Medical Practice

Fastening the sword to his belt he takes a running leap at the wall barely grasping hold of the top ledge. With a heavy breath, he starts pulling himself up and over; as he reaches the top, he throws himself over it taking a tumble to the ground with a thud. “I hope no one heard that.” Joshua thinks to himself as he brushes the dirt off of his tunic and coat. Immediately crouching down he looks around his surroundings making sure that he wasn’t spotted. Thankfully it looks as if he was in the clear, so he begins quietly making his way in the direction Susanna pointed out earlier in the day.

“You’d better be alive Susanna.” Joshua mumbles to himself with a look of slight worry on his face.

After around thirty minutes of avoiding detection from the nearby wildlife, he finally finds a trail of bloody footprints. “Took long enough, from the tracks I’m seeing, either she went this way or whatever she was hunting did. “ Following the footprints he notices that they start getting more erratic like the animal started jumping around. It takes around half an hour before he finally reaches the end of tracks; and finally, he spots her. She’s up in a tree, propped up unconscious; Blood dripping from her abdomen and head.

As he gazes towards her, he can tell that the she’s in bad shape. Quickly scouting the area Joshua rushes up the tree as his eyes widen looking at her right arm; A massive gash almost like she got caught in some creatures’ mouth. Alongside that she’s bleeding from a gash on her head, and her clothes were in tatters. Her midriff was completely exposed and the back of her tunic was frayed off; shallow claw marks clearly visible. "How did she survive?"

As he places his left arm on her shoulder, he gently shakes her back to consciousness. However, as she regains consciousness, she ends up getting a bit jumpy, nearly falling off the tree until Joshua catches and stabilizes her. “What are you doing out here Joshua?” a tired Susanna exclaims.

“Apparently coming to your rescue. What the hell attacked you to leave you in this state? It couldn’t have been the normal fauna.”

“It wasn’t… I was wanting to bring something back for a celebratory meal in case you won, So I decided to go hunting as we have the past couple of days. I mean Layrn showed me all the spots that were safe from her own experiences.” She begins coughing as Joshua places one hand on the branch underneath himself and one on her shoulder for stability.

“Thank you, Joshua,” she smiles weakly. “But as I started heading, I started feeling like I become something’s prey. Like a primal fear overtook my body. As you can see, that was definitely the case. Breathing raggedly, she continues. “It all happened so fast, I finally caught the trace of a stag and some boar. As I began taking the boar out one by one with this crossbow something pounced at me at such a speed I couldn’t even react. The thing was huge and had red eyes similar to yourself.”

Joshua’s eyes widen...” Joshua grits his teeth as Susanna continues.

“From there I tried to fight it off with my dagger, but it was a useless effort. The dagger was barely the size of one of its teeth. And as I was unable to shield myself it lunged to my size clawing my arm. The fact I was even able to get away was a miracle. I felt something change in me, but I don't know what it was. After that he jumped back and howled towards the moon.She pauses for a moment focusing on her breathing.

“By Serox.” Joshua mumbles aloud.

“As you can see though, it's left me worse for wear, that’s probably why I was unconscious when you found me.” She motions for him to look at the condition that she’s in. “After the thing backed off, I was able to climb into this tree and nail it in its right eye with a bolt.”

“Hey Susanna, you want to stop right there. It was a giant and white right?” Susanna nods her head weakly. “It’s that damn albino wolf me and Orthon ran into a few days ago.” Susanna’s eyes widen. “Wait, really. How the hell did you get away from that thing?”

“Thankfully it notice us until we started to run away so using my particular skills, I was able to get us away unscathed.” Joshua chuckles trying to alleviate her stress. “But enough of that, we need to get you back to camp. Only problem is that it’s kind of far away from here; Think you can make it back?”

“Do I have much of a choice unless I want to bleed out?” Joshua nods in response as she tries to move her torso only for her to cringe in pain.

“Actually, before we head down Joshua, do you think you wrap this gash up, I don’t want to cause any other creatures to come after us.” Susanna sighs clearly exhausted from blood loss.

“Sure, that won’t be a problem.” Joshua gives her a confident smile as he takes off his undershirt and tears it into pieces. One around her left arm and the other around her torso. “That should hold long enough. Come on let’s get you down from here.” Her tired expression turns faintly flush as Joshua's chest is exposed with only his coat to cover him.

It takes a couple minutes for Susanna to regain strength to climb down the tree, thankfully Joshua is there to help her even though she ends up kicking him in the face when she loses her footing and falls on top of him with a thud. She crashes into his chest and listens to his heartbeat race. Panicked, she tries to get up in a hurry only to fall back over onto to her side. Joshua seeing his lets out a sigh and helps her to her feet. "You good Anna?" She nods her head still flushed. After making sure that she's okay, they begin to sneak their way back to Blackwood; Joshua supporting Susanna’s right side, her condition being subpar at best.

“Remember. The monsters are attracted to sound.” She nods her head in understanding as it takes around forty-five minutes until they finally see the training camp in the distance. She lets out a sigh of relief. However, they aren’t the ones there, a medium sized orange and red tooth feline has them in its sights. Immediately its rushes at them as Susanna sensesit moments before it pounces. Pushing the two of them apart, the feline barely missing it mark as it skids across the ground.

The feline growls angrily before striking again at the injured girl. Her barely jumping out of the way as she manages once again to avoid what would have been a fatal strike. “Bloody hell, that’s a big cat.” Susanna groans out in pain as she is sprawled out across the ground, blood beginning to re-leak from her arm. Joshua seeing how helpless she is in her current state draws his blade and eyes the beast down. Memories of his past flashing through his mind.

“So, you want to target my comrades? Well, try again; I dare you.” Joshua’s eyes fill with rage, as a strange red energy bubbles up around him, it being fed on by his raw emotions.

“Umm Joshua, what’s wrong?” Susanna is left in complete shock by the energy being exerted by the crimson haired boy. Draxis mentally asks the same thing, this power not registering in his memories either. Of course, these questions fall on deaf ears as Joshua is completely consumed by rage. In an instant Joshua launches towards the beast slashing along its side as it tries to swat him away. This causes the beast to yelp out in pain as it jumps backwards, however Joshua doesn’t even give the feline a chance to recover he jumps over the beast barreling down with his blade. Instantly he pierces its back as the feline creatures goes into shock and keels over. The fight ends in an instant.

The strange energy completely dissipates leaving Joshua panting in exhaustion as even he doesn’t know what came over him. Looking down at the beast with his blade jammed between its spinal columns he looks over to Susanna. “You alright Anna.” He quickly runs over to her and starts checking over her wounds. She blushes at the nickname as she replies weakly “Yeah, I’m alright, But what about you? What the hell was that strange energy?”

Joshua replies unable to fully explain the phenomena. “I don’t know I just saw you laying their helpless and I instantly saw red and lost control.” However, in the midst of their conversation Draxis mentally screams in his head. “Kid, you don’t have time to worry about that right now GET OUT OF THERE NOW! I can sense that damn wolf approaching” Joshua gulps feeling the deathly stillness in the air.

“No time to waste, we have to get the hell out of here now.” Wrapping his arms around Susanna, he picks her and places her on his back as she clings close to him her face buried into his neck. Using whatever energy he has left in the tank, he runs the rest of the way narrowly avoiding an encounter with his canine opponent.

Finally, back at the gate he takes a moment to catch his breath as she pulls herself away from him clearly embarrassed how tightly she was clinging to him. Getting back down on her own feet she nearly falls over, but Joshua once again catches her by the back of her waist. “Please be careful.” She nods her head while blushing profusely. Eventually after regaining her composure, she makes her way up to the wall placing her hands on it and notices that it’s too tall for her to climb in her condition. That’s when Joshua nods as he walks up to her and crouches down motioning for her to use him as a stepping stool.

Slowly she makes her way over to him as she places a foot on on one of his hands as he starts standing and lifts her on up over the wall. She carefully climbs over and falls to the ground losing her balance. Joshua sighs, but is nonetheless grateful that she’s not in danger from the monsters anymore. Quickly looking around, Joshua see’s some smaller beasts approaching. The smell of blood attracting them closer to the camps walls. Reacting quickly, he pours flickers of aura into his feet as he runs up to the wall grasping hold of the top as he throws himself over it barely missing the fangs of one of the animals as it hits the wall. As the two of them lay on the ground exhausted, they eventually prop themselves up against one another.

Looking to Susanna, Joshua speaks. “That was a close call, I think we should stay in the camp for the time being; Seeing as that damned mutt has its sights on both us."

“Yeah, you are probably right.” Susanna responds as her eyes gaze towards the full moon overhead. As the two of them rest in each other’s company two people off in the distance catch sight of them. Immediately running over, Vilhelm calls out in a hushed tone.

“What the hell happened to you two? Did you get attacked by an Arctos?” Vilhelm looks at the state there in and is left in shock.

“Well, she got attacked by a mutant wolf and as we were heading back to camp, Then a giant feline jumped us. Thankfully I was able to kill the damn thing, the wolf on the other hand… It’s still out there. Its way out of my league.” Susanna looks to Joshua wondering if she should mention that burst of energy he had before he ends up giving her a look. Understanding his cue, she lets it go.

“Let’s get her to the medical ward.” Wilhelm exclaims.

“No!” Joshua blurts as everyone gives him a strange look, including Susanna.

“Why not, she’s bleeding out over here.” Vilhelm motions to her bandaged arm and bleeding torso “She clearly needs medical attention.”

“I don’t want the commandant finding out. I’ll take care of her. Just help me move her to my room; I have medical supplies that my handmaid packed up for me.” Joshua comments his hands twitching. “I refuse to let her get sent to that poor excuse of a medical facility.” The twins look towards the two of them before giving in to the youngest’s demand. They carefully pick up Susanna and make their way back to their tower, avoiding any altercations with the captain set to patrol.

As they reach Joshua’s room he looks to the twins and thanks them. “I’ll handle it from here, thank you guys. Y’all get some shuteye.” Joshua sends them on their way, his mercenary slang slipping through.

“Whatever you say Joshua, just don’t screw up, I kind of like having a four-man squad.” Vilhelm shakes his head as the twins make their way back to their respective rooms.

As he brings her into to his room, he lays her on his bed before speaking. “I apologize in advance if this is uncomfortable for you, but I’ll have to remove your shirt so I can apply the bandages to your upper body. That wolf did a number on you.”

“Do what you have to do, I’m used to it. Back at home I had a tendency to get into a lot of trouble and ended up hurting myself quite a lot.” Susanna chuckles as she attempts to help him, by removing the cloth around her arm herself, but in doing so pain shoots through her arm causing her to nearly scream.

Joshua shakes his head at her stubbornness, as being a little bit nervous himself, he carefully takes her shirt off and lays her back down. Gently walking over to his second bag, he grabs out an assortment of medical supplies as he thinks to himself. “Thank you, Saria, even if you got these through questionable means.” After collecting what he needs, he makes his way back to his patient.

Draxis giving his usual crude commentary on the situation starts talking. “Kid, are you having fun yet.”

“Now isn’t the time Draxis.” Joshua stammers back in his mind.

“Come on kid, you and the girl alone, in your room in the middle of the night. Kinda suspect.”

Joshua shakes his head taking a deep breath as he gets back to the task at hand. “Besides the fact that if I don’t help her, she could bleed out or get an infection…” Joshua mentally pauses before continuing. “If you weren’t in my head right now, I swear Draxis.”

Letting out a sigh he walks over to Susanna and speaks. “I’m going to be honest with you Susanna, this is going to hurt a lot. I don’t have Aether to heal you or numb the pain so for the time being if you feel the need to scream, please bite down on this.” Joshua places a ball of cloth in her mouth.

She nods, a little concerned. Following her approval Joshua pulls out some alcohol and pours it over a towel. “You ready?” She doesn’t even have a chance to respond he quickly places the towel to the wound soaking it with a mixture of blood and alcohol. Instantaneous her jaw clenches down, as she wants to scream her lungs out, tears forcefully rolling down her cheeks. During this he carefully holds her still, making sure that she doesn’t move around. “Stay still please.” After that he picks up an assortment of herbs he mixed together in a small wooden bowl and a cloudy white powder.

Back in his mind, Draxis interrupts him yet again. “Do you know what you’re doing kid?”

“Of course I do, I’ve had to patch myself up for years.” Memories of his time as an exile flicker through his mind,

Draxis replies seeing the memories himself, but doesn’t commentate on them. “I see then… Besides that, you know that she doesn’t have the same pain tolerance as you. She looks like she’s going to pass out.”

“If it keeps her from moving around that’s fine.” Joshua mentally replies.

"That’s cold,” Draxis replies.

Joshua regaining his focus packs the gash full of the mixture it dissolving fairly quickly. Yet again she bites down so hard on the towel that he could hear the bones clench in her jaw. “Such bite strength, kind of impressive.” She looks towards him side-eyed wanting to hit him in the head for the comment. If she could move properly that is. “Apologies, just trying to lighten the mood. Now for the stitches.” He then pulls out a tiny needle with some disinfected thread and with decent precision he begins to stitch the wound shut, it takes almost thirty minutes to finish. The entire ordeal causes her to jump in shock a few times as he accidentally hits a nerve once or twice. After that he coats the sealed wound in the powdery substance causing the arm to go limp as it gently droops by her side. The gash slowly drying up as he wraps it in medical bandages.

“And now we can take this out.” He pulls the cloth from her mouth causing her to cough a little.

Shortly after taking a moment to breath, she breathes out.“Who taught you how to do that?” She asks pointing to her arm.

“A mix of my handmaiden and teaching myself. It was a necessary skill to have.”

“To have?” She questions his strange wording.

“Yeah, you never know when medical knowledge can come in handy.” Joshua mumbles at he walks back over to his ‘medical table’.

“So, what’s next?” Susanna asks as she starts feeling a bit more self-conscious about being partially undressed,

“Well to be honest I’d like to patch up the cut on your head, and any other scrapes so they don’t leave scars or get an infection.”

“Well, I appreciate the consideration then.” She looks down in slight embarrassment as a tinge of pink flashes across her cheeks. Thankfully from the time he starts and finishes, it only takes another half hour. However, since she’s been awake since much earlier in the day, Susanna looks ready to pass out.

Not wanting to risk reopening the wounds as they still needs time to stabilize, he tells her to stay over. Another blush creeps onto Susanna’s face as she slips in and out of consciousness. She then attempts to blink her eyes a few times trying to wake herself up. However, at this point she can’t even move her legs. Her body still in shock from today’s events. Shortly after, she passes out. A few hours later she awakens and starts looking around wondering where Joshua went. That is until she looks down, where she sees Joshua snoozing away on the floor. Feeling a bit bad that she stole his bed, she attempts once again to get up, but to no avail.

“I didn’t think this would be how I would spend my first night with a boy. I guess I should just be grateful that he came to save me.” She pauses for a moment lost in thought.

“But even then, how did he even find me, I had completely lost track of where I was. Hell, I’ve been out with Layrn the past few days learning the surrounding landscape while hes been busy training the whole time.” She continues eyeballing Joshua, watching his steady, even breaths. “You know, he’s kind of cute when he’s sleeping.” Susanna giggles aloud as she turns around and goes back to sleep.