The Cleric made notes as they talked, and when he had finished with his list of questions, he stood from his chair and nodded in satisfaction.
“Let’s get you moved to a recovery room so that your head can recover. As far as I can tell, that is the most pressing issue. The rest is all incidental, and it should sort itself out with only a few more sessions.” He declared.
“Well, that’s all that we can really ask for, right? But can I ask a favour? Our tenth group member, Tori, underwent a resurrection ritual, and she should be showing up somewhere soon. Could you please let me know when she is found? I’d like to do something for her, regardless of whether they’re going to see if she’s compatible with the Injection again in her new body or not.” Karl asked.
“Of course. The Church is keeping an eye out for her, along with a number of others. The Hill Giant war front has been brutal lately, and they have resurrected a number of Elites. It’s a common enough request, so I will put it on your notes, and when there is news, someone will come to inform you.
But you should really rest first. Nothing is better for healing than time, and we will have a specialist come to check on you in the morning.” The doctor informed him with a smile.
“Wonderful. Where are we all staying?”
“We all? Commander, this is a hospital, and you are a patient. You will be in a recovery room, while the others will be in their own rooms, though you will likely all be in the same ward, as you came in for the same evaluation.” He chuckled.
Karl laughed. “You make it sound like I’m some sort of invalid.”
The Doctor looked from his arm, which was still in a sling, to his head, which still had a visibly healing scar on one side.
“Alright, point taken. Where is this room?”
The doctor gave a sigh that spoke of released tension, and left Karl with even more questions. Why was he so uptight? They had just finished the meeting about his experiences, and Karl didn’t think that it had gone that badly. The man shouldn’t have a good reason to be so nervous.
The room that he led Karl to had three other Elites already there, all Awakened, and all sporting visibly missing limbs.
“Gentlemen, we have your fourth roommate. Welcome Commander Karl to your little group, please. He will be here for a bit, but not as long as you, since his cleric managed to find and reattach his old limb.” The doctor informed the men in the room.
The hospital beds didn’t look comfortable, and the room was full of strangers, not exactly prime sleeping conditions. Karl considered asking them to reconsider the arrangements, but coed naps in monster made hammocks didn’t seem like they were a hospital approved activity.
“Hey everyone. Good to meet you.” Karl greeted the three other Elites in his room for the evening.
“Dude, you’re a freaking legend. It’s an honour to meet you.” A bearded blonde man missing one leg informed him.
“A legend? I just got here.” Karl replied with a smile for the enthusiastic Elite.
The three all shook their heads, and the blonde man continued. “Word spreads fast here. We don’t have anything to do but gossip. Word is that your team killed a Royal Rank Frost Giant, even after being ambushed, and made it back to tell the story.
But even before that, we all knew who you were. We were on the front when your team blew up the Frost Stone and knocked out communications for an entire battlefront, then just chilled in the wilderness killing Giants until someone brought you a new radio.”
Karl smiled. “What should we have done? We’ve been running away from Command Staff interrogations and paperwork since before the war started. We came straight from monster subjugation missions to the border when it all kicked off, and I’ve been doing my best not to be in a main camp overnight ever since.”
Their laughter caught the attention of the staff, who sent a white robed acolyte with a nurse’s hat on to yell at them.
Only, when she arrived in the room, the first thing that she saw was that they weren’t arguing and that Karl was still in his armour.
“Would you mind putting your gear in the locker, and changing into a hospital gown, or one of the many available recovery outfits?” She requested.
“If you try getting me into one of those silly paper hospital gowns, I’m putting it on backwards.” Karl warned her.
“The white hassock is fine, but the short-sleeved one, as you have an arm injury that’s still in a sling. Or you can wear the lounge pants and loose shirt from the lockers. They are acceptable as well, but there is no need for armour or backpacks in the hospital.” She reminded Karl with a strained professional smile.
Karl used his good arm to open one of the lockers and set his backpack inside, then grabbed a white visitor robe and looked for the shower. If he was going to change, he might as well get clean again.
“Can you shower without assistance, or would you like me to call an orderly?” The nurse asked.
“I should be fine. My arm isn’t completely dead, I just don’t have good control of the fingers yet. The doc said that once my head starts to heal, the fingers should sort themselves out. Nerve damage, according to the healers.” Karl agreed.
The nurse nodded and left the room, closing the door behind her.
“They’re so much nicer to you.” The man in the back left corner of the room sighed from his bed.
“That’s because he’s a Commander, and he’s got monsters with him. They’ll have the room under surveillance with a High Priest down the hall, since he’s got a head injury. Head wounds are tricky like that, you never know when someone is going to snap and forget that they’re in a hospital and not in the middle of a battleground.” The blonde laughed.
Karl stopped and gave the man a shocked look. “And yet, they put me in a mixed room?”
“We’re all warriors. We might not look like much right now, but we can take a hit or two, and there aren’t any spare rooms right now. Normally, all Commanders get the private rooms, but if you’re here with us, then there are zero left.”
“It’s likely more fun here than in a solo room anyhow. They told me that they’re not going to put the group back together in a dorm while we are in the hospital, so it’s better here than bored alone. But I will be back in a few minutes.”
Once Karl was washed up and refreshed, he was feeling much more human again, but he did notice that there were no shaving implements in the bathroom, and he had forgotten to get his from his bag.
He didn’t grow a great beard, it was still fairly thin, but now that he was out of the Frost Giant Nation, his face was warmer than he would have preferred.
He came back out in the plain white robes, and watched as the other men traded money, clearly having bet on something.
“Did you really think that I wouldn’t manage to change? My armour is bonded.” Karl laughed.
The blonde shook his head. “We were betting that you would take out a razor and trigger the emergency response. Head trauma measures, remember? My bet was that you forgot it in your bag.”
Karl chuckled. “That’s exactly what happened. Now, what is there to do around here?”
“Well, you can walk, so you can likely wander around until they yell at you, or get the nurse to bring a book, or meditate, if that’s possible with your head injury. Sometimes they tell you not to. Mostly we just sleep and sit around telling jokes and war stories.
It helps pass the time. You’ll see soon. Time passes either very fast or very slow here.”
While they talked, Thor was mentally measuring the room. There were plenty of people here to meet, but not enough room for him to stand between them. The blonde man was right, hospitals really were boring.
The man in the back corner smiled at Karl. “I suspect that with you in the room, things will be much more interesting than the last week was. There was a huge fuss on the radio after you left for your mission, when General Orland found out that not only had another team been sent, but they were missing.”
The other two glared at him for a second. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to bring up bad memories.”
Karl shrugged. “It’s not all bad. We got the target, and we brought back a survivor. There was still one High Priest from the first group alive at the ambush site. He’s here in the hospital already, I saw him on the way in.”
