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Ramon and Gloria landed on the ground. In front of them, there were two seemingly dead bodies. The two baby dragons exchanged glances with each other. “What happened?” Gloria asked. “Why did they die before we could capture them?”
Ramon furrowed his brow. “Maybe they’re like rabbits? Prika told me rabbits die from fright; you don’t even have to touch them. They get really scared, and their heart stops beating.”
“Really?” Gloria asked and raised an eyebrow. “Are you sure she isn’t tricking you?”
Ramon nodded. He crept forward and nudged one of the bodies on the ground. It limply rose and fell, following the motion of his claw. His head tilted to the side, and he nudged the body again. “That’s weird. It almost sounds like it’s exhaling whenever it hits the ground.”
“It must be the air leaving the space between the body and the ground,” Gloria said and copied Ramon’s actions. There was a faint whooshing sound an instant before the body thumped into the ground. “See?”
Ramon scratched his head. “What do we do?” he asked. “I haven’t learned how to resurrect people yet. I can heal them, but if they’re already dead, we can only bring them back to Mama to save them.”
“Are you sure they’re really dead?” Kozabokget asked from atop Ramon’s head. “Nudging them simply isn’t enough to check. Try stabbing them with your claw. If they grunt, then they’re still alive.”
“Hey, is it just me, or did this corpse just start sweating?” Gloria asked.
“It’s just you,” Ramon said and rolled his eyes. “They were already a little moist when we got here.” He extended his claw and jabbed the body Gloria had pointed out. There was a squelching sound as the tip of his claw stabbed into the body’s side. Ramon retracted his finger, causing blood to ooze out of the wound. “See?” he asked and glanced up at the goat on his head. “No reaction.”
“Try the other one too,” Kozabokget said. For some reason, Ramon felt like the goat had an amused expression on its face. It was really hard to tell because instead of being scaly, her face was furry.
“What are you laughing at?” Ramon asked. “Is there something on my face?”
“No, nothing,” Kozabokget said. “Go on, poke the other one too.”
“Are you sure they aren’t sweating?” Gloria asked and furrowed her brow. “It really does seem like they’re sweating.”
“Maybe humans become a bit leaky when they die?” Ramon asked before shrugging. He raised his foot and poked the other dead body as well. As one would expect from a corpse, there was no reaction. The holy dragon rolled his eyes up to look at the goat. “Yep. Pretty sure they’re dead.”
“I think they’re pretending to be dead,” Kozabokget said. “Rabbits aren’t the only animals that die from fear. Snakes do too, but they only pretend to die. You might not understand it because you’re a dragon, but this is how pitiful prey creatures like us survive.”
Ramon raised an eyebrow and picked up one of the humans. He flipped it over in his paw and squinted at it. Then, he closed his paw and shook the human as if it were a gift-wrapped box that he was trying to figure out the contents of through sound alone. There were a few cracking, snapping, and thumping sounds, but the human didn’t make any noise indicating it was alive. Ramon dropped the person onto the ground and wiped his paw against the dirt, getting rid of some wet spots on his scales.
“They’ll faint if you shake them that hard,” Kozabokget said, answering Ramon’s question before he even asked. “Try healing him and checking again.”
Ramon frowned, and his eyes glowed silver. White light enveloped the human body by his feet, and the slightly misplaced limbs shifted back into position. “Alright,” Ramon said and thumped his tail against the ground. He stared at Kozabokget with an unhappy expression on his face. “Since you’re such an expert at checking if humans are alive, why don’t you do it this time?”
Kozabokget hopped off of Ramon’s head. “Hold his body down for me,” she said and gestured with her hoof for Ramon to step on the man. “If we’re not careful, he’ll ambush me. You can’t underestimate any living creature; everyone wants to survive, and even a rabbit will bite back if it’s forced into a corner.”
“As long as it doesn’t die from fear first, right?” Gloria asked.
“Right.” Kozabokget walked along the side of Ramon’s foot until she ended up near the human’s head. She placed her leg in front of his nose and mouth. “One way to check if something is alive is to check if it’s breathing or not. If the hairs on my leg move and there’s no breeze, then you know they’re breathing.”
Ramon and Gloria stared at Kozabokget’s leg. After a minute, Gloria lay on her belly, resting her chin on top of her front paws. “How long can a human hold their breath?”
“I’m not sure,” Kozabokget said. “We should wait for an hour just to be safe.”
“How about sweating?” Gloria asked. “Does sweating mean he’s alive? It looks like he’s doing it again.”
Ramon snorted. “I’m not waiting an hour to see if a human is alive,” he said. “What if the other humans do something in that time? Isn’t there a faster way to check?”
“Yes,” Kozabokget said and nodded. “If a human is alive, then they have a heartbeat. We can check for that to see.”
“How do we do that?” Ramon asked.
“It’s simple,” Kozabokget said. “Take your claw and put it on his neck. Then, you pull down and rip his chest open, exposing his heart.”
“Alright,” Ramon said and flipped the human over. He placed his claw on the person’s neck, and—
“Damn!” Keith shouted. His eyes widened up seeing Kozabokget smiling at him. “Am I being played by a goat!?” He tried to raise his arms, but they were pressed down by Ramon’s foot. “I’m alive, okay!? Please, stop torturing me! As long as you don’t kill or maim me, I’ll do whatever you want!”