ARC 1: Arrival

Chapter 1.07: Deergrave

As the journey progressed, there was some light chatter between the other members of the party. I could hear Vulmer and Roarke chatting behind me. Occasionally I heard my name, but I tried my best to tune it out and not eavesdrop. Arthur and Astrid we're sharing the task of carrying the pelt and the meat piled on top of it. It seemed like a sizable pile; I had been thoroughly impressed by the effortlessness they were carrying it with. They shared some idle chit-chat, but Astrid seemed to peek over her shoulder at me every so often. I couldn't tell if her glances were out of wariness or curiosity, but I tried my hardest to be friendly and wave at her each time I caught her staring for a second longer than normal. Every time I waved, she would snap to facing forward again. I guess I intimidated her.

Aliz stays by my side the entire journey, silent for a good amount of it. It's only about an hour and a half in when I'm gazing out into the nearby woods at some of the familiar mystery flora that she speaks up. "So, Lillian." I turn my attention to the woman with a quirk of my eyebrow. "You mentioned that you were a trained medical professional? May I ask who trained you?" The chatter around us has stopped as the other four people of the group listen in. I could answer honestly, but I'm not sure how helpful of an answer it would be.

"I was trained by a lot of people. I went to a school for it. I've actually gone to a couple schools for it." I smirked a little at the thought that I wouldn't have to continue paying off those damn student loans.

"A school?" Vulmer speaks up, seemingly having taken interest in the conversation. I turn my head around to look at him as he speaks, "The only schools I know of around Strouc Shait are in the capital and a select number of larger cities. Those are all magic or combat schools, though. Medic isn't a widespread enough profession to warrant an entire school." Vulmer's eyes narrow at me as he finishes his explanation. I met his gaze, digesting his words. Magic and combat were that much more important and widespread skills than anything else? Trades must be taught individually, that would help explain the Null classification. In a world where trades are taught individually, it would make sense if children were expected to work in the same profession as their parents.

Another inkling of information sticks out to me and I turn to Aliz to ask, "Strouc Shait? That's… The country we're in? Or is it a sub-region of some kind?"

Aliz looks shocked at the question, nodding gently. "Do you really not know anything about where you are?" Her voice is gentle and filled with awe. I couldn't rightly keep it all a secret for long.

"If you want the whole truth, I don't know anything about this world at all. This country or any other. It all feels foreign." I can hear Vulmer scoff from behind me and I shoot him a glance as he speaks up.

"And yet you remember your 'medical training'?" He counters. I merely shrug.

"Essentially. I devoted my life to learning medicine, as much as I could. There are plenty of plants and animals that are unfamiliar, some that are. I can’t explain what memories I do have." It's not really an explanation, but I didn’t really owe him an explanation past that. It wasn’t a lie after all, and I didn’t know anywhere near enough about this world to even try to lie about what I did and didn’t know. The group didn’t have anything to say at that. I would have asked Aliz for more information on the area, but when I looked over to her she was deep in thought.

Astrid was the one that spoke up next from ahead of us. “If… if you need any help understanding something, I can try my best to help out.” I look at her, surprise undoubtedly etched across my features, and I see that she’s glancing back at me again. I smile at the offer and give her a tiny nod.

“I appreciate the offer, but I wouldn’t want to keep you from your duties or anything.”

“I’m the champion of this city, it’s my *job* to help the people around here.” I can hear a hint of pride in her voice as she says it and I smile, “If you’re going to be living here, it would only be right to help you adjust. We, uh, always need talented healers around Deergrave, and anything I can do to get you situated…” Her pride seemed to drift a little. She almost looked nervous. “If you want to stay here, that is! I don’t mean to get ahead of myself.” Astrid turns back away from me to look forward. I chuckle at the reaction and think to myself for a bit.

Did I want to stay in Deergrave? There’s a whole new world to explore out there. I could probably try to make it big in the Capital if I wanted. It sounded like they didn’t have any standardized form of medicine here. I could probably use my new ability to research and understand the plants and animal ingredients in this area in conjunction with whatever wealth of knowledge this Capital of theirs could offer to further my craft.

Looking around me at the forest though, this is the kind of place my research could thrive. Plentiful access to the herbs and various ingredients hidden in these woods, I couldn’t imagine continuing my research in a bigger city without access to these raw materials like this. The city would be good to visit maybe, but the more I thought about it, the more Deergrave seemed like the perfect place to be. A city deep within the forest full of various mystifying plants and creatures, and headed by a guild based on trade and mercenary work. If I could get a medical shop up and running, I could maybe look into selling my medicine through the guild. If I really needed to, I could make trips to the Capital in the future. For now though? I wouldn’t mind setting up shop here.

I spoke up, having made my decision. “Actually, Astrid, I think I might stay for a while. It seems like this is somewhere I could grow my craft. If you could help me any way in getting situated, I’d definitely be very helpful.” I could see Astrid stumble a little at my sudden announcement, but she nodded when she looked at me.

“Y-yeah. Sure thing. Least I can do for you, after helping us out.”

“Well, if you’re going to be helping her out around here over the next couple of days, would you mind sharing your lodgings with her while she gets settled in Deergrave?” Aliz asks. I turn my head to look at Aliz, she’s looking at Astrid with a mischievous glint in her eye. Turning back to Astrid though, I see that she’s sputtering a little. As soon as she notices that I’ve seen her she turns away, facing forward yet again. Interesting.

“Yeah, I can do that.” she answers after a couple of minutes. I was sure that I wasn’t the only one that had noticed her behaviour, I could even hear Roarke chuckling a bit from behind me. The interaction seemed to have lightened the sparse tension that had been hanging in the air after me and Vulmer's conversation moments before.

The comfortable silence doesn’t last long as I hear the approaching sounds of bustling city life. I can feel my tail start to flick excitedly underneath my lab coat. There were any number of voices coming clearly into my hearing range. I began to get excited, my ears flicking from side to side in a vain effort to decipher any of the voices. I noticed Aliz giving me a look as I turned my head from side to side in an attempt to hear better. She looked a little amused and I realized that the rest of them likely couldn’t hear what I was hearing right now.

“I guess you know that we’re coming up on the city now. Shouldn’t be long before the city walls come into view.” Aliz says in response to my excitement. As much as I enjoyed the wildlife around here, I would feel a little better with some of the familiar entrapments of civilization. Namely a bed, I was kind of beat.

My desires for comfort vanished the instant I could see the dull flame of torches breaching the tree-line. I maintained my same pace next to Aliz, but I’m positive my tail gave away my excitement.

We approached a great wall made of stone, Torches to either side of a set of large wooden doors. There were guards stationed just outside of the doors, they looked professional, but overall less impressive than my traveling companions. They all had shortsword's and a mixture of leather armor and chainmail. It was armor that was just protective enough for everyday use, but it was all very generic. Looking at it, I was pretty sure that one of the guards at the wall was wearing armor that was a size too big for him. It kind of lessened the threatening nature he had about him. I held in my chuckle, making sure to keep pace with my group. Aliz walked ahead of Astrid and Arthur as they carried the meat and pelt of the Dire Wolf.

Approaching the guards, I could hear Aliz talking with the two guards. There seemed to be a lot of questions about the pelt and the meat, mostly friendly inquisitions from what I could gather. Eventually though, I picked up a brief exchange pertaining to me. My ears flicked gently as I tried to not look interested in their conversation. I could hear a couple of hissed words from Aliz, flicking my eyes over for a second I could see her staring one of the guards down. I could only hope I wasn’t causing Aliz too much trouble by being around.

Eventually, the guards seemed to relent, shaking their heads at Aliz. I saw them turn towards me and I just smiled awkwardly, unsure of what to do under their gaze. Aliz seemed to look at me approvingly, earning her a roll of the eyes from one of the guards. They opened the door for our group, exchanging a few pleasantries with Aliz and some of the others before we left them.

As soon as the doors were open, I tuned them out. I was too focused on the sights. In all honesty, the city looked more lively than I had expected it to. The buildings were properly built and less run down than I might have expected from a near medieval setting like I was in. The streets were cobblestone and the buildings were a mix of stone and wood. Wooden signs hung above shop fronts and I was glad to see that I could read them. I hadn’t been looking forward to potentially learning a new written language. I was lucky enough that we spoke the same. It led me to wonder idly if this language was actually english, or if my memories had changed to accommodate whatever language it actually was. Down that road was only madness though, so I focused instead on the types of shops nearby.

It was kind of mesmerizing to see all the various shops and buildings around. I’d never been in a town that looked this old. It had a rustic beauty to it. I identified many standard shops I’d expect from a medieval town; Baker, Fishmonger, Butcher, Blacksmith, and plenty of other shops I didn’t necessarily recognize. There was a shop that held these jars full of some form of gel-like liquid and I found myself drawn closer in an attempt to identify the fluid. The sight of waxy bars appearing as I get closer sparks a hint of recognition in my mind.

“Soap?” I ask quietly to myself, getting close and looking into the window at the products. The only other things I could see besides the jars of liquid are the waxy bars of soap sitting among the various boxes. If that’s soap then-, “Liquid soap? Shampoo maybe?” I gasped, recognition filling my eyes. The thought that they might have liquid soap and shampoo actually filled me with relief. It wasn’t something I had thought about since coming here, but now that I was thinking about it I was relieved. It also had my head racing though, liquid soap being here was a surprise. Judging by the surrounding architecture and general vibe of the area, liquid soap should be a couple hundred years away.

“I see you found the Soaper's shop.” I hear Aliz’s amused tone from behind me. I turn back to her, mind only half paying attention to her. I needed to figure out what levels of technology this world had in general. If they had something like soaps, they might have more readily available materials for pharmaceuticals than I originally thought.

“This liquid soap, it doesn’t happen to be Shampoo, does it?” I asked, tone hopeful.

“Shampoo?” Aliz’s confused tone caused my hope to whither a bit. Okay, so, they don’t have shampoo yet. Still though, if they have liquid soap, they’re likely not far off. I turned my eyes back to the shop window to scrutinize the jarred soap in thought. I peeled my eyes away and looked at my new friends from the sun thorns. Looking at their hair, the effects of improper hair care were faint, but there. Idly, I felt myself feeling my own hair and I was pleasantly surprised at the feeling.

I had been walking around all day and I didn’t recall having taken a shower in the last day or so, but this was a new body. My hair was the silkiest and smoothest I’d ever felt it. I hummed in thought, a little sad at the idea that with improper hair care I might lose that feeling. I realized with a start that I hadn’t answered Aliz’s question yet and that the rest of the group were staring.

“Ah, sorry, lost in thought there… It’s like, soap, but for your hair.” I explained, I could feel my tail flicking under my coat. I could see Astrid looking at my hair curiously before feeling her own.

“Is it different?” Aliz said, glancing briefly at the soap behind me.

“Ah, yeah.” I grimaced a bit searching for an explanation, but I was only passingly familiar with this section of hygiene. As it relates to healthcare, body and hair care were just things that I managed in my day to day. Not something I studied like my herbs and surgeries. Still, it was part of the package of personal health and I found myself thinking of ways to introduce this world to shampoo. Personal hygiene went a long way towards mental health, and feeling good mentally improved your overall health. “Regular soap tends to dry out your hair and damage it. Your hair loses a lot of oils that it needs to stay healthy. Shampoo is a kind of soap that’s made for hair, stopping a lot of that from happening.” I explained as best as I could. I had some rough ideas on how to accomplish that, but I’d definitely need to look into what sort of materials they had around here.

“Oh, wow. Is that something you learned about at the school you went to?” Arthur asked. He sounded genuinely impressed.

“Something like that,” I nodded dumbly. The others seem to discuss amongst themselves as we continue down the street.

I glance back at the Soaper’s shop once more, completely oblivious to whatever conversations they were having. I was a doctor and with all of the knowledge I brought from my old world, my mind was swirling with ideas about the good I could do with that knowledge. I already knew that I had plans to advance medicine here, but if I could help in smaller ways here and there I definitely would. I pulled out my journal as we walked, jotting down some tentative ideas on how I would create the first good I’d decided to introduce this world to.

I wasn’t sure how yet, but I was going to make Shampoo.

SylkWeaver

The last of the double updates on time. Will probably switch to singular updates on monday. Unless I write 3 more chapters over the weekend. If that happens, maybe I'll keep up the double updates. We'll see!