The Heroine of Ireste

~ Chapter 2 ~

Aria walked into the back of the store and got the bucket of water her uncle always left out and carried it over to the boy. By now, he was no longer coughing but he looked as if he was about to collapse. Aria put the bucket down and said, "My name is Aria and my uncle owns the store you are in. I am going to assume he went to go find a healer, but I'm going to clean you off anyway. I'm going to have you sit down as well, alright?" Aria asked. The boy nodded and sat on the floor with his arms at his side. Aria tore off a piece of her shirt and dipped it into the water. Aria started to gently scrub the ash of his right arm and soon found a burn on his forearm. Aria cleaned the area around the burn as well as she could while also being as gentle as possible so she didn't irritate anymore skin. The boy was wincing a lot, but she knew she could do nothing about the pain until Uncle Mauno came back with a healer. The entire process took much longer than she expected, but now the boy was cleaned off and didn't look like he had rolled his upper body in a fireplace.

She dropped the rag into the bucket, but the boy frantically picked it up and stuck it in his mouth. "What are you doing? " she screamed at him. The boy seemed to honestly not care about what she was saying because he kept the cloth in his mouth. Aria ripped it out of his mouth before he could keep it in any longer. "I'm trying to get the ash out of my mouth so I can breathe," the boy hoarsely told her. "There are better ways of getting ash from your mouth besides sticking a cloth filled with ash back in your mouth," was Aria's response. "Sorry, but I didn't exactly have all the time in the world," he told her. Even after she had kept him from dying, this boy seemed ungrateful.

Just before she could get up and leave, Uncle Mauno came running in with a healer just a few steps behind him. "Aria, good afternoon! This is the first time I have run in at least ten years, so I'm sorry if I am not presentable right now. I see you've met Sergei, my new apprentice. Sergei tripped and accidently dumped an urn of oil into the fire and it sprayed onto him. He has a few burns and I'm afraid he also inhaled most of the ash. I can see that he cleaned himself off though, so maybe he isn't as hurt as we thought he was." Uncle Mauno said. "Actually sir, your niece helped me. I could barely breathe or move, so she assisted me," Sergei told Mauno. Aria saw that now he seemed grateful for her assistance, but she also thought that he was only acting that way because her uncle was there.

The conversation between all three of them came to an abrupt end when the healer interrupted them saying, "I would like to inspect the boy now, unless you would like for him to get infected." He was dressed in a crisp completely white outfit to show his status of "healer". There were not many healers in Tona due to the fact that it was a very difficult job and most people did not want to be around the dying. The ones who did become healers were praised for what they did for their people. The one who had come with Mauno was named Proctor. He was a middle-aged man with light brown hair sprinkled with gray. Proctor always said that the gray in his hair was because his job was stressful, but it was blatant that it was because of his age.

Proctor had somehow already begun wrapping the wound in Sergei's arm without him noticing. "I'll be stopping by your home everyday for the next few weeks in order to change your bandages. Eventually, the burn will start to heal and I will allow your mother to change your bandages. I also ask that you stay away from here, just until your arm is healed enough," Proctor told Sergei. "What? This is his first day as my apprentice and he's already not allowed to come back?" Mauno asked.

Proctor looked at Mauno as if he was the dumbest creature in the world, a look that Aria did not like, and said, "Yes, but he will be able to return to work after a few weeks. Sergei, come with me. I will take you home and instruct your mother how to care for you."

Sergei followed Proctor outside, leaving Mauno and Aria to clean up the mess that had been made. The ash had mixed in with the dirt on the floor, which Mauno kindly asked Aria to sweep up. Mauno began put away all of his tools, deciding to close up early once they were done cleaning.