Vol.3 Ch.58 - Ring

As the boy fell unconscious from his sustained injuries and shock, thesurviving members of the party held a very important conversation.“I’ve stopped his bleeding for now, if we hurry we can still make it in time!”Said the worried Marina to a now quite listless Linus.“In time for what?” He asked her, “Now you wanna play God and try toreattach his fingers? Come on, girl, that’s impossible!”“I’m telling you it’s not!” She shot back, “My family back in Montes wouldget patients with missing limbs all the time, it’s as simple as finding the limband sewing it back on.”“I already saved his life, he’ll be plenty happy for being able to draw a fewmore breaths in this short little life of his.” He said as he laid back with hishands behind his head.“Gahh! You stupid Old Man! Fine, if you wanna be a horrible lazy idiot, thenI’m going back there to retrieve them alone!”As she turned away from the Old Man and the unconscious boy, she wasquickly stopped by a loud scream.“HEY!” Linus roared with all his might, “You ain’t going anywhere. Sit thefuck down if you know what’s good for you.”This loud voice sent chills down her spine, but she still refused to turnaround and go back. Lune was someone important to her. Not only Lune, butSullivan and Genevra as well. To her, they’re all like family, and she felt theneed to protect what she had left of it. Even Linus was, in a way, part of thatfamily (no matter how much she didn’t wanna accept that as of the currentsituation).“You’re still gonna go, huh?” He got up from his sitting position and slowlyapproached her, making her step away from him in fear, “Whoa! Calm down,kiddo, I just wanted to give you a word of advice.”She turned to look at him over her shoulder, just barely enough to see his faceas he spoke out, “Take the pickaxe at least, I doubt you’ll dig ‘em out withoutit.”She looked at him for another moment longer before accepting the gift.“… Thanks.”“One more thing.” He said, “If you find any rings on the fingers, make sure tobring ‘em back. Looks like he cared more so for them than his very fingers,the crazy bastard.”She thought Linus was merely jesting, which made her crack up a bit at hispathetically poorly timed joke. He didn’t react to her mocking, though, he juststared at her back as she ventured back into the depths with nothing more thana pick and torch.***“Now,” Marina said as she waved her torch around, “from what I remember,it should just be a straight path to the rubble. It’s what that damned Grandpasaid as well.” She recalled his directions.“But jeez,” She stopped to recollect the events that had transpired, “in just acouple hours, we lost so much. It felt really empty without Lil’ Bro around,he would always crack those lame jokes to make us laugh.”She then tried to remember what it was that made him choose to become anadventurer, “To meet a woman… was it? Well, he at least fulfilled his goal…Big Sis on the other hand…”No matter how hard she tried, the reason for Genevra becoming anadventurer had evaded her to no end. But she seemed to mention her Sister alot. Lana was her name, I think. Since it’s the party members’ job to deliverthe news of their fellow adventurer’s death to their family, she had alreadystarted rehearsing how to break the news, as well as to keep composed uponwitnessing Lana’s expression.“Big Bro is…” She finally mentioned someone who had actually lived,“Brave? No, I think reckless is the word. I remember back at the lodging, aswe all got dressed into our pajamas, that he had a scar riddled torso andarms. It was kind of gross, but Lil’ Bro was really hyped at the sight. Guessboys just find that stuff to be cool? It’d probably be weird to touch themthough.”She talked to herself like this to pass the time, as well as organize her ownthoughts to better align herself with the current situation. She was to findLune’s fingers as quickly as possible and reattach them (hopefully). As anadventurer, she knew that losing any body part would be detrimental to hislife, so she wanted to help him as much as she could.“I’m sure he’ll be really happy when he sees them back on his hand, heheh!”She smiled smugly as she raised her chest up high.The path (now thoroughly filled with her smugness) had surprised her onceagain as it diverged yet again. “What?! Oh come on, there wasn’t adivergence before, was there? How did I get lost in a linear path?!”Even still, Marina was on the clock. She just had to pick one that seemedmore familiar and follow it through. She could always come back if she feltit wasn’t it, so there were no repercussions safe from a bit of time loss.As such, the song of ‘Eeny Meeny Miny Moe’ had sent her rightward. Thepath was moist, and soft sounds of water droplets falling from the stalactitesreverberated as far as the eye could see (or the ear could hear, for thatmatter). She looked on and on, until finally stumbling upon Genevra’sremains.“!!!” She jumped back in surprise, “Oh, guess this is the place, better getdigging…”And so, she dug. And dug. And dug. But no matter how much rubble shecleared, there was no trace of Lune’s fingers. She even made sure to be extracareful so as not to hit them in her mining frenzy.“Heh, this is more difficult than I thought, eh Big Sis?” She turned to thelifeless woman’s outstretched hand. For a split second she contemplatedcutting off her fingers and attaching those, but something about mutilating adead corpse didn’t sit well with her, so she opted not to.It seems the Gods finally gave Marina their blessing, as the very next swingof her pickaxe had unearthed the two lost fingers. Oh, and it also startedanother tremor in the cavern, leading to the floor below her giving away.“Crap-!” She screamed as she just barely held onto a ledge that seemedstable.“Whew! Ugh, no time to worry about that, I need to get those fingers!” Shepsyched herself up as she looked at the pit under her. The fingers were stillthere, thanks to the rubble keeping them in place, but the issue now was howshe’s going to get across that gaping hole in front of her.“Geez, and here I thought you were gonna be alright alone.” An old butannoyed voice rang out from above the ledge she was holding onto.“Whose there?” She yelled out with an interrogative tone towards the voice.“Must you always be this on edge when you’re around me, kid?” The voicerang out again.“Linus!?” She finally realized, “Didn’t you say you weren’t gonna help me?”“Eh, I did. But that little asshole made me get up ‘n getcha’!”The image of Lune had showed up in her mind, which in turn sent her bothfeelings of relief and worry. He’s awake! coupled with He’s alone!?, but inthe end she was just glad she wasn’t alone in this predicament.“Up you go.” Linus quickly lifted her and propped her up on her feet, “Youdid good not going to the left, that path opened up when the rubble fell. Whoknows where it leads to.”“No time for compliments, Lune’s fingers are over there, across the gap!”She stopped him from rambling any more.“I’d say just leave them.” He said with little to no lag, “We’ll just tell himwe couldn’t find them or something.”“Grrr!” She raged at his nonchalant answer before finally trying to get overthere herself.“Hey! What’re you doing, girl? That’s dangerous!” Linus once againreprimanded her upon witnessing her start to shimmy her way across on anearby ledge.“Shut it! There’s no other way across now, is there?” She yelled back.Looking down she saw a pretty big fall, which in turn made her a bit woozy.Still, she swallowed the fear down and pressed on. In another minute, shehad made it across, and picked up the fingers.“Whoa! You weren’t kidding about the rings?” She said upon examining themcloser.“Would I lie to you?” He asked rhetorically, to which she refused to replyand instead kept silent.“I’m coming back now.” Marina said before shimmying her way back acrossthe pit.But something strange had happened. The path under her feet was… smallerthan before. Not only that, but it seems the pit grew larger. Ah, I get it now,she thought as she looked over at Linus, The path didn’t shrink, nor did thepit grow, I just relaxed.It had seemed her body was nearing it’s limits, but she made sure to press onjust a bit more, enough to make it past the gap. Linus looked at her for anothermoment before bursting into a guffaw.“You’re stronger than you look, kid!” He said as he patted her back, “He’sgonna be proud of ya’ too, don’t worry!”After that, she swore never to clear a gap like that ever again, and they wentback to check on Lune.***“We’re back ~!” Marina happily chirped, “Did you get lonely, Big Bro?”“…” I stayed quiet in response.I don’t want to talk right now. Not with her, and definitely not with thatbastard Old Man. Right now I just want to be alone, it took everything inme just to send Linus to go help Marina…“Don’t be such a downer, boy.” Said the Old Man as he stood in front of me,“This here girl almost died trying to get your fingers back, and you give herthe cold shoulder?”Pf t, what do I need my fingers for if they’re detached from my hand? Butwait, does that mean…!?I raised my head away from my knees and looked over to where Marina was.She was bruised and scratched all over, with visible gashes covering herpreviously clear skin. I felt chills as soon as I saw the image of this innocentgirl holding my severed finger with a smile on her face.“It was quite the pain, to be honest, but with this we can finally proceed withthe surgery!” She said as she gave me the finger.“… Where’s the other one?” I asked upon realizing she only handed me myleft ring finger.“What?” She yelped in surprise before checking her person, “I-I was sure Ihad picked both of them up, but…!”She panicked in place for a couple more seconds before looking at me insilence and tearing up, “I’m… I’m a failure! I couldn’t even do this onesimple thing!”Wow, talk about incompetent. I don’t need just one ring, I need both ofthem! That’s how engagement rings work! What am I? Engaged to myself?!What kind of narcissistic bastard will people take me for then?!“……” I grumbled in dissatisfaction.“That’s enough!” Linus quickly yelled out to the both of us, “Girlie, I sawhow hard you worked to get this finger, you did more than enough. And you,asshole, be happy she did this much! She said she can reattach your fingerwith this, so just be glad you got something instead of nothing, y’hear?!”Huh? Did he say… she’ll reattach the finger? Impossible! And even if shedoes it, it’ll be dysfunctional, no?“Your look of disbelief says it all, Lune.” The Old Man quickly noticed myquestioning gaze, “But remember, she’s the daughter of a world renownedfamily tree of doctors, and if she says she can do something like this, then I’minclined to entrust her with it.”“Big Bro, just trust me on this one. I know you’re bummed, but at least let medo this much…” She ducked down to my height.I’m not trusting jack from any of you! You’ll probably just get the woundinfected or something! Just leave me alone, it’s that Old Bastard’s fault forcutting them off in the first place!“There’s no use in talking it out with him, girlie.” The Old Man said yetagain, “It’s either he smartens up quickly or we do it the hard way (i.e. I holdhim down, forcefully).”“Tsk!” I clicked my tongue as I gave her the ring finger and outstretched myhand.“Good choice.” The Old Man said with a silent, but cold voice.What followed next could be described as nothing more than hell incarnate.Marina had grabbed her sewing tools and placed my hand on a nearby flatrock. I don’t know exactly how long the procedure took, but it certainly feltlonger than I could have ever hoped for, as I felt excruciating pain from startto finish (we had no more anesthesia or painkillers left, since we used themall during the dungeon crawl).The swelling became so apparent that I couldn’t even recognize my own handanymore. Even Linus was looking over her shoulder and wincing with everystab of the surgical needle. I was certain this was gonna be the death of me,but Marina’s smalltalk was what kept me sane throughout the entireprocedure.“So, are you wondering how this is possible?” Marina said as she prickedme, “You see, our body is comprised of skin tissue, muscle fibers, and nerveendings. And as long as they’re in good enough shape, then it’s possible tosew them together without sacrificing anything. Modern medicine isincredible like that.”I genuinely can’t pay attention to anything that she’s saying because of allthe pain…“Well, that’s not entirely true.” She pricked me once more, “For most people,they’ll have permanent issues with moving the reattached body part. They’llnever recover fully. But you’re lucky, since you’re a Green Iro, which is alsowhy this entire procedure is made easy in such a harsh environment!Honestly, I wouldn’t be surprised if you heal completely in just a coupleweeks!”“Guess you’re one lucky bastard, aren’t ya, boy?” The Old Man cackledannoyingly as he turned to me.I stayed quiet in response.“Geez, Gramps! He’s obviously mad at you, butt out of this!” Marina went toshut him up.Their little exchange made me crack a smile, but I quickly hid it from thembefore they noticed. I’m supposed to be mad at them, now’s not the time forlaughs!“Just one more, aaaaaand… done!” Marina victoriously announced, “Phew!Well, I still need to bandage it up, don’t move it for now, it still needs time toproperly heal! You still have that swelling as well, which I imagine is quitepainful.”After what I just went through with this no-anesthetics surgery, this muchis actually extremely comfortable.“You done now?” The Old Man got up and brushed his thighs off, “Can wefinally leave this damned place?”“Yeah, let’s.” Marina said before asking another question, “But who’s gonnacarry the Book? Y’know, now that Big Sis is gone…”To this, I simply raised my four-fingered hand.“Whoa, who would’ve thunk that you of all people would volunteer to carrythe Book?” Linus jeered.“…”After another 10 minutes of walking through the cavern, we had finally madeour way out of Shaid’s Lair.