Anything ~ 39!

Andre tried and failed to come up with a response for the Bard, but finally merely muttered, “Where were you when I first got this place?”

Taylor looked up at him in light disgust, “What was that?”

“Nothing. Listen, Zed…” Andre began, only to be cut off by the increasing-volume of moans coming from the Bard.

“Ughh. I’m perpetually dying here, Andre. This hurts an unbelievable amount. Just throw me out like a hunk of garbage!” The Bard sighed softly and went quiet; only the knowledge that he couldn’t die here giving the Druid some small comfort.

“We’re gonna heal you, Zed. no matter what it takes.” Taylor told the man firmly. “You just need to-”

The Bard’s groaning started up again, “You can’t heal a damaged heart, Taylor!”

“That’s enough, Zed. You sound like a lovelorn fourteen year old!” Andre’s bark startled the other two enough that they went silent. “We are going to figure something out, and you’re just gonna have to deal with the pain until then. I can do anything, given enough time. Here… you have nothing but time. You won’t even starve to death if I don’t feed you.”

“Is this a house or a prison?” Zed mumbled up at the Druid, before amending his words in a normal tone. “That is… thank you, Andre. I would truly love to live, please.”

“That’s more like it.” Andre was a little surprised at how well his stern tone was working. He didn’t often have reason to be this demanding, but he kinda liked how it felt to have people stop and listen when he spoke. “First thing I’m going to do is stitch your heart together, then I’m going to go find a way to heal it more permanently. I’m sorry about this… and thank you, Zed.”

“Wha-?” The Bard was groggy from the pain, and missed Andre’s conversational leaps of logic.

“You saved my life. I understand that a bug must have gotten through and was going for me… I was distracted, and it nearly cost my life. It would have cost you yours at almost any other time, since it usually takes three minutes to open the way here. You would have bled out for sure. I’ll fix you, and I’ll find a way to repay you.” The Druid promised firmly. He put his hands over the open wound in Zed’s chest and allowed a few spores to fall in and begin growing. He didn’t ‘stich’ with vines like he normally would, since that would deal damage to the organ; therefore he couldn’t do it.

Instead, he allowed moss to grow tightly to itself as he pushed the wound closed. The moss had slight numbing properties, which should help with the pain the man was enduring not-so-stoically. When the front was bound up, he flipped the Bard to his back and winced. What had appeared as a clean piercing on the front belied the true extent of the damage; the claw of the Preying Mantous was curved and serrated…

The back of Zed’s heart was shredded.

“Feces on a stick.” He quickly started growing a plant that would completely erase Zed’s pain, and had it start squeezing juice into the wounds. He almost gagged as he saw that it wasn’t only the heart, there was damage to all the connective tissue, bone, and everything around the heart. Andre held his emotions in check as he tried to figure out where to even start with this mess. He stilled his mind and started with the deepest damage, working to pull together the heart so that it could begin beating again.

Andre didn’t have it in him to tell the Bard that his heart hadn’t been beating, likely since the moment they arrived. He fervently thanked his lucky stars that they had arrived directly in his sanctuary of a Grove. It took far longer than he wanted, but finally the heart was fully wrapped, as were the arteries and veins around it. “Sorry, Zed. This part is gonna suck.”

“What?” Was all Zed could get out before Andre began squeezing the moss rhythmically. “What in the - you son of - ahhh!”

“Not a lot of blood in there… we can fix that…” Andre growled as more and more medicinal plants began growing around them. Luckily he currently had access to several of Zed’s open bones, as getting access to his marrow otherwise was currently impossible. His plants started stimulating blood cells growth, and he sat back to watch as the man slowly regained color in his face over the next few hours. “My part is done for now, except for the micro-plants that are going through and removing the air embolisms, abyss, the regular clots, too.”

“What?” Was the tearful, groggy reply from the tortured man. “I don’t even know what those words are. I do words. Words are my thing. How do you know ones I don’t?”

“Those are healer’s words, Zed.” Taylor told the man who was now laying on a comfortable bed of moss and leaves that had sprung up under him. “Not many people have that kind of knowledge, even though they try to spread them around as much as possible.”

“The plants are out.” Andre’s words were punctuated by tiny *plops* as large blood clots were pushed out of the man’s still-open wounds. “All I have left in there is the plants pumping your blood and keeping it in there. While I was at it, I cleaned out all the build-up in your veins. You should lay off the greasy food, Bard. My prescription for you is more vegetables.”

“You try only getting the majority of your Potentia from tavern bar-flies without having to eat the food they’re serving there.” Zed snorted his haughty reply and leaned into the moss a little more. “I’m feeling a lot more… put together. What all did you have to do?”

“I’d… really rather not tell you until you’re back on your feet.” The Druid hedged his words, chuckling internally at the fact that a Druid was hedging. “I just thought of a joke to tell you. Another time. How are you feeling? How’s the pain?”

“Getting worse, actually. It was great for a while there, but I think I might have a fever or something… I’m burning up.” The Bard sighed dramatically as he snuggled back on the bed that had literally been grown to give him the greatest comfort and support. “I know I shouldn’t be worried, cause I already tested not being able to die here, but I can tell you that this is by far the worst experience of my life.”

Taylor felt his head and frowned. “You don’t have a fever.”

“Mmm?” The Bard offered a miniscule shrug.

A few *pops* and *crackles* sounded out, and Andre felt them deep in his body. “I see what’s happening… your body is trying to start on fire. Taylor, I just realized we’re in a really high mana concentration area.”

“Just another thing trying to murder me.” Zed acknowledged nonchalantly as the crackling sped up. “I feel like I should be joining Luke in his world or something. Just a bad day for things trying to murder me.”

Taylor went silent as her face twisted in concentration. “I have an idea of how we might be able to fix him. How confident are you in your handiwork right now, Andre?”

“I can keep him alive outside of my Grove for a short while. I’m… seventy percent sure.” Andre gulped as Taylor gestured for him to follow her.

“Good.” She patted Zed on the shoulder and smiled weakly. “Congratulations, you get to try out the unicorn horn.”

“What?” Zed’s eyes opened excitedly, then he winced as he jostled himself. “You’re going to use that on me?”

“Yeah…” Taylor pulled out the small satchel and a funnel. “We’ll get a full portion into you, then hope for the best. Even if you burst into flames here, you’ll live through it.”

“You’re gonna do what now?” Zed eyed what she had in her hands, “Why do you have a funnel? I have no idea what’s going on.”

“We need to get a full portion into you as rapidly as possible, so none of it goes to waste.” Taylor told him uncomfortably. Zed hopefully opened his mouth widely, but Taylor shook her head. “Guess again, buddy.”

A spasm crossed his face, and the Bard reluctantly started trying to roll over. Taylor gripped him and held him down. “No. No. Sheesh. It goes in your nose. It has to fill your sinuses, so all of it is inside of you at once.”

She tilted his head back and put the tip of the funnel in his nose, then poured the entire portioned-out bag in. Zed started to gag, and his eyes watered as the powder filled the internal spaces of his head. He reared back, but Taylor clenched his mouth and nose shut. “Don’t you dare sneeze.”

Andre watched the entire process, then kept an eye on Zed’s internals through the plants still within him. His eyes widened as he realized that he didn’t need to watch internally; they could see bright lines beginning to appear in Zed, like holding an egg up to a bright light to see the chick inside of it.

“The powder liquifies and travels through the pathways, faster when they are higher-quality. The horn will strengthen them, and - with higher quality Mana Channels - will widen them so that mana passes through more easily.” Taylor explained the process over Zed’s screaming. The Bard’s eyes were rolled up into his head, and foam was frothing at his lips, but he was denied the sweet embrace of unconsciousness due to being in the Grove. “Destroyed, Damaged, Flawed, Low-quality, Common, Strong, High-quality, Extreme High-quality, Forged, and Perfect. Those are all the possible Mana Channel qualities.”

“Luke said something about Prismatic, right?” Andre ventured his way into the conversation as energy continued searing Zed like a steak on a hot block of salt. “Where do you think Zed was?”

“The Murderhobo lacks a basic education.” Taylor waved off Andre’s attempt at expanding her knowledge. “Who knows for sure what he knows? Now… from what I can tell, Zed’s channels are currently going from ‘Low-quality’ to ‘Common’. These ranks are only for Ascenders, of course, otherwise ‘Damaged’ would be the real ‘Common’. Once he is fully suffused with the purest non-aspected mana - which can only come from unicorn horn - we need to bring him outside of the Grove. He will either light on fire, or start to shed his current Low-quality flesh as impurities.”

“If he starts to light up, bring him back over?” Andre quizzed her as the bed Zed was on started to walk itself toward the exit.

“As fast as possible, yes.” Taylor nodded and continued her instructions, “Once the fire is out, repeat until he sheds instead of flames up.”

“That’s the only method?” Andre looked at his basically-dead friend sadly as they slowly approached the edge of the Domain.

“No. But it’s the only method we have available to us.” Taylor acknowledged firmly. “He’s ready.”

Andre sent coiled vines across first, which would extend at the first sign of fire. The Bard went across… and turned into a bonfire. Pulled back in the Grove, the inferno vanished from his spasming body instantly. The Bard had lost some hair, and a layer of skin, but nothing too terrible. Taylor gestured for Andre to continue, and a moment later the Bard was alight.

The Druid looked at his lightly-roasted friend. “Third times the charm?”

“Might be the eighty-seventh time.” Taylor was dead serious as she told him this. We need to expunge all the powder until only the perfect amount is in his body.”

“Gonna be at this for a while then, huh?” Andre grimaced as he looked at his literally glowing friend. “Hope it’s worth it in the end.”

A moment later, a bonfire lit up the stone room they were in, and flickered out.

On fire.

Not on fire.

Andre rubbed at his head as flames and screaming filled the air once again. “This might take a while.”