Guardians of the Light

Enola Bow

♦ David had to stay in the hospital centre longer than he would have liked. The werewolf's scratches were very severe and the doctors had to stitch up the wounds on his face and rub them three times a day. Ointment of wolfs bane, iron powder, holly ash, and several Avalonian plants was also given to Robin. Throughout their treatment, David did not see Robin. Every night he thought about the consequences that would haunt him for the rest of his life. All David would be left with were scars on his face, which was unpleasant, but better than Robin's fate. He will have to spend the rest of his life every full moon transformed into a werewolf. David felt sorry for him, although his illness will improve in some time. From everything he's read, lycanthropy depends a lot on a person's character, temperament, and emotional state. Cholerics have it the worst, and the emotional lability of melancholics is also not ideal. The least aggressive werewolves are phlegmatic. This is not surprising.

David was reading another book about werewolves when Dr. Summers, Dr. Storm and his parents came into his room. David put the book down and smiled. His face was no longer bandaged. The first look in the mirror, which happened three days ago, was quite unpleasant. He had four large scratches all over his face that started on the left half of his forehead and ended on the right half of his chin. Looking in the mirror, David felt like Grandpa Jean, who had also been scratched in his youth, though not by a werewolf. "How are you feeling today, David?" Dr. Storm asked. David replied that he felt fine and asked when he would be able to return to school. "Soon," replied Dr. Storm, "Give it a week." David lowered his eyes for a moment, then looked at the doctors and asked: "How's Robin?"

"We already told you, kid, he'll recover, he'll just be a werewolf, nothing more." Dr. Summers waved her hand. David got angry. "Nothing more? He's got lycanthropy! How can you say that?!"

"You can live with lycanthropy, David," his father said, sitting down next to him, "David, lycanthropy is a disease affected by the lunar cycle. The full moon has the strongest effect, under other circumstances; werewolves are just ordinary people like us. The first transformations will be difficult for all of them, but eventually they learn to control their wild side."

"I know," David sighed, "I just feel sorry for him... and I'm worried for him."

"That's only natural," said his mother Ariana, coming over to him, "but he'll be fine, he'll go back to school and you'll see each other again."

"Everything will be normal for him. That is, except for the fact that he will be hairy once a month. But more people have monthly problems." said his father Remus.

"Remus."

"What? I'm not just talking about periods, but also about pay checks, or me shedding my skin. Sometimes it's all very stressful."

"Tell me about it. And to top it off when it's December. That reminds me, David, Christmas is around the corner, write me what you want and we'll decide what to buy you from that list."

"You mean besides the socks?" David asked annoyed.

"Maybe Father Christmas will bring you extra socks this year." Ariana frowned.

"Mom"

♦ Finally, after about a month, the doctors decided that David was ready to go. He was given a prescription for salve by the head doctor with instructions to anoint his face at least once a day. Before he left the hospital however, there was one more visit for him. She was a middle aged elf dressed in a uniform with brown hair in a bun and purple lipstick. Both of her legs and left arm were missing, replaced by advanced prostheses. They were made from alloys of metals of Avalon origin, David wasn't sure which, and other materials that David also didn't know. They were non-allergenic and completely safe, but they had some disadvantages. The woman's prosthetics had a robotic grey appearance. The left arm was amputated almost to the shoulder. Her replacement fit perfectly, and if it weren't for her grey, robotic, ossified appearance, no one would have been able to tell her from the original. The left leg was also almost completely amputated; the right one was only below the knee. Both looked incredibly realistic. It was as if someone stripped the legs and arm of skin and muscle, then squished them a little tighter to the skeleton to make the structure stand out a little more, and then recolored the skin grey. However, despite this disturbing visualization, the prostheses did not look terrible at all.