Zeb and I decided to stagger our sleep through the night so that we could always have someone awake while watg Zaka in case of emergenbsp; My shift ended up being the ter part of the night, since Zeb had already stayed up te the night before. Wheraded off he let me know that he'd ed Zaka again. He also said that although he remained unscious, Zaka's breathing seemed to bee a little less shallow throughout the night.

  As I watched over Zaka into the early m hours, I noticed some movement in his arms briefly. I watched intensely for a few minutes, aually, Zaka's eyes started to move uheir eyelids. I hurriedly grabbed a bucket of water and a spoon so that he could drink if he regained sciousness.

  After another minute or so, his eyes opened up, and he blinked a few times. He seemingly tried to move, but was quite weakened in his dition, and failed to sit up. I positioned myself over him, and did my best to motion that he shouldn't move. I then brought the spoon full of water to my own mouth, and drank some, then motioo him to drink after me.

  Zaka weakly nodded, and I slowly gave him water to drink. After giving him multiple spoonsful, I stopped him from drinking more, even if he felt like he . When someone is badly dehydrated, overdrinking be dangerous after all. After drinking the water, he id there for a minute or so before closing his eyes. Shortly after that, he was asleep.

  Thinking bay near death experience, I recall fading in and out of sciousness repeatedly, which hopefully is a good sign for Zaka's recovery. That said, just ing out of the state he was in was a big positive step. He tinued sleeping well into the afternoon, and by that point Zeb was awake, so I informed him that Zaka had woken up.

  With Zeb watg Zaka, I decided to boil some of the smoked meat to make a light broth, which should be retively easy for Zaka to digest the ime he wakes up. He ended up waking up in the evening again, to which Zeb had a brief versation with him in the demon nguage befiving him some spoonsful of broth, after which he fell asleep again.

  Zeb said to me, "I expined how he was covered in cuts and scrapes, and that his leg was pletely destroyed. So he o rest, after which I fed him."

  To which I replied, "If he's feeling up for it ime, see if you get him to expin roughly where his HP is pared to full. Given the dition of his l, I hate to say it, but I think we'll o amputate it. The wound otom is starting to look worse, which means we'll likely o amputate soon."

  Zeb looked ed, and sat for a moment before responding, "If we don't amputate, what happens?"

  I thought on his question for a moment. This is a good question, oh, the of iion from the mangled part of his leg is quite high, and given its shape, would likely cause problems down the road for him. Here however, that might not be the case. It may be better to just the wound up, or scald it with boiling water, rather than open airely new wound higher up.

  After deliberating this to myself, I replied to Zeb, "You make a good point actually. I might be taking this a little too much like my previous world. Amputation might be an overrea. Regardless of if utate the leg, he's going tle with it, and the wound will take a long time to heal. It might be better to the wound, and give it some more time on its own. The downside would be that he could potentially get a fatal iion. Unlike his chest and other wounds, which we were able to sterilize, this wound is quite gnarled, so it'll be hard to . We it up some when he wakes , and then keep an eye on it. If it starts to get worse, then we'll resort to amputation."

  Zeb nodded along as I told him what I thought, and after I finished speaking, looked nervously back at Zaka. To which I also ended up looking over at his sleeping body oable. Although he's gettier right now, he still has a long road to recovery ahead of him.

  Early this m, Zaka was awake again, and this time he stayed awake for a little longer. Long enough for me to get Zeb, a an idea of his dition. He's apparently at about a third of his max hp right now, and quite hungry and thirsty. We fed him some solid food this time, and gave him more water to drink before inf him that ime he wakes up, we'll o his leg wound, which would likely hurt a lot. He seemed a little ed, but after sitting up and looking at the leg himself, he nodded in agreement before ying back down.

  After Zaka fell asleep, I told Zeb about how injured I had been fighting a goblin once as an imp, and how after I prestiged, my broken bone fully healed. Afterwards, I told him to tell Zaka about this when he wakes up . I personally feel it's important to give Zaka some hope before he experiences something painful, to give him the willpower to fight through the pain.

  In the meantime during the day, I made some tools to help with the wound ing. Some small scissors for cutting away loose flesh, some more ft stones for cauterizing, a small knife, a pair of small pliers, and a small wooden rod for Zaka to bite down on. It's by no means perfect, but the tools should at least help make the process faster and less painful than it otherwise would be.

  While I worked on that, Zeb went out to harvest lionroot down the mountain. We still have a det amount of meat, but sidering everything, I think that Zaka should lionroot while he's healing, and the spuds are still quite small. Thus, the lionroot is going to be Zeb and I's meal while Zaka gets meat broth ao eat.

  By the evening, Zaka had awoken again, and seemed to be pretty ed with how much pain he would likely be in soon. Thankfully, after Zeb shared my story of recovery as an imp, Zaka seemed much more determined, and nodded, ready to have the procedure done.

  I braced his leg onto the table with storaps, to prevent it from moving while I worked, and Zeb kept a close eye on Zaka's dition while I worked. As I cut away bits of loose and hanging flesh, Zaka would yell through the wooden dowel, and shortly after I'd have to cauterize the bits of freshly exposed flesh, leading to even more yelling. Eventually though, we'd ed the wound up siderably, and I'd extracted a lot of small pieces of rod bohat had been embedded in the wound. Although it isn't pretty, it's looking much better than it was.

  By the time I had stone shaped his leg free, Zaka was either asleep or unscious again. Either way, Zeb and I decided we should again take turns keeping an eye on Zaka's dition ht just in case.

  Thankfully, it seems like Zaka's surgery was a success, and he awoke the m. We'll o keep an eye on his dition though, as his HP is about where it was yesterday m, which given his trauma yesterday could be either good or bad. Since all three of us seem to be optimistic, I decided to start w on making Zaka a pair of crutches, like when I had my leg in a brabsp; If things heal well, I might attempt to make him a peg leg to at least give him some added mobility.

  It's a bit nostalgic making a pair of crutches from wood and lightstone here in the cave again. As I work on them, I recollect all the time I spent here, and how at the time, Zaka was the biggest threat to my existenbsp; At that time, I was quite scared of the goblin that would show up and shoot fireballs at the imps in the cave after bringing them ienbsp; Now, years ter, I'm medically treating that same being for a wound simir to what I experienced while in the very same cave. I let out a little chuckle to myself at the situation as I worked on his crutches.