Raising a Hero

Chapter 46

I didn't know how much time passed. I lost awareness of my body for a time, wholly involved in sweeping out the proteins from the knight's body to the nobleman's. When I found the knight's level reaching to just below the amount that Hal had, being an old man whose bone growth had little inciters to begin with, I observed the amount in the nobleman's body. It was still low, but it was a good deal better than nothing.

I slowly backed out, healing their palms on the way, to find the knight gingerly holding a handkerchief to my nose. Thankfully, only a bit of blood was on it, to which I smiled to like a good grade on a report card. I was getting sturdier.

"You'll need more than one person to donate to get your levels to normal. I imagine the levels of this bone inhibitor you'd be wanting are similar to your knight's, since you love to move so much. But I can't let your knight's levels drop too low—though with that in mind, sir knight, please make sure to eat or drink extra dairy and especially nutritious food over the next week, just in case. I gave your body some extra energy so it shouldn't burn itself out replacing what I just took."

The knight nodded and returned the glove to his hand. The nobleman turned about his wrist, attention inward, probably to see if he could already tell the difference.

"Now, if you don't mind, I'm going to take a bit of a breather and then we'll do your bones. Is there anywhere you'd like me to see to first?"

"My hands. Definitely my hands."

"Oh, of course. I should have done those last time, functioning without hands is impossible."

For some reason, the nobleman seemed a might alarmed at this. "You did more than enough last time, my lady, please don't pressure yourself. This is...this is already more than I could have hoped."

I bobbed my head, accepting the gratitude, then went out into the hall and...laid on the floor.

Don't look at me like that. It was a habit this summer was baking into me, and the temple's cool, polished, pretty marble floors had been asking for it. Not to mention there was, like, no one in the hall. Based off of the sound of a humming organ, they had some sort of service going on in the big hall of Nehcor-not-look-alike statue.

From my pocket I took out a satchel of herbs Hal had prepared for me and set them on my mouth so I could sniff them through my nose.

Oh yeah. Cobblestone had nothing on temple floors, no matter how old and worn down the stones were.

It only took me maybe five minutes before the throbbing in my head had calmed down and I was ready for round two of smoosh and sweep excess bone bits. Cutting into someone still wasn't easy, though.

I managed to get his arms, spine, and torso done that day. But, I got so focused on my work, that when I finally pulled away I found my chair running away from my seat—or rather, my body decided to tip over sideways without my consent.

Both the knight and nobleman dove out to catch me. The knight caught me, his hard bracers digging against my ribs.

"Sorry," I muttered. "Can...can I just hang here for a bit until everything stops spinning? I'm really alright."

"You shouldn't have done so much," said the nobleman. "Your eyes..."

I blinked furiously. Hot damn, I felt like lead. "The correct words are, 'oh my goodness, I feel amazing, look at me move!'"

The nobleman looked taken aback by what I said. After a moment to properly process, he smiled and sat back and did some twists. He even raised his arms above his head and shook his hands.

"I...I really do feel..." he bit his lip and, once again, those unbelievably green eyes grew shiny. "I never thought I'd be able to again..."

"Good man, that's right. Just be happy." I patted the knight's arm. Huh. The cloth he was holding had a lot of blood. Was that mine? My mouth definitely tasted like it. "Sir, if you could nudge me towards the bed, your gauntlet does not a nice pillow make. Ah," Plomf into the mattress, just below the nobleman's feet. "That a lad."