I woke up with a start, coughing out water. Two leathery hands were pressing against my chest. I was lying face up on the rocky river bank.

The hands belonged to a monster with two heads. One male, the other female.

Was it the same monster that I had helped the other day? Feminine eyes observed that I was awake.

“He is conscious,” the female head informed the male counterpart.

“You are the same player who saved us the other day, aren't you?” the male head wanted to know. I didn’t have the energy to reply with words, so I nodded feebly.

“He is weak,” the female said. “He has lost too much blood.”

“So what should we do to him?” the male asked.

“Let’s take him to the village. We owe him after all. Maybe we will be able to heal him there.”

“But we have repaid the debt already, Nora,” the male said. “We saved him from the river putting our own life in peril.”

“If we leave him here it will be abandoning him to die,” Nora said. “Our debt has not been repaid yet.”

“But even if he dies, he will be able to respawn, even if at a lower level,” the male reasoned. “He’s a player after all. Plus, it is beyond a doubt that it was an Evilun who injured him. If we go to the extent of healing him, then it will be the same as betraying the Evilun who injured him.”

“You have got a point there,” Nora pursed her lips in thought, looking at me, considering what was best for them to do. I looked back intently into her iridescent eyes, trying to convey somehow that I was not a player, and that my attackers had been players not some “Evilun”, and that if I died I would die for real. No respawning for me.

“I think he’s trying to tell us something,” Nora understood.

“Please… help me,” I whimpered in a voice so small that I barely heard it myself.

“Okay, let’s take you to the village,” the male decided.

“We’ll take care of you,” Nora told me. There was reassurance in her tone and I let myself relax. I had done all the fighting I could do. Now it was up to these two (or one) to save my life. I closed my eyes, even as I was lifted up onto their shoulder.

On occasions I would wake up with a start to find that I was being carried through a thick forest. The pain in my stomach was a dull ache now. Whenever they adjusted my weight to prevent me from slipping down, new spasms would quake my being.

After a while I realized that Nora and the male had entered a cave. There were torches on the uneven walls. The cave was a network of branching tunnels and chambers that appeared too planned to be made by nature alone.

Eventually I was laid down on a smooth bed of leaves in a crudely carved chamber. It was a welcome change for the bony shoulder of the monster.

“You will be alright, friend,” the male told me and they left.

So, here I was back on a bed! Quite a parallel to my predicament in the real world.

Raised voices, muffled by the walls, reached my ears. Besides my saviors, others were involved too. The agitation continued for some time. I discerned Nora and the male saying “Please” multiple times though I couldn’t quite figure out the other words. Finally the quarrel subsided. A few minutes later, Nora and the male accompanied by a dozen other monsters entered the room. There were equal numbers of double heads and single heads.

“I still feel it’s not right for us to help a player,” said a mono-headed shorter monster with prominent love handles. “Especially one that was injured by an Evilun.”

“He pleaded with us to help him,” Nora said. “If we don’t then our debt would remain.”

“Hmm,” the shorter monster pondered. “Very well then, we will help him.

Some younger monsters were sent to fetch a few trays on which were threads, needles, scissors and pieces of leather. Additionally small pots containing a liquid were delivered to the chamber. The shorter man sat next to me and studied my wound for a considerable duration. I guessed he was the head physician of the tribe of monsters.

“Drink this,” the short monster offered me the liquid, “it will ease the pain.” The liquid was acrid in taste. I gagged as I forced it down my throat.

"Bite it." The monster thrust a piece of leather into my mouth.

He washed my wound with the liquid, and put a thread through the eye of a needle. The next few minutes my muffled cries of agony were the dominating sounds in the chamber. Monsters held my limbs to stop my writhing as the physician stitched my injury.

By the time the ordeal was over I was bathed in sweat, hanging on the brink of unconsciousness. Despite the leather I had bitten my tongue and I tasted warm blood. The physician sighed and made me drink more of the liquid.

“Keep feeding him more of this in the days that come until he recovers,” he instructed Nora and the male, “Since you brought him, he is your responsibility. I have done all within my capabilities. He should heal, but then there is always a chance that he won’t.” The physician met my eyes and shrugged, “No magic health vials with us, friend.” He and the rest of the party left the chamber.

Nora smiled and asked me to fall asleep. In the days that followed, I was in considerable pain for most of the time, especially when I shifted my weight. I was thankful beyond words that I needn’t go to the toilet. But at the same time, lying like a dummy on the bed of leaves for days on end was quite the chore and an emotional marathon.