Turns out, the murloc way of training for battle was not too different from the human way — exercises and discipline, followed by a bit of weapons training here and there. I was excused from the later half of the day due to my healer apprenticeship under Mrgglr, but that didn’t mean I got a pass from the exercise. Every day I would come into his hut tired and sweaty, and he would let me have 5 minutes to catch my breath before giving me a task.
Most of it was pretty standard stuff. “Pass me the wraps” or “hold him down while I sew his wound.” The kind of thing a stereotypical thug with more brawn than brains could do. But I did learn some pretty useful knowledge, like how to set broken bones. He even had me find sticks of the right length that were sturdy enough to be used as a splint.
When there wasn’t anyone to treat, he would sit down and teach me what he knew. It was much like when he talked in the circle, but more personal, with more time to answer questions. Unfortunately, there was often a patient to treat. More people were getting injured with the intense exercise trainees were doing every day. I even had to carry another trainee that had broken his foot to Mrgglr’s hut in the second week.
It was like this that almost two months passed. I would attend the morning lesson, then accompany Mrgglr for the rest of the day. I learned much from him, about healing and the world as a whole. Most of it lined up with what I remembered from playing World of Warcraft, although I had never met this murloc before in the game. When I asked him about his history, he started on a long tale that took three separate nights to complete.
One weird fact about him was that the Redfin were not his first tribe, as he had grown up in another, one that he had almost completely forgotten. It had been attacked, and he was carried away and brought to the Redfin’s parent tribe, the Murkfin, as a child. He was over 50 years old, which was practically ancient for murlocs.
He had also migrated up north with the tribe, being in one of the first waves to reach the new lands. From his tale, I got a better idea of where we were. Specifically, his mention of a lighthouse they attacked sounded similar to the Westfall Lighthouse. If that was true, then we were currently in Westfall, the zone adjacent to Elwynn Forest, the human starting zone. It would help explain the gnolls, as they had a presence in both Westfall and Elwynn Forest.
As he was telling me about a particularly delicious fish he once caught, a familiar sound echoed through the village. It was a cry, the same one that was taught to us to be used in times of emergency. “Aaaaaughibbrgubugbugrguburgle!”
One of the main things taught to us during training was to always respond to a cry for help. It had been reinforced so much that it was practically an instinctual reaction at this point. I jumped up from my sitting position on the floor and started for the door before Mrgglr stopped me.
“We must wait and prepare. Remember, we are healers. You can do more for the tribe after the battle than during it.”
“If I wasn’t there during the gnoll attack, you would have been dead.”
“Yes, but that was because I was forced to stand and delay them. Now that the children have had some training, they will be able to act much faster. I’m sure by now they are all safe in the water, and the hunters can handle themselves.”
It took a couple of minutes for Mrgglr to don his armor with my help, which was nothing more than a leather chest piece. When he stepped out of his hut, a huntsman was already outside waiting for him.
“Oracle, the fighting has stopped. It looks to be another scouting party, only five this time. No one was seriously injured, but we managed to capture one of them alive. What should we do?”
“Bring the captive to the chieftain’s hut. Brgllgllrm, go and check on anyone who is wounded. Make sure they are given the proper treatment. If you need to find me, I will be with the chief.”
Mrgglr then started at a slow walk towards the chieftain's hut. Without any further instructions, I followed the huntsman as he headed off to collect the prisoner.
~
The battle seemed to have been brief, with only a few gnoll bodies present on the ground. As the huntsman had said, there was one gnoll alive, although bloodied and wrapped up in a tangle of nets. A murloc was standing behind him with a spear pointed at his back.
He didn’t have any life-threatening injuries, so I moved past him and walked towards a trio of murlocs who were laying down on the ground. They looked hurt, with small cuts and wounds across their body. I couldn’t do much with what I had on me, but I gave them an inspection. Two of them were fine, they just needed to rest and give their bodies time to heal. But the last one, his leg was broken, as he so eloquently demonstrated by screaming at the top of his gills. He had been unlucky enough to be ambushed by the gnolls during his patrol of the village perimeter, and they bashed his leg in with a club. His screams had alerted the rest of the village, and they had come to his rescue.
I had the other adults move the less injured to the chieftain’s hut. They were a bit resistant to taking orders from a child, but the fact that she was a healer, even an apprentice one, overruled their pride. When people were injured, people listened to healers.
For the broken leg, I had to improvise. Running back to Mrgglr’s hut, I found the stack of sticks I collected to use as splints. I grabbed a couple that looked to be about the right size and found a bundle of string next to one of the patient beds.
When I returned to the injured murloc, he had passed out. He must have been in a great deal of pain. Moving as fast as I could, I found a stick that was the correct length and kept it in place with the string. It wasn’t great, and he would not be able to walk on it, but it would heal with time. Now I just needed to get him to a bed without causing further damage to his leg.
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I needed some sort of stretcher, but I hadn’t seen any throughout the village. I think they hadn’t been invented yet, not by murlocs (the gnomes probably had a stretcher that made the patient a nice cup of coffee).
I needed to fashion an improvised version with what I had. I dug through the splint pile and pulled out the two longest, sturdiest sticks to lay down parallel to each other. With some rope I had gotten from a patrolling murloc, I tied it to one end of the stick and zig-zagged it down and across both, until it reached the end of the other, repeated the process, then tied it off. It wasn’t pretty, and the rope would cut into the patient if it was used heavily, but it was good enough.
I got two adults who were scavenging through the gnoll bodies to come and help carry the injured murloc. They lifted him onto the stretcher and carried him off to the chieftain’s hut. Once I was sure they were far enough away, I walked over to the gnoll bodies. Looting bodies was never something I had to think about back on Earth, but at least in the game, it was standard procedure when something died to rifle through its pockets. You would often find helpful things on them, like equipment or quest items.
I didn’t know how much that would translate over to my current situation, but it would be good to get any advantage I could. If nothing else, I could probably get a sense of what we were dealing with from their equipment. Whether this was an organized military operation or just a bunch of idiots running around the forest with sharp, pointy things.
Going through the four bodies was fairly simple. They all wore variations of tattered brown pants, with little in the way of pockets. I did find what seemed to be a sort of coin purse on each of them,] but combined they had about 14 copper and 1 silver piece. The weapons they had were varied and not in the best condition, with dulled blades and dirty handles. Not the type you would expect to see in a professional military force.
From what I could see, this was either a severely underfunded scouting party or a small group of gnolls trying their luck at attacking murloc villages. Either way, it was better than I expected. We probably wouldn’t have to deal with a large, well-equipped force anytime soon.
Finishing up with the bodies, I placed what coin I found in my pouch, and started walking back to Mrgglr’s hut. He was probably busy with the chieftain, so it would fall on me to care for the patient. Plus it would give me some time alone with the man so I could question him. If he wakes up that is.
~
Turns out, he did not wake up in time for me to question him. After a couple of hours of waiting, Mrgglr returned from the chieftain’s hut and took over with the patient.
As he looked over the broken leg, he commented on my work. “Good job with the splint. Given enough time, this will heal by itself.”
“Thank you, Oracle. I learned a lot from your lessons.”
“But it would take at least a month to heal naturally, and we need every able-bodied murloc we can get.” Mrgglr took something off his necklace and placed his hand on the murloc's broken leg. I was about to ask him what he was doing before a green glow appeared on his hand.
After about 10 seconds of his hand glowing, he moved away from the patient. There were no real visible changes, but his breathing seemed to have become calmer.
“What did you do? Is his leg fixed?”
“I used what little magic I have to help heal this man. His leg is not fixed, not completely. But I did speed the process along considerably. Now, he should be able to walk properly in a week, instead of a month.”
I look at the patient’s calm face, and then back to Mrgglr’s, my mouth wide open. That was incredible! Real, actual healing magic! And based on what he said, this was one of the more basic spells. What if he could do even crazier stuff? Could he regrow limbs? Accelerate muscle growth? Oh, there were so many questions to ask. Before I could blurt them out, Mrgglr spoke.
“I know that look, and it isn’t as amazing as you think. I can only increase the speed of the body's natural recovery process. I can’t save anyone from something that would kill them. It also makes them very hungry. Like, starving hungry. We should have some food in here for when he wakes up.”
“I’ll see if anyone has returned from foraging. Maybe we can leave some fruit by the bed.”
Exiting the hut, it looked like the village had recovered from the surprise of the attack. Some children were out of the water, and the adults had returned to their regular jobs. A few of the less critical adults stayed on the outskirts as guards, but they were more there to show we were willing to fight any gnolls looking for a free snack.
None of the huntsmen had returned from their expeditions, but some of the foragers were closer when the attack happened and returned to check on the village. They had dropped off their haul in the main storehouse, so I grabbed a handful of berries and headed back to give them to the patient. As I reached the entrance, another murloc hurried past me into the hut. He seemed distressed, and I realized who it was when I saw their ornate, feathered hat. He was the chieftain, Glrrm.
“Mrgglr! I just received news from the village to the west. Six other villages were attacked, and some of them were hit pretty badly. The Crimson Frills have called a grand council to decide what to do, and I need you to come. It starts in a week, so we have to leave right away.”
“Chieftain, this is so sudden. I do not think I can leave the village. If another attack occurs, there will be more injured, and without my help, many will die.”
The chieftain turned towards me as I stood at the entrance, unsure of whether to enter or leave them alone.
“You have this apprentice of yours, why not let her take over for you while we attend the council? She proved her ability today when she mended this man’s leg.”
“She did well today, I will agree with you on that. But she has only been learning from me for two months. If an emergency erupts, she won’t be equipped to deal with it.”
Now was my chance! If I could impress Mrgglr and the chieftain, they might invest more time and resources into my training, or at least give them a reason not to give up on me when I inevitably mess up. “I can handle whatever happens, Mrgglr.”
After I said it, Mrgglr swung his head and stared me in the eyes. We maintained eye contact for a solid 10 seconds before he turned back to the chief.
“Okay. Give me an hour to prepare, and we will leave. Make sure to pack the proper provisions.”
Glrrm nodded his head and exited the hut. Mrgglr watched him leave, then moved across the room and opened up a small wooden chest. It looked old, with a rusted metal band that flaked whenever it was opened or closed. From the chest, he withdrew a cloak and picked up his sturdier walking stick.
“Remember, when he wakes up, feed him right away. If you don’t, he might die.”
I nodded as he walked past me. “Have a good trip Mrgglr.”
Turning to leave, he released a small chuckle. “I’m sure I will have a good trip. Swimming is always nice. I’m just not sure our destination will be as pleasant as the journey.”
~
Two older murlocs were swimming down the shore, at a leisurely pace that gave them some time to appreciate the view and allowed the older murloc to keep up. As they swam along, the chieftain had a question rattling around in his head, one that could only be answered by his companion.
“Hey Mrgglr, I’ve known you ever since I was a tadpole, and you never left the village on such short notice before. Why did you leave so easily now?”
“Do you remember that portable bed, with the ropes tied between sticks?”
“Yes, I saw that. An ingenious piece of work that was, moving people around without hurting them anymore. But you always had a knack for making things to help people. You’re the one that showed us how to bandage someone up properly.”
“That was not me, it was my apprentice who invented it.”
“Really? Well, looks like you rubbed off on the kid. Still doesn’t explain why you left without a fight.”
“When she said she could handle it without me, I looked into her eyes and saw my younger self. When I was still full of energy and lofty ideas. She needs a little push. Whether it will teach her the limits of what she can do, or force her to improve herself is yet to be seen.”
“I thought you just were getting bored of the village. Not that much to do there.”
“Well yes, that too.”