[The Medicine House] Patching up (Tazi)

by **Vitri** on May 18th, 2014, 4:15 am

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6th of Spring 514 AV

Exhausted and worn out Vitri had made his way back to Taloba, it had taken him a lot longer than expected. He had been forced to stumble through the night and the whole morning. The wounds he had received the previous night were still fresh, the worst were the brand on his chest and the deep slashes across his chest and his left arm that he had covered in moss that by now were hardened with dry blood. The rest of his body was covered in minor slashes, bruises and burns.

As the walls of Taloba came into view his heart lightened, "Still alive." His mind barely registered the guards at the gates until they called out and stopped him. A guard with a stern expression rode up to him and looked him up and down, he must look like a mess with his body covered in dried blood, dirt and ashes. "What the petch happened to you?" She asked him.

”Fishing.” Vitri said, his voice was hoarse and weak. The guard frowned down at him, she obviously didn’t have any humour or maybe the joke wasn’t funny, his mind was confused and made it hard to tell. ”Yukmen and Dhani magic, Kandutka Basin.”

The guard seemed more satisfied with the answer this time, she nodded and called out to another guard. ”Send a messenger with a request for a fang to Kandukta Basin.”

”No need.” Vitri tried to interrupt. ”All ashes.”

”You’ll have to excuse me if I don’t take your word on that, you can barely stand as it is. What’s your name? Are you in the military?”

Vitri sighed, he was too tired to try to convince her and she was right of course, someone should go there and have a look. He was not going to go back to that nightmare anytime soon he admitted to himself. “Vitri of The Cresent Bones and no I’m a hunter.”

The guard nodded, mostly to herself. ”I’ll have someone take you to the House of Medicine, they’ll get you patched up.” Vitri tried to decline but before he could open his mouth he was cut off. I won’t have you collapsing and bothering people in the city.” She led him, or herded rather, through the gates and waved one of the younger recruits over. ”Make sure he gets to The Medicine House even if you have to drag him there.”

The newcomer examined Vitri curiously but didn’t say anything, he just pulled Vitri’s arm around his neck to support him, or prevent him from wandering off, not that he’d get very far in his condition. The young soldier nodded towards the woman and led Vitri away from the gates. When they were out of earshot the young soldier spoke. ”Seems like you had a rough night.” a small smile spread on the soldier’s lips.

Was he making fun of a wounded man? A surge of annoyance surged through Vitri and seeped into his response. ”You don’t say?”

The man laughed at his response. ”Sorry I didn’t mean to offend. But you look like you could use some cheering up.”

Vitri sighed, the pain and exhaustion made him easily irritated. ”I didn’t mean to snap, it’s been a long night. A long and painful one.”

The man nodded that he understood and went on talking but Vitri had stopped listening, it was hard enough to concentrate on walking along the paths without stumbling. After a short but painful walk they came to a stop, they had reached The Medicine House. His escort led him through the door and waited for someone to come take care of his charge.

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by **Tazi** on May 18th, 2014, 4:51 am

Since she had started working, Tazi had been spending as much time as she could learning from those that had far more experience than she did. Although she would have liked to follow Traya's every move, the old woman was sneakier than she had imagined. Being as old as everyone knew Traya to be, it was amazing just how fast she could move. There were moments that Tazi had her eyes on her employer only to lose her when her line of sight was broken by a room, door, passerby, or Kiyal. The bouncer could almost be comparable to Traya's own shadow sometimes. Tazi did not know how the two of them did it. She had musings about secret passages behind tapestries. So far, every time she looked, she was met with solid walls. One day, she would figure out the two's clever secrets. One day.

Her shift was coming to an end. Having been placed on the night shift after her previous day gallivanting in the woods with knives, suffering a sprained wrist and a sore ego, she had been punished with the evening shift. Nothing every seemed to happen on the evening shift. All the patrons were a snooze in their beds, drifting between bouts of good rest and riveting dreams. Some had requested medication to help them sleep, others wanted expensive drugs that would make their dreams vivid. As she roamed the halls, making sure that no one requested anything of her from the previous night, something stirred in the main hall. There was noise, where there had been silence.

Entering the hall, she saw Kiyal grunting to one of the young medicine helpers. The girl had probably been inquiring what she could do to help out, as she was most likely preparing to start her shift. With Kiyal and the incoming shift preoccupied, it was Tazi that noted a soldier carrying an injured Myrian into the medicine house. Her eyes widened as he came closer, entering their sanctuary. His injuries were somewhat minor, but it was the brand on his chest that concerned her the most. Was there a fire out in the jungle? This could be detrimental to more than just one Myrian male.

Taking it upon herself, she moved closer to the two. "I was told to bring him hear for aid." Tazi nodded, beckoning them both to follow her. They left the room via a small hallway and moved into the first room on the right. It was occupied by two others, wrapped up and heavily sedated to help them heal. There was one spare bed, which she gestured the injured man to be laid.

"Lay there. It looks like you had an-" She contemplated her next words. Hard? Well duh, he was all cut up. Rewarding? Unsure, did he win? "-interesting evening. My name is Tazi of the Scattered Bones. I'll be tending to your wounds." Tazi was all business, which was rather strange. For her, she barely had power of anything. Inept at any weapon, incapable of wrestling a small child off of her, and suffering from a sprained wrist, she had no reason to be in command. Yet, medicine was something she was good at. She had a knack for it. This was where she knew she would excel.

Although her words were firm, her movements were soft. She walked lightly, the sway of her hips only noted at the top of her harem style pants. The wrapping on her wrist was tight, and she held it in a fashion that prevented her from using it too much. Moving towards a cabinet across from the bed she had indicated to him, Tazi began to look for the various things she would need. Wraps, fresh linens, salves, ointments, pain medication and sticks. A bowl for fresh water and some rough towels to bath him. Back and forth she moved from the cabinet to the bedside table, until she had a collection of things. Then, if he wasn't hoarding the entire bed, Tazi would sit on the edge, smiling.

"So, tell me where it hurts..."

by **Vitri** on May 19th, 2014, 1:05 pm

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Vitri had never liked the smell of the places for healing, they always had the stench of too many herbs mixed together and the smell of sickness in one place. He wrinkled his nose as he was led into another room, at least it wasn’t noisy or crowded, only two others occupied the room and they seemed to be sleeping. “Lucky bastards.” He caught himself thinking.

The woman who had led them to the room motioned towards the unoccupied bed. Vitri silently muttered a thank you to the soldier who had helped him here, it shamed him slightly that he had to be dragged around like a stubborn boy but the soldier at least deserved a thank you for having to drag him here. It couldn’t have been fun for the poor boy to drag him around in his sullen mood. With a sigh he decided he’d try to push his annoyance and more importantly his shame, from the previous night, down into a deep pit of his mind. There was time for that later, when he was alone.

He leaned his bow against the wall next to the unoccupied bed and slid of his backpack with a grimace of pain, every time he moved his left arm intense pain spread out from the burn on his chest. He decided he would leave her to remove the moss from his arm and chest to avoid further pain.

As she spoke he glanced over at her, the lack of tattoos and bone jewelry surprised him, she had no bones in her hair nor did she have any piercings and merely a few tattoos that he could see. It made him wonder if she was capable of her position, but he’d find that out soon enough. He doubted she could make in much worse unless she started to cut him up.

With a sigh of relief he laid down on the bed, the pain was still there but it felt good to rest his aching muscles. His mood lightened a bit.
“I’m Vitri and no, not really. I just went fishing.” He responded with a grin, but it was not a humorous one.

He watched as she collected her equipment quite efficiently, at least she seemed to know what she was doing. Maybe she wasn’t as incompetent as he had first feared. Her friendly manner also had a positive effect on Vitri’s spirit.
“I think it’d be easier if you asked where it doesn’t hurt.” This time he responded with a sincere smile.

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by **Tazi** on May 23rd, 2014, 4:54 am

Fishing? Since when did fishing involve fire and extreme amounts of blood? Fishing did not entail getting carried to the medicine house with one arm around the shoulder of a soldier. The only injury that a fisher should be showing up here for was because he was "over worked and under pampered." She listened to his response to her silly question. Of course it had been a silly thing to ask. Especially because she had eyes and could see some of the severe injuries. His smile was warm, which she appreciated. At least he was not going to be a tough person to deal with. At that moment, a young girl came in carrying a basin of fresh water with a few towels over her shoulder. Without even having to bid her to do it, Tazi acknowledged when the girl set the supplies on the side table with a simple nod. Then, the girl was gone.

"Fishing? I did not know fishing involved so much..." Tazi leaned forward to inspect the moss he had used to 'patch' up his arm. It looked like a good place to start. As carefully as she could, she began to pull it away. "...pain." Which was probably emphasized with the pain she would be causing right now as she ripped a little tuft of moss off. Unceremoniously, she threw it on the ground.

Dipping one of the towels into the cool water, she smiled as sweetly as she could. It was hard to make small talk with business to attend to. Wringing the towel free of excess water, she folded it up and moved to wash the injury she had uncovered of the filth. Even with moss, she expected it to be dirty. Since she did not know what to say, she remained quiet, humming a few notes here and there as she worked. Of course, she wanted to prod and investigate the type of fishing he was involved in. Maybe he was using magic or explosives of some kind. That would be an interesting story to listen to.

by **Vitri** on June 8th, 2014, 9:34 pm

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Footsteps from outside drew closer and soon another girl entered the room carrying a basin of water. The water drew Vitri’s attention and he looked at it longingly and for a moment it was everything he could look at. It reminded him of his thirst but he was afraid he would seem weak if he asked for a drink, besides the water in the basin was meant for other purposes. He kept his mouth shut and endured his thirst, drinking could wait. Still the water tormented him. With a silent sigh he turned his head back towards the roof and closed his eyes.

"Fishing? I did not know fishing involved so much..." Vitri’s body tensed and he prepared for the pain that was coming. He ground his teeth together as she slowly pulled at the moss, the dried blood had caused it to stick onto his skin and wound. “…pain.” A low grunt of pain escaped him as she ripped the rest of the moss off. The wound that reached from just below his shoulder to his elbow was deep and blood started seeping out of it again, removing the moss had opened it up. So much pain, he had had enough of it already.

“And I didn’t know… healers were supposed to cause more pain. I thought they were supposed to make the pain go away.” He spoke through gritted teeth before he could stop himself. He wasn’t even sure himself if he meant it in a humorous manner or if it was out of spite. No matter, he wasn’t in a mood for an apology either way even if he felt bad for his outburst. He fell silent with a sigh and closed his eyes, he could apologize later for now all he could do was to endure the pain. With clenched fists he took deep breaths and tried to let her humming calm him. But it only worked for a short while he needed something else to distract him.

“It wasn’t the fishing that injured me.” He opened his eyes and a haunted look crept into them as he remembered the previous evening. The shame of being inferior to the Dhani woman, the shame of feeling respect for her, the shame of being frightened of a Dhani and worst of all the fear of letting her live when he could have killed her. He couldn’t tell her the whole story but maybe he could leave out the Dhani completely.

He kept staring at the roof as the memory of the night crept up on him, but his eyes didn’t see the roof instead the images of the previous night started flowing into his mind. “It was after that I had made camp for the night. I had just sat down to eat an evening meal when I first heard the shrills. All the animals in the direction started to panic. The usual sound of the jungle turned into turmoil and chaos as they fled for their lives from.. something. I didn’t know what it was at first, all I could do was sit there and wonder what could put such a scare into the jungle, prey and predators alike. I just sat there and listened. My uncle always used to tell me stories, about shrills in the night. I should have realized it by then but I guess it was hard to believe at the time. It was too late when I realized.. Ksshhhh!” A very sharp sting of pain that he wasn’t ready for shot through him, interrupting his story.

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by **Tazi** on June 8th, 2014, 10:13 pm

His words didn’t really bother her. Pain was a natural part of life, and most true Myrians would not have said anything about it. They rarely ever had to provide a pain reliever because most of their patrons were too strong of will to admit that it hurt. As she cleaned, he seemed to be brought into a lulled state. It lasted only a short time before he began to explain. Tazi smirked. She should have known. Most Myrians were already eager to talk about their wounds and boast about their victories. At least she would get a story out of this.

While he spoke, she finished cleaning the wound, inspecting it for any larger debris that the towel was not willing to get out. Every once in a while, she would look up at him. His description of shrills seemed odd, but all Myrians had different ways of describing the creatures that haunted the forest at night. Of course, Dhani did not shrill, so she doubted that this tale was about a large serpent. Reaching into her medicine bag on her hip, she pulled out her pestle and mortar, turning to the table to work. A little scoop of water and some dried Vyfox went into the bowl, which she ground up into a thick paste. Taking it in her hands, she pressed it into the deeper areas of the wound. The chill would be soothing she assumed, enough to avoid too much pain. She simply wanted to blood to clot before she started work on stitching it shut. This wound was too big to leave open beneath bandages. Tazi was going to have to bring the edges together.

Leaving the paste within the wound, she began to focus on the burn on his chest. His story was going slowly, and she wondered when he was going to explain this handprint burned into his flesh. Taking a fresh towel, she dunked it and wrung it of excess water before placing it across the burn. It was at this that she hissed. Tazi started, pulling her hands away quickly once the towel was in place. With a huff, she stood up and went back to the cupboard. A moment of digging around allowed her to produce a cup and a metal ball on a chain. Returning to her seat, she shoved some leaves (different than the Vyfox she had used earlier) into the ball. Dipping the cup into the clean water, she stuffed the ball into the cup to steep.

“Here,” Tazi stated calmly. “This should help ease your pain a little bit. Just a little, not a lot as it isn’t the strongest of Xelma leaves. Fresh ones work better in hot water.” Here she was, using old, dried leaves with cold water. But she had to make do. To give him enough time to drink it and let the effect work, she proceeded to make more past and prepare a curved bone needle with some thick wire-like string.

“Please, continue. I want to know what you heard out there in the woods.” Sadly, her words fell on deaf ears. When she looked up, he was already fast asleep. Pursing her lips, she decided that it had been her explanation of Xelma tea that had put him to sleep. Sighing, she took the empty cup from his hands where he had placed it on his chest, and set it back on the table. Now, to continue her work and get him comfortable so that when he woke, he would be ready to get back to fishing again.

by **Pandaemus** on July 23rd, 2014, 10:08 pm

Congratulations!

Tazi

Skills :

Lores :

Loot :

Vitri

Skills :

Lores :

Loot :

Notes :

Closed [The Medicine House] Patching up (Tazi)