The days passed by in a flash. Carving, enchanting, and making number ten potions during the day, and failed attempt after failed attempt at night trying to make the regeneration potion. I miscalculated a brew time and also had to split the health potion to get it to work. I hated diluting it; but, the recipe needed the extra water content to boil off as the ingredients mixed. It was infuriating, to say the least.

It wasn't until Friday night, right after the weight mage and I ran out of coins to carve and enchant, that my latest attempt at the potion actually finished by the morning. I completed all of the revised steps, used up nearly all of my remaining ingredients, and a bright and very clear potion sat in the pot. I had hidden several clean vials in my bandoleer and quickly filled them with the potion.

Unlike every other potion I had ever made, this one absolutely could not sit on the fire and simmer. As soon as it was infused with magic, it had to be removed from the heat and bottled. Even my modified ingredients couldn't adjust that last caveat of brewing the thing. Since the pot was only small and it had taken so long to brew, nearly eight hours on a very hot fire, I only managed to get four full vials out of it and one partial vial.

I now had two very important problems. One, the kracken tube ammunition was completed and delivered, while the reserve was stored at the new garrison as a central point for distribution. That meant my skills were no longer desperately needed to get the weapon up and running. Two, I now had four and a quarter doses of the most expensive potion to ever exist and it contained something that could possibly cause me to die.

As Gary would say, it was quite the pickle. It wasn't until he explained what a pickle was and what it went through to become a pickle that I understood the reference. I tucked all five vials into my bandoleer, packed everything into my pack with several full water skins, and covered up the hidden hole. I left my sleeping area with my pack on my back and saw Gary leave his sleeping area.

“Hey, David. Good morning.” Gary said and his eyes and face were as worn and tired as mine were. “I'm glad we finished the important work yesterday.”

“Speak for yourself. We can use the molds to repair any damaged projectiles by jamming the broken pieces together and filling in the spaces with potion.”

Gary's tired eyes went wide, then he laughed. “You are a goddamn genius.” He said and helped me walk to get breakfast. “I'll spread the word and let the Colonel know.”

“I can tell the Colonel myself.” I said and he looked surprised. “I'm going to take her offer of a week in the stockade. I need the break.”

Gary laughed again. “You're crazy for encouraging her to keep you locked up, David.”

“I'm locked up anyway. I'm just not behind bars.” I said as we sat down to eat.

“Yeah, I hear you.” One of the soldiers nearby said. “I thought this was going to be an easy army assignment and it ended up even more dangerous than on the front lines.”

“Ha! This is way past the front lines!” The soldier next to him said and started laughing. “We're so deep in the ass of the Eastern Empire that with just a bit more pressure from them, they're gonna crap us right out like diarrhea! Ha ha ha!”

A lot of the soldiers laughed at the joke, even knowing the context was them all possibly dying and the Gulf Kingdom losing the war.

I finished eating and Gary helped me walk all the way to the Colonel's command building. It had been completely reinforced and was stronger than the bunkers for construction crews when the fighting starts. We went inside and the guard there didn't say anything to us.

“Good luck.” Gary whispered to me and left me at the door.

I was tempted to joke with him and call him a coward, then knocked on the thick metal door instead.

“Enter.” The Colonel's stern voice said and I opened the door. When she looked up to see me, her eyes instantly flashed to anger, then she sighed and her eyes faded back to indifference. “What do you want?”

“I'm reporting for my sentence to the stockade.” I said and she lifted her head to look directly at me. “I've completed the kracken tubes and made all of the projectiles that I had the resources for. They can also be repaired by putting them back in the molds and filled with potion, which Gary can do, so I can safely be away from my assigned post for a week.”

The Colonel looked surprised as she stared at me. “Are you seriously telling me that you want to take my assigned punishment at your own convenience?”

“No, it's at your convenience. I told you a week ago that the punishment had to be delayed. None of the things I've done all week would have been started if I was in the stockade.”

The Colonel's face went from surprised to stern. “Well, then. I hope you enjoy the next two weeks being locked up, Mr. Indispensable.”

I refrained from correcting her on my name.

“Guard!” The Colonel said and the door opened. “Escort this man to the stockade for his two week stay.”

“Yes, ma'am.” The guard saluted and waved me out.

I thought I saw the Colonel staring at my leg as I turned around to leave. I didn't mention it and walked with my uneven gait out of the room and heard the door shut behind me. The guard escorted me and kept pace with my uneven walk. He also didn't complain that I wasn't walking fast, since I had been seen walking with help by pretty much everyone in the base.

We arrived at the stockade and the guard told the stockade guard that I was going to be staying in my new accommodations for the next two weeks. The stockade guard nodded and entered my name without asking me what it was, then the other guard left me there in his custody.

“I'm really sorry about this, David.” The stockade guard said as he opened the door.

“It's all right, Stan. Like I told Gary, I needed the break from working so hard.” I said and stepped inside.

The stockade guard named Stan chuckled. “I heard that you've been working day and night to get all of those neat weapons done up.” He said and pointed to the third door. “The first two cells have a deserter and a saboteur.”

I went to the third cell and waited for him to open the door for me. “I've got food with me.” I pat the bulging pack on my back and then slipped it off. “You don't have to worry about feeding me.”

“You know I'm supposed to keep checking up on you to see if you've escaped.” Stan said with a big grin on his face.

“Ha. You joker.” I said and took out a big piece of near-deer meat from my pack. “The guys already told me that they covered the walls with sandstone.” I sat down on the cot and groaned at the strain on my knee.

“Your magic knife will have trouble getting through it.” Stan said and watched me pull off the wooden leg. “Geez, man. That looks sore.”

“It always is.” I said and rubbed a little bit of healing potion on it. “See you tomorrow.”

Stan nodded and shut the door. I heard the click of it shutting and didn't hear the bolts that locked it. I waited for several minutes to see if he was going to lock it as I ate the meat. I didn't hear the sound, even after I was done eating, so I laid down on the cot and let my stub hang over the edge. I hadn't slept in almost two days, after staying up for two nights in a row, and I needed to sleep.

I dozed off with the thoughts of my leg regrowing, only to be frozen halfway formed because I died.

The day passed by while I slept and no one bothered me. I woke up after supper and ate some more meat. I hadn't heard the lock all day and I never tested it to see if it really was left open. I was sure that if I did, I'd somehow lose the guard's trust. I mean, I did submit to the punishment because I wanted the rest, so trying the door wouldn't make sense, because I wanted to be here. Why would I try to leave?

I laid back down on the cot after eating and thought everything over as I huddled under the thick blanket. It took me a long time and a lot of contemplation to eventually decide that I had to do it. I had to drink the potion, even if it meant I might be frozen. I couldn't stay in jail for two whole weeks with my phantom ankle pain bothering me all the time, and no relief in sight.

I did have the bright idea to take a Strength potion first, just in case, and I stripped off fully before getting back under the blanket. I put a healing potion and a general health potion on the top of my pack and downed one of the full vials of regeneration potion.

_______________

Warning: Body corruption elements have been ingested.

Body integrity: 82 % Health: 90% Chance of death: 23% (38% minus 15% boosted strength)

If you die, you will need to start over and all progress will be lost. Do you wish to proceed? Yes / No

Yes, let's do this. I've come too far to fail now.

_______________

What followed was one of the weirdest experiences of my life and I had had a lot of weird experiences. Minutes felt like hours and hours felt like days. Days felt like... I couldn't describe it. I was definitely not in a proper state of mind. Time sped up and slowed down at random times. My body felt both boiling hot and ice cold at the same time.

Fevers, shivers, sweats, parched mouth, dry eyes, cracking skin, greasy skin, hair growth, hair loss, burning sensations, tingling sensations, and a whole bunch of other things that I didn't have the words for, happened to me during my time in the stockade. I cried, I moaned, I screamed, I yelled, I whimpered, I mumbled, I talked incessantly and I was unnaturally quiet.

I breathed heavily, shallowly, quickly, very slowly, and even stopped at one point. That part was the scary part. I cried then. I thought the potion had killed me, not realizing that I wouldn't have tears if I was frozen, then my whole body relaxed and I started breathing again.

It took a very, very long time for whatever episode the regeneration potion had given me to come to an end. When it finally did, I opened my eyes to see a dark room. I was still in my cell and under the blanket, which was a relief. I took several deep breaths to make sure that my chest could move normally and sighed that the stiffness I was worried that I would have, wasn't present.

I turned to look at the side of my bed and my pack was still there. Filled with relief, I reached out a very shaky hand to grab the general health potion to get my strength back, then I caught my breath.

I could see four fingers and a thumb on my hand.

That... that's not... I thought... the description said... I thought haphazardly, because my mind was unable to grasp the simple concept that my finger would have grown back along with my foot. I had been without the fingers for nearly ten years and had forgotten that I was supposed to have them.

I reached over with a fully formed and still shaky hand as I picked up the potion, then I very carefully opened it and brought it to my lips to drink it all. I laid back down and let the energizing feeling flow through me and kept breathing deeply. I was afraid and excited about what I was going to do next. I took another deep breath and gripped the blanket, then flung it off of me.

Yes! I exclaimed in my mind as I saw not only my restored foot, but the two missing toes from each were also back. I wanted to jump up and shout and yell that I was back, that I was normal once again, then realized I couldn't. No one could know. They would all ask me what happened and how I had been fixed and how I had been miraculously given my leg back.

Now I had some work to do.

I could tell it was late at night and tried to stand up to find out what time of night it was by the position of the moon. I wobbled on my feet, because I now had two extra digits that I wasn't used to at all. I smiled, because that would help me keep up the pretense that I was still missing a leg. I braced my hands on the wall and looked out the window to see the moon was way over on the side.

Maybe three hours. I thought and carefully sat back down. That's plenty of time.

I looked at my wooden leg and smiled as I took out my knife from the bandoleer beside the bed, charged it up, and started peeling the wood to make a cover for my real leg.