364 Chance Encounter
An hour later, the parents returned to the site of the accident with an anxious hastiness in their steps. The recovering mother nearly fainted once again after noticing the literal bloodbath her daughter was put through. An assuring tap from the more observant husband, who noticed his daughter's chest moving up and down calmly, pulled her out of it.
"H-How is she?" The man asked worriedly.
"She's out of trouble, for the moment," Jean answered. Noticing her hands soaked in blood, the man took a few cautious steps back. She read this action and immediately burned away the blood with a quick spell. She then reached into her bag and retrieved five, finger-sized phials with a translucent liquid before handing it to the man. "Make sure to feed this to her once, every day, after her morning meal. Feed her the entire phial, do not ration it, and do not feed it to anyone else. Once you are done with it, keep the phials in boiling water for two minutes."
The man nodded like a chicken pecking at grains. Jean then paused and continued by explaining the entire situation, "The fencing had ruptured her intestines. But I've managed to suture them as well as I can. I will remain here for a few days, to observe her recovery. Let me remind you that while your daughter is no longer bleeding, and is more or less put together, she is not completely out of trouble. The medicine in your hands right now is to treat potential postoperative illnesses."
"Post- what?" The father exclaimed.
"To put it in simpler terms," Jean reiterated. "I had to open up your daughter's body to fix the damage inside. Generally, the internal organs aren't supposed to be exposed to the outside world. In doing so, and that too in such an unsafe and unsanitary environment, there is a possibility that she will get an illness caused by bacteria and germs."
"Is she going to die?!" The mother burst in.
"Not if you give her the medicine exactly as I told you to," Jean responded in an assuaging manner. "Oh, and try not to move her too much. Shocking and jerking might cause her stitch to fall apart, which may result in internal bleeding."
"How do we move her?" The father asked while assessing his daughter's state.
"Prepare a space for her at your home. I will bring her over," Jean answered.
The mother was quick to respond, as she didn't wait for a second before sprinting back the way she came. Jean retrieved a stretcher from her storage disk and instructed the father on how to move the child onto it. They then lifted the stretcher and carried it all the way to their home.
It was a simple farmer's cottage made of wood, stone and mud, with straw roofing - similar to the ones back in Twilight Village before the recent refurbishments. By the time they arrived, the mother was already waiting outside, pacing back and forth in worry. Once she noticed the stretcher approaching, she quickly guided everyone to their destination, the second sleeping room in the house.
"Where's father?" The husband asked before placing the stretcher next to the straw mattress in the room.
"He's preparing the barn for us to sleep in," she answered.
"What?" Jean interrupted.
"Physician Rasmus did say that she would have to observe Rind for a few days. So I prepared the big room for you to sleep in," the woman answered.
"Why would you do that?" The husband growled. "Why would Physician Rasmus stay here at a sty like ours?"
"B-But-"
"Don't get me wrong," Jean interjected before the argument could barrel out of control. "It's not that I have a problem staying in your house. It's just that I don't want to displace you from your homes."
Before the woman could insist harder, Jean added, "I'll be in the same inn if there is any emergency. I will be dropping by regularly to check up on Rind regardless."
The wife moved forward to urge Jean to reconsider, however, she was held back by her husband who then redirected her attention towards taking care of the ailing child. Jean did not wish to overstay and left the house. As she did so, she crossed paths with the elderly man who fetched her earlier.
"How is Rind?" The man inquired with a concerned voice. There was also guild marring his face.
"She'll be okay. This isn't the first impalement I've treated, so I have some experience," Jean responded. "Though it is my first time with a regular human. Mages tend to have superior regenerative properties, after all. Nonetheless, she will heal just slower. It definitely helps that she's still young - kids tend to recover faster, after all."
"I won't be able to live with myself if anything happens to her," the man admitted. "They had Rind after so much effort - so many failed pregnancies. It would devastate them to lose the child after all that. And it would kill me to see my son go through that."
Jean reached forward and hugged the man from his side. "It won't reach that far. I won't let it."
The man eked out a kind smile before walking up to the door to the house. His hand hesitated as it hovered over the handle before he carefully pushed down and entered.
"Will she really be okay?"
"My goodness! When did you get here!" Jean exclaimed while hopping to the side in surprise.
Kili gave her a 'Are you kidding me?' look and said, "I was there beside you this entire time."
"You're so quiet," Jean mumbled.
"I literally sneezed just a minute ago," Kili said with a scoff.
Jean examined Kili's face for any falsehoods before harrumphing in defeat and walking away.
"You didn't answer my question!" Kili yelled while skipping along.
"I don't want to keep repeating myself," Jean answered dismissively.
"You can't lie to me," Kili shot back. "I've seen that look on your face before."
Jean halted in her step, causing Kili to collide with her.
"I won't let her die," Jean declared with utter certainty in her voice.
"Do you need my blood?" Kili offered.
"Stop doing that, will you?!" Jean blurted out with an annoyed voice before walking away in a huff.
____
"She had a heavy fever last night," the mother reported with a perturbed expression. "I tried applying a cold-soaked cloth to bring it down and succeeded. But it was touch and go. Rind was shivering fitfully."
"The reaction is expected," Jean assured the mother while placing her hand on the girl's forehead. "I have a few more medicines for her-"
The door to the house opened at that moment and the husband stepped in with a sack over his shoulders.
"I brought the ingredients you ordered," he said while placing the sack next to Jean.
"What took you so long?" The wife probed irritatedly.
"There was a new merchant who came along with the usual caravan," the man responded. "He drew a large crowd. Made it tough to get close to the others."
"What was it about?" The elderly man asked from a corner of the house.
"Shady business, if you ask me," the man answered. "He's looking for blind kids to turn into mages."
"Blind kids?" The wife chimed in. "What use are blind kids?"
"That's what I'm saying - shady business. Nothing good comes with meddling with mages and sects-"
The man looked at Jean and hurriedly said, "No offence."
To that, Jean shook her head dismissively and inspected the contents of the sack for its quality.
"As I was saying- Nothing good comes with meddling with mages. Steb says it's probably some excuse to lure in the unfortunate blind children and run some experiments on them in secret," the Just as the man said, there was a large crowd at the centre, but above the crowd, she could barely 11:15
see an orange face and blond head of hair bobbing up and down.
man theorised. "That's how they usually do it. The sect environment is an unforgiving grindstone, how do you think some blind kids are going to survive there? They'll probably get wiped out first thing, and become a sacrifice for someone else, or something like that."
"That's awful!" The mother opined. "Who is this merchant? We should report them to the authorities!"
"We will do nothing of that sort," the elderly man interjected. "Didn't you hear what your husband said? Nothing good comes with messing with mages. Just ignore them and move on."
"Yeah! And the merchant himself looks suspicious, if you ask me. It's some orange-looking kid from an upstart True World Sect?" The husband chimed in.
Just as that left his lips, Jean's hand faltered.
"What?" She said with a quick snap in her voice. "Did you say True World Sect?"
"Umm, yes?" The man affirmed with a rise in intonation as he expressed his confusion. "Well, I think so?"
"Was he wearing an insignia on his coat that looked something like this?" She continued while pointing to the blue-green globe on her chest.
The man leaned forward with a squint and inspected the symbol closely.
"Oh yeah! Now that I think about it, he did have something like that on his chest. That's so funny, how do you-"
There was silence as the three mortals exchanged gazes between themselves and each simultaneously swallowed an audible gulp of saliva.
"P-Physician Rasmus. I-"
Jean stood up and walked out at a brisk pace, ignoring the floundering people left behind. Her destination was the village circle, where the travelling merchants usually set their stalls.
Just as the man said, there was a large crowd at the centre, but above the crowd, she could barely see an orange face and blond head of hair bobbing up and down.
"Furion!" She bellowed, drowning out the loud murmur of the crowd. The crowd parted, allowing a path to form between her and the boy in between.
"Jean?" The boy responded with a smile on his face. "Is that you?"
Word Count: 1656
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