Chương 73: Interlude: Chael

Bad didn't even begin to describe the wounds that Sobelle had; they were, to put things bluntly, life threatening. Every single inch of Sobelle's body had some kind of damage to it, and all of them would become infected before long. They'd fester and rot, all while Sobelle was still alive. Over time, the wounds would become so bad that her chances of survival would be close to zero.

Fighting Goblins always resulted in something like this, those disgusting things carried a boatload of diseases that killed every single human they scratched. It was a miracle that they were even alive as a species, really. It didn't make sense for them to live, let alone thrive. How and why they are alive when they're walking nodes of pestilence is something scholars should study thoroughly, as Chael was sure that they hid the cure to all known diseases in that body of theirs!

"Please live. You need to do that for me okay?" Chael had no thoughts beyond getting Sobelle to safety, so she dragged the girl inside the house. Blood stained her hands and her muscles cried from the effort but Chael did not stop, she refused to.

"You're strong, right? You'll be fine! Of course you will be..." Chael's voice broke down and she wept as she placed Sobelle in the center of the room. She picked up some firewood and... Stopped. She let out a frustrated sigh and pulled on her hair, it wouldn't work if she started a fire in the hearth using firewood! The room would fill with smoke and Sobelle would have two problems instead of one.

"I knew I should have made charcoal..." Chael's broken voice echoed around her, followed by the heavy sounds of crying as her emotions overwhelmed her own sense of reason. The tears did not stop flowing even as she tried to forcefully calm herself, it was only when she saw the state Sobelle was in that she finally realized she wasted time by crying.

"I'm so sorry... It's just..." Chael hiccuped but she quickly swallowed the sound as well as the tears that threatened to come out. She wiped her eyes and rushed outside the house, where she then prepared materials to make incense. She wasn't going to burn any of them the way people normally did, so she searched for materials with this idea in mind.

The first thing she did was check crevices for any type of mushroom, there were species out there that had the same thickness and texture as wood pulp yet could not be ignited because of their sap. If this species were to be mixed with dried grass, as well as some animal fat, then they start to burn slowly. Almost like charcoal, albeit it produced smoke. But the quantity of the smoke wasn't a lot, and not to mention, the smell could be changed using herbs.

This was the closest thing to charcoal Chael could get and since she was desperate, she was more than happy to use such an inferior substitute if it meant that Sobelle was always warm.

'Here we go.' The mushroom she was searching for was found on the wooden beams of one of the houses, so she had to stand on a chair to get to it. Even then, she had to leverage herself with the tip of her toes and that slight increase in height was barely enough for her to reach it. Chael pulled the caps of the wood and hopped down the chair. She checked the features for good measure.

Sweet smell, flat, board-like body, a slight dampness on the surface, bumpy skin ridden with grooves, and an earthen brown coloration. These were the features that she had been looking for, and the mushroom in her hand had all of them. By all means, this thing might just be what she was looking for. And even if it wasn't, the similarities were close enough that it didn't really matter. She could use this thing to make the incense, and that was good enough.

She found a mortal and pestle in one of the houses, and was glad to do so. It meant that she didn't need to throw away her own set, and that meant she wouldn't need to make a new one. With this new tool, Chael crushed the mushrooms, mixed it with herbs, and then dried grass, and continued crushing them until she created this gel-like substance that she then mixed with herbs. Once it had the desired texture, Chael rolled it into a ball and let it dry under the sun.

She repeated this several times until she had at least two dozen balls, then she went back into the house to ask the spirits for help. Several candles were lit, a sacrifice was placed on a makeshift altar, and Chael kneeled in front of them all with her eyes closed. She prayed for Sobelle to have a healthy recovery, as well as some protection from death. She then did a ritual of protection and recovery for good measure.

She hoped that these two things combined would not just let Sobelle survive, but also allow her to recover back to full health... Well, not in full health, she'd be happy if her lover could walk and talk again. That was all she asked for. And speaking of Sobelle... Chael finally confronted the thought she had been dreading all this time; and that was to check on the injuries of her lover. She did not want to confirm that yes, Sobelle was going to die no matter what. She was simply too scared too.

'You have no choice.' Chael told herself as she stood up and walked over to the downed girl. She kneeled next to Sobelle and lifted her shirt,'I knew it.' She didn't even have time to puke after seeing such a visceral sight. Chael's mind didn't have the luxury to be disgusted when it was hyperfixated on worrying about Sobelle and crying for her health. Because what else would this be but death? Sobelle's body hadn't realized it yet, but she was going to die. And there was nothing Chael could do to change that.

The worst of Sobelle's wounds was the massive gash that ran from the lower half of her rib and down to her stomach, whatever caused it was definitely not natural. A more obvious, but less lethal wound from a weapon was the spear that was stuck to Sobelle's leg. Chael did not want to remove it, and... She wouldn't. Not for now. She needed to prepare a lot of things before she could properly work on such a dangerous thing and she wasn't ready to do that yet.

She moved on and lifted Sobelle's shirt, she removed the whole thing entirely and checked her lover's chest for any sort of damage. Luckily, nothing looked severe enough to be of concern and the only thing at risk in this part of Sobelle's body was the possibility of the wounds getting infected. Chael inspected the rest of Sobelle's front and found minor bruising as well as scratch marks.

There were bite wounds on her arm and shoulders but they didn't dig deep, it was like the Goblins' teeth got damaged first instead of Sobelle's skin. Which made no sense, as even if Goblin teeth were loose, they were still strong enough to easily break human skin.

'Okay, the other side now...' Gently, Chael lifted Sobelle's body until she sat upright. Then she checked Sobelle's back, only to quickly frown at the sight; the wounds here were far worse than the ones at the front. Chael thought it made sense, as Goblins mostly struck people's blindspots. A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation. It didn't lessen the impact of seeing their wounds, but Chael was able to think clearly after realizing it.

As now, she knew that she needed to prioritize Sobelle's back. To start, the head wound was possibly the thing she needed to be most careful with. Chael's hair stood when she parted Sobelle's hair and saw the gory mess that was her scalp; there was torn flesh everywhere, and it looked more like freshly cut beef than a head. The blood had stopped flowing at some point, and some parts of the flesh had gone pink from the lack of the fluid.

How Sobelle lived despite having this type of injury was a miracle in itself, and maybe the spirits truly did protect her. Otherwise, she wouldn't have been able to come back here while being gravely injured.

'She also broke the wall to help me.' Warmth spread through Chael's chest when the thought occurred, she rubbed Sobelle's cheek and sighed.

"Why did you have to push yourself? You didn't have to do that, I could have found a way to come out if I had known." Chael looked at the roof, she wasn't a stranger to climbing walls. In fact, she had done so in the past. Several times. So if Sobelle had just told her that breaking the wall was impossible, or that she wouldn't be freed with help, then Chael would have just climbed up the house"You just had to push yourself huh?" Chael shook from the ache in her heart.

She covered her mouth to hide the sound of her weeping,"stupid." For the sake of saving Sobelle, Chael kept moving. Giving up hope seemed pointless when her lover had done so much to save the two of them from Goblins. She stripped Sobelle and covered all her wounds with clean clothing. She did not waste the bandages she made just yet, that would come later.

Once Sobelle safely slept on top of a makeshift bed made from the abandoned clothes around the village, Chale walked out to the fields with a sack of hemp and filled it with dried grass. Carrying it back to the house had taken a lot of effort, but she managed. And then she did it three more times. One sack of grass was flattened against the floor, then she used what was left of the sack as a bedding by placing it on top. Sobelle would then be placed on top of this, but only after her wounds have been cleaned.

A fire was started outside of the house, and Chael boiled some water while she crushed some herbs and mixed it with animal fat. She cooked that, and let it cool so that it would turn into a salve. The fat and herbal mixture had hardened by the time the boiling water cooled, and Chael carried them to Sobelle's side. She then prepared a few other things; she started with the fish skin they were supposed to sell in Grinnen, and of course the bandages had to be ready as well.

But more than that, she had to search the forest for a specific breed of maggots that ate rotting fruits. Once she got all of them, she rushed back to the house and finally started cleaning Sobelle. She wiped the blood off the girl's body, removed some hair from certain areas so that dried blood didn't build up and ruined everything, and then cleaned her again using lukewarm water. This lasted for at least an hour, and when she was done, she held Sobelle's ashen body in her arms.

"Still alive huh? Please keep fighting. Okay? I'm here for you." She muttered as she grabbed the salve and spread it across Sobelle's back, she then covered it with fish scales.

"There, see? Your back is now fine. Now all I need to work on is your stomach." She did not have access to threads and needles so Chael had to improvise in closing the wound. She did this by burning it.

"Hngggg—" her lover had somehow found the strength to try and squirm out of the fire.

"Bear with it Sobelle. Please. This won't be long." Chael may not have felt the heat of the fire, but she definitely got hurt too. Seeing her lover like this was... And once the flesh had been sealed, she slathered some liquid fat on the burnt skin before then adding a layer of salve over it. She finished it off by placing fish skin and bandages on top. Lastly was Sobelle's head, which was bad enough that Chael had to remove some of her hair.

"Forgive me, forgive me—" she wept as the strands came off her skin.

"Okay? Please forgive me." Blood had caked everything, so cutting them was pretty tough.

"It'll grow back, okay? It will." Chael repeated the things she did on Sobelle's previous wounds and when she was done, her lover's entire head was wrapped in bandages. Then finally... Chael winced like she was the one in pain when she pulled the spear out of Sobelle's leg. She shuddered the same way her lover did when she placed the torch against the open wounds, and she was crying by the time she wrapped everything in bandages.

"I'm done." She heaved out. She checked Sobelle's pulse and a spark of hope ignited in her heart when she saw that her lover hadn't died, "you'll live, right? Of course you will. You've fought for so long that it'd be pointless to die now so—" Chael hiccuped.

"—live, okay?" Silence was Chael's only companion when she made dinner. It was a simple stew made from local herbs, budding fruits, and a fish she had managed to pull out of the river. It was made for one, but she almost made the mistake of creating a portion for two. It was then that Chael realized that Sobelle's presence had dug itself into her daily life, and that she would no longer be used to going through the road alone. Without Sobelle... Chael wouldn't know what to do.

She'd probably just find herself in some village somewhere, and maybe she'd listen to what everyone has been telling her all this time; to get married and have children. To actually do something appropriate with the life she was generously given. Their supplies had dwindled by a small amount when Chael checked them, and she did count. Several times. Her abacus moved constantly as she re-checked her calculations, not only for today's loss of supply, but also the following week where the wagon wouldn't be moving.

She was only one person, and she doubted Sobelle would be able to eat in her current state, so she only counted all the things she would consume over time.

'14 silver Levs, and then 44 copper.' That was the count she ultimately ended up with. She'd be short by over half a silver if she were to stay here for the entirety of her estimated duration. Her original plan was to earn 15 silvers when she reached UnThilen, but that would be impossible given that she'd be consuming the food that was meant to be sold. Feeding herself wasn't cheap, so it was only expected that she'd lose so much money from doing so.

'Haggling hasn't been accounted for, I'm sure I can squeeze out a few more coins from them.' Chael's eyes went to the sleeping form of her lover and she smiled.

'And I'd rather lose money than lose you.' Sleeping came difficult for her later that night, but she eventually managed to do so after she slept next to Sobelle. She couldn't hug her lover like she did the last few nights, but the proximity was enough to make her feel warm.... When Sobelle came to, it was the next day, and she looked at Chael in a haze for a second before suddenly passing out.

This repeated for a few more times in the hours that followed and Chael feared that it would continue until her lover was physically stable. Which she believed was impossible to happen. Chael stopped what she was doing and walked up to Sobelle. She gently pressed the back of her hand against Sobelle's forehead and checked her lover's temperature. Chael let out an exhausted sigh when she noticed that the heat hadn't died down at all. Sobelle was as feverish as she was this morning, and that was not a good thing.

Fevers rarely resulted in the recovery of someone, if anything, they were a sign that the person was on death's door. Or close to it.

"You idiot." Her eyes stung as the words left her mouth. She wiped them with her sleeve and then balled her hands into fists, she glared at the sleeping girl. She simply refused to wake up, didn't she? Why did she have to sacrifice herself? That didn't make sense!

"You idiot!" No response came from the sleeping Sobelle. Chael heaved and went back to making a fish trap. Today, she planned to place several of them in the nearby rivers, and these were meant to catch the fish that swam downstream. With how successful their previous traps were, as well as the fact that she had no competition in the village; Chael felt as though she'd be able to fill several baskets worth of fish in the following week.

Not only did this solve her food issue, it would also net her more profit in the long run. Chael believed that this was the only way she would be able to get over the fact that not only was their trip to UnThilen delayed, but also that they'd essentially burned through their goods way before they were sold. She placed the traps where their mouths met the running water head on and then left for the fields, where she harvested several budding balls of fluff from the tall grass.

She brought them back home to be turned into pillows. Due to how their bodies worked, Goblins normally did not wear any sort of covering on their bodies. And so, whenever they pillaged, it was only expected that the clothes would be left behind. It was no different here, and there were abandoned fabrics all over the village. Chael took advantage of this and made as many pillows as she possibly could.

The first one she made was used to help Sobelle, the second and third was for herself, and the rest were planned to be sold. She continued to work until night time struck, and while she did eat every so often, she spent most of the day preparing even more goods to be sold. She wasn't sure if the pillow she made would be effective in UnThilen but she took the risk anyway.

Maybe there would be some village out there who appreciated pillows instead of food, and maybe the people there would be happy to buy the things she made.

"That's for later..." Chael thought out loud as she finished the rest of her fish stew and then worked on the numbers of her fresh batch of items. She nodded in satisfaction after she counted them all, "good enough... 16 silvers is good enough..."