I reached for the edge of the cloth instead and lifted it up when I grabbed it to look underneath. The creature was indeed humanoid and it was covered in lesions, sores, and burns that leaked silvery white glowing blood. It was also very thin and bony like it had gone without food for a very long time. The condition it was in, tugged at my heart strings and I felt pity for it in spite of what it was. I wanted help but it was just a dream and I could feel it start to slip away as the waking world called for me.
"What happened? Who did this to you?" I asked as the dream dissolved around me. It mumbled something in reply but I couldn't quite hear it. I asked my questions again but I still couldn't hear it reply. I ended up in a sort of loop with it that followed me into wakefulness and left me feeling guilty.
When I woke up, I was laying on a plush red couch with a thick, warm blanket covering me head from toe. I still feeling cold in spite of the blanket and shivered underneath it. I ached all over and there was a squirming in my gut that felt like I had a belly full of snakes. It left me feeling a little nauseous and I hoped whoever had put me on the couch had left a bucket nearby. I could feel a wrapping of some kind covering my and I remembered my hands being bloody and covered with injuries before I passed out. I brought them to my face to take a look at the and saw that they had been bandaged up and they smelled like Yang's healing herbs.
After I was done with my self inspection, I pulled back the blanket covering my head to see where I was. I was in one of Yang's back rooms where he kept the rest of his stock and raised the young of his two lesser water dragons. The couch was surrounded by free standing wooden shelves filled with all objects, ingredients, and obscure tools that Yang used to help his less than human patients. There was also a low square table in front of the couch with another couch on the other side of it.
The other couch was made of intricately carved wood and yellow plush upholstery that covered the back, seat and arms of it. The table was much the same minus the upholstery. A multitude of carvings decorated its legs and edge while the top of it was dominated with a complex mosaic displaying an oriental astrology star chart.
The shelves had no sides or solid backs to them and only had carved wooden posts to support them at the corners of each shelf. This allowed me to catch glimpses of the rest of the room between the item that they held. It was mostly just more of the same with fish tanks and smaller paludariums occupying the far wall. They were where he raised the offspring of his two lesser water dragons. The other walls had shelves loaded with old books, scrolls, and wooden plaques that he used as reference materials.
One such book with yellow pages lay open on the table. It was open to a black and white illustration of some sort of humanoid creature cloth in thin cloth. It was preying on what looked to be a kappa that it pulled to the banks of the river that the unfortunate youkai had been living in. The kappa was still struggling with the creature in the picture but it had all but lost at that point. I recognized the black mist spilling from the creature's mouth and what it could do as I had something similar happen last night. The other page that was exposed was covered in antiquated Japanese hentaigana and I assumed it was a description that accompanied the illustration.
I stared at it for a moment or two before groaning and trying to sit up. That was a mistake. My head felt like it weighed a thousand pounds and I triggered a pounding headache. My vision swam during the attempt, making me feel even more nauseous and I quickly gave up in favor of remaining lying down on the couch.
Not long after I had decided to do that, Yang appeared. He was carrying a tray with a pot of hot water, a cup, and several tins that had a strong herbal smell coming from them. He set it down on the table before checking on my current condition.
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