A Helping Hand

Morn's eyes widened as he let out a pained scream. His left hand was missing, in its place was a mechanical wooden hand with metal tipped fingers that were strangely grippy. Many small cables of an unknown material ran from the back of the prosthetic hand to a metal bracer on his forearm.

"Ahhh! Son of a Wretch!"

After a brief moment, Morn's shocked shout ceased as his throat dried and his curiosity took over. A moment later, the door opened as Toli and Azur entered. The elder of the village approached Morn, followed closely by Azur. The elder clapped his gloved right hand on Morn's shoulder and shot him a sympathetic look.

"I've been where you are right now, Morn. It's difficult, losing a limb, but you're lucky. When I lost my arm, it was years before I developed this."

Toli removed his hand from Morn's shoulder, then slowly pulled the glove from his arm. With the glove gone, Morn could clearly see the elder's arm. From the elbow down, his arm and hand were constructed from wood and metal, the same as Morn's new hand.

Morn opened his mouth slightly, then closed it, not sure what to say. Ignoring Morn's look, Toli continued:

"It will take you some getting used to, but that hand is as dextrous as any flesh and blood, and even has some secrets to it! You're looking at half a century of dedication and arcane research, so cheer up."

The elder winked before turning and leaving the room.

After a long silence, Azur sighed.

"You shouldn't have gone so deep into the forest alone, Morn. You're lucky we found you when we did, or else you'd be dead by now." Azur admonished.

Morn began to mutter a reply, but was cut short by a sudden hug. Azur wrapped his arms around his friend.

"Regardless of how dumb going out on your own was, I'm just glad that you're okay."

Morn smiled gingerly, then returned the hug.

"I'm also glad that I'm... more or less okay."

The pair laughed grimly, then Azur took a seat on the bed. Azur filled Morn in on the details of the previous few days.

Azur had woken up to find Morn missing. After asking the blacksmith about his whereabouts and enjoying a late lunch, he himself went off to the forest to do some harvesting of his own, though he travelled with the village's charcoal burner as a guide. Unlike Morn, he and his guide had stayed close to the village, away from the edges of the island where the Levjottun could reach.

When Azur returned for dinner and Morn was still absent, he'd grown worried and recruited Eldwin and several villagers to help him look. As the night grew darker, the villagers had grown nervous of encountering Levjottun and had begun to return to the relative safety of the walled village.

Azur had refused to return without his friend, so Eldwin had accompanied him, worried for his safety. The two had been about to explore another part of the forest when they'd heard Morn bang his walking stick against the tree. They'd rushed to his location, finding him unconscious with a high fever.

By the time they'd found him, his hand had almost entirely rotted due to an unnatural-infection inflicted by the Levjottun. When they'd taken him back to the village, Eldwin had woken the elder and healers of the village.

They had no choice but to amputate Morn's hand in order to prevent the infection from spreading and rotting the rest of his arm, or potentially developing into a curse. They'd also sutured the gash on his forehead, and Azur had given him numbing and sleeping gas to prevent him from feeling pain during the surgery.

Since the surgery, five days had passed before Azur had woken up. Morn was surprised when he heard that a week had already passed with him asleep, he wondered if it was due to lingering effects of the Levjottun's curse, or if it had been caused by his strange fever-dream.

After Azur finished explaining the medical procedure, he began to tell Morn about his experience with the villagers over the previous few days. He'd been helping the villagers by providing various gases for their jobs, he'd done so in exchange for the healing Morn had received, and for food for the two of them.

The blacksmith's neighbour, an apothecary named Vincent, had begun to teach Azur about various herbal medicines in exchange for Alkimiya knowledge. The apothecary had also been one of the three healers that performed Morn's amputation.

Aside from his time with Vincent, Azur had helped the village elder with various tasks, a repayment for the prosthetic he'd crafted for Morn. Though Azur had praised Toli's kindness, as the worth of an arcane artifact, especially a prosthetic, was in reality far higher than the simple chores Azur had been doing around the village.

After a while, the conversation was interrupted when a short and stocky man in a buttoned coat entered the room. The man held a tray with various fruits Morn didn't recognize, a loaf of bread split into two portions, and two servings of an earthy-smelling meat.

The man smiled when he saw Morn and Azur in high spirits, then set the tray down on a small table next to the bed.

"It's nice to finally talk with you, Morn. I'm Vincent, one of the healers who took care of your surgery. Don't worry about owing me, it's my duty as a healer. Plus, your friend has been quite diligent in teaching me alkimiya. The other healers are of the same mind, so consider us all even."

Vincent stretched out a hand. Morn quickly gripped the man's hand with his non-prosthetic hand, giving it a steady shake.

"Thank you, sir. For saving me, and for instructing Azur on medicine. We truly appreciate everyone's hospitality."

Vincent widened his smile. "The pleasure is ours, we're glad to help kind travellers. Your friend here has been quite helpful all throughout the village. We're very pleased with the small developments of our little village thanks to your friend's help."

Morn returned the smile. "So I've heard. Well, thank you nonetheless- I will always remember your kindness."

Vincent nodded jovially, then tactfully retreated from the room, leaving the pair alone. When Vincent had gone, Morn spoke again.

"How is the island's course, are we close to Yol?"

Azur shook his head disappointedly.

"Unfortunately, the current has become unpredictable, we've been drifting back and forth in the Storm Commons since you were injured. It seems like it will still be quite some time before we can return home, unless someone comes along with a skip-boat."

Morn sighed, but quickly followed up his question.

"Do the islanders have boats?"

Azur shrugged.

"Yes, but none that can make the trip. At best, they have island-anchored boats for fishing."

Expecting as much, Morn wasn't too disappointed.

"Well, at least it will give us some time to collect new gases, perhaps we can create a new formula and receive a large bonus from the society."

Azur gave Morn an admonishing look as he stood up from the edge of the bed.

"You mean it will give ME some time to collect new gases. For now, you must learn to use that new hand of yours. We can't have you losing another limb before you even know how to use that one!"

Azur smiled and continued.

"But yes, once you've managed that hand of yours, we can collect new gases. Then you can work on a new formula while I help the villagers. ."

Morn nodded disapprovingly.

"You should work on the formula, I'll help the villagers if someone must. I'm the one that they've helped, so I ought to be the one to return the favour."

Azur rolled his eyes. "You've always been better than me at research, if I worked on a new gas, we'd end up with a new curse instead."

Recalling a time that Azur had somehow singed off all of his hair in a research incident that had involved absolutely no flammable materials, Morn began to laugh. Azur grinned awkwardly at his friend, causing Morn's laughter to double in intensity.

"Alright, you've convinced me. But when we get back to Yol, I owe you."

Azur gave morn a thumbs up, then took his portion of the food and left the room, stopping briefly before he left.

"Morn, once you've gotten a meal in you, work on that hand of yours. I've left some equipment and empty gas canisters under the table for you to practice with. Good luck, I'll be back tomorrow for lunch or maybe dinner."

After the two waved goodbye, Morn doing so somewhat awkwardly with his wooden hand, the room fell silent. Morn began to dig into his food, finding a red fruit with purple-split-insides to be quite delicious.

"I'll have to ask the name of this fruit, perhaps I can find it around at the dock markets when I return to Yol..."

When his plate was cleaned, aside from the fatty part of the meat that he disliked, Morn sat at the edge of the bed.

Looking under the table, Morn found the bag of equipment Azur had left him. Lifting it up, he placed it gently on the bed and untied the knot holding it shut.

The process took him some time as he practised with his new hand. He wondered if Azur had tied the knot so tightly as a test, or if it had been habit.

Morn attempted his usual gas mixing procedures to familiarise himself with the prosthetic. It was far more difficult than usual, and took much more time, but it was just as Toli had said. The hand worked surprisingly well, and with practice, it would be no different from his original hand.

Morn took a while to study the hand, his curiosity peaked by its ability to move at will. After observing the hand for some time, he concluded the hand wasn't working mechanically as he had initially assumed.

A strange set of runes around the base of the prosthetic led Morn to believe it relied on some branch of arcana he was unfamiliar with to connect to the muscles in his forearm. With no education on Arcana aside from basic knowledge and tall tales, he quickly gave up on studying the runes.

Pausing thoughtfully, Morn muttered under his breath: "Maybe one day..."