A lesson in Medicine

[Kiska]

7th Day of Fall of the year 510 AV

Kiska walked into her class, the ever stoic teacher Kanis sitting before her in her desk, looking down at her papers. "Good afternoon miss Kanis," Kiska said to her teacher as she entered the room. "What knowledge do you have to impart to me today?" Kanis always seemed to be in her own world, one filled with various medicines and medical techniques. Kiska had always noted the abundance of medicines about the room, and even more so, the abundance of recipes. She had never though of medicine as something involving the food she ate, but apparently to the Konti, diet was a large part of treatment for various conditions. The Konti woman picked up a piece of paper and held it out to Kiska without looking up. "I have another recipe for you, try making this one sometime. It's good for you, will help the digestive system." She continued to read her documents, finger scrolling over the letters as they passed by her eyes. Kiska took the document. It was relatively short, containing a combination of fish, rice, and celery. The thought didn't please Kiska, she wasn't a very good cook. She would try though, if it meant getting better at medicine. For some reason though, she suspected it would only help her get better at cooking. She tucked the paper into her pack and sat down in front of the desk where her teacher sat. "Today I'm going to show you how to clean and dress a wound. We have a patient who's suffered a pretty bad cut from a blade." She shuffled her papers around as if they were becoming more organized and stood up. "Follow me, I'll show you to his room." She led Kiska from the room and down the halls of the Opal Temple. The room wasn't far from their classroom. The door was open, and inside there was a plain bed with a muscular and sleeping man with tan skin and black hair. "Come," she said quietly, and walked into the room. "Good afternoon, Quil." She said, somewhat loudly. The man in the bed awoke and nodded a greeting. it was obvious he was still groggy. "This is my student, Kiska. It's time to change the dressing on your wound now, would you mind if I let her do it today?" she asked him in her sweetest voice. The man shook his head and put his arm out to his side. Kiska was amazed at the lack of speech of the man. She had never seen someone so unwilling to speak as herself. She walked across the room to where Kanis was now standing and looked down at the mans arm. "Okay Kiska, take the current dressing off of the wound and set it to the side. Be very careful not to touch the wound or hurt the patient, his wound is still very fresh and will be tender for quite a while longer." Kiska took the man's arm in both of her hands. He stared at her in slight pain as she did so, but turned away when she looked up at him. His arm was heavy, and she would have to work to lift it with just one hand. With this in mind, she propped her elbow up on the bed to hold it up better and unwrapped the bandages from the wound carefully and placed them on the bed beside the man. It was easy to see that the wound was deep even though it had been stitched up already. "Now take the cloth there," said Kanis, pointing to a cloth sitting next to a small container of clear liquid. "Dip it in the alcohol there, and gently pad the wound with it to clean it. Make sure all the excess blood is gone before we continue." Kiska did as she was told, carefully dabbing the cloth against the mans arm. The man winced as she did so. She could imagine it didn't feel very good to have alcohol in a wound, or to have someone messing with it like she was now. She felt an honest pity for the man. The blood came off spot by spot until the mans tan skin, paled by the injury, was free of blood. She looked to her teacher for further instruction. "What now miss?" "Now we wrap it again. Take the clean gauze from the table there and wrap it around his arm so that it's not tight but not loose. Then you're going tie it off." She came around the bed to take the soiled gauze and dispose of it properly. She waited for Kiska to finish the wrapping then inspected it closely. "Very well Kiska," she said, adjusting the dressings so that they were fitted and tied better. "Now that we're done here, let's head back to the room and we can discuss how inner energies affect our overall health." She was already walking out the door, and the man had drifted off back to sleep. Kiska sighed and followed her teacher back to the room. She wasn't particularly excited about the rest of the lesson to come tonight.

[Kiska]

35th Day of Fall of the year 510 AV, late morning

Kiska walked along the path from the temple to the library, watching as the leaves of the tree swayed in the wind, their foundations gently snapping, letting them float gently to the ground on a cool autumn breeze. They lay there, caressing the earth, a beauty she had come to love from being in Mura for the short time that she had so far. She smiled, brushing a strand of hair that had managed to escape from the bun atop her head behind her ear. She had decided that she liked the fall, as well as the spring. In Eyktol, she hadn't noticed too much of a difference in the seasons, but in other regions there were four of them, one being hot, one being cold, and the other two just right. The birds still chirped in the trees, not yet departed for their trip to a warmer location such as Cyphrus. Their melodies were calming as she took her morning stroll. She carried with her only the necessities of her classes, a healer's kit for medicine and all of her herbalism and philtering supplies for herbalism. Classes would start soon, and she wasn't particularly looking forward to medicine, but herbalism was always fun for her. A smothered cry, soft but desperate, sounded from the base of a nearby tree. Kiska turned to face the sound, fear rushing through her veins. She knew not whether the sound could have been made from a very hurt person, or some sort of wild beast, but she stepped forward anyway, making her way toward the sound. It was around the tree that she found the subject, a small squirrel. A small cat sat over it, paws holding it down. "Shoo!" Kiska cried, flailing her arms. The cat ran away quickly in fear, leaving behind it's prey. Kiska knelt by the creature in pain and analyzed its condition. A large gash in it's leg was bleeding and swollen and it appeared to be trying to escape. "Whoa there, calm down," she said to the squirrel, picking it up and laying it down near her. She pulled her healer's kit from her pack and pulled out a small vial of alcohol to clean the wound. She poured it on and began scrubbing lightly to clean out any infection. The squirrel was not pleased with this and tried to scratch her, but Kiska pulled her hand back and scratched the small creature behind the ear. It calmed down as the alcohol stopped burning, and Kiska began to wrap it's leg in a small bandage she pulled from the kit. Nothing appeared to be broken, so just bandaging the wound should be enough. She finished wrapping the wound and tied the bandage off. She didn't think the squirrel would be able to walk or climb with such an injury, and would surely lose the bandage before his wound could heal. She picked up the squirrel and her belongings, and made her way into the temple where she knew he would be treated properly. Even if they generally didn't deal with animals, she knew the healers couldn't refuse their aid to anything in need.

[Kiska]

52nd Day of Fall of the year 510 AV, early morning

Kiska had found out much about herself during her stay in Mura. She had found that she loved the season of fall, or had so far. In particular, she loved the wind as it flowed through her hair, the way the leaves fluttered through the air as they fell to the earth. She loved the scents of fall, and of the availability of ready to harvest herbs. Kiska had learned a lot about her feelings in her friendship with Ero, and had learned much about her own skill in her herbalism and medicine class. Most importantly, Kiska had found a passion in something more than gathering raw information. She had found a way to utilize information for the greater good, to help those who were injured or sick. The sun was just beginning to peek over the horizon across the White Isle, and the wind was but a small breeze flowing through the streets of Mura. The city had not yet awakened to its daily activities, but few Konti still ventured about the darkened streets. Kiska found herself among these restless Konti, walking through the main part of the city for her morning walk.

[Kiska]

The light pitter patter of small feet sounded from behind her and she turned to see a small figure running toward her. A Konti child, running from something, turned back to look at whatever it was. However, they were not paying attention to where they were going, and crashed into a nearby crate, which burst, sending splinters of wood flying through the air. The child continued to move, rolling along the ground after she had fallen. Cuts and bruises covered her face and arms. Another child came running up, but abruptly stopped to stare at the wounded child. The other child lay still, a large cut on her arm bleeding onto the street. Kiska's eyes widened. She didn't know why the children were running, probably playing, but she had to help the one that was hurt. She rushed to the child's side, pulling her pack off of her shoulder, and dug through it until she found some bandages, a small vial of alcohol, and some pins. The cut was bad enough to need stitches but Kiska didn't have any, none of the rest of the cuts did. The impact of the crash was probably what had knocked the child out. She lifted the girl's arm and examined it. Bits of splintered wood and gravel had gotten stuck in her skin. Kiska quickly picked all of this out before it could cause an infection, and did the same with the girls face and other arm. She then cleaned the girls cuts with the alcohol, leaving none untouched. The girl, at the sting of the alcohol, had come to, and was now staring at Kiska. "Who are you? And what happened?" She said hazily, and tried to sit up. "Stay down, I'm Kiska, and you're hurt. So I'm helping you. You ran into a crate, and it exploded. You should really be more careful," she said to the child as she wrapped the bandages around her arm and pinned it. "Do you mind coming back to the Opal Temple with me so we can get you some more bandages and stitches for that cut?" The girl nodded, and Kiska picked her up and walked through the streets of Mura toward the Opal Temple.

[Kiska]

77th Day of Fall of the year 510 AV

"Watch carefully, Kiska," Kanis said, picking up two straight pieces of wood. "This isn't difficult to do, but it requires some amount of stability. See here, where the arm is swollen and misshapen? This is where the break is." She pointed to a section in the middle of the patient's forearm. "You're going to place the wood, or whatever it is you're using to splint, on either side of the arm like this," She placed one piece of the long wood on the underside of the arm and one side on the opposite side of the arm. Kiska was observing today, nothing more. Kanis had said this was because it was highly likely that if Kiska tried it, as a student, the patient could get hurt severely and the splint may not work. So for today, Kiska was just watching. Kiska hated just watching, she liked doing. They had spent the last day going over the purposes and uses of splints, and the materials used to splint, and when they should be used, and everything else associated with splinting. Kiska was sick of it already, she just wanted to do it and get it over with. But Kanis had other plans. "Kiska?" Kanis asked. Apparently, Kiska had drifted off into thought, though she was pretty sure that she had been paying attention, or maybe she already knew what she was being taught. "Yes Miss Kanis?" She asked politely, despite her boredom on the subject. Even the patient was asleep, and they were the one with the broken arm. "Can you tell me what to do next?" Kanis asked, with a slightly irritated look on her face. "Wrap the bandages or cloth around the arm to keep the wood in place. Do it tightly enough so that neither the wood nor the arm will move," she said as if repeating something that had been drilled into her mind. "Very good," Kanis said, doing as Kiska had mentioned. She wrapped the white bandages around the patients arm tightly enough to hold the wood into place, and so the patient wouldn't move their arm. She pinned the cloth down and sat up straight. "Okay, and that's all there really is to a splint. Fairly simple when you know how to do it. Splints can be applied to legs, arms, fingers, or almost any other long bone in the body. Never splint something before it's set though, after placing the bone back in it's orginal position." She paused before asking, "Any questions?" Kiska briefly shook her head and stood up, she knew her least favorite part of the class was coming. They would go back to the classroom and review what they had done today, then go over some new method or medicine. Kanis stood and walked out the door, expecting Kiska to follow. They walked back to the usual classroom and began a lesson on the composition of basic medicines.

[Kiska]

88th Day of Fall of the year 510 AV

Kiska stood over a table, the injured subject beneath her. Kanis stood at her side, watching her, ready to help if needed. This was a matter of life and death, not merely a lesson. The subject was unconscious, but still breathing. He had been attacked by a dog and rescued by a child and brought to the Opal Temple for treatment. The patient was a small white kitten. Though the wounds may have been trivial enough to a human, they were deadly to one of the patient's size. The kitten appeared to be around six weeks old, barely entering its life. The kittens heartbeat was slow, its breathing fast. "We need to stop the bleeding, clean the wounds, give him stitches, and bandage the wounds. We need to hurry, or he may die from the bleeding. Here, tie these around the wounds so we can work on them one by one," Kanis instructed Kiska, handing her multiple scraps of cloth. Kiska tied off all of the larger wounds but one, on the Kitten's thigh. It was the largest of the wounds, and the one causing the most bleeding. Kiska quickly cleaned it out with an alcohol solution and let Kanis stitch it up while she watched. "Kiska, I know you've never seen anything hurt this badly before," Kanis said solemnly. "You know our efforts may be in vain. We could try as hard as we can, and this kitten may still die. This is the way of life, everything dies sooner or later." She finished stitching the first of the wounds shut and handed Kiska a bandage. "Bandage that," she said, and moved on to the kitten's back. Kiska remembered the death of her younger brother. While she knew what it was like to see someone dead, or to lose someone she cared about, she had never watched anything die before. Kanis was right, but Kiska was sure they could save the kitten. Kiska wrapped the small bandage around the kitten's thigh and quickly tied it off before Kanis could finish, and prepared another bandage for the next wound. She lightly lifted the kitten up to place the bandage beneath it and wrap it around it's body before tying it off. Kanis had already begun to clean and stitch up the final injury, on the kittens front leg. She stopped abruptly, as if in shock, and frowned. "He's gone," Kanis said, and began cleaning and putting her tools away, still frowning. Kiska stared down at the lifeless kitten, shocked and wordless. She had never watched anything die before, and she hadn't expected the first to be something so young. Tears clouded her eyes and began to fall in streams from her eyes, like waterfalls down her cheeks. She didn't care that Kanis was standing besdie her, watching her. This kitten didn't deserve to die. If only kiska had been able to do more, maybe they could have saved it. It wasn't fair, how she was so powerless to do anything. Kiska desperately wished that she could do something more for those that were dying. If a healer had been here, maybe the kitten would have lived. Kanis patted Kiska's shoulder. "It's okay child, the goddess will take care of him now. Everything has a turn to die, and I know it shouldn't have been this one's turn, but that's part of life. We're here so less have to go like this," she said, waving a hand over the kitten. She was right, Kiska knew. They had a purpose, to help the injured and the sick. And even though she knew some would die while some would live, she still didn't think it was fair. It was all part of life, living and dying, and one never knew when it would be their turn.

[Alice]

Kiska Experience: 5 Medicine, 1 Observation Lores: How to Clean and Dress a Wound, How to Apply a Tourniquet, Vetting a Squirrel, Calming an Excited Animal, Enhanced Awareness, Witnessing an Accident, Healing a Child, How to Use a Splint, Not Being Able to Help a Patient, Witnessing Death from Injury Comments As always, a beautiful thread! When Kiska tries to help animals or children, your writing is really touching, especially during the last scene. I really liked how she experienced that she can’t save every patient. Kudos!