rakuen | Introduction to the Healing Arts: Wednesday

Entry tags:

Introduction to the Healing Arts: Wednesday

Characters: Merlin and Fortitude Students
Format: Class long so whatever you like
This log is: Open; tag Merlin or each other
Location: Fortitude classrooms
Summary: Merlin attempts to teach...
Warnings:

Merlin was terrified, he hadn't seen the King since he watched him in the tournament on Monday but he knew Arthur had been planning to watch the fights yesterday... Which meant he had heard, and he had seen, and he knew what Merlin's weapon was.

Which meant he knew Merlin's secret, which meant that Merlin was as good as dead. Merlin was terrified and yet he was still supposed to be teaching because apparently even having certain death looming over your head didn't get you out of things here.

Merlin had no idea how to teach, of course his mentor had taught him but that had been by doing... Merlin had accompanied him and watched him and help him. He had no idea what to do, how he was supposed to teach people... He looked around the room he had been assigned to in confusion, he had never seen anything like it before.

He ate a flower, trying to take his mind off things. When the students came in he gave a nervous smile, "Hello..." He began. "So I've been told I am to teach you the healing arts, which... I don't really know much about and I don't actually remember my name but how about... what are your names? And I guess... Do you know anything about this... About herbs and healing?"

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"Sora Himoto," one of his class chirped immediately, hand raised. She really loved that some of the classes weren't all about reading and books. And she'd decided this was a really interesting topic when she'd seen it on the constantly-revised timetables at breakfast. "I don't know anything about herbs!"

Wow she was... happy. Merlin grinned back, even if he was scared her smile was contagious. He gave a small bow, "Nice to meet you Lady Sora, I will do my best to teach you. Um... Do you know any healing at all..."

"I can use plasters," she was obviously thinking hard about it. "And antiseptic... and I can make hot chocolate."

Merlin had never heard of plasters or antiseptic... Or hot chocolate...

"What are those? Can you explain them?" They were to do with the healing arts? How did his students end up knowing more than him.

Conveniently, she had a plaster on her knee from a scuffle the day before, so Sora just stood up to show him her leg.

"Antiseptic is something you put on a wound to make it clean," she added, as she rested her foot on her chair, "Hot chocolate is a drink that makes you feel better, no matter what."

Merlin peered at the plaster, amazing. So it was like a bandage, but small. And somehow attached to the skin. He knew about washing wounds of course, but this antiseptic was not something he knew about, and when she explained hot chocolate his eyes widened. Some kind of potion, one that would cure all ails.

"Can you show me how to make this Hot Chocolate?"

"Of course!"

They were straying from the topic, but it didn't seem to bother anyone. "Why don't you ask someone in the infirmary? I bet they'll help in class too!"

There hadn't been much of a topic in the first place, he had no idea how school was supposed to work. "You have an infirmary?" If they had an infirmary why did he have to teach them how to heal? Why weren't the infirmary teaching that?

"Becca," comes a sullen answer. "And I know that aloe and lavender are good for burns," she offered, wrapping her arms around herself as if she was struggling with a rather nasty memory prompted by the question.

"Nice to meet you Becca," her sullenness didn't really bother him. He had weathered enough of Arthur's moods. He didn't pry, because he didn't think it would be right... "Erm yes that's right, would you know how to make a salve using those ingredients?"

"Squeeze the goop out of the aloe leaves and mix it with lavender flowers in a clear jar. Leave it in a sunny window for a week, then smear it on 'em as needed," she explained quietly, trying to suppress shivers as she once again remembered her burns.

He could tell that she was uncomfortable so he nodded and tried to think of something else... "Do you know any other herbs?"

"I know a recipe for something that'll settle your stomach... One star anise, about half an inch of a stick of cinnamon, and a teaspoon of mint, make tea with it."

Merlin smiled, "Yes, would you like to try and make it?"

"Uh, okay?" she offered awkwardly. "Like. Now?" she asked, fidgeting with nerves.

"Only if you want to!" Merlin said quickly, he didn't want to force anyone to do anything that they didn't want.

"I can, sure," she said with a shrug, standing up to follow him to the front of the classroom. Participating in classes was still weird, and she wondered why she didn't have any memories about doing it at home.

"Great!" Merlin stood aside to watch her work. He had no idea if this was what he was supposed to do, but he was trying.

She poked around the various herbs until she found the ones she wanted. Then she got a paper towel and peeled it apart into two thinner halves. She put the herbs into the centre of the paper towel and twisted it up to form a ball, then took out a rubber band and used it to hold it shut. Then she found a kettle and put it on to boil while she got out a cup that could hold hot water and set her paper towel ball in it.

"It doesn't taste the greatest....but it works."

Well it was an interesting method of distilling but it seemed to work, Merlin smiled brightly. "You're good at this Becca!"

"My...family's too poor for real medicine," she murmured quietly, pouring the water over the paper ball she'd made. She let it sit for a while, then picked it up and started bobbing it up and down in the water, stirring it, and generally trying to get as much good out of it as she could.

He blinked, "This is real medicine Becca... Do you mean you can't afford a physician?" Merlin knew it was lucky that he lived with Camelot's physician, not that he got ill often but though his mentor would treat even those who couldn't pay, often in return for favours and chores he knew other physicians were not so kind hearted. "Where did you learn such things?"

"Not where I come from it's not. This is old wives' tales and rumours and not scientific. But...it works good enough," she said with a shrug.

"And no, we can't afford a doctor, we can't even afford getting over-the-counter medicine. That is... If you can't afford a doctor, there's stores with medicine already made and you can just buy the medicine you think you need and it's WAY cheaper. And...we can't even afford THAT."

She sighed, taking the paper ball out of the water and shivering a bit. "And even if we could afford a doctor...it...it would've been dangerous for ME to go. Bad things would've happened."

Wait what... of course this was science... How could medicine be rumour. He understood that she was upset about the way things had been but he didn't fully understand. After all this was real medicine... and there were people who couldn't afford this yes... But she seemed to have been able to get her hand on the correct herbs and some knowledge of how to use them...

But what did she mean by bad things would have happened if she'd gone to a doctor? Was she some kind of magical creature? He looked at her in concern, but maybe in front of all these people wasn't the best time to ask. He stood trying to be comforting without saying anything.

She set the paper ball aside and held out the cup to him. Some of the mint had escaped and floated in the water, but that didn't really matter. "It works better if you drink it while it's hot, but it still works well enough if you let it cool." Then she retreated to her seat.

If he wanted to see her after class, he was in luck. She got distracted with doodling in her notebook and didn't pack up until class was already over. Everyone else left, and she was still shoving things into her bag.

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