The Early Medic Days - D09/M01
Day 09 / Month 01
1. Quart of Lisanu 1082 Another night, another weird and even more intimidating dream... I died on the boar while riding it, I died from pain and bloodloss and the heat of the sun being too much for me... My carcass started rotting on the creature's back... Then there was some sort of break in the dream and suddenly I had the Lizard Medic shouting and me being in big trouble for not having returned to the Guildhouse yesterday. The snoring of a boar was the first thing my ears noticed when I awoke at 8. After I had also carefully opened my eyes, I realized Dúath was with us as well, she was grooming her wings, in her human form. What an interesting image. As she noticed I was awake, she told me to get onto the pig whilst it was still asleep. But I denied this idea, even though it would have been easier for me. The simple reason was that in my opinion as an Ex-mage and a Travelling Medic Apprentice, it was better for the wounded animal to get as much sleep as possible, as necessary and not to be woken by a highelf climbing around on it. So I sat back and relaxed a little longer. A positive side-effect of being worried about the pig, my muscles were stiff and sore from yesterday still, so I was thankful for a little more rest as well. But alas, after a while, the animal awoke and I had to continue where we had left off last night. I tried to pull myself onto it. What with my still bandaged arms, of course did not turn out the way it was supposed. After several failed attempts to mount the boar I had at least managed to lay myself flat onto its back, clutching to it like to my own dear life. Especially, as I realised that the animal was running by then, far further than what the chain should have allowed. I was able to turn my head for a brief painful moment and saw the steel pillar had gone. Curse you Dúath! I do not have to mention that my chest and belly were slammed against the boar's back in a hard and relentless ride. It was justified to be more than alarmed about my bloodline being possibly at the brink of extinction... Realising the boar was loose I screamed something along the lines of 'He-ee-eh-eh-elp!' hoping for Dúath to just... do something! But she replied with a question; 'Why?' I was unfortunately not able to answer her, being a bit busy with trying to survive this ordeal. I attempted to get up properly and grab the reins, even though I was in much more pain by now than I had been at this point yesterday... I did not get up but I managed to get a hold of the reins. Following a logical thought I pulled tightly at them in an attempt to bring the boar to a halt. But it did the opposite, the beast accelerated! I screamed stop and ho and please and bloody murder but nothing helped and at one stronger jump of it, I even lost the reigns again. But who would I have been to give up so easily. I was more pain than body but finally, finally I got up onto its back, onto the saddle with the reigns in my hands, riding it... Still unable and oblivious about how to make it stop but I was riding it. Eventually Dúath stepped into its path, causing the boar to cower in fear beneath the mighty dragon, the size of a 5 and a half feet woman. Though not before almost throwing me off in the process of rearing up in shock. I was so unbelievable glad that it stopped and that I was still sitting straight on it that I did not use this chance to get down and flee. I stayed on top, even though Dúath was a little bit invasive about my privacy when she asked me how my crotch felt. I pretended not to have heard that and instead quickly asked what I was to do with the boar now. She grinned viciously and advised me to ride it to the city. This time however I was aching enough to actually ask her if she knew what commandos Dwarfs used for their Riding Boars. Apparently 'hyerp!' was the word to set this massive animal into motion and 'hyurp!' was the command to stop it. She did not tell me which was which but I figured it after shouting the later and the boar did not move an inch. I meant to manoeuvre it towards the town, unfortunately I did not know anymore where it was and my compass was not a big help as I had lost orientation before even coming here, not to mention after the boar went wild. Thankfully Dúath was willing to point out the direction for me. That was helpful yet barely a small step to returning to town as I was still unable to properly steer my giant boar so it was vermiculating... After a few attempts though I had gotten the direction somewhat right and the pig in a somewhat straight line... We were headed towards the Mage Guild House, because the boar needed help, quick and professional. I was not to happy about it, but Mages were the only people that could heal it in a short amount of time. I asked people around me, including Dúath to go inside and get a Mage out for me... I did not want to talk to any of them, and I did not want to get down form the boar, but no one was willing to help me so I had to... A shot of pain dashed through my body the moment my feet touched the ground. I clenched my teeth and took several deep breaths before marching into the Guildhouse while Dúath held the boar's reigns. I have to admit even though I felt almost as if I was supposed to have a sore conscience when I was with the Mages, I was glad one of them healed my aching body. It was more than a relief. I took her out with me where she immediately started to work her magic on the boar. She made it to half its body before she fainted... Mages! She did not first heal his most severe wounds, no she started at one side and now it was healed completely on one half of its body and still as wounded as before on the other half... Mages... I carried her back into the Mages' Guildhouse and placed her on a bed so she could get some rest. Then I went to the pantry and took every vegetable I was able to carry with me for the boar. I also helped it to some water before leading it by foot to the Medic Guildhouse where I handed its reigns to Dúath again. I was a bit afraid it would tear down the building if I had bound it to one of the pillars. My Mentor, as expected, barked at me for where I had been and what I had done so long and why I had not returned to do my tasks and chores. I tried to explain to him about my findings and about the wounded boar that I had to take care of before returning. He went outside with me after I had asked him to help me sedate it. To say the least, he stared in awe and seemed rather interested in the giant creature. He gave me an list of what we needed for the sedative and while I was collecting all the things from our storeroom he checked the wounds. He then explained to me how to make an ointment for the wounds and sedated the pig while I was working. Now that my body was not in so much pain anymore I realised how worried I was about the poor animal. I really liked that boar... When the sedative had kicked in we started to apply the ointment and took care of the injuries. It had a broken rib that punctuated the lung and my Mentor decided that I was the one who was going to take the rib out. He said it would help me improving my operation skills and that he was there in case I needed help. There was a lot of blood in the boar's lung that I had to suck off before and while I was working at the bone. The Lizard told me step by step what I had to do and then he did something to the boar's lung. I do not know what he did put I suppose it was something that had to do with mending the punctuation. Now that there was nothing left for me to do anymore, I decided to stay at my poor pet's side. Dúath told me that its chances of survival were relatively small, especially as the Mage would not wake up in the next 36 hours. And once again I realised how much I clang to this creature. I was an Ex-Mage, I liked all of the Great Patpat's creations, be it cute little kittens, vicious dragon ladies or smelly giant boars. I did not want it to die! It had suffered so much and I had gone through so much pain for it, was this all going to be in vain? No! That just could not be! I was desperate... I leaned with my back against the sleeping pig, my arms on my knees when I looked up at Dúath and asked her if she was able to heal it with her dragon magic. As much as I distrusted that kind of force, it was the only thing that would surely heal Piggy in a matter of seconds. And she actually agreed... under the condition that I spoke a word. That sounded more than fair. Even though I was sure there was a catch to it I agreed. She told me the word. I said 'Bless you'... And there was the catch. The word was in Dragon language. How could I speak dragon? That was not possible, my vocal cords would tear before I even uttered the first syllable. I tried nonetheless, of course failing miserable but at least I just did not manage to say it and my vocal chords remained intact, a bit sore but still okay. Dúath however conjured up her dragon magic and healed my poor little piggy, and my throat to boot. God, I was so thankful for her help, the boar was completely healed. But this also meant that it was in top form again. Now I could by no chance tie it to the Guildhouse, so I was in need of Dúath' help again, after all she was surely not willing to hold the boar's reigns whenever I did not ride on it... She grabbed my wrist before I could even defend myself and cut into the brook of my arm, drawing blood from me this time for the magic. She created a long silvery pole and told me to pick a word to summon it wherever and whenever I needed to. I chose the sídhe equivalent of 'to leash' and was then ordered to put my hands on the floor while she finished the ritual. Now I was somewhat able to summon the pole myself without her help, it would be useful, nonetheless it still was creepy. I tied the reigns to the new, and as Dúath ensured me, perfectly safe pole and went into the Guildhouse to shower myself and wash my clothes and drop into my bed then for a while. I think I forgot to mention that I had finally been allowed to actually sleep in the Guildhouse since a few days, as I was rightfully entitled to do by being a Travelling Medic Apprentice. It had felt as if a whole day had passed while I went through this ungodly amount of pain and I was so tired when I fell into my bed at 14. Yes 14! That means it had only been 6 hours! I slept ten nonetheless, until 24 and cuddled into my nice cosy bed for one more before I attempted to speak that word again Dúath had 'contracted' me about. Of course it did not work at all, so I went down and ignored the angry glares of our young lizard patients. I was not sure if they had yet heard about me catching and taming their priced toy. And frankly I could not have cared less! Actually I wanted to do what I had been supposed to do since a while, searching for more plants. Of course Dúath was with me again and of course 6 agonizing hours of riding a giant boar had not by far been enough training for today, so of course she was drilling me again. She herself found some of the plants needed for the ointment. I needed several more attempts to find anything. The plant needed for the disinfectant for example. Also a bit later I stumbled upon a strong acrid plant, that almost ate through my gloves until I poured water over them. Dúath was highly amused. After I finally found more of the Chrysophalis used for the ointment I was allowed to run back to the city. There I headed for the vegetable store and bought some food for my new pet. It even came closer when I fed it, seemingly wanting some stroke units. And knocked me over as it jumped at me like a little puppy. The boar looked as if it also wanted to run around... quite an energetic little fellow. My stomach was growling with hunger and my legs and hips pleaded to my head to think it over but my heart made me go back into the Guildhouse to put on my harness. The boar ran in a line straight as an arrow for almost an hour and it was fast. So that was quite some way, until it finally stopped in front of an... oasis? It had a bigger pond with reed and other smaller plants and high trees laden with fruits. I carefully balanced upon the boar, standing on it to pluck myself some of the fruits. A dangerous and also pointless endeavour, because as I was down from the boar, it rubbed its massive body against the tree causing quite a lot of the fruits to fall down. Well, at least there was enough food for the both of us now. After Piggy had eaten some fruits it marched over to the pond and continued its meal with some algae... There were actually fish in the little lake too, that looked by far more delicious than the fruits did to my hungry stomach. Unfortunately I did not know how to fish, neither did I have a rod... so I pulled off my top and tried to catch one with my bare hands. Of course with mediocre success. But then! Then I caught a salmon. I killed it, eviscerated it and roasted it on a stick. Look at me, I am a great manly hunter! ... It tasted better when I added rosemary. This was a most delicious meal. I felt much better afterwards when I sat there, staring a bit into the fire and enjoying the peace Dúath allowed me to have. After a while though I stored some fruits into my backpack for later and went up on the boar again. Which ran much quicker now then even before. I fell down... and again... and again... until I decided to shorten the link between us as much as possible, but still had problems with riding it. Well, I suppose this was not something that could be learned within a day or two. My Mentor told me it was good I had been away, the lizard teens had been in a rather foul mood. I wonder if it was because the dorky, cliché Sídhe succeeded, somewhat, at what they had failed so miserably? This evening my task was to make the wound ointment, not distilling as usual and only for two more hours. When those had past I was finally allowed to fall into my bed... This day seemed like two to me, with pain of four at least...
End of Day 09 / Month 01
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