Madeline's POV

I stood outside for a moment, breathing in the semi-fresh air, having taken care of the last of my patients for now, the bag of gold hanging down on the belt around my waist, my payments for their treatments. Sadly, I couldn't treat them for free, I still had to make a living for equipment, ingredients I can't get myself right away, and eating and drinking. I am still human so- I still needed those essential items.

I stretched my arms up above my head, stretching out my back from hunching over when patching up wounds for the past few hours. There were so many people injured, with such injuries I haven't seen in past years. Muscle tissue was utterly destroyed, femurs snapped apart, rib cracked in several place, internal bleeding, and head trauma. There were plenty more injuries to list off, but those were the most I kept on seeing.

I knew for a fact the Champion of the Festival for the past few years couldn't possibly cause those injuries, especially at such a magnitude. I had even personally met him as well. He wanted to know who was the infamous Doctor that takes care of the people injured at the festival. Every year he has started the tradition of visiting me after he wins again. But, this year... I wasn't too sure.

I headed back inside, shutting the door behind me muffle out the screams and excited shouting of the combatants or audience around the fighting platform. 'So loud...' I thought to myself, throwing away bloody rags, too far gone to be cleaned, even if I used my skills of magic.

I opened up my satchel, pulling out my journal, beginning to write down the last of the injuries I encountered so far, and what I had used to treat it. "I might have to stay here for a couple of more days..." I mumbled out loud. The sheer volume of injuries worried me. Meatheads were idiots, and would most likely forget how to apply or use the medicine I gave them, or lose the notes I had written down for them. But they definitely aren't idiotic enough to travel away from Vaizel until they are close to being healed. And there are also meatheads who think they aren't hurt, despite their body screaming at them in pain. Usually by the time of tomorrow afternoon, they would come in for treatment.

"I can't stay past three days... I have to travel back home to do more treatments for regular customers, ship out ingredients, gather ingredients, stockpile medicines..." I kept on mumbling, cursing to myself, "Dang it! If anything I will pack up on the third day before I go to bed, but leave out the usual ingredients, and some equipment. I will keep the clinic open until late afternoon, then I will leave." I made the plans, taking a deep breath.

"When he comes by I will ask him if he suddenly acquired muscle strengthening pills or something to create such damning injuries." I paused for a moment, breathing out, "If...".

I heard the bell, telling me someone came in to the pop-up clinic. "Hi! I'm Ares, what do you need today?" I turned around, meeting the young man halfway.

"I think my wrist is broken." I nodded, having him sit down on the chair. "Okay, how do you think you broke it?"

"I was thrown off the platform, I tried to brace my fall." I winced, feeling the pain as my eyes activated, the subtle gold glow not alerting the patient, He was half-correct.

"Your wrist isn't broken, just fractured. Where was your hand when you braced your fall?"

"Outstretched." My eyes travelled up his arm, spotting the snapped femur. Grimacing at the sight, I rolled up his sleeve, lightly putting pressure around the area with my thumbs before finally hitting the main spot. "Ah shit! The fuck was that?!"

"Sorry, looks like you have a broken femur. You will have to wear a sling for two weeks."

"Shit man..." I ignored his vulgarity, turning around to grab the ingredients. "Was anyone else thrown off?"

"A few yeah, but I think they went to the Local Doctor instead of coming here."

"Why didn't you follow after them?"

"I have heard great things about Dr. Ares. Your treatments are fastest. I don't have time to be out of commision for months." I laughed lightly, shaking my head, "The human body takes time to heal from how fragile they can be. My treatments may be the 'best' or the 'fastest', but nothing can beat the natural healing."

"Not even magic?"

"Even magic, magic has its limits too." I started with a chuckle, throwing in the ingredients and mashing them up into a paste, distilling it with water. "Eat this, it will speed up your body's natural regeneration." He nodded, taking the spoon and bowl out of my hands. He took a bit, coughing at the bitter taste. "Sorry that it tastes bitter, if I were to make it taste better, it would nullify the medicine and not make it as effective."

"It's fine." He grumbled, irritation in his voice but he bared through it. I opened one of the draws to grab material for the sling, the bell being rung again as another person entered.

"Hello I am Ares! I will be with you in a moment!" I called to them, putting out the sling material, the feeling of cotton in my hands as I stood back up, closing the drawer with my shin.

I wrapped the sling into two halves, glancing to my right to see who walked in. Another young man, who stayed silent, and was mostly just looking around, studying the inside of the pop-up clinic.

"I'm done with this shit." Stated the vulgar patient, placing the bowl and spoon down onto the counter. "Okay, I will wrap your wrist first, then put the sling on you." I stated, taking the smaller cotton material, the bandage, wrapping it around his wrist.

I ignored the two set of eyes on me, grabbed for the small wooden stick that was about 4 inches in diameter 10 inches in length, placing it against his forearm, extending the bandage I wrapped around his wrist down his forearm, wrapping around a couple of times before tying it off. I grabbed the actual sling, placing it on him. "You can't sleep on your right side during these two weeks, I recommend sleeping primarily on your back. And don't lift anything in your left arm above ten pounds to avoid extra strain that could transfer to your shoulder blade." I informed him, ripping a piece of paper out of my journal, the journal regenerating a new page for me almost instantly. I wrote down the ingredients I used in the paste, how many times to change the bandage, etc. "I will give you the ingredients to make the paste on your own. You will have to eat this once a day for 10 days. I believe the Local Doctor will be able to provide you some of these ingredients incase you run out."

"Alright, thank you Dr. Ares." He thanked me as I prepared the bag, placing the bottles of ingredients in, along with extra bandages and another sling to be used for sleeping.

"You are welcome, I will be here for a few days after the festival if you need anything else." He nodded, taking money out of his pocket, handing it to me, "Hopefully this cover for everything." I looked through the gold, counting mentally in my head, nodding. "It's enough, thank you. I hope you have a nice day, please take it easy!" He nodded, grabbing the bag before heading out the door, lightly brushing past the young man that came in earlier.

"I apologize for the wait, what is it that you need-?" I stopped, blinking as my eyes were still activated, recognizing the body construction.

"I take it that you are Lady Ares?" I stared at the young man in front of me, baffled. I felt as if my head was spinning, the aerial view of the room expanding then decreasing into a tiny box. '10 years...'

"G-Gowther?"

"That is not my name, my name is Alan." He smiled kindly at me. I shook my head, taking a few deep breaths as I approaching him, my eyes scanning his form, seeing no injuries. I recognized him, it's hard not to recognize and know who he was when he was the one who took most interest in me because of how much I wrote into my journal, how I analyzed everything down to the tiniest speck of dirt. In his large suit of armor, he was by me, one of my main protectors during battle, able to shield me by use of the armor and his own abilities in combat.

"Who am I?"

"Lady Ares, the doctor?"

"No no no." I gently put my hands on his shoulders, my arms stretching up to reach his shoulders. "Gowther, it's me. Madeline, your friend." I felt like passing out, my eyes welling up in tears. His brows rose in surprise at the emotion in my voice. My eyes deactivated, the soft glow of gold disappearing, showing off the deep emerald color of my eyes. "You used to look over my shoulder to watch me write, asked if I could use a different word, tell me new ones that I didn't know about- Don't you remember me?"

"I don't believe I have ever met you before, I apologize if we have." I reached up to the mop of green hair, remembering him to have a different color of hair. I gently pulled, feeling it was snug on his head, before tugging harsher, it coming off. He gasped, the pink hair being revealed to me.

"You can drop the act now, nobody is here except for me, Gowther." I hugged him, startling him with the weight that was suddenly pressing against him. He stumbled back a bit, reflexively putting his arms around the middle of my back.

"Ma-de-line." He pronounced slowly, mumbling under his breath the name more fluently, "Is that what you want me to call you by from now on?"

"It's my real name, but I don't care what you call me by."

"Do you wish to call me by this Gowther?"

"Yes. Yes I do."

To Be continued