511 DXI. The Act Of Giving

*bom*bom*bom*

Unexpectedly, someone knocked at the door.

"This is not the time! Get out of here! Go away!" Dag yelled, venting the accumulated nervousness.

*bom*bom*bom*bom*

The hand that knocked on the door became even more insistent and Dag, impatient, left Claire's hand, gently resting it on the table and quickly walked to the door, ready to attack whoever was behind it.

*bom*bom*

As that hand continued to knock insistently, Dag opened the door, yelling: "What the fuck do you want... uh?" 

His yelling broke down as soon as he saw the face of two plump women, in their fifties, with cloth handkerchiefs wrapped over their heads and gentle faces.

"What... that...?" he stammered, not understanding what two housewives were doing behind his door.

One of them held out her arms towards him and handed him a leather bag closed with twine, inviting him to grab it.

"We saw that the girl is not in good condition and we brought you some of our ointments... they are not exceptional, but they will certainly help you to relieve her pain" the woman with the bag in her hand said.

"Even that, take this too! They are herbs that my husband collected a few days ago, if she chews them, she will fall asleep and avoid moving jerky!" the second woman added, offering Dag a bunch of medicinal herbs.

He grabbed both gifts and remained speechless, with his mouth open, not being prepared for all that kindness by unknown people, who until up to half an hour before looked at him as if he was a fierce animal.

"Come on, boy! Hurry up! Your girlfriend is waiting for you!" the fattest woman exclaimed, pushing Dag inside his house and closing the door violently, leaving him petrified.

After a second standing still staring at the void, Dag turned around and brought the herbs and ointments to Freydis, who was busy pouring boiling water into a bucket, had not noticed the women, and looked astonished at their gifts.

"Two kind housewives gave us some ointments to relieve Claire's pain... surely they will be useful to you as you sew her wounds!" he said, resting the leather bag on the table and opening it, ready to use what was inside.

Soon after, he took a tuft of herbs and tore it from the bunch, crumpled it between his fingers, and approaching it to Claire's lips.

"Hey, open your mouth... Claire, chew this, it'll make you feel better" he said, waiting for the girl to ingest the medical herbs.

With some help from him, which mechanically spread her lips, Claire began to chew the tuft of plants, and slowly, they took effect, leading her into a state of deep sleep.

The Shieldmaiden pulled one of the white rags into the hot water and began rubbing Claire's skin, cleaning the blood of the deepest wounds, which kept coming out nonstop, drop by drop.

After finishing with cleaning the body from the chest down, Freydis gently moved the hair from the girl's face, discovering the deep wound on her right eye, which had been completely removed.

"It looks like someone surgically removed it... poor Claire. She had two beautiful green eyes... I hope the severe trauma didn't compromise the sight of the other eye as well" Dag said, holding the girl's hand and stroking her forehead, recalling her face during their first meeting at Mork Castle, the Renegades' shelter.

"When I saw that she opened it, she looked at you... I think her other eye is fine, but we have to hurry. We must sew that wound before the effect of the herbs fades out" Freydis replied, thinking that, in a panic, Dag had given those herbs to Claire without even checking if they were not poisoned.

"I'll try to keep her still, you'll do the rest. I've never been very good at precision work" he continued, positioning himself behind the girl's head on the table and grabbing both her shoulders and upper arms, to prevent her from making sudden movements with her neck or back, willing to help Freydis with her precision operation.

"Just know that I've never done anything like this before, but once Karl stitched up a knee injury I had done during a workout... I must have learned something..." 

Slowly stopping talking, Freydis took a wet rag and rubbed it very gently on the circular wound of the eye, cleaning the lumps of blood that had accumulated inside it, which instantly stained the white rag making it almost black.

After wetting the surface, she took a dry rag and did the same, trying to remove the excess liquid, which did not allow her to see well the irregularity of the wound.

The eye had been removed with so much care, that the small veins that kept it attached to the skull and the flaps of skin around it, had been removed and over time they had dried as if they were leaves in the autumn season, hardening and mixing with blood.

Trying to be as clean as possible, Freydis approached the fire for a moment and passed the needle over the flame, sterilizing and cleaning it.

"Keep it on fire a few more seconds, so you can penetrate the skin more easily, and then you can suture the scar" Dag said, who began to sweat cold for fear that Freydis would make some bad mistakes, which would be fatal for Claire.

The Shieldmaiden returned to her position and approached the wound with her face to distinguish all its internal and external details.