The First day of work

My first day at the apothecary had been interesting, to say the least. Our first customer of the day was a young girl with bright auburn hair and a cluster of freckles on her face. She was the girl who was working at 'Mr BuClantiana's House of fashion' she was the shop girl who had helped me get on the new clothes. She came in the collect Mr Bu's daily mix of herbal teas that were said to help one's hair grow. Apparently, he was the Apothecary's best and only buy of the teas. Poor Mr Bu.

Elsbeth walked me through all the ingredients for the hair grow herbal tea. It was all plants names that I had never heard of before, but nevertheless, I took copious notes on everything that she was saying.

After a while, the shop girl left and curtseyed to us both. Elsbeth also explained to me that social class and rank was a huge deal in this society. It just went for granted that the higher up you were on the social ranks, the more respect you deserved. Even you were an eighty-year-old grandma, if a ten your old child was a lord and you were just an ordinary citizen, you would have to bow to the child.

Since the red-headed shopgirl was a low-level shop employee, while Elsbeth was a shop owner, the girl had to curtsey to Elsbeth.

For men, the system was the same, except that men bowed. Even small divinations between the shop owners and the shop workers were distinguished in society in this way.

It was all a bit strange to me.

The mornings were quite a slow time for the shop since most people were working. But when afternoon hit you had to be ready. The just suddenly all came bustling in, they were asking for cough relieving potions, and potions that cooled down their fevers, and they wanted potion for sore legs. It was a lot to try and deal with all of them. But it was kind of fun, it reminded me of the waitressing job I had a few years ago.

It wasn't until just an hour before the shop was about to close when suddenly a woman busted into the shop screaming at the top of her lungs.

"Elsbeth help me please, it's my little boy he's going to die!" Elsbeth and I both ran to her, she was sobbing uncontrollably and could only just get the words out, "My son, please help him. He fell out of the Oaken tree onto an axe. He's bleeding so badly, he's going to die if you don't help me, please! Please!"

She grabbed hold of Elsbeth's arms and was pulling her out the door with her. I followed behind and grabbed Elsbeth's emergency kit that she kept by the door in case of situations like these. We all ran together to the Main Street of the town, where a crowd was gathered. They had all huddled around the boy who was lying on the floor. As we got closer to him, my gut lurched at the sight of it. Someone had removed the axe from the boy's side, what was there now was a huge gaping gash that was still oozing blood. the flesh around the cut was an angry red colour, and the boy was crying out in pain.

A man was holding the little boy down, trying to stop him from flailing about too much. I presumed the man was his father by the look of terror on his face. The face of a parent terrified of losing their child. I thought that maybe it was an emotion only a parent could feel towards their loved one.

As we approached I heard people whisper, "thank goodness, Elsbeth is here"

"Will she be able to save the boy?"

"Goodness me I don't think so. Look at that cut."

"Poor child, to die at such a young age..."

The crowd made way for us so that we could get to the boy. When we reached the centre of the circle, Elsbeth and I got down on our knees next to the little boy.

Immediately I began to unpack the bandages, and the spirits and the crushed herbs for Elsbeth to use on him.

The cut on his boy was just by his hip bone, it started at his waist and spanned until his thigh. It was a grotesque cut. Lucian's hadn't been this bad.

"Riley, hold the boy's hand tight!" She ordered me very calmly. "Cyan my dear, this is going to hurt but I need you to be brave for me." She said to the little boy as she brought unrolled the cloth in the bag.

The little boy only shook his head, with big tears welling in his eyes.

Elsbeth put a palm on either side of the cut, and then forcefully pushed either side of the parted flesh back together. The child let out an agonizing scream and began to kick and flail unable to take the pain, as well as squeeze the life out of my hand. I was horrified. Was Elsbeth really going to do this without anaesthetic? But I guess they didn't have that in this world.

After Elsbeth had finished pushing the lips of the cut back together. She told me to come and take her place holding the flesh together. I pried my hand out of the boy's hand and held the two pieces of his flesh together with Elsbeth.

She then started enchanting a prayer over the cut.

"Oh gracious god of healing, grant me the powers to heal." She chanted this over and over again, and as a result, I felt the slightest magical current flow into the boys cut. This method was to slow though, this boy was going to bleed out before she would be able to save him. I had to heal him, I knew I had to.

Elsbeth opened her eyes from her prayers and saw how little of his wound had healed, and I saw the look of hopelessness on her face. She couldn't do anything, she had exhausted all her magic power and it had only healed a fraction of the wound.

"Riley?" She called breathlessly.

"Yes," I answered looking at her.

"Can you save this boy? Like how you saved mine?" She asked giving me the most serious look I had ever seen from her.

"Yes, I think so." I nodded.

"Well, just tell me what I need to do."

"Okay." I breathed in, I could do this. No pressure, it wasn't like the whole town was watching except that they were.

"Please everybody step back, I need some room," I called out. This crowd was part of the problem, The was no room to breathe.

"Elsbeth? You're letting this girl take over?" The man who was holding the boy asked.

"Yes." Said Elsbeth assuring him.

"The man looked up at me and said, "please save my son." I smiled at him.

"I will." I meant it.

"Anesthetize!" I called out. Immediately the boy stopped crying and flailing. He just looked up at me with awe. I think I might have gotten better at this.

The nosy crowd behind me started whispering again, 'what! What happened?' 'Cyan stopped crying!' 'By God's mercy, how did she do that!'

Again I regained focus and started visualizing the healing process. I saw that the axe had hit a major artery. Firstly I imagined the two halves of that thick vein reconnecting and merging again, thus stopping the blood from flowing out of his body. I envisioned this happening for all his vessels and veins. This image of reconnecting and merging I thought of this process over and over again. My magic flowed steadily out of me and into the boy's wound, I watched gladly as the gash closed after the bleeding had stopped. Once again the outer layer of skin smoothened and meshed together, and then looked as if nothing had ever happened. It was done.

"Well done Riley!" Shouted Elsbeth behind me. A second later the whole town exploded into cheers of hurrahs and Yay's.

Over the loud noise, the boy's father took my hand in his and shook it firmly and thanked me profusely. The mother ran to her son and embraced both the boy and the man.

The little boy wobbly stood up and shakily walked over to me. He had lost a lot of blood so it was understandable that he was so lightheaded.

He stood up straight in front of me, and gave me a deep respectful bow, before running back to parents. And falling into his father's and mother's open arms.

I smiled, content. The little boy, Cyan was in the clear and reunited with his family. My work was done.

The rejoicing crowd soon settled down and then left the scene for the comforts of their own homes. Elsbeth and I also packed up and headed back to their house on the other side of the town.

"What an eventful day!" I said. Still rushing with the adrenaline that had filled me just a few moments ago when I healed Cyan.

"Yes, it was truly a terrible cut that Cyan got. Thank goodness you came to this town or else that boy would have died."

I was beginning to understand the gap between my power and the abilities of the locals of this world. Things that I found relatively easy seemed to astound them, like healing Cyan's and Lucian's wounds, or like dispensing large bolts of lightning. I was beginning to think that the god might have been a bit too generous with my powers. I planned to get to the bottom of it.