Funny how disordered one's thoughts became, when one had lost a lot of blood and had a lot to think about. It occurred to him that Elisa's jacket was wrapped around the stump, and he was bleeding on it. Elisa loved that jacket. It would not do for him to bleed on it.
He'd stripped it off by the time she returned, wrapping his remaining fingers around his arm so tightly that his talons bit into his unbroken skin. He must have been in pain, because tears had begun leaking from his eyes, but a separation seemed to have come up between what his body felt and what his mind acknowledged.
A wound he would not recover from. A first for him. Being one-handed would present a lot of difficulties that he'd so long taken for granted. And the children would doubtlessly still receive Punishment. And Hiccup was even now still struck down for his sake.
But Elisa! She'd returned, and the Daligig had not ordered his execution in front of her, or harmed her at all. That was enough to make him smile. It even touched him, the way she'd returned with his severed hand, futile though the gesture was.
"Elisa." He sounded almost calm and pleased, as the shock settled in and his blood continued to pool in a slow trickle. "It cannot be helped. Sleep will stop the bleeding."
Why Stacy had not yet turned him to stone to allow him to heal, he did not know.
"Is the Viking injured?"
It didn't occur to him through his haze that Elisa would not know that the scrawny boy who'd darted forward and been struck down by the Kessek was a Viking at all.
no subject
He'd stripped it off by the time she returned, wrapping his remaining fingers around his arm so tightly that his talons bit into his unbroken skin. He must have been in pain, because tears had begun leaking from his eyes, but a separation seemed to have come up between what his body felt and what his mind acknowledged.
A wound he would not recover from. A first for him. Being one-handed would present a lot of difficulties that he'd so long taken for granted. And the children would doubtlessly still receive Punishment. And Hiccup was even now still struck down for his sake.
But Elisa! She'd returned, and the Daligig had not ordered his execution in front of her, or harmed her at all. That was enough to make him smile. It even touched him, the way she'd returned with his severed hand, futile though the gesture was.
"Elisa." He sounded almost calm and pleased, as the shock settled in and his blood continued to pool in a slow trickle. "It cannot be helped. Sleep will stop the bleeding."
Why Stacy had not yet turned him to stone to allow him to heal, he did not know.
"Is the Viking injured?"
It didn't occur to him through his haze that Elisa would not know that the scrawny boy who'd darted forward and been struck down by the Kessek was a Viking at all.