Chapter 10: Dazed Bedhead
She's not useless. — Did I… — She's not useless.
She's not useless. — No… — She's not useless.
She's not useless. — I did, didn't I? — She's not useless.
She's not useless. — I… — She's not useless.
I don't want you gone either.
...
Four days had passed since the forest.
The scent of lavender swallowed the whole room.
Even with the window open you could still feel it grabbing the opposite ends of your nostrils and pulling them open, crawling inside and spreading all over the insides of your sinuses. Many knew this smell, and many speculated that was how the entire hospital smelled. They simply loved lavender there. Maybe the doctors had a significant fancy for the given flower.
Either way, it was there, and Ryohu couldn't get a whole of it. He had been eating beef for the past three days that he entitled as "default" and "rather tasteless", but "intensively smelly" as well.
No use though, the smelly beef couldn't compare to the lavender scent. At first the scent of the flower was a life saver, but after mixing with the funky smell of the decaying beef it became straight up irritating. His cat nose was full of it.
His job was just to sit, eat and sleep until the boy wakes up, whenever that moment might come. Let us not lie each other, he had his magnificent breakthroughs, the boy — he awakened about six to seven times, only for a couple of seconds though, then went back to sleep.
He was probably dreaming — shouting nonsense, and sometimes, nonsense that makes sense.
A name would wiggle up here and there, sometimes an old, familiar one that represented an orphanage, sometimes a newly familiar one. The new one would make you tremble just as you say the cold name. Nonetheless, it was a name coming from a cold land.
But in the end, maybe it was trauma. One time he was partially screaming too, with horrendous bags under his red eyes. Nothing out of the ordinary for a pilgrim human boy — the event in the Teutoburg forest was the scariest one yet. You could even dare to say that it came as a curse and a blessing.
Yes, a blessing too.
We'll get into it.
All of a sudden, he started munching — spit stretched from his upper lip down to the lower. He blinked at least ten times in only a few seconds then opened his eyes wide open.
Days had passed since his consciousness appeared in full glory. It became completely boring, at least for Ryohu. If we took account the doctors, well, they were only doing their poorly paid job. Their jobs consisted of a daily check on the sleeping patient — a quick water splash and a questionable injection to keep him going. Thank God he was not aware of what they were doing to him.
His awareness could only start mesmerizing him. His eyes were open for ten seconds straight!
Thoughts and realizations attacked him from all angles. The first thing he would realize was that he was looking at an almond colored ceiling. Next thing he knew, he was in a very comfortable bed. On each sides next to the comfortable bed were wooden drawers. A bad experience with wood would now haunt the boy until the end of his strange life.
On the drawer on the boy's right was another pillow. Ryohu was sleeping on it. The boy's face resulted in pure joy. He was so excited to see Ryohu sleeping peacefully that he decided to disturb his sleep.
But Ryohu didn't mind.
"R-Ryohu!"
"Meow!"
The small cat quickly opened his previously slumbering eyes and couldn't believe what he had seen before him. The dullness had finally come to a finale.
He came closer to the boy and started licking him happily. The boy burst out in laughter and continued on for a while, until that very smile got folded up by everything else that rushed into the boy's head. And so, he stopped.
He stared blankly into the almond neverland of a dry wall until he started questioning and shouting like a maniac.
"All of them! They were… I was… Surrounded by all of them! Ryohu, the Witch!"
"Meow…"
"She escaped! I remember… Then they went after her! Or someone…
MY WOUND!"
"MEEE" —
"I was wounded! It still hurts when I touch it. It's really uncomfortable… And even the linings… I've never been injured like this before. Wait, where are the others? Ryohu…"
A dramatic pause was indeed of need. He recalled the familiar breeze of a name he had been screaming an entirety in his sleep. As he came to remember it to its fullest, the name became even colder. Then, the question followed.
"Where is Eivör?"
"Meow."
"You don't know?! She must be somewhere close by, we need to talk! I need to get up…"
"Meow!"
"The date… Ryohu, for how long was I asleep?!"
The boy continued to get up not so lightly and approached a calendar that was hanging up on the wall, supported by one single rusty nail. He looked at it thoroughly, stared for a while, turned back to Ryohu that was resting on the soft pillow and shouted.
"We've got six days left! Where even are we?!"
As he let these words fly, the door next to him started opening. The human behind it unveiled herself as a female nurse. All of the boy's loud blabbering probably caught her attention.
As soon as she saw the boy, she put one of her hands on his shoulder and revealed a needle in the other hand. She started giving gentle orders.
"There, there. Lie down."
"Wait, wait, wait, wait! Don't inject me with that!"
"There's nothing harmful in it, just substances to make your body rest faster" —
"I can't stand needles. Here. I'll lie down."
"Meow…"
The strangest individuals come with the strangest fears.
Imagine facing a cruel supernatural being with inhuman abilities and getting stabbed in the gut, or for that matter of fact another unsettling example — getting chased by wild boars. That one errand was most likely the second most frightening to Ryohu and especially the boy. The boy had faced several great injuries that day, after they disturbed a group of sleeping boars by accident.
Not to mention, there were countless more dangerous events, smaller or greater. All of them he lived through and survived in one piece, sometimes fired up and ready, sometimes beaten down.
Who would have even guessed that a mere needle would send shivers up the boy's spine? If only he knew how many injections he had received while he was asleep… Maybe it was better if no one mentioned that fact.
The boy continued with his unnerving attitude that kept launching restless questions.
"Can you tell me where I am?"
"It's a pleasure to see you finally with eyes wide open. You're in one of the Lord's hospitals in Einstudht district."
"Einstudht?! No, I shouldn't be here… We've only traced back! Where are the others?!"
"Others? I don't seem to understand."
"Uhh… The people who brought me in here! Where are they?!"
"People? Oh, you don't seem to remember — quite normal however, you are still in mild shock and your memory remains slightly blurred. A single woman brought you in four days ago."
[Woman…? Could she be talking about Eivör?]
"What did the woman look like?"
"She had long and pale red hair, draped in unusual clothes. She didn't leave a name, but she claimed she was strolling near Teutoburg forest only to find you and your pet lying on the grass injured. She called for help immediately and brought you here."
[Long, pale red hair… That's the snake lady, but I can't remember her name.]
"She was alone?"
"Yes. It is now mine and the doctor's assignment to figure out what happened to you and where you come from. Now that you're awake, we will question you later today. Firstly, you need something to eat. I'll be back in lunchtime, which is in an hour. Lay tight for me and don't move. I will be back shortly."
So the nurse left the room. As soon as she did so, the boy stood up energetically once more. He stared at the palm of his hand for awhile. Afterwards, he continued to touch his still painful wound and his elastic cheeks. Then he realized.
"We're not staying here, are we, Ryohu?"
"Meow."
"Hmph. Thought so. We were together with the seven, can you believe it? Out of all the things we went through, this one is the craziest. I also think we met a real friend, haven't we?"
"Meow!"
"Ryohu… We need to find Eivör again."
"Meeow?"
"How? Well, the nurse said we're in Einstudht district? So we've been here before. We just need to find that merchant and his wife and tell them everything. Maybe they can redirect us to the right path."
The pitch black figure and the curly haired boy covered in stitches and linings stared at each other in pure silence. It was decided.
The sneaking out of the hospital began soon after.
2
Three doctors rushing around constantly back and forth from one almond colored room to another (eventually a tiled room with a bucket of water and a hole). Nurses were like hawks — usually on the clear lookout.
With the hideous grey robe on the boy, he would easily be noticed and labeled as a patient. He had no other piece of clothing in his room and naked he could not go outside, because of the ethical and moral standards, of course. Therefore, all options of escaping through the hospital corridors were neutralized.
However, one window resided in the boy's room. It was a tight gap, but the boy and Ryohu could certainly fit through. The only problem was the height and the terrifying drop. A couple of meters below was a level two roof with a bunch of damaged tiles — after that roof was the dusty concrete of an average Einstudht district busy street. Technically, those were two drops. The first one higher than the second one, but both still pretty dangerous. The boy, on the other hand, felt challenged and peculiarly ready.
With lunchtime in now only twenty minutes, both of them had to hurry up. The boy's bag seemed to be missing — knowing the current state of the lands and of the people, especially people with higher social ranks (such as doctors), it was only logical to the boy that his stuff was stolen the day he was brought in by the staff itself. The only other possible outcome was that the seven took his bag for themselves before they brought him in, to try and gather more information about the boy.
But he couldn't be bothered — seven golden coins, a highly small amount of milk, oil, pears, water, useless seeds, damaged pieces of clothing, a couple of ocean rocks, bamboo pieces and pieces of paper are certainly replaceable. If they manage to find the merchant and his wife, they can get half of the things they had and even more.
Seeing as the main objective was to escape and find Eivör, the bag could be sacrificed. Thus, the boy grabbed an apple that was on the left drawer, put it in the pocket of the grey robe and approached the window.
It was already slightly open, so he pushed upwards until the rusty mechanism gained its maximum. Ryohu jumped down from the pillow and climbed on the interior sill of the window.
"Okay, we need to hurry up. It's a pretty high drop, you think you can do it?"
And without any hesitation, Ryohu stepped on the exterior sill and instantly jumped down to the other roof. Seconds after, he jumped once more only to end up in the street. He then persuaded an alley and waited for the boy there.
"Pfft. Easy for you, showoff."
The boy sat on the edge of the exterior sill and looked down. Unfortunately, it was too high. On his right side was a gully — the safest way down. He proceeded to grab it tightly with legs against the wall and slowly started going down. His wound began itching and stinging.
[You can do this, you can do this. It's not that high if you look down, it's not- I should stop looking down. Wait, I'm actually immensely exposed to the people on the street. What if they think I'm a thief of some sort? Is that even a thing? A hospital thief? What would you even rob? Medicine probably. Oh, I'm already down.]
Just as he found himself on the level two roof, a nurse spotted him through a window only one meter apart from him. They both stared at each other blatantly until she swiftly stood up from the stool she was sitting on and rushed through the door. That was most likely a bad sign.
[I should probably get going. But wait, there's no gully over here. Do I jump? No, it's too high, I'll kill myself. Hay can soften a two story fall, but there's no inconveniently placed hay on the street. What if…]
Two of the windows had some sort of bars that represented somewhat a securing fence on them — they were probably the rooms the doctors spent most of their time in. So the boy approached the edge, left himself in a hanging position and started putting his legs on the bars, passing one by one and slowly going down.
[This is not a good position for my wound, still hurts. That Witch… At least she got a taste of her own medicine… I should hurry up before the staff gets down as well.]
A step after another and the boy found himself on the street in the middle of a rushed crowd. A couple of peasants saw him climbing down from the roof, however none of them could be bothered. They simply continued walking.
Just as the boy got down and spotted his black cat, a voice emerged from the main entrance of the hospital. It was one of the doctors, shouting and trying to chase the boy. The boy ran to the alley as quickly as he could and started speaking to Ryohu.
"They're after us. I can't run because of the wound. We have to hide somewhere."
They both turned their heads to the side and saw a box put next to the bricked alley wall. If they squeezed in just right, they could both fit in there.
So they did. Then they proceeded to close the box and simply wait. The doctors searched a part of the street and the alley itself, but they had no luck neither clue where the patient had escaped.
"Goddamn bastard isn't here…"
"Let him be. He'll probably rot in the streets anyway."
After a while, the doctors returned back and the boy and the cat got out of hiding. It was always safer to wait an extra couple of minutes just to be sure.
The two exited the alley shortly after and began exploring the streets in hopes to find the merchant's stand.
And just like that, noon passed.
The boy and Ryohu had been wandering around the streets of Einstudht district for almost an hour. They had been here before, so they could at least show knowledge in the basics of the district. The boy had previously memorized the location of the merchant's stand, and after one shiny red apple and a good while of wandering through the loud and dusty district, they had finally approached the old, wrinkly merchant and his lovely stand.
He was a giant looking old man — somewhat spiky light brown hair that was turning white, huge hands with defined muscles and a stand full of fruit, eggs, cheese, goat milk and such.
When he saw the two pilgrims, he was pleasantly surprised.
The boy reached out to him with a gesture and a greet.
"Orch!"
"I'd be damned. I thought you two would be long gone."
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