The Meaning of Humanity

Amsel coughed heavily as he walked down the dusty road, blood spattering along the ground as weakly limped down a dark alleyway. His broken, bloody body was covered by a long, tattered burlap cloak that was practically useless as an article of clothing. If anything, Amsel only used it to hide his left arm, which seemed to be the only unharmed part of his body. He had barely survived his run in with that State Alchemist, and had miraculously made his way here, to the South City. Not that he would last much longer in his condition, as he had very little food to eat, and even less water. Eventually, he just collapsed to the ground, breathing heavily from exhaustion, his head faint from bloodloss.

Jasmine hummed as she trotted down the pathway. She was swinging a cloth bag full of medicinal goods she had just recently bought. Her eyes twinkled and she had a huge grin on her face as if it was the greatest day in the world. She paused, her eyes widening as she noticed a trail of blood along the ground. Of course, seeing blood spatters on the ground was not a normal every day thing. From her looking at it, it didn't look like someone had been cut on the spot, as it continued and turned down an alleyway.

Should I follow it...? She thought. Her eyes sparked with a sudden desire, almost like lights turning on. She wanted to help whomever was bleeding and she dashed along, following the trail into the alleyway. A body lay on the ground, there was blood pooling out from him.

"Sir, excuse me sir! Hey! You okay? You should get to a hospital!"

The chimera coughed again, slowly trying to get back up to his feet. His cloak ripped off as easily as tissue paper as he used his left arm to push himself up to his knees. His inhuman arm was clearly visible, but he was too weak to care at the moment, simply collapsing with a dry wheeze coming out of his parched throat.

Jasmine got down on her knees next to the stranger. "Oh man... You're arm... What happened to you?" She said holding her hand up to her mouth in surprise. The stench of blood was incredibly unpleasant, but Jasmine was used to it from previous experiences. She dug into her bag, taking out a small bottle of water she had been saving to drink. "Please try and lean against this wall, so I can at least give you something to drink first sir..." His condition was clearly serious, and Jasmine wasn't about to take him anywhere if he couldn't even speak. She dug some cloth out of her bag. It was cheap fabric she was planning on testing some things on ointment wise for bandages, but she would sacrifice them to wrap around his wound, wherever it was coming from.

With a small nod, the boy did as the helpful woman instructed, weakly rising to his knees and crawling over to the wall. He slammed his back against the wall as he collapsed, breathing heavily, his once white tattered shirt now covered in a sickly red stain that ran down the front of it.

"N-no hospital...please," Amsel quietly requested, his quivering human hand reaching for the bottle of water that the young woman was holding. He was so thirsty, he didn't even care if the water had been poisoned. He didn't even care if the liquid really was water, he just needed something.

Jasmine handed him the water bottle. She tilted her head in confusion at request. Why wouldn't he want to go to a hospital...? She bit her lip and looked around. She had only been staying at a small inn farther off for the moment, only paying for a few days worth there. She had no idea where to take the stranger if he didn't want to go to a hospital, and she assumed it would be the same response to see a doctor. I guess I could try and help him, but I've never seen anything like his arm before... Jasmine thought while observing it. "Do you want me to try and heal you? I can try." She finally asked. She was still a bit thrown off by his arm, but didn't say much on it, either way even if he refused she knew she was going to at least bandage him up.

Amsel thought for a moment, wondering what exactly this woman was talking about when she asked to "heal" him. Looking at what she had at the moment, it was obvious that she was a nurse or doctor of some sort, even if she was rather young to be in either profession. Regardless, Amsel didn't have any other options, and quietly nodded, closing his eyes and laying his head back against the wall.

Jasmine studied the tattered shirt of the chimera. It was obviously tattered enough that he surely wouldn't mind her ripping it to help him. She tore of part of the shirt, not that it was a hard task with how ripped up and sticky it was. Jasmine knew all about this, she had been around doctors and nurses and planned to go into the profession herself and discover new healing methods. She wasn't shy to a little blood, or in this case... A lot of blood. A deep gash was across his chest. "Who in the world did this to you?" She asked while examining it. It looked similar to a slash across the chest, it wasn't deep enough that it had hit anything vital, but it still needed tending to.

She sighed, this was going to be hard to take care of without a proper environment, but he should at least be cleaned up and bandaged to keep the wound in check. "No matter, I'm going to fix this!" She said with a confident smile. His arm would come later, Jasmine didn't have much knowledge on whatever it was that had mutated his arm and would have to pick up a book or gather some information on it somewhere. She dug through her cloth bag, pulling out a few random bottles, some cloth, and several rolls of bandages.

The first bottle, containing simple and clean water, was poured onto a cloth which she dabbed on the wound. She was cleaning the area stained with blood. It was a slow process, carefully dabbing the area around the wound. She was trying to be gentle and avoiding making it painful. Thankfully he had submitted immediately to her request to aid him, making this a lot more simple. She wasn't entirely sure what to do with the bloody cloth, there was no disposal area and she wasn't going to use it again so she set it on the ground. The next thing was going to be more painful.

"Hold still, this is going to sting... A lot because the cut is a little deeper than I thought." She said with a serious look.