Fool's Gold | God Tamer x Tiso

Chapter 4 - In Which Tiso Begins His Long, Hard, and Painfully Slow Recovery

"You might've lost to me, but you got back up. That's the most important thing."

Tamer patches Tiso up. Tiso learns why she kept him around.

-

"No wonder you have all those scars," Tiso said through gritted teeth. "You're terrible at healing them."

"I'll make this a thousand times more painful if you don't shut up," Tamer muttered. "Now for the love of the gods, be still."

The hot springs had helped with the initial healing process, but Tiso's injuries were too deep to be completely healed by one measly bath. Tamer had lifted him out of the water and started to dress his wounds, the most important of which was his arm which was, as Tiso assumed, completely shattered.

"I'm gonna set it now," she warned. "Don't scream too loud." Without any more warning, she set the arm to a wooden splint. Tiso bit down so hard he thought he chipped a tooth.

"Impressive," she chuckled. "I thought for sure you were going to scream like a hatchling."

"It hurt more when you broke it," he muttered, breathing heavily.

"I'll take that as a complement," she said as she wrapped his arm in a sling.

The numbness from the hot spring was wearing off, and now he could feel each one of his injuries distinctly. The worst of which, besides his arm, was the "finishing" blow Tamer had given him, right in his gut. It felt as if he'd been punched clean through.

"This is the farthest thing from pity I've ever felt," Tiso groaned. "I think you stabbed something important."

"I know I missed your vitals, 'cause if I hadn't you really would've died. Hot springs can't heal everything, you know."

Tiso hissed as she started to bandage the wound. Either she was being rough just to tick him off, or delicacy really wasn't her strong suit. Maybe it was a bit of both.

It was strange to see Tamer like this, healing instead of fighting. His fear hadn't gone away either, if anything he was more aware than ever of how easily she could kill him. And even though he would rather die than be her prize, that didn't mean he wasn't afraid of death.

He watched and felt her hands, they were calloused, rough, and yet she was gentle enough, (enough being the key word,) to wrap the bandages around his wounds, the very wounds she inflicted just hours ago.

When he was all patched up, he felt like a stick. The bandages were on too tight, and that constricted his movement even more than the pain had.

"How you feel?" she sounded strangely proud of herself.

"Awful."

"There you go," she smiled. "That's leagues better than 'dying.'" She got up and stretched, as if fixing him up had been a taxing endeavor. "You should probably chill out in the hot springs and change out your bandages once a day. If you want to heal anytime soon, that is. Oh, and I recommend taking your time and really chewing your food until your gut heals. The last thing you want is to throw up with a wound like that."

Tiso just rolled his eyes. "What are you, a healer?"

"I'm sure you can pick up on the fact that I've seen enough battles to qualify as one," she gestured to the scars on her chest again. Looking at them made Tiso's stomach twist up more than it already was. He looked away from them.

"Are you going to put the rest of your armor back on?" Tiso huffed, trying to distract himself from the pain and other feelings. "You look stupid with just a helmet."