Chapter 7 - "Where the hell can I find a bell made of solid gold?"
Being awake hurt. Kaho, if asked would say that she'd rather be unconscious right now. But Kaho was a good girl. Kaho would wait.
Kaho, was also currently on a lot of painkillers.
Kaho's bloodstream was as close to what would be to the lethal dose of morphine as one could get to without actually dying.
She was unaware of said fact, and probably for the better.
So while it could have hurt more and it probably did, she didn't notice. But it still hurt a bit. A bit of pain everywhere. Not enjoyable.
She might have been on some magical painkillers as well. She wouldn't know. The weird ring that that one nice nurse, which the name of she couldn't recall at the moment had, was also on her horn. It didn't let her do magic. When she tried to take it off, a weird, big yellow blob, which called her "girlie" came in and stopped her. It told her to be patient and lay in the bed like a good girl.
Kaho listened, of course. She was, after all, a good girl.
But while Kaho was a good girl, she was on a crap ton of drugs, so she simply forgot. You really couldn't blame her, forgetting all those twenty something times. There were many infinitely more interesting plain zany things just floating through her vision, one after another. But as long as she remembered, she would keep her promise to the nice yellow blob. Kaho was, after all, a good girl.
But one time when she took it off and no one noticed she did magic, and something else ran in. It was smaller than the yellow blob and white in color, with alternating yellow and black on it's top. It shouted something at her. Kaho didn't understand but that was okay. This wasn't the yellow blob who would yell at her for doing... something. So doing magic was probably fine.
Oh, how wrong she was.
Turns out the white blob could be much more scary than the big yellow blob. White blob was not nice at all, unlike Kaho. Kaho was scared by the white blob and started crying. It stopped it's horrible verbal assault of incomprehensible sounds and hugged her. Kaho was scared at first but the blob was no longer mean. The white blob apologized soothingly and Kaho didn't cry anymore. It even gave her an actual solid piece of the universe! Then Kaho had to promise to not do magic again. She was sad but remembered that she shouldn't anger this blob. The blob gave her an another solid piece of the universe and it bled rainbow juice! The juice wasn't tasty and she decided she won't drink it ever again. The blob laughed a bit after scolding her (gently this time which Kaho found lovely!), and told her to write on the first gift. She made her write "I won't do magic." and made her promise she would be more patient this time.
Kaho didn't forget. Not this time. Especially since the title of The Goodest Girl, was at stake!
So she waited. She smiled and laughed at the things in her vision, always remembering to look at her card before contemplating trying to do magic.
Eventually, she grew tired. Kaho fell asleep listening to the sounds of the universe even when the soft, incomprehensible words of the white blob reached her from beyond the Great Gate To The Even Greater Outside. They made her feel better and cozy, and there was a gentle warmth in her heart.
Kaho fell asleep.
She regained her awareness.
The first thing that welcomed her back into the world was a steady beep of something nearby. She was told what it was by her hostess when she was teaching her about Equestria. Really, medicine here was so advanced here it was actually off putting, in a way. Back home they had to make do with herbs and magic. There were some medicines that were widely available everywhere but they were only for often encountered diseases like the common cold. Nothing close to being capable of curing wounds she received as a reward for being sloppy.
The second thing to welcome her into the world was the sun's rays, falling directly into her eyes, again. She gave a small sigh after wincing. It would be nice to wake up without feeling the sun's glare on her.
The third thing to disturb her was pain. She was in it. Her wounds hurt, she was sure that headache was actually about to kill her and worst of all was the beeping that intensified said headache by hundreds of times.
There was also silence, however often it was interrupted by that infernal beeping. She was glad for that silence. It gave time for thought. To mentally come back to the fight and think about what she could have done better. And there was a lot of things she could have done better. It wasn't as horrible as it could have been, she decided to herself. Definitely room to improve, if only because she's still unused to this body. This equine body.
That still feels so weird.
She considered her situation while staring blankly at the wall. Eventually, sleep took her away again.
The next trip into the land of consciousness was caused by the sun, of course. Kaho was really starting to think that this Celestia had it out for her. The priestess found herself alone in the room again. And then something hit her.
"Dear Goddesses." One could not not hear the terrified note in her voice.
"I haven't prayed for two days! Of course I'm unlucky!" She gasped, rather dramatically. It was a fair concern however. Any priest or priestess should maintain contact with their respective gods, or bad things would follow. You can't just devote yourself to a god and then abandon them. It tends to irritate them at best and at worst... well, no one ever speaks about those cases. Of course things were slightly complicated as Kaho's gods were not the strongest ones around and her bond with them hasn't yet reached it's full potential. So she needed the item they've chosen to help channel the prayers of their followers.
"Where the hell can I find a bell made of solid gold? Those cost a fortune." She groaned.
"Definitely not my week. And I'm only like... three days in?" She asked herself, hooves covering her embarrassed and rather stressed face.
"Actually it's two weeks and two days." Clean Cut answered, walking through the door, idly flipping through a clip board.
The priestess looked ready to faint.
"Please, do not pass out. I would rather get this over with now, rather than later." The subtle note of annoyance had not eluded Kaho.
"Get over what now?" She asked cautiously. Clear Cut took a deep breath, closed her eyes and exhaled.
"WHAT WERE YOU THINKING PUNCHING GLASS!? Do you have any idea, how utterly inane that was?! You're lucky you had those magical fruits of yours or you wouldn't have made it!" Kaho yelped, moving away from the gray mare who just blew her top rather loudly and was advancing on her in a rather threatening manner.
"I think you should give the girlie some space." Bold said slipping into the room with a relived look on his face. The nurse whirled to him with a furious look on her face. She took a deep breath ready to start screaming again and... calmed down. For a few seconds she looked incredibly tired and old.
"Look, Bold. I didn't give her a clean check of physical health seventeen days ago and asked her to come for a check up the next morning to see her landing on my operating table the next day." She let breathed in and out again and turned to the still wary priestess.
"Kaho, sweetie, look I'm sorry for yelling at you. But when you are a doctor and you send away a patient just for them to come back three quarters into their grave the next day you can't help but feel a little frustration. It doesn't help that I've been holding back my lecture about attacking things that are made of fragile and dangerous material with your own hooves for quite some time now."
"I thought you were a nurse?" Kaho asked, slightly unsure of what to think and wanting to switch to a different topic.
"That's just what everyone calls me. It started out as an annoying nickname on medical university made up by a bunch of jokesters but it grew on me." She admitted.
"Don't change the topic." She said shaking her head slightly. "That was completely irresponsible of you. You are a grown mare so I trust you'll learn a valuable lesson form this. But if I see you or even hear about you getting hurt in a similarly stupid manner, I will be... most displeased."
Kaho nodded her head up and down like an aggravated bobble head. The other mare just sighed.
"You'll remain here until the next day until I'll check if everything healed as it should have." After saying that the mare left.
There was a moment of silence.
"So... is everyone alright?" Kaho asked.
"Yes, they are girlie. No one died thankfully, ponies in critical condition were stabilized and are on their way to recovery. You were the last one to be carried in."
"That's good. It would have been awful if anyone died because of me." The priestess admitted.
"It wasn't your fault girlie!" Bold protested loudly. "You were only defending yourself back then. It's not your fault those monsters can't take a hit to their own egos."
"Yeah... you're right. But people still got hurt, though."
"But no one died. No one was crippled, no foals were hurt. Everyone will recover fully in a month or two."
"Still it reminds me of things... in the past." Her voice was somber. Haegok... it wasn't stopped in time for there to be no casualties, even with the help of those two strange girls. The village was quiet for a month as everyone grieved the loss of family and friends. Kaho became an orphan that day. Donna became one as well even though she never learned what killed her parents. Kaho thought it was for the best. The girl didn't need to know that the God the village worshiped, turned on them.
But the worst part was the silence of their Gods. They used too much of their power to heal and protect and aid them against that Betrayer. It took years for them to regain their strength for the tiniest of blessings. Years where the villagers starved each winter, because the crops were too small, where sickness was more common than anytime else.
"You alright girlie? You've got that look on your face again."
"I'm okay. Just remembering the past."
A heavy silence fell on the room. Bold tried to restart the conversation a few times but was ultimately shot down every time. He eventually left, leaving Kaho alone in the hospital bed. It wasn't very long before she was asleep once again.