“Sure, cut them off!” Beodan’s patient complied, perhaps a little too chipperly for the current context. What kind of awful home had she lived in that burns were a regular occurrence? Children should not have to bear such pain. He winced at the memories that violently broke from the box at the back of his mind he had locked them in. Focus! As much as she isn’t screaming now, she won’t be physically able to much longer if those burns get infected, he reminded himself. Without delaying any longer he retrieved a pair of scissors from his desk and was met with eyes that reminded him of the ocean gazing directly at him just a hand’s width from his face. He met her eyes only for a moment before nervously dropping them down onto her sleeves.
With a practiced flick of the cutters, he let them close on the fabric with a soft snick. Now, the Kelvic was no seamster, his cuts did not follow a seam, or go along the grain, or anything like that. They were purposeful, the product of a desire to have the restricting fabric off or destroyed, whichever came first. Soon her bandaged arms were free. He murmured, “All done,” ever aware of her close proximity to his face. She was definitely an odd patient, but he was an odd herbalist, so it worked out. “Aren’t you handy, Boy!” Before he could form any sort of noncommittal response or redirection on to her treatment, her soft lips pressed briefly against his nose. Luckily, her attention was quickly averted by the jars on his desk, so she might not of catched his cheeks tinging pink.
“Oh, those?” Dan asked rhetorically, ready to explain whatever he needed to if it would distract her from a little bit of pain, “Vyfox and Connal are in the big clay jars, and Chickweed is in the smaller violet one. All very important for the healing process, Vyfox being the most common. It does practically everything! Quite an impressive plant, and it grows all over too, thank the divines.” He paused for a moment, before remembering her asking earlier about what all the plants did. He continued with a clear of his throat, “Let’s start with the last, Chickweed. That is for your burns, it is really the ultimate in surface maladies, like burns, rashes, boils, even blood poisoning. So really, it’s perfect for your condition. Vyfox is a coagulant and anti septic, and great for wounds such as yours, but it also makes into a tea that boosts your general health and speeds healing. Finally, Connal makes for quite a soothing bath if you add some to the water. What I use it for mostly is it’s tendency to make you sleepy, if you drink it in a tea.”
The Girl wrinkled her nose at the smell of the recently brewed tea, and said "Thanks. It tastes...Terrible, saying the truth, but is it healthy, nothing can be done." Dan gave her a sympathetic look, and apologised, “I know, I’m sorry Annabel. I prefer to make teas casually and with more tasty herbs, but this is healthy. It’ll really help you. So drink up!” He watched her carefully as she drank, lightly stirring his poultice all the while. He waited until her eyes had begun blinking lazily, as if they were made off lead. He frowned for half a second, had he overestimated how much Connal it would take to make her fall asleep? It looked like she would be fine, for now, and definitely more relaxed in any case. It was time to begin.
The Herbalist brought the warm poultice over to her waiting arms. He dabbed a small bit of alcohol on his hands and rubbed them together as if he was washing up. A little extra protection for her breached first layer of defense against all the dirty things that lived everywhere. He maintained conversation with her as he scooped the first load from the pot, the herb goop (technical term) an extremely dark green. “Why? Well, the city is a bit too noisy and crowded for me. I would go crazy if I had to be confined to that castle. It’s just so free here, with all the trees and animals! And since my trade involves plants, it’s much easier to gather when I live in the woods,” he explained, covering all the main reasons why he was not living in one of those stuffy apartments in the bowels of the castle.
While they spoke, he would coat his hand in the poultice, then, as gently as he could, would smear it on the burned areas. There was a lot of ground to cover, though he took his time, making sure the healing poultice covered every inch of her, not a single place left exposed to the air. He was nearly done with the first arm, and it appeared he had made a little too much of the poultice, though that wasn’t necessarily a bad thing. "Actually, could you give me something meant for animals. Burns and...Arrow in the side." Beodan frowned at the new information. Did she really want him to treat an animal that had hurt her. Naive humans, they didn’t understand what it was like to live in this wild world. “This wolf is likely dead by now,” he started, not going to sugar coat anything for her, “If not from the arrow, than surely from the burns. Even if it was still alive, and right in front of me, the only thing I could do for it would be to ease its suffering. … I’m sorry.” He continued coating her person in herb goop in silence. He had her lift her arms a few times, to get all the hard to reach crooks and things. To finish both arms took twenty chimes, but she would likely be feeling a dip in the pain’s severity on the parts he had started with.
With a length of fresh cloths, he wound another bandage over the poultice that would keep it from getting disturbed while the healing process was happening. As the roll went round and round her arm, he instructed, “Keep this on for about 5 days. The wound should have healed enough by then that you can do normalish things, just nothing too strenuous on the skin. Stop by soothing waters then too, if you would like to prevent some nasty scars. I have Belltor for that, but it would be best to do both! Speaking of which..” He trailed off, picking up a small jar of a green paste. “This is a preserved Belltor poultice. You need to put this on your wounds, particularly over the wolf bite, if you don’t want huge scars or to heal in any timely fashion.”
