Closed More Medicine! [Ruby]

[Spirit Frostfawn]

--Spring 77th, 513 AV-- After deciding that her skills needed a little more honing, Spirit had decided to return to the Whitevine Healing Center. She really needed to learn more about medicine in general, for either humans or animals. So she'd left her Arvinta that morning, determined to get as much learning in as possible. She was taking Silver and Wind with her today, not really wanting to leave them for an entire day at home. Not like they’d mind, but she’d still feel slightly guilty. Instead, the plan was to leave the two of them outside, to watch each other. She trusted Wind enough to not let the horse run away, but the Vantha doubted that would happen in the first place. Her mare wasn’t really one for that. She sat on Silver’s saddle, holding onto the reins carefully. Though she loved Silver, and loved riding, she was still pretty unsure about the whole thing. She was getting better though, and practiced most days. She adjusted her seat slightly, to a more comfortable position. They were at a walk at the moment, and though the distance wasn’t that far, the young Frostfawn felt like moving faster. So the tapped her heels lightly into her mare’s sides, and readied herself for the change in pace. The horse reacted easily, strides changing into more of an easy lope. Spirit felt herself bumping up and down for the first few steps, before remembering what she had to do at a trot. As Silver stepped, she pushed herself up and down on the saddle, to match with the horse’s movements. Though it required a little more work than just sitting, they were moving much faster. A quick glance to their side told her that Wind was still following, loping along beside. Though he was an old dog, he still was able to run long distances, but not like when he was a puppy. It took only a few more chimes, but finally they arrived at the healing center. She tugged on both the reins to stop Silver, and the mare complied. She swung her left leg over the saddle, and slithered awkwardly down the horse’s side. Even though she’d dismounted several times, the drop was so far, and she didn’t want to twist an ankle or something. Though, here she would be able to get help for that in possibly five ticks flat. Once down, she ‘handed’ Silver’s reins to Wind, who sat down ignoring the offered leather, and moved away. She walked slowly towards the entrance, though checked over her shoulder a few times to make sure the two animals were still there, and not fighting. Though they hadn’t warred over anything yet, knowing the pair of creatures, her sled dog would quite likely start a play battle out of boredom, as long as Spirit wasn’t watching. She pushed open door to the center, wandering inside. There was a place to eat somewhere on this floor, but she didn’t really know, and really didn’t care that much. Her goal was to find a teacher. The Frostfawn gazed over the area before her, and found someone that looked like a young doctor. They didn’t look too busy, so she asked them politely for directions. ”Hello! I was wondering if you know where I could find someone to teach me medicine?” A small smile touched her face, and she ignored the slight shyness rolling in her belly. Sometimes, one just needed to talk to people, and there was no way of getting out of that. You couldn’t just always talk to people you know, or no one.

[Ruby Majalenka]

Ruby was on her way to the wards upstairs for her rounds when a Vantha with long, black wavy hair greeted her.

”Hello! I was wondering if you know where I could find someone to teach me medicine?” she said, smiling. Interestingly, a slight hue of pink was spreading on the Vantha's bright blue eyes, which almost looked like two different colored flames burning and dancing together. She knew how Vanthas could change their eye color according to their moods, but somehow it took a long time to getting used to.

'Who is she ? Matters not. What does she want ? Knowledge. Why not, teach one person, save two lives. Two saved, two taught. Two taught, four saved. And so on, and so on, such was the tree effect.' Ruby reminisced at Seiled Whitevine's quote on him teaching junior healers.

"I'm afraid the doctors might have other urgent matters to tend to, so if you don't mind my lowly assistant-doctor position, allow me to educate you instead." Ruby laughed, at the mixture of modesty and pomposity she managed to conjure up. "Follow me, the wards are upstairs." she beckoned to the Vantha.

"Firstly, let me ask you a question : What is the difference between a medicine and a poison ?" Ruby asked in a strict, cold tone as she started walking. Her smile was gone and the face looked lifeless despite the intimidating voice.

[Spirit Frostfawn]

"I'm afraid the doctors might have other urgent matters to tend to, so if you don't mind my lowly assistant-doctor position, allow me to educate you instead." The lady said, answering Spirit's question quickly. The Frostfawn raised her eyebrows for a second at the speedy reply, then smiled again. Well... finding a teacher had been easier than she'd expected! "Oh...ok! Thanks!" She replied, nodding thankfully. She heard the woman laugh, and her grin widened. At least she wasn't annoyed with the groom asking for some help. Some people didn't like interrupting, and you couldn't really tell which was which. Well, the grumpy people often looked... well, grumpy, and in a hurry. "Follow me, the wards are upstairs." The lady finished, beckoning with her hand to follow. The Vantha complied willingly, and with a nod, and trailed after her to-be tutor. As they started walking, Spirit mused on the woman's appearance. She certainly wasn't Vantha, the hair color said that much. She was about her own age, actually. But the most obvious thing was that... she seemed familiar somehow. The young groom couldn't quite place the lady's identity, but... well, it was strange in the least. She could figure it out later anyways, right now she needed to focus on the lesson... right. "--difference between a medicine and a poison ?" The Frostfawn returned to reality just as the woman began speaking. Luckily, she heard the important part, so she could answer without being too utterly confused. The difference? She mused on the subject for a few moments before answering. "Well... a poison is meant to harm someone, and a medicine helps and heals them, right?" She answered, slightly unsure of the answer. Those were logical answers, and almost certainly right, but she didn't know if the assistant-doctor wanted stuff in more detail. Well... she couldn't provide more detail, knowing very little on the subjects of potions and poisons. Really, all she was good for was emergency stuff, like tying up wounds, things that you could use on an animal too. And a bit about broken bones, though really only some simple splints. Deciding that the best course of action to find out the answer would be to wait for it, she did so, patient, but excited to see what more of a difference was. In truth, they were sort of similar. You made them both out of plants and such... (well, probably) and they were both liquids. Right? Well, sometimes medicine could come in pills or powders, and maybe poisons too... So that wasn't right. She shook her head slightly, as if trying to force such a silly assumption out of her head.

[Ruby Majalenka]

'A critical girl, though not brave enough to make assumptions.' Ruby mused to herself, upon hearing the Vantha's answer. When they were right in front of the ward's doorstep, Ruby stopped. She casually reached into her tunic pocket and procured some white berries.

"I'm sure you're familiar with the Chill Berries." she smiled, holding them out on her palm so the Vantha could get a good look. "It is a fine example of a poisonous medicine. These berries have the effect of lowering body temperature, therefore commonly used to alleviate fevers, however..." she paused, for a dramatic effect. "Ingestion of too many of these could cause numbness and body system shutdown. Which led us to the conclusion that the most important thing in utilizing nature, especially regarding medical purposes, are not recognizing the sources of medicine." she stopped and looked up at the Vantha, to let this new student absorb everything before hearing the point that form the very base of alchemy.

"It is reading the boundary of life and death in each living things."

[Spirit Frostfawn]

Spirit heard the woman mutter something to herself, a mutter about... assumptions? That probably meant she got the question wrong... was there some exception? None seemed to come to mind... Luckily it seemed the answer was to come soon, as her tutor removed some berries from their pocket. They looked familiar, thought the Frostfawn couldn't quite place their name. She'd never been good with plants. "I'm sure you're familiar with the Chill Berries." She stated as the berries were held out, so the young groom could get a better look at them. She did recognize the name, though had never really cared about the plants much, so only vaugely knew their properties. Chill... something about cold then? "It is a fine example of a poisonous medicine. These berries have the effect of lowering body temperature, therefore commonly used to alleviate fevers, however..." She continued, creating a dramatic pause, leaving Spirit on a cliff hanger. However what? They lower the body temperature, didn't they? So that's good. But she called it a 'poisonous medicine'. What in the world was that? So there was some kind of negative effect... "Ingestion of too many of these could cause numbness and body system shutdown. Which led us to the conclusion that the most important thing in utilizing nature, especially regarding medical purposes, are not recognizing the sources of medicine." Luckily, the non-Vantha finished her sentence, and easily answered the question. So... some plants were good, but an overdose bad? And what did she mean by that last bit? The Frostfawn attempted to decode the statement, but failed. She had no clue what it meant in the slightest. Utilizing nature? So... finding plants and ingredients for medicines and stuff, right? Finding the right plants and stuff is not the most important thing for the sources of the medicine? Wait... wrong way round. Recognizing the sources of medicine isn't the most important thing in using nature? What? Though she'd slightly figured it out, the statement still made no sense whatsoever. "Uhhhhh What?" She asked, explaining her confusion. Though she wasn't stupid, she really couldn't understand that. Hopefully her tutor could, and would, answer her terribly unspecific question. Maybe she should make it more specific.. that would probably work better. "What I meant was, utilizing nature? Last last bit? What did that mean?" "It is reading the boundary of life and death in each living things." The woman finished, seemingly answering Spirit's question. Sadly, this didn't explain it so well either apparently. So... to use plants well, you had to figure out how much could kill you, and how much wouldn't? The Frostfawn wasn't very good at understanding such philosophical things, only mostly comprehending stuff in context. "Ohhhhhhhhh!" She exclaimed after finally understanding the whole thing. Though it still was slightly confusing, that last statement made a lot of sense. Well, mostly. She still had to decode things, and only slightly understood why reading life and death in each thing was the most important. To voice this question, she asked, simply. "....Why?"

[Ruby Majalenka]

Ruby tried her best to voice the answer out in the simplest phrase she knew, yet the Vantha still seemed confused. Well, nothing I can do about it, guess I grew up to an overly philosophical company, Ruby thought.

"You seem to have understood enough." she smiled. "Basically, how something can kill, and how it can heal, depending on the way it's used. The rest of your questions, if any, are better answered by yourself. That is, by experiencing medicine itself. Come." The door was opened, and they entered the ward.

It was a big room with beds lined up, each separated by thin curtains for privacy when needed. There was a picture window at the end of the ward opposite the door, where sunlight, after hindered by the light snow outside and the curtains inside, lit the room in a soft, warm glow. A combination of lavender and chamomile scent attacked the nose almost immediately.

"This scent is from the Makutsi moss." Ruby pointed at a vase fixed to the wall near the door. Inside was the said moss, its color purple. "It relaxes the mind, which plays an indirect yet imperative effect on the speed of one's recovery."

"You forgot to mention that it could only be found in the Makutsi springs, Ruby." A nearby patient added, smiling. The patient was a middle-aged male Vantha with a wise facade. "So you're here to give me my dosage of berries ?"

"Yes, and I won't mess up the count like last time. Today the doctor counted out the berries himself." Ruby laughed. "I didn't expect one berry too much to have such an impact. Well, good thing it was only a slight numbness. This is a friend of mine, she's interested about medicines, so she'll be accompanying me today."

"Let me guess how many berries I have to consume today..." mused the patient.

"Wait, why don't we let my friend here take a guess ? A maximum of two berries are the limit to consumption in a healthy condition. If this patient has a slight fever and expects to be discharged in the shortest time possible, how many berries did the doctor assign today ?" Ruby casually asked. For a moment the patient's and Ruby's attention were fixed on Spirit, waiting for an answer.

[Spirit Frostfawn]

"You seem to have understood enough. Basically, how something can kill, and how it can heal, depending on the way it's used. The rest of your questions, if any, are better answered by yourself. That is, by experiencing medicine itself. Come." Her tutor said, and Spirit nodded in reply. That made a lot more sense. So… she’d have to figure it out herself. That would take a while… especially since she didn’t do much in terms of working with plants anyways. Though… the information on the chill berries would probably come in handy! Her grin widened at this new information, and followed the woman into the room. It was very nice inside, with curtains, and sunlight, but possible the most obvious thing was the smell. It smelled… well, beautiful. She couldn’t think of any other ways to describe smells other than delicious, or disgusting if bad. But this wasn’t either, and the Frostfawn couldn’t exactly place what was what. It seemed like a mix, but she couldn’t be sure. "This scent is from the Makutsi moss." The doctor explained, answering the young groom’s mental question. She was pointing to a vase filled with… purple moss. It looked kind of funny, but smelled quite nice, so the Vantha didn’t complain. . "It relaxes the mind, which plays an indirect yet imperative effect on the speed of one's recovery." The woman continued, explaining the properties of the plant. A patient, who happened to be sitting in the room commented on this. "You forgot to mention that it could only be found in the Makutsi springs, Ruby. So you're here to give me my dosage of berries ?" So apparently her teacher’s name was Ruby… and this was where they were going! To help a patient… ok. ”So that’s where they get their name from… from the springs…” Spirit mused out loud, smiling slightly. ” "Yes, and I won't mess up the count like last time. Today the doctor counted out the berries himself. I didn't expect one berry too much to have such an impact. Well, good thing it was only a slight numbness. This is a friend of mine, she's interested about medicines, so she'll be accompanying me today." Ruby stated, laughing, and introducing Spirit. So the assistant-doctor did make mistakes like that… and it was amazing one berry could make so much difference! ”Hi, nice to meet you. I’m Spirit! She said to the man smiling. It was sort of the make up for the fact that she and Ruby hadn’t introduced themselves earlier. It was probably the most tactful thing to say at the moment. The man nodded, then muttered "Let me guess how many berries I have to consume today..." "Wait, why don't we let my friend here take a guess ? A maximum of two berries are the limit to consumption in a healthy condition. If this patient has a slight fever and expects to be discharged in the shortest time possible, how many berries did the doctor assign today ?" The woman said in reply, looking at the Frostfawn. What? Spirit had no clue what the answer to that was… ”Uhhh what? Um…” She thought on that for a few moments. If two was the maximum, and the fever was slight… oh wait, two was max without a fever… so maybe three? That sounded right… ”Three?” She guessed randomly, voicing her thoughts. Hopefully Ruby wouldn’t just give the patient that many on a whim, and let the young Vantha face the consequences if she was wrong. That would turn out disastrous… she shuddered involuntarily, and made a slightly worried expression. Three sounded right, but at the same time… could it be four? Or two? Only Ruby knew… well, and the patient… and probably most of the people in this building, actually. That fact made her slightly embarrassed at her ignorance, and the emotion showed, her eyes turning a strange combination of pink, a tiny hint of yellow, silver, and dark green.

[Ruby Majalenka]

[OOC : kinda nice X'D]

"Three ?" the Vantha answered sheepishly. "And what's your guess, sir ?" Ruby asked the patient, who answered he guessed four. "I guessed four too, but the doctor said three." she laughed. "Spirit here just wasted some luck on such an unimportant matter. Congratulations." 'That's right, I forgot to introduce myself ! Aah, and her name's Spirit... She has a knack to being astute, maybe she'd make an excellent negotiator or the sorts ?' thought Ruby as she handed the berries to the patient, who devoured them swiftly. Just then, Ruby remembered another treatment the patient must underwent. "Now, sir... If you'd be so kind to..." she stammered, to which the patient nodded and threw his blanket aside, revealing a gash on the front of the left calf. A hardened dark red meat was plugging the gash where once blood gushed out. "An axe accident did this." Ruby said to her friend, while taking out a bowl of gel from a cabinet nearby. "This is made from melting the colored blooms of Morwen's Orchid. It is useful to treat a wide range of ailments from the flu to the shingles, but is also twice as effective than aloe in soothing burns and numbing pains. In this case, it's the latter. Would you like to try ? Rub it gently and evenly on the wound... Do you mind, sir ?" "Not at all, at least you're not the one doing it, Ruby." the patient grinned. "Well excuse me !" Ruby retorted in mock sulk.

[Spirit Frostfawn]

OOCIt looks awesome ^-^ "And what's your guess, sir ?" Ruby asked with a laugh, and the man guessed four, one more than Spirit herself. If one made a difference... it was either three or four. Fifty fifty chance... Though since the patient obviously knew more about the berries, he was probably right... the Vantha's hopes dropped, until the doctor continued. "I guessed four too, but the doctor said three. Spirit here just wasted some luck on such an unimportant matter. Congratulations." She finished with a laugh, causing the Frostfawn to look up in surprise. She was right! Wow... yea really, that was pretty lucky! Though it made sense in a way... If two was the base, and every berry made a huge difference, you wanted three for a minor fever, and four for a more major one. It made her shudder slightly to think what five... or more could do to some one. How many would it take to kill a person? "How many could a person take before dying?" She asked mildly, though truly intently curious. More than two would have negative effects if you didn't have a fever, but how many could a normal person actually withstand before their body shut down, like her tutor said? Her attention changed however, as Ruby asked the patient, stammering "Now, sir... If you'd be so kind to..." The sentence was left unfinished, but caused the man to remove his blankets, showing a badly injured leg. The meat was slightly healed, but the gash looked like quite a serious, and painful, wound. The young groom gasped slightly at the sight, not quite one with a stomach for gore. Sure, she was good with smaller wounds, blood wasn't too much a problem, same with vomit, but so much... insides. Flesh. It just caused her to shiver. Maybe after a fight, still with all the adrenaline, she could deal with it, but now? In this calm, quiet, peaceful room, it almost looked like it didn't fit in. Until you remembered it was a medical ward, and that feeling faded. Shaking her head, she listened to the rest of what the assistant doctor was saying."An axe accident did this. This is made from melting the colored blooms of Morwen's Orchid. It is useful to treat a wide range of ailments from the flu to the shingles, but is also twice as effective than aloe in soothing burns and numbing pains. In this case, it's the latter. Would you like to try ? Rub it gently and evenly on the wound... Do you mind, sir ?" An axe accident much... some bad accident. That was the problem with working with anything sharp, be it axe, sword, or arrow, there was always that danger of cutting yourself. Most wounds of that kind were small, from what she knew, but the occasional major thing happened. This seemed to be one of those cases. And now she had to treat it... well, it was just rubbing some pain relief ointment in, right? She still had to touch all that flesh... the prospect made her have to repress another shudder, but she walked up to Ruby and took the bowl. A small part of her hoped the man would say no to the request, but all he stated was "Not at all, at least you're not the one doing it, Ruby."The said person retorted loudly, and sulked for a few moments, as Spirit approached the injured leg. Sticking her fingers into the gel, she scooped up a bunch and slathered it over the wound. It took quite a bit of effort not to close her eyes, but luckily the gooey feeling of the medicine helped her ignore the funny texture of the flesh. Once the gash was well covered, the Frostfawn took a few steps back and handed the bowl to Ruby. Releasing a deep breath and rolling her shoulders, she stated "Well that was better than I expected!" The Vantha was attempting to put a good face on the strange feeling, but relieved herself by thinking that her tutor probably felt the same way, as she'd stammered when she'd first asked to see it. Not like Spirit was judging... really, other than that, the woman looked like she probably was more used to it, and barely showed any signs. Heck... there was even a doubt that Ruby cared in the first place! Well, this was't really her place to think about, so...

[Ruby Majalenka]

"You did well." Ruby smiled. "Is this your first time nursing someone ?"

Spirit reminded her of her mother, who became adept in medicine long before accumulating other knowledge. 'Foolish men can learn. Dead men can't.' as Ruby's mother would often recite. There was something similar between Spirit and her mother, she thought. The attitude ? No, mom was much more rowdy though also wiser. The aura ? No, she has a simple, pleasant aura, unlike mom. Whatever it was, she has one trait very similar to mom. Ah, is it... their seemly crave for knowledge ? But mom was the White Scholar, it was clear why she constantly study things. What about Spirit ? What drives her ?

'If I am to question the Vantha, definitely not in front of a patient." Ruby thought.

"Well then, excuse us and thank you for today too." thanked Ruby to the patient, to which he gave a slight friendly nod. She then went out of the room, Spirit not far behind.

"Wait." the patient said. The two froze in their steps. "6 for a slow death, 7 for a painful one." Recognizing the bewildered expression that his company gave to the sudden remark, he added, "That much a person can take before dying." He then burst out into laughter, followed by Ruby.