Jennifer is squatting down, busy with the bundle of green plants she’s collected. “That’s right. For your wound. The old paste was washed away in the lake.”
I look down at my chest, confirming it. “Can you do that while walking? We’re wasting time.”
“I’ll soon be done,” she says absentmindedly.
I walk along the shore, so I don’t have to keep looking at her and have my crotch swell like this all the damn time.
I have no more reserves now, no more energy to use. I’m feeble and pitiful in this shape, even worse now that I spent the last of my force Changing. Without making the conscious decision to do it. It just happened. Whoever heard of such a thing?
“It’s ready,” the naked female calls.
I saunter back and let her smear the green stuff onto me again. It does work — the ache is considerably less than before.
“I think it’s working,” Jennifer says while she finishes up. “The dark area is smaller now.”
I grab her wrist and pluck the little leaf with the paste on it out of her hand. “Let’s see if it can work on others.”
I roughly smear the rest of the paste onto Jennifer’s small wounds at her shoulders, making sure to cover them all and noting that her blood is indeed dark red, like I thought. Then I dab a dollop on a bruise on her forehead. “There. Now we will both look silly.”
She smiles up at me. “Is that why you did it?”
“It’s futile to ask a dragon for his reasons. You can never understand them, anyway. Now, let’s be on our way.”
She bites her lower lip. “Actually…”
“What?!” I bark.
She takes a quick step back from me. “The not-sheep. If you could kill only one of them, I can get food for several days. They’re easy to gut and prepare. I’ll grill several pieces of meat, so that doesn’t need to be a concern while we walk.”
I take three steps over to the heap of furry creatures. Two of them wake up and immediately faint again.
I grab one by a hind leg, lifting it.
“Gently,” Jennifer says. “The quickest way is to cut its throat and let it bleed out. It’s more humane.”
I rip the creature’s throat out with one hand, and it dies without regaining consciousness as the blood splashes down on the gravel. “Now what?”
“Put it there, please. On that flat rock.” Jennifer points, her face pale. “And could I ask you to gather firewood?”
“No,” I growl. “You could not.”
She shrinks away from me again, eyes big and scared. “It’s okay, I’ll do it later. No rush.”
Still, I march into the woods, muttering vicious curses about my predicament, conscious of my incredible weakness in this form. I desperately need to get to my cache and regain my strength, but Jennifer and this lowly, pedestrian existence slow me down beyond belief.
A big, toothy creature emerges from behind a tree and tries to hinder me, and I get an outlet for my anger by tearing it into little pieces, splattering the trees with its thin blood.
When I return, Jennifer has cut the furry creature up into slabs of meat, and she’s busy scraping its fur.
I approach her turned back silently, then dump my collected firewood on the ground right behind her in a satisfying crash. “Here.”
She jumps and squeals, dropping the fur. “Caronerax! You scared me!”
I smile with satisfaction. “That was my intention. It’s good to know I still have the power to scare. It seems the only power I have left.”
She picks up the fur again. “That’s a lot of wood. Are you… sorry, that was almost a question. I’ll put it differently: you are planning to stay here for the rest of the day and the night.”
“Maybe.” I have given it no thought. It has never been necessary for me to make specific plans about things like that. A dragon does what he wants at all times. And I wanted to gather wood, so I picked a lot of it.
Yes. That’s it. I wanted to gather firewood. It was not because I want Jennifer to be warm and comfortable. It was because I want firewood.
“I wouldn’t mind staying here a little,” Jennifer says, continuing her work. “I mean, I really need to get back to the village. But I would prefer to not run wildly, with no food and no way to get warm if needed. These woods are pretty cold. I can do