The door creaks open slowly, and the squealing intensifies for half a second then stops. Frowning, you peek inside, expecting to see Mei Mei - or, in any case, anyone but the man you met coming down the mountain.
"You?" you exclaim, but the poor man is beyond words. He sits, curled into a tight ball, holding his left arm. His face is black and blue; one of his eyes can't open properly anymore under the swollen mass of his eyelid. The arm he is holding against his chest stands at a strange angle, and the shoulder is obviously dislocated. There is blood on the floor beneath him. Clearly, someone (or a few someones) has been at him.
Carefully, you slip one arm behind his shoulders and the other one behind his knees, then slowly lift him up, retreat from the broom closet he had been hiding in, and go to lay him onto the counter. He whimpers and cries, but it's obvious he won't be telling you anything in his condition.
If you are a Shaman
(otherwise, refer to the If you're not a Shaman paragraph)
Roll two dice in a Magic test to try and heal the man, or get a random number from a 1-12 draw.
1 to 4: your spell fails and the man falls unconscious. You're on your own. Go to Chapter Twenty-six.
5 to 7: your spell fails, disappearing into thin air. You can try again, but only once - you're not Gandalf.
8 to 12: your spell performs excellently. The man's skin knits itself back together, his shoulder pops back into place with a crack and the strange angle in his arm disappears. The swelling goes down and his eyes open. Go to Chapter Twenty-Five.
If you are not a Shaman
Roll two dice for an Intelligence test to try and heal the man, or get a random number from a 1-12 draw.
1 to 6: you suck at applying bandages, and at medicine in general. The man falls unconscious from the pain. You're on your own. Go to Chapter Twenty-six.
7 to 12: you manage to crack the man's shoulder back into place and then set his arm with old wood from the bookshelves. He seems relieved, and once you're done bandaging his eye, he appears ready to form words. Go to Chapter Twenty-Five.
YOU ARE READING
The Rains of Sichuan {Choose Your Own Adventure} // Wattys 2019
Adventure"If we want to survive this drought, you will have to make it rain." In this short-and-sweet Choose Your Own Adventure book, you will be taken on a quest to discover why the rains haven't fallen on your tiny little chinese village - and to remedy...
