Riders of B E R K

Part 64: Departures

Chapter Sixty-Four: Departures

Hiccup's numbers were deteriorating as I sat at his side, murmuring repeated entreaties to stay with me. He was warm and still breathing but I was scared he was slipping away from me, laid low by the combination of infection and poison. And I honestly had no clue what I could do if I lost him, if I could never stare into those beautiful green eyes, never hear his sass or feel the warmth of his hand, twined with mine. I had given him my heart, been with him through thick and thin and agreed to spend the rest of my life with him. And though the twins and Fish had found the Blue Oleander, I was worried that it may be too late.

Major Gothi walked in with Ragnar, holding a 100ml fluid bag containing a turbid mixture that I presumed was the antivenom and proceeded to attach a giving set and carefully run it through before attaching it to his cannula.

"I've followed the instructions as much as I can, considering the document is a thousand years old," she said in her eerie electronic voice. "I hope it works." I nodded and stared at the fluid as she opened the giving set...and then suddenly leapt forward, pinching the tube and flipping the attachment to the cannula closed.

"NO!" I barked out, panic suddenly filling me. "Major-it's a thousand years old. They didn't have intravenous drugs then! This is an oral medication...containing the same venom that has brought him to the brink of death. He can't have this IV!" I was feverishly unfastening the tube to ensure none of the mixture got into his system, even opening the port after I had detached the 'cure' to flush any of it out. "It's oral." She frowned and then waved a finger thoughtfully.

"Hmm...the perils of working in modern medicine," she admitted with chagrin. "I assumed it was IV, like current anti-venoms. You are absolutely correct, Astrid. I suspect there must be a first-pass effect in the liver which deactivates the venom or makes it beneficial..." She took the giving set and smiled, then fixed it to his NG tube, the nasogastric tube that ran through his nose down to his stomach. With a wordless prayer, she opened the tap and I saw the mixture slowly trickle down the tube into my fiancé. My hands tightened on his and I leaned forward to kiss him.

"Come back to me, Hiccup," I whispered. "We've got you the antidote. Now you have to fight to come to me and Toothless once more. I believe in you...because you're amazing. And I love you." I closed my eyes and felt them prickle with tears. "I love you..."

"Am I intruding?" My head snapped up and I glared at Thuggory, who had interrupted my moment.

"Guess," I said flatly and he sighed.

"Sorry." He sounded genuine as he walked forward. "I've got some bad news. We've looked everywhere in the Base but as far as we can tell, Specialist Cami Voleur has gone. She's disappeared."

oOo

Colonel Mildew was characteristically unhelpful, grumbling that no one behaved like a proper soldier anyway and why was anyone surprised that Cami had vanished. But I was, because we were her friends and Ruff and I, at least, expected that she would have told us if she was bailing on the team. I was worried because she was recuperating from a pretty vicious stab wound-even though the knife had only hit muscle and skin, rather than any vital organs-and she really should be resting rather than using her best stealth abilities. And she did have good stealth abilities-because she had vanished without being picked up on the cameras. Ruff and I guessed she had gone through the ducts, because it was very obvious that she knew her way around them well...and Hiccup and I knew there was a way to the outside if you knew exactly where to find it.

Swiftsoar, her dragon, was still in the Pens with the others and Thuggery and I stared sympathetically at the Hobblegrunt: she wouldn't understand why her Rider had vanished because I didn't either.