Erica

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The sun was high when an urgent summon was received. It was a callout for the physician Ron as the Duchess of Waisend had unfortunately met with a horse riding accident and was badly injured.

Unfortunately Ron was attending to another callout and was not present when the frantic Waisend servant appeared with the urgent news. Erica was thus forced to be the one to receive it. 

Erica was obviously by no means the right person for the job, she tried to explain this and redirect the servant to Ron's location but her words were unable to come out as the servant ran off barely a second later. 

Her stomach turned. Erica had been unable to step foot outside since she had arrived. There was a strong fear deep rooted into her very bones. She was afraid that she would get hurt again or worse, someone would recognise her and force her back to that horrible place she once called home.

Due to this fear it had taken her some time just to go near windows and to even interact with the patients who sought out Ron's help, but she had forced herself to try. She did after all want to help Ron as she was indebted to hm.

Erica knew what had to be done. She could not wait for Ron, she knew that she needed to go out and find him. It was an emergency. 

Her heart was beating loudly in her ears as she began taking short strong breaths while she stood at the door.

Just one small step was all she needed to take.

Just one.

She tried her hardest to fight off the fear that had begun creeping up her spine and clouding her mind. It was so difficult, she felt like she was going to throw up. 

She tried to calm herself by taking deep breaths and clearing her mind. There was someone in desperate need of medical treatment right now. The longer she took, the worse off the Duchess may be. She forced herself to latch onto this and took one last deep breath before tightly closing her eyes and taking her first step outside in weeks. 

When she opened her eyes, she had done it. The first step is always the hardest part and she did it. 

She was so relieved and proud of herself, but the moment was short lived as she needed to hurry. She locked the door behind her and rushed off, the fear was still present but she had successfully pushed it back and moved her focus elsewhere. 

The hood of the cape that Ron had given to her a while ago in an attempt to encourage her to explore the town had been pulled right up over her head and was fluttering slightly from the motion caused by her fast steps. Unbeknownst to her many passers by had caught brief glimpses of her face and were slightly taken back. Erica truly was a beautiful person yet she was completely oblivious to this.

The Port Town of Cantrebre may have been a large and busy place with new people travelling through all the time but did not mean there was no gossip, it meant the opposite actually. Nothing could stay hidden for to long especially in a top physicians work place where there was almost always a patients coming in and out. 

The few people who had seen her especially the young Waisend knights who often came in to see Ron to be treated, always spoke delightfully and fondly of the girl.

She was always very quiet and came off as shy most times. They had managed to gather that her name was Erica but that was it. Not one of them knew much else about her.

It became a thing for many of the knights to purposefully get injured during training or patrols just so they could get a chance to see her even if it was brief. Unfortunately for them this did not last long as Ron caught on really quickly and they all received a major scolding. Erica continued to remain oblivious.