Page 109

I smiled at our guide. "The Ruby Vixen huh? Are you the poster girl here?"

She huffed. "Of course not, this place has been open for ages. I just happen to be a red-headed vixen." She shrugged. "It's not my fault our species is known for its sensuality. Besides, the sign has three tails, I only have one!"

I laughed. "Okay okay, I was just teasing. It was cute how you posed like the sign though."

She giggled. "Yeah, I always thought it was funny." She pushed the doors open and led us in. Several girls were sitting around in the lobby but it didn't look like there were a lot of customers yet. The room was a large common room with a few small tables and chairs, large chases along most of the pillars and walls, and a giant desk by the back wall. The desk was something akin to an older-styled hotel reception desk with locking cabinets behind it, presumably hiding away the keys to all of the rooms that were used for customers.

"Raya! Are you okay? er, who are these folk?" A short rabbit beastfolk girl stopped dead in her tracks when she spotted us. She was stock still except for her twitchy rabbit nose. She had bright green eyes, which honestly looked a little weird on the white rabbit-headed woman. I suppose that means she isn't an albino rabbit then.

"Millie! I'm back! I... couldn't find any food but I found these nice people. They helped me out when I got in a little bit of trouble. This deerkin girl here is a healer!"

Most of the girls in the room were suddenly looking at Bella with interest.

My brow furrowed, "Did something happen? Is someone hurt?"

A tall naga woman slithered in from a separate room. She was white and blue, her silvery-white scales shined in the candlelight and the cerulean blue scales on her sides and back looked beautiful, like little jewels. She was tall, though it was hard to tell how much of that was because of her long snake lower half. Despite being a snake woman she had rather large breasts, making me think she must be a kind of beastfolk rather than a different species entirely. She didn't wear all that much, a dark blue shirt and a sash, presumably covering where her genitals were. She was an older woman, late fifties if I had to guess, though it was a bit harder to judge the features of a snake head. Despite her age, she still looked sensual and alluring with long eyelashes and bright blue eyes that matched her scales. Her neck had a hooded cowl like a cobra, giving her a seductive dangerous look.

Her eyes flicked to Raya for a moment before focusing on Bella. "We could use the services of a healer but... payment might be a bit difficult at the moment. How much are you charging for your healing?"

Bella looked hesitant, clearly a bit uncomfortable by the question. "I don't usually charge for my healing, if someone's hurt I want to heal them." Bella's eyes looked to me. "Is that okay? Do we need to charge?"

I shook my head. "It's your healing, if you want to heal them for free I'm not going to complain."

We turned back to the naga who looked suspicious. "Free? Is this some kind of joke? Are you even a healer?"

Raya stepped forward. "Madame Oceane, she healed me from a stab wound in my gut and didn't ask for anything. Look, it didn't even leave a scar," she said pointing at her uncovered midriff. "She's the real deal."

The tip of the naga's tail flicked in agitation and she squinted at Bella, maybe looking for something that would give away some scheme. When she didn't seem to find anything she glanced over each of us, assessing us one by one.

"Very well. If you're truly offering your services for free, I would appreciate it. Please follow me."

She began to slither back into the room she came from. The five of us followed her through another large common room before we reached a quiet hallway with many doors lining the walls.

"These are the girls' private rooms, there are several girls that were hurt in the chaos last month. I'll take you to one of the most severe ones first. Even if you can't fully heal her, it might help her survive long enough for someone who can."

Rather than be put off by the comment Bella just nodded. "I'll do what I can."

She gently knocked on the door before opening it. A thin-looking bobcat demi-beastfolk girl was panting with a fever. Her torso was covered in bloody rags and there was bruising in the parts that were uncovered, she looked like she had been hit by a truck.

Bella stepped inside and began examining her wounds.

The naga woman looked over at me, speaking quietly to not interrupt Bella's work. "What kind of healer is the deer girl?"

"Nature healer," I responded.

"Good." She looked back over at Bella. The Madame looked tense, obviously very frustrated she couldn't do more. She was probably worried by Bella as well but despite her suspicions, she was unable to refuse the help. From the look of this young woman, there was a good chance she would die otherwise.

"Okay. I'm going to start by easing the fever." Green motes of magic floated through the air and the nature scepter in her hand dimly glowed. The motes gently floated towards the woman and her rough breathing eased. The unconscious woman took slow quiet breaths now.

Bella nodded. "Good." She turned to the madame. "I'm going to remove her bandages now, I need to look at the wound to heal it efficiently."

The naga's expression was stony. "Very well. I'll have more bandages prepared in the meantime." She slithered out of the room.

"Torien, will you help me please?" Bella asked.

"Of course." Torien came over and pulled out some shears from her dismantling kit and got to work removing the bandages. The wounds were rough. Deep gashes with missing flesh, the edges of the wounds were blackened, like rotting meat. The woman's fever was clearly from an infection and the wounds were from some kind of monster.

Morrigan turned away from the wound disgusted. "These are wounds from a demon. She must have been attacked by one of them directly."

Madame Oceane came back from around the corner just as the bandages were completely removed. Her expression hardened as she looked at the deep wounds.

Bella took a deep breath. "Alright. This might take a lot of mana. Silva, can you hold her down, this first part might make her struggle."

"What are you going to do?" the naga snapped.

Bella pointed at the black edges. "This flesh is diseased and needs to be burned away first before I can heal it. If I don't, it will resist my healing. Unfortunately, the healing can be quite painful during this part... or so I've read."

"You've never done this before!" she looked enraged.

I stepped in front of Bella. "She hasn't healed this exact kind of wound before but Bella is a good healer. She's saved my life a number of times before. You can trust her. She wouldn't do it this way if she didn't have to."

The woman looked like she was going to argue but relented. "Alright, do it. Just save the poor girl's life."

Silva moved around and gripped the woman's arm and unbruised shoulder. Bella took another deep breath and began. The woman jerked in Silva's grasp but didn't wake up as the blackened skin was burned away. The moment the diseased flesh was gone the woman's flesh turned from a grayish red color to a bright and vibrant red as the woman's flesh began to knit together again. Once that was done Bella released her magic and panted from exertion. The woman now had four bright red scars with raised skin across the front of her torso from the bottom of one breast to her hip. Silva let go and stepped away.

The bobcat demi was now breathing gently. She still was covered in bruises but otherwise looked fine. Bella leaned back forward, placed her hand on the woman's stomach, and closed her eyes. A ripple of mana flowed through the woman and Bella began to draw on more mana to heal the woman's head. The woman also had some kind of head injury as well. Once again Bella pulled back and looked exhausted.

Morrigan put a hand on her shoulder. "Bella, that's all you can do right now. You're close to being completely out of mana."

Bella nodded. "I won't be able to do anything about the bruising right now but that should heal on its own. I might also be able to do more to reduce the scarring but not right now."

The naga set the bandages on the table and sat next to the bobcat girl. "Is she going to wake up soon?"

Like she had summoned her, the bobcat's eyes fluttered open and she looked around the room. "What happened? I feel like shit." She looked at the Madame and her eyes widened. "Madame! What are you doing here? Am I in trouble?"

The naga just laughed and pulled the confused girl into a hug. "You're okay. Don't worry about any of that now. I'll send one of the girls to fill you in, we'll talk again later."

"Okay?" The girl's eyes traveled across the room looking at all of the people she didn't know in confusion.

I helped Bella to her feet. She seemed a bit shaky. I turned to look at Madame Oceane. "Is there anyone else in critical condition like this? Bella is low on mana but we do have a mana potion."

She shook her head. "No there are other people who need healing but no one else is as severe as Tisha was. Let me prepare a room for you to rest, it's the least I can do. If you are still happy to heal the others, they can wait until tomorrow."

The naga's attitude has changed, completely night and day. The stern, tense, and borderline angry woman now looked happy in a way that her features suggested didn't happen often. Bella also looked tired but happy, pleased with a job well done.

"Oh my god, what happened to me!" The bobcat girl suddenly blurted out. Her attention was on the giant scars across the front of her body. Her fingers ran over the scars, probably feeling the slight difference in texture between them and her normal skin. "I look like I was mauled by a monster!"

Oceane wiped something from her eyes before looking down at the bobcat girl. "Do you not remember what happened?"

The girl cutely squinted in thought before shaking her head. "The last thing I remember was shopping on my day off. I have no idea how I got here or what happened."

"There was a demon attack last month. Jade found you and brought you here after you'd been hurt."

The bobcat's ears flicked and she rubbed her face. "I've been out for a month? Jade saved me? I thought she hated my guts."

The naga laughed. "Perhaps not, she's been visiting you every day since she brought you here."

The girl started tearing up but wiped the tears away without saying anything.

I cleared my throat. "Perhaps it would be better if the five of us waited in the hallway."

Madame Oceane stood back up on her long tail. "I'll send someone over to fill you in on what happened and bring you some food. Unfortunately with the state of everything, we have to ration it. So don't complain about the portion."

The bobcat girl sniffled. "Yes Madame." She turned to Bella. "Thank you for healing me. With a scar like this, it must have been bad." She mumbled to herself. ...I hope this doesn't turn the men away..."

Bella smiled and placed her hand on the woman's leg. "I'll come back tomorrow and see if I can do anything to reduce the scarring." Her ears turned slightly red and she suddenly looked embarrassed. "If I were a guy, I would think the scars look exotic though. I doubt you have anything to worry about."

The girl smiled at Bella. "Thank you for everything."

"No problem." Bella returned the smile.

All of us filed out of the woman's room. As I turned the corner I bumped right into another demi-beastfolk girl, this time a girl with a cute snow leopard tail and matching ears. She looked like she was going to bite my head off but was quickly redirected when she saw the Madame with us. "Madame! I heard Raya found a healer for Tisha!"

The naga warmly smiled at the snow leopard demi. "Yes Jade, Bella here healed her up and she's awake now. Why don't you go bring her some food, ...a double portion, she needs the energy."

"Errr... are you sure she wants to see me?" the girl looked a bit wary.

"I told her you're the one who helped her, I'm sure there's a lot you should fill her in on."

"...alright. I'll go right away." She looked over at Bella. "I heard you're the healer. ...Thanks for saving my friend."

Bella smiled. "You're welcome."

Jade spun around and ran down the hallway, presumably towards the kitchen, her large fluffy tail trailing behind her.

I took Bella's hand and squeezed it. Proud of my pretty deer girl.