Patching up Old Wounds

Finding the Getia at the foot of the mountain had been just about the worst thing Asterion thought could happen. He was completely exhausted after scaling an entire mountain range and had really been looking forward to a nice hour long break before leisurely walking the rest of the way to Sarina. Unfortunately, dealing with a Getia was never “leisurely”.

Even when he hadn’t been doing hard physical labor for four straight hours, Asterion found it difficult to escape a Getia. They were very territorial and, more importantly, fast as hell. Sometimes his full strength wasn’t enough and Asterion had to rely on a stamina potion; he was currently cursing himself for forgetting to replenish his stock earlier.

Everything was a bit of a blur after that. Asterion remembered trying to run from the Getia only for it to catch him a minute later. He remembered an indescribable pain worse than anything he’d ever experienced followed by a weightlessness and then everything went black.

When Asterion opened his eyes, he knew something was off. He was still in the field they’d been attacked in, but the sun was much farther in the sky. At least a few hours had passed then. Now that he realized he’d been unconscious for so long, Asterion was aware of how stiff he felt. He tried to reposition himself and noticed the pain in his shoulder had lessened greatly. It still hurt more than anything he’d ever felt in his life, but it wasn’t the molten fire poured down his side he’d experienced earlier.

The next thing he noticed was that his head was on something surprisingly comfortable, not the hard dirt he’d collapsed on earlier. He looked up and instead of the sky saw two bright green eyes staring back at him. His brain struggled to comprehend what he was seeing until he realized he was looking at Daffodil. Which meant his head was lying on Daffodil’s lap.

He tried to jerk up but a wave of pain and nausea, as well as Daffodil’s gentle hands, forced him back down.

“You were seriously injured. You need to be careful,” Daffodil said in a voice softer than anything Asterion had heard before.

A million questions bounced around Asterion’s head. How was he still alive after a hit like that? Where was the Getia? Why was he in Daffodil’s lap? Instead, the only thing that came out of his mouth was, “Whaaa?”

“The Getia sliced you up pretty bad,” Daffodil explained. “I was able to defeat it and staunch the bleeding from your wound. I think you need more medical attention, but I wanted to wait until you were awake.”

Asterion picked up on the silent question Daffodil didn’t ask and said, “Do what you need to.”

Daffodil nodded and immediately got to work. He carefully lifted Asterion off his lap and laid him on a clean shirt instead. Asterion knew it would make it easier for Daffodil to work, but he missed the comfort of leaning against Daffodil.

A med kit appeared in Daffodil’s hands, and he made sure to thoroughly sanitize his hands before peeling back the layers of clean cloth covering Asterion’s wound. Asterion tried his hardest to keep his breathing steady as Daffodil worked, but the pain was almost unbearable. Cool water trickled down his chest as the wound was cleaned out. Daffodil examined the wound more closely before saying, “It’s going to need stitches.”

Asterion barely comprehended what Daffodil was saying but finally gritted out, “Do you know how to do that?”

Daffodil didn’t give a response and instead opted to silently thread a sterile needle. He hesitated for a moment, the needle hovering over the wound, as he gave Asterion a reassuring smile. Then he got to work.

On the bright side, Asterion was already in so much pain he didn’t even register the thread pulling through his shoulder. After a few minutes where Daffodil worked in complete silence, the wound was completely closed. Daffodil put away the needle, summoned a jar from his inventory, and told Asterion, “This is a healing salve I created. It speeds up the healing process drastically so the wound shouldn’t bother you for more than a day.”

Asterion had never needed stitches before, but he was sure a wound that severe would need a lot of time to heal. One day was outrageous and he couldn’t begin to guess how much money a salve like that could sell for. Daffodil was just wasting it on him?

Asterion felt marginally better and his mind was clear enough that he could properly pay attention to Daffodil as he worked. Daffodil slowly rubbed the salve over his wound, making sure everything had an even coating without agitating his shoulder too much. He really does love me, Asterion realized in that moment. Daffodil had sat for hours so that Asterion would be comfortable. A fierce look of concentration had settled on Daffodil’s face, but he still made sure to smile at Asterion every so often to calm his worries. He was adding a liberal amount of incredibly expensive salve so Asterion would heal quickly. Daffodil hadn’t needed to do any of that but he’d wanted to.

And Asterion was realizing that he loved Daffodil too. A man that cared this deeply about his well-being was obviously something important to him. But on top of that, the man was kind. Daffodil had told him that he had problems in the real world with being nice to people, but Asterion could see the man naturally wanted to be gentle with the things he thought deserved it. He made sure every plant was given the proper attention. He wanted to help save the world even when he had no obligation to. He patched Asterion up when he was injured. It was a beautiful trait that Daffodil had and one Asterion was in love with.

What had Daffodil said earlier? It was easy to be with him? Asterion understood what he’d meant now. Everyone else made him feel inferior or uncomfortable when he was around them for too long but being with Daffodil was the easiest thing in the world.

“Alright, we’re done,” Daffodil said as he finished wrapping a clean bandage around the wound. He handed a bottle to Asterion and said, “Drink this. It’ll help with the pain.”

Asterion took the bottle and nodded, touched that Daffodil had thought to help with his pain when he’d never even brought it up. Asterion downed the bottle in one swig and could already feel the effects taking hold.

“Give me an hour and I’ll be ready to go,” Asterion said as he tried to shift into a more comfortable position.

“No way,” Daffodil said as he took the empty bottle and placed it back in his inventory for future use.

“But we’re only a few hours from Sarina. We can still make it before nightfall.”

“I don’t care,” Daffodil said. “That salve is designed to speed up the healing process by forcing your body to start healing as quickly as it can. You’ll be exhausted in an hour. And you were just almost mauled to death. I think you deserve the day off.”

Asterion smiled and didn’t bother protesting any further.

Daffodil said, “I’ll set up camp now and then we can figure out something to do until you fall asleep.” He hesitated for a moment before sharing a small smile and quietly adding, “Let me take care of you tonight.”

Asterion agreed and Daffodil went off to start his task. It would be nice to be pampered just this once, he decided. Especially if it was Daffodil taking care of him.