'No wonder,' thought the healer, 'that this one's unconscious, with a wound of this sort. By the looks of it, he can't have long to live. What should I do?' It wasn't often that he found himself at a loss like this. His healer training, experience, historical knowledge and great gut instinct all had a profound impact on him, making him more of a leader than most he knew. So much so that other dragons around him were always asking his advice, even those in higher positions with much more experience, something that always forced a grin onto his very serious face. But on this occasion, he really didn't know what action to take. Here and now, the very life of this dragon depended fully on the choices that he made, and nothing about this situation made any sense at all. Convinced his prognosis was right, that indeed it was a naga inflicted wound, coupled with the fact that the dragon had clearly gone to great lengths to get back here, he wondered if he should drag the dragon out of unconsciousness telepathically, something he was more than capable of doing, but something that with the extent of the wound, could end up killing him in a very short space of time.
As vital seconds ticked away, he made his decision, for good or bad. Grabbing Flash by his ears, the healer leant in close, his fierce looking jaws almost touching Flash's burnt and cindered mouth. Reaching out with his mind, the healer sought out the consciousness he knew had to be hiding deep within the mind of the dragon before him. Not something especially new to him, over the centuries he'd done it literally dozens of times. None of which prepared him for what he found inside this particular dragon.
Under normal circumstances, finding another dragon's consciousness, or mind, was for the most part pretty straight forward. Even if they'd fled to the darkest recesses of their psyche, they would always leave a visible trail, easy to follow, ending up with a few mental barricades that they had to be coaxed into letting down before the gradual process of helping them regain control of their body could begin. What the good healer encountered on entering Flash's mind was something altogether different. Flash hadn't fled, quite the opposite in fact. He was holed up right in the very centre of his consciousness, sticking out like a hot dog in a vegetarian restaurant. What shocked the healer the most were the barricades that Flash had set up within himself. In his experience, most dragons surrounded themselves with things they associate with happiness, things that make them feel comfortable and safe. It could be anything from a river of lava, bright hot sunshine, a fort made of charcoal, a roaring circle of wind, a particular nursery ring teacher, a parent or an imaginary laminium ball team. Over the course of his working life, the healer had encountered all of these and they had all been relatively easy to remove, with just a little encouragement. Flash, unsurprisingly, was nothing like anyone the healer had ever encountered before. As the healer's consciousness settled down to take stock, the biggest, scariest looking castle with manned battlements, trebuchets and a huge keep that rose out of view, formed the picture in front of him. A giant moat surrounded it all, with some very ominous things swimming in it. Strangely, a portcullis sat directly across the moat from him, but there was no drawbridge, and behind the metal portcullis, just the stone wall of the castle was visible. Evil looking vultures perched atop the crenellations that crisscrossed the outer walls and long arrow slits littered the dark stone, making it look from a distance like the castle had chickenpox. Dark, forbidding clouds circled overhead.
'This is going to be... interesting,' thought the healer, taking it all in and pondering his next move. It was a good job that all his concentration wasn't focused on his what was to come. Movement behind the slits in the walls caught his attention. Moments later a barrage of arrows sailed through the sky towards his consciousness, something that in all his time he'd never seen or heard of. In a fraction of a second he'd made the decision to retreat out of range, back right to the very verge of Flash's mind. Heart beating double time back in his dragon body next to the lava pool, the arrows struck the muddy ground in front of him with a solid thwump, deep inside Flash's mind. Taking a few seconds to regain his composure, he tried to understand what had just gone on. It had happened so quickly that he'd just acted automatically, but the more he thought about it, the more it scared him senseless. How would things have turned out if he'd been hit by one of the arrows? Would any harm have come to him? Would he have... died, here in someone else's mind? All of these questions and more wriggled through his brain as his consciousness cowered in the darkness, the castle with all its dangers towering over everything in the not so far away distance. Knowing that every second here was a second closer to death for the dragon whose mind he'd invaded and maybe even himself, he vowed to do everything in his power to help.
Keeping his wits about him, he very carefully, and very obviously, came out of the shadows and walked slowly and surely towards the thrashing waters of the moat, all the time projecting as much calm and serenity as he could muster in the direction of the imposing castle. Briefly clearing his throat, he threw his voice as far as he could, hoping it would catch the attention of the mind within.
"Erm... hello," he shouted, mindful of the danger all around him.
"HELLO," he shouted once again. "Could we possibly talk? I mean you no harm, quite the opposite in fact. I'm here to help."
"Get lost!" shouted Flash's mind, loud enough to startle all the vultures into flight.
Cautiously edging backwards, the healer half expected another volley of arrows. Fortunately, they never arrived. Buoyed ever so slightly, he decided to try again.
"I don't know who you are, but you need help. Let me help you please... I'm a healer."
A wavering, "Just leave," echoed down from somewhere up high.
A tiny glimmer of hope sparked within the healer, helping him to press on and save this very unusual individual.
"Your body is in bad shape you know. I can help... honest. But you need to come out... now. Every second you delay puts you in more danger."
Silence enveloped the whole vista; even the returning vultures resembled statues. Waiting patiently, the healer noted that whatever lurked in the moat, had for the first time stopped splashing and biting at nothing, while the clouds above were definitely changing from menacing dark, to a much fluffier shade of white.
Out of the blue a sickly looking dragon figure popped his head up from beneath one of the battlements about halfway down one side of the keep.
"Why should I trust you?" croaked Flash.
"Do you know where you are?" asked the healer softly.
Flash leant against the wall of the keep, exhausted, and shook his head in reply.
"Your body's in the dragon world beneath Perth, Australia. I was on my way to a medical conference, walking along a little used path, when I saw you crash into a pool of lava from one of the emergency entrances above. I've dragged you out of the pool and removed all the lava in and around you. But you've got this... this... wound, on your back. It's like nothing I've ever seen before, but I've read about something that it... resembles." He knew then that he had Flash's full attention, and could see that he was in a seriously bad shape. Having no idea what would happen if he lost consciousness here, in his mind, would the dragon die? Would they both die? It was impossible to know, and all the more important to persuade him to lower the barricades so that he could be helped. Quickly he decided to continue on, hoping to gain the dragon's trust.