For their kindness, and because more people were seeking their aid, the ones that lived in that small village came together. And, in a show of solidarity, built a clinic that contained quarters for the hellkin and the kobold, and several rooms for patients.
@internutter/challenge-04191-k173-one-good-turn -- Anon Guest
It had to happen sooner or later. There was a new building in the village. It had a garden and a greenhouse for the herbs, and a huge workshop for the preparations. There was a clean room for surgeries, with the best light they could obtain. There was accommodation for the Kobold in the form of scurry-rungs. And, of course, an attached residence.
The only flaw was a small one, the sign. The people of the town weren't very well-read. So the sign on the storefront read, Dragun & Devil with, Pothi Carie underneath.
Vigor and Draco understood what they meant, and didn't have the heart to correct them.
Besides, as two outcast and Unwelcome people, they now had something they thought they'd never achieve. They had a home.
"Gonna take a while to move in," said Draco. "It does have an extensive cellar, so that's a boon."
"All the better for your collection of spores, moulds, and fungi," said Vigor. "Please do everything to stop them escaping?"
"Just the necessary terrariums," vowed Draco. "And I'll put in a decontamination booth for getting in and out of my mycology labs.
Moving in was only half of it. The other half was setting up between patients, with their old wagon in a nearby shed because they thoroughly expected to be run out of town very soon.
As long as they had patients, they presumed, they were safe. The instant they fixed all the big problems, they suspected, they'd start getting blamed for the little ones.
They were wrong.
People in small towns have long memories, be it for grudges or gratitude. Little Suzi, who came in panic in the dead of night because of what Lorrik did behind the hayshed, remembered the covert potion they gave her "just in case". And she remembered it for years. Long after she and Lorrik got married to better people. She continued to come to them for both preventatives and ailments, and consulted them about her wanted children.
Widow Hissom remembered what they did for her lumbago. Uncle Dorz remembered what they'd done for his gout. Goodie Lang remembered how they'd helped with a difficult birth. She remembered every year her triplets had their birthday.
So when a radical speaker attempted to speak about preserving the purity of their population, about casting out the Unwelcome from their company... Well. They were run out of town on a rail. When a Cleric attempted to lure the townsfolk away from the 'evils' in their midst, they were given several very sharp lectures about the true nature of evil.
Evil may begin with treating people as things, but it could also include doing nothing to fix anything wrong when one knows how to fix it. Or, for that matter, consulting who could help.
Suzi had the Cleric cornered for a lecture that took up three hours, and consisted mainly about whose rights supplanted whose and the case-by-case arguments.
The Cleric, for the record, sheepishly consulted Vigor and Draco about a sore in an embarrassing place. They remembered the kindness, sensitivity, and empathy of the Hellkin and the Kobold, and never said another word against them. They were even willing to hear out any further Unwelcome People who had cause to pass through.
The Pothi Carie stood firm for decades. Unopposed by anyone.
Of such little things, greater things could grow.
[Photo by Landis Brown on Unsplash]
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