#TheMoonsHindMostWound.

3. The Hind Most Wound

#FanFiction #TheApothecaryDiaries
#wss366 #MastoPrompt

The Moon Prince lay under thick blankets, head #cushioned on a rolled-up cloak. Even from afar, Mao could make out his sickly green pallor, his labored breathing, and his slack skin. A lone woman was watching him silently from the corner.

“I’ll need hot water,” she said. The room was now her territory. Short of a high noble, no one would question her here. “Be sure it’s boiled, and have someone with clean hands do it. Not ‘Filthy Hands’ out there. Also, bring the finest clean cloth you can, and plenty of it. I can use coarse cloth or cotton batting for some of it. I have alcohol, but I may need more. Get the strongest you can find. No one’s private stash is exempt.”

“I’ll get right to it,” Basen said, but instead of leaving, he #snapped his fingers at the young woman in the corner. Mao frowned. The girl had been watching, sharp-eyed despite her silence. Snapping was wasteful noise, like shouting orders at a wall. Still, the woman neither flinched nor looked away. That steadiness was more interesting to Mao than Basen’s brusqueness.

“Meiling (美玲),” Basen continued. “You’ll help Maomao. Do whatever she asks! Anything!” He turned to Mao. “You can trust her. She’s reliable and knows about the Moon’s lotus mark. There’s just one thing: she can’t talk. It was deemed most suitable for someone who would serve the Moon Prince so closely.”

Meiling, “Beautiful Tinkling Jade,” Mao thought, an ironic name for a mute. Then, she turned to Jinshi.

The first thing she noticed when she removed the blankets was the bandage on the prince’s flank. Seepage stained the freshly applied cloth greenish-yellow.

As she removed the bandage, she asked, “Did you apply this?”

She glanced back and saw the girl nod.

Mao pointed to the stains. “Any change?”

The girl motioned, indicating less.

“Is he more or less active? Moaning? Rolling? Anything?”

Again, Meiling slowly brought her hands together.

“Less? That’s serious,” Mao said.

Mao returned her attention to the patient. The flesh around the wound was white. When she pressed on the tissue, she found it hard. Thin, yellowish-green fluid oozed from the wound. Mao sniffed it and wrinkled her nose. She pressed again harder noting the lack of reaction by the Prince. As she had suspected, the poisoning was quite advanced.

“Dispose of this bandage where no one will find it,” Mao ordered the woman. “Then get Basen. I have more questions. You can take his place in gathering my items. I’ll send for you as soon as I can.”

Continued next week in Detective MoaMoon 探偵猫月

#MicroFiction #TootFic #Serial #NMPrompts #NMV366 #NMMP
#ApothecaryDiaries