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The journey to Porre was slow and laborious for James, limping onwards even with the assistance of Glenn and his healing magic. Soon out of the forest, they headed east across the plains towards a town in the distance, the late afternoon slowly dwindling down upon them bit by bit without their noticing. "Can't you...nngh...just use your...magic on me...and...an-...hhhhuuu...heal me up now?" "Magic is but an aid, not the cure for all things, my lad. There is nothing better to heal thy wounds than a good night's sleep and a visit from the doctor." "I guess...just feel kinda bad tha-haaaahh...that you have to take me...a-all the way." "One does not require a reason to help others." As much as James appreciated the help, he did feel to be a burden already to the stranger, even with his wounds. There was something about this knightly-speaking frog that humbled him. He wasn't sure why, but he let himself be carried, too weak to do anything else, continuing his assisted trudging walk towards the town. The plains were sparse yet bouncy with grass and scrubs under their feet, a rather mundane looking land were it not for the medieval feeling he got from Glenn, moreso when he reached the town after what felt like an hour. Porre was a small red-roofed town with cobbled streets in all directions around a main square, with strange stores that James had never heard of such as apothecaries and blacksmiths. He barely had a chance to see more of the town when he was directed towards an inn, grunting as Glenn pushed the door open with his shoulder, and called out: "Innkeeper! I require assistance, please!" The innkeeper, a portly human in a green apron, headed over quickly to help Glenn with the raptor, who collapsed into the large fleshy arms weakly. The journey had exhausted him more than he thought. "By Saint Lucia," exclaimed the innkeeper, "what happened to him!?" "The poor lad was set upon by thieves in the western forest. Had I not come to his rescue, they would surely hath killed him." "Oof, can see that fer sure, What's yer name lad?" "James...nnngh..." "Welp then James, lemme take ye up to one of our finest beds, don't worry about payment though-" "I will pay for his boarding, innkeeper." "Well...since you offer Glenn, that's terribly nice of ya." "All I ask for as a reward is the boy's wellbeing, as well as his full recovery." "Well we got a doctor on hand for that too. Lizbeth!?"

From the store room came a human female, with large blue eyes and purple hair, wearing the outfit of a barmaid. "Yes papa?" "Got a lad 'ere who wuz beaten up in the forest, can ya check on 'im for us?" "Sure papa, let's just take him upstairs first. A pleasure to see you again Sir Glenn." "Ahhh my dear Lizbeth." The frog bowed humbly to her and brought a smile to her lips. "Thy presence never ceases to bring warmth to my heart." "Oh ho you charmer!" Despite their little banter, all three escorted the raptor upstairs easily and laid him down, making him moan at finally feeling a comfortingly soft bed. Snuggling into it even when not under the covers yet, Lizbeth examined him. "I've never seen his species before, what is he?" "I cannot tell," replied Glenn, "he is a new sight upon my eyes as well. Forgive my rudeness James but...what creature art thee precisely?" "Ungh...v-velociraptor..." "...a new species to us all it seems. Then we shall do our best to heal thee. Try not to move." Lizbeth began her examination with a bag of medical tools she had brought up, examining the most obvious wounds first of all, making the raptor wince whenever they were touched. "Well he's been beaten all over clearly, but nothing that rest won't heal as well as some poultices on his thicker bruises. Some of these other wounds worry me though, like this shoulder-" "AAAAAGH!" "OH sorry, sorry!" "Unnngh...s'alright miss, just...a li'l sensitive there." Glenn examined the bandaged wound as Lizbeth unbandaged it with all of her care to see the shoulder for what it truly was. A piercing wound going a few inches in, the blood dried up around it which intrigued Glenn all the more. "Strange...I saw no blades amongst those ogres who faught thee James." "I got that one before coming here...got stabbed in the shoulder." "Didst thou bandage it thyself?" "Tried to...how's it look?" Lizbeth took over with her examination. "You did a good job actually, you won't have to worry about infection at least, but this needs to be healed up properly or else your shoulder will stiffen and your left arm will follow. All I can do is loosen it up for now, though that wound will remain." "No problem, chicks dig scars right? Haha..." "Well...sometimes, hehee. What's this above your eye?" "Huh?...Oh, it's a band-aid." "A band-aid?"

Lizbeth slowly felt the odd rubbery material and then tried to peel it off of James' flesh, making him wince, but it mattered little since his cut was on the way to recovery. "I've never seen this before, what does it do?" "Uh...it covers up a cut or wound so nothing from outside comes and...infects it. Lets the body do its job." "Oh...is it...do you need it still?" "Is my right eye still bleeding?" "Mmmmm nope." "You can throw it away then, thanks." "My pleasure." Feeling rather grossed out by the sticky bloody rubber, she put it in the trash and continued with her examination, moving down towards the legs. "Oh...James, would you allow me to remove your clothes?" "Oh feel free...a girl asks me that, hard to say no, hahahaaa." "James please be civil," warned Glenn. "S-sorry, sir." "Please continue madam." She slowly pulled the orange garments off of James, and found much to her delight that there were no wounds upon his legs, other than the strange bandage upon his right ankle. "Ohhhh another bandage. What happened here?" "I twisted my ankle...yesterday." "...why is there meat bandaged to it?" "Ohhh...I...couldn't find a way to get ice on it like they say you should for a twisted ankle, so I got some frozen meat and bandaged it to my leg." "Ahhh...did it work?" "Actually yeah, I kinda can't believe it...though it's kind of warm now and I forgot about it so-" "I'll find you something better. How bad is your ankle?" "Not as bad as it was before, but I'm still limping from it, I'm sure I'll be fine after I rest better." "I agree. Let me take this." She slowly undid the somewhat soggy bandage around James' ankle, also with slight revulsion, and put it to the trash. She began to clean his wounds with a sterilising fluid, and redressed his shoulder and ankle with her own bandages in a much more professional manner. As she did so, James looked up at Glenn. "Uh...you said you were gonna pay for me staying here right?" "Indeed." "Uh...I can pay you later right? I don't wanna leave you all-" "If that is thy wish then I thank thee, but it is not necessary. All I ask of thee is to follow our dear Lizbeth's orders to the letter, and to be a civil patient with good rest." "Alright...thank you." His thanks sounded pathetic, like a boy who was given his toy back, the weakness of his body slowly overtaking him as he fell asleep, exhausted from his bruises much to Lizbeth's delight. As she began to apply poultices to the body, Glenn merely gazed at the sleeping raptor, pondering upon where he came from. James woke up later that night. Alone with sheets over him snugly, gazing around the darkened room. His memory was fuzzy from the beatings as he felt cool sticky poultices on him, trying not to upset them as he moved to look down upon himself. The barmaid/nurse had done a good job in healing him up, even though he remembered far more complex stuff back in his time, back when he could be able to fix his broken arm within a year. He noticed also that his shoulder had been soaked in some sort of liquid, the bandage warm and wet, yet not soggy. A note had been let for him on the nearby table which he tried to make out in the night.

_Try to not move your left arm as much as possible. The longer it remains still, the sooner it will heal up. You may test its stiffness occasionally but only when I am around. Please remain in bed until I have made sure your ankle has healed.

Lizbeth_

Sighing at feeling so useless when confined to a bed, he let himself run amok within his thoughts on random things. The scissors had been propped up near his bed and glinted within the light softly. A part of him kept wondering why he took them. He could easily find a weapon to replace the unwieldy impractical scissors, something like a sword like Glenn had. Yet everytime he considered thinking about leaving them behind, he felt the strangest sense of doubt. There was something about them that he was attracted to. Perhaps it was their uniqueness that made him want to use them. Perhaps it was the fact they were difficult to wield that made him, as Glenn had said, demand a challenge in future battles, silently thinking to himself. I can't be the only person in history who ever decided "today I am going to learn to use the stepladder as a weapon, and I will be AWESOME at it" and then use it all the time despite not being practical, right?! He chuckled at that, remembering strange old kung-fu films that Sarah had once shown him. He couldn't remember the names but he remembered the less serious ones had some insane prop usage with all kinds of items that were so crazy-awesome, that it almost made him want to take up martial arts. But then two things had stopped him. Money and patience. With little else to think on, and his head still woozy from the thick disinfecting smell of the poultices, he went back to sleep.

The dream he had that night was strange, moreso than the ones he'd had before. He was in the most colourful place he could imagine, the most brightest and wonderful colours of every shade of the rainbow in some sort of foreign city. Possibly Japanese by the strange Asian symbols upon signs everywhere. Humans milled about aimlessly, not even noticing him as he walked amongst the crowds, the sky shining ever blue. Children laughing and adults talking, the sounds of cars resonant throughout the urban landscape that almost made him think of home. Except unlike Chicago, the cars here were more cheerful, pleasant somehow, greeting with a beep-beep of "pardon me" rather than a blaring "fuck you". And then the rumbling came. At first James thought it was an earthquake and panicked, looking around to see everyone else panic at first, but then something was amiss in the faces of the people. They ran screaming willy nilly like extras from a Godzilla movie. But they were cheering. Smiling even. They weren't cowering from the danger. They were embracing it. Especially when a huge shadow loomed over the city. The raptor turned around. And then he saw the hugest ball he had ever seen in his life. Not entirely spherical due to what appeared to be a clusterfuck of geography plastered all over, from elephants to lichen, to caravans and toy robots. And with it, came the catchiest little song that did not help him any, which only confused him more. People ran, but they were cheering like children in a game of tag. James ran, the only one confused yet not fully scared, following everyone down a road as the huge ball rumbled ever closer. Down and down the street it went, buildings rolled up by it without any breaking or tearing whatsoever. Not even the windows cracked when skyscrapers and apartments were torn from their roots with the ease of Lego blocks, including the people who were seemingly crushed under it, only to be trapped within the ginormous alien globe squealing with joy.

James didn't look where he was going when he almost tripped over a white dog, jumping over but falling flat in the process on his face. The ball showed no mercy, rolling fully over him as he screamed with fright, the raptor sucked in between a tiger and an Easter Island Moai head. The entire world rolled before him from road to sky, sky to road, road to sky, sky to sea. Even the water drenched everyone as the sphere rolled into the sea, and yet nobody was frightened, not even the animals. They were singing a song. A song that not even James could stop himself from tapping to. Before long he was belting it out with the rest of them. "Naaaaaa, na-na-na-na-na naa-naaaa, Katamari Damacyyyyyyy! Na-naaaaaaa, na-na-na-na-na, Katamari Damacyyyyyy!" They kept rolling for what felt like forever, half the chorus always underwater as they felt the sphere turn bigger and bigger all around them, much to the excitement of every living creature that had a voice. Even the Moai head looked like it was smiling beside James, and he smiled too, the most acid-trip dream he had ever experienced and he was loving the absolute lack of careleness that rolled through everyone's heads. Literally. The ball continued to grow with every roll it made, with more items soon added to the clusterfuck. Around him James could see Mt. Fuji, an entire river, two airplanes, four tanks, Big Ben complete with the Houses of Parliament, an entire ring of cumulonimbus clouds and the country of Suriname, which he somehow managed to identify for no reason at all.

And then came the greatest moment in everyone's life, or at least felt like it. The ball soon became big enough that entire continents were plastering all over the ball like its own globe. And with it, everyone could see the stars. Billions of creatures, James included, gazed upon the spotlights of eternity, shining from galaxy to galaxy, while the ball rolled on merrily so, endlessly, within the silent domain of the gods. And yet the people still sang, including James, right to the moment when he woke up, to the smell of the poultices that gave him an almost drugged expression "Na-naaaa, na-na-na-na-na naaa naaaa-" "Morning James!" "Kataaaa-wha?" "Heheee, having a little sing to ourselves are we?" "Ahhhh n-no no I was uhhh...uuuuh...just dreaming something." "Ohhh was it a good dream?" "Totally...even if I can't even describe what the hell was going on." "Hahaha, well I'm happy to see you doing better than yesterday. You're looking quite happy." "I think these things on my body are makin' me woozy. But it's nice, heheee..." "Well it is meant to help relax you too, though I might have made it a little strong, sorry." "No no, it's great! I never felt so relaxed in aaaages." "That's good to hear!" "...sooooo...how am I doing miss?" "Pretty well actually, you're healing faster than most would. I was hoping to see how your shoulder was today." "Sure! I uhh read your note last night when I was awake a li'l." "Oh well, I hope you followed it." "If sleeping counts, then uh...yeah." "Heh, alright then." Lizbeth walked over to James who was slowly perking up from his drug-like state and carefully took his arm, gently feeling along it for any muscle stiffness. When she felt she could, she began to move his arm up and down, carefully checking how his muscles acted, noticing they would stiffen and that her patient would wince whenever his arm went upwards more. She then began to bend the arm, making James curl his biceps, to no effect of pain or stiffness, noting it in her head. "Well James, your arm isn't too bad. Your shoulder feels it hasn't quite got its full range back, but it's not too severe." "I thought it'd be a lot worse really." "Only If you had something tear completely through your shoulder and gave it a good bonesplitting crack, then your arm would be very likely dead. So be thankful that you only got pierced a little." "Hurt like hell when it happened though...kind of expected a lot more blood too." "Well there's no major arteries around the shoulder. All of them really run around your underarm, especially the armpits." "Wow you really read up on medical stuff huh?" "Mmhmm, I'm aiming to be a fully-licensed doctor when I grow up, soon as I can afford the tuition." "Good luck with that, you're already pretty good at it!" "Thank you!"

She giggled at the compliment, her voice making the raptor grin warmly at her as she moved away down to his leg and lifted the cover to check the ankle. Pain still throbbed in it as she prodded it, making James wince. "How bad did that feel?" "Nnnngh, like a little knife stabbing the back of my foot." "Oh dear...you twisted this worse than I thought, how much rest did you give it?" "Actually, I barely slept since I hurt it, after that I was running all over trying not to stop." "Tsk tsk tsk, that's not the best thing to do with a twisted ankle, you're gonna need at least three more days rest to make sure it heals up. All it needs is rest and care." "Sorry...I would've given it some rest if I could afford to." "It's okay James, at least we're here now and you can relax properly." "I really appreciate it...thanks miss Lizbeth." She wrote down her notes on her current patient before asking her next question. "Are you hungry James?" "Actually...yeah I am." "Anything you'd like me to make you?" "Wow, food as well?!? You don't have to, really!" "Of course I do! Firstly, you're a paying guest at this inn, even if you're not the one paying. Secondly, you're my patient, and patients recover faster when well-fed, which is what I'm here to do. So what would you like?" "Mmmm...got any meat?" "Oh yes, fresh every day." "Great! I'd love some pork or steak, anything cooked really." "Alright then!" She headed downstairs to get some food, while James laid back in his bed, sighing at the little private time he had by himself. He hadn't felt this comfortable in such a state since the time he had broken his right arm. Everytime he remembered such, he would look at his right arm and test it gingerly, as if the mere memory of such would render it broken yet again. As he laid there nursing his wounds, he began to reminisce about the last time he'd been bedridden, in the comfort of his own home. Despite Sarah warning him to never go into bike races in the way a mother would warn her son, he did so out of the fact he had a reputation he wanted to build up as a tough young punk. And considering the fact he was employed by THE toughest bitch in the neighbourhood, maybe even in the whole city, he already had some rep built up. When he was 16 he took up a challenge from a rival. The rival was some snotfaced human who thought he was all that, like every other kid on the street who wanted to carve out a piece of the land for their own. Whereas James was already inheriting some practically from Sarah and only wanted to look good. The rival, he forgot the name, challenged his courage and dared him to a chicken race. James agreed, fuelled strong enough by insult.

He could easily take himself back to that night. The docks, wide and uncluttered, two bikes facing each other down. James' Triumph versus his opponent's Harley Davidson. Both of them stared each other down, a fuel in James' eyes that he rarely possessed unless he was consumed by pure fury or total lust. Britain versus America. His lust for speed had arrived in full splendour. Both of them revved their engines, someone from the side counted down. The moment they heard the word "GO", they drove straight towards each other with a roaring fury. James remembered how the wind tore through his scales, his bikeriding jacket flapping insanely like the wings of a demon, eager to wreck and ruin. His near-suicidal expression of manic glee glared down at the face of his opponent, who tried to return the expression, but the fear soon became more apparent in his wilting smile. This was a raptor who was riding a motorcycle straight towards you, with the most insanely gleeful expression he could muster, with steak-knived teeth and piercing eyes. It would take a brave man to try to face him down. The distance closed in. The human had been braver when he couldn't make out James' expression. As he came closer, the fear rose in realising that this raptor was not going to back off. Hell he looked like he WANTED to crash into him. Then he heard that roaring cackle. Six metres. Five. Four. Three. Swerved. The human chickened out, and James rode straight through with a cackling cry to the sky, proclaiming himself king of the city much to the surprise and some cheer from the crowd of youths. Then he saw the wall. Then he tried to steer. His right arm became pinned between both solid brick and hot metal. It cracked and burned, the bone crushed between mortar and steel, almost snapping in half. The first time someone feels that level of pain, the brain can't even comprehend such a level at first. In fact the shock of it made him not even recognise the pain until perhaps 10 seconds later, when he got up from the crash. Not even able to take his bike back home, taking a few steps before he screamed and fell, clutching his twisted right arm.

Someone was kind enough to call an ambulance, and so he was taken away to hospital. Thankfully the medical care in his world considering broken bones and such were incredible, and after putting his arm into a plastered solid sling along with resetting the bones using newly-grown marrow, he'd be able to have a right arm again in 6-8 months. When Sarah came to visit him, James didn't tell her what happened and lied that it was because he slid his bike into a slippery part of the road and hit the wall. The one who called the police made the lie first, covering for James and saying he just witnessed a guy crash into a wall. And Sarah had no reason not to believe it. Every day she came by with a mixture of insult, compassion and camaraderie. Yet even though this one "accident" would have been just another half-page in James' medical history, it became something more important to him. It was the first time that he had seen Sarah turn into someone so caring, so gentle, so...motherly. At his time of rebellious youth, James wanted some kind of importance and respect in the world, to feel he was part of something. And like many kids his age, recklessness was the way to go. But the care she gave him was disturbingly heartwarming, even with the soft peppering of insults that became less and less as he healed up, still doing his best to do his work at the bar under her orders. It was at that point that James realised something, moreso when it was after he fully recovered that he tried to go into a race. When Sarah dragged him back home to not only roar and shout down on him, but also break down and admit that she felt like she had become James' mother. He hadn't thought about that since the F-Zero races, but he now realised when that affection must have began.

Before he was able to depress himself further, Lizbeth rescued him from the depths with the most delicious scent and sight of a huge steak on a plate. "Dinner's ready!" "Awwwwww yeah that is one biiiig steak." "Hehee, you like?" "Like!? I'd marry it if I didn't have to eat it!" "Hahahaha, well good to see your spirits are up, eat it all up now." And James did, as best as he could with his shoulder when given fork and knife to eat away with. He could have just grabbed it in both hands and tore away at it, but when offered the cutlery, he wanted to be... What did Glenn say? Civil? Something like that. "Mmmmph oh god this steak is...nnnnom...mmmm..." "Wow you really love steak don't you?" "I've not eaten in nearly a day, so I'm pretty hungry...mmmmph..." "Well, glad we can fix that." "I don't wanna eat too much and leave Glenn a bill though." "Oh you won't, don't worry, and you can find a way to pay him back still, right?" "Right!" As he kept eating away, with half the steak already gone with his ravenous hunger, he thought on something that he had to ask. He never really got to ask before when he had no time to do so, but he thought now was the time. "Uh...num, Lizbeth?" "Yes James?" "Who IS that Glenn guy? He some kind of famous warrior?" "Mmhmm! Saved the kingdom from lots of things back about nine years ago I think." "Ohh? What'd he do?" "Rescued the princess at Guardia Castle, repelled the demon army of Magus almost single-handedly, even said he made sure the world was safe in both past and present!" "...what does that mean?" "I dunno, it's just a phrase he likes to use, hehee!" "Well, alright then...guy is awesome though, I mean the way he dealt with those dudes who captured me, he was like HWAH and SLASH and HYA-AUGH!" Swinging his knife in the grip of remembering how his saviour had fought, he swung too hard and made his shoulder wince, his nurse crossing arms disapprovingly. "Uhhhh James? Try not to do that again." "S-sorry...hehehe...but yeah, real cool guy." And so James continued eating, finishing up the steak dinner with great relish and laying back to rest again, thanking Lizbeth for the food and murring to himself at his full belly. "Mmmmph...I shoulda stayed in Dream Land...bah, stop thinking, it's stupid." Ignoring his thoughts, he went to sleep once again, embracing the scent of the poultices and hoping he would have more fun nonsensical dreams.