Yggdrasil's Surveyor Hub » When I Was A Child, I Had A Fever
Head feels
Fuzzy
Can't think
Straight
Was I concussed?
Silvia's not going to be happy
Where am I?
I can't tell 'now' from 'then'
I'm in the backyard of my childhood home
I'm in a cold and muddy warzone
A cool breeze pierces the humid summer air
My fingers are numb against the snowy ground
I'm three years old
How old am I now?
I'm staring down at a mangy squirrel, its legs twitching uselessly on its side
I'm staring up at a mangy man, his axe soaked with blood
They look at me, their thoughts inscrutable
I crouch down, wanting to check if the squirrel's okay
I scramble back, wary of the man's intentions for me
I feel a sharp pain on my right palm
I feel a sharp pain on my left foot
The squirrel bit me!
The bastard's twisting my ankle with his boot!
Everything goes dark
I don't know how much time has passed after I awaken
I'm in my bedroom, my mother pressing a cool cloth against my head
I'm in what looks like a throne room, shoved onto my stomach by someone behind me
She looks relieved that I'm awake
I feel nothing but contempt, from the eyes that are on me
Her voice is gentle
Their voices are guttural and filled with rage
I've been out cold with a fever for almost a week
I can see it's nighttime now
My mother wasn't sure I was going to wake up
I'm grabbed roughly by the back of the neck
She sat by my bedside every day, praying for me to open my eyes
I'm now in front of a stern, one-eyed man
The doctor walks in a few moments later
He scrutinizes me, and then recoils in his chair
Nobody says a word, for what feels like an eternity
The doctor says that my vitals are clean, no sign of infection or anything
The one-eyed man dismisses everyone else in the room
The only sign the squirrel had ever been there was the scar on my hand
He gets up off of his chair, and kneels down in front of me
He places his hand on me
He tells me that I'm lucky to be alive
He says something to me, a word, or maybe even a name.
I could have gotten an infection, or worse, rabies
I try to tell him that I don't understand what he's saying
But I can't get any words out
I'm just happy to see my mother smiling at me
My head hurts to much for me to form coherent words
Wait
Things are clearing up now
I can feel the pull
The tug that means I'm going home
My mother's smile seems sadder now, for some reason
The one eyed man looks panicked, afraid as I start to shift
"It's time to go home"
After the Hand's Healers tend to me
I ask Silvia a question
"What is 'Ratatoskr'?"