Woodbridge Recollection : The Hidden Kingdom

Chapter 26: Resolve.

  "I only asked when I could be discharged from here," I said, crossing my arms. I leaned back against the crunchy hospital pillow and bent my knees.

The doctor sighed when I showed no appreciation for his explanation about my colour returning to my face and that it was promising. He was a middle aged man with a fit body and clean cut brown hair. He was relatively handsome, except for the scar over the left side of his face. As I have been told, he too had a near death experience with a werewolf. I guess that explained why he was assigned to my condition.

"It depends on whether you're strong enough to stand," he then said. "Werewolf bites are not something that you can rush around with, especially when it was so close to the full moon."

I nodded.

"I've been here for two days already," I said.

He gave me a slight apologetic smile.

"Let's check your shoulder," he said. "Before your parents come in to visit again. I can only tell you when I see it."

I sat up a little too quickly and then shuddered when my shoulder strained.

My doctor smirked as he walked around the bed.

"I thought so," he said. "Slowly, Zelena. Slowly."

I shifted on the bed, moving a little slower as to not put so much strain on my shoulder as before.

"There you go," the doctor said and gently touched my hair, pushing it aside. By now my curls were starting to fall flat due to a lack of hair washing. I hated going this long without washing my hair.

"Sorry," I said, feeling a little bad for ranting.

"Just sit still," he said as he picked up a pair of latex gloves from the box on the bedside drawer. He pulled them onto his hands. "If we are fast enough, we can finish before your visitors come back."

I smiled.

"They wouldn't be coming here so often if you'd discharge me," I mumbled.

He smiled and breathed a laugh.

I sat still as he lowered the sleeve of my large gown, exposing my left shoulder. It was still wrapped and taped heavily in bandages.

I sat as still as possible as he worked gently on the bandages, slowly detaching the medical tape from my skin. He peeled back the bandages and pulled it from my shoulder. I winced as the gauze pulled at the dried blood between the stitches.

"It's healing," he said as he wrapped up the bandages and tossed them into the bin in the corner of the room.

I turned my head and peeked down at the disgusting mess marking up my shoulder. The twenty four stitches held rather well at the wound, however, it needed a good cleaning before I could decide if it looked better to me.

The doctor quickly sensed my disappointment. He opened the drawer and fished out a clean square of gauze and anti-bacterial spirits. He drenched the gauze in the spirits which turned it pink in colour and then began to clean my shoulder, working as gently as possible.

I breathed in deeply and tried to ignore the discomfort.

"It's defiantly healing," he assured me. "But I do have some bad news."

"What's that?" I asked, my insides beginning to twist.

"It's an unfortunate circumstance, Zelena, that you were attacked by a werewolf. Unfortunately, there are things about the supernatural that can't be properly defeated, even by medicine. Werewolf wounds leave terrible scars." He pointed at his own scar when I looked up at him.