Azereiah

The Two Sides

@Fionraella

Brick was visibly embarrassed. He'd missed the single most obvious answer to the honey problem, and it had been right in front of his nose.
"Huh. That's right. I've been building up this list of junk to get in town, and I completely forgot they had honey there..."

Brick mixed some of the usnea and bee balm as well, trying to match the exact consistency that Destin had reached with his own. After succeeding, he looked up again. A tiny hint of bloodlust mixed in with his eagerness to help others as his thoughts came together, but he suppressed it.

"It'd be really nice if all these fools would stop trying to murder eachother. Seems that Aya doesn't even know why it all started, but there's a lot of bad blood for something so... Meaningless. So, I'd like your help with something."

He heard the shouting outside the medical tent. Misha and Kianna were going at it. Good thing Misha was unarmed - he guessed she'd have charged by now had she not been.

The Two Sides

@Fionraella

Brick watched intently as Destin explained and showed how he prepared the medicines. He'd have to repay the boy somehow - just a stash of herbs wasn't nearly enough in exchange for life-and-death knowledge.

"I expect there aren't many large sources of honey nearby. Just the occasional hive."

The Two Sides

@Fionraella

Brick nodded at the explanations. He understood the concepts, but the bee balm looked an awful lot like purple clover to him, and the mallow seemed a bit too close to a normal flower for him. He didn't think he'd be comfortable harvesting either until he'd handled both a lot more often. Perhaps a book on local herbs would be a good idea. And maybe some books on wilderness medicine and alternative medicine. Those also went on the list of things to get in town. At this rate, he felt he would run out of money very quickly, but he didn't really care. He could always make more if he had to.

"I've seen that usnea stuff around a little. It clings to trees and fallen logs, right?"

The Two Sides

@Fionraella

"Sorta like one of those allergy dot tests - just a lot deeper, if you'll pardon the expression. That'd be perfect. And if there is an allergic reaction, I can just clean it out with water."

Brick looked over the herbs that Destin was gathering, recognizing a few of them, but not all of them. He pointed out the three unknown ones to Destin. "Haven't learned about those yet."

The Two Sides

@Fionraella

"Don't really care about the smell. It's a good chance to learn relatively safely, and if anyone complains about it, that's too bad. If I don't need to close this thing up, then that just means that I can learn to keep it clean myself."

Brick rapped his fingers on his head in thought. He picked up a mortar and pestle from the pile of supplies, and grabbed a small container of water to add to the mixture.

"Could try doing a little bit of everything. There's more than enough space on this cut to get a good sampling of what a few different combinations feel like and what they do, and I'm not exactly in any danger either way."

The Two Sides

@Fionraella

"Never stitched anything but leather, I'm afraid. I've watched people do it a few times, but for the most part, the injuries I've seen have all been blunt force trauma. Still, I can't possibly do anything worse than what they did back in the old days - lavender beats goat dung any day. In any case - I do have something in mind. Lacerations seem like they'd be really common out here, be they from knives or arrowheads."

Brick tapped his foot and waited a moment before speaking. He wasn't entirely comfortable with doing this, since Misha was Destin's friend, but he didn't want to be seen as a hypocrite. "I happen to have a prime example of one that I need to treat. It was late enough that any clinics that'd take my health insurance weren't open, and both you and Aya were out of commission. Got it while I was... erm... Calming Misha down. By force."

He shook his head in annoyance as he said the last bit. He really hated having to hurt people, no matter how much he loved fighting.

"No arteries, veins, or nerves damaged. Mostly muscle tissue and skin. Low chance of infection, since both me and my clothes were clean, and I'm up to date on every sort of shot and booster I would need. I'd like to treat this one myself, with your instruction. If I screw it up, I'm going to the town up north for professional treatment."

With that, he removed his shirt to reveal an eight-inch-long gash across his chest. It had already totally clotted, but he needed to ensure that it would heal properly.

The Two Sides

@Fionraella

Brick nodded in agreement with Destin's appraisal of the morons who hadn't sought treatment, though he knew it wasn't completely that simple. "No shame in getting things checked out. But not everyone realizes something's wrong in the first place. I found out that out the fun way, myself. Took a really hard hit to the back from a polearm one day, didn't even feel it. Walked back to my camp after the fighter practice was over, went to bed. Woke up in the morning to find a waffle-shaped blood stain on the sheets from where the chainmail cut me to ribbons - through my tunic, at that. Was lucky it wasn't something worse."

He tapped his foot and shifted in his seat a bit.

"Anyway, let's get back to the medicine tent. You need herbs, and I'd like to learn to keep these idiots alive a bit longer."

He noticed the commotion between Sacha and a newcomer, but appropriately appraised it as being not his problem. He had enough on his plate that morning.

The Two Sides

@Fionraella

Brick noticed Destin's apparent mild indignation, and gave zero shits at all. He leaned down and tilted Destin's head upwards towards the sky as he examined the kid's eyes. He moved his hand to block the light coming down on Destin's face, then moved his hand back away.

"...Normal eye dilation. Good."

A single sharp tap just under the kneecap followed. Nothing wrong there, either.

"And your reflexes are normal too. Also good. No immediately noticeable damage to the sympathetic nervous system. Now, if you could do a few jumping jacks for me and tell me if the headache comes back or worsens, that'd be great. Just trying to get a feel for whether that headache you mentioned was from exhaustion or from something you'd need to get to a real clinic for."

Brick sat down on the bench and eyed Destin. "Pardon my caution. I saw plenty of injuries back when I was in the SCA. Beating eachother with vaguely weapon-shaped sticks'll do a body plenty of harm, even if you're wearing heavy armor. While I might not know anything of healing yet, I do know what brain damage looks like, and I'd say that about a third of the people who get concussed or overheated didn't want to get checked out and passed out on their way back to their tent. Some of those morons were even doctors."

The Two Sides

@Fionraella

"Not too worried about the berries. Ever since I went ape on Misha yesterday, I've been craving nothing but salad, leaves, and bamboo. Oh, and... Before we do anything else, come on outside to the campfire with me for a bit, eh? You're out of the woods, but I'd like to make sure there's nothing that'll cause long term problems for you."

Brick turned to walk over to one of the higher makeshift seats and motioned for Destin to join him.

The Two Sides

@Fionraella

"Aya gave me the basic rundown on what does what around here. Lavender, echinacea, elderberry, and peppermint. I had been hoping to have her teach me how to use some of it, but more important matters came up."

He stroked his beard in thought.

"Honestly, I have only the vaguest idea of how to use any of it. I remember seeing 'lavender oil' as a topical anesthetic in the 'alternative medicine' aisle of a grocery store at some point, but if I tried to extract that or anything on my own, I'd probably burn down the camp - and if I tried to use it without doing anything special, it'd probably just amount to me rubbing leaves on peoples' cuts."

He looked at Destin, examining him for any signs of excessive fatigue and such. Brick's mind wandered a little bit, and he remembered Destin mentioned a headache. He'd have to check that out.