When Leon came to, the first thing he noticed was that his body ached. It was a painful sort of ache, like echoes of a trauma that had been far worse to his nerve endings, the type that would make one glad to be or fall unconscious. His left arm felt heavy, constricted and the majority of the discomfort seemed to be coming from it. He also felt as if he lacked some ability to move.
His vision was fuzzy, his glasses missing and all around him seemed quite white, although he could tell he was lying upon his back. His throat was quite dry, longing for a drink to soothe it. With a slight frown, he turned his neck to one side and there he saw a blur of colour.
"You're finally awake!" The clearly feminine voice sighed with relief.
"Maimai?" Leon croaked slightly, before swallowing, drying to ease the dryness.
"Oh! Let me get you something to drink!" He heard the sound of water filling a small vessel and the soft shimmer of silk rustling as the colour began to form some shape before his poor vision. "Can you sit up?"
There was some struggle as Leon summoned the strength to raise his upper body enough that he could drink without the water spilling everywhere. After most of the cup was emptied, he lie back down with a relieved huff. "C-Could you p-pass me my g-glasses?" He asked her.
"Oh, they were broken," Maimai admitted. "Smashed beyond repair this time. So I took the liberties of purchasing a new pair. Hope you don't mind!"
His vision cleared as the new frames settled upon his nose. "I will p-pay you b-back," he told her, earnestly. But she waved her hand in dismissal.
"No need," Maimai looked a little shamefaced. "I'm partially responsible for what happened, so let's forget it!"
"What exactly d-did happen?" Leon asked, his memory vaguely recalling last that he was attempting to make an unfamiliar pill, but beyond that...
From what Maimai advised him, he was the victim of a prank gone horribly wrong. His Master had left him instructions to practice forming a pill, but those were switched with a false recipe. That recipe listed half the ingredients of not the White Lotus pill, but a pill called the Seven Lotus pill, a completely different pill that required an adept hand due to its six opposing ingredients and the seventh which would bring the whole creation together.
Leon's senior had given him the new instructions and ingredients, but he was not responsible for the accident. Hue was a successful alchemist, but very slow of thought and was the type to need clear instructions. However, he also had a retentive memory, so only needed those instructions once. It was just, he never thought too deeply about the fact that the name of the pill did not match the recipe, his trust completely in his Master. He did, however, recall exactly which student had passed on the instructions.
That student had dragged several others down into the pit with him once he had realised that they would not escape punishment, clearly not the magnanimous type and Maimai was upset to admit that these students, mostly first years with a couple of seniors who should have known better, were from her father's sect.
Maimai's father had several children, most being shu born, though the man never divided his love unfairly between his legitimate and illegitimate children. He also was known to be highly protective of his daughters, thus their future spouses would have had to attain his acknowledgment, something that was worth much more than the wealth he would surely provide for his daughters' dowries. Of course, most standard sect members could only dream of such things, but it never hurt to get on the good side of the sect leader or his children.
When Merylin and Maimai enrolled in the school (with several sect members who saw their opportunity to shine), the sect member students saw their chance to not only get close to the two girls, but prove their worth to the sect leader by 'protecting them' from 'undesirable elements' or at least that was what they told themselves. They could not accept the fact that 'outsiders' were becoming close to their Lotuses.
Of course not all of them were so low as to bully and prank, Justin, for example chose to directly confront Jin Li who he felt was trying to take away the girl he held affections for. Others simply took a page from Merylin's book and chose to try to impress with their talents. So it was a minor few who were lowering the reputation of the sect with their disgraceful actions.
"They panicked when they realised what had happened," Maimai mentioned, as she continued to explain, her tone clearly unhappy. The prank had left Leon wounded and unconscious and he had been sent to the Healers Hall. "They didn't expect the recipe to blow up in your face, just expected the pill to fail and herbs to be ruined. They were trying to get you into trouble for wasting valuable herbs. But when the accident happened, they stole away the note and the leftover herbs before running away. They are in detention, waiting for punishment at the moment."
"Ah, Leo, you are awake!"
Leon glanced behind Maimai, who turned towards the speaker. The man was a robust looking individual with a really long, grey beard, but lacking hair upon his shiny head. He wore robes not unlike Leon's off-white linen ones, but his rounded stomach protruded over his belt. He approached the bed Leon was lying on, nodding to the girl sitting beside him.
"My name is Quint, I am one of the Healers of the Institute," he advised Leon. "You experienced quite the backlash during that incident. There was some damage to your internal organs and your left arm was broken, the rest was superficial surface wounds." He went on to explain that Leon had consumed two Blood Pills over the two days he had been unconscious and that his arm was wrapped in Fox Bandages as it was not good to consume too many healing pills in a short frame of time, so his internal injuries had been prioritised first.
While he was speaking, he placed his fingers upon Leon's wrist, taking his pulse for a fresh diagnosis. Afterwards, he stroked his long beard with his fingers.
"You should be fine to take a Bone Replacement Pill now," the man said, leaving the room and patient to go and get one. As he opened the door, he almost collided with a couple of students in the hallway. "Take care, there!"
"My apologies, sir" came the response, which caused Leon's brows to rise in question.
Sun was somewhat used to the strenuous exercises and practices his Master insisted of him. His muscles no longer screamed for half a day after the 'warm ups', he no longer fell asleep as he soaked in the medicinal baths and he no longer needed to be dragged from his bed of a morning. However, it did not mean that he didn't seek a break from it every now and then. Seeing as hiding and complaining had gotten him nowhere, he found a new tactic; attending lectures. This way he could 'seem' like a diligent student, while dozing in the back of the lecture room.
He was not alone, but Jin Li was not attending the lecture willingly. He'd broken one to many mannequins and had been banned from the training grounds. All of the arena's had been claimed for various reasons and there were still too few who would accept his challenges anyway. Basically, attending the lecture and brooding was better than lying upon his bed and brooding. At least the images of Leon lying upon a bed beneath him flashed less before his eyes here.
The lecture was about... actually neither of them were paying enough attention, so they didn't really know nor did they care.
As the Teacher droned on at the front of the classroom, he was suddenly interrupted by a beaming face appearing in the room's entrance. "Teacher Corvus," the Lecturer greeted him.
"Ah... Teacher..." Corvus covered up the fact that he had no idea of this man's name with a cough. The man must have started teaching while he was out and about in the world. "I was wondering if my apprentice was attending your lecture... Sun! There you are!"
The napping boy was startled from his sweet dreams, falling backwards in a panic. No one moved to catch him, but he did receive several snickers. Jin Li did not laugh, but did not help him regain face either. "Teacher Corvus," Sun greeted as he rose to his feet. "Are you looking for me?"
"En!" Corvus agreed, cheerfully. "I've found something entertaining for us to do! Oh and you might as well bring Jin Li along, the more the merrier, right?"
Several envious glances were cast Sun's way, but the boy's expression was filled with black lines, making them wonder why. His Teacher was taking him out to play, surely that was better than a lecture on enhancement pills and their side effects?! Of course they had no idea that Corvus' idea of entertainment usually meant a world of suffering for his disciple. But while Sun descended the steps to the classroom's exit, Jin Li followed with less trepidation, his sword hand itching to get started.
As it was, the 'expedition' was actually a gathering of inner school martial artists and Beast Tamers observing the biannual migration of a herd beast named the Three Horned Greater Roe Buck. The beast was just slightly smaller than an equine and much more stocky of figure, with a small tail and patterned furred coat. They had three, hard clawed toes on each foot rather than hooves, thus they could grip the mountain side better. The males were also crowned with a triage of antlers and were particularly violent during this time of year as they made their way towards their traditional mating grounds. Fights would break out as they travelled through the mountains owned by the institute. These males might get separated from the main herd and cause havoc on an uncharted detour. Animals, weaker beasts and ordinary people had been hurt and even killed in their wake.
So the school always had groups of selected students watch the herds and make sure that they kept on track whenever possible. They also had to protect the herd from opportunistic poachers. The mountains were already suffering from these vermin and though the Three Horned Greater Roe Buck was not an uncommon beast, its meat, antlers and fur were all commodities to be bought and sold for reasonable money. Their breeding grounds was sheltered within a long dormant volcano that just happened to be surrounded by a deep gorge protected by poisonous mists, that the beasts themselves were immune too and also filled with large predators. The Roe Buck's northern home was hard to reached due to the thick, jagged mountain range that the creatures overcame each spring. So during the migration was the prime time for poachers.
It was just that the poachers usually attracted the wrath of the beasts that they hunted and potentially caused more headaches for the institute.
Corvus, Sun and Jin Li observed from the shelter of a tree a few metres away from the running beasts and Sun yawned loudly. "This is better than the lecture?"
Corvus pouted. "When I was a student," he began, reminiscing, "the herd was a lot more vicious. I even had to help Corne take down an old herd leader who strayed too far and began threatening the village to the east of the institute."
Sun's eyes lit up brightly, thus Corvus began to embellish his tale into one of a life and death situation in which Corne was pierced through the stomach by the angry beast's antlers and how several villagers had been wounded mortally by the beast beforehand. Corvus stated that he had risked life and limb to create a distraction that their comrades could rescue the villagers and feed them pills to save their lives.
"If I recall correctly," Corne drawled, suddenly appearing on a tree close by, "the villager who got hurt fell over his own feet in a panic to get away and you distracted the old Buck because you laughed so hard you almost peed yourself. I had to push you out of the way so you didn't get trampled when the beast ran at you and as for being pierced by the antlers... it was a small scratch that was fixed by a One Heart Pill. That old Buck ran back to his herd not long after." Pike, who happened to be with his Master, turned away, but could not hide his trembling shoulders as they shook from repressed laughter.
Corvus chuckled and waved away his older brother's statement. "Is that what happened? I don't recall it all that well...". He thought about adding some excuses, but his words were drowned out by a sudden scream.
Author’s note; Sorry about the late update, I had a rough idea of what to write, decided it was crap, then spent the whole day replanning things so I could get to where I needed to be.
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