Unidentified elf - Treatment room
"Place her on this table, please. And close the door as you leave."
Shaela's tone brooked no argument and the two men who had carried the unconcious elf into the treatment room quickly headed out to continue their work, passing the two men who had followed them the whole way to the Houses of Healing. The two men merely shrugged their shoulders as Halbarad and Adrahil bombarded them with questions on the elf, neither of them able to answer.
The questions were immediately drowned out as the door fell shut, an eerie silence falling on the room that was only broken when Shaela finally spoke.
"Well, this is highly unusual.." she mused as she eyed the elf before her. She had never seen any elves herself, though had of course heard plenty of rumours about them.
"Alright girls, lets get to this before she gets any worse. Treat her as you would any other patient, you hear me?" Shaela eyed the three girls in the room one by one and waited for each to nod before turning back to the elf. "Get the scissors and let's cut the clothes off and see what we are dealing with here."
The four women worked in silence, each carefully removing the elf's black garments, none of them wincing or gasping at the sight of the bloody wounds that appeared as the fabric was peeled away. It was more than apparent that both legs were broken, one an ugly open wound fracture. With deft fingers, Shaela ran her slender fingers over every inch of the elf's battered and bruised body, feeling for more broken bones, though not finding more than the broken bones in the legs. Shaela carefully checked the elf's neck and scalp, and asked for a light as she carefully pried one of the elf's eyelids open.
"Oh! What.." Gasping the woman had let go of the elf's eyelid, looking at the other women to see if they had seen the same. Quickly she carefully lifted the eyelid again revealing the blood red iris. Shocked at what she was seeing, she quickly opened the other eye and heard one of the younger women gasp behind her. "What the.. how is this possible? Red eyes? It doesn't look like they are damaged in any way.. and the pupils are dialating as they should.. what is this devilry.."
For a long moment the women were taken aback, though they slowly recovered as the elf let out another groan of pain. "Right, um.. carry on ladies, we will leave this one for later, we need to see if anything else is wrong.. I mean if there is any other wounds."
Though all four were unnerved by the colour of the elf's eyes they were all professionals and pulled themselves together and carried on, carefully lifting the elf enough to check her back where they soon saw a deep stab wound with ugly red tendrils snaking out from the opening itself. Leaning in Shaela gave the wound a sniff.
"Poison.."
Oddly enough there seemed to be an air of relief amongst the women, each thinking that the poison could be the culprit and the reason why the elf's eye colour had changed. Carefully the women flipped the elf onto her stomach, taking care not to hurt or move the legs more than necessary. As they shifted her, the elf gave out a low pained groan, though remained unconcious. Shaela eyed the wound once more, using her fingers to press around it and frowning as she saw a pus like substance ooze out along with the blood. It was apparent that the elf had lost a lot of blood as she was covered in it, the remains of her clothes soaked through.
"I will have to cut the wound open and scrape out this pus. I think I know what poison it is though, it looks like the same kind that the orcs favoured and luckily we have the anti-venom for it. Bottom shelf to the right, yes that's the one" she directed at to one of the young women, keeping to herself that she had never seen this poison do that to anyone's eyes and telling herself that maybe it was an elven reaction. Quickly Shaela washed her hands in the basin nearby and went to retrieve the set of knives used for surgeries, laying a few of them out next to the elf's body.
"Ok, don't let her move, do you hear me? Best get some milk of the poppy ready just in case." The young woman nodded and grabbed the correct bottle and headed back, standing ready to hold one of the elf's legs down should it be needed.
"I know the broken legs looks horrific, but if we do not treat this wound she will die." Shaela left it at that, as time was running short. Grabbing one of the sharp knives, she carefully cut around the wound, and began pushing the pus out while the three other women looked for signs of the elf suddenly waking, though the elf never stirred nor let out another graon as her flesh was cut. Carefully Shaela wiped the pus away, making sure not to spread it over more of the skin or getting it on her own hands. It seemed like ages passed before she was finally satisfied enough that all the pus was gone and she could close the wound. "We will need to make a poultice for this, but after we get some of the anti-venom in her" she muttered as she carefully sewed the wound closed with tight neat stitches.
"Ok, let's turn her over, we need to make her swallow some of the anti-venom.." Shaela looked concerned as they once more turned the elf, though this time she did not groan. "Hurry. Give me the vial. Hold her head up a bit. That's it, hold her steady.." Placing the vial to the elf's pale blue lips Shaela slowly poured the mixture into the elf's mouth while massaging the elf's throat to encourage swallowing. The concern on Shaela's face deepened as there wasn't even a cough, though it seemed that the mixture had gone down the correct way.
"We won't know if we got it in her in time for a while yet, let's splint her legs." What would have been excruciatingly painful as the bones were reset, passed by without a flinch from the elf, which only made the women worry even more.
"Make some poultice for the two open wounds and use some of the anti-venom in it, just in case." The young womam merely nodded and took the offered vial and headed over to mix up the poultice which they then lathered over both wounds after cleaning each once more. As soon as both legs were splintered and the wounds wrapped in fresh bandages they set to work washing the blood and mud off the elf's body and dressing her in a simple white shift that was open in the back so that they could easily get to the wound again.
"Raise her legs up, Maisie. We need to make sure they don't swell up. That's it." Shaela nodded as she kept a close eye on the young woman, making sure it was done as carefully as possible, watching as Maisie raised the legs onto a firm pillow.
"Right, that is about all we can do for her, for now. We need to give her a bit more anti-venom in a couple of hours, but for now all we can do is wait." Shaela gave the young women the nod indicating for them to begin cleaning up after themselves. Each of the three women worked quietly, hushed by the presence of an elf, one with eldritch eyes at that, though their tension filled the air around them. As the women gathered everything that needed to be taken out, Shaela stopped them at the door.
"Not a word to anyone, do you hear?" Each received a stern stare that quickly garnered a nod from them all. "And Maisie, find the Captain of the Guard, or someone high ranking enough and bring them here. Tell them it is urgent, do you hear me?"
"Yes Miss.." Maisie nodded her head and quickly made her way out the door, pushing past Halbarad and Adrahil and avoiding their barrage of questions.
Bringing a bowl of water and a wash cloth, Shaela headed back to the elf as the door shut behind the three women. Soaking the cloth, she slowly wrung it out and folded it neatly she carefully wiped the elf's forehead. "So.. who are you.. or more like.. what are you.." Silence filled the room, the elf now barely breathing, her skin so pale the contrast stark against her pitch black hair.
"You hang in there, you hear. We have had enough deaths for now.."