Chapter 5 - The taste of feeling pain again
***
"Mister, will Charles be alright?"
It was clear from the boy's voice that he was worried about his partner in suffering. Moving closer to Lagos, he continued asking him all sorts of things about Vlad's health, making the young man only sigh and explain to him without scaring him.
"Your friend is hurt badly. We can only try to help him recover. Everything else is on his side. If he recovers, you two will be able to play around."
Hearing the man saying that, if his eyes functioned properly, Vlad would be now rolling them, even his facial expression was dead cold, not switching a single emotion.
'Play around? These are interesting words. To think I would be in this situation and be transformed into a lad. Such an unbelievable idea making me act like little Matei and start shouting 'Blasphemy' left and right.'
'Yet, as much I would want to believe this is a stupid dream, I doubt it is an ilusion made by my mind. I died on the battlefield. That is a fact. The Halberd of that peasant pierced my kidney badly that I couldn't recover from such a wound.'
'And now? From what those people kept saying, like that child, my bones have been twisted and broken by that maniac. Was it really necessary to relieve your frustration on a child that could be your son? Sometimes, it makes me wonder if I am the one with more sanity compared to other specimens out there.'
Vlad was having his inner conversation, unsure what was happening to him, but from what Lagos and Arik talked, he was carried to some medical room.
Placing Vlad on a medical table, Lagos could only sigh at this sight of a broken boy, and to not traumatize Arik, he took him to the lower deck, in a cabin of some sailors that were lazing about, leaving the cabin after giving the sailors some instructions.
"Take care of this boy. For now, he is one of the boys we rescued from the sea."
"Don't worry, Lagos, he will be in good hands. Oyy, guys, take some of the cookies for this child. He must be starving. Also, some clean clothes."
The sailor in question ordered the other sailors, exuding some authority of his own, and after Lagos left toward the medical room to assist the old man, the sailors tapped Arik's head, saying in a warm tone.
"You'll be fine now, child. You've escaped from those tyrants and now have a new chance at life."
"Mhm." nodded Arik, beginning to tear up at the warm treatment he received from the sailors who began offering him some oversized clothes.
Nevertheless, they fixed them with some ties without troubling the boy and afterward taking him to a warmer place on the lower deck to dry up.
"What is wrong, boy? Are you worried about your friend?"
"Yes, Charles helped us since the pirates raided our village and orphanage, and because of that he angered the evil pirate, who took him from the room he kept us just so he could beat and torture him."
"Hah, to think there exists such beasts. I knew that pirates had no honor and morality, but to drop so low to relieve your frustration and incompetence on a child. Don't worry, little Anik. Your friend is now in good hands. Boss Patrick has magical hands."
"Thank you for everything and for stopping to help us." mentioned Arik with tears on his eyes, munching on a cookie given by a sailor who sat rather close to listen to his story of how they got captured by slavers.
Everyone, regardless of age from the group of sailors, could only lament in their minds about how despicable the enslavers were.
The name the whole World gave them was befitting them, The Parasites of the Seas.
.
.
On the other hand, before Lagos could return to the medical room, Patrick made his appearance later on, preparing his equipment to bind together or arrange his broken bones.
"Can you hear me, little boy?"
"Yes, my hearing has returned, but not to a normal state. I can still hear some buzzing. Makes me believe I have been cursed." mentioned Vlad as he was placed on his back, with his eyes looking at the ceiling, but he didn't follow anything in particular. They were without life.
"You have to remain calm, boy. If you hear any voice or start hallucinating, it is all because of the trauma you've suffered. It still amazes me how you can talk so calmly in such a situation, where most people would collapse."
"I can only pray, old sir. I got my hearing back and my ability to speak. My mobility might be paralyzed, my eyes might have gone blind, but what use would be for me to lament this? I will leave everything to flow naturally."
"Such a smart boy. However, you are right. You can only let things flow naturally and not force anything."
After picking up his equipment, Patrick took out a cigarette from his pocket and lighted inside the medical room, waiting for Lagos to return, and in the meantime, while smoking, he asked Vlad some probing questions.
"Can you smell this miasma, boy? It should be quite strong for the nose."
"No, I can hear you making some weird noises with your mouth, but I can't smell anything." responded Vlad, who found this question rather strange, but he soon understood what the old gentleman wanted, he was checking the body functions that were failing him right now.
His sense of smell was nowhere to be found. The next thing Patrick checked was Vlad's taste which, to his surprise and even his own, he could pick a bitter, sour taste.
"What I gave you, boy, is a syrup made from lemon, honey, horseradish, and garlic. How is it? Can you pick any flavor from it?"
"I can. There is the bitter taste of the syrup and the hot sensation on my tongue from the garlic and horseradish."
"I see, you have your sense of taste, the hearing. You also remarked feeling the cold temperature of the water, and felt the touch of Lagos, so you have 3 out of 5 senses."
"None of them are vital for someone's survival, except the hearing."
"Ohh, you are mistaken, boy. It is favorable that you have all of them. Missing one is like missing one of God's gifts for us, humans."
"... You are right."
The old man and young child continued talking in a back and forth, and the more Patrick probed on Vlad, the more his interest was picked, as instead of him continuing asking and receiving answers, it was Vlad that started inquiring about the syrup he ingested, if it had any medical properties, later on getting to each individual ingredient used for this concoction.
"We'll have plenty of time to talk about those things if you are curious once we arrive in Picodras. Finally, you got here, Lagos. Did you settle down, the boy?"
Lagos, who returned, nodded his head. Moving toward a bucket of water and using soap, he cleared his hands, showing that they weren't "amateurs" in medicine. Meanwhile, old Patrick took another cigarette that he smoked like a farm boy, vanishing instantly and making Lagos shake his head in a condemning fashion.
"Father, where is the hygiene if you smoke cigarettes in the presence of the wounded?"
"Fuck it, son, don't get me started. It is not like the smoke will harm him. He can't even smell. Anyway, let's get ready. We'll start from the legs and work our way up, understood?"
"Got it." replied Lagos, who arrived at Vlad's side later touching his legs, asking him if he felt something, but Vlad's response was the same.
"Keahaha, It is good he can't feel his body. The pain he would be enduring now would crack his skull. … Bad joke, sorry boy, your head is already cracked. Anyway, you just stay there and be calm. We will ask you to check if you start getting your senses."
Wrapping his hands into some protective gloves, the old man's expression switched into a serious mood, beginning his work on Vlad's body, starting with the first bones of his legs twisted by the slaver.
"Hold his leg stable. I will slowly move his leg to bring it to the right location."
"Yes, father."
Vlad couldn't see what was happening to his body, and with himself concentrating on what they were saying, painted in his mind what procedures they were doing utilizing all his life experience of the human body, and he started regretting utilizing this visualizing method because his broken body was revealed in his mind.
'Poor boy, you gifted me something that will be hard to heal. It will take me years of recovery to be normal again.'
The operation continued even on the night with the father and son working tirelessly to fix Vlad's body, and to their shock and even the small boys, there was a scream of pain from him.
"ARGHHHH, MY LEGS HURTS! WAIT, MY LEGS HURTS? I CAN FEEL MY LEGS!" screamed Vlad, who miraculously gained his lost senses with his legs, but the pain that assailed his mind was piss-inducing.
Both Patrick and Lagos stopped from their work, taking this chance to drink some water and with Patrick smoking another cigarette after some long hours of tense moments.
"How much does it hurt you, child?"
"SO MUCH THAT I COULD ASCEND TO HEAVEN! WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?"
"Boy, clench your teeth, don't be a sissy, we put your legs together, and it seems your nerves weren't damaged that badly. They just couldn't transmit their signals to your brain."
"I don't understand what you are saying."
"You don't have to understand. Just know that you'll be able to walk if you stay put and listen to me in the future. I'll give you some time to cool your head, and afterward, we will go for your hands. They would hurt less, I promise you." remarked Patrick, who went to take a seat, starting smoking from there.
Lagos kept himself busy, cleaning Vlad's bruised body of the sweat he was giving off while also giving him some water to drink, encouraging him that he would be fine by patting his head.
"You'll be healthy again, little boy. We only have to work on your arms and check your spine and ribs. Only after those steps, we'll be done here."
"Thank you, I thank you from the bottom of my heart for helping me. I will not forget about this. Never."
"Hah, it is fine, little guy. You don't need to promise anything."
"Leave him be. If he wants to promise and if it makes him feel better, it is his choice."
After the break was over for Patrick, they continued their operation, resuming from where they stopped, Vlad's upper body, specifically his arms that were in a similar condition like his legs, and after more hours passed, Vlad couldn't carry with the pain he was suffering after his hands gained their motion and released a recital of suffering that kept the entire ship awake.
Some of the sailors even wondered how Vlad was still awake after screaming so much, but the biggest worry lurking at the back of their heads was the danger of alerting a Sea Monster since they anchored their sails for the night, not risking traveling on the troubled waters of the Southernmost Point.
"Yes, yes, you have a nice voice, little guy. It would help me if you could lower your voice for a bit. Not that I fear some Sea Monster, but my ears will hurt after this day."
"Give him a break, father. The little guy is taking this operation like a champion."
"Well, you could say so, but my ears aren't like they used to when I was young."
"There's a little bit more, with his shoulders, and his spine seems to be fine, he only has some broken ribs, those must be hurting him a lot."
"YES, MY STOMACH AREA HURTS! NOT MY ARMS, I COULD GIVE TWO SHITS ABOUT THEM. MY RIBS ARE KILLING ME!"
"Okay, okay. Lagos spread the mentos ointment on his rib cage. It will soothe his pain a bit and allow me to work in peace."
Nodding, Lagos changed gloves and scooped a decent amount of a green ointment that he later spread on Vlad's fragile body that gave a comical reaction on the face of the boy who gained his body motion.
"By Virgin Mary, is that ointment you've put on me the touch of cold? It feels so good, what is that?" asked Vlad with an ecstatic smile that made Patrick laugh that his hands working on the canvas started shaking.
"Kewahaha, what a funny kid. Just look at his face. Boy, you are a big masochist."
"No way, I like hurting people, not getting beaten."
"No, I can tell you are a masochist."
.
.
As the operation continued, the sailors who couldn't sleep because of Vlad's screams of pain finally got a window. When he stopped being a recital maestro, the boys immediately went fast-asleep, starting snoring. Yet Arik and the group of sailors that housed him were closer to the medical room and were pried to hearing the conversation between the old man and young man.
"Little Anik, was your friend, hmmm, this weird?"
"Noo, he would be crying a lot whenever he would be beaten, and his screams of pain were different, scarier. Right now, it is different."
"Maybe he started getting pleasure from pain?" suggested another sailor from this group, looking up the wooden ceiling.
"No fucking way, that boy is only 9 or 10 years old. Right, little Anik?" responded another sailor to the one who suggested such a crazy thought.
"Yes, mister, this is what he told us when we were alone." replied the young boy, Anik, unsure how to respond to those sailors who started gossiping like bitches.
"What if, and I say only with IF's, the boy received such a big head trauma that his personality changed? There are all sorts of strange things in the World, and I heard from the old grandmas in the Islands that when someone is struck by lightning in the head, things are bad.
Either they die or become a different person from God's Wrath, becoming chosen ones ..."
"Go away, man, do you hear yourself? But, … I hate to agree with an idiot like you, but your words might be true. This boy got a personality change and became a scary masochist who enjoys pain."
"Idiot, you don't have to call me an idiot for agreeing with my point. It will just make you a bigger idiot."
"Enough, you guys, go talk about something else. It seems you are having fun at the expense of others, but would you be able to take in what that boy is suffering right now?"
"Captain, are you even asking? We aren't fucked in the head to take such treatment. Ahem, excuse my language."
"Then, go talk about something else?"
"The Bitches from Valent? Oyy, who managed to pick up some of those high ladies from Kaysang?"
"I bet it's Captain Nelson, but he keeps it to himself." replied a sailor who found this subject interesting, to which a man from the center of the lower deck, standing by himself, turned his head, mentioning in a calm tone.
"Go bother someone else, you idiots. Old Patrick is not paying me enough to entertain you."
"Pff, captain, you are such a joy killer. Come on, tell us how to pick up the ladies from Sagletius, Valent, you know those hot babes, not ugly village girls. I myself got tired of them."
"Sometimes, it is better to know your boundaries and how much you can reach. If you are ugly, you can't expect to eat swan meat. Am I wrong?"
"WHAT A BURN!!! Good one, Nelson!" shouted the sailors like some madlads, laughing at the expense of the sailors who tried to pick a word-battle with Nelson, one of the officers picked up by Patrick himself.
.
.
Back to the operation table, Patrick and Lagos could hear the commotion on the lower deck, and with some anger, the old man murmured something that sounded bad that he planned for them.
"It seems those idiots got it easy after staying in Valent for three days. Some even managed to get laid with the beauties. Meanwhile, old me had to stare at ugly hags. What do you think, little Vlad? Do I deserve such treatment?"
"He went fast asleep. Let's not wake him up." said Lagos, who took out a cigarette from the old man sitting on a seat that watched over the operation table where a boy with blemished black hair, cut in a messed up way, was sleeping.
On the boy's head were many bald spots, clear signs that he was shaved for the operation, where he got cleaned up for any possible infections and stitched with horsehair, which secured a strong grip that would support his healing wounds.
"Never in my life have I spent so much working on someone's body. Not even when I deliver babies from the village women do I get so tired. This boy, I can't even believe how he survived without dying."
"This child is resilient, father. His future will be assured if we take him under our wing and guide him."
"Those are if's, son. We have to monitor his conditions since he will be bedridden for a year or two."