17 Follow-up Check-up

Saiph looked up from his desk, mind in a daze. He mentally noted that he must have fallen asleep and looked around. There were still some people in the room, probably the same ones that had been here since the test ended. Saiph's gaze moved on to the instructor, sitting at her desk. She was still earnestly scribbling things down on test papers.

Yawning, Saiph sat up and stretched his upper body. He was still pretty stiff and sore from yesterday; the stretching felt fantastic. Yawning once more, Saiph slumped back down onto his desk and kept an ear out for any developments.

A few people returned to the room but besides that, the instructor was still meticulously grading in the back.

She had said an hour, but Saiph wondered how long that was. There were certainly some windows with views gazing out of the room, but sunlight here was allegedly relatively nugatory for taking the time.

Saiph took a mental note to pick up a portable clock or hourglass of sorts when he got the time, like the thing Jack had. However, that could have been an Incantata of sorts, which would prove to be quite lavish- an expenditure that he could not afford at the moment.

"Done. Come up, now." The instructor's voice pierced through Saiph's thoughts like an arrow.

All at once, the classroom full of examinees rose up and moved towards the instructor at the back of the room.

Saiph himself was around the middle of the room and had quickly hopped up, netting him a satisfactory spot in the makeshift, rowdy line to receive the scores.

After a minute or two, it was almost Saiph's turn.

"John Flannigan," the boy ahead of Saiph stepped and stated.

"51." The instructor's reply was succinct and curt.

This 'John' fellow merely nodded and accepted his ID plate, moving off to the side.

Saiph filled the space and stated, "Saiph Glendoveer," to the instructor.

"83," she said curtly, holding out his ID plate.

The single number statement confused Saiph slightly. "Percent?" he asked as he received the ID plate.

"Total points. The percentage will be told to you later. It's on a grading curve set to the 5th and greater percentiles getting 100%. You won't know your percentage until they calculate that. Now, move on."

Saiph hurriedly stepped to the side, letting the next in line step up to receive her score.

Slightly put off by the instructor's rude tone, Saiph walked out of the testing room with a slight scowl scrunching up his face, disappointment welling up in him from the anticlimactic result.

After stepping out of the room, Saiph's thoughts raced. What did an 83 mean? It did beat out the kid in front of him by a decent amount, but who's to say the performance of that kid compared to everyone else? Saiph figured that the only thing left to anticipate is the final decision, right?

Walking down the stairs and into the reception area, Saiph groaned as he saw that it was still overflowing with belated potential students of the Academy.

He didn't even want to try and fight for a spot in front of a receptionist; he stuck to the walls like a spider and scurried out of the lobby.

Saiph decided that the hospital he had previously stayed at may provide some answers for him instead. He wanted to know what to do now with his filled out ID plate, although he didn't really know where to start looking for the hospital once more. He also wasn't sure if he had to go back and make a follow-up of any sorts with his his doctor in regards to his arm. He had left in quite the daze, after all.

He had still been stuck in his own world upon leaving the building and a good few minutes afterward, too.

Saiph aimlessly wandered through the sprawling city, hoping to catch a glimpse of a hospital of some sort.

Eventually, he gave up and started asking around. Saiph soon found out the general location of the hospital that he had most likely stayed at and lightly jogged over.

The building was large and impressive; a type of grandeur existed on it that was missing from the previous locations of interest. Saiph didn't recognize the building whatsoever but didn't expect to anyhow.

The young boy pushed the front doors open and stepped inside. A polished reception area welcomed him inside. He walked over to a counter that two women were sitting behind, sporting clean uniforms that looked familiar.

Saiph was pretty sure that those uniforms were the same type that the nurse that treated him when he had just lost his arm was wearing. A bit more comfortable and certain that he was in the right place, Saiph addressed the duo.

"Hi, I'm Saiph. I was checked into a hospital for, well, this"--he nodded his head over towards his right shoulder--"and would like to know if there's anything else I should know about it."

"Of course, sweety. Would you mind handing me your ID plate?" One of the nurses spoke with sickeningly sweet honey oozing from her throat.

Saiph, although unnerved by her strange mannerisms, obliged and passed the ID plate off to her.

A few moments passed as she got up and started opening up filing cabinets, browsing through papers. When she returned, she handed Saiph his ID plate back and spoke.

"Okay, sweety, Doctor Ganoung wrote down that after the admission exams ended you should return for a check-up. Does that sound right?"

Saiph really didn't know. That entire period was extremely hazy; recalling it was like going through a dream two days later.

Shrugging, he responded, "Probably. I don't really remember."

"Aww, that's okay, sweety. The doctor is with a patient right now. Just for a bit, okay?" She finished the rhetorical question with a wink.

Saiph, now sick to his stomach, shambled over to a bench against a wall and sat down.

Was she… fawning over him? Is that even the right word? Was this normal behavior for a healthcare professional? Saiph wasn't sure if anyone had been that sweet to him in his entire life before.

Not knowing how to react to this strange situation, he just ignored it and waited for the doctor.

A few short minutes later and the doors in the back opened. This wasn't the first time this had happened, but a new face popped out from behind the doors, one calling, "Saiph Glendoveer."

Saiph hopped up and went over to the man wearing white robes that had just called for him.

After the two figures greeted each other and walked further inside, the doors slammed shut behind them.

…

Being inside the doctor's room was nostalgic for Saiph despite him being there just two days ago. The familiar white room was still as same as he roughly remembered it. Well, of course, it was.

"Hello, Saiph. How are you doing today?" The doctor's voice snapped Saiph out of his thoughts.

"Oh, I'm just a bit sore from yesterday, that's all," Saiph muttered halfheartedly.

The duo passed a few more rounds of small talk between them before the doctor got to the main point of Saiph's visit.

"How has the arm been treating you?"

Saiph wasn't too sure himself and took a few beats to think about it.

"I guess it's okay. The pills you gave me worked really well for any residual phantom pain, at least. I guess the stump itself hasn't hurt at all, either, so that's good."

The doctor smiled amiably and nodded along with Saiph's words. When Saiph was done, he took a beat and replied, "Good, good. Have you been taking proper hygienic care of the site of dismemberment itself? Or, stump, as you put it."

"Umm, I took a bath last night. Does that count?"

The doctor smiled, shaking his head. "Saiph, Saiph, Saiph. Proper hygiene and cleansing procedures are paramount before all else with these kinds of matters. Now, take off your shirt and let me inspect it."

Saiph wordlessly obliged the notion.

The doctor, similarly without a word, took off the wrapping around the stump and started doing probings that Saiph couldn't understand.

During the procedure, Saiph took a transient glance over to the raw stump and shuddered. Shaking his head, he quickly looked away before he grew sick to his stomach. The aberrant sight of not having an arm there still felt surreal and wrong.

"Yep," the doctor confirmed after a while, "nothing wrong here. No infections. But I'll re-dress the wound while you're here. Then, we can go over some other things."

"Oh, okay. Thanks."

The process was over presently, without fuss or incident. Saiph threw his clothes back on posthaste and awaited the doctor's speech.

"Having this type of injury is severe. You need to pay proper attention pertaining to it at all times. An infection would lead to further amputations; neither of us wishes to see that, right?"

"Right," Saiph agreed.

The two talked on a bit about Saiph's condition before Saiph brought up another topic.

"Oh, by the way, what do I do about admissions now?"

"Ah, right. You were out when that all went down. You just have to go turn in your ID plate to the main admissions office and buy time until they announce the results. They'll give you a spare while yours is with them so you can accommodate yourself for a few days."

"Ah, alright. Thanks."

…

The visit to the doctor's office wrapped itself up and Saiph found him out roaming the streets once again.

He made his way to the admissions office mentioned heretofore by the doctor and went through with the standard process without incident.

Still feeling awake, albeit ignorant of the actual time, Saiph wondered what he should do with his remaining free time.

'I guess I could head back over to the library and investigate the languages a bit more in depth and maybe touch upon some of the beast knowledge.'

With a plan in mind, Saiph set off to both investigate his mother tongue more thoroughly and perhaps figure out what the classifications of beasts were.