‘H-how— Where—’ I can’t understand.

 

‘Why do they have a bath-house!?’

 

I see the neat square shelves with neatly folded towels, the blue-painted wooden lockers, the curtains separating the female and male entrances… It boggles my mind where in this world of fantasy this came from, the place feels like it’s supposed to belong in the middle ages, but at the same time… not. I can only speculate on the actual level of technology they have here, I doubt I can even start comparing at the same scale of Earth, seeing as they could have developed in completely different ways and forms that I'm not aware of..

 

‘I’ll… I’ll leave that line of questioning for later.’ I tell myself tiredly. On the flipside, at least it won’t be a cold water bucket bath.

 

The old lady, tucking her long braided hair out of the way, comes back from wherever she went holding a simple, white and beige one piece dress and women’s undergarments. ‘Shit… she’s going to have me wear that thing, won't she?’

Ah… the joys of internal screaming.

 

Before I could protest she'd already pulled off the dirt-crusted shirt I was wearing ‘wait— lady, I’m more than capable of cleaning myself, wait WAIT—’ *splash* and pushed me into the bath.

The warm water weighed my long hair down, entering and flowing through all crevices and sensitive areas. I got embarrassedly surprised when the water immediately began turning a dirty black color as soon as I got in. 

 

Rolling up her sleeves. She paused a bit when looking at my horns and tail. ‘I honestly forgot I had them for a second’ But she took it in stride and moved on with practiced motions.

She scrubbed me raw with water and a soap stone, muttering something the whole time. Despite the rough treatment, I could feel layers of… something, being peeled off my skin, feeling like it could finally breathe for once in god knows how long. At least she’s extra careful with my new appendages, she’s likely not used to seeing people with those.

 I did my best to hide my private parts and protest to do it myself, but alas, my efforts were fruitless.

 

…If anyone asks, having your horns brushed and polished is definitely not weirdly relaxing.

 

——— –– –– -- - -

 

We get out of the bath-house. My skin feels strangely smooth, and not because of the lack of body hair.

 

‘When was the last time I actually took a bath?... I don’t think getting drenched in rain water doesn’t count.’ I take a sniff of myself, there’s a soft smell of petals. ‘I feel… flowery?’

 

If there was a mirror inside I did not get the chance to inspect myself, not that i’m vain or anything, but the… dress, I am wearing suspiciously fit perfectly on me, either i’m seeing things or I don’t know Maybe she has a stockpile of unused clothes laying around?

 

Aside my tail that lifts the back of the skirt uncomfortably awkwardly, the dress is mainly one big piece of single white fabric with a circle skirt that hangs off the shoulders like a sleeveless shirt, seemingly without any stitches or seam lines inside or outside, decorated only with a fancy woven belt at the waist to hold it together. She also gave me a pair of sandals that I  guess are made out of woven fiber from some sort of plant and pieces of scrap leather. I still don’t understand how she put these on me with the dozen different laces that tie themselves up to my calves, at least they won’t fall off easily.

 

As for how the underwear had to communicate with my tail taking getting in the way behind me… that’s best left unsaid.

 

Uncle Elf was already waiting outside, now I wonder how long I spent inside, ‘...Did he wait long? Too long? What’s next?‘ Now I wish he could’ve had the time to teach more words, granted I wouldn’t be able to become fluent in Elvish in a couple of weeks? Months? Without any frame of reference or a dictionary, but every passing second I live without being able to convey anything to them is growing increasingly frustrating… I sigh.

 

Gaviel thanks her for taking care of me, or at least I assume he did by the hand gesture he made while speaking with her, and leads me away again to another place. I don’t notice his pause to glare strangely at something in the distance.

 

While we are walking, I distract myself with my surroundings again, observing the village around me.

The main pathways, or roads, that flowed through and around the village.although they just looked like packed dirt, it feels like i’m walking on solid stone instead. And they don’t have a single bump or imperfection, smooth lines and curves across everything, and they have small grooves carved on the whole surface of it for grip.

Looking around, I can’t see much if any use of visible iron or steel on their things, aside decoration and objects that simply wouldn’t work without the certainty of steel, like arrowheads and knives, all else has wood as it’s main material, instead of bolts and nails they use wood pins and structure pieces that seamlessly fit together.

Actually, aside the space between buildings, most things have a sort of natural, but sculpted look. Not unlike a garden. Heck, some of these houses look like what a bonsai would look like, if it was made by a 15 meter tall giant, a giant that decided to craft a miniature home inside a tree full of furniture and complete with a chimney…

 

Speaking of which, it looks like that’s exactly where we are heading.

 

——— –– –– -- - -

 

The door does a soft jingle as we pass through it, there’s a white cylindrical bell attached to it.

 

I’m hit by the smell of an indescribable amount of chemical stank suffused through the air that is being poorly masked by cleaning agents and perfume at an attempt of sterilization. I scrunch my face in disgust and try to rub the nasty out of my sinuses, though Gaviel seems unaffected as he announces our arrival. The place looks like a lived-in apothecary. Shelves going all the way up to the ceiling with jars and containers of all sorts with weird and preserved things on them, along with menial items that you’d find in a dormitory, brushes, clothes, shoes, and papers scattered across the place.

 

‘What is wrong with thi—’ “—Eep!” I hear a deranged laughter behind me before I’m suddenly lifted up by my armpits.

“OH-YOHOHohehaha!? Oh ⨊;/⩭⩍██%$ ][⫁who⨮@████#⨅@#$%██kid⫰μ?” I get turned around, sideways, and upside down, getting my limbs limply thrown around like some doll inspection. ‘’Eh? Hey!— A-awawaaahAAAAAH!?”. 

*SMACK*

 

I hear a smack as a different pair of hands take me away from the whirlpool, and I get gently set on solid ground again.

 

Gathering my bearings, I look back to the assailer.

There’s a man, a very, very tall man, taller than Uncle Elf even, wearing a weird sweater that went past his knees, a poncho and an apron so stained it looks like one of those custom resin phone cases from how colorful it is… I can see his bare legs, he’s barefoot… and I don’t know what to think and I'm not inclined to look, but it feels like he’s not wearing any pants either.

His hair is… blonde? It looks a faded blue-ish, similar to old dyed hair that started losing the artificial color. He has a very rectangular face that gets very pronounced by his overall thickness. And he is wearing a pair of big round glasses, the glass is smooth and clear… but I can see the dirtiness of the lenses even from here.

 

Gaviel is talking to him in that no nonsense tone while glaring. The person that was manhandling me a moment later has a sheepish grin on his face that looks completely unrepentant.

 

They went back and forth for a while until they both turned towards me. “W-what is it?” Gaviel sighed, running a hand down his face and making a “go on” gesture to the guy in the apron who smiled like he just won a puppy for a birthday present.

 

They set me on top of a reclined bed that was behind some wooden panels that sectioned the room off. ‘Is this shifty guy supposed to be some sort of doctor?’

He then pulled out a comically sized magnifying glass with multiple layers, levers, and gizmos encrusted with what looked like runes and keychains. With the huge size it looked more like a staff than anything else.

‘What the fuck is that. What are you going to do with it— with me—’ “W-wait!” I throw my hands up in the air as he closes the gap between us in one single step and bends down to look at me with the contraption. He flicks the gears and shifts the lenses here and there while peering at me, prodding mainly at my horns and tails with another set of silver things he had pulled out of a drawer.

I don’t know why or how he did it, but getting poked between the insides and under the scales of my tail did not feel good.

 

——— –– –– -- - -

 

The impromptu… checkup? Medical analysis? Status report? Left me wanting for another bath, even despite the embarrassment I would suffer there, I feel both dirty and violated from how many places and things the creep had me do.

Dental inspection, ocular rating, auditory, hair, feet, hands, nails, skin, muscles…

…Down there. *shiver*

 

Not that I want to badmouth him much, he hasn't been anything but very polite, understanding and careful during his examinations… But the fervor behind his un-rimmed glasses, and the ragged breath he had as he sped writing through pages of notes as we finished, set many, many red flags in my head…

 

If there’s one thing that is universal across worlds is privacy is a funny word that physiotherapists do not know the meaning of.

 

I tried protesting at first, having no idea of what was going on, almost managed to land a punch on the creep’s jaw, but then he goes and slaps my face with some acrid smelling powder and my whole body goes numb. And he had the gall play with my body— no, not like that, get your head out of the gutter. …taking my hands and waving them around like I’m some teddy bear.

Throwing some pleading looks to Uncle Gaviel –‘Hmm, that’s a new one… Since when did I start calling him that? Oh well, it doesn't matter anyway… Uncle is Uncle.’– made him throw a thumbs up with a blank face and pursed lips. He turned his head aside when I began glaring at him instead. ‘Traitor!’

 

When it was all said and done, the doctor gave me a candy that tasted something like coconut-apple with sugar, it was chewy and crunchy… and tasty. And he only gave me one…

 

He’s still a creepy doctor without boundaries but he’s redeemable at least.

 

——— –– –– -- - -