Frostbound

Chris

My mind was elsewhere as I worked. It was nearly autonomous to pick up the fallen and carry them back. My hands once again dripped with blood but this time it wasn't from fighting. Those with stomachs brave enough joined in my efforts, pulling corpses from under Orcs or out of mud.

I didn't encase them yet. They needed to be washed first. It was disrespectful to those who had paid the ultimate sacrifice to sully them like that, enshrining them when they were at their worst.

Instead, they were laid out respectfully, or as respectfully as we could. Some... some were too much. Smashed beyond a person should.

It was tireless work that I spent even more time completing. By the time the sun dipped below the horizon, it felt like the entire day had been lost in my head. Hours spent fighting flew by followed by hours still sitting and... coping. If what I did could really be called coping.

Then, hours were spent gathering the dead. So many hours.

The first aid tents stayed busy long after the last Orc fell. Healers and helpers alike buzzed around with an urgency nothing I'd seen could ever match. Nothing surpassed the efforts they put in to save as many as they could as they acted like angry bees defending a nest.

Admirable work. Righteous work. Bloody work.

They were calling for blood donors. Blood could be encouraged to replenish faster using Healing Skills and mana, but it still took something from the body to make. It wasn't conjured from mana alone. Those with serious wounds couldn't afford any wastage in terms of healing.

Plus, mana was a precious commodity that many Healers had already long run out of. Any mana potion that could be spared was sent their way but even that wasn't enough. Only so many potions could be imbibed in such a short time.

To save as much as possible in both mana and healing, donated blood was used instead.

I wasn't sure how donation worked after the Change, but there was someone cleansing it of foreign influence before they shoved it into a body. Or at least I hoped so. I assumed they knew what they were doing. I wasn't even sure I had the same blood type.