Chapter 12: Varian meet the Medic

Inside the lab, Karen looked around, eyeing no one. But she found herself staring at all the fascinating objects in the room. There were shelf's at both sides of the room, strictly organized, to her left was hundreds of bottles with all kinds of mixtures and tonics, all with a paper glued to it with inscriptions. The shelf's to the right were full of books and folded maps of papers and parchments. On the bench were a couple of trenchers put on top on each other, a mortar, a cup with lots of instruments Karen had never sine the likes of, and a pair of hammers of wood. Behind the bench, near the window, was a another bench with a pump and a sink.

"So many medications..." she eyes the bottles and squinted her eyes to look at the notes. "Phineas has a better organizing system than Grandma made for the cook in the kitchen." She quickly looked behind her back to see if her grandmother was there. "Hope she didn't hear me..."

Karen walked over to the mortar and eyed it curiously. "Similar to the one we make seasons of. Is he doing his cooking here as well?"

"Not exactly. But cooking and making medications aren't really that different, in fact."

Karen froze and swirled around to see the figure talking, and got embarrassed when she found herself standing face to face with the chief medic himself. He smiled at her, but she blushed rapidly, being caught red handed sneaking in and being nosy like that was tightly braided behind his back. "I'm sorry, Master Phineas. I... I was looking for one for the royal medics. I... I didn't expect you to be back already. But I'm glad you're here. You're really needed!"

"Well Karen, what can I help you with? Aren't you feeling well?" he looked at her with honest, friendly eyes.

"Eh, it's not me. We brought a boy along, and he needs some attention."

"Oh?" Phineas stroke a hand over his braided beard and widened his almond shaped eyes.

"You better come and see for yourself." Karen grabbed his hand and led him out of the room.

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"Easy now..." Violet said and gently removed the broken goggles from his head.

"Owtch!" Varian said as they were taken off. But he forgot about the pain when he saw the broken glasses. "Oh nooo... How did this happen?" he ripped them out of her hands and was about to exanimate them for how bad they were broken, when he suddenly got a wet cloth mashed up in his face.

Violet ripped the broken goggles out of his hands again."You can look at them later, sweetie." she said and gave the cloth a new dip of water before she continued behind his head to clean up the wound. He hissed as she used some force to get the wound washed. "Don't look now. It's a little bloody."

"Kay!" he said without objecting anymore as he recalled his normal reaction to blood. He let her push him down on the pillow again, letting his head land on a clean cloth she had put over it to prevent the pillow from getting bloody.

"You should have had a proper bath too, but we'll have to deal with that later!" she said as she removed the bowl from his sight. "You can open your eyes now, but don't move."

Varian opened his eyes and stared after her as she carried the bowl away. "What did she mean with that?" he mumbled to himself. Then he suddenly became aware of the smell of his own shirt and begun sniffing himself, and made a twisted face out of disgust. "Phiew...What...? Is that really me?" he whispered to himself as he wrinkled his nose.

She wristed the water into the bowl and was about to carry the bowl with bloody water out when she met Phineas and Karen in the door. "Oh, Master Phineas. You're back, at last!"

"Yes, I am. Now what is the cause?"

"Well, it seems like this strange lad has taken himself inside the castle walls without anyone taking any notice, and it seems like he can't recall how he made it here. It was Karen here who found him, in the kitchen of all places."

"Well, how did that become of?" Phineas asked, looking at Karen.

"Like I've told many times already, I have no idea of how he got into the kitchen!" Karen said frustrated.

"Well alright then." the old physician said. "But can you at least tell me, did you find him in this condition? Was he hurt when you found him?"

"Eh... Well, you see..." she looked down and wriggled herself, putting both hands behind her back. "He kind of... gave me a scare and... I accidently... knocked him out with the frying pan."

Violet stared at the girl in disbelief. "Karen? Of all things..."

"Well, he snuck op from behind! I thought I was alone, and I was frightened!" Karen tried to defend herself.

"For all we know, this might be the reason why he doesn't remember how he got here." Violet said.

Karen looked down with a guilty expression.

"Hm, then she must have hit him pretty hard to case a case of amnesia."

"Amnesia?" Karen and Violet asked at the same time, looking at him with questioning eyes.

"Yes, that's what you call it when you have lost some of your memory. Sometimes it's only a part of your memory while some people happens to be so unfortunate to forget completely who they are." He stopped when he saw their huge, questioning eyes. "It simply means you've hurt your head so much you can't remember."

"I don't care what it's called. I would just like to know he got in here in the first place." Violet said frustrated, placing her hands on her hips.

"He mentioned someone named Ruddiger. I think it's some kind of pet of his." Karen said. "So he hasn't lost all his memory."

"And he mentioned his name." Violet recalled.

"Good, that means there's still hope." Phineas said looking at Karen. "So there might not be too much damage caused after all."

While they were talking, the boy had gotten up in sitting position again and begun to examine himself a little further, and got himself one surprise after the other. He found it disturbing to see that his own clothes were, not just filthy and smelling, but his apron were almost falling off in the straps and his shirt more worn out than ever. Then he found the last ham slice in the front pocket, and made a face of disbelief and disgust; then he became aware of a tickling in his arm, and discovered the carrot he had hiding inside the sleeve his left arm, getting even more confused. He stared at them while he started scratching his head for some seconds trying to figure out of everything. But then his face suddenly twitched and he gasped as a sharp smell reached his nose, before he gave a couple of loud, squeaky sneezes.

The three others turned around by the sound, suddenly recalling he was still there.

"Are we doing alright?" the old physician said as he approached the bed.

"Eh..." the boy said, as he blocked another sneeze with a gloved finger pushed up under his nose. "Pepper in my hair... Donno know where that's from..."

"Well, that's a new one, indeed." Phineas had trouble keeping himself from chuckling as he pulled out a handkerchief from inside one of his wide sleeves and handed it to him. "Here, lad."

"Ah, thanks..." Varian said, and managed to cover his nose just in time before sneezing again. He gave his nose a good blow as well, an effort that made him dizzy and he had to lean back on the pillow, receiving help from the physician. "Head hurts..." he spotted the blood on the cloth on the pillow, and hurried to look away, making an awkward, squeaky sound of disgust as he twitched all through his body.

"Don't like blood, do we?" Phineas said smiling. "Just let us examine you properly." Then he turned around to the women. "Violet, will you be a dear and cover the closest window? And stay will you? I might need a hand here."

"Of course!" Violet said before she walked right to the nearest window to pull the curtains over it.

"And Karen..." he turned to the nervous little girl. "I would like you to inform the Majesties of my return. And tell them I will be busy with this lad here for a while and that I will update myself on the current situation when I am ready."

Frustrated over being sent away again, but at the same time relived over getting away from her grandmother, Karen sighed and turned to leave. "Alright, I will!"

"Hey wait!"

The sound of the boy's voice made her turn back.

"I'm... sorry I scared you. I really didn't mean that." He looked at her with huge blue eyes, full of sorry and apology, and in the pitiful condition he was in, Karen wasn't able to be angry at him. Instead she gave him an apologizing look back.

"Eh, I... I'm sorry too. I hope I didn't hurt you too bad with the frying pan. I didn't mean it either. Really."

"That's okay. I have been old I have a thick skull." he pointed to his head as he gave her a smile. "I'll be fine."

She chuckled and went off, hoping no one saw the light blush on her cheeks.

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Daniel started to become a little bored from where he was hiding. He had no idea of how long he had been lying under the bed, but it had to be long now, and his father had probably returned to Annabelle by now and was most likely wondering where he had gone. He couldn't blame him though. It was Annabelle's fault, it had been her job to look after him, and she had ignored him completely. She was supposed to look after that he did not wander about, and now she would get the blame because he had done just that. Served her right, the young Prince thought.

He hadn't been too happy over being left alone with his silly, vain cousin, so when she looked away, turning her attention towards the her own nails, he grabbed the opportunity to sneak away. First he hid behind a column, then, when he was certain she wasn't looking, he silently ran off.

Behind a corner, he had to hide behind another column when he spotted two guards running, and waited till they passed before he ran himself. He didn't know where he would go, but any kind of exploring was far better than being near Annabelle. But it didn't take long before something caught his attention. In the opposite direction, he spotted two women, one old and one young. But it wasn't the women that caught his attention. It was the strange being they carried between them, dragging along as they held it up. It looked like a boy, but Daniel couldn't see properly as he had so much black hair in the way. They stopped near a door, and knocked it. Then the elder one found a key and locked the door up, and they dragged the unconscious being with them inside.

Daniel's curiosity was struck. Why was the boy being unconscious? Was the boy hurt? What had he been doing? Why was he so funny dressed? He had to find out. So he decided to follow. He peeked in through the doors to have a look. He hid behind the door when the young girl came back and into one of the other rooms. Then Daniel used his opportunity to sneak in. As the old woman was helping the boy in bed, Daniel looked at them, but as he heard a noise behind him, the sound of a male voice, he feared his father was near and hurried to hide underneath the bed right next to him to not be discovered.

And there he stayed a little while, hiding while he paid attention to what was going on with the wounded boy, hoping it would take some time before his father figured out where he were. Although he knew deep inside that he would eventually get trouble with his father for running off in the first place.

But there was nothing to do about that now. Besides, it served him right for always ignoring him. Why was he always doing something that was more important than him? Wasn't he important at all? These thoughts made Daniel stay put where he was, continuing to stay silent and watch what happened.

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Still confused as he was, and realizing how much a mess his own head were, Varian let the friendly physician exanimate him all over. He lightened a match and used it to have a look at his eyes, one at the time, while the curtain was closed and asked him to look at the light.

"Now, out with your tongue, please." he said as he blew out the match and shook it to remove the smoke.

"Pardon me?" Varian arched an eyebrow.

"You heard me. Come now." Phineas demanded friendly.

Varian didn't understand why, but he nevertheless obeyed, and opened his mouth and stuck his tongue out. The physician gently took a grab on it and looked closely at it with two fingers.

"Thind anything inthesting?" Varian asked, still with his tongue out.

"Oh yes, indeed."The physician scraped a little of it before he looked at the content under his nail a moment with squinting eyes. "Very interesting indeed... So tell me lad..." he faced him again. "What date is it?"

Finally getting his tounge back, he had to moisturize it a little before he could answer. "S'cuse me, what?"

"I have to check if your head are still in one piece, and so I need to ask such simple questions to analyze your answer. If your answers makes sense, you may be in one piece."

"So you're afraid I might have some damage on my brain?" Varian asked nervously.

"Precisely. So far it doesn't seem too bad, but I want to be sure. Now just answer; the date?"

"Eh... Don't say it! Its..." Varian bit his bottom lip and looked up in the ceiling as he thought. But pretty soon, he closed his eyes and moaned while he rubbed the sides of his head as he failed to locate the date.

"Alright." Phineas said as he saw that the boy struggled. "An easier question then. What month is it?"

"Ehm..." Varian opened his eyes as he managed focus better on a wider scale. "August... Or September. I'm pretty sure its somewhere between those."

"Good. Violet?" he said as he looked at her, and pointed to the other window. When she walked towards it, he said: "Will you bring me the cloths on the table? And a bandage as well!" Phineas rose to have a look at Varian's back head. "Anything in particular that makes you think of these two months?"

The maid pulled the curtains for the other window and brought over the cloths and bandage on the bed, but arched an eyebrow at his answer when Varian spoke.

"Simple. The apples' just begun to grow red. Ruddiger is paying attention to them like a cat watching a mouse hole. He loves apples, but he's a bit cranky when it comes to quality. He simply won't have the green ones."

"I can't blame him. Who likes sour apples?" he begun wrapping a bandage his head. He noticed that Violet was about to open her mouth to react on the boy's comment, but the old physician reached up a finger towards his lips to indicate her into remaining silent. And so she did as she watched Varian's head being half wrapped up with bandage, with the wound on the back of his head covered up.

"If you have some milk along with it, they're not so bad actually." Varian kept telling. "You see, my dad is so into not throwing food away if you can prevent it, so my mother used to cut them up and put them into a bowl of milk and we ate them that way. I discovered later that the milk is sort of basic and has a high contain of fat, and it kind of neutralizes the sourness."

"It certainly sounds like your head works most fine at least.!" Phineas said, arching an eyebrow behind Varian's head, getting more and more curious at the boy. "Tell me son, where have you got your education? I have a feeling you would have made an excellent wine taster." he asked as he helped Varian lean back to the back of the bed on some pillows so he was sitting up and Leaning back at the same time.

"Oh, I am mostly self thought. I've red myself up about anything from math to science and a little bit of cooking and baking as well. Although I do most research by experimenting and observing."

"Really?" Phineas said, but he was unable to talk any further as Violet suddenly made a cry.

"Oh goodness, the dinner!" She slapped both hands on her face and dropped the cloths on the floor. "Phineas I am sorry, but I have hope you don't need me here any further. I have important guests to tend to, and the turkey might get burned and..."

"It's alright, Violet. The boy is safe in my care."

"Good!" She turned to Varian and raised a finger to him with a strict face. "Now you listen to Phineas, lad. If I find you out of this room when I return, I promise you'll have to stand before me. Am I clear?"

"But ma'am, I..." Varian begun, but Violet cut him off with clearing her throat loudly, and Varian shrieked his head between his lanky shoulders. "Okay!" he said rather meekly.

Phineas chuckled as he watched her run out. "Never argue with the women. That's why I've never married."

Varian wasn't sure what to reply on that, so he just gave a nervous laugh.

"So..." Phineas said as he gently grabbed his wrist and begun puling of his glove. "Shall we check your pulse?"

I am perfectly well aware that the word amnesia most likely haven't show up yet in the historical setting, but hey, this is fiction, and it's magic involved here; why not have the word for memory loss included as well? I took this liberty because just 'losing his memory' sounds so... unprofessional.