Freesia Donn is not really a busy woman despite what people believe. As the sole healer in a small town you would be forgiven for thinking she gets to fix all kinds of wounds, a professional repairer of biological woes.

But nothing further from the truth. For her, days pass at a leisurely pace most of the time.

She does get her usual medical checkups from the older generation of Hillside. The normal scraped knees or cooking accidents are also in her itinerary. Sometimes, a fisherman would sever a finger or gash their hand and would go to her for a quick fix.

From the common cold to a near-death experience, Freesia the elf is the answer for the people of Hillside.

The disgruntled first wife of the village’s fierce noble blooded guardian was becoming a fixed, loved, and respected member of society by virtue of her own hard-fought skills. She felt validated and proud of her achievement. Changing the cold hearts of the Ostaran was not a small feat for an elf, she could only imagine just how much of an uphill climb it would be for another race.

Not that she cares about that right now, that’s something for tomorrow, now what she wants is.

I NEED to get laid

She sighs, Free finds herself doing that often lately.

I mean, I get it; I was–am, okay with it, and I hope he’s fine, but can’t you come back faster?! You absolute asshole!

She seeps from the small cup of tea, finishing all of its contents. The drink had been made with leaves from a plant that grew in the southeast part of Assythia; she had bought it years ago and managed to bring it across half the world, fortunately, the rather template climate of the region allowed for it to grow on her small improvised garden.

The flavor was just a tad bitter. She often mixed it with honey. Ever since arriving at Hillside, it had become her drink of choice.

The infirmary was silent; it had been a slow, tranquil morning with not much happening beyond teaching Lan about basic anatomy.

It surprised her just how fast her daughter, can pick up on some of the concepts.

The sluggish, warm ambient of the room made her ease into her chair, arching her back ever so slightly and letting her hair fall free. She lowered her hand, drawing small lazy circles over the fabric of her underwear. She knew her way around herself, Alden did too and the distance between them was something she could hardly stand.

She left a small moan flow out of her lips just before she heard hurried steps coming closer to the door.

She stopped in a panic of getting caught and readied herself; she had to look serious and professional.

Not even ten seconds passed, and the door flew open.

For a second, she thought it would fly off its hinges

It was Joanne with a group of people following closely behind; she was carrying a small child with golden hair; she recognized him immediately as one of Raanan’s friends, Zach, son of the village blacksmith.

Anne dropped him on the “operating” table as fast and delicately as she managed.

He groaned in pain and coughed up blood, splattering it over himself and Freesia, who was already over him

“What happened?” She asked.

Her work mode switch had been flipped; she now wore her serious professional expression; Anne had seen it many a time before and knew better than to make her waste time.

“Either you do what I say or you get out of my way” That’s what she communicated without the need for words.

“Got attacked by a katillr cub,” she said.

That’s all she needed. She got her hands close to the biggest wound, a long, extremely painful-looking open gash on his stomach, the flesh had been ripped open by a strong jaw, blood free-flowed from it, luckily the animal hadn’t managed to make any damage to any internal organ.

Despite the damage, Zach was still conscious. He cried and screamed, pressing both sides of the table, his fingernails digging on the wood scratching the surface.

“Anne, grab him, don’t let him move,"

Anne did as she was told, catching him by the wrist.

Freesia noticed three other kids. Two had serious wounds, but they could wait until she healed this one.

The other was Raanan, who silently watched everything unfold.

She began to sing; her voice was calm and beautiful. In reality, it was a long string of enchantments in the language of the elves.

But to anyone else, it may as well have been a song.

“Syaltha Elsi Wehsï mesile wehsazl ür au re Enhi gezdal Yentsta menzi nahri sa tör,"

A pale green light shone from the kid’s stomach. The more she sang the more the wound closed at one point Zach stopped feeling pain, instead, he felt a weird tugging sensation.

As if someone had grabbed his skin and begging, tugging at it from the sides, forcing it together towards the center of his belly, it wasn’t painful, but unpleasant.

Little by little the skin, meat and bone mended, as if growing at an accelerated pace, until the injury was naught but a bad dream.

A long-forgotten memory for his body.

“Eh? I c-can-” Zach fell asleep, exhausted.

Freesia began to patch everyone up. Quin was second to Zach. His wounds were bad, especially on his arms. but a few simple chants left him as good as new. He felt tired afterward but nonetheless was okay.

Quin’s hand had been badly hurt, but would also be okay.

She turned towards Raanan, but once she noticed he was unhurt stopped her approach.

She ordered everyone to stay for a checkup while she got the complete story.

Once she heard everything from both Anne and the kids, she asked.

“Where is Luc?”

No one knew.

As far as she had heard, her oldest son was a part of this but was nowhere to be seen.

Maybe he felt he wasn’t needed, and just left.

“He was following us. Must have separated when we got to the village,” Joanne said what she assumed had happened. She looked for a talk with him about how things had ended up.

I don’t want him to blame himself for this.

While all this was happening, ran looked but didn’t pay any attention to what was being said. A myriad of things ran through his head.

Today’s happenings were still being processed; he had gotten the gist of it from fragments of the conversation.

But one single thing had gotten a hold of him

I saved everyone in the end. I’m strong, my magic is strong and I am even stronger now. I killed a monster with my own skill. This was nothing like before. I don’t need this place!

I can become whatever I want since I’m strong.