plan,” which you know
all-too-well, will be engaged and concluded! We will win… then!

For a mysterious reason we cannot identify,
Baltor is too powerful for you to fight on your own right now, as
his aura is glowing so brightly that it is the size of a mountain…
You will lose this battle even if you eat this meal lying on the
ground before you, so don’t be stupid and go back to your army!

Finally, know that this is a direct order
from us to you, Dreeak, or we will be forced to destroy you, even
from the Realm of Darkness. You didn’t know, prior to now, that we
could freeze you at all, did you? Well, we can. We can also destroy
you back to oblivion just as easily… don’t test us!
Huhuhuhahahahaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!

They unfroze her.

With a hell of a lot of anger, and hunger
pains, Dreeak launched high into the air, just before she began to
fly at top speed back to her army ... as well her Chao-chu-sha-maen
prisoners, of which there were fifty-eight savory treats left! She
would eat ten of them tonight.

Once the dragon was no longer in sight, nor
could the sounds of her wings be heard, Darius landed the hawk ten
feet away from Humonus’s position. Hurriedly, he undid his straps,
ran on over, and collapsed onto his knees.

As the ruling-general was laying on his back
and unmoving, except for the ever-so-slight moving of his chest,
Darius had already observed that he was still unconscious and still
alive, at least for the moment.

As Darius looked closer at the wound itself,
he noted that a small portion of Humonus’s guts were now hanging
outside his body armor through a circular wound that was a good
foot in diameter! Even though he was well trained in first aid, he
wasn’t even close to being a surgeon, which is exactly what this
man needed, and soon. Humonus’s blood was fast pumping out the
sides of the wound in all directions, spilling off the sides of his
armor, and splashing onto the ground!

Darius ran over to the hawk. Quickly, he
pulled out the medical kit stored inside the left-rear saddlebag.
With kit in both hands, he ran back over to Humonus, and dropped
back onto his knees.

After unsealing the sterilized medical kit
and opening it, he saw four bottles filled with various colors of
fluids inside. There were also a dozen bandages, a long roll of
gauze tape, a pair of scissors, a scalpel, a pair of pliers, a pair
of sanitary gloves, and a sewing needle attached to a large spool
of thread.

Once he had put on the gloves, he pulled out
the bottle with the clear fluid that was the antiseptic, and opened
it. He slowly poured a bit of the fluid directly onto the wound,
which caused a foamy substance. Not surprising to anyone, Humonus
hadn’t felt an ounce of pain.

Upon completion of this three-part step,
perhaps thirty seconds later, Baltor gently laid the first bandage
right over the small intestines, as well all the rest of the
bandages. He then took the gauze tape and began wrapping it around
Humonus’s waist until half of it was gone.

Though the bleeding had slowed down, it did
not stop—most likely, he dismally reasoned that Humonus would not
survive, as there was nothing more he could do. He began looking
all around the jungles for anything around him that might help, but
there was nothing.

A few moments or minutes later, Darius didn’t
know, but he looked at Humonus’s face, observing with surprise that
his eyes had opened and were now staring up into the dusky sky. He
looked dead!

Nearly four seconds passed, though it felt to
Darius an eternity, before Humonus’s eyes unexpectedly blinked.

It was then that Darius asked with great
concern, “Ruling-General Humonus—are you in pain? If you are, I
have some pain medication.”

“Actually, I can’t feel a damned thing at
all, other than a little headache, so I don’t know whether that’s a
good thing or not,” Humonus answered hoarsely as his eyes looked
toward Darius.

“You can survive this, my friend,” Darius
said with hope and determination, “but we must find you a surgeon
really soon! If we’re careful, we can gently move you to Leshava
and fly our way back to the army, and once there, the surgeons
there can make you ‘good as new,’ okay?”

Shaking his head ever so slightly, Humonus
said, “I know I’ve lost a lot of blood, because I’ve been feeling
more and more lightheaded as the time goes by…and won’t it take us
over an hour to get back? I don’t know how much blood I’ve got left
in me anymore.”

“You must not give up, Ruling General—the
army needs you! The Sultan needs you! The world needs you! Even I
need you, my friend and brother.”

Inside Darius’s mind, he cursed,
Damn
it—why don’t I have a blood-transference machine, so that I can
donate some of my own blood to this most noble of men!

Nearly ten seconds later, Humonus finally
replied, “You’re right…I won’t give up! Let’s get to the hawk.
You’re going to have to help me. Wait! Look—straight up in the sky.
Tell me if I’m hallucinating or not?”

Feeling goose bumps surging up and down his
back, Darius looked straight up into the ever-darkening skies,
though there were still colors that ranged from reds to violets—the
sun had descended below the western horizon only two minutes
earlier.

Darius simultaneously observed that these
skies possessed only four glimmering stars in the sky—ten seconds
later, he observed a teensy-weensy black speck slowly circling
around.

About thirty seconds later, now with nine
stars in the sky, Darius noted that this black speck was not only
directly overhead them now, yet it was now plummeting straight down
to the ground—he immediately began to suspect and fear it was the
dragon who came back to eat its dinner!

Three seconds before it landed on the ground,
Darius and Humonus were finally able to identify that this creature
wasn’t the dragon, yet the hawk named Praetor bearing two
riders!

Once on the ground, Darius glanced at the man
in front first. Recognizing his brother right away, he greeted,
“Hey Bro—it’s me, Darius! Get over here quick…we’ve got a major
problem.”

With concern in face and voice, Traes
replied, “Hey Bro! What’s going on?”

For the first time, Darius glanced at the man
in the backseat, of whom was frantically undoing the straps holding
him into the saddle … this person, he saw, wore black-plated armor
with a gold-plated chest, a crowned-helmet, a black cape, gloves,
and boots. Although Darius “strongly suspected” this man to be
Sultan Baltor Elysian, his “main focus” right now was
Ruling-General Humonus.

Looking back down only a second later and
seeing the man was once again unconscious, Darius answered, “This
man really needs a surgeon immediately—that is, if he is to
survive. Right now, however, it’s looking very dismal he will live
much longer.”

By this time, Baltor had already arrived with
a first-aid kit in his hands, kneeling on the other side of
Humonus. Looking back and forth between his ruling-general and
Darius, he introduced, “I am Sultan Baltor Elysian, and yes, I do
know a little something about surgery. What’s wrong, medically
speaking, with the Ruling General?”

It was only then that Traes had arrived at
their position, keeping silent yet ready to help.

Darius—who continued to look at Humonus with
a worried expression—answered frantically, “All I know is that his
stomach doesn’t look too good—his intestines are literally hanging
out on his stomach, and it’s been pumping out a lot of blood ever
since it was punctured by a dragon’s claw. Even though I’ve been
trained in first-aid, I am not a surgeon who can do surgery and
remove the pieces of jagged body armor still trapped inside his
body. I don’t think he’s going to survive!”

After taking off his armored gloves, Baltor
said, “Please, Darius, open my medical kit for me and put the
sterile gloves onto my hands. Only once I have removed the last of
the bandages do I want you to slowly pour about a quarter bottle of
the antiseptic directly onto the Ruling-General’s
wound—understand?”

“Yes, my Sultan,” Darius said, just before he
followed orders by putting the gloves onto Baltor’s hands.

Baltor picked up a pair of steel scissors,
and began to cut through the bloody gauze tape covering Humonus’s
torso. Once the last of the tape was removed, nearly ten seconds
later, he then began to delicately pull out the blood-soaked
bandages. After the last of the bandages had been removed, Baltor
observed two things—one good and one not so good.

The good thing—there was only a minute
portion of Humonus’s small intestines hanging out to the side. The
not-so-good thing—there were five large pieces of steel armor that
jaggedly penetrated deep into his stomach cavity, which pieces
would have to be ever-so-carefully removed without ripping any more
tissue!

Though Baltor realized that getting this
armor would not be an easy feat at all, that didn’t mean for one
single second he would give up. After picking up the pair of pliers
located in the medical kit, he began the careful process of prying
each individual piece of steel out…

By the time Baltor had gotten to his third
piece, about a minute later, he called out, “Darius, I’m going to
need you to pour some more antiseptic on the wound.”

Darius did as told. It was then that
Humonus’s eyes opened a quarter of the way!

Even though Baltor’s main vision was focused
on the task-at-hand, his peripheral vision still caught the little
movement. Without looking up or stopping in his task, he
confidently replied, “Hang in there my friend, and you’ll soon be
good to go…okay?”

Most surprisingly, Humonus’s lips popped into
a weak smile, blood spilling out of his mouth. He half-whispered,
“Okay, Baltor… Thanks.”

While delicately pulling out the fifth and
final piece of metal, nearly two minutes later, Baltor asked,
“Humonus, are you feeling any pain that you’re not telling me
about, and if so, do you want some pain-relieving tonic?”

With blood-covered teeth, Humonus
half-smiled, “My Sultan, I haven’t been able to feel a damn thing
since I crashed, so I don’t know whether that’s a good thing or
not, but seeing your face is definitely a good thing, my
friend!