Edward stood in front of the sink and stared at his blood soaked clothes in the mirror. He always wondered how he could be covered in blood, day in and day out, and somehow not be bothered by it. Perhaps it was his nature as a Warlord Prince. Most of the time, he tried to save lives, tried to put things to right. But then, when that feral side of him came to the fore, he knew what kind of destruction he was capable of. Hell, any time he had risen to the Killing Edge, he had wanted blood, he had wanted to feel it stain his skin, and smell that coppery sweet smell. It was not a pleasant thought, that such a dangerous killing machine lived inside him. But he could not change what he was. That part of his nature would always be there, even when he desperately wanted it to go away.
He turned on the faucet and began to scrub the blood off his hands and arms. He would need to wash up quickly, in case another emergency patient was brought into the clinic. Normally, all one had was a few moments before a patient was at the cusp of living or dying. Luckily, it had never really stressed him to know that. Most of the time, he was successful in saving a life. There were times, though, when the patient would be too far gone, or the damage was beyond fully being able to repair. There may be very skilled Healers in his family, but everyone had their limitations. If he had been born with the mythical Black as his Jewel of Rank, then he would have a great deal more power at his disposal. But then, if he had received the Black, he wasn't sure he would have succeeded at becoming a fully trained Healer. His caste was aggressive enough. To be able to wield that much power would have been devastating.
Trying to push all these strange and mostly negative thoughts from his mind, he focused on finding that calm within himself that helped keep his temper in check. He finished washing up and changed into a fresh set of clothes. He hoped the rest of the day would be easier. He didn't want to have to keep washing off blood.
After pondering whether or not it was a good idea, Ysma had once again become a barmaid in Amdarh. She had traveled the territory, met some interesting people, but in the end she had once again found herself in the Capital City. It felt like home, she couldn't deny it anymore, so she had taken up her old profession once again. In a different bar though, she had nearly been raped in the last one after all and she had no intention of ever going back there.
Now she worked in a different part of town, and she generally liked her work. This bar was a little more fancy than the one she had previously worked in and the clientele was a little less poor. That meant Ysma got more tip per evening and could save more money for a rainy day.
It appeared today was a rainy day. Ysma had been shopping some food in the market when some older kids had decided to see whether someone as pale as Ysma could bleed. At least that was why she thought they had begun chasing her, she hadn't stopped to ask them. Ysma could probably have outrun them, if it hadn't been for the fact that one of the boys had owned a dog.
The dog ran Ysma down and it sunk its teeth deep into her left leg. The little witch fell to the ground of course, and then the boys caught up with her as well. She was lying on her stomach, but they turned her over so that they could see her face. When they saw that she was terrified and crying, something changed in their demeanors however and they looked almost as scared as Ysma felt before they bolted and ran. The dog held on to her leg for a good extra half minute before it reluctantly let go and ran away to find its master again.
Taking support from a nearby wall Ysma got up shakily and she kept all her weight on her right leg and she looked down at her left leg. She had been wearing all white that day and that made the bite looked horrendous instead of just bad. There was a lot of blood on her leg, and the white fabric in her trousers had soaked up quite a bit of blood as well. Looking at the leg made her feel queasy and nauseous. Like she was going to pass out any minute. The few people that were passing by didn't pay her much attention. Some stared, some had pity in their eyes, but no one stopped. Ysma hadn't expected that either really, she was a freak of nature and her appearance scared people.
She started a very limping kind of walking, all the while supporting herself on the wall beside her. She thought there was a Healer's Clinic further down this way and she had to get herself there. Ysma had never visited the Clinic before, but she had walked by it had looked good. Not that that mattered right now, she'd have to accept the care she could get from the nearest clinic no matter how good the Healer was. She wasn't sure for how long she could keep walking, and she had a feeling she was leaving a trail of blood behind. How much blood had she lost? Ysma didn't know.
Finally she saw the door to the clinic, and she knocked on it hard five times. "Is anyone here? Please! I need help." She fumbled for the handle, found it and put her weight behind opening the door. Unfortunately that meant she lost the support of the wall, tried to steady herself on her bad leg, screamed in pain and fell down on the threshold to the clinic. Hopefully someone was home. Hopefully that someone wouldn't be too freaked out or disgusted by her appearance to help her. And hopefully this clinic didn't belong to the Healer who Ysma had spent her childhood living with. Lorna hadn't worked in this part of town before, and there was no reason why she would have moved her clinic, but the thought of stumbling over Lorna again still flew through Ysma's mind.
Edward heard the loud knocking on the clinic door moments before he heard the door open, a loud thud was heard soon after. He rushed out into the clinic's main room, a couple of waiting patients staring at the person who had just stumbled in. His gaze first saw the blood covering her left leg, and then he noticed the pallor of her skin.
He swore viciously as he rushed to the young girl's side. Without giving it any thought, he scooped her up and carried her to the nearest available bed. His mother happened to glance over just as he was setting the girl down. She gasped at the look of the girl's skin, and rushed to go get some brews and webs. People who looked that pale from blood loss were usually an inch away from death.
Edward worked as fast as he could, calling in webs to hold the girl's life stable while he tried to help her body regenerate its blood supply. He sent out thorough probes only to find... she hadn't lost nearly as much blood as to warrant that coloring in her skin. It shocked him enough that he stopped what he was doing to stare at her for a moment. He had read about individuals who suffered from albinism, but he had never in all his years encountered one. It was a rare enough condition, that one did not see someone like this walking down the street everyday.
Switching gears now that he knew she was not as close to death as he originally thought, he took the time to see what had caused the bleeding. More probes told him she had suffered an animal bite to her left leg. By the look of the bite as he carefully pulled up her pant leg, it was a dog bite. It would need a good cleaning, and some healing craft to close the wound, but she would be fine in a couple hours time.
He looked up at the girl, who he could see was clearly conscious. “You gave me a scare, young one,” he explained to her. “I can clean this up just fine. Try to relax.”
((OOC: Let me know if I moved her too much.))
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