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I was going about, having a nice peaceful day when the gate of the village I had taken refuge in was blown open and my teacher grabbed me and ran off into the woods while shouting something along the lines of, “TO BATTLE!” I had no time to react and neither did my new friends. Before I even realized what was happening, I was on a small raft speeding down a small river. My mind was still reeling by the time I understood what was going on. “Where have you been? You’ve been missing for days.”

“Found something intriguing. What do you know about human anatomy?”

“Excuse my rudeness, but what does that have to do with what you found?”

“Don’t worry about it.”

It took me a second to notice it, but he finally spoke more than two words at a time. That could either be a good or bad sign. I looked over at the rapidly moving scenery before turning back to my teacher, who was peacefully sitting cross-legged in the back. On his shoulder, a large weathered, woven bag rested. I felt tempted to inquire about where we were going but it is rude for a disciple to pester the teacher too much. I thought back to the long week that I had endured, I woke alone in darkness and I spent the first couple of days waiting, but my teacher never returned. Finally, I was forced out into the world in search of anything that would help me. I only had to wander for a couple of hours before the blackbird, which always seemed to hover over the teacher’s shoulder, began to guide me.

It only took seconds before I found myself face to face with a village called Rafton, which was inhabited by the Wind Wolf Tribe. Apparently generous, they agreed to let me stay until my teacher came back. I even got to meet the chief and shaman. I had a small panic attack at meeting another shaman, but it turned out that she was nothing but a little girl. I even met three fellow outsiders in the village while exploring. My mind was brought back to the present when thick fog appeared in front of us. I looked back at my teacher and found him in a completely different outfit than before. Instead of his usual bulky coat, he had on a large leather robe and a birdlike mask. After a bit of contemplation, I decided to ignore it.

Silence engulfed us as we drifted into the fog. My skin tingled as lonely wisps of vaper brushed up against my body. I could sense it; this isn’t a normal fog. I nearly jumped out of my skin as I felt three spindly fingers brush my ankle. I decided not to look. I looked over at my teacher with pleading eyes and saw his chest was slightly shaking, he was laughing. The inky black void of the birdlike mask burrowed into me as teacher unshouldered his bag and opened it, revealing a similar leather robe and a white form-fitting mask. He also pulled out two satchels and handed one to me. “Put it on.”

It took me a few tries to get up, but the raft was steady enough. Embarrassment colored my cheeks red as I realized how dirty and tattered my clothing was. I looked over at my teacher and saw he was turned the opposite way allowing me to take off my blouse and shirt before putting on the form-fitting robe. It was much more restrictive than I was expecting but not in the sense of movement. It actually took me a second to breathe normally again as my chest area was very compressed. I was glad that I decided to take off my shirt, I don’t think I would be able to button it up otherwise.

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I returned home before picking up the girl to make a medic uniform. It probably doesn’t count as one around these parts but that doesn’t really matter. My own uniform is just my cloak replicating my old uniform and my mask was just made out of a few bones, so was the girl’s. I wish I had a lantern but those are a bit harder to make. I had stocked up on herbs as I explored my territory and the surroundings. I hadn’t processed them yet as I was waiting for them to dry but I was forced to go ahead and use them to make some first aid items. I made sure the girl was watching and pulled out a small hollow needle made of bone attached to a fingertip-sized leather container. A strong morphine substitute was contained within, I brought the needle down to my thigh and indicated a jab before doing the same thing by my neck.

Next, I pulled out a roll of bandages made from the local trees which were self-explanatory, and a small wooden container filled with white powder. It uses was to clot up open wounds as well clean them. Thus, reducing the risk of infection. To demonstrate I mimed sliding my dagger across my forearm and motioning to add powder before adding bandages. She seemed to get the idea but was still confused. I stopped there but that was not all my toys, I figured that the rest probably required a demonstration. For the moment we will act as non-magical field medics to give her some knowledge on the human anatomy before moving on to more magical means of healing. This I hope will desensitize the girl from blood and chaos.

I could feel myself becoming slightly jittery as I stuffed the long beak of my mask with mint leaf and dried poppies. Being so close to blood, death, and sin Is a great combination to make me go on a rampage, but mint covers up the smell of sin and weakness which makes things easier on me. Our raft soon bumped onto shore a little way away from the battlefield. I grabbed my student's mask and placed mint paste underneath the nose holes. When I handed it back, she got the message and put it on. Time to get to work.