The Early Medic Days - D27/M01
Day 27 / Month 01
3.Thant of Lisanu 1082 I had a Nightmare again... Though in retrospective I am somewhat glad it was just that... I had dreamt of plants, the exact same plants that I had seen growing in Arduni. However in my dream, they were half-creatures, walking around among the bloody and rotten corpses... And then they started copulating and sat down after they had finished whatever horrible things they did to make me realize they were mating... They sat down and started to grow in the corpses, growing little buds which then bloomed in a beautiful purple with... RATS hatching from the blossoms... Rats that started to run around and gnaw on more corpses. Oh did I mention that the corpses all at an eerie resemblance to... me? ... And then a shadow was cast over my rat-ridden carcass... It was Dúath. Telling me with a smile that I died 2 days ago and my 2 weeks had been over by today so she would start to kill all those people now... I woke up, to my slight horror, in Dúath' arms at around 12. Needless to say, it took me a moment to calm down again before I could ask her some important things I had been too beaten to ask yesterday. For example, if this was supposed to be a save haven... how, apart form being a dragon, did she manage to keep the rats away? I was told my Travelling Medic Master had created a spray that repelled them, keeping them at a good distance unless it was about their bare life. Also it seemed Dúath had pity on me as she proclaimed to help me out if I provided a promising approach to the solution of the rat problem. The same applied if after the two weeks at my disposal, I had not solved the problem but had good clues: I would be given more days. In addition, if it were to take more than half a day to get back to the Inn before sunset, I would be granted a day extra as well, as she definitely did not want me to be out there at night... And if I were to come to the conclusion that the only way to solve this problem was to burn down the whole city, she would do so... However she would only do it for me, as to her there was no difference between lowlifes... For her the rats and plants had no lesser value than the people who had died here. Therefore it seemed unjust to simply kill the rats as they even might have been here before the settlement. The thought of simply setting everything aflame and watching the problem being solved from afar, was appealing, I have to admit that. However, without stating that she had a point there, I had to acknowledge that even the life of the rats and plants was valuable and I should investigate the case further before rashly taking those lifes. After this briefing I asked if it would be a good idea to spray myself and the boar with the rat-repellent. "Do what you want." was her reply... How nice. I chose to wear my own clothes instead of the black robes Dúath had clad me in... I did not even want to think about how she accomplished that while I was fast asleep. Magic, surely magic! My own clean clothes immediately made me feel better and ready to go down into the kitchen for breakfast. I was battered and the memories of the last days lay heavy on my stomach, but I was hungry nonetheless. There was fish and vegetables in the fridge... I sighed deeply... and while I did so... a peculiar smell caught my attention, a smell that seemed familiar yet new and very attractive. Perhaps I had just forgotten how meat smelled... But this, this was the most delicious smell that had ever touched my nose. So very rich and deep, mellow and tender and... so mouth watering... I hesitated shortly before wishing Dúath to hell and roasting it in a pan with eggs and fruits. My expectations were not disappointed, quite the opposite... THIS was by far the most delicious meat my taste-buds ever had have the pleasure to deal with... Great PatPat in the Sky, I could have wallowed in this. It's addiction factor seemed lower, but disturbingly close to rosemary... I shoved the plate away from me with slight surprise and fear about my reactions. Such delicious mystery meat... Anyway, before heading back to Arduni, I sprayed the boar and myself with the repellent for a safer investigation. I was really not looking forward to get eaten by rats if I tried to enter the Travelling Medic Guildhouse. My personal Dragon and Trainer said she was going to start de-ratting the outskirts of the city, in case I needed her help. Which sadly did not take long as I once more failed to summon the pole for the boar. I ended with a clean hole in my palm, hence I rode back out to Dúath. Who was luckily found rather quickly and as usual not pleased about me... neither about me being yet again unable to speak Dragon so she only very reluctantly healed my hand and sent me off with a friendly: "Don't screw up again!" And off to the Travelling Medic Guildhouse I was again. A very careful approach towards the doors, the rats sat in the shadows as expected, they squeaked loudly and viciously and their fur stood on end. In addition some of them seemed to be as big as dogs. Yes, yes these rats were bigger than those I had encountered before. Another proof of my theory that the Guildhouse was the epicentre of this catastrophe. And another followed on the foot when I literally had barely set a foot into the building and they attacked me despite of the Spray, apparently it was about their bare life or that of their offspring. They tried to bite me and I protected myself with my staff. Not all of them managed to get through my defence, those that did not, ended dead or incapacitated. My wounds were few and of lesser nature so I continued to push forward. Five more of these enlarged rats welcomed me with slavering fangs and now I did start to feel their bites sting. While attempting to save my hide I received some rather painful injuries in a rather private area. And those bastards followed me out, biting me all over, trying to parry did not help either so I had to fight them to the death in the sun. Which was not half as amusing as it sounds. I sat down in a sunny place and bandaged myself up. Every step I made ached in my hip and they had even managed to cause haematoma under Dúath's weighted bracers. However I have to admit that by now I had gotten somewhat used to the weight, which definitely meant I made some progress. The enormous rats that had followed me out were dead and I had not seen others like them so I gave it another try. On which 4 normal rats attacked me, four out of approximately 30 that I managed to catch a glimpse on. The first three failed to get to me but the fourth bit me in the leg and ran back in while I left the building. I had enough of this... The day had barely started and I was gnawed all over. This called for a different approach! I mounted the boar and rode back to where I had left the ladder, in addition I collected an axe, a screwdriver with bits and a rubber mallet, then I returned to the Guildhouse and went one time around it, looking in through all windows available on the ground level. There was operation equipment, tables, cabinets, storerooms, glass-shards everywhere, naturally and some things that could be useful for me. For the second floor I used the ladder, moving it from window to window, seeing patient rooms and bigger rats. At one window I found an arm and attempted to pull the person out. However it really was just an arm and a rat jumped out of the window and in a high arc over my head. With a rather satisfying Thud-Crack it hit the ground. But that was it, I was unable to find out more about the House without entering... I was in pain and wanted to go back to the Inn, but alas it was barely half past 15 and I could not return to Dúath with almost empty hands. So I had another proof that the Guild House was the epicentre, but nothing else. I should at least do something useful for further securing of the area, or clearing it... I was contemplating what to do now and decided to try my luck on the weapon store. It had a large display window on each side of the door Unfortunately they were tinted and therefore did not let much rat-repelling light in, barely enough for me to make out the contour of about 15 rats but not enough to scare them out. This needed to be changed! Breaking the glass with my staff did not work out the way I had planned it to. Not at all to be exact. I attempted to pull a nail over it to weaken the glass' structure, but apart from a terrible screeching noise not a scratch appeared. The next attempt, smashing the pane with the blunt side of the axe almost cost me a foot when I dropped the heavy instrument due to the vibration the collision caused in my lower arms. Needles to say, after this failure I gave up for the time being and chanced my luck to just go inside and get rid of the rats the old fashioned way... I was still wounded and my left leg started to become slightly troublesome but at least there were no bigger rats, maybe I was lucky. Even though the spray kept them at bay they attacked me. The room was musky and there was barely enough space to wield my staff so I had to stay relatively close to the door. The vermin avoided my sweeping blow and attacked again. As one fled from the shop three more emerged from darkness of the room, thus after achieving to kill one, five were still willing to defend their territory against this high-elven intruder. One got through my defence and tore a deep wound into my beforehand injured left thigh. The pain gave two more rats the chance to head for the exact same already weak leg, which was barely under my control after that anymore. Hot blood gushed forth, streamed down and was rapidly soaking my trousers. I stumbled backwards, leaving a crimson trial while trying to reach the door and the security of the sun, however, the rats followed me... They did indeed hate me, did they not? At least they retreated when I fell backwards onto the sunny street... I was bleeding like a pig and my head was in a daze from the unhealthily fast and steady loss of blood... my heart was pounding against my chest and my breath was laboured to a vertigo-inducing excess. Sitting with my back against the window of the shop I tried my best to quickly operate and sew the wound at least improvised up before I would fall unconscious, to what I was fairly close to more than once, only stirred up again by a new wave of pain and sickness. I needed half an hour of rest before I was able to prop myself up on my staff and stagger to the boar... The ride back to the Inn was not exactly the most comfortable I had ever had... My watch told me it was twenty when I slouched in my bathroom, close to the toilet bowl and on tiles that did not mind the vast amount of blood. If I had not investigated my wounds further, and had not tried to mend them more properly before I decided to fall half-unconscious in my bed... I had probably collapsed and died in my sleep before Dúath had returned... Ten hours later I was woken by said Dragon who complained about what a failure I was, but healed me nonetheless... The balmy comfort of a completely painless body was more than worth being insulted... Sweet comatose sleep...
End of Day 27 / Month 01
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