Waking up to a bright morning sky, I still couldn’t help but to feel tired. My mind had been struggling to decide what I should do about my current situation and the season to come. On one hand, I had a business that I shared with my friend, but she had apparently carried on without me. And on the other hand I had a cute nurse asking me to explore the world, but honestly that wasn’t the life I wanted. So it wasn’t surprising that the answer still hadn’t come to me by the time morning breakfast arrived at my bed.
As Melissa arrived with my morning porridge she mentioned something great: “So Healer Trent has given you leave to check out this morning after breakfast. He says that you should go easy with work for the next few days, but that you are good to go over all.”
“That's great to hear. I can’t wait to get back out there. As they say, ‘a guy quickly dies when he isn’t working’.
“Ha, my mom always told me that was because they get into trouble when bored. But from what I can tell, that's you while farming. I’m still serious about my offer to go adventuring… but even if you don’t want to, I wouldn’t mind if you stopped by to say hi the next time you are in town” she said mischievously.
With my face feeling warm and now completely confident of her intentions, I couldn’t help but stutter out : “Ya, we can meet up then. I don't know what to do though.”
“You don’t have to do anything, although grabbing lunch might be a nice activity.” She suggested.
“Yes, that sounds just fine.” I responded on autopilot, my ears now boiling hot with steam about to burst out.
“Melissa, leave the patient alone and keep passing out the food! Make a date on your own time and get him out of here, we need the bed!” Healer Trent yelled across the infirmary.
“Oops, I’ve got to go, I’ll be back in a bit with your discharge papers!” Melissa hurriedly said as she winked goodbye on her way down the row towards the next bed.
Looking down at Rumble sitting next to the bed in the sunshine I hesitantly asked with a bit of hope in my voice : “Did healer Trent just suggest that our meetup would be a date? Did Melissa really not correct it?”
Leaning back in bed onto the pillow propping me up, I couldn’t help but wonder how my life could get anymore complicated. And then a mailman entered the building. After briefly talking to one of the nurse and being gestured my way, he arrived at the end of my bed.
“Ello, my name is Berkly. You are mister Wallace, correct?” he asked.
“Yes, that is me. How may I help you?
“Ats good to ear, I was worried that I was gunna miss you.” Berkly said while rummaging through his bag of deliveries. Upon finding what he was looking for, he handed me a letter titled ‘Summons to guard post 3, west gate’. “There ya go, have a good’n!” he said with a thick accent before moving off and back out of the infirmary.
Not sure what to make of the letter or the friendly delivery man, I began opening the envelope. Inside was a roughly written letter that read;
“Dear Mr. Wallace,
Please report to guard post 3 before you leave town so that we may have the opportunity to make an incident report of the attack on your farm and persons.
Thank you for your cooperation,
Lieutenant Dan”
“Well that's not too bad. Definitely not as bad as it could be. I would’ve guessed that they wouldn’t need mine if Mia had already given her testimony.” I mentioned to myself aloud.
Now with no more visitors, I dug into my porridge. As I ate, it was easy to smile and relax. The porridge was mediocre, but the biscuits and jam were exceptional. It was hard to believe that an infirmary would have such good food… it became even harder to believe as I noticed that no one else had biscuits or jam. With my face lighting up bright red like the evening glow, I finished my breakfast and took a nap.
Waking up to my tray being placed on a cart I greeted the girl next to me with handful of papers ready to hand to me.
“Are those my discharge papers?” I asked the nurse.
“That they are.” stated the older nurse, that I had only seen in passing.
“I thought Melissa was going to check me out.” I said.
“Oh she did, and that's why I’m here. You are still new and so is she, you both need to cool down and focus on building up a stable foundation. I know this new found freedom makes it easy, but make sure that you build up your strong points first so that you can rely on them while growing your hobbies.” advised the old woman.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
“I will try to keep that in mind…” I said while red in the face.
After our embarrassing exchange I quickly filled out the portions of paperwork that I needed to and signed when asked. Upon completion the nurse looked it over once more and walked me to the door. Without a chance to say goodbye to Melissa, I made my way over to the guard post specified in the letter.
Upon arriving I saw some soldiers marshaling in front of the gate. As they squared up and started out through the city’s exit, I asked a nearby guard what was going on.
“They are going out on patrol sir. During the Spring and Fall monsters are the worst. In the Spring you see all kinds of new types and in the Fall they are all leveled up or establishing dens. So we do these patrols in order to make note of what is spawning along with culling the populations before they go crazy.” responded the guard.
“Oh, thats good information to know! Where abouts do they patrol? Also, Hi I’m Brad, what is your name?” I asked the as of yet unnamed guard.
“Hi, its nice to meet you Brad, I am Corporal Evans. The patrols mostly visit the newer farms to help limit the monster populations but they do check in on the established estates in order to gather more information from them as well. Also, would you by chance be the Mr. Bradford Wallace that the L.T. is wanting to speak with?” Evans asked.
“Ya, that would be me, but I would prefer just being called Brad.”
“Sorry, I have to follow protocols when addressing people for regulatory reasons. When just answering questions I can address you as you want, but otherwise I have to address you by your full name for guard reasons. I don’t want to stay in this rank forever… it's all the responsibilities of a sergeant without the pay. So if you would Mr. Wallace, let me escort you to see the lieutenant.”
“Okay, lead the way. I will be right behind you.” I replied.
And so I followed him into “Guard post 3”, a building that was built halfway into the outer wall and opened right out into a courtyard just off of the entrance road. Upon entering I saw several other guards sitting at desks taking care of paperwork and dealing with various villagers with their own various problems. At the back of the room was a staircase and a hallway that led to the left. As we passed down the hallway I saw various doors labeled as offices for various sergeants and at the end I saw our destination.
Stopping outside the door labeled “Lt. Dan”, the guard stood at rigid attention and knock three times. Upon a verbal response asking whom it was, corporal Evans announced: “Sir, it is corporal Evans, I have Mr. Wallace here with me as per your request.”
“Great, come on in.” the lieutenant replied.
Opening the door I was greeted by the friendly lt.Dan from my first day here. Even without his armor on, which was on a rack nearby, he was a well-built and strong man.
“It's great to see you again Mr. Wallace. I’m so glad you recovered so well, you really had everyone worried when you were brought in. In fact, are you aware that it was corporal Evan’s squad that brought you in? I know that you were really beat up when you arrived, so I doubt that you even knew. The corporal here is pretty modest, so I doubt he told you.”
Turning to Evans I couldn’t help but drop my jaw. Being almost speechless I barely managed to put together a few words: “Thank you! Without you I would’ve died and not just me. You most definitely saved Mia’s life too! Thank you so much!”
Turning red in embarrassment and with pride in his voice he said: “I only did what I swore to do as a guard. Besides without Ms. Mia we wouldn’t have gotten to you in time. Before we were even engaging the snake she was running over to a pile of burning wood from the wall you flew through. We thought she was just escaping the battle until she was throwing the wood bare handed. She had burns like you’ve never seen. So she was the one that really saved you, we just killed a snake and made sure you didn’t get worse on our watch.”
“WAIT WHAT!? Is that why Mia’s hands were bandaged!? Has she been working with her hands so injured?” I asked, almost screaming with concern.
Evans held up his hands in front of him before calmly saying: “She should be fully healed by now. But yes, she was injured trying to save you. She really is quite the girl for fighting through the flames.”
“I can’t believe she did so much for me, I have no idea how I will ever pay her back.” I said in an unbelieving trance.
“Look, I’m sure she knows how much you appreciate it, but I’m sure she feels you saved her too.” Dan interjected.
“No, I don’t believe I did. I don’t remember everything, but I know Rumble was the one doing most of the work… Crud! I forgot Rumble at the infirmary when I checked out! I was so surprised by the nurse there that my mind was too occupied. I’m not used to having to search or escort him everywhere.”
“HAHAHA!” Dan laughed, with Evans failing to hide a quiet chuckle unto himself. “Don’t worry about him, we will send you and him back together when Evans’ squad departs. For now, tell me what you remember about the monsters that attacked your farm.” the lieutenant requested.
And so for the next hour I recounted all of the information I knew concerning monsters on my farm and about the day leading up to my injuries.
“Wow, that was quite the day.” Dan stated. “That little familiar sure is strong for you being so green.”
With the end of Dan’s statement , Evans snorted with laughter.
“Is something wrong corporal? Whats so funny?” the lieutenant asked with an eyebrow raised.
“Nothing sir, I just have a weakness for puns.” Evans replied.
“What are you talking about?”
“Sorry sir it was childish to laugh, but you called a Druid green.” Evans said seriously and at attention, obviously worried that he would be scolded.
After a few moments of awkward silence, Dan replied… With a big bout of laughter himself. “So I did, almost missed that one myself haha. Well, thats as good of a note to end on as any. Mr. Wallace, I wish you a safe journey home. Corporal, if you would deploy when possible and don’t forget to pick up his familiar before you leave town.”
“Yes sir!” the corporal replied before spinning on his heel and escorting me out of the building.