“Tsugi, this is Master Lumes.” Jenene gestured to a young woman in a dark blue cloak. Her bright red hair was wavy and pulled up into a messy bun.
Tsugi lowered his head in a manner of the utmost respect he could manage. “It’s a pleasure to meet you, Master Lumes.”
“Ha!” She laughed loudly, startling Tsugi and Lugo. “This is Tsugi? This little kid?! He’s so tiny, it doesn’t even look like he could do anything!” She rolled her shoulders back and folded her arms across her chest.
Tsugi scrunched his face and growled under his breath, annoyed that this rude person was going to be his master. Really? Couldn’t Jenene have found a better person? Or at least one that actually wanted to teach instead of this…person? She’s probably not even all that good. He was annoyed, but what else can he do about it? Deny it when he had no other choice?
“Don’t underestimate him, Lumes sweetie.” Jenene cocked an eyebrow at her.
“Okay.” She snorted and glared at Tsugi from below her eyelashes. “Let’s see what you can do then.” She pulled out a sword from behind her, hidden underneath her cloak, and raised it into the air. The sunlight bounced off the blade and into Tsugi’s eyes, temporarily blinding him for a moment.
“AHH!” Lugo screamed at the top of his lungs, but Tsugi hadn’t quite registered what happened. Did she blind him too? It didn’t seem all that painful, it was just bright, but when Tsugi looked at Lugo he wasn’t standing next to him anymore. Instead, he was crouched onto the floor, grabbing onto his leg as blood gushed out and poured onto the white snow. Did she just stab Lugo’s leg? She backed up to three meters away from Tsugi and with another swing, she sliced right through her own arm, bone and all. It dropped to the floor with a thud and blood oozed, squirting out and poured onto the ground, melting the snow with the steaming blood. Tsugi just stared in shock, frozen in utter disbelief, unsure if what he saw was real or not.
“Well? Are you just going to stand there?” She didn’t even wince at the pain, like she was some kind of monster or something. Lugo was on the ground rolling and holding his leg, screaming and moaning in pain. She swung her sword through the air to throw the blood off her sword before sheathing it behind her back.
Tsugi became so flustered, he wasn’t sure how to respond. It took him a minute, but he finally got a hold of himself and knelt down next to Lugo. Closing his eyes, he concentrated everything he could to pull all the life from the surrounding plants, frozen under the snow, and poured it into the wound. Lugo’s scream subsided and he stopped squirming as it began to heal, though his face tells a different story as he still winced every now and then as he felt his muscles and skin pulling and tugging as they came together to form new ones.
After healing Lugo, he went over and picked up her arm off the ground, getting blood splatter on his head from her nub as she stood over him. He touched the ends together, and placed his free hand over the wound. Like sowing an intricate piece of art, he pulled at every little cell and nerve ending, reattaching them together. Even in this cold weather, beads of sweat formed on his forehead and dripped down his chin. As if he was holding his breath through the whole process, he exhaled loudly and gasped for air when he finally finished. He felt like all of his energy had drained from him and he fought everything in his power to not pass out in front of his new master, just to spite her and prove her wrong. Albeit, it took a lot of concentration just to stay standing upright.
She pulled her arm up: twisted her wrists; flexed her hand; examined the wound; and threw bullet fast punches into the air. She pursed her lips and nodded approvingly. She looked down at Tsugi who was glaring up at her still trying to subtly catch his breath.
“Not bad, but your response was too slow. Healing in the midst of battle is crucial. If you hesitate like that, people will start dropping like flies around you. Also your healing is too slow. You will never make it.” She turned to Jenene. “You’re wasting my time with him.” And with that she turned on her heels and walked away.
“How is it wasting your time, when I just proved to you that I could heal both of you?!” Tsugi clenched his fists, furry burning through his veins at this woman who seemed so full of herself.
She turned back around and leaned down in front of his face in a domineering manner. “You’re wasting my time, because you will continue to get too flustered in battle. You won’t be able to face it when people actually die in front of you.” She stood up and looked down at him from her nose. “Just leave it alone kid. You won’t be able to handle it.”
Tsugi clenched his eyes. “That’s why I want to learn! I cannot let people die in front of me!” He clenched his teeth so tight they made a horrible grinding noise. Did he really have to beg this darn woman to be his master? “I need to do this. I need to learn to be a better healer.” He looked up at her with pleading eyes. “I’ve only started learning recently, I will get better.”
“Are you sure you’ll be able to distinguish who you can and cannot save? If someone you know is beyond saving and there’s another person that can be saved…will you leave the person you know to die, and save the other one instead?”
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Tsugi’s eyes darted back and forth in search of an answer, but he couldn’t find one. He wanted to save them all if possible.
“I was the one with my arm cut off, and yet you went to heal your friend who only had a flesh wound.” She stared at him with disappointment. “Leave it alone kid.” She repeated and walked out of the orphanage.
Tsugi dropped to his knees and cried angrily into his hands. He knew that if someone he cared for was dying, he would do everything he could to save them, but then that would also mean, it’ll be at the cost of other people's lives. Damn, why did this insanely annoying woman have to give him such a hard situation?
“She’s tough, but she’s brilliant. You have until the end of the week to change her mind if you still want to become her pupil.” Jenene turned to Lugo. “You and I have some training to do, darlin.” She and Lugo left Tsugi alone in the snow covered field to wallow in his thoughts.
His brain spun and twisted trying to find the answer. Saving those he cared about was the whole reason for why he wanted to learn to heal in the first place. If he had to give up on them to save someone else…would he be able to do it?
***
“Have you lost your mind? You can’t do that to him? Stop!” Lugo screamed. Tsugi was so tired and groggy, he couldn’t open his eyes, he could only hear the commotion as if he was dreaming. “He doesn’t need you! Damn it! Aeris can you make her stop!”
Tsugi awoke back in his room with a headache, but he smelled nice and was cleaned up nicely. His clothes and duvet were fitted perfectly around him, and then…he saw it.
“LUGO!” Tsugi screamed. With rushing footsteps from down the hall, came Lugo slamming the door open.
“What?! What happened?” He held a stick in his hand like a sword gazing around the room and searched under the bed and in the wardrobe as if there were some kind of monster hiding somewhere.
Tsugi’s eyes were wide open with horror, staring at his clothes, which he didn’t recognize. He was wearing a dress. Why the hell was he in a dress? He pulled the duvet up to cover himself as if he was naked, feeling a creeping flush climb his cheeks. Whether it was from fury or from embarrassment, he wasn’t sure. Or perhaps both. “Did you do this to me?!” Fear filled his eyes as he gazed at Lugo with such ferocity he was sure his eyes turned into slits.
Lugo looked over and he burst into a thunderous laughter.
“This is not funny! Why’d you put me in a dress?! On top of that! How dare you even get anywhere near me to even undress me?!” Tsugi was absolutely livid, so much in fact that he looked like his head was about to explode.
“It…it wasn’t me!” Lugo laughed and cried, wiping his tears from his eyes. “It was Aeris.” He crouched over and held onto his stomach. “Oh my stomach. That is too hilarious.” He laughed, taking in a deep breath of air.
“What the hell happened? Last thing I remember was Master Lumes. And why the heck did Aeris dress me?!”
“Umm…” Lugo tried his best to stifle another laugh but failed miserably. He placed a hand on his waist and looked down, covering his mouth to hide his grin. “You uh…you got sick and passed out from sitting in the cold all day. You puked over all your clothes. Aeris kept changing you, but you kept puking on yourself, so she had to put you in a dress.” He bit his lip and looked away to fight off another laughter. He cleared his throat. “But I just did laundry and it’s drying right now.”
“Who does she think she is? She doesn’t have the right to dress me?” He pulled the duvet even tighter against his chest.
“Would you rather we leave you in your puke for five days?”
Tsugi’s eyes widened with concern. “Five days! I was unconscious for five days?” He must’ve been really sick if he had lost the last five days. “That means I only have two days tops to convince Master Lumes!”
“Eh, that’s plenty of time.” He waved his hand through the air dismissively. “I gotta say, dresses match you. You should wear dresses more often.” Lugo laughed.
“You’re such a jerk!” Tsugi blushed and covered himself some more, throwing a pillow so hard at Lugo that even the soft cushion packed enough power to knock him into the wall.
“I’m just kidding. No need to get violent.” He chuckles, tossing the pillow on the ground, not wanting to give Tsugi any more ammo to possibly kill him with. For a little kid, Tsugi can pack quite a punch. “I’ll get you a pair of my clothes you can wear for now.” Lugo promptly returns and places the clothes on the bed for Tsugi, who is still eyeing Lugo angrily as he is still laughing by the door.
“Get out so I can change!”
“Okay! Okay.” Lugo chuckled and walked out, closing the door behind him. “Oh, and I made lunch, so come down and eat.”
Tsugi changed and went downstairs, finding Lugo sitting at the table and sticking a potato into his mouth.
“Where’s Val and Bel?” Tsugi sat down and put potatoes onto his plate with a steak.
“Uh…about that…” Lugo looked down at his hands and twirled his fingers. “Uh…if you see Val again, please don’t acknowledge her.”
“What do you mean?” He took a bite of the steak and raised a curious brow at Lugo.
“I saw what she does in the cellar.” Lugo said, pushing his food around his plate with his fork.
“And?”
“She’s kind of…psychotic.” He said in a low voice as if he was imparting with some big secret.
Tsugi froze and glared at his plate as if it was the one that offended him. “Are you saying my family is psychotic?” His tone came out a little more menacing than he realized.