Redemption

Exhaustion

I stood still, now trying to work out what had just occurred and noticing that with every blink I took, a new weight that had been placed onto the lids after the event was being slowly lifted off of them when suddenly, it dawned on me.

Despite the fact that I was very clearly new to these human concepts and features such as feeling and breathing, I was able to catch a glimpse of it occurring in the past, typically from a soldier or sailor just going to bed for the night or on their way to enjoy a fresh cup of coffee in the morning. A small stretch followed by a long exhale into the then filtered air. A yawn.

I had just yawned for the first time, meaning that this body, or rather myself, was becoming tired.

That was... certainly a strange realization in and of itself, me getting tired, even despite the fact that given my current state of being, it was only logical that at some point I was going to have to give this body a chance to rest and... sleep. But in the case of someone such as myself, who had since then never needed let alone required any such respite in the many years since my construction, the concept seemed strange, peculiar and impossible.

Then again, so did inhabiting a human body and look what happened there.

Yet another thing about human physiology I would have to learn how to deal with, I suppose.

Speaking of, I was reminded of another issue regarding my current state of being that I would soon have to deal with and as I reached the next landing the set of stairs had climbed up to, I took up a position on top of a small stack of wooden crates and barrels, sitting upon the rotten wood and resting the pair of crutches at my side as the crate creaked underneath my weight and I brought the legs in closer to myself.

The makeshift bandages wrapped around my feet were both still held tight enough to keep themselves from slipping off as I walked around but the wrappings themselves were not faring too well, the cloth slowly tearing away bit by bit as it constantly got snagged on shards of the rough metal floor. Ultimately leaving me with barely one fourth of an inch between the bandage and the wounded appendage.

I took my time in carefully unfolding the cloth wrapped around the injury, my teeth clenching and breath hitching as the flame flared up every time the cloth tugged and pulled at the skin before my jaw then relaxed as the gash was revealed.

It wasn't looking too well.

Despite the relatively small amount of time that had passed between my incident on the ladder and now, the poor condition of the wound had progressed rapidly, changing the original pale colored skin to tones of angry reds and yellows. Stray shards of rusted metal that had sneaked its way past the torn cloth dotted the streaks of blood and cracked scabs trying to form over the wound, the injury refusing to close due to how much I was moving around, leaving blood to drip down intermittently onto the floor.

It was unfortunate that I still didn't have the materials required to properly treat the wound but there was only so much I could do with the items I had on hand. And speaking of which, I couldn't help but notice as I rewrapped both limbs in the torn shreds of bed cloth that the amount which I had was beginning to dwindle rapidly and soon I would have to move on to using the actual bandages I had been intending to save for later, until after I had finally procured a intact pair of shoes and something to clean my wounds with.

"This is take-ing too loon. Long." I said to myself, not just as way to practice my speech but to also focus my thoughts a little bit, so long as I was sitting here taking a small rest.

"I do-nt half the time to be walk-ing a round, sir-ch-ing every room be-four move-ing on to the nets, ne-axe-tuh, next." I swear, I knew what words I wanted to say, even how they were supposed to be said but I couldn't say anything without making a million mistakes first... trial and error, I suppose, live and learn and all that.