Chapter 3: Poison!
"What is wrong with me?" I asked myself as the mirror worked its magic, "this isn't like me!" I felt the familiarly worn grass of my lawn turf. Good thing it worked. The blue mist cleared away, and I stumbled into the nurses house. The rain crashed down on me still, seeming to mock my defeat. My clothes dripped water and blood, which mingled into a clear red substance quickly puddling around me. I slowly opened the door. The moment I stepped foot inside, I was knocked to the ground by another human. I looked up to see guide's joyous face staring down.
"I thought you were dead!" The buoyant guide laughed, picking himself up, "but I should have known- you just don't die." I winced.
"That does hurt you know!" I hissed, stumbling onto the bench. Guide muttered a hasty apology, before running to get nurse. On his way out, he threw me a flask of red liquid. I gladly sipped it from the glass container, before putting it down beside me. Some of the wounds healed, but it wasn't near enough to stop the pain. My invisible armor was still to regenerate. I removed my helm, and put it on the ground beside the bench. I did not even want to try to retrieve my sword from the ground, even if it was lying in my yard. I take another sip of the liquid, which drains the flask except of a small puddle at the bottom. I tilt the vial a bit, watching the remaining liquid spread over the inside surface, before standing it upright. It slowly drizzled back to the bottom. I smiled and played with it for a while, taking my mind off the injuries I had taken. In a few minutes, nurse and guide came walking in, nurse carrying her clipboard. Guide handed her a pencil, and she began to examine my condition.
"I would say that the wounds were minor, but they all have something that was injected into them. Like some sort of poison," she said. The word hit me like a stone- poison! I became uneasy, squirming a bit. I bit my lip and tried to get a glam pose at what nurse was writing. Guide seemed equally disturbed, constantly looking at the paper. Finally, the nurse looked up from the clipboard and said,
"It appears that many of the wounds contained a neurotoxin, probably injected by the pincers of these bug like creatures. Do not panic, there is an antidote. Stand still please." The nurse removed a small injection tube, with a sharp looking needle from her pocket. She walked to her desk, and opened a tiny drawer. She took out a tiny green vial, and poured a bit of its contents into the tube. "This won't hurt a bit!" The nurse said encouragingly. I squirmed a bit. "Hold still!" She muttered, raising the needle. I pulled my sleeve up a bit. The needle was put against my skin, before abruptly being jabbed in. It was removed just as quickly. I rolled my sleeve back down.
"That was easy." I said, beginning to get up.
"No. Here come the painful part." She said, sitting back down behind her desk. I glanced around the room. Suddenly, I felt a slight burning sensation in my arm. I hoped that it was the worst. It gradually grew until I felt as if my veins were on fire. But it was only that arm. I could handle it. I smiled, thinking about slimes. Just as I thought it ended, I felt as if a spark struck within me. Every vein and nerve in my body lit up. A blazing inferno raged through my nervous system, wrecking my mind. I screamed in agony, and fell to the ground. The nurse had only a slight look of sympathy, but guide ran over, and tried to help me up. And as quickly as it started, it stopped. My vision was blurry and my senses numbed, but I felt energized and fixed. My wounds began to heal, and I felt whole once again. My bravery and arrogance just sort of came back with that.
"What was that?" I managed to ask, looking at nurse.
"Ah, that substance. It is the rare unicorn blood. It renews the spirit and kills poison, but also sends a shockwave throughout the nervous system. It is this shockwave that fully wakes the mind from darkness, and often heals those who are experiencing severe trauma. It is unknown how it works, but with the banishing of unicorns from Terraria until the time is right, the substance has become very sought after and rare." They said, the information registering through my brain. I pieced it together, before concluding,
"So... We can bring these unicorns back?" The nurse began to explain, but guide covered her mouth.
"Yep. Someday, someday Far in the future." This comment left me disturbed, and I could not help but fantasize about why guide wanted to hide something like that so bad. Maybe it had to do with the whole underworld thing? He was pretty secretive about that place, saying that it was off limits for now. Were they somehow linked? I banished the thought, and decided to turn in for the night. I slept on my new bed, wondering what the future would bring.