"We're almost done!" said Doc reaching for a wineskin and offering it to Zakiyah, "Take a swig of this and rest easy! My medicinal version of Cannard will help numb the pain for at least a day! By that time, you should be completely healed."Thanks, I'd rather die, Zak thought, looking at the wineskin.
One of the attendants spoke up saying, "Uh Doc, Sarge and the Captain are here."
"Good, maybe they can shed some light on what War Scribe's little pet here!" replied Doc with complete cynicism in his voice. "Keep an eye on the woman, I'll be right back!"
"PET?!" Zakiyah scowled at Doc's retreating back, outraged. Ohhh...men...
Shaking his head a little, Doc confessed, "Hell, I'm not even sure if she's alive! I mean, granted she's breathing and all, but I can't find a pulse on her anywhere! Add to that the fact that she's missing a set of lower ribs, some organs aren't where they should be, and she's got a slower heartbeat than a Marakian sloth--and what you have on your hands, gentlesirs, is a minor medical miracle. I can't make head nor tails of her anatomy! Heck, she just don't add up!"
Zak overheard most of this speech, and couldn't help giggling a little. Served him right, the bonehead...but at least he sounded a little more legitimate. She sniffed at the contents of the wineskin curiously, and her eyes watered at the pungent fumes wafting out of it. Still, it did smell vaguely medicinal, and she thought something to dull the pain might be a welcome idea...she took a swig and managed to swallow a gulp or two of it before the burning struck her gullet. Sterling chose that moment to enter the tent.
"ZAKIYAH! WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE!?!" cried Sterling in pure disbelief.
Zak spit out the mouthful of "medicine" in shock, coughing and wheezing. "Sterling?!" she said, when she could finally speak again, her face burning. "What are YOU doing here?" Her mind chugged along...a little sluggishly...and made the connection. She blinked hard. "You're back in command of the Shadow Riders?? but...how....? Nevermind, you can tell me later..." She was so relieved that she could have hugged him, dispite their annoying previous encounter. She felt giddy and lightheaded at the sudden reversal.
The burning reached her gullet and started becomming a warm fuzzy feeling instead. It occurred to Zak that she hadn't had a drink in over five centuries, or anything to eat in several hours, and that probably made her something of a lightweight. It also dulled the part of her that cared about such things, and she grinned the two of him happily.
Then she scowled as she remembered WHY she was here in the first place, and poked him in the chest with an unsteady finger. "You didn' warn me about the Swamp and it makin' nemeses," she said, her voice a little sleepy-sounding now. "War Scribe came after me and killed me! And now I fin' out that she knows you all and is friens with ya- thanks a heap! But I kilt her to, deader'n a doorrnail-- didja know she's like me an' can't die? Val liked her and NOW I'm stuck with her as an assisssan'...*HIC!* I mean assistant!" She turned meltingly pathetic green eyes on him, looking for sympathy. "I gotta teach her t'be a *HIC* Lorekeeper'n' everything! She's nuts, that's what, an' she brought me here an' now she's gettin' my book for me. Wher'd she go, annyway?"
Alcohol had not improved her ability to tell a tale, and she wondered why the two Sterlings looked so confused...
"Oh, ne'ermind....Jus' don' let that mean ol' ki..chur..chiurg.. *HIC* quack keep pokin' at me anymore, I'm FINE now, jus' a lil' sore, s'all! You'd be too if someone shot you dead an' then stabbed ya dead twice inna same day, gonna have SCARS from that!" She pointed to her chest unsteadily, giving him a gander of her ample cleavage in the bargain. "See?"
Somewhere on another plain, there was a god who was rolling on the floor in laughter, but luckily, he wasn't of the thunder god variety.
