NaNoWriMo

NaNoWriMo is less than a week away! For those who don't know, that stands for National Novel Writing Month. I participated last year, but to be honest, I never finished the novel I was writing. The flow of my writing got interrupted by Thanksgiving, and I never got my groove back. I tried, but it didn't happen. This week, I'm reading over what I've written so that I can get back to it. 


And here's a little bit of what's been written...



At the hospital, Kit and his mother found Isaac sitting in a waiting room. He looked exhausted and depleted. “Have you eaten,” was the first thing Mrs. Smeth asked. “Has anyone had a look at you.” Isaac shook his head no in response.
She handed Kit some money and said “get him some food! I’m going to find a doctor!” She stormed off, furious that this obviously hurt boy was left to sit in a waiting room. She walked up to the nurse’s station. “Why hasn’t that boy been seen to?”
“Who? The cyclops? He just sat down there after asking about the Marks kid.”
“Can’t you see that he’s been hurt? He’s also been depleted from casting a healing spell that helped to save Mr. Marks!”
“I… I’m sorry.” The nurse didn’t waste time. She thrust a clipboard with forms at Mrs. Smeth and then walked into the waiting room. “Young man, I apologize. I didn’t know you were hurt. If you’ll come with me, someone will have a look at you.”
“His name is Isaac Allahnason. I sent my son to get him some food,” Mrs. Smeth said. “Magical depletion needs calories. I’ll fill out this form, and I assume we can come back when my son returns with the food?”
“Of course,” the nurse said, leading Isaac away to an examination room. Mrs. Smeth shook her head and muttered something not very nice as she watched them walk away. They didn’t go far, and she saw what room the nurse took Isaac to.
She filled in what she could of the forms. After a few minutes, Kit returned with some food from the cafeteria. A sandwich, an apple, and some fruit juice. That would do for now.
“Come on,” she said. “They took him to an examination room.”
They knocked and walked into the room. Isaac was sitting on an exam table, stripped to the waist. Mrs. Smeth could see bruises and a few burns on his body, as well as some blood. Kit set the food down where Isaac could reach it. 
“…my physiology isn’t any different from a regular human’s,” Isaac said. “I’m just bigger. I can provide my medical history if need be.”
The nurse nodded and began to check his heartbeat with her stethoscope. 
Mrs. Smeth put the forms down by the food. “I’ve filled out what I can of these forms, Isaac. You’ll have to do the rest.” He nodded. “Do you want one of us to stay with you?”
“Kit,” he said, and the nurse shushed him! She needed to listen for irregularities. 
“Fine,” Mrs. Smeth said. “Kit, come get me if you need me. I’ll be in the waiting room.”
Isaac nodded towards a chair in the corner, and Kit took a seat. The nurse took Isaac’s vitals before saying, “The doctor will want an x-ray to make sure nothing’s wrong internally. You need to strip down and put on one of these gowns.” She handed Isaac a cotton hospital gown, which he looked at skeptically.
He stood up and opened the gown. There is no way he could wear it. He looked at the nurse, who had been watching him. “If it’s all the same, can’t I just keep my underwear on? This isn’t going to fit me.”
“Fine,” she said. “Come with me. X-ray is across the hall. It’ll only take a few minutes and then you can come back here and wait.”
Kit waited for more than a few minutes, and finally Isaac walked back into the exam room. “They had to keep adjusting the x-ray machine,” Isaac said, smiling. He was amused at these nurses and technicians who thought that his being tall and muscular was somehow unusual. The x-ray tech was even rude enough to ask about his age, and then if he should have so much body hair at that age.
“What’s so funny,” Kit asked.
“Those people,” Isaac replied. “No manners. They said whatever came into their heads.”
“They didn’t treat you badly,” Kit said, his hackles rising.
“No. They were kind,” Isaac said. “But some of their comments about my person were not what you say to a stranger. They realized it and apologized.” After the x-ray tech had made his comment, he had turned a deep shade of red and said sorry. 
“Okay,” Kit said, settling down. Kit liked the older boy a lot, and did not want anyone treating his friend badly. And he had a good idea what would happen if his mother found out that Isaac was being poorly treated. As it was, she was ready to spit nails at any and all of the bullies from earlier. 
Isaac ate while they waited. They waited a while. And then a while longer. Finally the doctor came in, holding an x-ray photo. “Well, young man, it looks like you’re going to be okay. You mostly have bruises, which will heal. We have a shaman who is going to come in and look at those burns. Those seem magical, but not serious. He should be able to Heal them quickly.”
As if on cue, a Shaman walked into the room. Kit didn’t know what he was expecting, but he wasn’t expecting an ordinary man in hospital scrubs. The shaman didn’t say anything. He just walked over to Isaac and examined the burns while the doctor looked on. A few mutterings and gestures, and green light played over Isaac’s body, taking the burns away. Satisfied, the shaman nodded, and walked out of the room.
“You can get dressed now,” the doctor said. “You’ll probably be sore for a couple of days, and I understand you were using magic yourself. You need to eat more tonight than you normally would.”
“Yes sir,” Isaac said, pulling his pants on.
“Just give this chart to the nurse at the desk on your way out,” the doctor said, handing Isaac his chart.  With that, the doctor left.
Isaac pulled on his ripped shirt, and he walked out with Kit trailing behind him. Isaac handed the chart to the nurse, as well as the paperwork he had been given. She looked it over, rubber stamped a few places, and sent him on his way.
“I’m fine,” Isaac said when he saw Mrs. Smeth. “Just some bruises, and I need to eat because of the spell I cast.”
“Thank Goodness,” Mrs. Smeth said. “Let’s get you home and get you fed! I checked on that boy you healed. They wouldn’t tell me much. Just that he’s in stable condition.”
“Oh,” Kit said. 
“I’d like to come back here after I eat and get cleaned up,” Isaac said. Both Kit and Mrs. Smeth were surprised. “I’d like to see how he’s doing myself.”


***



Even though he sat in the corner, trying to be unnoticed, there was no mistaking the young cyclops as he sat in the hospital waiting room. He had picked up bits and pieces of various conversations, so he knew that Danyl was going to be okay. He certainly didn’t expect to be approached by anyone.
“What are you doing here, Isaac?” Dean Sara Blake stood in front of him, looking him directly in the eye.
“I wanted to make sure Danyl was going to be alright… that nothing else would happen to him.”
The Dean regarded him for a moment. “He’s going to be fine. I think he’s sleeping right now. Would you like to come in and see for yourself?”
Isaac nodded, looking grateful. He had been distressed over Danyl all evening, afraid that his magic hadn’t been enough to save him. 
“He is hurt,” Dean Blake said, leading the way to Danyl’s room. “Cracked ribs, and a broken arm. The hospital shaman enforced the healing that you gave him, and said that you had done an excellent job. They’re keeping him overnight for observation.”
They walked into Danyl’s room, which had been dimmed to help promote sleep. There was a window where a nurse could keep watch on Danyl from her station, and Dean Blake nodded to the nurse. She had set it up that Isaac could stay here if he wanted to.
“I’m going to go speak to the nurse,” Dean Blake said. “Stay as long as you like.” She slipped out of the room, watching Isaac stand at the foot of Danyl’s bed. She didn’t think he was going anywhere.


***


Danyl woke up in the middle of the night, his ribs hurting. Well, everything hurting to be honest. He sensed someone else in the room, and looked over to see…  The Cyclops was dozing in a chair by his bed. Wasn’t that just perfect?!?
“What are you doing here,” Danyl muttered, groggy from pain and medicine. At her window, the nurse noticed that Danyl was awake and moved towards the door.
Isaac woke up at Danyl’s question. “To make sure you’re okay,” he said gently. “How do you feel?”
“Terrible,” Danyl said. “Hurts.” The nurse came in and quickly injected more pain medicine into Danyl’s I.V. tube. 
“This will help you sleep,” she said. “You need that right now to get better.”
“Fine,” Danyl muttered. He didn’t say anything else, but he continued to look at Isaac while the drug took effect. Isaac returned his gaze. As he began to drift off, he said, “you snore.”
“So I’ve been told,” Isaac said, but Danyl had already fallen back asleep.



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