Path: usenet.ee.pdx.edu!cs.uoregon.edu!news.uoregon.edu!usenet.eel.ufl.edu!spool.mu.edu!howland.reston.ans.net!tank.news.pipex.net!pipex!in1.uu.net!not-for-mail From: Guido Roessling Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.archives Subject: STORY: Qelrik part 84 Followup-To: rec.games.frp.misc Date: 30 Aug 1995 09:22:56 -0400 Organization: TU Darmstadt Lines: 182 Sender: smm@uunet.uu.net Approved: smm@uunet.uu.net Distribution: world Message-ID: <421ong$t8p@rodan.UU.NET> NNTP-Posting-Host: rodan.uu.net This is a multi-part message in MIME format. ---------------------------------10530177981662002823755481012 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii *** Take a look at the QELRIK WWW page at http://www.pu.informatik.th-darmstadt.de/dida/qelrik.html if you have WWW access. For questions, comments, etc., send EMail to dida@pu.informatik.th-darmstadt.de (Guido Roessling) All comments welcome. *** ---------------------------------10530177981662002823755481012 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Type: text/plain The Coma ======== Gernodt moved over to where Kyle lay unmoving. Slowly and carefully he slowly sat down, putting most of his weight on his left arm. Feeling a tug in his injured left leg, he hurried to lie down completely. Once lying, he slowly moved over to Kyle, until he was just barely able to touch Kyle's left arm with his right hand. Doing so, he drew a few deep breaths, and then resigned himself to what he knew must follow. "Bellar, I humbly beg you to accept me as the vessel of this creature's wounds. Transfer them unto me, if you deem me worthy, so that he may be healed." Invoking the ritual phrase gave him a deep sense of rightness and gladness, as well as a measure of inner calm. However, as also happened each time he did so, he considered the fact that the phrase did not talk about humans or any other humanoid races, but rather creatures in general... an attitude that he had come to appreciate very highly, after finding him- self in dire straits several times, and being helped by nearby inhabitants of the forests or lands he'd been in at the time. As always, his musings were interrupted by the excruciating pain of several bones cracking and shifting in his body. With his last strength, he turned his head to face Kyle's, marveling at the way the youth's wounds had dis- appeared. Then the pain set on, and all went dark for a while. Several hours or days later - at least that was the way it seemed to Gernodt, though it might as well have been only a few minutes - he 'awoke' again into the strange state the coma entailed. While he was completely unconscious of his surroundings, and knew from past experience that he was unable to move even a single muscle, he was completely aware of his body, even more so than was usual, in fact. The pain coming from his leg and his jaw was immense, but paled in comparison to the way his ribcage felt. Resigning himself to his course of action, Gernodt entered the strange semi-conscious state of mind that his teacher had told him was called the 'diagnostics trance state'. Willing his body to follow his orders, he felt as if transformed into a strange being made up of completely independent parts. He paused a split moment to think that this might be how ant queens might be feeling when supervising their people, but then started the work. First, the head and brain. Carefully he started 'checking' on his skull for any minor fractures or other wounds. He quickly determined that there did not appear to be anything amiss there, and went on to check his eyes, followed by the stubs of his ears and nose. The nose seemed to be bruised a little, and he made a mental note to take care of that at the end of the healing process, should he have the time. Then came the delicate part -- the brain. It would not do to overlook any injury, however minor, there, and he therefore took all the time he felt necessary to check it. All seemed okay, but then he stumbled over a minor clot of blood blocking the arteries to a small part of his brain. A careful examination showed that this injury had seemingly come from part of the nose striking against that part of the brain, which meant that the injury had come from Kyle. Finally, he checked the jaw, finding that Sir Percy had done a more than only adequate job. While he might do something about it, it would not be of any use -- the dislocation had already been treated, and the bruise would heal just as fast on his own as it would by using magic. And, jugdging from the pain coming from his ribs, he had better places to spend his time on. The examination of the head finished, he continued on to his neck, where he found only some cramped muscles, and his arms. Both checked out just fine, apart from a pulled muscle in his left arm. Then he began work on his feet, first the left, and then the right. While he was eager to check out his torso, he still managed to cling to what his teacher had said, 'Always start with the head, then the limbs. Check the arms before you check the feet, and always start with the left side of your body. Finally, use your sight which should now be at its peak to check your torso'. He had claimed not to understand why his sight should be best after starting work on his head and brain, and then his limbs. But his teacher had only said that while he might not be able to understand it, he should just believe an experienced old healer that such was the case, and indeed he had found him to be true. Finding nothing at fault with his feet, he slowly inched his way up to his left leg, where he felt that the pain was still throbbing inside his muscles. And indeed, it was nearly as he had expected -- the spear had just barely missed his artery, but had hit his thighbone and splintered off a piece of it. And, as if that had not been enough, it had also penetrated a large part of his muscles. Small wonder that it had hurt like hell, and nearly caused him to collapse ! He could only wonder that he had made it here, in fact. He would have to attend this wound directly after he took care of his injury in the rib cage and the brain, since the healing of the muscle might become too difficult afterwards. Finally, satisfied that his right leg was fine, he went on to his ribcage. Overeager to check it out, he nearly missed the strange violet glow that came from his chest's left side, and only noticed by pure luck. Stopping abruptly, he followed the sign, until he arrived at his left kidney. And there he stopped and gaped down at it - or would have, if he had been able to move his facial muscles. It seemed that he had acquired a large problem with his left kidney without really knowing it -- it looked bruised and a part of it looked as if it was dead or dying. A quick summary of his wounds and the dates of their happening - another feature of this trance he had long ago taken as granted, not bothering any more to try and make sense of his teacher's reasoning - showed that the bruise came from about the time he estimated Kyle must have been tortured, and by the way it looked, he could tell that the wound did, in fact, come from Kyle. But what set him aback was the fact that the dying part of the kidney was much older - several years in the past, in fact. It seemed that it had slowly ceased functioning over that period, and now was nearly ready to collapse. This wound could not possibly come from his own wounds, as it had not shown on the last diagnosis he had run on himself, and it had to be Kyle's. And in fact, although the trace was very faint, it was obvious that it was a transferred wound... But now, on to more pressing matters, and quite literally so... His 'gaze' swept upwards, until it settled on his ribcage. He immediately noticed that four ribs on the left side were bruised, and the lowest looked broken. But the right side was even worse off -- the five lower ribs were all broken, and the broken parts had moved on their own way, causing several small interior bleedings to occur. The worst part, however, was that one small fragment had pierced the right lung, and might cause a deflating of the lung - an injury that might well prove fatal, and which had to be tended at once. The diagnostics done, he quickly assembled the results in the order he planned to heal them. First of all, he had to take care of the pierced lung, and mend the broken rib. That should take about a whole day, and then he could go on to heal the other ribs, as well as the inner bleeding, which should take at least half a day. That part would be followed by the simultaneous healing of the leg injury, his left kidney, and the blood clot in his brain. All together, these operations should take at least a whole day, perhaps a bit more. Then, if he felt strong enough, he would spend four to five hours on healing his nose and the pulled muscle, and perhaps making some adjustments to his jaw. This small part must surely be finished after five hours. He strained to calculate the estimated sum of hours he'd have to spend on the whole healing processs. First of all, the potentially fatal lung and rib - at least a day, so he calculated 30 hours for it, just to be on the safe side. Then, the ribs and inner bleeding, that should take another 16 hours or so, which already added up to 46 hours. Finally, he had to do something about his leg, kidney, and brain, and that would take him about 30 more hours, making the total 76 hours. The rest he could then heal leisurely, spending about 6 hours on it. All told, that added up to 82 hours spend on healing -- and, since he would have to be rested when he finally awoke, he mentally shrugged and rounded it up to the next day, coming to a total of 96 hours, with a full 14 hours for resting and healing those parts he did not finish in his schedule. Well, the others were probably able to cope for four days without him, he thought to himself. It was a pity, though, that he could not see the expressions on their face when Kyle awoke - which, judging from the deep exhaustion he had felt inside the boy, would not happen for several hours more. And, of course, how would the look when they saw his bones cracking and then mending slowly? Well, perhaps he'd take the time to ask Dahlarin about it later... But then he put a stop to his idle thoughts and commanded his body to commence the healing as set on his schedule. Darkness closed in around him, and he knew nothing more. ---------------------------------10530177981662002823755481012--