Chapter 208 - Healer's Hut (Patreon)

Hera and Blue were led to a stone hut close to the farmlands. In all respects, it looked like the house of a witch from a fairy tale. The roof was crooked, and the stone on top curled like a witch's hat. The hut was covered in different colored moss with some glow-in-the-dark mushrooms spread around it.

Wothur opened the door, "Risli! Where are you, woman?"

Hera stared at the dwarf, hoping this was not the type of treatment that they would receive.

"What the hell do you want, you useless drunk?" a shrill voice came from inside.

"I'm sober. And get your bony ass here. You have people to take care of," Wothur turned around to Hera and Blue, "Please come in, just watch your head."

Hera nodded and helped Blue inside, "Excuse us."

Although the door was so small that the humans had to lower their heads to cross, the actual house was tall enough for them to stand without trouble. They still had to dodge away from lights and anything hanging from the ceiling, but wouldn't have to be in uncomfortable positions. Inside, it looked like a living room, a round table with a couple of stone ornaments on top of it and a set of five chairs circling it. To one side, there was a door leading to a kitchen. On the other side, a set of long white drapes seemed to lead to a different room, but the cloth was blocking anyone from seeing the other side.

"What is it now? Another drunk who fell from the table they were dancing on?" a wrinkly old dwarf, wearing moss-covered robes and leather shoes with a slight curl on the tip, came through a door on the side, "You are tall. I haven't seen you two before, and your arms are strange."

"Don't say anything. Give her a minute," Wothur said.

Risli smacked Wothur's chin with a stick that was leaning by the table, "Don't treat me like I'm going senile, you fool. My mind is better than yours will ever be."

"That hurt! When will you stop treating me like that?"

"When are you going to stop passing out drunk on my porch?" Risli turned back to Hera and Blue, "And you two. How did humans end up here?"

"It was mostly an accident. We ended up in a place where we had to run. Well, I had to run while carrying her, and the only place we could go to was here," Hera explained.

"That seems to be the only reason you show up here. Well, it doesn't matter. It's your loss if you don't want to meet us," Risli scoffed.

"It's not that we don't want to. It's just tough to find the entrance here. I had to go through a labyrinth just to find the doorway to this room," Hera said.

"What do you mean doorway?" Wothur asked.

Hera looked at Blue, who turned towards the dwarf, "You don't know about the doorways?"

"I know about those," Wothur pointed towards the door in the entrance.

"What about the system? Do you guys have levels and roles?" Blue gasped.

"We have levels, but what is the system?" Wothur asked.

"What gives you the levels, the blue windows? Everything!"

"You mean the voice of the mountain?" Wothur looked confused.

"Stop it, you two! You are injured, and you are stinking up the place. Go take a shower for once in your life," Risli kicked Wothur of the house and turned to the Humans, "You two, follow me. You are going to have plenty of time to talk about whatever later."

"Hang on, I want to understand what is going on," Hera said.

"There is nothing to hang here. You look like you are about to collapse," Risli turned to Blue, "and if you keep staying on that foot, I'm going to have to cut it off. Even I wouldn't be able to make it grow back. Come quickly!"

Risli pushed Hera towards the drapes, with Blue following behind them. The next room looked like a large infirmary with eight beds spread around in a circle. The light in this room was much better than the rest of the house, and a warm yellow glow radiated from a rock on the ceiling.

While they walked towards this hut, Hera and Blue noticed the lack of technology in the city. Street lamps were glowing rocks. Cars, televisions, phones, even fridges were missing. It was like the kingdom was still stuck in the Middle Ages. The fact that they had such a clean and well-lit infirmary gave Hera some hope. Historically, people took a lot of time to realize the value of having clean spaces. Seeing that this healer's hut showed more knowledge made her wonder if the disparity between common sense wasn't that big.

"Now, you sit here," Risli said to Blue, "And you lie down there and go to sleep. I've seen enough people dying from overwork for a lifetime," she said to Hera.

"But I'm dirty, and I need to make sure Blue is ok."

Risli waved her hand, and suddenly, Hera's clothes became spotless, "There. You are not dirty anymore. Now take off that armor and go to sleep."

"Oh, thanks. But I still can't just go to sleep."

"Why in the name of the sky you can't?"

"I have no idea what you are going to do with us! What if this is all a trap?"

Risli nodded, "You have a good head, child. Yes, people can be wicked, and you must always keep your guard up in strange places. However, one must trust when people are sincere. I'm a healer, and taking care of people is my calling. Nothing will come to harm you while you are under my care. I can promise you that."

"Thanks, but I'm not sleeping," Hera said.

"For the love of.." Risli turned to Blue, "Can I make her sleep?"

Blue looked at Hera. She was pale, and even small movements made her stop to catch her breath. She also asked the same questions several times to Wothur as they walked and would ask about things that were not there. Blue remembered that those could be symptoms of exhaustion, "Honestly, I trust you, but I don't think you can convince her to sleep when she's like that. If you want to try, sure, go ahead."

"Yeah, that's what I wanted." Risli turned to Hera and opened her hand about 20 centimeters away from the explorer's face. An invisible energy came out, making Hera feel woozy.

"What did you do?" she tried to ask, but her words came out slurred and weird.

Blue watched as Hera's eyes rolled back, and she was about to fall on the ground but was caught by the bed which started moving. Risli lifted both the mattress and the pillow with magic to allow Hera to lie down without hurting herself.

"Is she ok?" Blue asked.

"She will be in the morning. What she needs right now is a long night of rest," Risli moved her fingers, and a few bottles and tools came out of a cabin on the other room.

"How are you doing that?" Blue watched the dancing objects float around the dwarf while she sat down in front of her.

"A simple spell. The voice of the mountain calls it telekinesis."

"Wothur said that before. What is the voice of the mountain?"

"Let me finish your treatment first. If you are not in too much pain to talk after it, I can share a bit of what I know," Risli started taking off the splint and Blue's boot, "This wasn't a bad idea, but the execution could have been better."

The exam lasted for around 30 minutes. The bones in Blue's foot had shifted and now had to be put back in place before immobilizing it once more to heal properly. It was a painful ordeal, and about halfway through, Blue asked to be put to sleep. It was stupid to feel the pain when she had another option.

Risli finished her work on her own, placing the patient on the bed using her telekinesis. She left the two in the infirmary and headed back to her room. Crouching down by her bookshelf, she pulled up an old stone box. With a spell, she opened it and retrieved the sizeable leather-bound tome from inside. Tapping a stone by her bed activated the magic inside the rock, making it give a warm white glow. Risli flipped through the pages of the book. It was a diary passed through the generations of healers. It had recollections of several important events since the creation of the city. She found the page she was looking for, where it talked about the last days of the human who once lived here. Risli knew that her master was the only person who heard the human's dying words.

'I pray to the mountain that no other humans come here. You don't deserve to be tainted by my people.'

Risli sighed, reading those words, "I really hope your fears were unfounded, Weston."

The following day, Hera woke up well past noon. Blue was sitting on her bed eating a meal prepared by Risli. Hera looked around. Her weapons were to the side, on a small table, but she was still wearing her armor. However, she was still completely clean. With a groan, she sat up on the bed. Her body was sore, but it didn't seem to be from her sleeping position. It felt more like the day after she started going to the gym.

"Good morning. Did you sleep well?" Blue was eating what looked like chicken porridge.

"Morning. I'm not sure. It feels like I just slept," noise came from the other room, making Hera grab her weapons.

"Could you calm down? Risli is cool," Blue sighed.

"How can you tell?"

"Because we were both unconscious and wounded, if anyone wanted to hurt us, they would've done it already. I also talked with Risli. Apparently, much of their culture today is all thanks to the last human that came here and showed them some things. Jazz is part of it," Blue explained.

"But why would they take human culture?"

"Because we lost ours," Risli came from the living room, "Here. It's an old recipe, but it's delicious."

The shaman gave Hera a bowl with the same porridge Blue was eating.

"Thanks, and I'm sorry if I offended you. It wasn't my intention."

"There is nothing to apologize for, child. You are correct in being defensive. As I said before, you must always be wary of your surroundings," Risli sat by Blue and examined her foot.

Hera tried the porridge, and it reminded her of her grandmother's cooking. Maybe it was because Risli seemed to be very old, or just her presence being similar. She ate most of her food while the shaman continued her treatment. Hera still had questions but didn't want to disturb her work. After a couple of minutes, the bandages on Blue's foot were changed, and a new stone splint was there instead of the wooden one that Hera made.

"Now, it's still going to be swollen for a day, and it will take about a week for you to be able to move around. Until then, I have a moving chair for you to use."

"A moving chair?" Blue asked.

"Yes," Risli moved her finger, and a stone wheelchair moved from the side and stopped in front of Blue.

"Cool, does the chair move on its own all the time?"

"What? No. I'm moving it with magic. When you are on it, push the wheels to make it move," Risli shook her head.

"Oh, so it's just a wheelchair?" Blue slumped.

"What's a wheelchair?" Risli asked.

"That, a chair with wheels."

"A chair with wheels that you can move around, so it's a moving chair."

Hera started laughing, "It's good to know that having a crappy name sense is not something exclusive to humans."