Chapter 3 - 3. Who Is Going To Foot My Medical Bills?

I was truly enjoying the life of a carefree state of mind in that semi-dark world with the projected screen in front of me, an endless bountiful of drinks and foods before me, sitting comfortably in the plush recliner without a single care in the world.

Not even once did Max, my sidekick side character who is only visible to me, animals and little children; had visited me throughout the time. Guess maybe he was busy doing other scenes with other protagonists that played as a more frequent side character there than in this novel.

Ah well, I'm good even without any forms of communications as I laid there, staring the scenes before me unfold on the huge projected screen, most of the time I had caught glimpses of my life, passing me by, while other scenes were hard to depict, as if it was enlightening part of my unforetold future.

.....

"Hey Prius, I think this young man is already coming to. I can see his fingers slightly twitching and his eyelids were trying to flutter and open right now," exclaimed Patricia who had done dabbing me with the damp cloth, stepped back and half expected that I would just spring myself off from that hard wooden bed and immediately stand up.

"Hmm, he seems so as what you had said. I better call the infirmary and let them know of this young man's condition. You stay here and observe the moment he wakes up from his deep sleep. Try not to stir him too much, or else the blood would rush to his head in a sudden and he might blow it off." Prius said as he picked up his hooded cloak and slipped it over him and went out towards the direction of the infirmary.

"Are you sure he's going to do that, huh? Don't you scare me and then run off to protect your own ass...!" Patricia hollered back at her brother as she stood at the foot of the bed, watching anxiously at the body of the young man that was breathing steadily, his chest rising and falling as each time he took a breathe and exhale. She then took a goose feather that was placed at the foot of the bed and gave a slight brush against my bare foot.

"Cootchie Cootchie Coo..."

Back in that semi-dark void, things started to stir around me. The huge projected screen in front of me was shuddering and rippling, as if something behind it was giving way. The void seemed to have brightened a bit as the huge projected screen in front of me shrivelled and shrunk, spinning counterclockwise as if there's a sinkhole behind it and seemed to suck everything away into its swirl...

The side table with the food and drinks too were pulled in by that force and I could feel myself being levitated off my soft and cushy recliner and towards the swirling sinkhole that looked like a slit, which resembles me of a slanted cats' pupils.

"Hey!!! I haven't finished that bowl of Ruffles potato chips and the sour cream dippings... Awww... Come on..." I cried out helplessly as the table along with the contents moved forward into the so-called 'sinkhole".

I felt drawn towards it and in a swoosh feeling, I was sucked through with no grips that I could hold on to and was now gravitating slowly into a form that I had not felt for very long time. The moment I felt that I had taken a form of some sort, the first thing I did was to move my fingers and tapped slowly.

"At least I've got fingers and not some kind of paws and living in an enclosed cage or something. It would be a sad story if I happened to be some kind of lab rat... Huu Huu Huu..."

It was a feeling of something real, hard and cold to the slightest touch and I tried to move my physical body but was hampered down since it had been mobile for so many months and it felt a heavy and clammy feeling.

"My body feels kind of stiff, doesn't it? Felt like I'm a Giant in a land of Lilliputians."

Something was tickling one of my feet and I can't help but to curl up my toes and jerked up my knees, and then I heard it for the first time in some many months since being in that semi-dark void, a sweet young woman's voice calling excitedly.

"Prius, someone... Please hurry! This young man is about to come to. I just tickled his feet with this goose feather and it had an erection... I mean a reaction!" the voice was soft and yet loud enough to be heard by the incoming infirmary staffs that had entered through the side door of the room. A cold draft wafted in as soon as the door was opened and a few of the infirmary staffs had begun to check on my vital signs.

They took my wrist and felt for a pulse which is now pulsating slowly and yet strong enough to be felt by them. One of them opened my eyelid and a sudden brightness entered and made me gasped and made me forcefully closed my eyes again.

"Yes, this is a miracle indeed. This young man had shown signs that he is about to come to from his coma. Aide, please bring me the medical bag alongside me." a female voice spoke up, gesturing for her side to bring the medical bag to her that contained a stethoscope and a sphygmomanometer and other medical equipment.

The infirmary staff had forgotten to blow and heat the diaphragm using her breathe and immediately place it over my chest to listen to my rhythmic heartbeat. The moment the diaphragm touched my bare chest, I muttered a soft "Cold" to her as a cuff was placed on my left arm to check my blood pressure.

"Hmm, his blood pressure seemed normal at 110/80 and his heart rate is good at 70 per minutes. He's coming to alright, we just heard his first words. Let him come to naturally, this had been a breakthrough since the last time he was brought in."

"We would hang around a while to see if he is able to recover on his own." I heard the female infirmary staff said as I slowly raised my right hand towards my lips and felt that it had been parched dry.

"Its a miracle, thank the Lord above. He finally has the motor skills which we all thought he won't be able to move at all despite the horrendous injuries he had sustained!" said the aide and she held my hand and gave it a squeeze. It was warm and friendly and I subconsciously gave a weak squeeze back.

I slowly fluttered my eyelids open and I was squinting despite the windows had its curtains drawn. I touched my lips and asked in a rather hoarse and soft voice, "Water, please" and a mug was placed gently on my lips as someone had raised my head up, allowing me to take small sips of it.

The water quickly moistened my parched lips and throat, my body had been propped with a few more pillows to make it upright. By the time, my squinted eyes had adjusted to the light and I saw a few anxious people in front of me, standing at the foot of the bed while a petite woman was holding a cup of water for me to drink.

"Where am I? How long had I been asleep?" I asked in my slightly quivering and horse voice as I slowly pushed the hand that was holding the cup against my lips and propped myself properly and adjusted my propped body against the wall on the right.

"You are now in Ingmery, a small town just south of the ravine where some travellers had found you. You are the only survivor on that Battlefield against the dark elven."

"Do you recall anything of that sort? It had been 6 long months since the battle ended and you were brought here instead of the City where you had come from."

The young woman, named Patricia explained softly and every word she spoke gently floated into my ears and permeated into my brain as I tried to search for any kind of memories that I had there.

Instinctively my right arm went to my left forearm and was searching for the wound that the Elder in my previous transmigration had helped to blood let despite me being a low blood sufferer and found that there is no signs of any incision made there. I turned my head and saw that there is not even a mark or scratch there at all.

"No, not really. I don't recall much of what had happened to me at all. Everything happened in a flash and the next moment, I felt some beings were pounding me down with their Warhammer and the next I was thrown on my back and blacking out." I replied as that's the only memory I had during the last battle near the entrance of the ravine.

"The Heavens must be shining down on you. The injuries when you were brought in were too unspeakable and we had to remove a few bones that were sticking out of you since we won't know whether it belonged to you or part of some bone shrapnel." the infirmary staff said as she took off my intravenous drop that had been sustaining my life all these 6 months. I literally had used over 2 pints of glucose and saline drips every day for the past 6 months without even realising.

The only thing in my mind is, "Who is going to foot the medical fees" and that thought alone gives me a feeling of blacking out again.