After leaving the library, Lee tries to find someplace to eat. Soon, after walking for a few minutes, he stumbles upon a small stone building that looks to be a restaurant. From the front it is quite quant. A large glass window reveals half of the interior of the building and the other half has a large bulletin board with their menu and other ads. The colorful shingles on all the buildings here really makes all these buildings made out of stone pop out in color.
Walking up to the bulletin board he reviews the menu. They serve pasta, pies, stews, salads, steaks, and many others different kinds of food. Walking into the building he is greeted by a waitress. “Hello, please find a seat and someone will be with you shortly.” Nodding and smiling, Lee observes all of the double-take looks he receives. The interior of the restaurant was modest. It had lots of booths, tables, chairs, and it had a respectable amount of customers enjoying their meals. Sitting down at a nice leather booth against the wall, he waits for the waitress. The wait didn’t take long and he ordered a steak, roasted vegetables, and whatever passed for a standard alcoholic drink here. The elven waitress was a little confused with that last request but nodded regardless.
Ten minutes later and his food arrives. The medium steak is seared and dripping in juices and butter, it has a small sprig of herbs on the top. His vegetables are cooked to perfection, carrots, broccoli, tomatoes, and some onions. His drink seemed to be an ale of some kind. It was cold, refreshing, and had hits of oranges and lemons. Satisfied he paid his one silver coin and left a few coppers on the table as a tip.
As he was leaving, he looked at a clock on the wall and saw it was getting late. He slept for only a few hours after working till early in the morning. Deciding to go home, Lee begins his walk and prepares a checklist for tomorrow in his mind.
I definitely need to go buy necessities. Paper, food for the house, small things. I also need to visit a church or something to learn about the gods and goddesses. I wasn’t religious on earth, but if I'd known for a fact that he or they existed like they do here that would have changed. Also need to find out what my actual work schedule is like, if I still get to work at the clinic. I did cause a shit storm but it was for the best I think. I hope they see it that way too. Pick up my spare set of clothes from Sarum…
Interrupted from his thoughts from arriving at his home, he unlocked the door and entered. Looking down at the foot of the door, he saw a worn looking letter envelope. Lee picked it up and looked for who sent it, seeing nobody listed he opened it, revealing an old yellow piece of parchment.
Dear mr lee i would like your healing
PLEASE come end of crystal tunnel
Very fast speed
from nymie
Lee is not quite sure what to make of this. Is this a prank? Lee sighed, deciding that if someone truly did need healing that it would be a terrible decision not to go. He put the letter into Hidden Cache and left to find this Crystal Tunnel.
Asking around he found that the crystal tunnel was the newest of the home housing tunnels, being number seven.
After a good twenty minutes he arrived at the tunnel, from the exterior of the tunnel, it appeared to be identical to the one he lived in. Moving into the tunnel, he found that the tunnel was not nearly as long though, only taking two minutes to reach the end. The end of the tunnel wasn't smooth as the walls and floor, it was natural rock jutting to and fro. Once there, Lee scanned around to spot if this was some sort of weird ambush. Not seeing anybody, Lee decides to just knock on the closest building's door.
*Knock Knock* Waiting patiently at the door, Lee wondered if this was something he really should be doing. It was probably a prank. After waiting around twenty seconds Lee begins to turn to leave as the door slowly opens.
Hiding and peeking through the crack of the open door is a small elf child. A single visible dark red eye looks at him from about four feet off the ground. Lee, having never seen a single elf child, is now quite shocked. Have I really never seen a child here yet? I suppose this also explains the poorly written letter. Bending down, putting his hands on his knees while putting on a smile, Lee says. “Excuse me, my name is Lee Barnes. I am looking for someone named Nymie. Do you know where I might find them?”
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The door opens a little more and the elf child, who appears to be a female, replies. “Yes, I am Nymie. You are Lee?” Lee examines her further. Nymie is a short four foot tall female elf child, with dark red eyes, her straight platinum hair covers one of them. She is wearing a little green dress that has various plants and small animals like bunnies, birds, and turtles on it.
“Yes, I am Lee, I got a letter and was asked to come here to heal someone.” Lee replies, making the letter appear from thin air like a magic trick. The door gets hastily dragged open by Nymie and she’s bouncing excitedly. “Okay! Come in! Come heal mama!”
Following Nymie, Lee is brought into a modest home, it’s similar in design to his own but has painted green walls instead of the plain white he has. Glancing around, it appears that the family who lives here isn’t too well off, they don’t seem to have anything extra, kind of sparse like his own home. Maybe they just moved in like I did. Lee is brought to the bedroom by Nymie.
On the bed is a very pale female elf appearing to be asleep. her labored breaths and sweat indicate she is very unwell. Next to the bed sitting in a chair is a male elf similar in age to the woman, his upper body laying on the bed, he also is asleep. At his feet he spots a small bowl of water and a rag. He appears to be trying to take care of her. Nymie loses most of her excitement but grabs Lee’s hand and drags him over to the bed.
Lee places a hand on the woman's forehead, finding that she’s burning up with a fever. Lee moves his hand to hold her hand and starts talking to Nymie. “So when did your mama start to get sick Nymie?” Trying to smile but feeling quite bad for her. Nymie looks down at her feet and says. “A long time ago... I heard of healer Lee healing everybody with his magic today. I wrote a letter and gave it to papa to deliver. You heal mama?”
Lee looks over towards the sleeping male elf. “I will heal her. Is that your papa? Can you wake him up for me?” She nods and shakes her father awake. He gets startled awake, he looks down at Nymie with his dark red eyes weary. “What is it Nymie?” He looks toward the woman who Lee presumes is his wife. Spotting Lee, the man freezes, his eyes wide in shock and horror. Speaking quietly Lee says. “It is okay, I am Lee Barnes, Nymie wrote me a letter to heal her mama. That is why I am here. If i woke up to someone of another race who i’ve never seen before holding my wife's hand i’d be horrified too. Nymie's father opens and closes his mouth with no words coming out.
Lee puts a finger to his lips and nods towards the female he’s healing. She looks much healthier than she was before, still pale but not nearly as bad as she was. Looking towards Nymie with a smile, Lee says. “Nymie, why don't you go get a snack for your mama, for when she wakes up.” Nymies smiles and excitedly leaves the room. Lee watches her leave and he looks at the male elf and asks. “Do you know what illness your wife had?”
The male elf now recovered from his shock and horror seems crestfallen, he was about to answer when he realized something Lee said. “Had?” The elf questioned? Lee nods. Disbelief shows on his face as he looks at his wife, he can see that she is visibly better. Now he shows a suspicious look mixed with hope. “She has cancer.” He lifts her blankets and goes to point at her stomach region when he stops, frozen once more.
“She had cancer.” Lee says while staring at the woman. “In a few moments she will probably wake up.” Lee wasn’t even sure of that, he just had a nagging feeling that she would. Wisdom kicking in? “What is your wife's name? Your name as well?”
The male begins to sob uncontrollably with tears of relief. Lee gives him all the time he needs. When Lee received the news that he had incurable cancer, he cried just the same, but in despair. All the shit I've gone through in this world doesn’t matter if this is the kind of thing I can do for others.
Nymie walks into the room with a bowl of fruit and sees her father crying and sobbing, she starts to cry as well, confused from the sight of her father crying.
Right at this moment the mother opens her eyes. She glances around for a moment and spots her family crying. Lee speaks with a smile. “Well Nymie, why don’t you see if your mama wants that snack you prepared for her?” Nymie sniffles then see’s her mama is awake. Her eyes go wide and she exclaims, “MAMA!” Crying even harder now she jumps into the bed and hugs her mother. Hearing Nymie, the father looks up and hugs her as well.
The woman is just plainly confused but hugs her family. Lee, wiping a tear from his eye, stands up. “It appears that my business here is done. Do not hesitate to come get me if something else happens.” He looks towards the woman who is still confused, looking at him like a deer in the headlights. “You no longer have cancer. You can thank Nymie for writing me a letter. I will be on my way.”
Lee hurriedly scrambles out of the room, when he reaches the front door he hears the males voice behind him. “We don’t have any money to pay you with, but we will find something, I swear to you.” Turning he sees the fear in the man's eyes. Ahh… he thinks I'm going to rob them blind. Lee hurriedly says, “You do not owe me anything for this treatment, by my word.” Placing his pinkies and thumbs together he swears on it. The faint glow appeared around him once more.
The man falls to his knees, tears of relief falling freely from his eyes. Lee escapes the home quickly and speed walks till he’s near the end of the tunnel. Finding a small alcove between homes he speeds over into it, checking for anybody watching him.
Once in the small alleyway, he checks for anybody nearby once more. Seeing that nobody knows he is here, he places his back to the wall and slowly slides down while crying with a huge smile.