Shaman at Work

“Heeeey, Wicasa! I’m back!”

Julian strolled into the colorful hut with his box full of goods, whistling a cheerful tune. He was looking forward to chatting with the Rainbow Shaman again, after the last time he visited. However, as he saw a crowd of people towards the back of the store along with a native youth crying out in pain with Wicasa stooped over her, his eagerness was replaced with worry and confusion.  He set down his box and hurried over, standing on his toes to get a good look at the scene.

Of all the things, he did not expect to see a foot so swollen and dark, as if it were about to burst or rot off. Thorns were embedded deep in the skin, flies gathering around the wounds and picking at the skin.  A woman was crying beside her, voice trembling as she said pitifully, “Bmayca ramb ran! Bmayca ramb ran, knayd cyka!”

 Julian watched as Wicasa gingerly lifted the foot, examining it from every angle he could. Wicasa turned towards the cabinets and got a pair of tweezers. The youth flinched as Wicasa pulled out every thorn from her foot, reaching out the woman’s hand and holding it as tight as she could. When every thorn was pulled, Wicasa fetched a bowl of water and a washcloth, cleaning the wounds as best as he could before he reached for the cabinets again. This time, he pulled out some balm and smeared it all over, sparing nothing as he covered the foot. Afterwards, he pulled out bandages and wrapped the foot completely.

 When his work was done, Wicasa looked the woman straight in the eye, handing over the balm to her as he said sternly, “Syga cina du ybbmo drec drnaa desac y tyo vun y faag. Lryhka dra pyhtykac ajano desa oui tu cu. Yht vun cbenedc' cyga, syga cina cra tuach'd suja duu silr fedruid bnuban vuudfayn, ihtancdyht?!”

Estatic, the woman bowed deeply to the sage as her fellow friends cheered around her. “Uv luinca, uv luinca! Dryhg oui cu silr, Wicasa!” she said, taking the balm in her hands before helping the youth up. As she left, the crowd dispersed, leaving Julian to be amazed at what he just witnessed.

Wicasa spotted him and his box of goods and chuckled. “Well, if it isn’t Julian, back for another round! I hope you brought some good things today! Give me a moment; need to wash my hands after that mess.”

Julian dragged the box over and sat down on his knees as Wicasa pulled a strange looking weed from the cabinets and fetched himself some water. Soap suds formed as he rubbed the weed over his hands, as if it were a sponge or a scrub.

“What was all that about anyway, Wicasa?” Julian asked as the shaman dried off his hands and sat near the cauldron, just like last time. “That looked pretty serious, and yet you took care of it pretty well!”

The shaman let out a sigh and said with a tinge of annoyance, “The girl went deep into the forest without shoes, then stepped in some Rotweed. Rotweed has thorns that secrete something that makes your foot look and feel like it’s about to fall off and leaves wounds that easily gets infected if you’re walking around barefoot.  Stepped in a bunch of them, too, and didn’t realize until her foot looked like a bruised, ugly mango.” He ran his hand through his long, black hair and let out another sigh. “Any longer and I would need to chop it off, but her mother brought her in just in time for a mix of Aloe Vera and Angel’s Orchid to fix it.” With a snort, he added, “Course, none of that will work if she keeps running around barefoot, or if she doesn’t apply the ointment as many times as I said she should. But it’s out of my hands, least for now.”

Julian raised an eyebrow as Wicasa pulled the box towards him and rummaged through it. “But you’re, like, a magician, right? Couldn’t you have cast some white magic to heal it up?”

“If white magic could cure everything, normal doctors would be out of a job, nevermind me,” came the grumpy, resigned reply. “But an ailment purging spell like Esuna can’t cure a bad infection; it’s not a magical antibiotic. That’s why we have medicine to treat specific things directly.” As he rummaged past the colorful snakeskin and feathers in the box, Wicasa added, “Personally, I think white magic’s good for the supernatural things like petrification and non-infected wounds, things that don’t require serious surgery to fix up. Everything else? Better to leave it for a doctor.

But enough about that,” Wicasa said, pulling out a large bird wing from the box. “This haul looks like it’s a good one already! A giant Roc wing, and hardly any damage on it! Then there’s that venom sac-“ He pointed towards a big sac with a foul-smelling, yellow substance within “-from a giant wasp that hunts down rabbits and can take on a Dire Wolf with hardly any effort, and that’s also intact with the stinger! And then there’s this-“ he pulled out a badger’s corpse with glee- “this utter hellbeast is a delicacy among us! It’s hard to find and hard to fight because the moment it spots you trying to go after its hide, it’s after you with a flurry of claws and teeth that will gladly tear your flesh off and not feel a damn thing about it. How did you kill this fucker and get away with it?”

The adventurer laughed and said, “I got away with it, but not that easily!” He held out his arms, revealing the tears in his leather armor and the claw marks all over his shoulder and forearm. “I had to coat the blade in a paralyzing poison before I could get a clean hit in! He was pretty fast, and it took a good while before the poison kicked in! Thrashed about and clawed me good, but it was easy to kill once the poison took its course.”

Julian’s last words earned him a look of disappointment from the shaman, as well as a long, drawn out groan. “Agh, you used poison? Damn, and I was going to make a meal out of this! It’ll take forever to purge it enough so that the muscles aren’t tough to chew through!”

 A cheeky grin spread across Julian’s face as he replied, “Oh, I wonder what could cure poisons from the body easily? Maybe an Esuna~”

 Wicasa opened his mouth to retort, but then he slipped deep into thought. “Huh. Never really considered it for that purpose… Usually, nobody casts things like Esuna on a dead body to purge something like poison… But with a few tweaks, maybe it could.” He set the badger’s body aside, a smile forming on his lips before it quickly became a grin. “I appreciate the goods and the advice, so I’ll be sure to knock down the price of your stuff in return! Just make sure to clean up your wounds and make sure they don’t get infected. We have bandages and antibiotics for a reason, you know!”

“Oh, of course! Was thinking of letting the white mage care of them, although…” Julian’s eyes widened in an expression that would match a puppy’s. “Can’t you take care of them? I mean, I’m already here! And you said something about badger being a delicacy, so can I try some badger meat, too? Pleaaaase?”

“Cbenedc ypuja, I let you in to sell things and now you’re demanding food and healing?!” Wicasa said in mock shock, holding a hand to his chest. “Next thing you know, you’ll be demanding to live under my roof!” He gave a snort when he could keep up the charade no longer and smiled. “Of course you can! Healing’s my job, among many, many others. And you brought the meat; only fair that you get to taste the fruits of your labor! You’re going to have to wait, though. Cooking badger meat takes a good while, and as you can see, we don’t have any of your fancy ovens and stoves anywhere.”

 And wait, Julian did, watching Wicasa as he cast Esuna on the dead badger and skinned it with as much precision as a surgeon. He did wince a bit as the shaman disected each and every part of the badger, turning away as he began to work on  removing the organs. He could hear the splash of water as the badger meat was cleaned, the swift cut of a knife across a cutting board, the smell of garlic and lemon and more, so much more.

As the meat was cooked over an open fire, Julian held out his arms for Wicasa to heal each wound with White Magic. What scabs were there quickly fell off, the skin underneath showing no sign of any damage at all. His work continued in silence, until the young adventurer’s curiosity got the best of him.

“Hey, Wicasa?” he asked. “You said that you have many, many jobs here. Are you really important to the tribe here?”

Wicasa gave a snort, followed by a long guffhaw, as if Julian had told the best joke the shaman heard in aeons. It took a minute or to for him to stiffle his laughter, especially when Julian’s confusion was written all over his face. “Important?” Wicasa replied inbetween giggles. “Julian, you saw what I was doing earlier, right? I'm a healer, a doctor! The only one they have for kilometers!" Once he got over his giggle fit, his tone became a little more serious as he continued, "Not only that, even you can see that I'm selling things to help my tribe with money, and so they don't wander out to hunt and get eaten by panthers. I'm also an advisor for the tribe. Why, just the other day, I had to talk to the Chieftains and Elders about outsiders and tourism." A sigh escaped his lips as he scratched at his head. "Nobody can really agree on anything regarding outsiders, and I'm STILL trying to weigh whether or not having tour groups over is a great idea... Not something I can decide on a whim, and not something some pushy businessmen can rush me on. They're relying on me to make a good choice, on behalf of the entire tribe."

Julian could see the solemn look on the shaman's face, his body slouching as if a weight were on his shoulders. Wicasa noticed the strange look Julian was giving him and straightened up, smiling back at the adventurer. "But you didn't come here to hear me mope about it, did you? Either way, that's just a fraction of what I mean to this tribe: A healer, a merchant, AND an advisor! So how's that for importance, hm?"

Julian stared at him with a look of concern. “That sounds like a lot of responsibility. How do you do it without breaking down from all the stress that comes with it?”

“The same way everybody else does: drinking enough to kill my liver and wake up with a massive hangover in the morning,” said Wicasa sarcastically. He smiled again before he followed with, “No, but really, no matter how stressful things are in the moment, I always end the day knowing that I did something to help someone or something. That’s enough to keep me going. Of course, tea and coffee do the job just as well!”

“Wow.” That’s all the adventurer could bring himself to say, amongst the many, many questions that danced in his mind. So much responsibility for one man. Handling the lives in his hands. One who mends wounds of many, and leads his people to a brighter future along with the chieftains of the tribe. Even hours later, as Wicasa fried plantains in a wok and mashed them in a mortar along with badger meat Julian could not shake away the honor of meeting someone as important as the Rainbow Shaman and being treated like an old friend rather than a stranger. The gods themselves must have blessed him with such a presence!

 Wicasa presented him with the meat and plaintain mix, wreathed with marinated badger meat, topped over with a sauce the consistancy of gravy. “Eat up, vneaht!” he said with a grin as he handed a spoon over to Julian. “And you eat each and every bit of it! That’s some perfectly good meat, and I won’t have you wasting any of it!”

The smell of freshly cooked meat wafted into Julian’s nose, the adventurer trying his hardest not to drool all over the floor. He bowed deeply and said, “Thank you so much, Wiscasa! I really, really appreciate it!”

He could hear the shaman’s deep laughter as he replied, “What, bowing to me like I’m a god now? All I did was cook you a damn meal! Save your praises until after you’ve eaten, at the very least!”

That advice didn’t stop Julian from thanking the shaman after every bite. It was a good balance of sweet and savory, the badger meat so tender yet juicy. Every bite teased his taste buds, while not being too salty. Not even close. Wicasa was amused by so many words of thanks as he enjoyed his share of the meal, taking his time to savor each and every bite.

As the sun set over the horizon, Julian’s plate was licked clean, his face speckled with gravy. “Thank you so much, you great shaman, you!” he said once more as he stood up and picked up his box, ready to take off into the night. “It was really delicious, and I almost want some more!”

“Ha, glad to know my cooking’s great as always,” Wicasa replied with a smirk, stacking his plate with Julian’s and setting them aside. “Although next time you come, you should try one of the tribeswomen’s dishes. Be prepared to loosen a few notches on your belt, because she cooks feasts than just a single meal!”

“Next time, of course!” Julian pondered for a moment, then looked towards Wicasa and asked, “And next time, can I help out with gathering stuff with you? I kind of want to see how you do it, and what you usually go for.”

Wicasa shrugged, using his staff to help him back on his feet. “If you don’t mind waking up in the twilight hours to get here in time to watch, then sure, I don’t mind. Bring your weapons, though; I'm feeling bold after your good hunts, so I want to give finding rarer herbs a shot!”

“Oh, come on! I’m an adventurer, you know!” Julian said with a grin. “You know full well I never leave without them! No one worth their salt would!”

The shaman grinned right back. “Glad to hear it! Ihdem haqd desa!”

Without truly understanding the meaning of the words, Julian said, “Ihdem haqd desa!” and gave one last bow before taking off into the night, eager to see what tomorrow would bring.