Journey To Hellspost (TXT X READER)

23

  After her excursion with Soobin at the market, she returned to the healer to allow him to look at her ears. He had only used an Athelas salve, and she could feel the newly rounded tips of her ears stinging and itching throughout the night underneath the gauze they had been covered in.

  "Let's see here," the dwarven healer smiled, taking the gauze off of her sensitive ears. He wet the piece of gauze and used it to clean the wound as best as he could, wiping away the dried Athelas that remained. He tutted as he looked over her ear, obviously displeased with the progress. "I'm no elven healer, but I thought it would've been a little better," he huffed as he moved around his room, grabbing a selection of different salves.

  He moved with a type of grace the rogue never thought possible for a dwarf. He was swift, but light on his feet as he examined her ear and tried to find the best remedy, mumbling under his breath as he stared at the jars of labeled salves.

  "I am in no rush master dwarf. Quite frankly, I am content to remain in this kingdom," the rogue chuckled. She had meant it as a joke, yet she also found a part of herself being serious. The dwarven kingdom had made her smile with a happiness that could not be contained. She had never been so happy in Eboncross.

  "However content you may feel, you have a mission to carry out," he started. "I think any journey is better than this old mountain. Enjoy it while you can. The life of an adventurer is short. I would know." The room felt silent as his movements stuttered slightly.

  "Have you gone on an adventure?" The rogue asked, quirking a brow in interest.

  "The most terrifying adventure," he started with a longing in his voice. "Me and some old friends set out to kill a dragon down south. Oh, how I miss those days. We travelled nonstop until we reached its location, but by then we had to turn back because we ran out of food." He laughed heartily at his comrades mistake. There was a sparkle in his eye that could not be replicated. "I'm glad we did turn back because it wasn't long after that I met my One."

"One?" The rogue asked, turning to fully face the dwarf who sat beside her, tending to her ears.

"An old dwarvish belief. Nothing for you to worry your little head about," he told her, turning her head so she no longer faced him.

He fiddled with more jars that he placed beside him. Desperately trying to think of a way to ease the swollen redness that plagued the rogues unevenly rounded ears. The previous night, he had only been concerned with the festering infection, but he had not thought much of the open wound. He was ashamed to admit that in his panic, he had forgotten to suture the open wound. It had stopped bleeding and begun to scab over with a soft yellow scab. The healer bit the inside of his cheek as he narrowed his eyes at her wound. Her right ear had been completely severed whilst her left ear was only partially severed, still hanging on by a thread. He could only imagine the pain she was in whenever the tip of her ear would move. He found it odd, however, that the tip of her ear was still flowing with life. He would've thought such an appendage would have died, yet it still held it's fleshy colour.

  "Odd," he hummed. "You must have sorcerers of immeasurable power with you." His voice was no more than a mumble.

  "Why is that?"

  "A sorcerer who can keep severed body parts alive is one who can resurrect the dead. A necromancer of sorts... they must have power beyond belief," he responded, his bushy brows furrowed as he reached for another drawer. "I'm going to suture your wounds. It will not feel nice."

  The rogue nodded, grabbing the edge of her cloak, taking a deep breath before placing it in between her teeth. She took a deep breath in and held it despite the dwarven healers instructions to exhale. She had but one thing on her mind. HueningKai. The Healer was as careful as he could be, but every time the needle pierced her flesh, she could not help her mind wandering to the moment the king had pressed his cold knife up to her ear, his voice carrying a sadistic lilt as he began to cut away her only connection to her parents. Now she was left with a mangled ear and an ear that somehow managed to survive after being almost fully severed. She knew it was HueningKai. That kiss he pressed to her temple was not just a spell to ease pain temporarily, it was also a spell to keep the tip of her ear flowing with life. He had used the spell on her after she had told him not to. Her thoughts drifted from the needle suturing her ear together to her anger surrounding HueningKai's actions.