Draco decided not to question parthir's decision any further and to accept his help. He looked at the previous dressing and had to admit that he hadn’t noticed when the bandage had become completely soaked with blood. It didn’t look great, but it wasn’t a disaster either. He knew full well that by cleaning the wound and changing the dressings regularly, his hand would heal in two or three days, and with the use of alchemical potions or a healer’s intervention, it would be as good as new by the following morning at the latest.
Noah carefully untied the blood-soaked bandage and, taking care not to aggravate the wound, gently removed the material. His hand hadn’t changed much, save perhaps for the visible clots that had formed in a few places. Parthir, just as before, rinsed the wound with water from his canteen, then pulled a small bottle from his bag. When he opened it, a pungent smell of strong alcohol wafted through the air.
‘It’ll sting,’ Noah warned.
Draco didn’t even flinch whilst the wound was being cleaned, which somewhat surprised his unwitting medic. After disinfecting the wound, parthir applied the lily-based liquid he’d obtained earlier to the hand, which, surprisingly, made the dragon feel as though he’d plunged his hand into a tank of cooling liquid in Matheo’s workshop. Fortunately, the sudden and very unpleasant sensation lasted only a brief moment and fairly quickly gave way to a pleasant coolness. Noah then soaked a clean piece of cloth in the plant extract and applied it to the wound. As a final step, he secured the whole thing with a snow-white bandage.
‘It should be fine now,’ the parthir said solemnly. He seemed pleased with the result of his work. ‘Just remember that this is only a temporary fix and you’ll still need to visit the Tower of Water. Also, try not to use that hand, so as not to make the wound worse.’
‘Can I wear gloves over it?’ Draco wondered whether that might be a better solution, allowing him, on the one hand, to immobilise his metacarpals
