Medicinal Practice

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"So. You remember what we must do in the face of a bleeding wound, sí?" Imelda asked Rapunzel expectantly. "We take a cloth, apply pressure to stem the bleeding - good - and then we apply a bandage to hold it in place. No, no - tighter than that! Ay, look at it, it's going to fall off if you do it by halves, crío!"

Imelda was going over key medical treatments with the young girl in preparation for what might be to come in the war. Goodness knew it had already been bloody, even in its early days, and so, ever stoic in the face of adversity, the elder had taken it upon herself to help bolster the knowledge of the current healers where she could.

Unfortunately, her demeanour and methods of teaching could be a little...rough, and though she meant no real hostility in it, her tongue was sharp, sometimes sharper than intentional.

"Come here, look!" she ordered, edging in beside Rapunzel. Her skeletal hands replaced those of the princess, and she pulled the bandage tight around the make-do prop they were practicing on. "Tight enough to hold, but not too tight - we do not wish to cause them too much pain. There, you see now?"

[Rapunzel]

"I think so, I me-" Rapunzel mumbled in the face of her uncertainty. Rapunzel couldn't help but doubt herself in the face of Imelda's snappish tone. When the skeletal woman took the bandages from her to do the job properly Rapunzel had to swallow hard and bite back tears of frustration. Why couldn't she do this right? Rapunzel knew it was important she learn how to do this properly. She was one of the core medics that actually had HANDS. While Shani and Kanzi could manage tying bandages, Rapunzel's opposable thumbs made her a little more efficient at it.

"R-right," the princess nodded when the skeleton showed her the bandages properly tied on the prop, "I'm sorry, let me try again..."

Her fingers plucked at the knot Imelda had made on their make-shift dummy. Rapunzel's fingers fumbled a bit, and a pang of anxiety rang in her. She couldn't even untie a simple knot?? But the bandages came undone a moment later, and she sighed inwardly in relief. Carefully Rapunzel set about wrapping the bandage over the prop again. She was so concerned with doing it 'right' she didn't realize how slowly she was moving.

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Imelda stepped back with a sigh as Rapunzel tentatively picked at the knot, mumbling. The matriarch could hear the upset peaks in her voice, but the way she saw it, war was no party, and if she could not handle pressure from her while bandaging a dummy, she had to question how she would do in a real emergency.

"Come on now, you must do this faster - a bleeding patient may not have time to wait!" she urged, clapping quickly twice to hurry her. The sound of bone hitting bone was harsh too; it seemed fitting. "Pressure, bandage, go!"

[Rapunzel]

Rapunzel couldn't help but cringe when Imelda prompted her to speed it up with her claps. The click of her bones so much sharper than the slap of flesh. Rapunzel chewed her lip and moved faster in wrapping the bandage faster. However, the spool slipped from her hands and the bandage unravelled, and fell to the floor.

Rapunzel scrabbled to pick it up, but then stopped staring at it white cloth. The bandage was no longer 'sterile'. While that didnt matter in practice, it would matter when it came to a real person. It was a risk of infection. In the speed of the battlefield it wouldnt matter as much, you couldn't exactly have sterile conditions, but for Rapunzel this was the nail in the coffin.

She couldn't do this.

Rapunzel had joined as a medic because she had thought that she could do a lot of good with her powers. But while she worked on her healing abbilities, she had wanted to learn real healing. It might help her tap into her magic. But she was wrong.

Who was she kidding. Shani was much better at keeping her head. She took control of the situation. Kanzi also worked fast, and also did the job right the first time. Rapunzel couldn't even do that.

'Really, Rapunzel, this is too much for a girl like you. After all, mommy always took care of you, didn't she? Bandaged all your boo-boos, and took care of your fevers. You never could take care of yourself, so why did you think you could take care of others?'

Mother...

Rapunzel burried her face in her hands and sniffed feeling the tears well up.

"I'm so sorry, Imelda! I can't do anything right!" Rapunzel gasped.

'Oh, Rapunzel, she's trying to teach you, and you just cry, making her out to be the bad guy?'

Rapunzel groaned, and just dashed away.

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As Rapunzel's composure cracked, Imelda flinched, immediately knowing she had gone too far.

"Ay - Rapunzel, wait, I-" she started, and reached out a hand as if to stop her, but it was too late - the princess was already running. Dragging a hand down her face, she watched her go with a sense of guilt. She sometimes forgot what it was to be a sensitive soul, so hardened to the world as she could be.

With a sigh, she stooped to retrieve the bandage, and rolled it up again on her hand before setting it beside the dummy on the table and heading in the direction she had seen Rapunzel go.

She owed the princess an apology.