Secrets of the dark castle

Mysterious stranger

My short nap was interrupted by the rocking of the boat and Leon's soft voice telling me to wake up.
I was surprised to see we were at another dock with a set of wooden brown stairs that lead up to another merchant.

The walk up the stairs was a bit of a struggle for me. My ankle was starting to hurt again and made a strange clicking sound every time I took a step. I guess before I must have been distracted by everything else to really feel the pain.

Leon stopped and chatted with the merchant for a minute. Buying, selling, and trading items with him. The merchant was always happy with the money and new items.  I sat on top of a nearby barrel to get the pressure off my ankle.

In a way, I feel lighter after telling Leon about what happened in raccoon city. It was always a topic I stray away from. I feel like I might have made a mistake in telling him about how I was bit and I was immune. I have always kept that to myself in fear that something bad might happen to me. I don't know why I decided to tell him that.

"Okay, now let's get that fixed up." Leon says to me as he kneels down in front of me and tries to  take off my shoe. Out of reflex, I move it away which causes him to look at me surprised.  "I'm just going to wrap that up so it's more comfortable for you." He explains.

I let out a light sigh and allowed him to tend to my ankle.
He pulls out a light bandage roll and sets it next to him.
He then slowly unzips the side of my boot and unties the shoe laces. My ankle was swollen so it was hard for him to pull it down all the way. I wince in pain and he notices. "I know it hurts but I just have to pull it down once and it will be done." He Explains.

"Can't you be more gentle?" I ask him as I brace myself for the pain of my ankle moving again.
"Don't worry, on the count of three."

I nod my head and take in a deep breath.
"One" he begins and my heart picks up in pace as I anticipate the pain l.
"Two-" he says and I close my eyes.

Here it comes!

Before he even gets to three he roughly pulls off my boot causing me to let out a groan as the ache radiates up my whole leg.

"That wasn't three!" I yell at him

He looks up at me giving me a slight sadistic grin. "Oh I'm sorry" is all he said as he continued looking at my ankle.
"It seems to have gotten worse, I'm going to have to pull up your pant leg, to wrap this properly," he says as he pulls it up.

I stare down at him as he examines my leg and ankle. His eyebrows furrow just slightly as he sees the scar on my calf just above my ankle. The bite mark that used to be a shade of deep red, had lightened over the years and faded to a light pink row of teeth marks.

He rubs over it lightly with his hand, then reaches it down to grab the roll of bandage right next to him.  "They got you god didn't they?" He says as he begins wrapping the bandage around my ankle and around my foot.

"Yeah, I guess you can say that," I reply, still in pain just wanting it to be over.

Once he was done, he helped me put my shoe back on and lifted me down from the barrel, putting me down just enough to not put too much pressure on my ankle.

"You are going to need to be careful about that. But it should be more stable now, eat some more of these herbs" he said as pulled out another vile of herbs but this time there were red, green, and yellow herbs mixed in with it.

I take the vile from him and inspect it. "What's mixed in with it this time?" I ask
"Just some stronger herbs I've picked up on the way. If you mix all three of these together they have better pain-killing effects, but if you take the red and yellow separately it won't do anything for you." He explains as I screw off the lid and pour the herbs into my mouth. The earthy, sappy taste made me want to gag but I resisted.