(Continued)
"Wonderful! That means you can't feel how cold my hands are." She pulled the blood-soaked bandages out of the wound and replaced them with fresh ones. "Would someone mind going belowdecks, finding the galley, and setting some water to boil for me? It'll be much easier to clean these if we do it now, rather than when the blood dries in."
"I can do that," Meridian offered, and Lisa noted that he seemed a little too eager to get off the deck and away from the scene.
"Good thinking," Callista said, but without much of a bite. "This setting isn't for young folks."
"You don't have to hang around either, darling," Lisa offered. "I think I can handle this by myself."
Callista rolled her eyes. "Nope, I think I'm fine. I like seeing sandboy angry, and he's not happy that I'm here."
Rodrin sighed softly, but made no comment.
"Whatever makes you happy, darling," Lisa said, replacing the bandages once again and setting another handful of bloody bandages down next to her. "Take these down to Meridian for me, will you?"
Callista begrudgingly took them and went down belowdecks.
"Alright, I think the bleeding is slowing," Lisa continued to Rodrin. "I'm going to look for splinters now, before I start sewing you up." She pulled the bandages out again and set them to the side, then took a pair of tweezers and a small metal hook from her line of tools. Using the hook to gently pull the edges of the wound out of her way, she began to methodically examine Rodrin's back, pulling out quite a few tiny chunks of wood.
"We really should've taken care of this earlier."
"You've said that," Rodrin muttered. "We had bigger problems."
"At least you managed to hit yourself in a good spot," Lisa continued, ignoring him. "It doesn't look like anything vital is damaged, just muscles. You're going to be quite sore and stiff for a while, but you'll live, unfortunately for Callista."
"... you sent her belowdecks on purpose, didn't you. You didn't actually need new bandages in there," Rodrin said, a hint of accusation - and gratitude - in his voice.
"Nope! I just needed a minute without her and her questionable bedside manner," Lisa admitted cheerfully, after checking over her shoulder to make sure Callista wasn't coming back up to hear her. "Good vibes only in this impromptu surgery room."
Rodrin huffed, then winced. "Ow. I felt that."
"Well, if you didn't burn through the painkiller so fast, it wouldn't hurt," Lisa scolded lightly, reapplying the salve. "This is supposed to work for longer than a few minutes." She paused, then laughed. "Is this what the prophecy meant by 'a beacon of pain'? Painkillers don't work on you?"
"Maybe I shouldn't be letting someone who's possibly going to kill someone work on me, if we're going by what the prophecy says," Rodrin replied flatly.
"I told you, darling. That's Callista's line."
"I'm still suspicious," Rodrin muttered. "She was much too quick to proclaim herself a killer. She's hiding something, and I'm not sure it's murderous intent- although she probably has some of that, too. Can't feel my back again, by the way."
"Noted. I'm going to put the bandages back in there and stitch you up now- the bandages are going to keep the hole from filling with fluid or anything nasty like that."
Word Count: 1243/2500
Gender:
Points: 1321
Reviews: 26