Just A Different Kind Of Different

by Bucking Nonsense

Prologue

Green Bottle had an enemy.

The twenty-three year old changeling fought this enemy every day, and he fought it with the sort of tenacity and dedication normally reserved for individuals whose parents were gunned down in a moonlit alley. In a thousand different ways, on a thousand different battlefields, he had fought this enemy. It was an enemy whose omnipresence was equaled only by its implacable nature. Yet both of those qualities were exceeded by its wanton cruelty. This foe struck down the young and old, the weak and the powerful. It did not hesitate to strike down the hale and hearty, or even tear infants from their mother's tender embrace. It was an enemy with a thousand different names, yet no face. It was a foe that no one could truly defeat, yet one that he had spent his life fighting against.

That enemy's name was disease... and Green Bottle was a doctor.

While a changeling's body was incredibly durable, one could just as easily fall from disease as any other creature. In fact, they tended to get ill more often, since the swarm lacked any sort of medicine, asides from what they could steal from other societies. Worse, there were few, if any, among the swarm who knew even a little bit about the practice of medication: Before Green took an interest in medicine, there had only been one elderly changeling in the hive who could have been considered a doctor, and even he wasn't all that great at the job.

Being a doctor wasn't 'cool'. There wasn't any 'glory' in treating the sick. That was what a lot of changelings thought: A good number of them went off to be soldiers, and many of them came back with infections, illnesses carried by their enemies, and allergic reactions to new types of pollen (And many other substances) that they'd never encountered before. From sniffles to near fatal maladies, that elderly changeling was the one to see, and while he was good at what he did, he was only one changeling, so just as many ended up passing away as surviving.

As a youngster, Green had witnessed his strong, hearty father nearly die from a simple infection. One of the strongest, bravest, and most valiant aristocrats in the swarm had proven powerless against a life form who was so small that it could not be seen with the naked eye, and whose only ability was to make more of itself. He was eaten away from the inside, to the point of being on his deathbed, by a creature who lacked even the ability to think...

And yet, that one old changeling who knew about medicine had come in, taken one look at Green's father, then went to work. He began by crushing a few plants, grinding them into a paste, and applying the mixture to a bandage, which he placed over the wound. He then gave Green's father a bottle of foul smelling liquid, and said to drink a little every few hours. Within a day, Green's father had begun to recover, and within a week was back to his old self, as though nothing had happened.

It had not mattered that Green's father was an aristocrat, or that the elderly changeling had been born a commoner. It had not mattered that the victim was a hale warrior in his prime, or that the one treating the victim was old and frail. All that mattered was knowing how to defeat this enemy...

And Green Bottle, or Lucilia Caesar as he'd once been known (He'd taken the commoner name as a way of demonstrating that his aristocratic status did not matter when it came to the practice of medicine), had decided that this was a foe worth fighting: Other, stronger warriors could fight the hive's more tangible foes, but this was an enemy which needed to be fought, lest it eventually overwhelm the swarm. With his father's permission, the young aristocrat became the doctor's apprentice, and quickly learned the medical arts.

In the years that followed, he learned the secrets of herb lore, using plants, molds, mosses, and more to craft medicines. He also learned how to identify, and treat, most forms of poisoning. After his teacher's passing, Green had continued his education by stealing medical texts during changeling raids, questioning doctors during extended occupations (Surprisingly, most of the doctors were more than willing to 'talk shop' with another doctor, regardless of species. A doctor anywhere was a doctor anywhere, it seemed), and secretly observing medical procedures performed in hospitals.

Perhaps more importantly, he treated anyone he found suffering: Commoners, aristocrats, and even non-changelings. The day he'd begun his training, the old doctor had made Green swear several oaths. Among those oaths, he swore never to turn his back on anyone in need... and to never use his knowledge to harm another living creature.

And so, shortly after his twenty-third birthday, when the love sphere of doom sent him, and the rest of the swarm, flying off, it should be no surprise that those oaths would end up getting him into a whole lot of trouble. A changeling can easily get himself killed, helping others...

Author's Note:

The Green Bottle Fly's larva is known to be used to treat infections: It consumes dead, infected flesh, yet it leaves healthy flesh untouched. While the invention of penicillin made the use of this fly's larva less common, it was, for a very long time, one of the most effective ways of treating infections... even if having maggots eating your flesh is really, really gross...

Comments

[Perteks]

Actually its still in use for specific encounters, its best way to clean big wounds and yeah kinda gross

[Father Figure]

And so, shortly after his twenty-third birthday,

Thought it said after his twenty-third brutality... Would have made it a bit different!

[erictheblue]

(Surprisingly, most of the doctors were more than willing to 'talk shop' with another doctor, regardless of species. A doctor anywhere was a doctor anywhere, it seemed)

that reminds me of a scene in a Star Trek book, "my enemy, my ally" where Bones was exchanging medical lore with a Romulan doctor.