3.Pers of Lisanu 1082
I was in the desert, the sun burning relentlessly on me, the sand sizzling under my bare feet. Vultures drew their circles over my head and carriages pulled by skeleton horses drove past me over and over again until I collapsed in the heat and died and the vultures picked the flesh from my bones.
I woke up at around 10 and was handed a glass of water by Dúath. Who then proceeded to pinch me in the side, wondering why I even felt it with 'all that fat'...
Why yes, that had been a dream! I was still alive and tease-worthy.
Tumbling more than walking I headed for the bathroom where I took a shower while sitting. My circulation was still worn out from yesterday. So it was perhaps the best to do, when I decided to have breakfast in the Inn for 4 Woodies. Of course the meals in the Medic Guildhouse were free but they were a slender, monotonous diet, especially as I had only eaten those and my fish for dinner since a whole week. It was not unlikely that my body needed some variation by now. I felt astonishingly much better afterwards, despite slight sunburn on my nose and soreness in my muscles.
Neither the vaccine nor the antidote had been ready by now so my task was of course to collect the missing amounts of plants. As it seemed I indeed did not have full control over my body again, as I used too much momentum, when attempting to jump onto my riding boar. Basically it could be described as jumping over it and landing face first on the other side, though I still do not know how I achieved this.
When I tried to un-summon the pole, it grew smaller and then grew again, impaling my hand as it altered the direction of its growth. Dúath helped me pulling the metal rod out of my palm.
So finally we could head out of town.
Then, while I was cutting Tauf, my boar decided to eat some of the highly acrid plants which apparently went by the name of Nordyr and were just as inedible to the pig as it was to me. It had not been in the oasis yesterday, what did I expect?
I had to wash its snout out very thoroughly...
This was not exactly a good start for the day and it should have warned me that there was more to come. But being the positive little Ex-mage I was I expected nothing and just rode my boar to the oasis. Sat down in the shadow of a tree, eating a fruit, while piggy quenched its thirst and hunger.
I tried, as in vain as usual, to speak dragon again, for two hours. Then Dúath was allowed to chase me around the oasis for the sake of training. After all I should not get too lazy, now that I had a faster mode of transportation. Half an hour of constant running later I sat down and took a break, because my body was still weakened from the day before.
I told her that I had learned a valuable lesson yesterday. I need to take breaks more often and find shadowy places.
Sitting in the shadow of her wings I smirked and replied with a 'yes' when she asked "Places like me?"
I also thought that her soul was quite a shadowy place from time to time. And she, apparently rummaging around in my head again, replied a slightly annoyed "It's not!"
When I had continued running another mishap of this doomed day occurred. I fell face first into a group of Nordyr plants. Needless to say my eyes were blinded and my skin burnt. Thankfully Dúath pressed a bloody hand on my face, leaving me with the smell of iron in my nose, but healed by dragon magic. A while later the training was done and I wanted to have the pole disappear so I could ride back to Canero...
I am not sure how I managed to do this and how it was anatomically even possible, but the pole went straight through my palm, into my arm, out of my arm again and into my shoulder. The pain was just as ridiculously impossible as the pole's movement. And again it was Dúath who took care of me and even repaired my clothes before I rode back to town were I handed all the plants I had collected to my Mentor as ordered.
I was mildly surprised as he jabbed a syringe in my arm. Apparently the vaccine was done. What a good thing to know. I checked on the poor fox again but he still was not awake so I had to ask Dúath to lead me to the carriage. It was faster than trying to find there myself. At least this time I summoned the pole without mutilating myself. Maybe things were starting to look better for me.
What a fool I was! This day had been a catastrophe and it was only going to get worse, as I soon should find out when I approached the carriage with my staff ready to protect myself...
There was it... Movement inside the carriage... It was impossible that the passengers had survived... it was small, swift movement, a seething mass. Rats most likely, hiding in the damp dark inside from the sun.
Using my staff I attempted to open the door from afar. When the door flung open after the third attempt, 5 rats jumped out and dashed towards me.
I leaped back and tried to wipe them in one line off with my staff. Three of them got through my defence, one went for my abdomen, another for my torso. I did not care about those, my clothes were too thick for them to get through, but the last dug it's jaws into my nose.
That one was a nasty wound, the rat's whole weight was pulling at it. I think it partially broke my nose. It fell down though then and was confused by me not being paralysed, as its two companions were, so it was relatively easy for me to kill them.
Not before three more rats had left the carriage though and attempted an attack.
I brought some more space between us before I delivered half of a sweeping swipe at them, which was very effective, as in: It killed them.
The remaining rats had escaped through the window on the other side of the carriage. I could faintly see them running off into the desert.
I would have gladly fought more rats if it had meant I could postpone examining the inside. I did not look forward to that, even was afraid to do so.
Therefore I now first approached the horses. Two cadavers, dead on the sand. There was not much smell actually because of the heat. The bodies had simply been dehydrated, though the necrotic parts here and there appeared to still be somewhat moist. Strange greyish purple grew on the decaying flesh, also on the rats I had just killed. Bones were exposed, apparently the vermin had been feeding on the horses.
I still felt myself unable to face what was waiting inside so instead I concentrated on the carriage itself. Walked around it, made sure there were no rats left... I found suitcases on the back and some on the floor with clothes in the sand. But the holes in them were troubling me so I poked the closed suitcase with my staff. I was sure there would be rats in it. And I was proven right when little squeaking noises resounded. I grudgingly put my staff aside and opened the suitcase. The noises were too small, I knew what was coming! Rat babies... I could not bring myself to kill them, also it would be better to have some living specimen if we wanted to find out what the necrotic illness was about. So I wrapped some of the clothing around the suitcase, ensuring there were still enough air holes for the rat babies and then placed it in the shadow of the carriage so I could take care of it later.
I had done everything that had come to my mind to keep myself from entering the carriage. But now there was nothing I could do any more... I had to take a look inside...
And... and... the stench was throwing me back.
It was repulsing, blood and iron and rat excrements and decay... ammoniac... Even with my injured nose it still was mind-wrecking...
The heatstroke from yesterday said hello again and I had to back away and turn my head before I went on my knees and emptied my stomach.
I did not expect this.
What had I expected?...
Not this... not so bad... it was too much...
I sat down and tried to calm down without taking deep breaths. I drank some water and smeared our pathology ointment all around my nose, even though my eyes watered from its burning in the rat-bite it was still better than the stench. I opened the second door and waited for at least something like an air exchange between the inside and the desert to happen. Everything was better than to go in directly. Drinking some more water I felt my nose getting numb by the minute. Though only to the pain, not to the smell that was still lingering under the aetheric heaviness of the Tiger Balm...
The inside was... dark and warm... damp... moist... suffocating...
Maggots were there and the bodies were slightly bloated. Gas escaped when I started to examine them. Their skin was covered in the well known purple. Even the seats were purple where the fabric had been soaked with blood, those were rotting too. No rats longer hid in the carriage but I saw what they had done to these poor people and it felt like a punch in my stomach.
I had to get out again for a moment, before my head got too heavy from the wet heat. I went back to the suitcases and took some of the clothes with me. I decided it would be wise to collect samples, so I cut a piece of the purple stuff growing on the horses out and wrapped it, together with one of the dead rats into the clothes. Then I wrapped both up once more, as I was not sure about just how contaminating this disease or infection was.
I literally plastered my nose with Tiger Balm and wrapped a cloth around the lower half of my face. Breathing was immensely harder now but it was the only thing that made me strong enough to go back into the carriage... I still was not finished there.
For the sake of that poor Fox I had to go back inside...
I had to cut the woman's finger off to remove the wedding ring. One of the daughters was wearing an amulet. I needed to recall several times why I was doing this until I brought myself to reach around her neck and into the warm wet mass that was behind her to get that necklace. I cut off a lock of every person's hair, even the boy's and took the mother's handbag with me, into which I put all of the things before I was finally able to flee into the wideness of the desert again.
My heart was racing and my hands were shaking and sweaty, my head was dizzy but at least I did not have to go back inside. I took everything I had collected and was glad that my boar came my way. My legs felt like a gelatinous mass.
It was not exactly pleased about my smell but it allowed me to sit up nonetheless. It realised my condition and was smart enough to run slower and softer than usual.
Finally at 19 we returned to Canero after I patched my Torso up a bit. The rat did have gotten through, I had not noticed it until I was back on the boar where my wounds and aching muscles returned to my awareness. I went down and summoned the pole without problems, I suppose I had other things to busy my mind with that moment.
Unfortunately my Mentor was currently taking care of a patient and I, covered in blood and a horrid stench, did not want to scare that one so I remained in the main hall and silent until my Master was done. Standing there, waiting with the pain returning to me, my hands holding tight to the collection... I was not feeling exactly fine... I waited for what seemed like hours... While I was there I checked the mother's handbag again and found an address reading 'Arduni, Armanstreet 5'... That was probably where they lived at... had lived at...
When my Mentor came to me, he dipped two fingers into the pathology ointment for his own good. I could not blame him. I was glad I was more or less unable to smell myself.
The process of telling him everything I saw, everything I did, every little detail was to say the least... devitalising... I had to relive everything and I had not enjoyed it the first time already.
Eventually he sent me off to take care of myself, giving me a Spa-and-Disinfectant coupon. I did not even know there was a Spa in this small city...
I went up to my room and placed my knife in a tub of disinfectant and also worked for at least half an hour on my staff to make sure this one was not carrying any infectious particles on it either anymore. Then I went to make use of the Coupon.
They eyed me suspiciously... well I was still bloody, stinking and had a broken nose... but they let me in after seeing I was a Travelling Medic Apprentice. They put me in a room where they cleaned me with a high pressure water blaster.
Like I was not in enough pain already.
Then they handed me disinfectant to wash myself with... at least some dignity remained it seemed. ... Just seemed though, because after inflicting the even more burning ache to myself I had to let them check me thoroughly. They examined almost all of me before I was allowed to take a real bath... By that time I did not even feel like doing so anymore, but as soon as my body slid into the warm, balmy water I felt waves of relief surge over me.
I almost slept in but was pulled out when the water had become lukewarm so that they could give me a free massage.
I felt a slight bit better around 21 when I entered my room and found Dúath waiting for me. My mood though dropped immediately, when she ordered me to work on my nose to improve my operation skill... on my own nose, after such a day? I think I managed it quite well in the end and Dúath' magic did the rest. She did however not take care of the bite in my abdomen. Why had I not noticed that the rat had gotten through there too?
I attempted to speak dragon again, who knew maybe it would help with the healing. I even spoke the word right but this time with not enough thought behind it. I went down to my Mentor again but he did not have any results yet, so I invited Dúath into the pub, she was, to my surprise, okay with it.
But first I went to the Veggie shop for my boar, it had been good to me today so I wanted to reward it. I paid 12 Woodies.
At the Pub I asked my warden whether I was allowed to drink beer, or any alcohol for the matter. I somehow did not want to get sober through this night... I was told alcohol was okay but not beer. When I asked for the reason, she replied: "Beer makes you even more fat!"
How... did I deserve this?
I ordered a Whiskey and made a deal with her. I would not drink beer if she paid my dinner, because I had not really eaten yet and even though my stomach was still a bit unwell I felt like I needed something in it or I would really break down.
She agreed... and ordered fish. Why fish again! I had been eating nothing but fruits and fish in the last days... I needed meat! I needed something to make up for all the training. But no, I was served fish. I should have insisted on the beer.
Afterwards I poured down a second Whiskey and left the Pub. Getting drunk had probably not been a bright idea anyway so it was better I now went over to the boar and washed it. It needed some care and loving from time to time too.
When the sun set at 28 I got ready for bed. I was so incredibly tired. My whole body ached, my nose was still feeling like a mix of pain and numbness and it had been just too much for me.
But I did not want to sleep! I would never have told Dúath but I was actually afraid of sleeping in, or rather of what I could dream off. I did not even want to think about what my brain would make of the events of today.
I proposed to learn more dragon. For seven hours! After which I was able to add 'freezing to death' to my list of unpleasant things happening to me today. Even though Dúath had cast a warming spell I was now trembling like a leaf, my eyes only half open, my brain stopping to work every now and then, trying to send me into dreamland.
But I refused it, I secretly pinched my arms to stay awake. I desperately searched for something I could still do, just so I would not have to go to sleep.
I even would have continued to speak dragon, even though my vocal chords felt like bleeding already, even though there was not a μ of power left in me...
I think she wrapped her arms around me and softly kissed me on the forehead. I think there was a tremendous, gentle warmth spreading through me...
I think I fell asleep then...
