It’s quiet, and while I loved it, I hated how much anxiety the quiet gave me. On one hand, the quiet meant everything was okay, well mostly. Even the yelling of children playing or the drunken brawl at the tavern at night still gave the sense of quiet. The anxiety was for what took place when the quiet was broken.
Today was like any other day for me. Our little makeshift clinic we built hadn’t really seen any traffic lately, which was a good thing. The three little cots we had set up hadn’t been used in at least two months. The wooden walls stood firm, although there was a small leak in the roof whenever it rained. The windows were letting in the remains of sunshine and a nice warm breeze, which was nice to keep the air from stagnating.
I’m sure the clinic wasn’t empty for lack of desire to get treatment, but that my wife was the real doctor here. Rosaline usually was able to diagnose and whip up an elixir after one visit, and if she didn’t she’d nail it in two. She had taken our son out to get him some practical teaching, so unless it's a truly traumatic issue, most people just made do with whatever was causing them problems. That or they took a journey to the next town over for treatment, which even by carriage was a few days away.
I decided it’d be best for me to get out and stretch my legs, so I placed the placard that said I’d return shortly on the door. Just in case someone did need help, they knew I’d be right back. The sun had already begun going down, so within a few hours everyone should be safely in their homes.
I walked on one of the many small pathways that decorated our little town. One led right from our front door to various other places one might want to go. I passed all the small houses on my walk, nobody here lived in luxury, nor did we need it. As I arrived in the middle of the town, I stared at the larger than life tree, casting its shadow across the ground and many of the surrounding buildings. Blooms of different colors sprouted from all over the tree branches. It produced no fruit, but also never lost its leaves. This tree gave our little border town its name, Giant’s Bloom.
I heard playful noises coming from the other side of the tree. Two young boys were laughing and playing some sort of game, although it looked like one where someone could easily get hurt. The boys themselves were nearly identical. They were probably close to my son’s age, so they were still a few years away from being teens. They were the baker’s boys, and I could only tell them apart because of the way each kept their hair. I turned to make my way back to the clinic before I heard a thud followed by a painful cry. I looked back and saw Donovan, the younger of the twins with the longer hair, with his hands wrapped around his ankle while Desmond showed a look of fear. Even though it was Donovan who was hurt, Desmond was the one on the verge of tears.
As I approached, I pulled my long black hair back and tied it to keep it out of my face. Desmond noticed me first, and relief washed over his face. I kneeled down and reached for Donovan’s ankle, but he was hesitant to let me anywhere near it.
“Mr. Kingsley,” Desmond began speaking, he kept pausing as he fought back tears, “We were just playing. I didn’t mean to hurt him.”
“I know, I know.” I attempted to reassure him, but I don’t think I did that well. “Help me get him up and I’ll get him to the clinic. Then you go get your father and bring him over.” Both children started to protest, but I shut that down. “If you don’t, I will. That will end far worse than if you just do as you're told.” I said with an authority that didn’t leave room to argue.
Desmond hung his head before he ran off to his home, after helping me get Donovan off the ground. I carried him the rest of the way to the clinic and lowered him onto the bed. I coaxed him into letting me see his ankle, although he would wince every time I tried to move it. I could tell outside that it wasn’t broken, and I could’ve just told him to walk it off, my wife would kill me if she found out I did that. Plus, it’d be nice to get some use out of the clinic while she was away.
“Are you going to have to put me to sleep to fix it?” Donovan asked sheepishly. “I’ve heard you can fix anyone if you do.”
“Thankfully, no.” While I’m curious who told him about that, I decided not to question him about it. “That kind of treatment is saved for really bad injuries. You should be back on your feet in a couple of days if you stay off of it.”
The door opened just as I set his foot back down, and at the doorway was an out of breath Desmond with his father, Tobias. He walked in and went straight to Donovan and started looking at his injury, before turning to me.
“I keep telling these boys to be gentler with each other, but they just don’t listen. Dr. Warrick, is he going to be okay?” Tobias asked.
“Please, Mr. Bruner, I’m not a doctor, that’s the wife. Please call me Kingsley like everyone else.” I placed a hand on his shoulder to put him at ease. “Your boy should be fine with a few days rest off his feet.” As he breathed a sigh of relief I continued. “Don’t be too hard on them. They are young, they will play and get hurt, and maybe much worse than today. Your boys didn’t want to tell you for one reason or another. We need to be the ones they know they can turn to and not be afraid of if something bad happens.”
“I know. It’s just been hard after their mom was pulled away. I’m just afraid something is going to happen to them. What if they were farther away and didn’t make it home?” He washed away the thought and stood up and extended his hand. “Will the usual suffice?”
“Nah.” I shake his hand. He was referring to payment for services. My wife and I decided that the people we treat should only pay what they can afford, and that doesn’t always mean money. Tobias Bruner usually paid in whatever he ended the day with excess of, or baked several loaves of bread fresh for us. “Don’t worry about it. I didn’t use any bandages and it reminded me of taking care of my boy whenever he got hurt.”
“How are Rosaline and Julian?” He asked as he picked up Donovan. The twins are missing playing with him too, you know.”
“They are still out traveling. Her last letter said that they should be back in a couple of months, but with how she is, I’m sure she has found some rare and unknown disease to treat.” I chuckle. “Take care now, you should be able to get home safely.”
The Bruner’s leave the clinic and I step outside. There’s still plenty of daylight left before The Pale flashes. It really was a shame for the Bruner’s. The twins mother, Rebecca, was pulled by The Pale one night. She didn’t make it inside before the last bit of sunlight faded on a bad night. What The Pale takes, it doesn’t give back.
I didn’t know much more about The Pale than anyone else did. It connected to our world about twice a month. If you would be able to see the moon completely, or not at all, something would happen. If you were inside, you were safe, and the definition of inside is believed to be not touching the outside, which sounded stupid when you say it out loud. Either something got pulled into The Pale, or The Pale placed something here, and it's usually only ever one thing. Strange new flora and fauna could be found, but if we were really unlucky, it would place a monster here. There had always been some sort of hero to deal with the monsters, but that didn’t help if they weren’t able to get there in time.
As the last few hours of the daylight dwindled, I started to close up the clinic. Thinking about the Bruner’s got me worried for my family, but Rosaline was smart, so she should be okay. I saw the sun vanish into the horizon and closed the clinic door with myself inside. The Pale was consistent, and would exert its will the second the sunlight was gone. I took a deep breath, and counted to ten once I could no longer see it. The plan now was to open the door and check the town for any new additions. A handful of us always did, just to make sure we were safe.
We scoured the town, but the only piece of The Pale that was here was our ever blooming tree. They say The Pale doesn’t move the same thing twice, but maybe it has and we just never knew. That was the beauty and the horror of it though, was that we knew next to nothing about it. I checked up on everyone else, double checked the lock on the clinic, then walked the short distance away to get home and go to sleep.
Our house was modest. We had our two bedrooms, a small living area and a small kitchen that shared space with our place to eat. We had a little outhouse out back, and a couple of barrels that we collected rainwater in. We lacked the magic stones that produced heat or water, those were saved for higher class areas. They’d be nice to have, but we made do just fine without them.
The next morning when I woke up, something just felt off. It felt like a storm was rapidly approaching, but there wasn’t a cloud in the sky. I tried to eat a little bit of breakfast. I was super thankful that the town loved us so much, they always made sure we had food at home. After I finished my morning routine then walked over to the clinic, only to find the door wide open. I do lock the clinic door, just because we’ve had a stint with some outsiders stealing supplies. I ran back to the house to grab my sword. Just because I knew how to use it, doesn’t mean I wanted to.
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I approached the door and peaked my head inside. I saw two people there. One was laying on a bed, and another smaller frame sitting beside them. Pieces of armor were strewn about, and what I assumed were their weapons are actually propped up by the door near me. I still had to be careful though, they could just as well have others hidden on their persons.
I stepped in and cleared my throat to get their attention. “While I don’t appreciate the clinic being broken into, what can I do to help?” I asked from the safety of the doorway.
The woman sitting on the bedside jumped up and hobbled over to me. She was small, and her red hair was cut extremely short. “You got to help her, please. I’m begging you!” Tears started to roll down her face. She grabbed my hand and pulled me towards the bed with surprising strength. I stumbled as she pulled but managed to keep my footing.
On the bed was another female, with braided brown hair. She looked me over then shook her head towards her companion. I’d never seen them before, and unless they’d heard tales of my wife, they’re probably thinking I’m the doctor here. At least one was probably an adventurer, so who knows what sort of sickness or injury they’d incurred. Rosaline would be the better person for this, but then I saw something. What appeared to be roots were rising from her chest up to her neck. I apologized before pulling down her shirt, just until I saw a bud protruding from over her heart.
“What is going on, what happened?” I asked knowing I wasn’t about to get an answer.
I could see the bud pulsing with what I assumed was her heartbeat, and if I was right, it was beating abnormally slow. I tried to get up to dig through Rosaline’s kit and journals, before I noticed some resistance on the back of my shirt.
“She doesn’t have time. We came here because we heard you’ve cured so many things before. Why aren’t you helping her?” The red haired girl weakly cried.
“That’s not me! The one you want isn’t here.” I said despairingly, before I steeled my resolve. “But I can help. I can still help. Move.” I pushed her aside and sat by the brunette’s chest. “I can fix this. It won’t feel great, but it’ll work. Will you let me help you?”
My patient slowly pointed at her friend. I turned and checked, and her friend had just collapsed to the floor, unconscious. I picked her up and placed her on a bed before returning to the brunette. As I sat back down, I heard a loud crack and pop, and blood had splashed onto me. The bud had suddenly bloomed, and a flower I had never seen before was protruding from her chest. Its stem stood almost two feet tall and had large, pale blue petals that emitted a sickly glow. Her face was now expressionless and the light was gone from her eyes. She was dead.
I quickly turned to the red head. I wasn’t gonna let this happen to her too, but if they were together when they got sick, how was she so full of life until moments ago? Was the brunette this way too just before I arrived? I really didn’t have time to think about this.
“Normally, I’d ask before doing this, but given the circumstances, you’ll just have to accept my apology later.” I said it to her, but I didn’t know if she could actually hear me or not. “I’m sorry for this.”
I pulled her shirt down just enough to see the bud. Just like with her friend, it was pulsating and slow. I placed my hand over it and began to concentrate. The air around us grew cooler, and the space between my hand and her chest grew warm. She awoke and began to scream in pain.
“I’m sorry! I’m sorry! This is the only way to save you, so just hold on.” I shouted over her.
She screamed and flailed, but stayed put, which was surprising. After another couple of minutes, the bud on her chest vanished. It didn’t whither, it didn’t fall off, it just vanished. As odd as that was, the treatment was done. As expected, she was unconscious.
“I know you can’t hear me now. You are gonna sleep for a while and wake up aching all over with a headache so bad you’ll want to die. It’ll pass though. I’m going to go clean up and then come back and check on you.”
I walked over to her friend and picked her up. I couldn’t just leave a corpse here, but I also couldn’t bury her here either. I didn’t know who this woman was or what she would’ve wanted, and I wasn’t about to rifle through her things. Whenever her friend woke up, we were going to have a long talk. I took her out back and placed her on the ground. I ran back in to grab a clean sheet to lay over her. As I returned, it appeared as if smaller buds were beginning to form on her body. The flower protruding from her chest felt like it was looking at me at this point, however that worked.
It wasn’t just a feeling. It was like a sunflower, following me. The air around me started to smell overwhelmingly sweet. It was almost intoxicating. It made me want to just curl up next to it and sleep, and just return myself to the soil below.
After I shook away the thought, I placed the sheet gently over her, the flower stalk bending gently with the weight of it. I didn’t know what this strange flower was. I could cut it off, but if it just being here gave me those thoughts, I didn’t want to think about what would’ve become of me if I harmed it.
The house was the next stop. I jogged back, wanting to get out of this blood soaked shirt. I cleaned the blood off me the best I could. My hair was already pulled back, but I had to rinse out the small beard I’d grown since my wife and son left. She hated it, but while she was gone I could grow it out without being pestered to shave it every day.
After most of the blood was off me, it was time to check in on my new patient. After that, I figured I should ask around to see if they had just gotten here, or if anyone saw them the night prior. If that strange bulb is contagious, then I’d need to gather everyone and use my power to stop it before it causes more deaths. I didn’t really have to worry about myself being infected. Whatever strange ability I had, it kept me pretty healthy. I can’t remember the last time I got sick. I’d have to find out later if that extended to whatever shitshow I just walked into.
I returned to the clinic to find her still laying on the bed. I grabbed an extra blanket and placed it over her to keep her warm. She appeared to be breathing normally and she didn’t have a temperature. Her heartbeat was normal too. I tidied up the clinic, and placed their belongings neatly by her bed, well, aside from her weapon. Last thing I wanted was for her to wake up confused and believe that I killed her friend. That would be way more trouble than it was worth.
It wasn’t even noon yet and I had already placed the placard up that stated I was out. I started to feel like I was slacking to be honest. Being a border town, we did have a small inn, which was probably the best place to start asking about the strange women. I followed the pathway down and to the building across from the town hall in the center of town. I stepped inside and the smell of breakfast worked its way into my nose. I had a light breakfast, otherwise I’d be stopping already to eat. There were only three people in here, two of which were the staff.
“Morning Kingsley!” The old man from behind the counter shouted. “What brings you out so early and into our neck of the woods?”
This old man was the owner of the inn. He kept his head full of hair in his old age, and his eyes were the kindest I’d ever seen. He had the kindest heart out of anyone I’d met, and he always had a cheerful attitude. If you'd let him, he’d tell you all sorts of stories from the many people he’d served from over the years. His daughter was set to inherit the place in a few years once he decided to retire. She’s a little older than I am, and she wasn’t near as nice as her old man was. However, her mother does have a bit of a mean streak in her, but everyone knows it was to protect her overly kind husband.
“Hey Kyme, I’d love to chat, but I’m here on business.” I knew I had to get straight to the point or else I might be here all day. In most circumstances, I wouldn’t mind. “Well, business adjacent. Did you serve two women last night? A brunette and a redhead. They probably wore some kind of armor and were armed.”
“No, I didn’t.” Kyme rapidly responded. He had a memory like a steel trap. He could tell you everyone that came through his doors in his entire lifetime, and anything they told him. “Did you see them while you were out last night, dear?” He asked, turning towards his daughter.
“Not last night, no.” Sylia started. “But this morning, yes. They were taking a very odd path through town. They completely avoided the center, almost as if they were scared of the tree.”
That helped. If they arrived this morning, it was very unlikely they came in contact with anyone else. Most people didn’t open their doors as early as I did.
“Thank you so much. They did come here pretty sick, and I’d like to give you whatever treatment I can as a precautionary measure.”
“We’ll come by later then.” Kyme began. “Are they doing any better after your treatment?”
I shook my head. “One didn’t make it. Maybe if I had just been there a little sooner I could’ve saved her. Rosaline would have.”
“That’s enough.” Kyme almost sounded mad. “You did what you could. You are not Rosaline. We need you all the same Kingsley, don’t you forget that.” His words did feel good to hear. “It’s sad to hear that one of them didn’t make it.” He began to walk out from behind his little counter. “Let’s move the other one here. It’s better to recover in a nice soft bed and a warm fire. No offense to your clinic, of course.” He smiled.
There wasn’t any taken. I just grinned and started back out the door with a nod, to which he followed. He may have been older, but he sure didn’t act like it. He worked nonstop and if anyone in the town needed any kind of labor, he was the first one to offer help. He was nice enough to keep pace with me, and not outright get to the clinic first.
After stepping inside, he went to check on the woman in the bed. She was still sound asleep. Then, I saw that he noticed the remnants of blood on the walls and floor after the brunette died. I could see the look of curiosity as to what happened, but he knew when the right time was to ask questions.
“I’ve got a home remedy that will clean that blood. We need to make sure that Rosaline comes home happy. If she saw the clinic like this, I’m afraid she’d have all our heads” He smiled and chuckled. He tucked the blanket underneath her and reached beneath to pick her up. It was effortless. No point in arguing if it was because she was light, Kyme was just strong.
As we began to leave, I was assaulted by a familiar smell. It was sickeningly sweet. Through the crack in the door, wispy tendrils poured in. It was human in shape, whatever these tendrils were, made up a vast majority of this creature. Small flowers bloomed throughout what was the body. In the middle was a human heart, and where the head should be was a large flower, with pale blue petals.