3.
It was the subtlest of warnings, he knew, as he tried to draw in a deep breath then release it slowly. She needed to clean the worst of his wounds, then stitch him up. If that could even be done seeing how long they had ridden since his battle with Luo-Lang. Hira pretty much needed to perform minor surgery. His biggest risk wasn't so much the injuries themselves, it was the threads from his robes that undoubtedly would be in the wound. Infection was an indiscriminate killer.
The pain of his breathing didn't help. Then again, fractured ribs from where he had fallen through scaffolding wasn't helping either. He knew he was in for a battle royal if he was to survive. She shifted around him, dropping onto her knees, setting a hand on his hip and shoulder. Their eyes met, and he nodded.
He honestly tried not to let the howl of pain out, but he failed as she began taking off the dried, partially clotted clothes and bandages. She didn't move right away, just turning towards him, pushing his errant hair off from his face and helping him to clutch the pillow. He was appalled at his own whimpering, but gods how it hurt! Her gentle shushing, followed by Tobimaru's whine, caused him to crack open one eye as he trembled.
The dog, head up, was looking at him, then he jerked his head around, gazing towards the doorway into the home. Foot steps pounded along the en before the boy appeared. He looked scared and alarmed, and was about to enter the house when Hira rose from her place before Nanashi and stepped by the fire.
"Nanashi!" He exclaimed then looked at her with resentment. "What did you do to him?!"
"Waraji's!" She snapped, pointing at his feet. "Do not bring those dirty feet into this home! I have a sick, wounded, man here, and you're not going to get him any sicker with your dirty waraji's!"
He seriously growled at her, then he flopped onto the floor of the house and tugged the strings loose on his sandals with angry jerks. Hira shook her head in despair and disappeared around behind the ginkgo fusuma again. She emerged moments later holding a highly polished, plate of metal.
A few more moments of bustling around, gathering a few more items, then Hira paused and checked that everything was together. Finally she set three tall candle sticks up, lighting the wicks and pacing them in strategic locations around Nanashi.
Satisfied, she turned to the water pot, snatching up a wooden bowl which she filled. Setting it near Nanashi head, she set a cloth rag beside it and a small thick piece of wood. Then she turned to Kotaro.
"Come over here..." she said indicating a spot by Nanashi's head. At first he just looked at her stubbornly, then he warily circled around, stopped just out of arm's reach. The dog, momentarily thumped his tail in delight, looking up at the boy.
"I'm about to start," she said to him. "I need you to hold this in a certain spot and keep it there." She picked up the metal plate.
"What for?!" Kotaro demanded.
"You're going to reflect light from the irori and the candles onto his wounds so I can see to clean them." She looked levelly at him, "It's not going to pretty. If your squeamish, you can look away. But you must hold that plate just right."
"I'm not squeamish!" He protested, and snatched the plate up.
"Let's hope so," Hira murmured, dropping on her knees besides the man. She reached up, smoothing the hair back from his face. "Nanashi?"
He barely managed to open his eyes and look her way.
She held one of the small bamboo tubes up. "I have poppy, for the pain. By the time I get your wounds ready to clean, it should blunt the worst of it."
"No..." he managed to grit through his teeth. "No poppy."
She gave him a slightly sad smile, and picked up the small piece of wood. Kotaro could see a lot of suspicious looking indentations on it. "I thought as much," she murmured and held it out for Kotaro. "When I get ready to clean his wounds, you give him this to bite on."
"Why?" Kotaro asked.
"Because what I'm about to do is going to make him scream. Biting on this will help him control those screams."
The boy looked at her with trepidation. "Scream?"
"I have to get him cleaned up before I reopen the wounds and disinfect them. It's going to be very painful. It's also the only way to save his life."
Now the boy began to look really scared.
It was not a pretty sight.
Preparing his wounds for cleaning was nothing compared to the muffled howl of pain that involuntarily ripped out of Nanashi. Hira had to pour an alcoholic tincture into the opened side wound. Kotaro had slipped the wood between his teeth and he bit down hard. His eyes clenched shut and his entire body involuntarily jolted at the stinging, burning sensation. There followed her application of the sterilised knife, reopening the wound for further bleeding and cleansing.
Kotaro had never seen anything like this and he was both horrified and nauseous as Hira worked. Several times she admonished him to hold the reflecting plate steady as she probed, poured and dabbed at the wound.
Nanashi, curled into a semi-fetal ball, alternated gut wrenching groans of pain with whimpers as he endured what needed to be done. Tears even leaked involuntarily from his eyes, causing Kotaro to be even more alarmed. Then began the stitching. When she finished with his side Nanashi was limp with exhaustion. He panted, his breath hissing past the chunk of wood still clenched between his teeth. He trembled from the ordeal. The tears from the pain tracked down his face.
Hira glanced at a silent Kotaro, looking white as a sheet, holding the plate in his shaking hands. "Kotaro?" she said, finally addressing the boy by his name. "You can set the plate down now. Use that cloth there and bathe his face. It will help him feel better."
The boy slowly lowered the plate down and dropped on his knees near Nanashi's head, reaching for the cloth. Nanashi nearly wept more tears of relief, when the boy began wiping down his face. "Why is he crying?" he asked worriedly.
"The pain causes the tears, and also the relief." Hira said as she took up a very thin piece of cloth and strained off the herbs from one of the tinctures she had been heating on the metal grate. "Just do his face and his neck. I'll have to clean his shoulder and arm next."
The boy nodded, watching as she took up a cloth bag and pulled out a few chunks of beeswax. She added them to the strained liquid. As she waited for the beeswax to melt, she moved the candles. Setting them up to where they could illuminate Nanashi's right arm, then she leaned over him, gently tugging the wood piece from his clenched teeth.
Somehow or another he managed to find the strength to crack one eye open, glancing gratefully at Kotaro, who was dabbing at his neck, before he glanced up at Hira.
She smiled gently, stroking his damp hair back from his face. "That was the worst of it," she murmured to him. "You're side is all stitched. I still need to work on your arm. I'm making a balm to help with the healing. Just keep breathing from dantian. You're doing good. I'm going to roll you onto your back now..."
He nodded, closing his eyes wearily.
Hira glanced at Kotaro. "Switch places with me," she said to him, as she rose to her feet. "You can just wipe his face down now."
"Will he be all right?" Kotaro asked, his voice now timid, and uncertain.
Hira smiled at him, settling on her knees and guiding Nanashi onto his back. "If I have anything to say about it, he will. But it is going to take some time."
"Why?"
"He's overexerted himself. With these broken bones, the bruising, blood loss, these wounds not being cleaned right away, he's sick on top of it. Infection will do that. What I'm trying to prevent is fluid building up in his lungs. That's why I have him clutching the pillow and breathing as deeply as he can." She explained beginning to clean up his shoulder and wounded forearm.
"You must have been in quite the battle for him to get like this."
"He saved me..." Kotaro said, soaking his cloth, dabbing at Nanashi's face.
"You probably saved him as well, getting out of there." Hira pointed out.
Kotaro glanced at her, "I'm sorry I was so mean..." he said.
"Fear can do that," Hira said gently, smiling at the boy. "Fold the cloth and set it over his eyes. Then hand me that little knife I set back in the water there." She said pointing her chin towards the irori. "This is still going to be painful for him, but not anything like what I just had to do. If you work with me, we can make it go faster."
Kotaro nodded, gently settling the damp cloth over Nanashi's eyes, then he reached over and picked up the little knife.
It was late, very late, by the time Hira finished working on Nanashi. Once having got his side wound and his arm tended to, she'd stripped his hakama off of him, along with his tabi socks, and tended to the cuts and slices he'd had on his legs. Particularly a deep one above his right ankle.
She'd gently coaxed Kotaro to help, having him clean the cuts as she dealt with any that needed stitching. Then she had him help dab each and every cut Nanashi had on him with the fragrant balm that had cooled enough to begin applying to the wounds. She explained to the boy as they worked that it contained several different herbs and tinctures necessary to prevent infection and to aid in helping the body to heal.
With the boy's help, Hira bandaged the side wound, his shoulder and the through and through puncture wound on his forearm. The rest she left to the open air. She again shifted the man onto his wounded side, resettling the pillow on his chest and his arms across it. He was limp and semi conscious by that time. She wondered whether or not she should bind his ribs.
"Help me gather his clothes and these towels." Hira said as she stood up. "Then come with me."
Kotaro was reluctant to leave Nanashi's side, but then he stood up, and began gathering things off the floor as Hira quickly began cleaning things up from her work. Minutes later, she lead Kotaro to the large ginkgo fusuma and stepped around behind it.
Following her, Kotaro frowned as she stepped through an opening in the wall. Behind it they entered a very short narrow corridor that attached to the rest of the en that surrounded the house. Amado shutters were in place but they didn't stop the blast of cold that caused Kotaro to gasp. Hira smiled back at him and stepped down onto another wood covered floor.
To Kotaro's astonishment he entered a small, very dry, cave. The house was not actually attached to the side of the mountain. Instead, a small, roof covered, corridor extended into the cave's mouth and opened up inside it. Somehow large racks had been attached to the ceiling from which a bewildering variety of herbs, and root vegetables hung. Further back was another irori from which a low banked fire was burning. Over it was a larger cauldron full of water. Hira, taking up a bamboo stick from nearby, dumped towels and clothes into the pot.
Past the irori, the cave extended further back, stopping abruptly at a pair of custom fit shoji panels. Along both walls stood chests and shelves and a bewildering array of different sized bamboo tubes. Some sat vertically, some were stocked on racks horizontally. It was a dry, spacious, working room and storage area.
Kotaro stood and stared with awe.
She turned to the boy, taking the rags and towels he held and added them to the pot.
"What is all this?" he asked.
"This is where the things I need to tend to people are dried and prepared. I store food in here, and it's also where I wash clothes and things. Here..." she turned from the washing pot. She selected a few negi onions, a daikon, some purple nasu and a few other items then handed them to the boy. She picked up a small shallow cast iron pot and filled it with uncooked rice from a nearby bin before she turned to Kotaro.
"I imagine you're quite hungry," she asked. "When was the last time you ate?"
Almost instantly Kotaro's stomach growled as he hungrily eyed the food she was loading into his arms. His cheeks turned pink. Hira just smiled, gathering a few more things. "C'mon then. You can go out and collect a few eggs from the birds, while I get this started."
"Eggs?!" he exclaimed, his mouth beginning to water.
"Of course, come on..." she said stepping onto the engawa corridor. Kotaro hurried after her.
By the time he returned, carefully carrying four eggs he'd managed to find, Hira had the rice boiling, the vegetables cut up and simmering and was gently re-settling Nanashi on his side on the shikibuton pad she had brought out earlier. He was, for all intents and purposes, asleep. The other pad was set perpendicular to the irori and covered with a quilt. Tobimaru had already claimed it, much to Hira's amusement. She settled a kakebuton blanket over Nanashi when the boy returned, stopping at the genkan.
He blinked at how quickly the washitsu room had changed from what had amounted to be a messy surgery room, back into a comfortable living room. Already he could smell the food cooking. Hira relieved him of the eggs as he stripped off his sandals.
"Nanashi?" he asked, glancing at the man with worry on his face.
"Resting," Hira said. "For now." She cleaned off the eggs before slipping them into a small simmering water pot then went into the storage room to their left. She emerged a moment later carrying a chabudai table and a bundle of cloth.
Setting the chabudai down near the fire pit, she handed the bundle of cloth to the boy. He frowned, perplexed, taking it from her.
"In that room," she said nodding from where she had just come. "Is the toire. You can clean up and change into this. It's a bit large. I don't normally have children staying here, but it should work out all right. Then you can give me your clothes so that I can wash them up with everything else. By the time you get done with all that, the food should be ready to eat."
Kotaro looked down at a juban she set into his arms. He looked a little dumbfounded.
Hira just smiled, realizing the boy was beyond tired. "Go on," she urged.
"H...How are we going to pay you for all of this?" he suddenly stammered. Hira looked at him, then smiled, setting her hand on his head.
"Child," she murmured, softly. "I'm a healer. I treat people's needs regardless of who they are and whether or not they can pay. It doesn't matter if you have money or not. My job is to heal. In whatever way I can. Don't worry yourself. You've helped tonight, that will be payment enough, all right?"
"But I haven't been very nice..." He muttered looking down at his feet. "My temper gets the better of me."
"A short temper that comes out when you're afraid. Are you still afraid?" she asked.
"No... Well..." he looked at Nanashi. "I'm afraid for him. He saved my life... He came back for me."
Hira smiled at him, "You and I will do what we can to make sure he's all right. Now, go change into that robe and you can eat. Your stomach is louder than the dog's..."
He had the grace to blush, then he scampered off.
His food was waiting for him by the futon pad she had laid out on the floor. Tobimaru was happily chowing down on a bowl of his own food. The white under-robe he had cinched tightly around his waist, drug on the floor, eliciting a wry smile from Hira as she took his clothes from him. Reassuring him that they would be clean and dry later, she encouraged him to wrap up in the comforter and eat.
"What about Nanashi?" He asked, staring hungrily at the vegetables and rice. A whole, sliced, boiled egg lay across the top. His mouth was watering.
"He's too tired to eat right now. I'll have broth for him later. Right now, he needs all the sleep and rest he can get." Hira glanced at the man, then took the clothes away. "Don't wait for me, Kotaro, eat that food..." she called back.
He didn't need to be told twice.
In the small cave, Hira checked on the state of things then moved over to the rack of horizontally stored bamboo tubes. She pulled down a lengthy one, then a few of the smaller ones, and returned to the washitsu.
What greeted her, as she took the tubes into the small storage room was Kotaro, his bowl absolutely inhaled, sitting with his eyes closed, leaning to one side. He tried to sit up straight when she had entered the room but then failed as a warm tummy and exhaustion crept back in.
Coming back out, she stopped by his side, and eased the bowl and chopsticks out of his hands. Then she gently laid him over onto the shikibuton. Tobimaru, frog crawled up besides the boy, tail waving, looking at Hira as she reached down and ruffled the top of the dog's head.
"I bet he doesn't take his short temper out on you?" She murmured, reaching over for the comforter.
The boy was completely out before she could even get the blanket over him.
Heaving a sigh, Hira rose, setting the bowl on the chabudai then went to Nanashi's side. She checked his main wound, then made sure the pillow he was clutching was still in place. He never stirred as she tended to him, finally settling a hand on his forehead. A slight frown of dismay ghosted across her face as she felt the heat of his fever. She moistened the cloth, settling it over his eyes and turned towards the irori, tired beyond measure.
She was hungry now, and she knew with this patient, she wouldn't be getting any sleep any time soon. She fixed her own bowl of food, making sure the broth continued to simmer and checking the state of the irori fire. Then she retrieved the broken katana, setting it on the table and contemplated it a long time as she ate.
