We walk inside and I take in the house. The interior very much matches the humble and cozy vibe of the exterior, with a fireplace roaring in the living room, fur skin rugs on the floor, and comfortable looking furniture.
Upon further inspection, though, a few things stand out. One being the pictures on the wall depicting a slightly younger version of the sweet grandmotherly person fighting daring battles with various beasts and monsters.
In one of the pictures, the woman is shown to be slicing the head off a bear that’s probably three or four times her size. In another, she’s shown to be wrestling some sort of impossibly large snake that’s body is as big as she is tall.
The contrast from the woman in the pictures, to the sweet grandma I just met makes for quite the shock.
The guest room is about what I’d expect. Simple décor, a plain bed, and a window facing out into the pleasant looking garden.
Garut sets Gael down onto the bed, and quickly sit himself down onto the floor, before closing his eyes and meditating.
I sit on a wooden chair in the corner of the room and as soon as I do, I get the urge to close my eyes and rest.
I try my best not to, as with Garut as silent as he is, and Gael unconscious, it’ll be up to me to explain to the nice lady what happened.
Finally, after a minute or so, the woman comes rushing in with a satchel draped around her shoulder. She sets the bag down on the bed next to Gael.
Opening the satchel, she reveals a very orderly set of potions, balms and everyday medical equipment.
On the side of the satchel, is a strange magitech device that is shalpes like some sort of remote. She takes the device and presses it gently to his stomach. After a few moments, a beep rings out and she pulls the device back to look at it.
Fiddling with the machine for a few moments, she gasps out in surprise.
“What the hell were you guys doing that he needed this much spiritual energy! His elemental body is practically drained dry! You guys are lucky he’s not dead!”
She quickly uncorks one of the potions and dumps the whole things in Gael’s mouth. As soon as she does she turns to me.
“Well? Wanna shed some light on what you guys are doing here this banged up?” She asks sternly while crossing her arms.
Sweat drops down my back as images of the small woman wrangling mighty beasts with her bare hands flash in my head.
‘I better answer her quick or who knows what the hell she’ll do to me!’ I think to myself.
“Sure, it’s somewhat of a long story though, but could you fix me real quick first?” I say while gesturing at the now broken arrow in my thigh.
She nods and grabs some tools from her back including a pair of crude looking pliers.
“Your not planning on just ripping it out are you?”
“Well how else am I supposed to get it out?” She asks confused.
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“Isn’t there, idk, a more delicate way of doing this? I thought the multiverse would have advanced past such measures, no?”
“Nope, those would cost money, and the last time I checked, you bums haven’t paid me a dime!” She says chuckling to herself, “So quite whining and sit still.”
The next moment my mind flashes with pain as the arrow is ripped unceremoniously out from my leg. Before I can complain, she pours some sort of green liquid onto the wound. To my surprise, the pain almost immediately melts away, giving my leg a relaxing, cooling sensation.
I sigh out in relief. Unfortunately, it seems the liquid hasn’t done anything for the bleeding or the actual wound at all, though that’s not to say I appreciate the lack of pain.
Next she pulls out a thread and needle, and begins to sew the wound shut. She then gives me some sort of red potion to drink, which I oblige.
“The next few days, that leg is going to feel a bit itchy, but whatever you do, DO NOT ITCH IT. I won’t be giving you any more potions to fix it if you do. Am I understood?”
I nod repeatedly.
“Good, now what’s up with the big guy on the floor over there? Does he need any medical attention?” She asks.
“Uhm, I’m not really sure to be honest. I think he has some sort of self-healing skill or something. I would check his back though to be sure. Got a knife lodged in there not to long ago.” I reply.
“I see…”
She then walks over to him, and pulls his raggedy shirt up to reveals a whole host of scars, but no wounds.
“Welp, I’m not seeing any blood your friend here looks like he’s fine for the time being.”
I nod at this and ask, “What about Gael? Is he going to be alright?”
She sighs before replying, “Yeah he’ll be fine, probably would’ve been fine even if you hadn’t brought him over. He just needs to rest a bit and he’ll be as good as new. I gave a spirit revitalizer just in case though. He’s lucky he didn’t use any more spiritual energy than he did, just a little more and the news I would sharing right now would be a lot more grim.”
“When do you think he’ll wake up?”
“Should be sometime tomorrow. For now though, I suggest you take a shower and head to bed. I’ll be honest the lot of you look like shit.”
“I can imagine…”
She once again sighs, “Tomorrow though, I want an explanation of what the hell you guys are doing here. I’m Bretta by the way.”
“Rowan, and the big guy is Garut.”
She nods, “Okay well it’s nice to meet you. The guest bathroom is at the end of the hall, and I’ve got another guest bedroom with two more beds to the right of it.”
She then leaves, blanketing the room in silence.
Groaning, I stand up and stretch, careful not to put too much weight on my injured leg. Though, she didn’t say I had to be careful with it, I’d rather be safe than sorry.
I walk slowly towards the bathroom and take a shower. I practically melt in the shower, washing of not only the dirt but the fatigue that has built up over these past few weeks without almost any breaks.
‘Man I’ve barely even had time to train or anything.’ I think to myself as I think about everything that’s taken place this past month.
Not even a month ago I was relaxing in a forest, with nothing but the wind in my face and my sword in my hand.
Eventually my mind turns to Uncle Moren. As much as I want to ignore him and just keep moving and doing things to distract myself, at some point, I’ll have to confront my feeling about his death.
That time isn’t now though, as my mind is too tired to really think about anything.
I walk out of the shower and into the guest room with two beds like a zombie. I collapse onto the bed on the right and in an instant, I fall asleep.
The next morning, I wake up feeling better than I have in weeks, maybe even months. I stretch and yawn, looking to my left to see a passed out Garut snoring loudly.
I stand up and head to the bathroom briefly, before walking outside into the backyard to do some exercises.
First I do some basic sword swings to loosen my body and mind. This is a great tool to balance my thoughts relax my body a bit.
After that, I sit down with my sword on my lap and begin training my Item Understanding mastery. I do this by looking closely at every detail I can, and visualizing that detail in my head.
A small scratch towards the base of the sword, each ridge and groove on the leather wrapping around the hilt, I take in every detail possible.
Once that’s done, I begin meditating on what my element could possibly be. This is a question I’ve been really thinking about these past couple of weeks, and if anything, the more I think about it, the harder it becomes to answer.
‘I know Uncle Moren said that I’ll unconsciously choose the element that right for me, but I can’t help but be paralyzed with indecision. After all, what happens if I somehow choose wrong? Then what?’
I’m broken from my musings by a hand on my shoulder. Looking back I see Garut gesturing back towards the house.
I sigh.
‘Alright, time for relaxation is over I guess.’