"Are you okay?" Llana's still gentle voice rang out with a question. Her squinted eyes seemed to be concerned as she looked me up and down.
"Yeah, I feel... better." I answered, covering my head with my hand and putting on my best didn't just relive the memory of my death face. There was a lot to consider, now that the... truth behind my situation had been uncovered. I revised my memories of the past couple hours with a better grasp of the situation, although there wasn't much of a grasp to start off with. New body, new voice, tribe 'healers' glowing green eyes. These facts of my new situation had a whole new meaning now.
"!" Llana gasped beside me and I turned to see her ghostly eyes wide open staring at me with the same look she had when we were outside with the giant before. She grabbed my head with both hands and started to inspect every inch of it, turning it left and right as she did.
"Wh-what?" I struggled to ask as she threw my head around.
"It's still there." She answered.
"What is?"
"The fog in your head. The herbs, they didn't help." She said as she went back towards the shelves at the far side of the room.
"Fog?" I asked, turning up my eyes to see no such thing.
"My eyes. That's why a healer is given the title, they can see the fog in someone's body. The one in your head is much thicker and darker than I've ever seen before though. Honestly I'm surprised you can act normal even right now." She said walking back with a few alarmingly sharp metal instruments. "I'm afraid there's no other choice." She said as she walked towards me how I imagined a lion would look walking towards its next prey.
"I-I FEEL FINE!" I yelled, startling her as she jumped back a few inches. "W-well my head hurts s-sure, and I don't really remember much from before I woke up in the snow... b-but yeah what if it's just amnesia? I think I just might have amnesia! Maybe that's what you're seeing with your eyes."
"Amnesia?"
"Yeah, you know, like when you hit your head really hard and lose your memories for a while."
"Hmm" The woman brought her hand up to her chin in a thinking position as if mulling over the possibility.
"I've never heard of this 'Anisha' thing that you're talking about." She said, staring at me with a straight face.
'Then why did you look like you were thinking about it so hard?? And why are you pronouncing it wrong the second time? You had it right before!' I shouted inwardly, my face contorting at her Idiocy.
"I'm only testing you, kid, don't get so judge-y on me all of a sudden. If you did have amnesia, that could explain it as well as why you're completely fine right now when most people would have been convulsing in pain if they hadn't already lost consciousness."
"But what it doesn't explain." Her eyes turned serious and her voice cold. "Is how some kid like you knows what the hell amnesia even is."
"That's something that even most constable healers won't know of. So how the hell does someone like yo-" Her voice was cut off by a bang at the front door that immediately caved in, allowing the giant from before to rush in with both the village chief and a dark-skinned woman in his arms who looked as frail as a twig.
"Llana! Usra, sh-she's-" The giant spoke in a vastly different tone than what I'd ever heard from him earlier.
"What, now?" The lady creased her eyebrows as her eyes glossed over the door that had been broken from their entrance. Seeing the multiple layers of nails and uneven wood I figured it wasn't the first time this had happened.
"Well, what are you waiting for? Lay her down." Llana urged them toward me, and I rolled out of the bed to get out of the way. It was only when they lay her down on the bed that I saw the lump in her stomach. Her face was tinged bright red as she seemed to be struggling to breathe as tears streamed down her face. The velvet red kirtle that wrapped around her body seemed to be too tight for a woman so pregnant to bear and I was in awe that she would be wearing such a thing given how far she was into her pregnancy.
"To think this would happen right now of all times. What timing." Llana's eyes looked over to me as she said those words.
"What do you think I did!? You think I got her pregnant or something?" I yelped out loud in response to her suspicious eyes. Both the village chief and the giant turned to stare at me in confusion as I spoke those words.
"Unh, AAH!" It was only when she howled out in pain once again did their attention turn back to the woman on the bed.
"Usra, I'm going to need you to hold on for a bit, ok?" Llana gripped the woman's hand tightly and returned to her gentle motherly tone as she started to unravel the strings tying together the woman's gown before removing the corset underneath. "Tetsu, bring me some moon dates and remon from my workspace." The giant nodded and hurriedly walked over to a corner of the room where there were plenty of plants and seeds spread out in abundance before coming back with a large bowl of mysterious fruit and some yellow paste in a jar. "Wearing such a thing when you're pregnant, what are you trying to get your child killed!?" Llana mumbled to herself as she grabbed a white sheet from the cart beside her and covered the now thinly clothed woman before turning to the giant who had now returned.
"I told you some! This is enough to knock out a baby troll are you trying to help her or kill her instead!?" Llana scolded the giant while grabbing only a few of the ingredients off his hands before shoving the excess into his arms. She quickly grabbed a mixing bowl from the cart beside her and crushed together the ingredients until it had become a dull purple paste giving off the scent of Lavendar which permeated throughout the room.
There was no time, however, for anyone to enjoy the smell as the woman continued to groan albeit in a more muffled manner. Llana grabbed a fistful of the paste from the bowl before holding her hand over the woman's mouth and squeezing the paste into her mouth in a way my modernized idea of hygiene could only be disgusted by. Llana reached out to grab the woman's hand once more.
"That should help the pain a bit, but this next part is going to be the hardest." Llana looked softly down at the woman. "You're going to have to start pushing now. Don't worry about anything else but pushing, alright? I'll be right here to help if anything happens." The woman nodded jaggedly in response to Llana words and her face contorted further as she began to start pushing.
"Is there anything else that I can do?" The giant asked Llana in a deep and worried voice.
"Nothing now, all we can do now is watch her and hope for the best." Llana responded as her eyes opened slightly, revealing once more her glowing eyes underneath. She continued to study the woman up and down every so often, doing so twice over if she were to moan too loudly or grunt in pain too often. All the while moving her hands to different spots as she did so which lit up giving some relief to the woman every time she did so.
- Tok Tok - A knocking sounded from next to where the door had once been at the entrance of the cabin and a man peeked into the room from outside. He sported a comically thick, brown moustache and wore a monocle alongside it that made him look like the real-life version of Mr. Monopoly.
The Village Chief immediately rose up from his chair by the woman's bedside to greet the man. "Chamberlain Edgar! I am so terribly sorry for the interruption. I assure you that had it been anyone else we would not have had to stop the meeting so abrupt-"
"Nonsense! All is fine friend; how could I be so cruel as to not be accommodating of such unpredictable circumstances? And after all this meeting would be pointless without the one in charge of half the job to be there." The bespectacled man replied with a smile. The village chief simply bowed before looking up and responding with his own glib smile as I stood there frightened at the explosive lack of genuineness in the two men's expressions. "So, how is she holding up?" The bespectacled man quickly dropped his smile and asked in seriousness. As he walked further in to inspect the woman on the bed I spotted the three boys from earlier quickly running past the entrance hiding behind trees as they did so, seemingly looking to circle around to the other side of the cabin without being spotted.
"She'll be fine, she has the best healer in all of the northern tribes with her after all." Llana spoke absent-mindedly as she continued to perform her 'healing' on the pregnant woman.
"UNNNH" The pregnant woman groaned once more but this time with a lot more strength as she pulled her body closer together, giving a final push.
"Come on Usra, you're almost there." Llana clasped more tightly on her hand as she lifted her free one off of the woman's stomach, giving her space to make the final push. The woman groaned out loud one final time as Llana lifted the end of the sheet covering her and stuck her hands in before pulling out an infant barely the size of her small arms. "Tetsu." Llana turned to the giant and he nodded before swiping his finger on the umbilical chord, cutting it clean off the child. The strange action shocked me but even more so was the outcome that made very little sense. I hurriedly focused harder on the giant's finger only to see a small glint on the finger he'd just used that quickly disappeared as if nothing had been there in the first place.
"Wh-why isn't she crying?" The woman I could infer went by the name of Usra cried out to Llana as she reached out her quivering arms in a gesture that said, 'give me the baby'.
"Hold on." Llana responded abruptly before opening her glowing eyes and inspecting the baby up and down, turning it slightly as she did. Her eyebrows only furrowed more deeply as she did and the baby was unreactive to anything she did no matter where she pushed in her glowing hands. It was then that I saw something exceptionally unnatural hovering above the infant's head that sent goosebumps straight through my heart. Llana continued to try a myriad of different things; turning the child upside down, patting it's back, rubbing different places with her glowing hands but nothing gathered any response from the infant as the faces of all those present began to darken barring the Village Chief and Monopoly Man who seemed entirely indifferent to the scene. Usra especially looked heartbroken as she profusely cried aloud, putting her head down in her bosom no longer being able to look her still child directly with her eye. The giant clenched his fist in helplessness as he also looked down to the ground. From the window behind the bed I spotted the three boys from earlier just out of sight of the village chief and monopoly man looking down in sympathy at the scene as well.
"Usra... I'm sorry... I-" Llana started to speak.
"Can I try something?" I blurted out, my legs having moved on their own already haven taken me right to the middle of the scene. Everyone in the room turned to stare at me again, even the crying mother and giant looked up from the ground to look me in the eye and I felt a streak of anxiety crawl into my heart. 'Use {Prime Healing: lvl 3}?' Those computer-like words were what I saw hovering above the still child in front of me since she was first pulled out of the mourning mother. It wasn't too difficult to surmise what those words could mean but at this point there was nothing guaranteed. For all I knew this new world me had really hit my head and completely lost my mind, now seeing things in the sky that weren't really there. If I was wrong about this then I would just be giving them hope before ripping it away once more, a fate worse than just simple despair. But for all the risk it involved I couldn't just sit still without knowing for sure that I was helpless when a child so young could possibly be saved.
"What do you mean try something!?" Llana immediately began to scream back at me in what I couldn't distinguish as pride or weariness.
"C-can you save him? Please! If you can do anything for my baby I'll do anything just save him!" Usra began to beg me in desperation which only further deepened the guilt in me. "Usra!? We don't know who the hell this even is!" Llana turned to shout at her but she was quick to respond. "So what we should just ignore the chance that she could help!? We should just accept that my baby is dead!? How is that any better!?" Llana's ferocious eyes darted between Usra and me before finally she exhaled in relentment and the woman turned back towards me in expectation. Extreme anxiety enveloped me as I walked closer to inspect the baby up close, seeing how pale and lifeless it had become in the short while I had spent watching the situation unfold like a wallflower. Many thoughts flooded my mind at the time telling me I never should have involved myself in this, that I should've stayed content as a spectator from the sidelines as I often had been. But all it took was one good look at the slightly quivering hand of the infant that struggled for life to push all those thoughts away as I brought my hands up over the infant's head and heart, remembering in my mind the sight of Llana releasing the green light from her palms but to no avail. I continued focusing deeply on the light in my mind that soon transformed from green to a golden red as a familiar but strange memory returned to my mind.
I was in the same pit of snow that I had been where the village chief and the other boys had been to rescue me. But this time, I was alone. I remembered pain of all kinds: stinging, aching, stabbing, and worse eating at all parts of my body. But suddenly an angelic rose-gold light began to emit from my body, enveloping me along with the same type of computer-like words hovering above me, but this time reading a different message.
[Host injury detected] ... [Immediate medical attention required] ... [Host status: Inadvisable] ... [Unallocated skill points: 10] ...
[Allocating 3 skill points to {Prime Healing: lvl 0}] ... [ {Prime Healing: lvl 0 --> lvl 3] ... [Unallocated skill points: 7] ...
[Using {Prime Healing: lvl 3} on host vessel] ....
As the light enveloped me my pain began to fade at a perceptibly fast rate and my body began to click back into place relieving me of my discomfort. And as my body healed, I fell back into a deep slumber.
I opened my eyes now with the awakened memory and replicated the same feeling of emission from the memory through my palms. As I did so the very same rose-gold light poured out of my hands and shone brightly in the room around me, dying the cabin in a shade of bright light as the faces of those around me froze up in shock. Llana's face was especially so, as her usually closed green eyes were now completely open, without any of usual twitching that occurred when she left them open so wide. The bright light faded away from the cabin as it slowly sunk into the infant, returning a bright pink to his face and a healthy glow in the rest of his body. Within a few seconds, the infant began to snort and wriggle around in Llana's arms, seemingly giggling at her confounded expression. Usra was quick to snatch the baby out of Llana's hands, all the while crying out in happiness as she brought the baby closer into her embrace. "Thank you! Thank you..." Usra repeated as she cradled the child in her arms.
Color returned to the faces of those present, the giant himself stared at me fiercely with wide eyes and it was only when I glanced at him briefly did, he turn his face away from me, his cheeks flushing red as he did so. The Village Chief as well as the monopoly man also stared holes into me only they did not turn away when I started to act uncomfortable at their silent gaze. It was only when the baby began to cry out did the Village Chief redirect his attention back to it as he began to walk forward reaching out his hands to hold it, no doubt to make a good impression on the monopoly man behind him.
"Here, Usra, let me-" The Village Chief started. "NO!" Usra speedily pulled the baby closer into her arms, away from the village chief as she looked at him the way a cornered rabbit would stare at a wolf. The village chief froze up in shock, as he turned his face slightly and looked at her intently, communicating something with his eyes. Usra, quickly returned to her relaxed state and allowed the baby to sit comfortably on her lap as he was before. "Sorry, it's just, I couldn't bear to let him out of my hands. Especially with what we've just been through, surely you understand." Usra began to backtrack suspiciously as me, the giant and monopoly man were the only ones who seemed confused by her sudden outburst.
"Of course, of course. I understand." The Village Chief spoke succinctly with a continued exaggerated smile as he backed up to his earlier position. "Well, Chamberlain Edgar, as you can see, the situation here has all been dealt with nicely. I don't mean to rush you, but me and my healers here have some very urgent business to discuss." The Village Chief said as his eyes moved between Llana and me. "So, I will let Tetsu here escort you here back to your quarters while we finish up. I will send for you tomorrow where we can hopefully finish our own business discussion." The Village Chief said towards the monopoly man as he gestured for the giant to guide him home.
"As far as I was aware your village only had one healer, however? I don't mean to be abrasive Chief, but this is the first I'm hearing of this." The monopoly man said as he eyed me up and down like a trophy. I cringed in discomfort at both of their gazes. It was only then I was reminded of the body I was in now.
"Yes, well the girl was still in training, so this is the first I am hearing about this as well, isn't that right, girl?" The Village Chief looked me and Llana in the eyes with the same fierce look he had given Usra moments prior.
"Uhh, yeah. I'ts the first time I've used it in public. Master Llana had told me not to do so until I was finished with training, but it just couldn't be helped. Right, teacher?" I quickly came up with my story on the spot and left the rest up to Llana who seemed to be struggling at my tossing of the job on her.
"Y-yes." Llana spoke. "When I said we didn't know who she was, I meant that we had no idea who she was as a healer. Healers have many different identities. Like strengthening, revitalizing, and mending. And we still hadn't figured out what kind she was yet." She quickly added. 'Impressive!' I thought at her swift story-weaving ability. It seems that there was no stranger to lying in this room.
"Is that so, well, this must be quite the day for the both of you then!" The monopoly man laughed heartily after he spoke before turning to follow the giant who waited for him outside. "Then, I will see you tomorrow. And don't decide to give birth next time alright?" The monopoly man joked as he left, his eyes lingering on me in regret as he left.
The Village Chief eyed the man as he left until he got far enough to no longer be able to hear us speak. As soon as the monopoly man was out of ear shot, I felt the eyes of everyone in the room turn to me. It was time for the interrogation to start...
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"Good morning Llana!" The pony-tailed beauty from the mountain started her day once more greeting Llana the grump with a deep bow as soon as she arrived. And once again Llana simply ignored her, instead choosing to keep her head buried down in books while responding with an absent-minded "Un". The beauty looked like she had no problem with it, though, as she simply walked past her into the back garden to start tending to the plants for the day. 'Can't she at least say hi?' I thought as I continued to swing my stick downwards, accidentally pushing my body a bit too far forward and toppling down into the snow below.
"Mmmph. MMMMPFF." I started to shout aloud while frantically moving my arms in an attempt to find something solid to push myself off of. It wasn't long though before I was grabbed violently by the back of my tunic and pulled up savagely from behind.
"Distracted by the White-haired Beauty again, huh?" A mischievous voice asked from behind me.
"N-no. I'm just not used to practicing in this snow..." I responded, stuttering through my words as my vision moved towards the garden where she was working.
"Not used to the snow? Strange, I figure you'd get used to it after, I don't know, living on it for 16 years~." Arton replied incredulously to my perfectly reasonable excuse.
"No, this snow I said. The snow here is way more... weak. I don't get why Llana had us move our practice to back here anyways. I was completely fine training where goddesses would keep on falling from the sky." I responded with resolution.
"Hey, Reltin! Arton! Get back to training. We're already a couple weeks behind the other groups on training from your little distractions the last fifty times we've done this." Tetsu shouted from a few feet behind us as he continued swinging his wooden pole in quick repetition without missing a beat.
"Yes sir! ~" Arton replied jokingly, his eyes moving to Llana who was writing down something at the windowsill of the cabin facing us.
"That training freak..." I mumbled aloud only loud enough for Arton to hear.
"You know what I think?" Arton asked.
"Huh?"
"About why we moved training areas." Arton spoke again. "I think Llana doesn't buy Princess Beauty's story about losing her past. And if that really is the case, why else would she lie than to hide something?"
"Hide something? Something... Like what?" I asked, urging him to continue.
"An invasion?" He answered in a speculative tone.
"Invasion!?" I yelped incredulously and swallowed a lump of saliva as I stared closer at the beauty's serene figure.
Arton hit my shoulder roughly after I yelped. "Hey, quiet down there Reltin." He said, indicating stealthily with his head towards Llana who I saw was now staring at me. She soon turned her attention back towards her book after I greeted her gaze with a nod and a smile.
"What do you mean invasion?" I asked in a more hushed tone, still unable to hide the anxiety in my voice as I imagined a swarm of armored soldiers on warhorses charging through the village.
"What if she's a scout? Like someone sent to infiltrate enemy lines, see what we're made of and all that." Arton replied.
I panicked inwardly at the prospect but soon reigned in my terror as I indulged in the sight of her gentle, blue eyes and soft, mesmerizing smile as she continued to happily pick the plants in the garden. Arton nudged me hard at the shoulder again. "Hey, don't get distracted by her beauty man. That's probably exactly what they want sending someone like her."
"Huh, how did you..." I looked back at Arton's piercing eyes in shock.
"You're drooling, creep." He said in a serious and disgusted tone, pointing at the drop running down to my chin. I hurriedly wiped it off with my shoulder as he continued speaking. "Maybe it's her that needs to be worried about being attacked instead of us..."
"No way, Elvi wouldn't do that kind of thing." I replied to him ignoring his last remark. "Plus, didn't Llana say that she saw the uhh... the thing in her head that proves that she's telling the truth?" I added on.
"What? The fog?" Arton asked. "Yeah." I answered to which Arton simply shrugged and turned to look at Llana once more. "Maybe there's something she knows that we don't." He said still eyeing her. As if on cue, Llana looked towards us and started to smile. I gasped in shock, there was no way she was just doing that randomly, she must've heard everything! What Arton said was tru-
- Wap - Suddenly a hand the weight of steel fell onto my shoulder and made its way up to the back of my collar before tightening around it and pulling me up, suspending me in the air. On my right, I saw Arton who hung in silence in the same situation. "I thought I told you two to get back to practice..." Tetsu growled from behind us as he held us in the air like two sacks of potatoes. Llana began to laugh as she looked at us and I realized too late what she had been smiling about before.
"Ugh...Let...ech...me...down!" I said, as I grunted while flailing around my arms and legs to make it as difficult for him to hold on to me as possible. "Yeah, we get it already. One-hundred and fifty swings, we'll do it now but we can't if you don't let us go." Arton added on, hanging by his collar in peace while crossing his arms as I continued to struggle in Tetsu's grip.
"One-Hundred and Fifty? Is that what I said? Huh, I'm not sure. I'm thinking now that I said Three Hundred." Tetsu mused as he tilted his head towards one side feigning ignorance. "What!? There's no way that's fair! I'm sorry I'll go back to it right now I swear just please go back to One-Hundred and Fifty." I pleaded while looking Arton's way, telling him with my eyes to do the same. "Yeah, please." He looked back at me before rolling his eyes and adding.
"Starting now." Tetsu commanded authoritatively, as he dropped us both back onto the snow and walked back to Rafal who still swung his stick as if a fisherman handling a sea monster. Tetsu walked behind him to straighten his posture and fix his grip on the stick.
"It's an older brother's job to be doing stuff like that, why's it gotta be me taking orders and him leading the group? Elder Souan must have been tricked by that guy somehow." I spoke out in unhidden jealousy as I watched him help Rafal perfect his form and corrected my own form from his tips as he gave them to him. "Damn him, why does he have to be so good at this." I added, annoyed at his competence. "Heh." Arton simply smiled from beside me as he continued to swing his own stick...
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