It was a man with thick, matted, tarry black hair. A shock of ivory silver hung down into his face, plastered to his skin by clammy sweat. He was bleeding heavily, and the ground under him was almost a mud from it. It was remarkable that this man was even still alive. Even with her limited medical knowledge, she got the sense of that immediately on looking at him.
He had several visible open wounds, shallow slash marks and deeper gashes, and this despite the fact that clothing covered most of his body. His color was not good, his breathing rapid and shallow. When she touched him, he felt cool, and his exposed skin had a strange, mottled color to it.
I think he’s in hemorrhagic shock, Demi thought to herself, her own heartbeat having kicked into tachycardia as she felt a surge of adrenaline. If something isn’t done right now, this man is going to die.
Demi had merit badges in first aid and a CPR certification, but despite what her rank in the medical skill might indicate, she did not have any formal training as either a medic or a first responder. She was legitimately surprised that she was somehow managing to remain calm and that she hadn’t thrown up everywhere already. She didn’t have a weak stomach, really, but neither was she accustomed to looking at the gory details of a person who seemed to have been mauled mostly to death.
His condition was horrific, and the scene was essentially in her lap, wet and visceral and slick with misery.
I need to think, her mind hammered in desperation. And I need to get him someplace safe. Who knows what happened, who or what did this to him, but he shouldn’t stay here. There’s a limited amount I can do here anyway.
The man was tall, and while not heavily built, was certainly much, much too heavy for her to attempt to move on her own. She was unwilling to leave him to try and find help. She didn’t think he would last that long.
She took a deep breath and made a decision.
It’s a good thing that I already know that this works, she thought to herself as she gently put her hands on him.
And she loaded him directly into her inventory.
Once he was in there and she had checked the information summary to be certain that he was still alive, she realized that there was something else on the ground. It was a bag, and she could only assume that it belonged to him. She grabbed it and put it into her inventory alongside him, then she got to her feet and began moving back toward home with determination.
I hope that I have the right potions to treat him, she thought to herself as she walked as quickly as she could.
He was being held in stasis currently, so he wouldn’t worsen, so far as she knew, but she didn’t want to keep him in her inventory longer than was necessary. She still didn’t fully understand it, and was concerned it might have negative effects, particularly on a person so physically weakened and near death.
Still, it would do no good if she was too hasty making her way through the woodland and slipped and hurt herself on the way home. This was a lesson that had been drilled into her again and again, day after day, year after year. In a crisis, keep your head. Keep calm. Focus yourself. Think only of what you need to do next.
So that’s what she did. She remained alert and cautious as she made her way back through the forest to the farmhouse, only relaxing slightly once she got to familiar territory.
Once she was back on the farm, she began making a list in her head of what she would need from the various rooms. She had the potions she had made, and the medicines she had compounded. She would need some clean water, scissors, disinfectant, bandages—
The only bed she had was the one in her room, so that was where she was going to have to put him, unless she wanted to drop him on the farmhouse table—but he was so tall that she wasn’t sure the table would accommodate him properly.
It didn’t make sense to put him on the table anyway. It wasn’t as if she could operate on him.
The bed would be better.
When she came charging into the farmhouse with a grim look on her face, Glimmer had squawked and gotten out of her way. She had made her way into the workshop and put absolutely everything that she thought might be even the slightest bit useful into her inventory.
Then she went up the stairs to her bedroom and dragged the blankets and Lacey-tan from the bed, leaving only the bottom sheet and the ordinary pillows.
Glimmer was quite shocked by this behavior.
“What has gotten into you?” he asked, alarmed.
“I found a man when I was out gathering herbs. He’s been very badly hurt. I’m afraid he’s dying,” she explained as she pulled over the small bedside table and cleared it of everything.
“Oh, how horrid!” Glimmer squawked.
It certainly is horrid, Demi agreed silently.
“Should we send someone to get him?” Glimmer asked, highly agitated, turning short circles as if he was trying to wind himself up in his own tail.
“No, I’ve already got him,” Demi answered as she began to stack the potions and medicines she had on the floor beside the bed. “What I need you to do is go to the worksite and see if anyone there can help. I’m going to—” She took a deep breath and tried to steady her nerves. “I’m going to do what I can now.”
Glimmer moved close to her and gently laid his wing against her foot.
“I know you’re afraid and unsure,” he said. “But if anyone can help this person, then it’s you. Just do what you can.”
This advice was so surprising and genuine that it almost caused Demi to break down into tears, but she managed to catch herself, to keep it all in. She didn’t have time to cry right now. There would be time enough for crying later.
“Thank you, Glimmer,” she said honestly. “Please go and see if you can find help. I’ll do what I can.”
Glimmer nodded, and after looking back at her preparing the room, he left.
Once he had gone, Demi took one last look at what she had arranged, then held her breath and pulled the injured man from her inventory and put him on her bed.
He was still alive. She let out her breath and finally began to breathe normally again.
I wish I knew where the closest doctor was, she thought desperately to herself as she prepared to treat him. I could have sent Glimmer in that direction.
Even as she thought it to herself, a little notification from the search function popped up. It was indicating the man in front of her, laid up and close to death.
Oh wonderful, Demi thought with manic desperation. “Perfect. This man is the closest doctor.”
But that wasn’t information it was particularly useful to dwell on. It wasn’t as if he could assist in his own treatment, and there hadn’t been any other doctors who had been identified within twenty miles.
It was up to her, then.
It would be a lot easier if I could just give him medication through an IV, she reflected to herself. Although the potions she had were liquid, they were meant to be drunk. She wasn’t sure he was in any condition to drink anything, and an IV delivery for the medication would have the most immediate effect.
Still, there was no use crying over what she didn’t have. It wasn’t as if she had time to research and develop IV delivery in time for it to be of use in this situation.
Let’s hope I can get him to drink something, she thought. I wish—I wish I understood my magic skills better. I might be able to do something if I had any idea what it is that I can do.
She profoundly regretted not trying more urgently to make sense of the fifteen pages of skills.
The man on her bed stirred feebly, and his eyes opened a sliver. They were very dark.
“You should,” he began, his voice a raspy whisper. “You should have left me there.”
For some reason, these words, which he struggled even to say, made her angry.
She slapped the floor where she was sitting with an open palm.
“I should not!” she answered immediately. “If you have the strength to say something like that, then you ought to have the strength to drink something.”
She took the strongest potion that she had made, the one with the most-promising bonuses and effects, and she pulled out the stopper.
“I’m really sorry if this tastes terrible or if it doesn’t help enough, but I’ve got to do something,” she said, tilting the bottle to his lips.
I’ve got to get something in him to stabilize him before I try anything else, she thought. He looked so fragile. It was a miracle he was still alive.
She had been worried he might try and refuse the potion, based on what he’d said to her, but she was relieved to see that he attempted to drink it. He took it stoically, without comment, although the smell alone was enough to indicate to Demi that it did in fact taste terrible.
Within seconds of him tasting the first drops, the pain lines on his face relaxed a little, and his color improved.
I’m glad it’s doing something, she thought. Now I’ve got to figure out what’s wrong with him if I want to save him.
She disinfected the scissors and then used them to carefully cut away his clothing. Remarkably, he seemed somewhat less bloody and grimy than he had been when she had found him in the forest.
Did my inventory clean his clothing while he was still wearing it? she wondered in a mixture of confusion and amazement.