AN: Thanks again to TaintedBloodLily for reviewing!

Chapter 10:

Restocking the bandage supply, Lynus listened absentmindedly as Angie chatted about the guilds and the members she knew. It was a slow day, surprisingly, so Lynus was making use of his time getting to know his new work place and reacquainting himself with equipment and stock.

"Everyone is talking about the Guardians," Angie prattled on, a slight swoon in her voice.

"I've heard them, too," Lynus murmured. Everyone he had encountered today had, indeed, mentioned The Guardians at some point. All of whom seemed to be either in awe or impressed.

The Guardians? That was the name of the Guild that Shen was a part of, wasn't it? No surprise, really, that a Ronin of his calibre would be in a popular guild.

"The Guardians are super popular and talented guild," Angie went on to explain. "Really strong!"

"Is that so?"

"Yeah!" Angie practically squealed, clasping her hands together in front of her. "I heard they've spent three days in the Labyrinth. Really impressive!"

Lynus laughed as he carefully folded away an arm sling. "A fan, huh?"

"Lynus, could you do me a favour?"

At the sound of Dr Stiles' voice, Lynus immediately turned around and gave him his full attention. "Sure."

"Could you take this request to the Stickleback Bar for me?" Dr Stiles asked him as he approached, holding a folded piece of paper in his hand. "I'd do it myself, but I have a few reckless adventurers to scold and lecture."

Dr Stile abruptly glanced over his shoulder, his brow furrowed and his lips pulled into a tight frown. Lynus peered in the direction he was glaring it, sighting three rather haggard looking explorers. Two gunners and one Landsknecht. The trio quickly realised that they were being glared at by the head doctor and grimaced, the blue haired Landsknecht looking as if he wanted to hide someone.

"Ok," Lynus chuckled, drawing Dr Stiles' attention back toward him. "I'll go do it now."

"Thanks, I appreciate it," Dr Stiles said as a warm smile reappeared on his lips, offering the piece of paper for Lynus to take. "I'll make sure you get a bonus for this."

"Thanks very much!"

As he moved to leave, he grabbed his medical bag and slung it over his shoulder out of habit. He didn't feel completely comfortable without the reassuring weight of his bag. For if there was some reason he wasn't able to heal someone with his hands, he was assured that he had medicine that could do the job just as well.

Stepping outside into the midmorning sun, Lynus came to an abrupt realisation. He didn't know where the Stickleback Bar was. But he could simply ask for directions, right? Newcomers were common place here.

The first store he came across was one called Sitoth Trading. It appeared to be a weapons store. A good a place as any.

Pushing the door open, Lynus found it unexpectedly empty. You'd think a store that made weapons and other items for the labyrinth would be overflowing with people. Maybe it was closed or something? But there was no sign on the door.

"Um, excuse me-?" Lynus timidly called out.

"Wah!"

Lynus jumped, grasping at the strap of his bag in surprise by the sudden scream of horror and fright. It came from someone from the back of the store. And from what he could deduce, it sounded like a young woman.

Suddenly, a young girl with brown in braids and a sunflower behind her ear appeared, flustered and panic stricken from the back of the shop. "I…I…I need a doctor!" she cried.

Lynus immediately went on alert. "What's wrong?"

"P-Papa has hurt himself!" the young girl wailed. "I don't know what to do!"

"What? Where is he?" Lynus asked as he hastily made his way over to the girl, placing his hands on her shoulders in effort to calm her down. "I'm a Medic, I'll help him as much as I can."

After hearing the word 'Medic', she calmed down considerably. She still had tears rolling down her cheeks, but she nodded her head and pointed to the back room. "H-he's out the back."

Clutching the strap of his medical bag tightly, Lynus followed the young woman further into the shop. Stepping into what he could describe as the forging room, he was greeted by a large, muscular man as he released a creative string of curses.

And he was holding his right wrist with his left hand. His right hand was the obvious point of injury.

"Papa!" the girl cried as she made her way over to him and began to flail, unsure of what to do. "There's a medic here."

"Eh?" the man grunted as he looked at his daughter with a slightly sceptical expression. "Where'd the hell you-?"

"I'm a Medic," Lynus said as he took command of the situation, knowing that the man's injury wasn't immediately life threatening if he was standing up and swearing. "Please sit down."

The man, surprised by Lynus' appearance no doubt, plonked himself into a chair soundlessly after his daughter gave him a slight push. He stared at Lynus as he walked into the room, lifting his bag off his shoulder as he did.

"Please place your arm on the table," he instructed as he dropped his bag onto an empty chair. "So I can look at your hand."

Wordlessly, the man did as he was told, laying his arm onto the table, his palm rest up. He was either in a state of utter shock, or had been around Medics and doctors before, so knew that he was better to simply shut up and do as you're told. He probably learnt that from Dr Stiles.

"Don't move," Lynus murmured as he placed on hand on the man's wrist, subtly checking his pulse as the other carefully pulled back his fingers, allowing him better access to the injury. And he didn't really like what he saw.

Great, an impalement. It wasn't the worse he had ever seen, but any foreign object in the body could be life-threatening. Hopefully, the piece of metal (from a sword, by the shape of it) was clean and free of bacteria.

"What were you doing when this occurred?" Lynus asked as he let go of the man's hand to dig around in his bag, looking for bandages and gauze. He also spied a pair of priers on the table and realised that they would be very useful for when he had to remove the piece of metal.

"Argh, I was forging a sword," the man grunted, seemingly more annoyed than in pain, getting fidgety and moving his hand. "A right beaut, when a piece snapped of. Stupid little bastard stuck my hand, it did."

"I said don't move," Lynus said tersely as he grabbed the man's arm and held it down onto the table. He carefully unfurled the fingers to get a good look at the small piece of metal. It appeared sharp and smooth. No apparent jagged edges.

"The metal looks clean," Lynus murmured, relieved. "Does it hurt?"

"Stinging like a bitch, it is."

Lynus found himself rolling his eyes toward the ceiling in light amusement. That was one way of putting it. "I take it the metal is clean?"

The man scoffed, soundingly surprisingly haughty for someone with a piece of metal impaled in his hand. "Of course it is."

"Good," Lynus muttered, ready to get to work. "It will make this much easier."

Climbing on top of the table and placing one knee on the man's arm wasn't exactly professional, but he needed a good leverage for when he removed the object. And he had to make sure that the man (whose name he still didn't know) didn't move at a crucial point. He didn't want to do any more damage than had already been done.

Ok, what to do…?

He couldn't cast a Cure spell at the moment as it would cause the skin around the impalement to etch back together, making it even more difficult and potentially dangerous to the veins and tendons. Not to mention painful to tear at the skin again.

The skin around the embedded object was starting to swell and turn red. It might be infected already. Or it could be his body's immune system trying to attack the intruder. The best thing for him to do was to cast a Refresh spell, offering light, cooling comfort that would momentarily numb the area.

Then he would forcibly remove the object himself.

"I'm going to remove the metal and use a cure spell," Lynus explained as he grabbed a pair of metal priers and adjusting them on the piece of metal to ensure he had a good grip. "Now, it is going to hurt, but you'll feel instantly better when this object is removed, ok?"

The gruff man nodded, his jaw becoming tight as he clenched his teeth. His daughter, not wanting to see the object being removed, buried her face in her father's large shoulder, her hands grapping tightly at his sleeve.

Lynus mentally counted back from three in his head. When he reached one, he tightened his grip on the priers and gave a sharp, hard tug. The piece of metal gave way, blood immediately beginning to pool in the palm. Lynus hastily dropped the priers, grabbing a handful of sanitised bandages in one hand while the other hovered above the wound, emitting a green healing light.

His patient hissed lowly, almost inaudibly, as Lynus added pressure to the wound. A simple Cure spell would be enough to close the wound, but he added another Refresh spell in case of any infection.

After uttering his spells, Lynus pulled the wadding of bandages away so he could visually see the injury. But the healing spells had worked perfectly; no visible wound could be seen. It was slightly red and swollen, but it would die down shortly.

Lynus sighed as he lifted his knee from the man's arm, allowing him movement once again.

"There," he said, truly relieved, as he slipped off the table. "Thank goodness it came out cleanly."

The man blinked as he lifted his hand, looking with a dumbfounded expression on his face. He blinked a couple of times before a large grin slipped across his lips and he laughed boisterously. "Well, will you look at that!" he said as he started to flex his hand, opening and closing it into a fist.

"S-stop moving it!" Lynus spluttered as he lunged forward to try to grab the man's arm. "I need to make sure you haven't damaged any tendons and nerves!"

"Eh? It's fine," the older man stated as he effortlessly dodged Lynus' attempt to inhibit further movement. "Never felt better!"

"You're ok, daddy?" the young girl asked, still looking slightly teary.

"Of course, sweetheart! See? Good as new! Bwahaha!"

"Don't scare me like that…" she sighed, looking exhausted, but relieved at the same time.

"Sorry to make you cry like that, pumpkin."

"Don't do it again."

Lynus stood back, silently gathering his things as he allowed the man to offer some comfort to his daughter. He didn't exactly like the way he was waving his previous injured hand around, acting as though he had nothing more than a splinter, but he was smart enough to know when someone was going to pay attention to any medical advice or not.

And the man was a blacksmith, for heaven's sake. There was no doubt that he had had worst injuries.

"Oh!" the young girl suddenly piped up, sounding as if she had just realised something. She wandered over to Lynus and unexpectedly grabbed his hand in both of hers. "Thank you Mr Medic!" she said cheerfully, shaking his hand.

"Oh, it's no problem," Lynus replied with a smile, absentmindedly thinking that this young lady would be a good friend for Binah to have.

"What's your name, son?" the girl's father asked, his hands on his hips and a large, toothy smile on his face.

"It's Lynus," Lynus answered as the girl let go of his hands and wandered back to stand by her father's side.

"Well, me name's Thompson," the man finally introduced himself and placed a hand on his daughter's shoulder. "And this is my daughter, Abigail. Appreciate what you've done for us! How can we repay ya?"

"Oh, no need," Lynus was quick to respond as he placed his shoulder on his bag, feeling pleased that his healing abilities was able to help someone in genuine need. "I'm a medic. It's my job. But please go to the hospital if you feel sick or get any fevers, ok? I don't want you getting an infection."

"Righto!" Thompson replied loudly, yet it gave Lynus the feeling that the man wouldn't willingly walk into the hospital, even if his hand was hanging by a thread.

Maybe Lynus should drop by later…

After he visited the Bar, finished his errands and explained what happened to Dr Stiles.

"I'll get going now," Lynus said, adjusting his shoulder strap of his bag. "I have a few errands to run."

"If you think of anything we can do to return the favour, don't be afraid to drop by!" Thompson stated as he and his daughter walked Lynus to the door.

"Yes, please do!" Abigail added, waving cheerfully at him.

Lynus smiled and offered a wave of his own before stepping outside. He then focused his attention on the task at hand. He had no idea how long he had inside the Stolth Trading store. He always lost track of time when he was offering medical aide.

To make his delay even longer, he still wasn't sure of the exact location of the Stickleback Bar. But it shouldn't be that hard to find, right? After all, it had to be the next busiest building in Lagaard.

Taking a sharp corner, Lynus abruptly collided with something and staggered backwards in surprise. He soon realised that he had, once again, bumped into someone. His hands immediately grasped at his bag and he hunched his shoulders, just like he had done when he bumped into Shen.

The person he bumped into stood before him. Another male. He was slightly taller than him, with blond hair, piercing blue eyes, a red scarf around his neck, black clothing and strange gold arm bracers on his arms.

He was obviously an explorer. And from his armguards, an alchemist. A rather intimidating one at that.

"Sorry!" Lynus squeaked as he stumbled back a couple of steps. "I keep bumping into people! I'm sorry!"

The blond-haired man regarded him with slight curiosity, his head tilted to the side ever so faintly. He opened his mouth, as if wanting to say something, but abruptly pressed his lips together, a restrained grimace flittering across his features.

Although the wince was subtle, Lynus was able to catch it. It wasn't so much a grimace of annoyance, but one of pain. He should know; he had witnessed many suppressed winces of discomfort. It immediately piqued his interest. He hoped his didn't unintentionally cause him pain by bumping into him. Did he have a previous injury? Was he headed to the hospital to have it checked out?

"It's fine," the blond alchemist muttered, his voice low and surprisingly airy.

"Um…is something wrong?" Lynus found himself asking, subconsciously leaning forward to get a better look at the man's face.

"H-huh…?" he muttered, looking unsure and uncomfortable.

"It just…you look like you're in pain," Lynus said as he unintentionally invaded the alchemist's personal space by taking another stop forward, narrowing his eyes a little to study himself closer.

He soon realised his actions and abruptly stood up straight, tensing a little. He had no right to pried like he was. And it was blatantly obvious that he was becoming uncomfortable. "Sorry for being nosy," he said lamely as he moved to step around him. "I'll go."

But before he could take a step, the Alchemist asked him a familiar question. "Are you a medic?"

"That's right," Lynus found himself saying once again, turning his attention back to the blond.

Unexpectedly, a light flush danced across the alchemist's cheeks and he lowered his chin, hiding the bottom half of his face in his scarf. "…You're the first person to ask me that," he muttered.

"Really?" Lynus murmured, slightly surprised.

"…I just have a bit of a headache," the alchemist explained rather quickly, stumbling over his words slightly. He seemed edgy, nervous even, as he took a half step back. "It's nothing to be overly concerned about."

"Oh?" Lynus tilted his head to the side in question as he took a slow step forward. He didn't exactly believe that he was suffering from 'just a headache'. A migraine, perhaps. They were debilitating enough. But why hide it?

He then quickly realised that the man was purposely hiding his symptoms. To not be a burden to others, perhaps. Maybe he just wasn't used to being fussed over?

It didn't matter.

"Well, here," Lynus said as he reached forward abruptly, his fingertips hovering a few millimetres from the blonde's forehead, who of which looked slightly frightened. The ever useful Refresh spell tumbled from his lips once more. "Does that feel better?"

The alchemist blinked once, and then twice. He lifted his hand to gently touch his forehead, surprise flittering across his face. "It does."

"Ah, that's good," Lynus said, giving a small chuckle. Despite his intimidating appearance, this man was actually kinda cute, in a way. Not that he would dare to say that aloud. Might embarrass him.

"T-thank you," he stuttered, seemingly surprised that his head wasn't hurting anymore.

"No problem," Lynus replied sincerely. "Oh! Do you think you can direct me to the bar? I'm new and kinda lost."

"The bar?"

"I have a request to be posted from the hospital," Lynus explained, placing his hand into the pocket of his coat and pulling out a scrap of paper, showing it to him as proof of his words.

"Oh," he breathed before turning to point down the road, in the direction Lynus had been heading in before the collided. "You continue down this road and turn right. You can't miss it."

"Ah, thank you!" Lynus said gratefully as he looked in the direction he was being directed. Thank goodness. Dr Stiles would be wondering where he went, he was taking so long!

He then offered the helpful Alchemist a smile before stepping around him. "Excuse me."

"W-wait…"

Lynus paused mid-step and turned to look at the blond-haired man once more. "Is something else wrong?"

The alchemist fidgeted slightly, one hand tugging at his scarf. "I didn't get your name."

Lynus smiled warmly at him. "My name is Lynus. What's yours?"

Blue eyes widen in mild surprise, before he abruptly looked away, appearing in thought. He soon snapped out of his musings though, and gave his name in response. "…Magnus."

"Well, it was nice to meet you Magnus," Lynus said sincerely. "I work at the hospital, so don't be afraid to drop by if you get a headache again, ok? You can ask for me, if you want."

Magnus opened his mouth to say something, but quickly shut it, opting to simply nod his head, the blush from before making its reappearance.

"I have to get going now," Lynus said as he started to walk away. "Take care of yourself."

"…You…you too."

AN: Whew, another long chapter! Please review!