Sequel

Whoo updating in the morning. Of my Tuesday/wednesday thing. Gah.

Ah well.

Read, Review and Enjoy.




Rel walked into the living area and watched Mm devouring the mounds of food on the cart. There was more than there had been the day before. Mm’s back was to the door, the actual door, and it slid noiselessly open. Palt stepped through, waited for the door to close, then cleared his throat. Rel was facing the man, Mm spun, apple in hand. The Sidhe looked Past up and down and bit into the apple once more.

Calm. Mm was calm towards Palt. Not even curious about who or what the man was. Palt gave a nod to Mm and looked at Rel.

“Here to look at his hand properly,” Palt said, “what is his name?”

“Mm.”

“Mm?”

“Yes, bit difficult to get out when you want to…”

“Mm,” Palt looked right at the Sidhe, Mm took another bite of his apple and considered the man as if wondering if he really wanted to do that.

Do what? Rel glanced at Palt and saw the man make a motion of come here. Mm took one tentative step towards Palt and looked pointedly at the man’s bag. Palt looked down at it and reached to flick the bag open. Mm made an obvious peering motion, into the bag.

“Rel, come here, stand by me. I’m going to show him what I’m going to do to him, Mm, watch,” a motion from Palt’s eyes towards Rel’s hands.

“I. Have an actual cut. Would you mind looking at it?”

“Certainly, if you mind explaining what happened to cause all this,” Palt murmured, motioning for Rel to sit as he did so, crossing his legs on the concrete floor as if he were a man of younger years.

Rel sat in front of Palt, “One of his teeth fell out and,” Rel pushed his shirt up to show Palt the cut. There was dried blood all down his arm, it had cut deeper than he had thought.

“His teeth fell out?”

“Yes. One in … bed… and one in the bathroom. What happened last night?”

“You both fell asleep. You first and by his reaction, it seemed you were running cold so he curled around you. How did he lose them?”

“One fell out, one he was tearing up the towel for me. It’s in the sink.”

“Did he seem concerned with the tooth loss?”

“No,” Rel watched Palt wipe clean the blood and begin stitching. He didn’t feel a thing. New needles or something, no doubt, but he had to ask, “I’m not supposed to feel that, right?”

“Right,” Palt was quiet for a moment as he cleaned the top of the wound and began bandaging it, “Sidhe loose teeth quite often. If a tooth is bad, they pull it and a new one grows in its place. The case didn’t seem the same with him and we worried. Gaps in the teeth meant that his teeth hadn’t grown back in. Broken teeth, some showing filing.”

“Malnutrition,” Rel murmured, “like how it can bloat a stomach rather than shrink it. It stops bone grown and teeth are bone. I mean. cartilage can’t really do that, can it?”

“They are bone, yes. Now to convince him to do this.”

Rel moved and looked at Mm, “Mm, come. Sit.” he did his best to motion to the whole thing as well.

Mm grimaced but moved and sat down as he popped the apple core into his mouth and chewed noisily, “Palt.”

“Mm,” Palt responded, gently taking Mm’s hand in his own before addressing Rel, “they have a strange respect of healers. So long as I do nothing harmful, on purpose, they will respect my authority and trust me. Essuan seemed to imply this to him, that I was a healer, and he let me do his first measurements.”

As they spoke, Palt took off the bandage and cleaned the lacerations on Mm’s palm. Several more splinters were removed and then Palt cleaned the area once more. Once bandaged, Mm seemed pleased.

With himself.

Rel frowned at the look on Mm’s face and looked at Palt, “how bad was it?”

“Three lacerations, a few splinters, he looks fairly well and like, perhaps, the bandage was overdone. But I’ve redone it now,” Palt murmured.

“But. Just now. In the bathroom. It was…”

Palt frowned at Rel and proceeded to take the bandage off of Mm’s hand. The doctor tilted the Sidhe’s hand this way and that, squinting at the palm of Mm’s hand. As if to reassure himself, Palt passed several fingers over the palm.

“What?”

“There’s nothing here.”


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