NEVER SPLIT THE PARTY: The Adventures of the Creeping Bam (BOOK 4: The Hunt)

CHAPTER FIVE: THELGAEWYNN

"I really wish you'd just listen to me." Shul half-huffs, half-growls the words as she walks past me now, making her way back to the treatment bed with another trayful of clean cloths. I've seen the big cabinets lining the walls, I get they got a shitload o' fancy medical stuff to draw from, but I'd have thought they must be running outta these little cloth swabs by now, the way they keep crumbling 'em up and starting a fresh one over and over. Honestly, it seems pretty wasteful if you ask me. "You're going to heal much quicker if you just go back to your room and sleep."

"And yet ..." I shoot back with all the venom I can muster, which ain't much to be honest. Maybe she's got a point, I am fucking tired, I'm barely managing to sit up at all in this chair, and it fucking hurts to do it, even after all the work they did repairing the damage. Yeah, she is right, I'm still a mess, I should use these fancy looking little crutches they brought me to hobble my way back down the hall to my waiting bed. It's damn tempting. 'Cept I know exactly why I don't.

Stopping a few steps away, Shul gets real stiff pretty fast, and when she turns back the look on her face is exactly what I would've expected. Only hobgoblins can look that stern, it's an impressive trait. She may only be half-hob, but she definitely got that part o' her heritage down. "Thel, please ..." She grits her impressively sharp teeth for a beat, then lets out a heavy sigh. "You're not doing us any good being here right now either."

"You mean I'm in the way?"

That makes her frowns, and she looks down, likely choosing her words. "No, not ... not exactly. It's just ... we're all stressed. With the others off doing ... whatever it is they're doing, I'm anxious, and I'm not alone here. I understand how you're feeling, I really do, but all you're doing is making me more anxious, and it's going to make the others more anxious too. And then where will we be?"

Yeah, that kinda has me stumped a little. It never occurred to me that clerics could get affected in their work by other folk's vibes, I always thought they could just pray their way through that kinda thing. If that is what she means.

Licking my lips, I hunch forward a bit, which does take a little of the pressure off that hard, achy spot just above my stomach, but I know I can't maintain it long cuz it'll just get my back hurting again before long. Truth be told there's no real way for me to sit right now don't hurt some. "I'm sorry, I really am. I'd love to just go and lie down. But I do that an' I'm just gonna be staring at the ceiling for hours, or 'least until they come back. If they come back." I grimace, as much from the idea as my own discomfort. "Shit ... I'm just ... suffering through it, cuz that's all I can do, since you insist there ain't nothing more your healers can do for me to get me back on my feet any quicker. Thorin ... I'd be pacing like a bastard if I could stand up straight right now."

Shul's frown deepens as she regards me for a long beat, then she steps back and turns in one impressively smooth motion, stalking the rest o' the way back to the treatment bed. She sets the tray back down on the fancy little wheeled table set up beside it, then backs up again, folding her arms now while taking a heavy breath, growing even more stern now. Letting the three clerics still hard at work on Sessa work their god magic.

A little after the others left, Shul gave up trying to comfort the poor girl and just went to one o' the cabinets, collecting a little glass vial with a funny dark purple concoction in it. The half-orc was reluctant to drink it when she returned, and I couldn't blame her, I didn't like the look o' that shit at all. But Shul insisted, and ultimately it seemed benign enough once she'd finally gulped it all down. In another minute she was swaying and ready to drop, and it was easy enough for them to just lower her onto the bed and start working in earnest. Soon she was quietly dozing away while they bustled around her with their prayers and magic hands.