If I had any dreams before opening my eyes, I do not remember. The first thing that greeted me after I opened my eyes was a wooden frame holding cloth in an inverted cone. I realized I was in a tent.
It took my brain a second to register the sandy feeling in my throat. Trying to amass my saliva and gulp it to wet my throat, but it took another moment to register that it was also dry. It felt like my mouth was full of sand.
Voices coming from one side of the tent brought my attention in one direction. "Yeah, I brought some water for him…. Mhm….." Footstep sounds led my eyes to the flaps of the entrance of the tent.
A woman came in holding a bucket with one hand and the other holding one of the flaps open.
From my prone position on the bed I saw someone who would be hunted or lynched but in my eyes she simply looked like a young woman with light purple skin and hair,she wore a white toga, barefoot and a purple cloth over her eyes.
She walked to one side of the tent and bent her knees to place down the bucket.The sound of liquid sloshing around in it reached my ears.
She turned around and walked towards a table near the bed I was resting on. A small hum accompanied her since she entered the room but I had just noticed.
Whoever found me close to death and brought me here, and also did not tie me to the bed, must not have ill will against me or they would ha\ve killed me already.
"Wwwa… wa…? Since she didn't notice I was awake or moved her blindfolded head my way when I lifted up my hand and tried to wave it. I tried to speak up and ask for water to refresh my mouth and throat. But I felt like the blades of a lawn mower running on my throat whenever I tried to speak.
"Ah, you're awake." She said in a singsong voice. "Hello my name is-"
"Wa…. ter." I kept repeating the same word as best as I could and kept pointing at the bucket hoping its contents was that beautiful liquid.
"Oh, yeah, you must be parched, give me a moment." She turned around and walked towards where I assume she had some small containers like cups to hold water.
My eyes were drawn to her face as she turned and I realised that pointing at the bucket would not help due to the blind fold covering her eyes. I lowered my hand and felt glad she would not see my face as I felt it heat up.
She rummaged for a cup from a table full of flat plates, saws and other things you'd find in an operating room from a hospital. "Here drink." She found a cup, filled it with water and offered it to me.
When the water touched my tongue, my throat decided to let the liquid pass through unobstructed even though part of it went down the wrong pipe.I had to lower the cup to cough without spilling it on me, but as soon as it was clear my mouth was on the cup again and water sliding down my throat.
By the time I finished the drink I noticed the water was lukewarm before remembering where I should be.
"Do you want some more?" Her voice drew my attention back to her.
"No I'm go-... maybe a little more." I took another deep drink and took my time to remember where I am and what I should ask her. "What happened? Where am I and how long was I out?"
"A mmm let me mmm," Her left index finger came up to her chin. "An adventurer passing by for water and a short visit mentioned he had seen someone out in the wasteland, he said the person looked to be in bad shape and did not appear to be coming in our direction. So two of the girls went out to look, and brought you back."
I tried to sit up but pain in my rib cage assaulted me. "A- take it easy please. We all tried to heal you but no fast healing magic worked. One of our little ones used their healing magic but she's just started using magic so it wasn't strong but somehow it worked so I had the idea of using slow regenerative magic. And well you still need more healing time since I am not sure how fast I can push it."
Looking down at the sheets coveting me I lifted it to see my shirt was changed for a gray one with a tighter fit. Seeing through my skin I found my ribs had only 2 small fractures along the curve of my ribs near my arm.
"It will take some time to fully heal your injuries. But you will be in tip top shape." She smiled and took the cup from me back near the bucket. "As for where we are, this is my tent, we are in the small… gorgon… village." The final words came out very hesitant, one of her hands rubbed her other arm and she lowered her head in an apologetic manner.
I knew the discrimination against demi-hyumans, however I only knew how bad it was for the beast demi-hyumans. I was fully unaware of how hyumans viewed demis more associated to mamonos like the gorgons or forest Oni. They had done nothing bad to me -as far as I knew- from shat she told me, They had actually brought me to their home, healed me, and even given me water to drink -a precious liquid worth more than gold out in the wasteland.
"Thank you." I could only give her my heartfelt gratitude.
"Ah-"The gratitude must have been fully transmitted given she started stuttering and her face turned red in an anime way of going red from her neck up to the top of her face. It could also be the first time she witnesses a hyuman thank a gorgon or in this case be the gorgon being thanked.
"So how long was I down for?" I tried to bring her mind back to the questions I made.
"Eh, ah!! Yes, yeah, it has been 10 hours since you were brought here I think." She paused and placed her index fingers on her temples, twisting them. "Hmm… maybe like 9 and a half hours?" She sounded more unsure the more she talked.
"Thank you for healing me, I will go on my way as soon as I'm all healed." Her head snapped her head to face me.
"Ah…. well can you umm… nevermind. I will go for more water.I will be back in a while, rest so you can recover soon." She turned around picked up the bucket, sloshing the liquid inside as she rushed out.
My eyes followed her out, stuck to her ass. 'I am not as horny as I thought." The feeling of my pants getting uncomfortably tight brought my attention to them. "Nevermind."
---
Word Count 1198
Thanks for reading this bit, it is a lot shorter. sorry bout that.
If there are any grammatical errors, let me know by commenting on the paragraph.
Thank you guys. I appreciate your reading so far