Where am I?

I sit up quickly. My body entirely disagrees with my actions and shoots a stinging pain to my head in retaliation. I fight away the pain and orient myself. I’m in yet another unfamiliar bed in an unfamiliar room.

There’s someone else here.

She’s sitting off to the left side of my bed in a wooden chair, her hand glowing golden, a small table to her right. It’s absolutely covered in various first-aid items. Her hair is a very soft brown, and her eyes of the same color are a pool of honey in the golden light. She startles, but understands my situation, so she recuperates rather quickly.

It’s dark, and the room is lit with a single candle. The window on the wall to my right tells me that it’s already nighttime. Moonlight shines through the windowpane, illuminating a space on the floor a soft shade of ethereal blue. The stars twinkle in the night sky. It’s peaceful and quiet, completely different from the atmosphere of the hall that I was in before. Am I even in the same building anymore? The girl notices my confusion and speaks up.

“You look like you have a few questions. I’ll try to answer them for you, if you would like.” Her voice is extremely gentle, like she was talking to a baby. I don’t think I could ever muster up a voice like that for someone I had never met. It’s too… caring.

“Yeah, I do actually." I clear my throat since my words come out a bit more froggy than I would've liked. I start rattling off questions.

"Where am I? Did I win? Who was that adventurer? How come-”

The girl places a finger over my mouth and I quiet down. She’s giggling to herself like mad, as if she had just witnessed something hilarious. It takes her a while to calm down, but I wait patiently. She begins to speak, although she hasn’t fully stopped laughing. Her sentence comes out in increments, her giggles interrupting every so often.

“I know I said… I’d answer your questions… but that’s too many at one time! At least… try to slow down a bit”. Her smile is so infectious and bright that it could soothe goblins. Have I ever seen a single person so happy before? I don’t know why I even thought that question, because the answer was absolutely no, hands down. Now, amidst all the other questions I had recalling my match with the silver-haired man, I had another. Who was she?

“I’ll start with your first question. You’re in the infirmary. Our guild has one on its third floor.”

She motions her arms to the room around me as if it were something to behold. I don’t see anything particularly special about the room, frankly. It’s just as dark and bleak as the rest of the city.

“Isn’t it nice? You can see the whole town from here. Oh, but I’m getting side-tracked”. She places her glowing hand back on my head, and I don’t complain. The pain eases up a bit.

“...Thank you.”

I didn’t think I’d ever say those words to a human, ever. They’re hard to cough up, but in my current situation, it only seems appropriate to thank my caretaker. Why I have one is an entirely different matter that I haven’t yet found the answer to. I wonder if adventurers are all this hospitable to one another.

Considering my experiences with them, I can hardly bring myself to imagine such a culture among the scum that I’d encountered. It must be a service that you have to pay for, because it wouldn’t make any sense otherwise. This girl was probably being nice because it was her job.

Yeah, that must be it. I decide to ask her about it.

“So, do you get paid to tend to injured people? I’m going to assume I lost the fight, knowing that I’m here getting treated for my wounds”.

Her expression changes to one of sympathy, which all but confirms my suspicions. I had lost the fight. I was banned from the guild.

“Yes, you technically lost. I’m not a combat expert, but it looked like your reach was just a bit shorter than Mr. Ankh’s.

She runs her hand over my hair, shifting to a different spot. The pain still stings, but it’s not as bad as my wounded pride.

I shouldn’t have lost to that man. Rather, I couldn’t afford to lose to that man. That was my only chance of having access to the guild after I let my emotions run loose. Now how was I supposed to know where the adventurers were when they left the city? The only bit of information that I have is from the man running the weapon shop, and I don't even have a clue as to where the snow yetis might actually be. It's only now occurring to me how little I actually know about the landscape I would have been entering. During my thoughts, the girl continues talking.

“You still hit him, but he hit you a lot harder. He got discharged from the infirmary a while ago for mild injuries.”

I try to hide my disappointment, but I don’t think it’s working considering how the girl tries to comfort me shortly after I slump into the bedframe.

“You were so strong though! I’ve never seen anyone push Mr. Ankh to the brink like that. Oh, and he’s the guild leader of the Ochseid branch, so he’s pretty much the strongest guy we have. Don’t worry about losing to him. He’s an old summoned hero, the fact that you put up a fight at all was just incredible”. She spits out reassurances on rapid-fire, trying desperately to lighten up the mood.

She looks at one of the beds across the room.

“When he left the infirmary, he looked at you like you were the best thing since sliced bread. You should’ve seen how happy he was. I'm sure that was the best fight he's had in many years.”

She reaches over to the nightstand and gently lifts a glass of water from off a wooden disk. The condensation leaves a small ring where the cup once was. She holds the cup of water in front of me, and I take it reluctantly. She changes the subject of conversation to address my first question.

“As for whether or not I get paid, no, I don’t. The infirmary is based on a volunteer system, so healers in the area will take care of people when they come in. Our guild always has some in it, so it’s pretty effective most of the time.”

I begin to drink from the glass. The girl twiddles her thumbs, as if she were about to say something she didn’t want to.

“But... nobody volunteered for you. No one’s seen you around before, and the first thing they saw you do was beat up people. They were just scared, I think. I was a bit scared too, honestly.”

She laced her fingers together on her lap, over her pure white robe. Holding her hands tightly together, she continues.

“But I tried to understand where you were coming from. No one wants to let someone else badmouth their parents.”

She looks directly at me. Her eyes gleam in the candlelight, a twinkle of admiration in them. What could have incurred that?

“And then I thought, could I have done the same thing? Could I have stood up to those men like you?” She solemnly looks down at her hands.

“I know I couldn’t have. So I volunteered for you, who could.”

I was completely speechless. What was I supposed to say to this? I have no idea what possessed her to reveal her intentions to me so readily, but there they were, out on the table. So she wasn’t just a paid healer, and she went out of her way to help me. On top of that, she very clearly admired me in some sort of idealistic manner. I, of all people, do not deserve to be admired. The irony of a human admiring a monster who killed and ate her kind regularly was present, but not even remotely funny. I don’t say anything for a long time.

Aware that she had made the atmosphere somewhat awkward, she attempts to recover the conversation.

"I made it weird, didn’t I? And I haven’t even introduced myself. I always skip the important stuff, jeez.” She sits up straight in her chair to build up her confidence, then offers her pale and slender hand.

“I’m Anya! It’s really nice to meet you. I hope we can be good friends.”

Friends? What? I thought she was just going to tend to my wounds and leave. In fact, I would prefer that to her attempting to become friends with me, it would just create complications in the future. I don’t take her hand, but I do respond with my name.

“My name’s Sun.”

I don’t say anything else. After realizing that I wasn’t going to take her hand, she lowers it back down to her lap. Her fingers lace together again, this time not threatening to come apart.

“Sun, is it? What a nice name.”

I don’t ask her why she thinks that. It’s pointless.

After a while, she gets up to leave the room.

“Your head should be fine now, I don’t think my magic can do much else to help you. You’re free to go home.”