We placed Gathas on one of the hospital beds as instructed by one of the healers. I looked around but couldn't see Dayana anywhere.
Ba-dump, Ba-dump
"Hello, my name is Dayana and I'll be your healer for today, what seems to be the problem?"
I turned around to see Dayana standing right behind me. Her beautiful eyes gave me a quick glance before heading to the hospital bed where Gathas laid.
"You look very pale, young man. Where does it hurt!"
"My arms and legs..."
"Could you take these armour plating off? I need to see the damage." Her voice were stern and directed toward us.
We complied and took the plating off Gathas and as we did, Gathas let's out a gruntled groan.
"Oh my, those are some heavy bruising. I need to apply ointment on them as soon as possible," she diagnosed as she peeled off his sleeves and pants leggings to reveal his bruised flesh underneath.
She turned around and went over to a shelf, looked around until she found a group of jars she wanted. She brought them back over and started to open them. Floral and spiced scent wafted into my nostrils as she dipped two fingers into the solution and started to apply it on to the bruised area.
"What happened to him?" She asked as she rubbed the ointment meticulously. "Why is he in such a state?"
"I'm the one at fault, I caused the bruising with my rapier when we had a duel not long ago."
"I see. No harm done then."
"Huh?" Me, Grayson and Gathas who was in pain and only made an audible sound said in unison.
"Yes, whilst the bruising looked gruesome at first sight, the ointment I used to disinfect the area lessened which means these are only bruises and nothing severe. Once I apply the ointments, the bruises will dissipate and lessen the pain. I would prescribe an ointment for him to rub on to the bruised area for the next couple days."
Once she finished applying the ointments, she placed a cloth looking thing over the areas and wrapped them with bandages.
"My arms and legs feels like they are burning, healer."
"Then the ointments is working. Do you feel any pain right now?"
"No? Just the burning sensation."
"Then you'll be fine."
"Now then, let me check yours."
Dayana turned around and looked at me.
"Take off your plating."
"I uh... I don't have any injuries."
"Nonsense. Everyone always gets injured in a duel. No one is an exception. Now let me see it." She pouted.
I undid the plating and then drop to the ground with a 'thump' and Dayana walked over as quickly as she could and started to check every single area on my body, arms and legs.
"Thank god, no injuries," she muttered under her breath as she continued to run her delicate warm hands over my body.
Once she finished, she wrapped her arms around me in an warm embrace.
"Tell me next time if you're going to fight.
There should always be a healer present when conducting a duel or any sought of fighting. It's protocol."
"I'll keep that in mind."
"No." She shook her head against my chest. "Promise me."
"I promise," I proclaimed as I tilted my head down to look at her beautiful face staring back up at me, her eyes glossy.
"Good," she exclaimed and place both her hands onto my shoulders to lift herself up to kiss me.
"Do you have any injuries, you want me to look at?" Dayana said, her head turned towards Grayson, her body still clung to mine.
"Nope!" Grayson exclaimed.
"Good. I'll look after Mr. Hallows here, you guys can go."
We both walked out of the hospital wing with many healers looking at us from their work station and whispering loudly about me and Dayana.
"These nosy and rude healers... how dare they say those things to my captain and sister-in-law." Grayson muttered under his breath as we walked pass them, I just raised an eyebrow at his comment.
Sister-in-law? Why does love o2o comes to mind... I looked at Grayson again and now I have the drama in my mind, he kind of resembles Yu Banshan or old man Yu.
Once we were out of the door and walked down the hallway, Grayson probed me.
"I see now why you didn't just heal Gathas back at the training grounds. You wanted to go to the hospital wing to see her. I get it. I remembered when me and Loc ran over to the hospital wing to find a healer to heal you; she was the only who jumped out of her chair when we mentioned your name and she immediately replied that 'she would go' in a heavy worried tone."
"Ah yes you caught me." I raised my hands up in surrender. "Wait! What do you mean by what you just said?"
I didn't know what he had implied but if what he said is true, why would Dayana be worried about me? Someone who had been here only a mere day ago...
"I have no idea... maybe she saw you at the summoning platform and it was love at first sight? You were only summoned a few days ago and I believe the incident happened on the second day? Maybe and this is just a theory, she met you in a previous life and now she returned to see you again? It's just a theory though, don't think too much about it... I mean is it even possible for someone to return back to life but at an earlier or specific date? Sounds like time travelling and that's ancient magic so..."
"Ancient magic?" I inquired, a lot of what Grayson had said has happened to me which are not theory but fact. If this was true for Dayana as well, how and why? She seemed to have feelings for me from the very start, did she have them in my previous life? So many questions, maybe one day they will get answered.
"Magic that preexisted the present day's. Magic that's unrefined, raw in nature. Magic that's only known in legends and stories. My Mum told me these legends when I was a kid, she often research them since she's a renowned sorceress. I often get bored when she goes all teacher mode when telling me about the history of magic but the legends intrigued me."
"So why are you a guard? It seemed you'll be set if your mother teaches magic."
"I became a guard because I have no magical affinity. My father's a swordsman so he taught me swordcraft. And besides if I hadn't become a guard, I wouldn't have met the prince or you my captain."
"Do you enjoy being a guard?"
"What's not to enjoy? I've been a guard for a very long time, I've experienced so many things and made many friends who I would die for. A job is not a job if you enjoy what you do."
"A job is not a job if you enjoy what you do? Wow that's a nice saying."
"I learnt it from one of my pals from my academy days, he's gone now, Rest In Peace but he was a intriguing fellow. Man I miss him. Now shall we head back to the training grounds?"
I remembered that Garrett and Sara had asked me to visit the kitchens because apparently the chefs likes my food? Still don't know how they knew about it...
"No you go back, I'll make my way down to the kitchens."
"The kitchens?"
"Don't worry about it..." I shook my head.
"Alright sir, I'll see you first thing tomorrow."
"What you mean first thing tomorrow?"
"Your the assistant teacher for the new recruits remember? We just had a duel about it..."
"Oh right... yeah I'll see you tomorrow."
"Have a great day sir."
"You too."
I walked down the hallway to the lower depths where the kitchen is located. As I got closer to the kitchen, a waft of intricate fragrant scents assaulted my nostrils and flooded my mouth with saliva.
I knocked on the door and wait for a reply.
"Who is it?! Another delivery?" A loud hoarsely voice pierced through the door.
"Eh... I was told to come here by Garrett and Sara!"
Suddenly the door flew open and a burly man with a bushy beard towered over me. He was tall and had a black apron on.
"Would you like to come in? We are preparing lunch right now and your more than welcome to have something to eat whilst we have a little chat."
"Sure..." I hesitantly replied but as soon as I followed him through the door, I was bombarded by the smells of smoke from the fire pits to the sounds of sizzling meat on the pan. The amount of food I could see in the kitchen could easily turn me into the deadly, gluttony, if I was allowed to sample all of these.
The chef guided me to a seat near a table with a variety of food laid out.
"Try some, see if it's too your liking."
Oh my wildest dreams have come true. I'm not a fatty, is what I told myself but I would never deny anyone that offers me food.
I sat on the table and took my first bite of a sandwich that looked like a more lavishly crafted egg curry sandwich. My mouth bursting with flavour.
"Now then. Let's have a little chat. I am the head chef of this kitchen, Voss Jando. We are a kitchen that pride ourselves food creation for his majesty. Which is why we have security protocols in place..."
A shiver ran down my spine as he said security protocol. It felt like I was caught red handed and was now being judged by the authorities. What made it worse was the fact that, the table we were sitting at was the same one me and Loc sat at last night.
Shit...
"... our kitchen is high priority in the king's eyes and not just anyone can come in here..."
Uh oh...
"... one of the guards that escort us to the kitchens could use phantom imagery and to our surprise some one was using our kitchen. What's more surprising was the food he created with methods I've never seen before. I had one of my chefs who has a skill that recreate things in absolute, to recreate your dishes. While the dishes looked simple, they were anything but... the taste was complex and well refined. It was exotic too. We made a report to the king that we had a inspiration of a few dishes and he wanted to taste these dishes. We neglected to tell him about you or that you had trespassed in the kitchen. And don't worry about the guard, he is on our side since we give him free food. We ask you Mr Huang, please help us to recreate those dishes."
I didn't know what to say, the chef covered my ass and I mean I was fine in help them in recreating my dishes but it's taste are home made at best. What he said about it being complex and well refined led me to believe that this could be a test and soon guards would come in and take me to the king but when I looked at Voss, he seemed to be sincere.
"Sure, if I'm not in trouble than absolutely."
"Great! Let's get this show on the road. The king can be a bit inpatient when it comes to food. Alrand come here!"