Road to Recovery
6th of Autumn YSTR 115
The lizard man in a state where he was half awake and half asleep. His body was worn out and injured but ironically the pain from his injuries kept him from sleeping more than thirty minutes at a time. To keep him from going insane his mind would wander from one odd dream to another. This time he dreamed about an evil potion maker using him as an ingredient. The lizard man was forced to run for his life. Another dream was about being alone in an empty prison and staring at the moon. Of course he would wake up to the voice of Mallow talking to some animals now and then when she was not changing his dressing. The weirdest part was he felt like he was in the wrong body. He had a lot of questions and no answers. This worried him as he slowly recovered.
Days came and went as the man slowly recovered. Though with the woman's knowledge of healing plants the process was faster, though still slower then a healer with magical skills could provide if Mallow had the money for such things. Mallow would at time speak to the man though his responses were rarely what one could consider conversation, though it was more then she got out of her pets. Between taking care of the man, Mallow continued her normal day to day, taking care of her capybaras, tending her small garden, and keeping herself busy in a number of other ways. From time to time though the man would hear her mumbling or singing a strangely haunting nursery rhyme.
The lizard man had no idea how much time had passed by since was sleeping. He struggled to figure out what was a dream and what was reality now since he was able to open his eyes with some level of awareness. As he looked around he saw some odd creatures sitting in front of him and starring at him. It was the first time he had seen capybaras so he figure they were large rodents of some sort. After a brief staring contest he heard Mallow in the background talking to herself. She sounded young and like a bit of an airhead as if she was just speaking her inner thoughts to herself since no one else was listening. For some reason it made him chuckle a bit Unfortunately this reminded him he was still injured. He feeling pain and soreness in his leg and back as he tried to move a bit. Then he began to wonder where he was and as he did he realized he didn't know who he was or anything before hearing Mallow's voice when he was dying.
Then he noticed his hands were reptilian and this made him feel scared. He touched his face and looked at his body to realize he was a reptile man. He muttered nervously, "Something is very wrong here!" Then he tried to get up but the pain in his back and leg reminded him he was going no where. As he lay weak and helpless on the ground he realized he needed help and he was now indebted to the young horned girl who saved him. He wondered if he was given a second chance to atone for his sins in the past since it felt like he was cursed.
"Oh, you're awake." Mallow said chipper as always. "Do you need water? Something to eat? Do you need to sit up?" she questioned him rapidly but seemingly not on purpose. "I can get you whatever you need." she said, picking up the chubby Capybara sitting at the end of Rippers bed. "You'll get used to that if you stick around a while. They are curious little things, and enjoy just relaxing." she said. The young woman then stood there waiting to know what the man needed. "Oh...if anything hurts let me know I can go pick some black sage."
The lizard man waited till the excited girl finished talking before he could try to get a word in. She was full of energy and very chatty, especially to a stranger like himself. He then nodded as he spoke with a raspy voice, "Food and water please." As she fetched them for him he then asked, "Thanks for saving me......but.......can you tell me where I am? I can't remember anything but your voice while I was sleeping. Do you know what happened to me?" The lizardman was confused but his reptilian face made it hard to see his emotions. However his eyes expressed confusion like that of a child.
Mallow sat the small plate on his lap, it wasn't much but it looked good. "You're a little outside Broken Wheel." she said. Seeing he still seemed a bit confused. "It's not to well known, so if you've not heard of it it's not crazy to imagine." she added as she pet one of the other capybaras. "I'm not really sure on details of what happened, I think you might have been mistaken for an animal and were shot. You were pretty banged up too though so you and your poor horse musta limped along for quite sometime before I found you." she explained. "But Gideon...he's the one who took the arrows out. Nice but no nonsense you'll probably meet him someday. Well Gideon said they weren't tipped for hunting. Seemed more like something used in combat, but I don't really know anything about that."
The lizard man rubbed his chin as he listened to Mallow's words. He sipped the water to quench his parched throat and swallow the lump in his throat that pain him. This was a lot to take in for him since he was starting behind square one now. He had no idea who he was, where he was, he had no resources and he was wounded, so life was already a big challenge. He wondered if he was being hunted by someone and did he do something to deserve it? He looked at the sweet girl Mallow and replied, "I see............... well I am in your debt. I don't have any memories so I will find a way to repay you somehow.....when I can move better. So like what do you do here miss?" The lizard man was not sure how to address Mallow so he was hoping she would tell him. Hec he didn't even know his own name.
"You can call me Mallow, like the plant. I'm not fancy enough for a miss." she said. "I do a lot of forging, sell my medical herbs and poultices to those who can't afford healers. Catch Yabbies and sell those too." She said, "But..." she started her voice turning serious but still very 'baby-talk' type voice. "Don't just go out picking stuff and hunting critters." she said. "Around here we got a illness called 'The Blight' it's like an infection, I'm not really sure what it does, but I can't heal it, and the magical healer folk that can, it's to expensive for normal folk to afford." she said. "I'll teach you about it once you are up and about but you have to take special care."
The lizard man ate slowly as he listened to Mallow introduce herself and explain the basics of life in Broken Wheel. He was surprised that they had such odd rules in a rural location. Apparently Mallow was a forager and "Yabby" breeder, or whatever they were. This was all new to him so he still had more questions for later on. However the Blight Curse made him uncomfortable since it sounded scary and made his chest hurt as he thought about it. After swallowing his food and washing it down with some water he moved his coverings to reveal an odd black tattoo of a serpent on his right pectoral mussel. It felt wrong and sore as he touched it. He looked at Mallow and asked, "Do you know what this is?"
Mallow leaned in close, her horns very close to the man's face as she looked at it. "Nope. But I know a few people who may know. Gideon might have some direction to point us, and this lady who works with him knows stuff about magic." Mallow leaned back up and touched it. "I can tell you it's newish." her finger tip lightly touched the outer edge. "If it hurts I can make something to help." she offered.
The lizard man nodded as he replied, "Thanks......its kind of tender even though there does not seem to be any real damage. I wonder if it was some kind of burn or tattoo." The lizard man could smell Mallow's hair and was intrigued that she smelled like plants. He wondered if that was because she worked with herbs and plants for healing others. It felt weird that he was not smelling her with his nose but his tongue now. He didn't know why it was odd, but if felt unnatural for some reason. Then he thought about her name and the guy named Gideon she mentioned before and it occurred to him that he had no name. He looked at Mallow with confusion and asked, "You wouldn't by chance know my name or what I was called do you?"
Mallow's face flashed to sadness, "I'm sorry, but I don't. We can discuss it and if we can't figure it out, you can just come up with a new name." she said. Mallow pointed out a window, "I know you can't see it from here but I got a lot of little friends outside, I named all of them so I'm sure in time you'll get a name you can like, and if you ever remember you're name from before. Well we can just start calling you that, or stick with the new name. The choice will be yours to make." she said before going back to a smile. "It's weird, not bad weird just weird, I've never seen a lizard-folk like you before, but then again. Most folk haven't seen a satyr like me." she said holding out her mismatched arms. "Don't worry to much though, Broken Wheel and the towns around it are where the misfits go."
Jaxx — 02/19/2023 11:20 PM
The lizard man looked at Mallow as she explained that they were both different from the norm. Oddly enough he had images of lizard people in his mind for some odd reason and he realized he was lacking a tail compared to them. He reached behind to see if it was cut off but he felt no scar tissue and realized he was not normal. Then he looked at his hand and saw his black claws and imagined them ripping his enemies apart. It was an unpleasant thought as he looked up at Mallow who was exposing her odd sized arms to him. She was a sweet and honest girl and this made him feel small since he had no clue what kind of guy he was in the past. For all he knew, he could have been a criminal, a killer or worse. Perhaps he was cursed because of that and he had to make amends to undo the curse. Granted it was a silly thought, but he wondered if it was a possibility. Then he looked at Mallow's face and asked her, "Could you give me a name for now? I can't think of anything right now. Its fine if its just a nick name. I am sure it will be better than 'Hey You' ", The lizard man replied.
Mallow twisted her lips a bit, "I don't think I can do that..." she said. "At least not right now. We just met and I don't know you well enough." Mallow added. "We'll come up with something together when you are more ready to be on your feet again." she said.
The lizardman nodded at Mallow who seemed a bit antsy. Perhaps he overstepped his bounds with her. The last thing he wanted to do was upset his benefactor out of ignorance. Hoping to not upset her, he dropped the topic and cleaned up his dish and cup. He set them to the side and said, "Thanks for the meal. I will work off my debt to you as best as I can once I am able to move properly." Then the lizardman looked at his hands which felt alien to himself. They were hard and scaly like a reptile. His claws felt sharp and strong, as if he was designed to hunt living things. Granted he had no memory of his past but he felt he was not like this before. Perhaps with time he would find more answerers to his situation, however he hoped he would not bring trouble to Mallow. She was a nice girl who saved him despite going through a lot of trouble. Then he felt the need to sit up and cross his legs while focusing on his breathing. This felt natural as he found himself meditating and blanking his mind out of all thoughts and only focusing on his breathing. It felt natural to meditate and that he had done it a lot in his past. Perhaps he was a monk in his past? It was a small matter now since he needed to focus on recovering before he could aid Mallow and undergo her training.