Limits
Chapter 20: Treating Those in Need

I went to the doctor's house to start my last task from today. There were mostly patients with some sort of flu or with fatigued muscles. Sometimes there would be more severe injuries, like broken arms or legs but that was mostly kids as they had stupid ideas and sometimes broke an arm or a leg.

I was responsible for taking care of the flu and fatigued patients, while more serious injuries were take care by Nick. I would still help him by bringing necessary stuff, so the doctor had a lot of free time and only rested in his chair. It was also because of this work not being physically demanding, I could restore more of my strength.

When treating a patient with light illnesses, I was wondering whenever I should accept the offer that my new roommate proposed. Running away alone would be much simpler and that was in case they wouldn't let me go after a year. If they did let me go I wouldn't have to run away but the skills that I developed would still be there.

To me right now it didn't matter whenever they released me or not. I would still take my revenge. I wanted all of them to suffer. The wedding was only just the beginning. There were warriors in this world. People with very strong bodies that specialised in fighting. Although I never met a warrior like many other people living in these type of villages, it could be said that the village chief and his granddaughter were kind of fake warriors. It was all due to their strength being couple of times higher compared to the common people.

But to most people that would be categorised as a strong hunter. There were hunters as strong if not stronger than Rand, it's just that most villages maybe had one or two of such people. Of course more if the village was very large. It was also usual for these type of people to be in the chief position. Due to their strength they could protect themselves better but also provide protection to the village.

I didn't know much about warriors and as you may expect not many people did. All I knew about hunters and warriors was from my parents telling me. I was kind of lost in my thoughts and I could hear some profanities coming from the person I was supposed to treat. Apparently I was spending too much time on treat him. I wrapped up with the treatment and waited for the next patient.

I noticed a burly man dragging something behind him then threw it at me. When I saw what it was I was not only surprised but also astonished. It was her, my roommate. She was all bloodied and had her arm and leg broken. Her face was swollen with couple of teeth missing. I furrowed my brows but said nothing. I laid her down on the bed and went for the doctor.

Nick was in the room next door resting as usual. I came closer and said "Doctor, we have a patient with very severe injuries". Nick opened his eyes and got up from the rocking chair. I followed him to the treatment room. He saw the woman on the bed all bleeding and with broken limbs. When the burly man that threw her inside saw the doctor come in, he said "She broke the rules, You can treat her or not. We don't care"

To which the doctor replied "I won't treat her". I was amazed at his answer. I thought doctors should help those in need. He then faced me and said "If you want boy, you can try treating her yourself". I furrowed my brows 'Is he for real? Me? an amateur? Treat that kind of injuries?' The doctor said "Today the visitations end here" and went back to his rocking chair.

I was left alone with my roommate in critical condition. I decided to try and help her, I still needed her skills and if I could save her life maybe she will tell me how to practice. I've seen doctor doing it many times, I therefore had an idea on how to take care of broken limbs. I started the procedure. She was passed out which was her luck because the pain she would feel would be something one cannot imagine and she would pass out anyway.

I tried to stop the bleeding. This was the easiest part of her treatment as I just needed some medicine and bandages. She had stab wounds on her stomach and so I applied the medicine that would stop the bleeding and applied the bandages.

Next I cleaned her bruised and swollen face, then applied some medicine. I could do nothing about the lack of few of her teeth. Maybe some real doctor could implant them but not me.

Next was her broken arm. I've seen how it was done but I never did it myself. I needed to locate where the bone was broken and straighten the arm in such way that they align. Then put some medicine on top of the arm and apply two stick with bandages so it couldn't be moved in any way.

On my first try I missed. Second, missed and so on until the 5th try I finally aligned the bones together. Then I applied the medicine and the sticks with bandages. It was very difficult. I was already sweating 'Who ever said, treating people is an easy job!' I thought.

What was left was the broken leg. I could already see skies getting dark and the time should be past 5pm. I decided it would be better to do it now than later, therefore I started the treatment of her leg. I did the same as with the arm but to align the bones in a leg was much more difficult and so I only managed to do this after 14th try. When I finished with the treatment, like on cue the doctor came over and said "It's time for you to go. Also take her with you"

I said "Alright" and went to get a chair for disabled patients. It was a chair with some wooden wheels like a pulling cart but much smaller and used by people with broken legs or with no legs. The doctor saw that and said "What are you doing?" I furrowed my brows expecting some kind of bullshit and answered asking "I'm taking her home? I want to take the disabled chair" to which the doctor said "Yes you take her home, but not the chair". My thoughts were 'I knew it. I just knew he will come up with some kind of bullshit'. Without any other option I picked her up by the healthy hand and carried her in a strange way so that both the broken leg and arm don't receive any additional shock. My work would be useless if it got misaligned again.

I carried her until we arrived at my house or I should now call it out house. Inside I laid her on the bed. Then I ate my late dinner and I noticed her dinner as well. I didn't eat hers. I was indifferent but not heartless. She would need that food to get back to health. I retrieved the pillow and went to a corner. I still had my tasks to do tomorrow and I was sure when she wakes up, she will share what had happened to her anyway.

When I woke up in the morning, I noticed that she was still sleeping. I had to do my tasks, so I went out to complete them. After my water carrying task and wood cutting task I went back to our house for my breakfast. When I entered I noticed a note that must've been slipped through the door. I picked it up and read it. It said "She will not receive any food if she can't work. You will receive your share as usual when you do your tasks"

I furrowed my brows again 'So they won't even provide food for her' I crumbled the note and threw it at the corner. I went closer to the bed and I noticed that her food from yesterday was gone and mine was waiting on the table. She probably ate it when I left in the morning.

I ate my food and asked "Are you asleep?" I heard no answer for a long while and so I sat on the floor to rest a bit. After the break I headed to the blacksmith's workshop. It was time to think about my own situation and not about others. It was a heartless thing to do but I had my own problems as well. I had to focus on myself if I didn't want to end up like her.

I forged one steel ingot and also forged one steel plate that I would shape and sharpen to make a dagger. I only had enough materials for one right now. In the future when I work more I will get more leftovers. Because I had loads of time still to complete my second ingot I decided to shape my dagger and then sharpen it if I had time.

I wanted to make it curved so I heated up the plate a bit in the furnace and pounded the middle section with my hammer. Then I worked like this till I got a pointy shape at the top and squared shape at the bottom. I decided I would make it round for better handling and so I again heated it up and rounded the edges of my so called handle.

I noticed I still have an hour left so I decided to do the ingot instead of working more on my throwing dagger. After about 45 minutes I had another steel ingot. There was some time left but I've already hidden the dagger and just waited for the blacksmith to arrive.

The blacksmith arrived about 5 minutes later and inspected my ingots. He said you know what already and I left. When I arrived back at our house I noticed that my roommate was not asleep but I could also see pain on her face. Well who wouldn't feel pain if they had couple of stab wounds, swollen face, couple of teeth missing, broken arm and leg. I closed the door behind me and walked towards the bed.