The Origin of Roh-Shan

Return to Ren Haru

Kota knew where she was before she even opened her eyes. The familiar candle scents, soft sound of swishing water, and the biggest clue, the fact that she was eased into consciousness rather than being jolted awake by anything louder than a whisper.

But based on past experience, she knew it wouldn't be quite so peaceful when she opened her eyes. But she was in a hurry... she needed to get somewhere... she couldn't remember where though. Or why.

"How much longer is this gonna take?" Haider's voice cut through the peaceful quiet.

She opened her eyes and struggled to sit up, bringing the light wood-panel walls into focus. She tried to tell Haider not to be rude, but more hands gently pushed her back down.

"Don't try to get up yet, sweetie." An elderly woman's voice said, followed by another voice, "Son, if you can't be patient you're welcome to wait in the other room." The soothing voices relaxed Kota again, and she heard Haider huff in annoyance.

Kota was surprised to find the room wasn't spinning. In fact, she didn't feel like throwing up either. The air smelled just like Kunru's house, and she recognized the décor on the wall as Water Tribe. No doubt this was a healing room, but she couldn't remember what she was healing from, and the voice definitely wasn't Kunru's. All she knows is that getting healed leaves you feeling hungover for days. It's worth the sickness considering the kinds of injuries Kunru treats, but still not pleasant.

But Kota felt none of that as she stared at the ceiling. Maybe she just hadn't moved enough yet. Hesitantly, she turned her eyes to her left.

A dark-skinned woman smiled down at Kota. She had the slight creases and smile lines of someone in their fifties or sixties. "How you feeling, honey?"

She felt good. A little ache in her ribs and throat, but other pains she didn't even know she had were gone. Her head was still foggy, though. "What happened?"

The woman drew her hands away from Kota's abdomen, glowing orbs of water surrounding them, and held them over a bucket before releasing the water. She dried her hands on a towel. "You had a few broken ribs, a collapsed lung, a fair amount of blood in your airway--"

"You got stepped on by a komodo rhino." Haider summarized.

The woman nodded. "You're very lucky it wasn't worse. Can you try and sit up? Slowly."

Kota pushed herself up and sat forward, but quickly felt the ache in her ribs. "Ah, shit." She muttered, but it wasn't too bad. On the other side of the mat where she was laying was an elderly woman, one of the voices from before.

"Take it slow, it's okay."

Other than her chest though, she felt okay, which was still surprising. "You healed me?"

Haider scoffed, "Didn't just happen on its own."

"Yeah I know it's just... normally after seeing a healer I get all dizzy and stuff."

The elderly woman nodded. "Kunru. Bless her heart for putting up with being a city healer. But she's not exceptionally good at it. I was lucky enough to study at the North Pole and pass the knowledge down to my daughter and granddaughter, but not everyone could afford the tuition. Dizziness and nausea are side effects of a less skilled healer."

That was great news to Kota. She'd been cautious to move too much, afraid the nausea was just taking a while to set in, but knowing it wasn't going to come at all made her suddenly feel invincible. She sat forward more and looked around for the gray tunic she'd been wearing.

"If you're looking for your shirt, I'm sorry, we had to cut it. It was torn anyway." The woman said. "My daughter found some old clothes of hers that look like your size." She pointed to neatly folded clothes near her feet.