Hush, you need to heal [Attor ]

She noticed when the Starlight King finally dozed off. The poppy seed and exhaustion probably taking their toll on the Sovereign, while he listened to the story or her life. It was just a little piece, something small and happy, yet it felt good to share it with someone other than her closest family. No one had ever actually asked her about herself or her past, so she allowed herself a tiny, flattered smile as she looked upon the sleeping King. It wasn't long until her smile turned into a frown and she got back to her original plan. Quietly she got up and walked over to where Attor was lying, hearing the wheezing sound that came with each of his breaths and noticing the pained expression on his face even in his sleep.
She was no healer, but even she knew what a wound looked like and so she started to look for one. Trying to figure out what caused his physical suffering, until she came across a large lump on his chest, just off from where his heart sat. It smelled kind of icky and definitely didn't look like it belonged there, but all his plating covered the lump so she couldn't really see what was beneath it. The slender dragoness set back stumped. She didn't really know what to do, but the Hashal, her younger sister, came up and took a look at the King's chest. The young one had started training with a healer a little while back, being quite adapt at caring for others and having steady paws, she was pretty much destined to take up this profession. Her expression got very solemn when she looked at the plating, something Helia seldom saw on the tiny dragoness, but she trusted her sister.
"You'll have to remove the plating to see what's under it. It looks like it should be easy enough to remove without seriously hurting him." Hashal said and Helia paled.
"I don't know how to do that! What if I hurt him? Or make it worse?" She shook her head quite violently, but Hashal put a paw on hers.
"You'll have to. From the stink of it, there is something festering beneath that plate and if it stays that way he'll most likely die of blood poisoning. I'll coach you through it, but you'll have to get my apprentice kit. I know you took it." There was no time to be ashamed for stealing her sister's kit as memento. If the younger dragoness was right, Attor was severely wounded and in need of help. So Helia scrambled through the cupboards until she found what she was looking for and returned.

From there on out a few exhausting and very gross hours occured, where she had to cut off the plating on Attor's chest, just to find a bone sticking out of fouling flesh and muscle. At that point she had been very close to throwing up, the stink filling up her house, but Hashal and asked her to stay put, until Attor was all fixed up. Her younger sister expertly coached her through extracting the infested flesh and muscle and replacing the bone, until everything looked a whole lot healthier in there. She then made her sow everything back together and bandage the Sovereign, afterwards exposing of the infested flesh and desinfecting the whole house and instruments used. It wasn't until she ahd made sure that Attor was lying in a stable position and was still rather peacefully sleeping, that Hashal let her go outside to throw up. She was definitely not made to be a healer. Her younger sister patting her back, while she lost her breakfast, but felt rather relieved.

The next few days were spent airing out the little house and constantly checking on the dragon in her living room. Helia spent most of her days on top of the mountain that stabilized her home, building the first constructions for her study up there, while coming back down to check on the unconscious dragon, tending to his wound and studying him. She couldn't withstand Seri's constant nagging and her own curiousness, which is how countless drawings of Attor, his plate, stinger, claws and feet came to be. All carefully annotated and waterproofed. She didn't go as far as to extract some of his poison, but she did write down what he had told her about it during tea. Helia told herself it was for her studies, calming her own conscious, but some of the notes were clearly military in style and heavily influenced by her sister's opinion. Still, most of it was scientific and lying around in her home in a kind of orderly chaos.
It was during a night she was spending atop the mountain to look at the stars, when the King finally woke up from his sleep.

As time passed for the slumbering king, and little to the very dragoness that saved him from the very thing he didn't even know about, slowly but surely an outer shell formed around Attor. This outer shell was thin but was the typical molting process Attors species have had for many years, and unbeknownst to the dragoness, there was an awaken to come. Whilst she was away in her studies Attor slowly awoke and emerged from the cocoon that protected him from any outer object that would infringe on his natural healing. Hidden away, his chest grew a new plate armor though weaker due to its recent growth, showing bright green and bright yellow much to that of a newly grown leaf.

Attor, while Helia was gone, whenever she was gone for the brief moment, exploded from his mom perfectly mimiced cocoon. He arose and stumbled about for a brief moment, his vision blurry and his head spinning. Like a clumsy fool, he waltzed about the cave... housing and flee lazily to the upstairs. Attor moved a stack of dead moss to the corner of the upper floor and plopped down, unknowingly remaining hidden as he began to doze on and off. It was a fight of the fates really, but once the dragoness returns from... whatever, all she would find is the explosion of juice, shell, and armored bits.

The king dreamt for several days spent in healing internally, spiritually and mentally, he went to the world of old where he wasn't a king but rather a rogue healer. He got to see his hatchling, Yama, once more and spent as much time with her as possible. He once more was with his old wife, Tori, who he did the same. What seemed like days to the real world were months to his dream realm, a place where no politics, no monsters or worries existed. And though it was all a fantasy Attor treated it like it was the way everything used to be. Still, he began to fight back and forth between awake and asleep, more or less disoriented and extremely hungry.

Helia had been spending most of her time atop the mountain donning the island. She didn't dare venture off in case Attor woke up or needed her, but she did spend her nights mapping out the sky, looking longingly at the vast freedom waiting just a wingspan away from her. Flying, even just gliding through the currents, had always been one of her favorite things to do. She could just let herself go when up there all alone, watching the ground pass by or the clouds so close she could touch them if she wanted. Sometimes she thought her heritage was somehow wrong and she actually had the heart of a skywing, but her scales and size always discouraged that thought. It would probably be fun to be a skywing for a day and just speed through the sky, seeing the land scape zip past you.

With a quiet sigh she shook her slender head to get back into reality and pushed off the top of the mountain to slowly glide down to the entrance of her home. It was time to check on Attor in his cocoon and maybe make some food. She felt herself getting hungry, but when she walked into her home the thought of food vanished from her mind.

Everthing was a mess of goo and cocoon parts, luckily she had decided to clean up some of the notes she had taken of Attor and had put them all on the table, where the goo explosion apparently hadn't reached them. It look incredibly gross, but at least it didn't smell bad. However there was no sight of the Starlight sovereign, that should have been inside this thing. Frantically the dragoness looked around for the King not sure if he had emerged fully healed or if he was still hurt. When she couldn't find him, she carefully stepped around the gooey mess to get upstairs, where she began looking for him as well. He hadn't gotten up to the mountain top where she had spent most of her day and last time she had checked, Attor had still been in his shell, so he should still be somewhere in the house.

The dragoness had to go downstairs again before finally finding the Sovereign hidden in a corner of the second story. He seemed to be sleeping rather agitatedly. Softly, she sat down next to him and touched his shoulder, carefully shaking him a little bit.
"Attor?" she asked.

In a daze, a battle of slumber and awake, Attor saw a figure he was familiar with. His gaze was still in a sense oblivious to his surroundings, unaware of how he got to where he was. As the dragoness spoke, Attor turned his head in her general direction but looked at her with a blank almost undead stare. Poor dragon was so confused and weak, he didn't even know what to do or say, let alone have a proper thought. With a grunt, Attor let out a loud, "HMmM?!" as if aggrivated. Though that wasn't the case.

The Sovereign seemed to tense up but relax, a reaction of his body getting used to the climate he was in. There were one too many times this had happened after molting, it was like everything was new and he was always in a dream state during this process. Attor would recover soon... however long that would take. This was the worst of the molt however, due to his long-time injury festering beneath plating a series of diseases only he possessed ran their course in just a few days, as well as any allergic reactions. He was still hurting from the now small hole in his chest which didn't help matters at all.

He did grumble at her, but otherwise showed no reaction to her presence or her tries to wake him up. Stumped, she put his back against the wall of her makeshift home to make sure he didn't tumble over in his sleep and sat back. Unsure of what to do, she watched him, as his body went through stages of relaxation and tension. She couldn't tell if he looked good or not, worry and relief holding their balance inside of her. It was good to see him out of his cocoon, but she didn't know if he was finished healing all the way or if it wasn't a little too early for him to be walking around. Stumbling rather, from the way he had apparently bumped into things on his way up here. She wasn't a healer after all and was honestly out of ideas. Maybe she should just let him sleep? Sit here and treat him like he was still injured? She couldn't take him back downstairs after all, not with all the goo still there. But up here, he might fall down the stairs if he woke up again and decided to run around.

Her sisters gathered around the king with her, all looking equally confused. "What do we do now?" she asked them, hoping for a couple better ideas.
"I say, we leave him here and clean up downstairs." Kyrith said, still not fond of the sovereign, probably less so now that he had made a mess of their hom.
"But what if he wakes up?" she rebottled, more worried about the well being of the King than her sister.
"You could try to wake him up again? Maybe with some food?" Geroween had a point there. The Soverign must be hungry after staying in that cocoon so long, maybe food would help wake him up!
"You guys keep an eye on him!" She exclaimed, while already on her way down the stairs and towards her little cellar area. It was a tiny room, carefully carved into the cold stone of the mountain, where she could store dried meats and fish.
The slender dragoness returned with a couple strips of dried meat, their salty scent filling the room, as she swayed them in front of Attor's face, feeling a little stupid in doing so, but it was worth a try.

Eventually, after a few minutes passed Attors vision focused but poorly, still better than what he was at. Concentration was extremely difficult as he seemed to be in an area casted of shadows from the daylight. A confusing mix for the exhausted Sovereign but noticed some figure before him. He squinted his eyes hard and gave a small growl unaware of where he was. Attor thought he was back at the settlement until realizing that he was actually at someone's den. But who's?

"Hey!" Attor barked, "Who-?!" It wasn't until through enough focus he saw the shape of a familiar dragoness. Helia! He was at Helias den! Shaking off any dizziness regardless he couldn't actually shake it off, and replied, "Helia? Is that you?"

His tone uncertain, Attor clearly had a worried expression on his face. He was fearful he wasn't at the claws of another dragon, from both rogue and opposing tribe. He was growing uncertain by the moments but could do nothing, Attor was still too weak to fight back. He prayed that this was indeed Helia.

Apparently the meat did its trick. At least the sovereign seemed to wake up a little bit more. He opened his eyes and Helia focused on them, but it didn't seem like he could really see her. His wide eyes didn't really have a focus, kind of dancing around the room as if trying to find something to hold onto. After a few seconds his eyes focused on her a little bit more, something like vague recognition appearing on his face. Yet he seemed very unsure about whether it was truly her. Helia frowned.

"Yes, it's me." She replied letting the meat in her hand sink down. "It's good you're awake, had me worried there for a second." She tilted her head in a friendly manner, her voice indicating honest relief instead of a scolding for the Sovereign. She didn't believe he had walked up here on purpose and to worry her, so there was no need to be upset with him. It was a little worrying though that he still seemed very disoriented and unable to really see. Again she frowned, looking at Hashal, who had helped her operate on the Skywing, for help, but her sister just shrugged, not knowing what to do either.

"How are you feeling?" She asked due to lack of any better or more precise questions. Maybe he would tell her what was wrong so she could help. At least he couldn't really pretend everything was fine while sitting disoriented and confused in her den. She didn't put it past him to try though.

Ringing filled his ear holes but after minutes of relaxing instead Attor found his focus and senses coming back... In some weird manner. As Helia spoke he made out half of what she said, piecing the broken words together and filling in others where they should belong. He was slow, and it couldn't be helped, "Helia? When did you get here?" He asked in a lazy manner.

Where his chest plate was missing was a newer, much bright greener and lime yellow plate clearly renewed as of it were a newborn leaf. In a span of a week it quickly grew back, and for that matter, the entirety of his natural plating was like that. New, and the old plating which was still supposed to be healthy and hard were within the cocoon... Whatever was left of it. However something like that mattered not, and Attor had to figure when he got here.

"Helia how'd I get up here...?" Attor asked another question. His expression seemed tired but slowly he was actually waking up the more he relaxed, his muscle spasms continuing through his wings and they thumped ever so slightly.

Attor seemed very confused and still rather dazed. She wasn't sure he actually understood what he was saying, at least he didn't answer her question and instead asked some himself. The slender dragoness couldn't blame him for trying to get orientated again and instead of getting impatient, she sat down in front of him, softly smiling and just letting him know that she was there and no threat. Maybe it would help him to know that he wasn't alone and definitely not getting attacked.

"About 5 Minutes ago. I found you up here." She patiently answered his first question, choosing not to ask one herself, although it truly interested her if he was alright or still hurt. At least he wasn't making any sudden movements, so if he was still hurt or some wound hadn't properly closed, it wouldn't reopen again as well. But she was still trying to get a good look at him all around, just to make sure he was okay.

"Honestly, I was wondering that myself. I just found you up here when I got back home." His eyes started to clear up a little bit, probably a telltale sign of him waking up a bit more, which was good. Maybe she could get him to eat something in a little bit, that might help him come to his senses fully. Helia pushed the piece of dried meat in front of her towards him, nodding to it.
"You should eat something."

Mentally trying to shake off whatever he felt, or simply trying to ignore it, Attor found himself at Helia's aid and mercy. Thank gods she wasn't some other creature, thank goodness he wasn't in the middle of a field out on the middle of nowhere. He listened to her and remained in silence for a good two minutes. Attor had no other questions that would make him sound any more rediculous or confused than what he could infer. In all honesty, Attor was rather quick to figure out his situation, he was stuck here until he could find more strength.

Looking down at the piece of meat the Sovereign had no choice. His stomach vibrated his whole body, and though he wasn't a picky eater he didn't like food from others. Stabbing the slab with his stinger, he ate the cooked venison with vigor. He didn't show it due to his tiredness but the meat was... too bland, no salt, seasoning, just cooked jerky with the barest amount of salt. He ate it fast though as his stomach punched at him more.

"Thank you," Attor said quietly, giving a nod of approval despite his disposition toward being fed, "Do you... have more by chance? Any time I mold like this it takes all my energy and forces me to eat copious amounts."

The slender dragoness watched him eat the jerky like he was dying of hunger. Well, maybe he was. Helia didn't know how much energy this process cost or if he had some sort of food provider within the cocoon, but he definitely looked famished enough for her to guess, that if he didn have some sort of food in there, it wasn't enough. That's why she was happy to comply and nod, when he asked for more.

"Just give me a second." she said and left the sovereign sitting in his corner upstairs, while she went downstairs again, carefully sidestepping the goo on her floor, until she reached the little nook in the stone where she kept her stock of non-perishable foods. She found some more of the jerky but also some heavily salted fish and a couple nuts she didn't know she still had. She didn't know whether Attor was a sole carnivore or if he ate omnivorous foods as well, so she just took the nuts to him as well. Couldn't hurt to offer them, after all.

It only took a few minutes and she was sitting opposite of him again, setting down all the foods she brought and pushing them towards him. He looked a whole lot more conscious already and the new plate on his chest looked healthy enough, although she didn't truly know about that.

"How are you feeling?" she asked the sovereign now that he seemed aware enough to actually answer the question.

Eating with a voracious appetite, the amount Helia brought still wasn't enough but now Attor could focus more as his hunger subsided lightly. With a breath, Attor looked to the dragoness and gave a nod. Moments like this were easily forgotten by him, not forgetting someone helped him but how he was weak. There had it been two dragons now that have seen Attor in this condition, Tori and now Helia who seemed concerned for her Sov- acquaintance. Hearing Helia's question, Attor cleared his throat as he used his tongue to secretly dig away the shrapnel's of jerky from between his teeth.

A minute passed and Attor replied, "Better I suppose. I assume since you're studying on dragons you can study on one while it's here," He stated with a neutral tone, yet his expression was a tired one, "I don't suppose you'd clean the plating? Whenever I she'd like this I lose all of my armor, the most damaged armor taking the longest to grow back but it becomes stronger with every time."

The sludge that slowly dried on the first floor was quite beneficial, Attor discovered one day. Much like one of those succulents, it helps ease the pain in wounds and burns, he also used it in potion brewing as an elixer that removes the majority of diseases. His natural armor, at this point, was as hard as thick iron being beneficial Attor itself. If given time, there could be enough plating for multiple dragons with the amounts of molts he Attor has to go through.

Helia averted her gaze sheepishly, remembering the notebook solely dedicated to Attor and the stages he had gone through while he had been in her care. She had sketched him in the various stages, keeping careful note of what had changed or how he had looked. She even had one very detailed drawing of the Sovereign in full health, at least from the way she imagined him to be, when his shedding was done, with notes on his venom and the warnings he had given her about it while dazed by the poppy seed.
Seri had pushed her to write them down, they could be helpful at some point, but Helia didn't like the thought of keeping such information, when she had sworn to never fight again. Too many dragons were lost in such things.

"I may have already done that." She admitted shyly, swaying her tail nervously. She wasn't super proud of it, especially since Attor had been asleep most of the time, but she couldn't help herself. When would an opportunity such as this arise again? Still, she felt a small spike of shame. Maybe, she could show him what she had written down, if he wanted to see it, calm her conscience by doing so.
Slowly she shook her head, looking at Attor again. "I haven't had time to clean up. When I came down from the mountain you were gone and my kitchen was a mess, I pretty much started looking for you straight away, so if you need the stuff, it's still downstairs."

Honestly, she hadn't even thought about cleaning for a second, worry dominating her thoughts when she noticed Attor was missing from the shell. She would definitely have to clean it up rather soon though. She didn't know if the stuff would start to stink or get hard to the point where it was impossible to get rid of it. She didn't want that to happen, after all she was still building her home and didn't want to change her plans just because she suddenly had to build around cocoon sludge. But it seemed like Attor already knew what to do with it, or at least have a use for it, so maybe she wouldn't have to worry about what to do with it. He could just tell her.

"The plating is tough," Attor immediately commented, his mind clearly on the subject, "Last time this happened it took the strength of ten Ogres to crack any of it, and because it grows stronger every time the natural plating is perfect for protection. It's even light weight, if you fancy that."

Attor remained in this resting position for several minutes before piping up again, "That substance, the putrid smelling and all globbed up, it can be used to accelerate healing. Don't know how how much, but if taken alone you'll be healed sooner than however many days. It's healing benefactor however can be mixed with brain fungus to make a potent energizer... Just it's aftereffect drains you and makes you... Hallucinate. You can try to find more ways for it to be beneficial, however I should warn you that you cannot cook it by any means. When heated to those temperatures, the gas from the liquid is toxic."

Attor wouldn't have said anything if he didn't try any of it. The armor was tough, the leftover ooze had benefits but never had he tried to find other uses for it. However only he and Helia knew, no one else could know as in the wrong hands any of this information would be extremely dangerous. Attor could feel his muscles relax, instead of the stiffness he began to feel himself just slightly. He was regaining some strength but that was it.

Helia didn't really care for the usage of his plating. Well, at least not in the way that he was explaining to her right now. It was good, that it was protecting him and keeping him safe when it causing his skin to fester beneath it, but she had left the military behind and with that promise all of the knowledge or the advantages weapons and armor brought, was meaningless to her. She preferred to focus on other areas of research and their appliance.
"As long as it doesn't kill you like that most of the time." she tried a lighthearted joke to lighten the mood a little bit.

Attor seemed to come to his senses more and more now, even though he still took his time to rest. Helia jsut sat with him, making sure he was okay and not suddenly falling into some sort of dangerous state. She chuckled a little bit when he started talking about the uses of the cocoon fluid, especially the part about hallucinations. It sounded like he had experienced it first hand, probably while running some tests with his newest elixir. She was very inclined to ask about this incident, but chose not to, as to not embarrass him or wake some unwanted memories.

"If you want I could try to keep some for you once I get to cleaning up." she offered to him, as he seemed to have a use for it and she didn't. It seemed to be rather rare to come by as well, so maybe he was very inclined to actually get his paws on the goo that she would otherwise just throw out. Surely he had some idea of how to conserve it and use it for his healing potions, maybe it would come in handy at a later point in time and would help someone very sick and otherwise destined to die.

A possibility he hasn't thought of. The leftover substance that was currently drying had it's secrets, those of which didn't pique Attors interest until after the... The fallen kingdoms. A thought occured to him and Helia was certainly right, he could try and see what other uses that stuff had. After all, he didn't even know what he was at all. Dragon, yes, but the rest was a complete mystery, however he digressed, Attor could think of those things later once he's healed or when in better condition.

Struggling, Attor pushed himself up, no longer wanting to lay down despite his weak state. Successfully the Sovereign rose and stayed in place, looking down and focusing into his efforts. Carefully he began to walk down the stairs, taking his time before stating to Helia, "That would be kind of you... However you shouldn't have to clean my mess alone."

There was no getting through to the dragon regardless of any protest. He was stubborn, and when his mind was set on something that was it until a better option came along. This time Attor had no interest in staying down, he could at least help in some capacity but wasn't sure of the full extent of his energy... Which dwindled. To say Attor felt like falling over was an understatement, he didn't want to seem weak or helpless though that was a failed goal. And slowly trekking down these steps were a treacherous journey on its own.