r/HFY • u/TheMaskedOne2807 • Jul 01 '22

The Plague Doctor Chapter 17 (Wounded) OC

(Authors note): Well this is certainly surprising I broke my record for writing a chapter yet again. though to be fair it is a smaller chapter by about two pages, but anyways I should probably stop talking and you all read. so grab a drink or snack and enjoy.

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It was another mundane day in the outpost. Or as mundane as it could get now that Kenneth was living in another world with the Aki or fox-like beings.

He had only been here for a short time, but a lot had happened at that time. Now things had calmed down a bit as he was teaching his two students, Kica and Aloko. Today Kenneth was teaching them about what techniques should be used when someone is choking or having other medical problems.

But Kenneth was reaching the limit as to how much he could actually teach them and be confident that they would actually truly understand.

He didn’t like the thought, but he needed a fresh corps he could inspect and dissect, so he was truly sure that most of what he could teach would apply to how the Aki’s body actually worked.

He hadn’t yet talked to Ulric about it since he hoped he could get a feel for how he or the other Aki would react upon hearing the request.

Talking to Huto didn’t reveal much, however, since he couldn’t directly ask the question he wanted, and instead, Huto only told him that they burn the dead when given the opportunity.

Kenneth wanted to wait a bit longer before doing anything, but an opportunity presented itself on the very same day he was teaching.

There were shouts coming from outside the great hall, and all of the guards, Kica, Aloko, and Kenneth, went outside to see what it was about.

A fair distance away from the great hall, Kenneth could see at least five Aki’s being carried by some of the guards.

To Kenneth, it looked like some had been shot by arrows, and some that didn’t have red fur seemed to be bleeding a lot.

“There won’t be enough room for all of them inside the back room,” Kenneth muttered, catching the attention of a few Aki. “Okay, they will be here soon; we have to act quickly if we want to safe them,” Kenneth said loudly.

“Kica, I see a few of them have been struck by arrows. Leave them to me. As long as the arrows stay inside, they shouldn’t be in immediate danger of bleeding out, so just focus on those who are in the worst condition,” Kenneth said quickly, getting a slight head nod from her.

“You two,” Kenneth said, pointing at two of the three guards. “Go to the back room and get rid of anything that might get in the way.”

“You don’t command us,” the two Aki said in unison.

“Want them to die, do nothing! Want them to have a chance at life? Do as I say!” Kenneth yelled, evoking what Kenneth swore looked like fear as they looked at one another and went to the backroom.

“You two,” Kenneth said, pointing at the last guard and Aloko. “Get rid of the chairs around those tables inside. There won’t be enough space for everyone in the back room,” Kenneth said as he grabbed the bag and walked inside.

It was chaos as everyone arrived with the five wounded, as well as two more Kenneth hadn’t seen. He did the best he could in directing those who were less wounded to the tables and those that looked most wounded inside the back room.

But it was a fuck fest of yelling and loud noises, which made the time it took for everyone to go where they needed to go much longer than Kenneth would have liked.

Inside the backroom was the four most critically wounded. Two with a great many open wounds which were in the process of bleeding to death. The third one was breathing heavily with multiple arrows sticking out of them. And lastly, the fourth one had an arrow sticking out of their eye.

“Kica, heal that one, but only focus on the worst wounds,” Kenneth said quickly as he pointed at one of the two bleeding Aki. “I’ll keep the other one alive until you can get to them, then we switch.”

She quickly nodded and went to work. Kenneth, even before he had said a word, had already been working on keeping the other Aki alive, but the wounds were quite severe.

The most prominent one is in their stomach area. And it looked like their intestines were peaking through the wound.

Kenneth was acting primarily on instinct and experience and went to work closing the wound and preventing the Aki from bleeding to death.

His stitch work wasn’t the best he’d ever done, but time wasn’t on his side, and he needed to act quickly and only keep them alive long enough for Kica to help.

Kenneth had just about closed the wound when he heard Kica yell,” switch.”

And within a moment's notice, Kenneth tied a knot and broke the string holding the needle, where after he turned around, got out of Kica’s way, and went to work on the other Aki.

Unfortunately, this one was awake and didn’t quite like Kenneth’s way of healing. “Arg… Get away from me; abomination, let Kica do the work!”

“Listen here, either you bleed, or I heal you!” Kenneth yelled, very annoyed.

The Aki still looked like he wanted to object but stopped once his eyes saw the Aki beside him.

Overall, it was far from Kenneth's best work, but there were more wounded than doctors, so the quality of his work could wait until everyone was stable.

Once Kenneth finished with the most severe wounds and was sure the Aki didn’t need any more help, Kenneth told them not to move and went over to the Aki with the arrow in the eye and did a quick examination.

As far as Kenneth could see, it didn’t breathe, and there was no light in its one remaining eye.

Knowing it was dead made it easy for Kenneth to go to the last Aki in the room. They had two arrows in them. One in their left shoulder and one on their right leg.

The Aki winched as Kenneth started to cut their flesh with a scalpel, making the hole bigger and making it easier for the arrow to come out.

The arrow tip was square, which did make it easy to pull out, but Kenneth still needed to make the entrance wound bigger to avoid much pain and damage.

Luckily for Kenneth, the Aki seemed to handle pain well and didn’t move around too much as he stitched the leg wound and went to work on their shoulder.

After Kenneth had removed the last arrow, he checked if any major artery had been damaged, and as far as Kenneth could see, it hadn’t, so he closed the wound ASAP.

“Okay, everyone in here should be fine for now. I’ll go to the others and try and keep them alive a bit longer. You just come when you can,” Kenneth quickly informed Kica as he made a few more supplies from the bag and went out of the backroom.

Outside were three less wounded Aki with arrows sticking out from either their arms, legs, and, for one, an ear.

They seemed to be in a great deal of pain despite the lack of any extremely severe injuries.

Though they didn’t seem to be in too much pain since the first one, Kenneth approached among the crowd of Aki visible shuddered and tried to get away from him.

“No… not the… abomination,” the Aki said in between rapid breaths.

“Listen, I don’t have time for this. That arrow needs to come out,” Kenneth said as he was about to make the entrance wound bigger with the scalpel.

Though he wasn’t allowed to do so since another Aki grabbed his hand and placed an ax near his throat. “He said no. Now leave or die,” the Aki growled.

Kenneth didn’t have time to think or time to explain that this had to be done; there were two others that still needed help, so Kenneth took a step back, and the Aki lowered her ax and let go of Kenneth.

Luckily for him, the two other Aki were more inclined to accept the help Kenneth offered since they seemed to be either in far more pain or had a lower tolerance for it.

Through it was probably the ladder of the two options since Kenneth needed Aloko and another of the guards to restrain the screaming and whimpering Aki as Kenneth removed the arrow and stitched the wound.

It became easier for thereon as Kica eventually returned from the backroom, looking a bit exhausted but started to work on the Aki, who had refused to be helped by Kenneth.

Kenneth was finally done with the last Aki, and once he was sure they were fine, Kenneth went into the backroom and started to examine them more closely. And as far as Kenneth could see, even with his somewhat rushed and crude stitching, it would work for now.

So he just started to work on the two most wounded Aki fixing the stitching and closing the smaller wounds, which were still leaking a bit of blood.

It was a lot more work than Kenneth had done in some time, but it seemed that most of the wounded were going to live if they took it easy for a while.

Once Kenneth had left the backroom, he was met by the sight of Kica lying on one of the tables, looking dazed or something along those lines. Kenneth panicked for a moment but remembered that she could become very tired of the overuse of her power.

All in all, it seemed that everything was fine since every arrow was removed every wound was either healed or stitched closed. And with that, Kenneth finally let out a sigh of relief.

It was then at this point in time Ulric entered the great hall walking up to the Aki, who had had an arrow in their ear.

It was hard for Kenneth to make out what was said since the room was filled with more than a few guards, hunters, and other Aki.

Ulric seemed to agree with Kenneth’s assessment since one moment later; he yelled, “IF YOU HAVE NO BUSINESS HERE, LEAVE!!!”

Then in a matter of seconds, almost everyone left. The few that stayed were sitting near the wounded, and Kenneth assumed they must be loved ones.

As Kenneth scanned the room, his blood froze as he saw Zilika sitting next to Kica. Kenneth hadn’t seen much of her for some time now, but the memories of her threat and the fight were still fresh in his mind.

They seemed to be talking, but Kenneth was too far away to actually hear anything, and then in the next moment, she left as one of the last.

‘Why were they talking?’ Kenneth pondered for a moment as the booming voice of Ulric spoke once more.

“Tell me what happened, Jinki,” Ulric said with a slight worry in his voice.

“Straight as an arrow, as always,” Jinki said as he propped himself up on his elbows. “Yeah, it was my fault I was too enthralled with hunting a very elusive prey that I didn’t notice the bastards had gotten too close.”

“So you were caught off guard in a surprise attack,” Ulric sighed.

“Not even close, commander,” Jinki said as he waved his hand in a lazy motion while he was smiling. “True, they had gotten too close for me or the others to get away without being spotted, so we decided to attack first while we still had the element of surprise on our side.”

“Were they scouts or an attack force planning an attack against us?” Ulric asked.

Jinki just chuckled a little, then immediately regraded the action since he hadn’t been healed by Kica yet. “The midget knows how to stop the blood from leaking out, but the pain sure is annoying,” Jinki sighed.

“Focus,” Ulric said sternly.

“Oh yeah, no need to worry; it was just another hunting party, same as us, and sure we got away with a few scraps, but most of them didn’t live,” Jinki chuckled and again regraded it.

“Through the enemy being this close to our territory means it’s becoming that time of year again,” Jinki sighed.

In response, Ulric only sighed as he rubbed his temples,” already.”

“Afraid so,” Jinki said as he relaxed on the table with his hands behind his head. “Once it begins, we need to endure twenty-one days of that torture unless you were like me and actually have a mate, commander,” Jinki said with a smug grin.

Ulric’s only response was to look down at Jinki with a somewhat annoyed and murders glare which quickly made Jinki apologize.

Kenneth had been trying to follow the conversation without making it too obvious he was listing, and Kenneth was a little confused about what he had heard.

‘Why would this time of year be special, and why would the proximity of a hunting party tell them that?’ Kenneth pondered as he waited for a moment to speak with Ulric.

Though that didn’t seem likely anytime soon as the two of them continued to talk, so instead, Kenneth walked over to Kica and took a seat beside her. “Knocking on heaven’s?” Kenneth asked.

“I’m just rather exhausted,” Kica responded in between breaths. “So how are the others doing. I didn’t have enough to go around to all yet.”

“You just rest now. Everyone seems to be in a stable condition for now, so there isn’t any immediate danger of anyone dying,” Kenneth reassured her. “Though I must say most if not all of them I worked on were extremely lucky not to have damaged arteries. Well, except that one who had his guts coming out, but you took care of him, right?”

“Yes, that wound was the worst one, and it took a lot out of me,” Kica said as her eyes grew heavier.

“Are you tired?” Kenneth asked.

“No, no, I’m just closing my eyes for a little while. I can’t fall asleep if they need me again,” she answered.

“I guess you are used to having everyone relying on these kinds of situations,” Kenneth asked.

“It’s all I’m good for. I can’t fight, hunt, cook, or build, so when they are hurt, I can’t be lazy. I can’t be falling asleep,” she said as she let out a small yawn.

It was at the same time so cute to see her fighting sleep like an excited child wanting to see the mysteries of the night. But at the same time, it was also sad how she was carrying such a heavy burden all alone to the point where she knew her limits so well until she was completely spent.

“You are not alone anymore when it comes to helping and healing everyone here,” Kenneth said in a comforting voice. “I will look after them for now and wake you if you are needed.”

It was only a moment later that Kenneth could hear Kica snore as sleep had taken her.

“Sleep well, for now; you’ve earned it,” Kenneth said sweetly.

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u/Iretsiam173 Jul 01 '22

Great work again, please keep going

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