Dragon's World

21.

When Rune comes in the room, I'm sitting cross legged on the bed, flipping an arrow between my fingers. I didn't have to wait very long for him, maybe a little over fifteen minutes.

"Hey, there's a couple of things we need to discuss," I perk up the second I see him. He closes the door behind him and begins peeling off his clothes.

"Okay? Sounds a little intimidating, is everything alright?" He asks as he pulls his shirt off.

"Well, first, Sandra and I were going through the weapons we picked off Jesse and we found that they had some type of substance on the sharp edge of the blade. We think it's poison," I watch him give a doubtful expression before he pulls off his pants. "They're in a pillow case in the closet if you want to go through them yourself but we don't know what's on them so don't get cut," I point to the closet just as he opens it and pulls out his pajama shorts. He throws those on the bed before pulling out the bag and holding it up with raised eyebrows.

"This pillow case?" He wears a really unimpressed expression as I nod. "Alright, let's see what's in the bag," he unties the bag and dumps it on the end of the bed. I inch a little closer once everything has stopped moving.

"Smell this one," I locate the smelly one and hold it up to him. "Be careful though."

He takes the blade and gives me a raised eyebrow before sniffing it. After a single inhale, he pulls away and covers his nose, a disgusted expression fitting under his hand. He shakes his head. "That's dragon venom!" His eyes scan the blade furiously.

"What?! Who could even extract that?" My eyes go wide as I look between the blade and Rune.

"Only a vet from a dragon kingdom, which means we have a traitor somewhere," he growls out as he drops the blade back into the bag. He begins picking up other blades and sniffing them. Each one is dropped back into the bag with a disgusted shake of his head.

"Could a human extract it?" I ask, the question still flooding my brain.

"They could but I doubt any know where to find it. The venom pouch is hidden against different organs depending on dragon species, making it easy to mistake as just the organ itself. If a human did this, they'd have to be very skilled with dragon anatomy or happen to have just come across it by accident, which is unlikely because if you break the pouch, the venom destabilizes and basically turns into rock crystals," he shakes his head as he reties the end of the pillow case. "What do you plan to do with these?" He drops the bag back in the closet and closes its door before turning to me.

"Sandra and I were going to go out and burry them somewhere tomorrow. Though, maybe that's not such a good idea now," I chew on my cheek as Rune slips on his pajamas.

"The only way to get the venom off of them is to melt them down," he climbs into bed and sits next to me.

"Maybe John can reforge them?" I shrug, feeling kind of helpless now.

"They'd have to be melted all the way down. Maybe he can do that, I'll just have to be with him to make sure it goes right," he tucks his feet under the blanket and pulls it up to his waist before laying down and folding his arms under his head.

"I doubt Jesse could've done that. It had to have been one of those scientists," a venom of its own laces my voice as I shrink down into the bed as well, pulling the blanket up to my neck.

"Maybe we should go check them out. If they released him, what's to say they wouldn't just let us go too?" Rune suggests such before blowing out the candle.

"Absolutely not. Definitely not you, at least. What if they keep you overnight and see how you transition when you fall asleep? You'd be dead in an instant. Absolutely not happening," I clench my jaw after my small rant and fold my arms over my chest.