Total pages in book: 138
Estimated words: 129584 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 648(@200wpm)___ 518(@250wpm)___ 432(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 129584 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 648(@200wpm)___ 518(@250wpm)___ 432(@300wpm)
King Alric’s head turned sharply, and his hope was obvious now, a living, breathing thing in the room with them. “What does that mean? Sixty percent?”
“It means your numbness disappears. Your pain goes from a seven to, perhaps, a two. No more burning sensation unless you’ve overworked the muscles.” Sora eyed the bones, muscles, and tendons again, evaluating them in the way only a doctor can. “I think it’ll be possible for you to fly again, but not without some proper support. Not anything strenuous, but gentle flights, gliding on the wind, things like that.”
Tears filled King Alric’s eyes. “I could—I could possibly fly again?”
“Sure.” Sora knew how important flying was to a dragon, and to a dragon king especially, it must have been hard to always be trapped on the ground. He gave King Alric a pat on his good shoulder, smiling at him in reassurance. “We’ll need to do something like a sports bandage, if that make sense? A support brace around your shoulder and upper back, but my clan has those for injuries similar to yours. We can get you airborne again. It might take a few surgeries and some physical therapy to rebuild the muscles. But maybe in a year? Or less?”
Cameron dodged back around the table, hugging King Alric to him, an embrace enthusiastically returned. Straightening, Cameron cradled King Alric’s face in his hands and swore, “Whatever we need to build or do, we’ll do it. I’m with you a hundred percent on this. Hell, I’ve already been trying to build you some sort of support brace; with Sora’s expertise, I think we can knock it out in a few days. I know this scares you a little, this possibility, but please try it.”
“I’ll try it,” King Alric answered hoarsely. “God in heaven, I can’t even think of refusing the chance. Sora.”
Sora came around to speak to him face to face.
King Alric’s expression was full of the tentative hope and caution that he’d expected. And the resolve of a man who would see things through.
“Outline for me precisely what needs to happen.”
“I do not want to do the spinal surgery without my father,” Sora admitted. “The injury is so old, it’ll be tricky. Having someone else on hand for this would be better. We can do this without opening skin, but it means putting you under for a few hours, as it’ll be painful in the extreme while we’re breaking things and moving them around. You’ll need at least a week to recover from it, I think.”
“Just a week?” Lisette asked incredulously. “From spinal surgery?”
“We have some pretty amazing healing spells,” Sora explained with a cheeky wink. “And I now have the right elements to work with, unlike when I was healing Ravi and the others. After that, King Alric, it’ll be a matter of minor surgeries. I’ll need to ride herd on your nerves to make sure they reconnect and heal properly without getting pinched. Guiding your tendons and muscles into alignment as they heal properly will also be a regular task. I think some of this is too set; we can’t change it all. But we can get most of it sorted.”
“It sounds intense.” King Alric looked away, the wheels and cogs spinning in his eyes.
“It will be. But each surgery will only take a few days to recover from. And we can space them out so your body has time to settle a little before we tackle the next problem. There are two things I would like to do today, to get the ball rolling. One, I would like to do an intense application of a specific potion that will break up and dissolve your scar tissue. That alone should combat some of the numbness. The other thing I would like to do is address the rotator cuff. You have a micro fissure there that didn’t heal correctly. It’s why you can’t lift that arm much beyond your shoulder.”
King Alric blinked at him. “How can you tell?”
“From the way the injury lies, it’s obvious to me.” Sora indicated the area in question. “I can apply a specific application that will heal the tear and reconnect the muscles. It should take about thirty minutes to heal after I’m done. How does that sound?”
Looking at their expressions, it was as if Sora had indicated that he could pop up to the moon to grab an alien, and he’d be back in a moment. He didn’t think he’d said anything too incredible, but, maybe to them, he had. Sora had seen for himself how limited their medical knowledge was.
Ravi had been right to urge him to offer his services. Sora was ever so glad he’d listened. Just look at the hope and excitement in these good people. Sora felt blessed that he had the right knowledge, the right tools, to help them.