Stitches (Solo)

[Maya Frostfawn]

Timestamp: Fall 3, 523 AV Wind whistled through the city, raising the dust from the earth and shrouding Maya's feet as she took slow steps toward the place of her work. They were clouds that swirled like smoke, a mixture of pale brown and gold from the sun's early light. Its pale, fleeting warmth lost in the chill of the fall air, which Maya could not silver with her breath, for she had no breath of which to speak. She had hastily thrown on a disguise that morning, for she hadn't wished to spend much time on it that day, but time lost in thoughts that wandered to distant lands and imaginary worlds. Lands and worlds, which she wished she could walk, move toward, just as she was moving toward the nightmare that was her workplace. Within another few minutes she had arrived at its familiar door and made her way inside, shaking off the cold of the outside world as the door shut behind her and the doctor called her farther into the Clinic's depths and asked the questions she knew were coming, but dreaded having to hear. For a moment, she thought of pretending she hadn't heard her master, but she knew there was no point; he'd only keep asking until she answered. "How are you feeling today, Maya? Was the medicine beneficial?" She wished she had paid more attention to what he had given her, scrutinized what was inside in a weak attempt at determining what might have been in the pill he had given her the day before. So, now, she might know what on earth it was supposed to have done to her, so that now, she could provide an answer he would find satisfactory. Had she been human, she might have broken a sweat, but she was no longer human. As she neared him, she tried to respond in the safest and most satisfactory way possible. "I cannot speak to whether it was the medicine you gave me or something else... perhaps something I ate, but I felt tired yesterday. My stomach also bothered me a little, as though I needed to eat more or perhaps, ate something that didn't quite agree with me." A pause. "And I felt this unpleasant pressure behind my eyes, perhaps I need to get more sleep going forward." The doctor nodded, grunted as he scrubbed some blood from his hands with a dirty cloth. Maya hadn't noticed that he was doing that before. Had he been doing that when she walked in? She simply could not remember. "The others I gave the pill too didn't seem too bothered by it either. Perhaps we should up the dose in those pills next time. Double it, or triple it even." If she could, she would have breathed a sigh of relief. Instead, she simply nodded. "Yes, doctor." A pause. "Is there anything you need me to do? I imagine we'll be getting--" her words were cut off as another person walked through the door. A human who was limping, wincing, clearly in pain. A narrow trail of blood trailed from their right foot as they approached the doctor and their assistant. "Please take a seat on the examining table," Maya gestured. It was time to work on their first patient of the day. They appeared to be a human male in their late thirties. They had hair the color of a raven's feathers, with a few snowy strands woven into the wavy locks. Their facial hair was a bed of stubble, which aged their bony face. Purple bags rested beneath their pained, green eyes, the color of a tree's leaves before they changed. Their skin was pale, but going a tad gray from the loss of blood, Maya assumed. Their hands shook slightly and were both kept on their leg, on the thigh, as though applying pressure to staunch a wound. And as Maya looked at them more closely--she realized that was precisely what they were doing, for she noticed blood seeping beneath their trembling fingers. From their lower lip where they were now biting it until the blood drained from the pink bow. The blood on their leg had matted their patched clothes, made the blue bleed a deep brown. It must be trickling down the length of their leg and onto the floor, Maya thought as she watched another drop ease out of the man. "Lie back and try to make yourself comfortable," she instructed, to which the man eagerly obliged. "Perhaps we should begin by getting him something for the pain, doctor," Maya said. The doctor grunted, opened a nearby cabinet, rummaged around for a moment, grabbed a glass jar of whole, dried leaves, poured two out and told the man to chew on them before putting the jar away. "I imagine that'll take a few minutes to start working, but it should ease the pain," Maya commented, although she wasn't sure. She had no idea what the doctor had given their patient. "We'll begin your examination now, in the meantime. We simply cannot wait for the herbs to take effect." Word Count: 850

[Maya Frostfawn]

The patient groaned. "First, we're going to need to remove your pants, so that we can examine you properly. Since I don't believe it'll be in your best interest to have you move, for it could aggravate your wound and increase the rate at which you lose blood, I believe it would be best if we cut them away from your skin to reveal the wounded flesh underneath." A pause. "Where precisely is the wound, and doctor, would you care to do the honors?" The doctor nodded. "Certainly," he responded after the patient indicated the precise location with a swift shift of their hands. The doctor approached with a pair of scissors in hand. He deftly pinched the fabric of the man's cheap trousers away from his skin with his left hand, and cut the fabric with the right as Maya asked their patient how he acquired his injury. "Training," the man replied through grit teeth. Maya raised a single brow in inquiry. "Training?" she inquired. "With a sword," Maya nodded. "Alright. Before we do anything, we're going to have to wipe all this blood away, so we can see what we're doing," she continued as the doctor set his scissors down on the counter. He reached for dirty cloth they kept in the cabinet, wet it in a bucket of water they kept on the counter for this purpose, wrung it out a bit, and then handed it to Maya. Then, he announced that he was going to get some supplies he imagined they'd need for this operation before stepping out of the room, leaving Maya alone with their patient. The cloth dripped onto the floor. "This may sting a bit," she commented as she approached her patient, studied the way the blood was flowing, (down the length of his leg), for a moment, before pressing the wet cloth into the lowest portion of the man's exposed skin. The man instantly sucked a sharp breath of air in through his teeth. "Sorry," Maya muttered as she delicately wiped up the length of the man's leg, gradually clearing the blood away until there was nothing left, but that which was currently seeping out of the cut on his leg. She dumped the dirty rag in the bucket of water without bothering to clean it before turning to inspect the wound. The skin had been cleanly cut, which made her surmise that the sword he had been injured by wasn't one of those funky ones with a serrated blade. It was also fairly deep, but not too deep; she didn't see any bone when she peered at his skin from various angles. "We should probably give you some medicine and apply some herbs, before stitching this up and wrapping this up for you. It'll help prevent infection, but ultimately, it's up to you to keep the wound clean, for medicine alone won't be enough to keep you safe from that." The man nodded. As Maya wracked her brain for something to use, the doctor walked back in with a pile of medical supplies, which he set down on the counter. "Doctor," Maya began. The doctor grunted in response. "I think we should give him some medicine, or apply a poultice or something, to help keep him from getting worse before we stitch him up. The doctor shook his head. "We can do that after. I'll work on a garlic compress while you handle the stitches. I imagine I can trust you with that." Maya nodded. "Yes, I can handle it doctor," she commented as the doctor said, "good," and went away to deal with his task, leaving Maya alone with their patient again. Maya stepped away from their patient momentarily and surveyed the things the doctor had brought--perfect, she realized, as her eyes settled on thread and needle. She picked up the thread, cut off a piece, and tried to thread the needle she pinched between her opposite fingers. Although she struggled, she managed to get it through and knot it within a few moments. When she was finished, she returned to their patient. "This will hurt a bit," she said. "It will sting and sometimes, it may feel like I'm pinching you, but the stitches will help to stop the bleeding, keep the injury from getting worse, and assist in the healing process. However, if you move around too much, you'll rip them out and likely make the injury worse, so please be careful while you're healing. And come to us if the injury gets worse and for help in taking them out." The patient nodded through grit teeth. "I'll let the doctor examine you again and help me determine when that might be, but it'll be at least a few weeks from now." The patient groaned; he didn't feel he had that sort of time to wait on his recovery, but he had no choice. And Maya, not truly caring about his human whims on account of her detached nature, set to work. Word Count: 835

[Maya Frostfawn]

Maya adjusted her position a bit until she felt as though she had the best view of her patient and his injury, then, she set the needle's point against the man's skin at the base of his large cut. Another moment, and she had threaded it through his greying skin, raising a bead of blood, which she ignored as she guided the needle through his flesh, through the cut, and then to the other side, before raising the needle's point back through his skin, back to the surface. She pulled on it, delicately tugging the thread through her patient's skin until the knot rested firmly in the place in which she had begun. The man hissed, jerked a little. "I know this hurts, but please try not to move," Maya instructed, as she delicately braced his knee with her free hand, "you'll only make this harder for me, and worse for you." Luckily, he hadn't pulled her initial stitch out. "It hurts," the man bit out. "I know, I know," she cooed as she pat him delicately, inched the needle back to its starting side, and then inserted the needle into the man's skin not far from her starting place and its knot. This time, the main only hissed; he didn't move as she continued her work, drawing the needle through the man's skin and to the other side of the wound, where she pulled the needle back up and through his skin. Pulled the thread tight, pulling the wound together too. "I should be able to get this done within a few minutes, and then we can give you some more herbs to help with the pain. Although, what we gave you should be kicking in any moment now." She honestly wasn't sure if that was a lie as she kept on working. Tears trickled out of the corners of the man's eyes as Maya returned her needle to the side in which she had begun her work and made another stitch, then another, and another, pulling the man's skin closer, working the wound together. Again, she drove the needle into the man's skin, through the emptiness of the wound, before pulling it through the other side again, raising another bead of blood, which she delicately wiped away with the tip of her finger. "Almost there," she said as she continued working, making one careful stitch after another, although they still wound up imperfect. Some of the stitches were closer to one another than others, in straighter lines than others, (some were more diagonal), some stitches crossed one another, and some probably hadn't pulled as tight as they could have been and would have been ideal. Overall, it wasn't terrible work, but it could have been better. There was definitely a lot of room for improvement. Another few stitches and she was done bringing the split sides of the man's injured flesh together. Now, all she needed to do was tie up her stitches so that her work wouldn't come undone in a beat of the man's heart, a subtle shift of his body. "I just have to tie them off now," she announced, as she began the loop that would form her final knot. One she had made a rather sloppy one, she reached for the medical scissors she knew were on the counter and snipped the excess thread. Then, she set her supplies down on the counter before surveying her work again. Why is it so hard to make even stitches? she wondered. My mother never complained about sewing being this difficult and stitches are basically the same thing, just with human flesh instead of furs or fabric. There was also a bit of blood seeping out of the wound. Beads mostly, from where she had punctured his flesh to create his stitches. "I'm just going to wipe this blood away," she announced, as she reached for the bloodied rag from before, wrung it out a little, and then pulled it over to their patient just as the doctor walked in with the garlic compress. And boy, could she smell it, she wrinkled her nose as she delicately wiped the blood from around the patient's wound before moving away. "He's all stitched up, doctor," she announced as the doctor moved over to their patient to survey her work. She could tell from his expression that he wasn't impressed, although he didn't say anything and simply set the compress against the man's skin, where the wound was. "We just need to bind this in place and he should be fine," the doctor commented. Maya nodded. "Should we give him any medicine to take home? And when should he come back to have the stitches taken out?" she inquired. The doctor raised the compress for a moment to study the wound, before putting it back. "Two to three weeks on the stitches. The bandage should be changed every day. I'll grab some medicine while you bind the compress to him. Just hold it in place until my assistant can help, boy," he said, before moving off to rummage in the cabinets. He handed Maya some relatively clean bandages and pincers to keep them in place before continuing to rummage around, moving jars of herbs this way and that. Word Count: 881

[Maya Frostfawn]

Maya grabbed the supplies the good doctor handed her without a word. Then, she neared her patient again, and delicately raised his leg a little, so it would be easier to wrap. "Just hold onto the compress a moment longer, please," she instructed. "It will make this process easier," she said as she set the pincers down beside her patient and unraveled the bandages. When she was done, she set a piece down beside the man's hand, and instructed her to move it in the same direction as her hand as she moved. Then, she began to inch the bandage around the man's leg, once it had made a full rotation, she told him to move his hand, and put her own in its place. The compress was warm and oily beneath the tips of her fingers, but she ignored the sensation as she continued to carefully wrap the bandage around the man's leg, until there was no more bandage. "Hopefully, that doesn't hurt too much," she commented before asking her patient to hold the end of the bandage while she set the metal pincer clasps in place. She placed the first by the man's fingers, threading the teeth into the cloth of the bandage, before repeating the process again, near the man's fingers, and a third time for good luck. Then she added some more of the pincers over where the bandage overlapped here and there simply because she wasn't sure what else to do and the bandage didn't seem super secure yet, especially with the oil from the compress beginning to seep through. "There," she announced after another few moments of work. "All done," she announced, as she moved away from her patient to study what she had done. The bandage, unlike when she had been working on it, seemed like it may have been too tight in some areas, and a little looser in others. Although he had stopped complaining about the pain he was in, Maya wondered if it hurt or would make things worse. When the doctor stopped rummaging and surveyed her work, he said nothing, so Maya supposed it was at least passable or he would have fixed it. Probably... maybe. Maybe not. It's hard to say with the good doctor since his behavior was entirely dependent on his level of boredom and his mood, as far as Maya could tell anyway. "We'll see you soon enough," the good doctor commented as he handed their patient a small vial of herbs. "Brew this into a tea each night and drink it right before bed. It'll help with the pain," he commented, "and do be sure to keep that wound clean, or it'll get worse." "What is it?" the man asked. "Tumeric. It won't taste good, but you can add some honey to it and it may help it go down easier." Their patient nodded. Maya was surprised the doctor was letting them go so easily, he usually loved preying on patients such as this, but Maya knew he had to come back for his stitches... so maybe the doctor was simply lulling him into a false sense of security? She couldn't say as the doctor sent their patient on his way, and she was ordered to make the room ready for whoever was going to come through their doors seeking help next. Word Count: 558