Prompt #31: Family [2]
Character: Ietasu Takemori ♦ Region: Ishgard ♦ Time: Present Hosted by: @sea-wolf-coast-to-coast ( Family iteration [1] )
Had he made it to a chirurgeon last night..? Unable to remember much of the night previous, Ietasu laid with his thoughts for a time. The pain was still there—but rather than feeling the cold stone beneath him, he felt a soft mattress and a cushion under his head. As he slowly began to regain his senses, he realized he was somewhere with children. He heard the sounds of young voices bantering amongst themselves…and the voice of a woman hushing them as light gradually poured in through his opening eyelids. And then, he felt pressure being applied to the bed in which he assumedly laid. Little hands pressing down as they watched him awaken.
“…Shh, he’s waking up!” He heard the feminine voice whisper overhead. The first thing he saw when he awoke were her blue eyes—and the faces of two young boys looking at him in awe.
“Woah…they’re all black!” One of the boys gossiped to the other who nodded his head in innocent wonder. The three of them each with a head of ginger. “Cool…”
The blue-eyed woman then made to bat her hand at the two boys at their comments. “Now, now, you’re in the way. Let’s let him adjust first, okay?” As if their interest suddenly faded, they quickly hopped off of the bed in a hurry and went back to playing games like nothing had changed. How long had he been here? Long enough that the children weren’t too bothered with him to insist they stay and start to whine.
“How are you feeling?” She asked him quietly, her long hair touching his bandaged chest. From the looks of it, she wasn’t old enough to be the boys’ mother. At his silence, she continued to talk at him as though his reaction wasn’t anything out of the ordinary. “You must be surprised. I bet you thought you’d be in a clinic or somewhere like that. And actually, you should’ve been waking up there instead of here. But…” Her eyes darted towards his horns and down to his stomach—unsure where exactly she should be looking. “Not everyone is so accepting of things, or people, rather…that they don’t understand quite yet. And I thought, since I’m a healer in training, I could look after you until we figured out what to do with you. I hope you don’t mind.” She gave him a friendly smile at that. And when still he did not respond to her, she kept talking at him. “I made soup earlier. How about we try feeding you something first?”
Watching her as she stood up and made her way to the kitchen, he allowed himself a moment to process his thoughts. Although she said she had been a student, he had no way of knowing just how well his wound had been stitched back up. If it was clumsy, he’d tear it easily and then he’d be no better than when she found him. Or, had it only been the day after Xah attacked him, the wound would be too fresh to move around much. Situationally, his best course of action was to wait it out. Even though he wanted to do nothing else besides return to the boy’s side.
When she returned, she set down a bowl of cold soup on the stand nearby and began setting up more pillows behind his head in order to prop him upright. “There’s some vegetables in the broth…do you think you can chew?” Sitting down beside him on the bed and reaching for the bowl to bring into her lap, she waited for a sign from him. Anything to let her know that it was okay. And Ietasu relented a small gesture to her knowing he needed the food. Parting his lips somewhat, he eyed the spoon she held. “I’ll take that as a yes!”
With each bite, he felt himself getting a little bit stronger. Not that it was particularly tasty or anything, but he had felt famished beforehand. And when at last he had finished, he finally made to speak. “How…long have I been here?” He noticed it while he was eating, but the room itself had been lit up with interior lights—there was no natural light coming in from anywhere. It had to be night right now.
Her smile grew with hearing his question, surely feeling accomplished that she had done her part in nursing him back to health. “A few days. The knife missed your vitals, thankfully…but you had lost a lot of blood before we found you.” Setting the emptied bowl back onto the stand, she suddenly widened her eyes as one of the boys from earlier came crashing into her legs. She managed to keep herself balanced well enough however so that she didn’t upset Ietasu while he rested. “Eric?” The child himself was barely the height of the bed. He had heard him coming, but he could only see the ginger top of his hair as he clung to the woman’s legs.
“Sis, Jacob won’t give me back Mr. Rumps!” Distraught enough that he had been brought to tears, the woman lifted herself from his bedside and made to bend over and hug her brother close.
“Is that so? Well, then let’s go talk to him, alright?” Looking at her patient in bed, she smiled and nodded her head. “I trust you’ll be okay on your own for a while? It’s almost their bedtime.” Giving her a soft tilt of his head, he silently let her know that she could take her time. And when they left his room, Ietasu began to feel out his body. Trying to move his arms around, he found them to be unusually sluggish. The same with his legs. Whilst he was no longer too worried about his injury, the erosion his muscles had faced during his short coma would prove the real challenge. He had to get back onto his feet soon, or it would be difficult to regain his strength in time to save Xah. Who knows what the cruel lord had in plan for him…or what had already transpired during his inactivity?
Taking this time to work out the ligaments in his arms first, he stretched them back and forth until they became worn out. And when his door opened again, he expected to see the woman from earlier return. But instead, it was someone else entirely. An older woman with short blond hair. “I had heard you were awake. Eager to get back to it?” She spoke upon seeing his stretches. “I don’t know what you did to get yourself stabbed, but I hope you won’t bring us any trouble in keeping you here.” Judging her then to be the head of the house, he nodded towards her. “Good. The sooner you leave here, the better.”
He too was of the same mind as her. It was not wise to house a stranger, even with good intentions. They had found him bleeding out in a dark alleyway, after all. They did not know what skeletons he kept in his closet, or if he had any enemies out patrolling for him. That, and he too wanted to leave here as soon as possible.
“Mother, please don’t say such things to our guest.” Ah, the voice of the younger girl. So she had finished putting her brothers to bed…
“Ellabell…you should be getting yourself to bed as well. Don’t stay up much longer with him, understand?”
“Yes, mother…”
Watching them part ways, Ellabell returned to his side upon closing the door. “I hope she didn’t offend you or anything. She just has our best interests at heart. And…even though she says she wants you gone, she was the one who suggested we bring you here. So…”
Her mother seemed to be smart on both accounts then, even if her daughter only praised her on one. In any event, if she was to head to bed soon, he did not want to be left without activity. Though he knew he would soon want to turn in as well, he did not want to wake his precious waking hours from here on out. “You…are training to be amongst the chirurgeon’s are you not? Do you have any crutches that I might use?” She seemed only slightly distressed by his question. It did, after all, mean that he had plans to leave here. But even she had to know that he wouldn’t be here forever. And denying him means to get back on his legs would be a death sentence. As a student of medicine, she surely knew that. And because he brought up her training, she couldn’t deny that she hadn’t a pair laying around.
“Y-yes…” She nodded quietly, leaving to fetch them. “I’ll be back with them shortly.”
And when she returned with a set of wooden crutches, she left them leaning against his bedside. “I still think it’s too soon for you to begin moving around too much, however. Try to take it slow, alright? I want to see your progress in the morning.” He knew he would be here for some time yet. She didn’t need to worry about him leaving in the middle of the night. He was no fool.
“I will manage enough on my own. You should get some sleep.” He assured her as he tried to bring his body around and over the bed. It wasn’t easy, but he fared well enough on his own.
Perhaps it was her lingering uncertainty which kept her from leaving right away. The girl motionlessly twiddling her thumbs as she watched him hang his legs over the bed and reach for his crutches. “Wait,” She then whispered as she took a step forward. “Just one more thing…” Standing before him now, she leaned down and brushed the hair off of his face—bringing her head low so that she could kiss his forehead. “There.” She giggled quietly as she pulled away and turned around. “It’s a little sad going to bed alone, so…when you do, I hope that helps you sleep a little better. My mom used to do that for me when she worked late nights and couldn’t come home until morning. Well...goodnight.”
And with that, she was gone. Likely too embarrassed to take another peek back at him as she closed the door behind herself. As he didn’t understand the gesture, he sighed and shook his head. Such a thing wouldn’t provide him any comfort. Nor would it make bringing Xah back safe and sound any easier. But, as he pulled the crutches closer to himself, he felt an odd softness rising from his chest that made it seem like he was floating on a cloud. Rather than feel burdened by his duty, he felt like…at least for now…there was nothing to worry about. Whilst he knew that wasn’t at all true, he felt that way. Just for a second. In pulling himself onto his feet, he winced in crippling pain. Step by step, he’d fight to regain his mobility. Step by step…until he was strong enough to rescue Xah.