A deer had a lot of muscle, but when Asher cut into the deer, it still had meat, fat, and other editable pieces around it. But the dragon didn't have that. The flesh looked like almost all muscle. But at the same time, it pulsated. As if it was trying to reconnect itself.
Asher slowly backed away from the dragon, ensuring not to touch the wound or anything around the beast. Once he was far away, he breathed a massive sigh of relief. His sweat had soaked his shirt. Discoloring and darkening his armpit and back area.
“What do I do?” Asher said to himself while staring at the dragon. He knew that if he left it, the beast would probably die from natural causes. And that much meat would feed him and his father for years if he managed to get it back home in time. But the same force that pulled him to the beast now told him to help it. It did not speak to Asher in words, but in his mind, he could feel it edging on his decision.
“I can’t believe I am doing this!” Asher said to himself while looking towards the ground, shaking his head. Asher spent the next twenty minutes climbing his way out of the cavern floor, nearly falling twice. The climb out was considerably harder on him than the fall down. When he finally got out, Asher was out of breath and struggling to find the willpower to begin his search for herbs and the other items necessary to create a wound paste.
But again, that strange drive to help the dragon made its way into Asher's core. It fueled his search for Wormturf, a Vessal Herb, and a Honey Mushroom. When these two plants were ground up and mixed together with a little water, they created a paste that increased healing speed, and while it wasn't as good as a potion it was still better than nothing at all.
The only problem Asher was having was finding enough of the two plants to create the mixture at all; the slash he had seen was massive and could take anywhere from ten of each plant to as much as twenty. Over the next two hours of so, Asher managed to collect seven Wormturf and eight Honey Mushrooms, while it wasn’t even, or enough for the wound he saw, he knew that if he mixed in a little more water than normal he might be able to scrape by.
The process to make the Honey Healing Gel wasn’t difficult, it was just time consuming, which Asher believed he had little of if he didn’t want the beast to bleed out. Each plant had to be ground up into a fine powder then once they were completely ground up he could begin mixing the water in. The only problem was that Asher hadn’t brought along a mortar and pestle to grind these plants, all he was able to find was a massive flat rock and plenty of smaller rocks, the smaller rock which did very little to grind the plants rather than just crushing them.
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But alas Asher managed to make it work, at least enough that he felt like the water could still create the pasty hell he wanted, and if it didn’t then all he had wasted was his time. Asher quickly threw the two plant powders into a hollow stone he had managed to find, then slowly and carefully he began to add the water. The process wasn’t a magical one and most definitely wasn’t entertaining to watch, but slowly the plants reacted with each other, using the water as a medium and began to form a green gel.
While Asher was happy the two were combining at all, the color of the gel had him worried. Normally when the two began to form together they created a slightly transparent orange-yellowish looking gel. But this gel was almost completely green and most definitely wasn’t transparent. Nevertheless, Asher finished combining the two and began the trek back to the waterfall where he assumed the dragon was still laid.
The journey was slower this time around, mostly due to Asher trying his damndest to keep the gel he had spent so long working for from spilling. Once he reached the edge of the stream again, dread still keeping him from touching the water, he peered down into the crevasse, eyes once again going wide as he spotted the Red Dragon laying there in a pool of its own blood.
Once again Asher began his descent down to the Dragon, this time falling down with a little more grace, or at least enough that he didn’t spill or drop the gel. Once down he could feel the beast's attention go from trying to sleep, to mild curiosity as Asher tried to approach the beast. For a second the beast looked at him with destine, until it noticed what Asher was caring, almost immediately after seeing the bowl it began to relax, the forest itself seemed to calm down after that.
Totally oblivious to the danger Asher had been in, he slowly placed the bowl shaped rock down at the base of the beast, and began spreading the gel all over his hands, he knew the beast wasn’t going to like what was going to happen next but it had to be done. If this was any other animal Asher would have most definitely died, and yet blissfully unaware Asher walked up and thrusted his hands into the pulsating wound.
A roar immediately followed, sending Asher rearing in pain, his still gel-covered hands flying to his ears, coating them while also covering them, protecting him a little from the blast. After what felt like years the roar stopped and was replaced by Asheres crying, his head felt like it was about to burst apart, if it hadn’t already, pain shot through his head in every which direction.
The dragon’s gaze was now transfixed on Asher, even as he was thrashing about on the ground. Slowly it reached its head down, touching its snout to Asher's head. Asher felt for a brief second as something touched his head, then with a bright flash of red light his world went black.