Disclaimer: I do not own the characters involved in Don't Starve. All characters and materials perceived in this story belong to Klei Entertainment.
Chapter 12: Treatment
Wendy sat near the fire, silently contemplating to herself. On top the fire, she had crafted a small kettle, mainly for the purpose of boiling water. She also had taken it upon herself to cook their meals. Ravishing a few carrots from the farm as she mixed it in with hardy meat.
As she waited for the water to cool down, she rolled her eyes towards Webber. Sound asleep, yawning away with three spiders huddled close to him. The spiders must have moved to him sometime during the night.
Focusing back onto the kettle, she continued to ponder to herself. Basking in the warmth of the sun. Inviting a delightful pleasant sensation, greatly appreciated since the night before had been quite cold.
The girl then eyed the ground below her, not shifting her movements whatsoever. Close beside her, was the ever so fragile flower. Opposed to its encased state just the other day, the small bud was beginning to branch out. Its petals were no longer lackluster in color, and was obtaining an orange hue.
Wendy continued to focus on the progressing bud. Gently caressing the silky petals with the bare minimum of contact with her fingertips.
The day was silent, not even the chirping of birds was present. The only audible presence in the area was the boiling of water and food. Wendy's sense of hearing adapted to lower sounds. Enough so to even hear Webber's soft breathing as he lay asleep just a few yards away from her. The girl was surprised that the spiders huddled around him didn't make much noise while sleeping.
Soft footsteps were then heard close by. Wendy turned towards the source of the sound. She was then face to face with one of the spiders that were sleeping by the spider den. It had somehow made its way towards her without her even noticing.
The spider eyed her curiously, observing how she would act. Wendy showed no initial reaction, but didn't shift her gaze away from the spider for a single second. She desperately stood still, hoping that the spider would lose interest.
After several moments, the large arachnid inched one of its legs closer. In turn, Wendy slid her body slightly away from the creature. Upon her retreat, the spider stopped its motions. Once the girl stood still, the spider continued to inch closer.
Wendy, determined to avoid any physical contact with the thing, continued to drift away from its advancements. This continued for a few minutes.
Suddenly, the spider had caught her by surprise and sped its movements. In less than a second, the spider stood on her lap.
Her general reaction would be to slap the beast off her body as quick as possible. However, the creature's affiliation with Webber stopped her from causing the thing any harm. Thus, she did nothing.
The spider eyed the girl with the same curious look it had all this time. Softly sniffing the girl as she nervously sat strikingly still. After a while, the spider let out a screech. Then proceeded to curl up on her lap, almost in a sleeping position.
The screech gained the attention of Webber, who slightly groaned and cracked his eyelids open. He somberly shifted his head to see Wendy frantically sitting by the fire. Almost unconsciously, he drifted back to sleep.
Wendy grew annoyed. She could barely take the sensations of prickly hairs contacting her skin.
"Webber!" she said quite loud.
"Huh, wha-," the boy hysterically moved about as he woke up. This shuffled the spiders close to him as they began to wake up as well.
"Oh, good morning." He said as he tiredly rubbed his eyes.
Wendy had a stoic expression as she waited for him to take notice. The boy yawned heftily, scratched his back. Then met her at eye level. He was particularly calm as he looked at her. For a while, he didn't take notice. Simply enjoying the peaceful atmosphere.
Wendy eyed him with slight annoyance. She shifted her eyes towards her lap, then back to him. As she did this, Webber's eyes widened with playful excitement.
"Oh my God! That's so cute," he beamed. Wendy didn't retaliate with a response but only waited.
"Raven snuggled with you, that's so precious." He continued.
"I am not enjoying this," she finally retorted.
"Oh, don't lie. You love it." He teased. "Looks like you have a new best friend."
Wendy took a deep breath, "Just please take this thing off me."
"We don't know, it seems that Raven really likes you. We're kind of jealous, Raven took a liking to you really fast." He said with a smile.
"Well, I don't like…it." She emphasized.
"Awww, don't be so sour." He kneeled beside them. "Just look at her, she looks so comfortable."
"It's a girl?" she questioned.
Webber looked at the spider, deep in concentration. "You know, we're not really sure. We never really thought about it." He rested his fist on his chin, "Spiders usually have slight differences from their appearance to find out their gender, but so far they all kind of look the same."
"How fascinating," Wendy coyly replied, "could you take Raven off me now."
"Then again, Muffet looks way different. So maybe that's how their different."
"Okay Webber, that's great and all but-"
"Females are typically bigger so, Muffet must be a girl." He happily concluded. "But then that would mean that everyone else is a boy, even Raven."
"Webber."
"Huh," he said looking back at her.
"Just please get this spider off me."
With a small pout, the boy lifted Raven off her. The spider fidgeted its legs a bit.
"How are you this morning Raven?" Webber asked. The spider screeched back in placid acknowledgement. "Don't mind Wendy, she's being a sourpuss."
"A giant spider was on top of me, did you expect me to shout out in glee," she retorted.
"Yes, spiders are so precious!" he quickly defended.
Wendy eyed him dumbfounded. He started snuggling with the arachnid, squeezing it quite tightly. The spider let out groans of discomfort as the boy hugged him tightly. She smiled.
"I'll go check on the food, it should be ready by now." She said before standing herself up.
"You made food, uh. Thanks, Wendy." He said shyly.
The girl didn't respond, but made her way towards the crockpot. Webber placed Raven down, "Go wake up the others, we're surprised they didn't smell the food." Webber then cheerily made his way towards the girl.
"So, what'd you make?" He asked.
"Nothing special," she answered simply, "it seems you ran out of honey. So, we won't be having what you made the other day."
"We could always just get some from the bee box," Webber said remembering the sweet bliss of the candied meat.
"No."
"Huh, but wh-"
"You need that for your wound, remember your priorities." She said quite coldly. The boy looked down at his chest, once again remembering the laceration splitting across his rib.
"What, this." He scoffed. "We barely even noticed it, it doesn't even hurt anymore." She eyed him carefully.
"How long ago did that happen?" she questioned.
"Uh, a w-week if we remember right." He lied.
She continued to stare at him, observing his squeamish behavior. "Let me see it."
"See it," he said shyly.
"Yes, I need to know if its healing correctly." She continued.
"We mean, what about the food. Didn't you say it was just about done," he said trying to change the subject.
"It still needs more time. Either way, that can wait." She said getting closer to him. "Now sit." With both her hands, she pushed down his shoulders and forced him to sit down on the ground.
"Geez, no need to be so pushy." He responded awkwardly.
"Oh, don't be such a baby." Without hesitation, she started carefully unwrapping the appendages strewn around his waist. The syrup stained bandages contained small strands of grass and stuck to his black fur. Upon closer examination, she noticed that his coat had been unkempt. Hardened honey absorbed dirt and muck to form tough and heavy clots of hair throughout his body. Fortunately, she had the grace of being accustomed with foul odors for he emitted a terrible stench.
"When was the last time you took a bath," she stated harshly.
"A bath, uh well. It's been like…a week." He lied. The boy hadn't bathed himself during his entire stay in the island.
"That's gross." The comment hurt the boy a little inside. "You need to take care of yourself more." Wendy was coming close to viewing the gash from under the wrappings. "Another thing, just because you wrap your wound with a lot of poultice doesn't mean it'll heal faster. Dummy." Finally, with quick motions, she pulled the rest of it off.
Upon first viewing, Wendy could see that this injury was no mere fluke. His left ribcage had two enormous tear-like wounds that stretched across several inches. His skin clearly sliced cleanly as his inner flesh laid out in the open. There was no sign of bleeding, but the skin showed little sign of forming any scabs. This meant that the wound must have happened recently, that and poor treatment.
"This is not nothing." She said solemnly. The girl stared at the injury immensely, creating a serious atmosphere. Webber just stood quiet, unwilling to comment. Wendy escaped in her inner monologue. Depicting various scenarios that might have caused the incident.
"Pigs," she remembered. The girl had said the word out loud, unknowingly. Webber tensed up for a moment, expressing a somber look upon his face. His eyes slightly glistening as he breathed, almost silently.
Wendy berated herself for saying the word. Adding unnecessary stress wasn't going to help anyone.
"You did a terrible job treating yourself," she said in a lighter tone. "This won't do, I'm going to have to fix this myself."
"Fix it?" he lightly questioned.
"Yes. Luckily, I already have water boiled up." She stood herself up. "But I'm gonna need to get more honey. I'll be right back. If you can, look after the food." She quickly left without another word.
For a while, Webber didn't move. He watched her head towards the bee box, she was still within eyesight. The boy then stood himself up, and walked to the roasting food. He opened the kettle, hot steam flowing across his wrists.
"Oh jeez, that's a lot of carrots." Inspecting the meal, he noticed the abundance of carrots mixed in with the meat. At least, it was more than he would usually put.
"No wonder they didn't wake up, we don't even know if they'll eat this."
"Is the food ready," a voice said from behind.
Wendy was standing behind him, a pot lay beside her. She was also carrying her puffy vest with her, along with the necessary materials to treat his injury.
"Wow, you were quick." He said slightly amazed.
"To survive, you have to be." Working her way forward, she eyed the inside of the crock pot. "Looks about done."
"Yeah, about tha-" the boy was cut off to the stampede of spiders racing their way to them.
"Looks like your little friends are eager," Wendy breathed with a slight sigh. "Well, you could feed them."
"Well," he eyed the spiders. All seemingly eager to indulge in morning breakfast. "We guess it'll be alright." As the boy handed them their portions, their edacious behavior declined in a few short seconds. Some of the spiders sniffed their food for several moments. Muffet was the first to take a bite from the meal, for once chewing the substance rather than swallowing it whole. The spider then spit it out.
"What's wrong?" Wendy asked.
Webber let out a few nervous chuckles, "Well ya see, they don't really like vegetables. Spiders kind of, just eat meat." The boy brushed his head a bit. "Don't get me wrong, we sneak a bit every now and then. But we guess, this was just too much."
Wendy cautiously gazed at the arachnids. The large one no longer interested in the fare, while the others tried to eat past the simmered carrots. Most notably, she noticed Raven carefully separating the meat with its legs.
"This is going to be harder than I thought," she finally said.
"What will?"
"Surviving," she responded.
"Hey, it's just a meal. No big,"
"No, it actually is." She locked eyes with the boy, a serious expression implanted on her face. "Webber, you've never been through Winter. Have you?"
"Winter," he said simply, "what type of question is that. Of course-"
"No," she interrupted, "I meant, have you ever survived winter. On this island," she emphasized.
"Uh, no." He said softly.
"It's difficult, resources are incredible scarce during that time." Her gaze shifted to the spiders once more. "Meat is vital, it'll be our main source of food during the cold. Nothing else survives against nature's icy grasps."
"Well, that sounds pretty bad. But, that won't be for a couple months." He concluded, trying his best to induce positivity.
She looked at him, a gentle smile was resting on her lips. "No, we don't." Confused, Webber waited for her to speak again. "At best, we only have a few more days. Seasons are shorter on this island, they last around three weeks." She pivoted her view to the ground. "Sometimes even less."
"So, that means winter is coming soon." She nodded at the boy. Webber put his hand around his chin, doing his best to process the information.
Winter always marked the end to progression. Crops wouldn't grow, and the frigid temperatures made it troublesome to get things done. Snow is quite tedious as well.
"Hey," he said brightly, "that means it won't last as long. Think about it, winter will only last for three weeks. That's not too bad."
She looked at him for a few seconds, followed by silent chuckling. She used one of her hands to cover her mouth, shying away from her childish giggles. Webber joined in, taking advantage of her cheery behavior.
After the two recomposed themselves, Webber served them both a plate. Secondly, he cooked more meat for his spider companions.
"Guess I'll leave the cooking to you," Wendy said in a peaceful tone.
"We don't know, this tastes pretty good." He said while taking a taste of the food she had prepared.
A grin formed on her face, and Webber continued to chow away happily. His optimism was a little infectious, a good change of pace for the little girl. She hardly had times to enjoy herself, mostly opting herself to her own thoughts. Embracing the eerie delusions that divulge from these vacant woodlands. In a sense, he reminded her of Abigail.
She took small nibbles of her food. She couldn't bring herself to tell him. The relentless fury that is Winter. It may be shorter than normal, but it is much fiercer. The temperature could drop to freezing levels in a matter of minutes. Snow could reach several feet high, making it difficult for travel. Dying of hypothermia is also an extreme issue. Without the proper gear, and no source of warmth such as a fire. One may die due to extreme low body temperatures. Unfortunately, the island reaches levels beyond what they would normally experience. Being left out in the cold with no protection could lead in their deaths in only a couple of hours. But worse of all, there is the beast of winter. The one-eyed abomination.
Before she knew it, she had finished her food. A satisfied grin could be seen plastered on Webber's face. He appeared perfectly relaxed. Unaware of the impeding dangers. She let out a deep sigh, then braced herself to appear the least bit of cheery.
"Are you ready now, Webber?"
"Ready," he said as he arched his back straight.
"Yes, to fix your wound." She pulled out a rag crafted out of grass and papyrus.
"Oh, right. We totally forgot about that," he said nervously.
"Well, come closer. You expect me to carry these things to you." The boy quietly scooted closer as he foolishly failed to notice the first aid supplies beside her the entire time.
She shot him a passive look. "Closer," she said.
The boy began to heat up as he tensely came closer to the girl. Webber never experienced much interaction with other kids. Especially around girls, thus entering close distance made him slightly nervous. He drew himself nearer until he was only a few inches from her. Becoming embarrassed, he looked away. "It this enough."
"That's fine," she said as she wet the rag. Once it had been drenched, she slowly inched it near the incisions. The cloth slightly grazed the hairs of his skin. Webber twitched slightly upon initial contact, then relinquishing all movement as best he could. The cloth was quite rough, but warm. The careful rubs around his wound became soothing.
As Wendy brushed the clots of dried blood, they began to gradually remove themselves. She soaked the cloth over and repeated. Soon, the only visible abnormality were the two long lacerations.
"Okay, don't panic." She said as she reached into one of the pockets from the puffy vest. Webber, who was lost in the relaxing treatment, held no general response. That is until she brought out a long needle from the small compartment.
"Hey! What's that?" he said flinching a bit.
"It's a sewing needle I crafted ealier," she reassured, "I'm going to use this to stitch those cuts."
"What! No way," he said fearfully.
"Webber, it's okay. It'll only hurt for a second," she said trying to calm him down. "Those cuts look really bad, stitching them together will help them heal faster."
The boy appeared hesitant, thinking about the situation. After some time, he finally responded. "Fine, but wait just a minute."
"Fobia," he called out. Upon speaking, the littlest of spiders came sprawling towards him. Webber then pulled the spider close to him, gently setting Fobia on his lap. "Okay, now we're ready," he said closing his eyes.
A bit repelled from the creature being so near her, she also felt a bit touched. Thus, she began to take the needle to his incision with an immense amount of care. Webber twitched a bit from feeling the keen needle piece through his skin.
"Try your best not to move," she said faintly. He nodded as she went on. After a few minutes, and a few groans from Webber. She finished stitching the wounds, therefore slathered a small amount of honey and wrapped it carefully.
"See, that wasn't so bad."
The boy let out a deep sigh and reopened his eyes, "No, it wasn't all that bad."
"Now, I'd tell you to bathe. But you're going to have to wait until that heals up."
"Right," he rubbed his head timidly.
"This also means no drastic physical exercise," she continued. "If you find yourself in a bad situation, avoid it." She then handed him a poor misshapen cup of water. "Here, drink up. It's warm, but its drinkable."
Taking the cup, he said, "You know, there's a fresh water pond not too far from here."
"Really, why don't you store it?" she asked.
"Never needed to, we can go a couple days without water."
Impressed, she took a sip of the water then said, "Well, come winter and the pond will be frozen."
"Frozen!" he exclaimed. "It gets that cold here."
"Yes, which reminds me." She put the cup down. "We need to discuss our plans."
"Plans?"
She nodded at him once more.
…
From the empty compounds of a atramentous enriched cave. A man sat practically chained to a throne constructed by dark, fictitious shadows. Constantly being ridiculed by the whisperings of sinister entities. Not bothering to enact any form of action, recognizing the utter despair that is his ordeal.
Suddenly, something could be seen emerging from the obscure darkness. Upon more presentable features, the scientist gained a small grain of hope. And under clear confirmation of what emerged, he crafted a smile.
Author's Note: Okay, it's been close to three months now. Let me start by saying that I just finished my finals. That and I've been working a job because money is necessary in life. Whoever can manage work and school well has my tremendous respect. That being said, here is the chapter, I have something kind of planned but won't know until a couple days. See how work is gonna treat me. Hope you enjoyed the chapter though, dialogue takes a lot of effort. Have a wonderful day!
Phoenixflame of Thunderclan: I'm so glad for your patience. Could you believe it's been over a year that I started this fanfic. I planned to be finished by now, I'm not even close. And I hope I don't get writer's block, I wouldn't know how to handle it. I have a hard enough time to update this fanfic. Either way, thank you for your continued support. Also, I noticed you listed this fic on a community. I blush, truly blessed and honored. Hope you enjoyed the chapter, and hope your day fares well!
Potato Lord: I wouldn't go as far to say its in great quality. Grammar always seems to delude me. I'll definitely try my best to make this as good as it can be. And another thing, following this story will give you notifications on when it gets updated. No more constantly checking only to see I'm a terrible person for not updating. Hope you liked this one, I...I worked hard. Kind of. Have a nice day!
Khalzkitty: I must say, I am very glad you commented. One of the most difficult things for a writer is to grab the reader's attention. Sounds obvious, I know. But it is even harder to do it with characters their not entirely interested in, same applies to genre. The first mostly applies to fanfics. That being said, I feel a bit proud that you were able to enjoy this story. But enough egotistical banter, I hope you enjoyed the story and will do my best to keep you interested. Have a lovely day!
