“I’m sorry to keep you so late, Eris… I wasn’t expecting our usual foraging spots to be so empty,” Petrichor sighed, sorting through their basket which sat on the kitchen counter. They meticulously separated out the different species of mushrooms from each other and the various nuts, herbs, and fruits that the two had also gathered from the surrounding woods.
Eris waved their hand dismissively, packing away their tools into their bag. “Oh, it’s fine, Petri. You know I love exploring the forest, especially when I have such great company.” The two had met up outside of Petrichor’s home early that morning and spent a little more time than usual trying to forage. It couldn’t have been helped, for some reason any spot the two usually checked out seemed to be picked clean of anything forageable. It wasn’t all that uncommon to find a fellow Chowling or even a human venturing into the forest on a fair day like it was today but it had rained overnight which usually deterred most of them. “I’m just extremely surprised at how far we had to walk in order to find anything! I was worried we’d get lost for a second,” Eris laughed lightly.
Petrichor turned, a peculiarly long mushroom in their hand, and scoffed. “Please… you get lost in these woods? That’s almost impossible!” They also laughed and placed the mushroom off with some others on the counter, having finished cleaning it under the running tap of the sink. “You know these trees like the back of your hand.” They wiped their hands on their apron and fully turned around to look at Eris. “Be safe on your way back home, okay? I know you can take care of yourself but… I’d still be worried even if you had three armored Fighters walking you home!”
The two of them laughed at their joke as Eris made their way to the front door. “I will, don’t worry. It’s like you said, I know these woods after all,” they reassured Petri. “It’s not even that dark, but I have to get going before the sun fully sets.”
Petrichor nodded before remembering to ask, “Of course! I’ll see you at the market tomorrow?” The biweekly Farmers’ Market was the reason for their foraging today and even though Eris doesn’t often run their own stall, they never missed one when they were back in town from their “traveling witch” job.
Eris made their way out of the house, making sure to call back, “I’ll be there!” before the thick, wooden door closed behind them. Now it was just a matter of walking all the way back home. Unfortunately, Eris’ and Petrichor’s homes were on opposite ends of town from each other which meant Eris had quite a ways to walk.
As their feet crunched on the leaf and grass covered ground, Eris thought about their next trip out of town. Their job was practically never-ending, there was always another town or city out there that needed assistance or a family that needed medicine for their sick child. Eris sighed… It was a hard job but one they couldn’t imagine not doing.
Eris kept following the familiar trail through the woods as the sun kept slowly setting. The amber light peeking through the trees’ canopy fading the longer they kept walking forward. It didn’t scare them. They had taken this trail thousands of times throughout their life and there was nothing in these woods that they didn’t know about.
However… a sharp sound jolted Eris out of their own thoughts. It sounded like a twig breaking under the weight of something. It wasn’t uncommon for them to come across animals while they walked so they almost shrugged it off but then…
A faint, strained sound that sounded awfully like struggling breathing drifted towards them right after.
Eris quickly stepped off the path, moving toward whatever it was. They would never be able to forgive themself if they left an animal or person struggling in the woods. They pushed past the overgrown brush and took care when stepping over the still-damp roots of the trees that towered over them. The closer they got to… whatever it was, the louder the heavy breathing started to sound.
Then, as the final light of the setting sun vanished, Eris finally found what it was that was making all of that noise.
To their horror, a young-looking man was hunched over on his knees as one of his hands clutched his own face. Eris took a step closer, the brush rustling which signaled their arrival to the man on the ground. He snapped his head up to look at where the sound came from, finally allowing Eris to see what exactly was wrong with him.
Blood dripped down his face slowly, as if he had been bleeding for a while. Through the blood and deep cuts that Eris could barely see due to his hand that still covered up the majority of his face, they noticed the tell-tale facial markings of a Chowling.
The man kept staring at Eris as they made their way closer to him. It was clear to them that he was scared beyond belief but still tried to appear stand-offish despite it all.
“H-hello,” Eris breathed out, kneeling down to his level once they were a few feet from him not wanting to get too close in case they spooked him. “I can help you. I have healing salves and bandages in my bag. What’s your name…?” they asked as they slowly opened up their bag to find the things they needed to dress his wounds.
The strange man kept staring at them, watching their every move before gingerly… leaning back on his legs and finally sitting on the ground. He couldn’t run even if he tried, he was sore all over and the amount of blood he had lost was making him a bit dizzy. He still kept his hand over his face though so when he finally spoke it came out muffled, “... You can call me Dotty.”
Eris shuffled closer now that it was clear to them that he was becoming more comfortable with their presence. They produced a soft cloth and a canteen full of water from their bag. Quickly wetting the cloth with the water, they carefully reached forward, dabbing “Dotty’s” cheek delicately as they tried to clean up the area a little. “That… isn’t your real name, is it?” they asked but with no hint of persistence in their tone.
“Dotty” glanced at Eris’ face before looking back at the ground. “It’s not,” he said bluntly.
As they kept wiping some of the dried blood from his face, Eris shook their head. “That’s alright… You don’t have to tell me. I just want to help you if you’ll let me,” they said, gesturing their free hand at the part of his face that he covered. “I can’t bandage you out here unfortunately, as good as my eyesight is, but… my home isn’t that far away and you can lean on me for support.”
The man peered back at Eris, a flash of confusion crossing his face but a bit of relief following close behind it. “You don’t know me,” he questioned flatly but he still… slowly removed his hand from his face.
It was worse than Eris had initially thought but they did their best not to show their concern for his well being on their face. Three slightly deeper than superficial cuts spanned across his nose, left eye, and left-side of his lips. It appeared that whatever had happened must have been done more than a few hours ago, the cuts had mostly crusted over with dried blood. And whatever had done this to him couldn’t have been a wild animal… the cuts were too clean for the savagery of bear or wolf. They put the cloth back into their bag, realizing that any further cleaning would need to be done in a more sterile and safe environment. Eris steadily rose back up to their feet as they extended a hand to “Dotty” who looked up at them in confusion.
“Will you come with me to my home? Your injuries are worse than I thought and I can’t fully clean and dress them out here,” Eris asked, doing their best to seem non-threatening. They had no idea what this man had been through and they didn’t want to push him or make him feel trapped.
“Dotty” shifted his eyes from Eris’ face to their hand and back… before he moved his clean hand into their own. He let them help him to his feet as he still felt weak and wobbly from his journey through the woods and the bloodloss. “T…thank you,” he uttered almost silently to them.
A small smile stretched across Eris’ visage. They felt relieved that he was trusting them enough to come with them. “It’s alright, ‘Dotty’... I couldn’t live with myself if I left you here,” they said sincerely. They shifted their body just a bit so that “Dotty” could half-stand, half-lean on their shoulder for support. “I promise it’s not that far.”
The two carefully shuffled back onto the main trail that Eris had previously been on and soon enough, they both were plodding along down it as the dirt under their feet crunched from their weights. Soon enough, they made it to Eris’ cottage where once they both reached the door, Eris quickly grabbed their keyring from their side. The door was soon unlocked which allowed Eris and “Dotty” to enter.
Ah, finally. Home sweet home.
“Come… You can sit on one of the kitchen chairs,” Eris stated, helping a growing-increasingly tired “Dotty” further into the cottage and towards said chairs. It didn’t take long for them to get him to sit on the plush cushion before they rested their bag on the counter behind him, reaching into it and pulling out their cloth, canteen, and bandages once again.
“Dotty” just sat in silence as he allowed Eris to clean up his bloodied and bruised face. It hurt… even though the cuts had already begun forming scabs, they had to clean them all the same. Before long, Eris had managed to wipe away the stray blood and dirt as they finally applied some homemade healing salve to his fresh wounds.
“The cut on your eyelid thankfully didn’t slice all the way through… I would have been concerned that whatever did this lacerated your eye but everything appears to be unharmed,” Eris observed as they placed a large white bandage over his eyelid and cheek. “It still would be best if you kept this eye covered for the time being. You don’t want anything to potentially cause the cut to get any deeper.”
Nodding in response, “Dotty” let Eris finish up putting two more bandages over his cheeks/nose bridge and side of his lip. He had never felt this sort of kindness from anyone… much less a stranger. The mere idea that a random person took enough pity on him to open their home to him was unfathomable. Yet… sere he was, sat in Eris’ kitchen, his wounds cleaned and wrapped up. It felt almost surreal to him.
The man reached up to gently touch the bandages which now covered half of his sight. “Thank you again… ?” he ended his statement of gratitude with an upturned look and tone, asking what their name was without words.
“Eris,” they answered, smiling gently at him again. Eris turned away from him and packed up their bag again, gathering any trash they had produced and wrapping it all together. “Dotty” watched as they threw it all away and then walked back over to him before saying, “I have a guest room. Please stay for the night at least. You can barely walk with my help much less alone in the middle of the night.”
“Dotty” kept staring at them, contemplating… then he nodded and replied quietly “Thank you…”
