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Anathema, Enemies and Others.	By : Proofreader-1962 Category: +A through F > Exalted RPG Views: 1741 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own the rights of the Exlated RPG setting, comics nor novels and make no money from writing this story. Though if well received here I may attempt to convince White Wolf to Publish for profit. In which case this would have to be deleted.

Chapter List
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4 First Supper
“She’s just a child, Melaine!” the Anathema hissed in a low tone outside the tent. I almost couldn’t hear him, “She exalted less than a season ago! She never trained to be a warrior until two months ago! I’m going to peel a wide strip of skin off someone! She’s nowhere near ready to be on a battle field—despite her skill with that oversized Daik . . . .” the rest of his speech was lost to my ears. I think they may have been walking away from the tent.
A few minutes later a woman with greying black hair, brown eyes and a plush figure came into the tent. “Lady Kari, I’m Melaine. Laissa will be here shortly. Master Sky has assigned us to care for you. Did he explain your injuries to you?”
“Yes, he did.” I replied.
“Well then, Just so you understand, when you sleep tonight we are tasked with waking you every two hours to make sure that you are not becoming comatose. Master Sky says that as a Dragon-Blood you’re very unlikely to become comatose, but in medical matters he prefers to err on the side of caution. So, please understand, we would do this with anyone who has a concussion injury. Laissa is bringing food, tea and water for you to have some supper. But before she arrives, do you need to relieve your bladder or bowels?”
I felt the blush on my face when she asked the question, but I also became aware of an uncomfortable need for a latrine, “Oh . . . yes. I need to . . . AAAHHH!” the discomfort in my chest turned to a sharp pain as I attempted to rise from the cot I was laying on.
“Lady Kari! Please wait for me to help you rise!” She was suddenly by my cot helping me. Her arms supporting my back and helping me reach a sitting position, “Laissa, or I, can help you get up with as little stress as possible on your ribs. Tell us when you need to get up and we will help, understand?”
“Yes, Melaine,” I gasped as the pain started to recede.
“Here, My Lady,” she handed me a chamber pot. I blushed again and then blushed even more deeply, when I realized that I was naked save for the tightly wrapped bandages around my chest. “Where are my clothes?”
There were several clacking sounds, like tree limbs smacking into each other behind me as Melaine answered, “They’re being washed. Now use the pot and get situated on your cot. We’ve got extra pillows to make it easier to sit . . . .”
“Supper is here!” announce a clear soprano voice as the tent flaps parted to let a large tray and the green haired woman bearing it to enter. “We have dried fruit, a little fresh fruit, greens, squash, beans of some sort, bread, soft cheese, hard cheese, tea, wine, and some pork that may be edible if we soak a few pounds of salt out of it!” she announced brightly. “Ah, she’s awake and sitting up! Are you ready for supper, Mistress?” I’m in the middle of trying to use a chamber pot with two strangers in the tent with me and she asks me if I’m ready to eat? It was all too strange. I felt like I was going to burst, but couldn’t start and the frustration caused new tears to sting my eyes. Laissa set the tray on a field table and stood straight again, “Melaine, I think she’s pee-shy.”
“Mmmm, I think you’re right. Well, there’s only one cure.” Melaine opined.
I heard Melaine shifting some things behind where I was sitting on the edge of my cot (strange that I was already thinking of it as “my cot”) and then she passed a second chamber pot to Laissa . Laissa promptly hiked her skirt up around her hips and then squatted over the chamber pot and released a stream which noisily shot into the pot. Almost immediately my own stream started and in short order I had bodily relief, but emotional upset. “I . . . I’m so . . . that is . . . .”
Melaine and Laissa both chuckled and Melaine then said, “It’s natural Mistress Kari. We all start that way, but in a military company we must overcome that shyness, that minor humiliation, because going off privately to pass water can put us at risk of becoming a casualty—should an enemy catch one in such a vulnerable moment. Eventually, you’ll have to be able to relieve yourself in front of the men under your command—though most usually, they will give a modicum of privacy by not looking directly at you.”
Melaine came about my cot and set the two chamber pots outside the tent. I appraised the two women who were washing their hands by the time I spoke, “You’re jesting with me, aren’t you?”
Laissa answered while Melaine was dividing the various viands between three plates, “Not at all. In camp there are latrines dug for convenience and a little privacy, but in the field being outside the view of you own troops is dangerous and being so with your pants about your ankles is doubly so.”
I had not thought of those possibilities and I could feel my cheeks heating with embarrassment as I thought about them now. “I suppose getting killed behind a bush while trying to . . . to . . . relieve oneself would be an embarrassing way to die,” I said.
“Aye, that’s true. Though, many young soldiers have learned that lesson the hard way—fortunately their embarrassment was brief.” Melaine said as she passed me a plate of food. For a while we ate our supper in silence. The pork was salty, but not as bad as Laissa had implied. The rest of the meal was excellent.
After our supper Laissa gathered the plates while I gathered my courage to ask, “What will he do with me?”
“Master Sky? Well to begin with he will see you healed and healthy,” Melaine said, “after that, I don’t know. I don’t think he knows yet, himself. We seldom capture prisoners worth parole and ransom and I don’t think we’ve ever caught a Dragon-Blood who didn’t have someone eager and able to get her back, but that is a problem to solve later. Right now our problem is to get you a few hours of sleep.”
“But, I just woke up!”
“I’d say you ‘came to from a beating,’ but it doesn’t matter really. It’s night and time to sleep for those who do not have watches to stand. So, that means you and Laissa will lay down and try to sleep,” Melaine replied as she set about removing the extra pillows behind my back and readjusting my cot so the top was no longer bent upright like a chair back behind me. When did that happen?
“The cot bends?” I asked.
“Oh, yes, it is one of Master Sky’s inventions. The cots can act as chairs or beds with just a few seconds to adjust them,” Laissa said from her own cot that I could see behind my own; now that Melaine was getting me laid down to sleep. “Master Sky has many of his inventions in use about the camp. I’ve found that most people get accustomed to them qui . . . ckly,” Laissa yawned the last word.
I was going to ask more questions, but Melaine said, “Go to sleep, Lady Kari.” Thanks to the damned collar I did so—immediately.
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Anathema, Enemies and Others.