HoloPirates: A Tale of Adventure

Medical Aid

Slap! Both of my wet boots hit the wooden deck of the ship, spraying little droplets of water everywhere as I took in a huge breath of the fresh sea air. I stepped forward, my clothes sloshing around on my body, and I looked up, holding my hands out to catch Marine.
"Alright, jump, I'll catch you, I promise!"
She gave me a funny look, then lept out of the Diving Bell, falling straight towards me. The moment she impacted me, she wrapped her arms around my shoulders, while I wrapped my arm around her legs and back, successfully catching her without injuring myself further. I set her down on the deck just as Jansen landed on the deck, and sat on the top of one of the deck cannons, fiddling the boot of my hurt leg off to see the injury. The moment it slipped off, pain started radiating through my leg as I looked right at the injury. It was a bunch of tiny, circular holes pierced all through my leg as the teeth had dug into me, and boy, did they hurt like hell. I steeled my nerves, then pressed my hand on the punctures, trying to keep them from bleeding all over the deck.
"Man, that thing got you good." Jansen said.
"Yeah, what the hell was that thing?"
"No clue." Marine said, looking at the punctures on my leg. "We can ask Amelia about it, she would probably know."
"Yeah, I'm gonna go down to the MedBay and see if she can help me out."
"Aye then." She said, helping me on my feet as I hobbled forward. "I'll be down there to talk to her about what we got in a little bit, after we get this big Bell below decks, okay?"
"Okay, I'll be there."
"Aye."
I hobbled across the deck, then went down the stairs and into the hold, keeping my hand on the rail to support myself. Once I was below deck, I drew my sword and used it like a cane, propping the sharp end on the deck and holding onto the hilt to help support some of my injured weight. I limped over to the door of the MedBay, passing up the galley, and as I was passing, Cookie looked up from the stove where he was cooking up some stew.
"Ahoy there Micheal. How ya doin?"
"Got bit by a monster fish."
"Yeah, that happens round these parts a lot." He said, wiping his hands with a rather dirty rag. "Wait a minute, a monster? Was it a sea urchin?"
"No, I got stuck by one of them, but it doesn't even hurt anymore." I said.
"Aye that. Sea Urchins are mostly just pain rather than ouchies." He replied. "Still, may wanna get that checked out by the mean Blondie in there."
I stopped.
"'Mean Blondie?'" I asked.
"Aye, the lady in there. The doctor. Said my cleanin and food preppin' is 'unsanitary' and 'dangerous'."
He made quotation mark fingers on those words, and I gave him a doubtful look as I pointed at the pan he was cooking in.
"How long has it been since you cleaned that, Cookie?"
"Hey, come on. I washed it with whiskey two hours ago!"
"Then what's that black spot?"
He looked at the spot I was talking about, then groaned a little bit, licked his thumb, and tried to buff it out with his thumb. When the spot didn't budge, he looked back at me with a grin.
"Meh, well, I'll give it another whiskey wash, soon as I'm done cookin." He said. "I'll save some meat for ya tonight Micheal, sound good?"
"Uhhh, yeah. Sounds good." I said, slowly losing my appetite. "See ya later Cookie."
"Aye. Later Micheal."
I turned to the wooden door of the MedBay, and I grasped the metal bar before forcing the door open with a creak, still leaning against the door to support my weight. When I looked around at the MedBay, it astonished me that, even as we were aboard a creaky wooden ship, Amelia made sure to keep her bay extremely clean and tidy. As I looked around, there wasn't a spot of grime or dirt or mold anywhere, a product of Amelia's OCD, and all of the medical and detective instruments were all stacked up neatly. The only part of the room that was even slightly disorganized was this cork board on the other side of the room, having papers stuck all over it, all of the cases of sickness and the injuries that Amelia had treated on the crew when she came aboard. On the wall to my back, there was a bookshelf, filled with books about crime solving, magic usage, history, politics, potion brewing, and a bunch of other extremely nerdy things. And there, tending a crew member that had come down with a case of Scurvy, was Amelia.
"I'm telling you, you gotta eat an orange or two. I swear they won't hurt you."
"Aye, but the oranges are nasty!" He said. "They tase like Rats!!"
"Aye, they might, but they give you the vitamins to help fight Scurvy. Trust me. All you have to do is eat a couple now and then."
"Thats it?" The crewman asked. "Thats all it takes?"
"Aye." She said. "Now, go off and eat the oranges. The effects should be lessened massively, okay?"
"Aye, thank you."
"No problem. Come to me if it gets any worse."
"Aye."
The crewman got up from his cot and walked out, and Amelia turned to me, looking surprised to see me.
"Hey Micheal. Is everything okay?"
"Uh, yeah. I just got bit by a fish and stuck by an Urchin. I was wondering if you could take a look and make sure it doesn't kill me."
"Oh the Urchin won't kill you, but yeah, lay on the cot, I'll take a look at the bite."
I did as she asked and hobbled over onto the bed, then laid down as she slapped a pair of gloves onto her hands and grabbed a scalpel and a syringe.
"Uhh, I don't know if its, like, appropriate to say this, but please be careful."
She gave me a dumb look.
"Of course I'll be careful." She said. "But a fair warning, this will hurt, trust me."
Before I could come up with some dumb, snarky remark, she stabbed the needle right into my leg, and pain erupted all through my leg.
"GAHHAAAA!!!" I yelled. "Jeez that fucking hurt!!"
"Yeah I figured that it would. This is gonna hurt a lot worse though. Sorry in advance."
"Wait a minute, what do you-"
She immediately began to prod each of the punctures with the scalpel, looking inside of them just in case any of the teeth of the fish broke off inside. The pain was absolutely excruciating.
"AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!!" I screamed, slamming my fist on the side of the bed. "FUCK THAT HURTS!!!"
"I gave you a warning." She said blankly. "Don't smack me or I might accidentally stab you."
"Yeah, it might not hurt as much as sticking me!" I said just as she poked around one of the bite marks. "GAAHHH!!!!"
I slammed my fist back down on the bed, then, I gripped the crisp linen bedsheets and nearly tore it from the amount of pain I was feeling.
"Calm down. I'm almost done."
"CALM DOWN?!!!?!?!" I shrieked. "You're poking around a wound for Christ's sake!!!"
Finally, after just a few more pokes, she stopped, then went over to the table and grabbed a smaller, more surgical scalpel, while putting on her monocle. She examined my leg with the monocle, then gave me a sympathetic look.
"What exactly were you attacked by?"
"I dont really know. A big monster fish."
"Well gee, thats about 90% of what lives in the ocean Micheal. Be a bit more specific. The color?"
"Dark grey."
"Eyes?"
"Gigantic and orange."
She dropped her smug look, and she grew one of concern.
"Hundreds of long pencil teeth? Did the thing peel back its lips and smile at you?"
"Yeah it did." I said. "Why? Do you know what the thing was?"
"Yeah, I think you got attacked by a GlowShark. They're big, ugly and dangerous."
"I mean, it kind of looked like a shark." I said, thinking back to the shape of the monster's body. "But when I turned around, it attacked. Why didn't it just attack me before I turned around?"
"That part, no one is too sure about. But I have a theory." She said right as she stabbed the scalpel into a hole in my leg.
"AHHHHH!!!" I yelled, then sat back in the bed. "Fuck Amelia!!! Be careful!"
"I had to do it when you weren't expecting it, or it would have hurt more, you know?"
"Yeah whatever." I said. "So what was your theory?"
"Alright, I think that the GlowSharks are what I call Hesitant Ambush Predators, or H.A.P for short." She said, still poking around my leg. "They hesitate right before ambushing their prey, as if they want to get the satisfaction of seeing them be scared."
"Thats....sick."
"Yeah, it is, isn't it." She said blankly, then walked over to the cabinet on the opposite side of the room. "Alright, you don't need a Healing Potion for an injury that minor, but I will bandage it with an antiseptic to help it heal, okay?"
"Sure. Thanks Amelia."
"Yup." She said, then turned to me while putting a small amount of antiseptic on a roll of bandages.
She walked back over to me, then wrapped it around my leg and slipped the boot back on.
"Alright, you just need some rest now, okay?"
"Alright. Thanks again, Amelia."
"Of course."