Chapter 33 – untitled
My ears being filled with various muffled noises, I groggily opened my eyes to a ceiling I was unfamiliar with. My mind and body refusing to catch up to my conscious, lay there in a pseudo sleep paralysis stupor for what felt like a few minutes as I began to wake up mentally. Finally aware enough to have a thought process, I was quick to realize that my body was genuinely plagued with sleep paralysis as my body refused to respond to my commands.
After a handful of unsuccessful attempts to rouse my body, I ended up trying to focus on the noise that had woken me to try to get a handle on where I was while attempting to recall the events of the previous night.
It was no use. I couldn't make anything out from the noise, I wasn't even able to pinpoint the source. It sounded like I was in a highly populated area or something. Recalling the previous night also proved to be fruitless as I failed to recall anything significant from after parting with Raheli.
After having lay there for maybe half an hour, my body began to finally respond as I heard someone speaking. A female voice much clearer than the other noise.
"I am about to check on him, we can do that later." Her voice reminded me of a crystal bell's chime as she spoke.
Finally managing to push myself upright, I noticed I did not have my shirt, nor even any pants, on under the covers of the bed as the door opened and I saw a harpy with silvery, white feathers in a short shoulderless black dress, with a scar quite noticeable over her right shoulder. She was carrying a tray that held a bowl of what smelled like chicken broth, the irony of which stuck in my mind for a moment before I noticed the girl's expression implying she could begin crying at any moment.
No loss in awareness of what she was carrying, she lithely made her way to the side of the bed and sets it on the table I had failed to notice. Embracing me the moment her arms, wings were free.
"You're finally awake." Recalling her name as she let go to sit back, she seemed to be holding back tears as she smiled at me warmly.
"Ione, where are we? I can't recall what happened last night nor for last couple days."
"We're in Bestalion, in the back of Cleena's shop. Ryan... " pausing to try to steel herself, Ione continued "You almost died after your fight with Selene, Silvia's sister. Ryan, you've been in a coma for three weeks."
"Multiple fractures through ye body, luck of a devil. That must be what ye have. Still for ye to be awake already, perhaps the blood wasn't was old as I thought." A dwarf said as she walked into room. "Still needed fourteen flasks of mermaid blood but seems ye were able to pull through."
"Fourteen?" I asked unsure of the significance of the number.
"Aye, mermaid blood is great, even miraculous medicine. But it isn't some simple cure all fix all thing. The older it is the lesser its effect becomes, and it doesn't magically make ye wounds disappear, it simply accelerates ye body's own feeling factors. For example, if ye arm was cut off, no amount of mermaid blood would make ye grow a new one. The blood doesn't work on old injuries either. Meaning the fledglin ere can't remove her scars just from taking a swig from the nearest fish. Broken bones were just the start of all ye injuries. Quite a few of internal organ injuries were there as well. But due to the sheer amount of injuries and extent of them, combined with the low quality of the blood I had on hand, ye more severe injuries were taken care of first. Leaving minor injuries to heal naturally like those three new scars over your eye. Ye are lucky it was just a slipped disc in ye back and not snapped or crushed. As for ye eye, the scar looks more like a possession claim or something, but shouldn't pose any issue to ye sight as far as I can tell. I ain't confident in the potency of the blood so ye should be careful and take things slow, the chance of an incomplete healing is very possible."
While explaining, a voice shouts out "Is anyone here?"
To which Cleena responds with a shout, "On the way!" and heads off in the direction of the voice.
Bringing the tray to her lap, Ione removes the cover to reveal it some sort of soup, still smelt like chicken as well. Spooning out some, she carefully brought the soup to feed me.
It felt too awkward. "I think I can manage to feed myself..." I started to say but as I pulled my arm out from under the covers I realized I wasn't able to close my hand well.
Rather than say anything, Ione just offered to feed me again as I resigned myself and accepted it. Ione though seemed to be enjoying it more than one normally would.