June in the Mansion

Pal advanced ever so slightly, eyeing her from head to toe. "Greeting a new pal, that's all." he then glanced over the remains of  the woman's meal. "Alright, you might have just killed my other pal right there." Pal continued with an unchanged expression. "But that's fine, you didn't know, you were just hunting. We're on the same page here."

He was dangerously close to her now, his gaze fixed on the bloody dessert knife. "Huh, no wonder you didn't go for a deer. Guess my pal was the only thing weak enough. Honestly, I have no idea what you're planning to do with that little knife, but lemme tell you a tip: you should probably not try anything." he said, stopping right in front of her.

She knew he was right, it wasn't only the fact that she was practically unarmed but also how weak she was at the moment, the tiredness and hunger would make her precise strikes to not be precise enough, the woman lowered the knife while still eyeing the newcomer warily.

Pal began circling the wary stranger. His steps were like the ticking of a clock, counting the time for her upcoming fate. Judging by his baffling confidence, the man was either a fool or very capable.

"Hmm... black robes, red scarf, now where did I see this before?" he commented on the woman's looks, holding his chin in thought. "Maybe...hmm... no, that wasn't it." He continued that nerve-wracking walk of his for about a full minute. "Yeah, never seen anyone quite like you. Poor thing, you must have lost your way in this forest."

The man stopped once more in front of her, this time offering a hand. "Got a camp nearby, food's already prepared. How about it? Want to join me for dinner?"

The woman was about to refuse when her stomach growled, looking down she looked for her prey just to find that some animal must have take it while she was distracted, she looked back at the man. "If you try... Anything weird..." She warned him.

"Then what? I don't see you doing much more than you already are." he spoke in a playful voice as he lead the cloaked woman in the direction he came from, taking care not to lose her from his sight. "Hey, I'm joking, don't look at me like that!"

Seeing the atmosphere still tense, Pal slowed down his pace, letting her take control of it. "Are you from around here? The neighboring kingdom maybe?" he asked but was only met with silence. "I know! Maybe you're from that mansion in the woods? Lots of people come and go in there."

A few more seconds passed and Pal was talking again. "Are you? Hmm, probably not. Maybe you're one of those ladies from IDOL, what do you say to that?"

A minute has passed. It was quiet while it lasted.

"So, you don't talk that much, do you?" he chuckled, patting her on the back. "That's fine, I got enough talking in me for the both of us."

The woman didn't reply to his questions, just what was he talking about, IDOL? Some kind of secret group? She just kept walking until she felt his hand on her back moment at which she jumped forwards while turning around, taking a defensive position.

He raised an eyebrow to her gesture, before breaking into laughter. "Wow, you're pretty fast." As soon as Pal finished, he was already at her side, in the blink of an eye. "If you wanted to hurry, you could have just asked."

Pal then noticed her stance and without any care in the world, commented on it. "Again with this? You're not gonna attack me, we've already been through that before. Now relax, there isn't much left until the camp." he tried again to reach the woman with his hand, stopping inches away from her form to test her reaction.

The woman relaxed her posture but she did kept the distance from Pal. "Don't... Touch..." Is the only thing she said before continuing on their way.

This lady sure was cautious, he thought. If only she knew how futile it was to act like this. Her defiance must have been a way for this woman to feel a semblance of control over the situation.

"Alright, alright, no touching, for now." he smirked, now confidently leading the way without even looking at her. "I'm sure you'll ease up with some food in your belly."

Not too long after, the two reached a small clearing, where a rather large tent was raised. In front of it was a well-lit campfire, with a pot over it. Multiple wooden sticks were run through delicious-looking roasted meat, likely coming from the nearby deer. They were all placed upright by the fire, having just recently been taken out to cool off. The smell was all but the most inviting thing the woman could feel right now. Just with one sniff, her stomach growled again.

"Help yourself, lady." Pal walked over to the pot, stirring the liquid inside with a wooden ladle. "Seems about done." he murmured to himself, before taking it off the fire as well and placing it on a tree stump. "Want some soup too?"

As they arrived at the camp, the first thing that got the woman's attention was the smell of food, starving like she was, she couldn't help herself as her stomach growled once more at the sight of the food being cooked on the campfire. She walked to the campfire and sat in front of the fire, slowly reaching to grab one of the sticks with meat on them, once she had one, she slowly started to eat but the moment she took the first bite, the woman started to eat faster, being so hungry quickly overwhelming her wariness. She then nodded at the offer of some soup.

At her nod, Pal went inside the tent and brought over two bowls, filling them with the freshly brewed soup. "Here you go." he said, handing her one of the bowls. Seeing her devour the food with such gusto made him smile. "Damn, you really are hungry. Leave some for the owls, will you?" Pal let out a hearty laugh. "Just kidding, eat to your heart's content."

He sat over next to the hungry woman, drinking his soup in one go. "Ah! That's good. So, tell me more about you. Got a name you're willing to share?"

"My name... Is..." She stopped there, memories from her past coming back to her before she continued. "I have... No name... Not anymore... People called me... Prophet..." Her voices was almost silent as always, once she said her 'name' she resumed eating.

"Mmm, Prophet, sounds like a real piece of work." the man spoke while chewing on some roasted meat. "Does that mean you can see the future and do all sorts of crazy stuff?"

"I... No... I won't use that power ever again..." She seemed somewhat afraid when she talked about her powers, like something had heavily scarred her. "I think... I lost them..."

"Well, it's clear you don't wanna find 'em, even if you could. Kind of a shame, I imagine seeing the future would be quite the aid - oh, just a moment."

Pal, having finished his meal, took both his and Prophet's bowls back inside, returning to her side with an owl perched on his shoulder. It shivered at the woman's sight, making its form smaller as to hide from its predator.

"It's okay, she didn't mean it - you didn't mean it, right?" Pal quickly alternated between talking to the owl and Prophet. The bird yelped in his ear, causing the man to raise his hands in defense. "And what exactly do you want me to do? You know how awkward that would look? Come on, don't ruin this for me."

With a calm motion, he placed a finger near the owl's feet. Pal waited until the bird sat on his finger, before putting it next to Prophet's tree stump, where all the meat lied. "She's hungry, you're hungry, so let's put all this behind us, alright?"

The owl let out a quiet hoot as it dug right into the succulent meat.

Prophet eyed the owl, the little animal's reaction confirmed that the one she hunted was probably a friend of his. Reaching at the bird, Prophet tried to pet him, slowly and carefully.

The owl shook its wings at the woman's touch, flying back on Pal's shoulder. Multiple hoots followed.

"No, she's not trying to hurt you." he spoke to the bird, getting more hoots in return. "I know there were deer around- Yes, she could have waited a little bit more, I get it." The owl's cries continued. "No, I'm not repeating what you're saying so she can understand, why would you think that?"

With that, the gray bird flew off into the forest, but not before poking Pal a few times in its frustration.

Turning to Prophet, the man shrugged. "Eh, he'll come around sooner or later. For now, don't hesitate help yourself with whatever you want from here. I'll ready a bed for you in the meantime."

Prophet felt bad as she saw the little owl fly away from her. "Sorry..." She apologized as the owl flew into the forest, then she turned to Pal and, when the man left to prepare the beds, the woman looked around the camp and something caught her eye, a bow, it was a simple hunting bow but she had great experience with them. Walking towards it and grabbing it and a single arrow then she grabbed a piece of meat and tossed it high into the air, carefully aim and shooting, hitting the piece of meat dead on. "Still have... my touch..."

The cloaked woman's moment was punctuated by a clapping sound coming her way. It was Pal, slowly walking out of the tent. "Ooh, that was nice." he commented. "You're a lot stronger than you let on. Know what? You can keep that bow, god knows I'm awful with it. Tried shooting at those deer for hours. It took me more time to retrieve the arrows than to actually get something done." he chuckled, before handing Prophet a quiver of arrows to match her new bow. "I've got my own two hands and don't need anything more."

He walked over by her side and gave her another small pat on the back, seemingly forgetting for a moment about the previous time he did that. "Right, no touching..." he pulled back, trying to look into her eyes as best he could. Her face being obscured did not make it easy. "Sorry about that, can't say I'm used to your type. Well... the bed is ready, whenever you feel like going to sleep."

'Prophet was slightly startled when Pal came out, as he praised her skill with the bow the woman nodded. "Had to learn... To survive..." Was her answer as she took the quiver of arrows. "Thank... You..." The moment he patted her on the back startled her again. "Don't... Do that..." This time she didn't even had the energy to stand guard, she just took a few steps backwards before going to the bed.

"I'm gonna be doing some more recon, you go ahead and get some sleep. We'll talk properly tomorrow." Pal turned his back to Prophet, leaving her alone in the tent. As promised, two unfurled bedrolls awaited Prophet inside, placed as far away from each other as possible. It appeared Pal had started to respect her need for privacy, or it was an entirely random gesture.

The woman laid down, bow settled next to her as she let herself daze off to the land of dreams. Perhaps sleeping into this man's tent could be considered a bad idea, but Prophet, she was way past the risk of danger. Her last thoughts were on the woman in the clinic, a prayer for safety.

"...as you can see here, the body reacts differently to different kinds of trauma."

About a day had passed since June tended to Maya's self induced injury, and also June passing out from the action itself. The two of them had gotten some much needed rest, especially after Soma carried the comatose and exhausted June to her bed. Today, it was just the two of them in the house, as Soma had left early on for one reason or another. Something about a new job of some sort was all that she could remember. And Airi had been sent out to get some supplies for the day. For right now, it was just the two of them. And June was making good on her promise, doing what she could to help Maya understand some basics of medicine.

"And how it reacts can determine both the extent of the injury, and also how best to address it. Of course, how the patient responds to it can also be a factor, but that can be unreliable, depending on the person. Some people try to hide their injuries, and some train specifically to hide them well, so you will usually have more luck if you can identify the type of injury by how it looks than how they look. I've had more than a few people that looked as stern as possible with some pretty gruesome injuries. I've even had a few that cracked jokes with open wounds! Some people are just really tolerant to pain, it seems...moreso than others, at least."

June and Maya were seated in the living room, June on the couch and Maya a chair with a diagram of the human body on the table for both of them to see. June was relieved, if still a little worried, to see Maya able to walk in any capacity without straining herself too much, but she was still determined to keep the physical action down to a minimum until she was sure Maya herself wasn't causing herself too much discomfort, or if she had actually healed or not.

"So, your wound, for example, had tinges of bright red through the points of impact. Normally, a smaller, less serious injury would be a bright purple, instead." June traced a finger across the wrist of the diagram. "Like, say, if a foreman had accidentally hammered his hand instead of a nail. Right through here, his entire hand would be swollen and purple. Luckily, a little ice will take care of that just fine. However, let's say that, instead, he hadn't just hammered a finger, but a nail though his finger instead." June's finger made a swipe down, through the figure's finger. "Which is more likely than you might think. It's...never pretty. From that, the wound would be red on the edges, from the punctured blood vessels. In that scenario..." June got up and grabbed a bag with a few supplies that she would normally use and brought it back with her to set adjacent to the table.

"It might be tempting to just apply a bandage to it and call it a day, but that's a very easy way for it to get worse. You have to kill the germs before infection spreads, and for that..." June pulled a black bottle out of the bag. "...you would use a little alcohol first. Not a lot, because that would hurt like you wouldn't believe. Just a little bit, enough that anything left behind by the injury should dissolve. After that, you would address the wound proper." June was fully engrossed in giving the lesson by this point, trying to lay out every possible thing she could think of.

"O-Oh...stop me if I'm going a little too fast for you, Maya. I get...a little into it, sometimes..." June scratched the side of her cheek, a little embarrassed that she hadn't had the thought come up at one point or another.

The blue haired woman let out an amused chuckle. "It's fine. The way you explain everything makes it all so simple."

Maya was feeling much better, more than June ever expected. But she was a witch after all; this should come off as the least weird thing about her. The witch was wearing some of June's spare clothes: a white blouse and beige pants, both loosely hanging on her body.

Both physically and mentally, Maya was at ease. She listened to June's words as if they were gospel, not even a second of her attention elsewhere. In such a short time, she has learned so much from the necromancer that part of her did not wish to leave, for that and other reasons.

With a smile as warm as June liked it, she looked once more at the diagram and spoke. "You're a great teacher, June."

"Y-You think so? Well...I know some of my methods are...unconventional, so I just...had to be sure, was all." June cleared her throat a little as she gave a smile back to Maya, getting her composure back before giving a smile back to Maya. The look on Maya's face was one of pure contentment, and was enough to calm her own nerves.

"In that case, let's keep going..." June grabbed the black bottle of acohol again. "On top of it being very uncomfortable, it tends to kill any kind of germ it comes into contact with. Both good and bad. Even that little bit will most likely not feel all that great, but it is always necessary to clean out what could cause a future infection. And once the alcohol dissipates..."

June reached back into the bag and grabbed an adhesive bandage. "You would apply something like this to the wound, usually. I used to make these myself out of herbs and other materials, but lately I've seen them showing up in stores, so that makes things easier. To really let the wound heal, you need to keep it out of open air and hopefully close together. The body naturally wants to heal, even if it can be difficult at times, so a bandage keeping the open portion of it close by should let the body do what it needs to and slowly close the wound back up. However, there are certain scenarios where the wound would be too large for it to heal on its own. For that, we would have to help it along..." Reaching in one more time, she pulled out, surprisingly, a spindle of yarn. "Stitching skin back together might seem like a strange concept, but it's something that a lot of doctors need to do for larger wounds. If the wound itself is too large for the body to heal, you would stitch the hole closer together. That, plus the bandage, would be a good way of going about it."

June sighed a little, saying everything that she felt like she wanted to lay on Maya this early. "I think that should about do it for a first lesson. I don't want to overwhelm you on the first day. I'm sure it's a lot to take in. We'll take this slowly, alright? Just a little bit at a time so that you can learn at your pace." She flashed Maya a warm smile as she said it, truly happy that Maya was enjoying this as much as she was.