Profession

Reception

Thanks to Martha for the descriptor for Lys's big pillow!!

I hung on to Grandma's arm for dear life as the canter through the city turned into a gallop once we left the outskirts. I don't think I'd ever ridden a horse that fast, and it was concerning.  It was faster even than the eight boats I'd coxed, but not nearly as smooth and I was quite aware that we could fall off in an accident.

This didn't happen, of course; the horse slowed as we got close to the house of healing so the stop wasn't even particularly jarring. A couple of healers came out, attracted by the noise, and Grandma slid me down to them before hopping off herself. She retrieved me from my fellows and herded me inside. Epione emerged from the stillroom at the noise, and her look of tolerant resignation when she saw me converted abruptly to a frown once she saw the state I was in. At that, I looked a lot better than I had been.

"What has happened, Lys?" she asked, guiding me to a chair by the window. "You look terrible."

"My doctor found that I had cancer at my last appointment," I said. "So she treated it, but the treatment is hard on the body and killed off my immune system too. I got pneumonia, and Mom and Deri brought me here when it was safe to travel." I saw Grandma beam when I didn't refer to my mother by her name, but she quickly sobered. I had to explain what cancer was, what chemotherapy was, in terms that they could understand, because of course they didn't get it here. Epione recognized pneumonia, because, very rarely, an Amazon did contract it. Grandma was paler than I thought she could be, and Epione looked appalled.

"Diana is coming behind," Grandma said. "She has a large.... thing that was slowing them down." I smiled a little.

"It's just a pillow," I said. "Grandpa Damian got it for me when the pneumonia was so bad. I don't actually need it, and it probably should have been left in the sub."

"Pillows are always nice," Grandma said, and stroked my hair.

A clump of rather brittle, dry hair came out, and she stared at it.

I burst into tears. That was the final straw.

And of course, that was when everybody else showed up.

Mom moved people out of the way, her glance taking in the long lock of hair that Grandma still held, not sure what to do with it, and me snivelling in my chair.

"Oh, dearest," she said, and bent over to hug me.

While Mom was comforting me, the others conferred, and when I calmed down a little, I was given a loose gown, told to change, and taken back outside. The breeze was brisker on this side of the island and it was a lot cooler; a storm was passing by right offshore, close enough to smell it. There was a wooden platform under a tree, and Melete, one of the healers, was laying a mattress down on it, covering it with a sheet. Aunt Antiope plopped the big pillow down, and they looked at it curiously. Deri arranged it, and Mom brought me over to the bed. I sat down with a sigh; the mattress was firm but very comfortable, and I lay back into the pillowhug. Epione draped a heavy blanket over me as I started to feel chilly, and Deri rooted around in my bag, finding a pair of fuzzy socks that she popped onto my feet, pulling the blanket back down and squeezing my toes. Epione sat down on the platform by my shins, and had me explain my treatment. I showed her the medications and the little scanner from Dr Lance. Melete and Phoebe were also agog at this weird device and I thought they'd have fun playing around with it.

Since we were kind of flying by the seat of our pants, treatment wise, we decided to get me started on the water therapy (it was a big reason why I'd come here, certainly) and Mom made a glass of the goop for me with it. Epione performed a scan so we'd have a baseline for comparison, and a dauntingly large pitcher of water and a glass were brought and placed on the platform where I could easily reach them.