The smell was nauseating to her kelvic senses. Nya wrinkled her nose and tried not to gag, making her stitches neat and quick, wanting it to be over with. Luckily in her leather working she had to sew all the time and that helped here. Flesh was far more delicate to stitch up than leather though, so Nya tried to use her lightest touch even as her stomach turned and rolled, making her want to cleanse her system of anything in the bottom of it.
She couldn’t wait to get past the lesson. Fresh would have been so much better. The Kelvic tried to envision the flesh fresh, smelling delicious, with the heat causing it to warm slightly so the fat on the pork instead of being rancid would be slightly translucent and appealing.
It didn’t help. She didn’t salivate and the gagging reflex didn’t subside. As quickly as she could she put her finished stitches aside, meat and all, and did the same with Trevors if he would give it up. She placed it downwind and took deep breaths until she returned to her seat and Jansen’s lecture.
Tourniquets. She’d never heard of the word but understood that they were designed to shut off blood flow. How though? Rope or any type of string? Don’t use it for what? The Kelvic was puzzled and looked towards the other student to see if he understood. He seemed too. She quickly deduced that thin cord was no good and thicker stuff… shirts, bandages, and even bandanas were better. Better for what?
Nya listened carefully as the man said he’d demonstrate how to make one. She tilted her head, watching closely and then frowning as he dragged part of the carcass back over to tie one around the pig’s dead leg. Nya crossed her fingers that the whole limb wouldn’t sluff off. As it was she watched in horror as the swollen corpse spurted some liquid as the instructor tied off the limb, cutting off the long gone blood flow.
She could pretend. Nya swore she could. But this was hard and she coughed a little, gagging, and had to cover it by taking a drink of water from her water skin. She noted where he indicated an imaginary wound was and watched as he arranged the cloth yet again. Worse yet… she watched him pull it really tight. More liquid spurted from the swollen corpse. Nya’s skin turned a neat shade of ash green as she tried not to breathe. Then, to make matters worse, he suggested you could inserted a stick into the knot and twisted, getting an even tighter tourniquet. Thankfully that wasn’t demonstrated. Instead he showed the two students how to do a really tight knot that would pull tight and stay tight the more they pulled.
Nya subtly moved. She couldn’t help it. She crept upwind for a little relief from the smell. She glanced at Trevor and thought him brave for showing no signs of discomfort around the bloated meat. Nya simply couldn’t take it much longer. So when Trevor was done and said they should practice, Nya took another piece of cloth he offered both herself and Trevor and instead of using the bloated pig, used her own leg to practice. It took her several times to get the knot just right and to tie it tight. Then, when she was done, she loosened it after Jansen gave her a nod of approval, and tried tying it on her own arm one handed.
It wasn’t easy but the Kelvic kept trying until there was a decent tourniquet on her arm. She thought it was important to learn how to tie off her own wounds in case she got hurt while she was alone. The Forest Cat also decided she’d cut bandages that would work for tourniquets and start wearing them braided in her hair in case she ever needed one in a quick manner. The thick bits of cloth, more bandana like than anything, would work well to keep her hair pulled back and out of her face.
When they were truly done for the day, Jansen let them go with one more quick talk. “We’ve learned some important things today. I’d like you to come back tomorrow and I’ll go over even more things. I’d like you to learn about treating multiple wounds… how to divide and conquer so to speak.” He paused for drama, knowing they were both tired. “We rarely get wounds here in just singular situations. We get multiple wounds often. If a person falls say from a high point, we get multiple strikes on the way down if they don’t die hitting the ground. Animal attacks often leave vicious wounds. Any number of things can cause major injuries. So… tomorrow we will start with multiple wounds, then we will go through snake bites, animal bites, and jellyfish stings. These are all situations you need to treat here in Syka and be aware of. Then we can move on to treating fever, infection and poisoning. We can finally finish off with creating basic medical kits you can travel with. If you keep your suture kits, you will need to bring me thirty gold tomorrow to pay for them. Then we can on the last leg of this training make some antiseptic to also keep in your bigger medical packs.” He finished off, giving them something to look forward to in the morning when they were going to return and continue their training.
Nya took notes more notes on what was to come. And she’d decided if she could scrounge up the money she’d keep the suture kit as well. It was always something she could use that would come in handy in all sorts of ways. Running her hand through her hair, she took a deep fresh breath upwind from the spoiled pig and thanked Jansen profusely.
“Thank you for the training. I very much appreciate this information and realize how life saving it can be. I look forward to tomorrow and I will bring coin back for you for the suture kit. Thank you for sharing this knowledge. It was nice meeting you and Trevor as well.” She added, glad they were dismissed so she could quietly slink away where she could clear her head of the smell and when her stomach wasn’t rolling so much from the decaying meat she could get something to eat.
POST: 1075
TOTAL: 12,942/50,000
Continued: Preventing Ashes to Ashes & Dust To Dust II
(Feel free to make another post then I'll grade it.)
