"She probably would," Eld agreed. The only thing that prevented her from mastering most skills was that she tended to lose interest and stop practicing it, preferring instead to attempt a wide variety of things.

If she wanted to be a doctor, she could probably take over the clinic instead of me. It was honestly something he was a bit jealous of--he used to spend a good chunk of time studying, but for all that effort Emma could probably easily overtake him even in the field of medicine. He couldn't even claim to be second in the village, as Mayako was also at near genius levels of intelligence, though she tended to devote most of her free time to reading about religion or philosophy.

"So...where did you go to school?" he asked Davis, curious about it. He'd never been to school, which was both a blessing and a curse: the latter because he could be much farther along if he had a formal education, and the former because the idea of spending all day in the company of strangers his own age was kind of frightening.

"This school in Greoul," Davis replied, "Preznok University of Medicine. It's this school that plays itself off as prestigious, but I was able to get in with me and my family's limited funds--so . . . I suppose that says something. Still, the programs were tough, and that was a few years ago, so it was kind of a shock to have an ocean between myself and home."

Davis was actually from around this area. He was born in Feiyan, a town quite a ways to the west of Hillcrest. He was the son of a printer and a waitress, and did what he could to make money on his own. That much had been revealed during discussions between all of them, when Davis was prodded about his history. Why he decided not to go back to Feiyan, he never answered--ever. The question was simply avoided. None of them really knew much about the city, and Davis never said much about it at all; it was a bit too far for them to go to, approximately the distance from Hillcrest to Rangeki and a half, with no remarkable landmarks (such as Rangeki's mesh of cultures and hot springs) to draw travelers in.

They emerged from the light forestation, shimmering blue awaiting them. A mild current dragged the river across the deep and an almost flat incline lead straight to it, fortunately as a clearing, with no trees to get in the way of casting.

"Well, here we are," Davis stated as he stopped by the water's edge and set the coolers down.

"Preznok University?!" Eld was so surprised that he tripped over a root, only just managing to catch himself and avoid tumbling into the river they just arrived at. He stared wide eyed at Davis.

"That's--that's like the most prestigious school in the world! And you've already graduated? You must be--" he kept his head enough to refrain from saying a lot smarter than I thought "--really smart yourself. I mean, you're only eighteen, right? And if it was a few years ago...then you must have graduated at sixteen?!"

This came as quite a bit of a shock--Eld was sixteen himself, and to find yet another person who turned out to be at a genius level would be a bit of a blow to his ego...later. Right now, he was more interested in hearing about the school.

While Eld was far from acting like an adult all the time, it would probably be the first time Davis would have witnessed him acting younger than he was. "I...I won't be able to go there, so please, tell me what it was like!"

Just as Eld was aware that Davis was from Feiyan and for some reason wouldn't return, Davis likely knew that Eld expected to need to leave Hillcrest soon...though why, none would say.

"I'm nineteen, actually," Davis corrected Eld, "I'll actually be twenty in about six months."

Everyone kept getting his age wrong, and it was kind of annoying. More than likely, that was the fault of Emma trying to keep his real age under wraps--hiding the fact that he was a year and a half older than he really was. That wasn't important, though. Not right now. He'd have to make it a point to correct those mistakes at a later date, but today was meant to be a good relaxation day away from all the stresses of his job and life.

"And I graduated about a year ago, to be honest," Davis continue, "But believe me, I'm not a genius or anything. I started there when I was about fifteen, and struggled like hell to get certified."

Davis plopped down onto the ground, taking a comfortable seat in the sand. He supposed they could bait their hooks in a bit, and talk for now. It wasn't everyday that he got to talk about his school.

"The pharmacy program there isn't too long, but they make up for that with the difficulty. A few times, I really just wanted to tie up a noose and end it, seriously. A buddy of mine dropped out of it and went into the doctoral program--he told me it was tougher."

Getting through by the skin of his teeth, that's how Davis could best describe his experiences in school . . .

"It's a great school, though. I suggest it if you have the guts, and you've taken care of all your loose ends. The campus is pretty large and on the east side of Preznok, so there isn't too much commotion. There are three pretty massive dormitories and this cathedral of a building for all the classes--massive place, and beautiful. It's about thirty-five stories high and older than I know. Hundreds of years, probably. They've got about three dozen different programs in medical studies, and from what I experienced, the professors are great. Just tough as hell . . . seriously, I graduated through luck alone."

For a moment, Eld smiled sadly. Tie up all my loose ends, huh? I plan on it, but it won't be to go to school. That opportunity was out of his reach now; it was a shame, because he really would have liked to see the school in person.

"I'm sure it was more than luck," he said instead. He was certain of that, too--he knew Emma well enough to know that she wouldn't be interested in the least in someone she didn't think was fairly intelligent. That was her problem with most of the kids her age, after all: mentally, they couldn't keep up with her.

"Thirty-five stories high...wow, I can't even imagine a building that all." Locally, three stories tall was pretty high, and he doubted he'd ever seen a building more than five stories. The tallest buildings he knew were some he saw in Cizok when his parents took him there for a vacation.

He didn't comment on Davis revealing his real age--it wasn't really his fault. He just kept it in mind as something he could use against Emma for leverage if he needed to.

Davis didn't comment on the bit about his intelligence. He really did regard Emma as having much more potential than he, and considered getting through school luck, considering a few suicidal ideas he had during the worst of it. If it was able to be harder, then Davis would likely have not been around for Emma to date and Eld to be uncomfortable around for the first few times they were in proximity of one another.

"Yeah, it's a pretty massive school . . ."

He reached over for his pole and one of the coolers, both of which he brought closer to himself. Out of the cooler he retrieved a small bin full of barely moving night-crawlers--chilled; it made them lethargic until they warmed up. He undid his hook from the middle rung and let it dangle so he could bait it. From there, he stood up, looked back to check and see if it was clear (so not to hook Eld in the face), and cast it out. Davis was in no way a professional at this, but he'd been doing it for awhile--he was well above average at casting, and could get slight beyond the middle of the river. He sat down again and spun the reel a bit, just to make sure the line was taught.

"Here--I have a pretty substantial number of earth worms here, and some drinks in the other cooler, if you get thirsty," Davis motioned towards the cooler slightly farther away--in which it was unlikely that Eld was going to find anything that was non-alcoholic . . .

"Oh, thanks," he replied, though it probably wasn't necessary. It would have been a tad impractical to bring bait or beverages all the way from Hillcrest. He was a bit relieved, as it didn't seem that Davis's friend was going to make it. He wasn't at his most comfortable with Emma's boyfriend (pretty much due to the fact that he was that), but having a stranger here as well would make it worse, not better.

Eld, much like Davis, was completely average at fishing. To him it was less about catching fish and more an excuse to spend a day by the river with his friends--more often than not, they ended up leaving their fishing poles unattended so they could goof off elsewhere. He was perfectly capable of handling everything himself, though, even if he fumbled a bit on occasion.

At least we have poles and not spears, he thought, remembering just how well he'd done at that. Then he blushed a bit as he remembered what followed, and decided that a drink would be a good idea.

Unfortunately, all Davis brought was alcohol. Eld had nothing against drinking, but he didn't do it often, and had very little tolerance to it--even a few drinks would affect him. And he wasn't like Davis, who was capable of maintaining his composure fairly well even while intoxicated.

I guess I'll hold off on a drink for now, he decided, though he wondered how clean the water was at this part of the river.

Davis didn't leave the drinks cooler untouched, like Eld inevitably did. Davis could hold his alcohol, but didn't drink much--no, he drank over time. He plucked from the cooler one bottle of ale, refined and chilled within a glass bottle, and brought it back to where he had been sitting. He worked with drugs; he knew how they functioned, he knew how they didn't. When he drank, he didn't drink to get belligerent . . . unlike Sarah Vaerbond.

He never drank in excess, and one bottle of ale would last him about forty five minutes to an hour, after which he'd go and get another one, while people like Eld, Sarah, Emma, and the others didn't know how much they weren't supposed to drink. They drank quickly just out of ignorance alone and wound up getting blitzed, inevitably experiencing horrendous hangovers in the morning shortly thereafter.

Davis always had it in mind to maybe tell them that it was a bad idea, but after the first time he figured that they would've figured out on their own--what, with Sarah losing everything she ate the prior day during the next morning and all, thinking she had fooled around with someone she didn't know and getting herself into one hell of a bad situation, only to be kindly informed by Eld and Emma that pregnancy didn't work that way and that she was just terribly hung over and needed to drink some water. So she went to the river, threw up in the water, went further down the river, and drank from there. For some reason, they didn't learn their lesson, and though Sarah didn't get a horrendous hangover the next morning, she still drank way too much, just like everyone else. Fortunately for him, he never had to clean those messes up. There was a good reason he didn't spend the night with them, and not just because he had to work in the mornings.

There was a long silence between he and Eld, with the two of them sitting there, lines cast out, bait in the water, waiting for something to say, someone to talk about--awkwardly, uncomfortably. It was familiar. This had happened before rather frequently, but only when they were left alone together when Emma and others left them alone in the same room together. How much did they have in common? What did they have to talk about? Davis didn't know, nor did Eld. They had Emma in common--they both knew her very well, Eld moreso than Davis, but Davis didn't necessarily want to talk about her.

"What's it like?" Davis broke the silence, "Working in the clinic and all."

"The clinic?" He had to think about it for a moment--lately he didn't do much work at the clinic, mostly just helping out when it was especially busy. Ever since the bandits came, his parents were especially lenient with him, though, possibly guessing how much he was affected by everything.

"Well...it's usually very rewarding, but it can get really depressing at times. Everybody in Hillcrest knows each other, so when someone's in for something minor it can be kind of fun, but it makes it a lot tougher when someone's in for something serious...or when they die..."

Remmy... He couldn't help but think about his friend, who died while under their care. He spent most of that week holed up in his room, but he did check on his friend's condition regularly. They knew it was bleak, but his uncanny vitality gave them hope. He just seemed like the type that could bounce back from anything...

"Knowing what the people you love are likely to die of isn't easy." He knew that smoking would likely eventually kill Remmy, but even though he knew the imminent risks--studied them even--he still didn't think something like that could affect a person so young...at least not Remmy. He'd aided Etsu's recovery from her injuries, but he made it a point to not be involved at all with the checkups of the other girls. He just didn't want to know.

"But...being able to help people, whether it's aiding their recovery or just making them as comfortable as possible...well...there isn't anything like it. No matter how bad it gets, having a patient thank me, or seeming them smile...it reminds me why my parents do it, and why I want-" he just barely bit off the -ed, "-to do it."

"Sounds like you're pretty passionate about it," remarked Davis.

It was pretty inspiring. Eld talked about the job as if he were a real doctor already, and he was only sixteen, and he had no degree--no proof of his abilities, no certificate of his accomplishments. That didn't mean that he couldn't go get that, though. He obviously had the heart. Davis didn't know that Eld's problems were far worse than he could ever dream, though . . .

"You know, that's why I couldn't do it. If I treated someone for long enough, I'd start to become their friend--but what if they were terminal? Also, what if I had to treat someone close to me--and there was only so much I could do? I know it's important, and I know it's a matter of making their lives better even if they don't have much life left . . . but, eh . . . I can't do it. That takes a certain kind of person, and that's not me."

It wasn't said outright--he didn't want to, he couldn't bring himself to, but it was implied that there was more to that statement: But you can. Davis didn't feel particularly jealous or anything of the sort (that he could recognize), but it was still odd. Davis didn't deal with patients directly. He knew what he was doing and he knew how important it was, but he didn't see the faces of the people that took his medicines. They were in no way in any danger, and unless the doctor with the medication over-prescribed (or under-prescribed), and the patient sadly passed away because of it, he was in no way to blame--but if he made poor drugs, he'd feel the guilt as if he personally killed the patient. Nonetheless, the issues of guilt and responsibility, although felt, were nowhere near as powerful with his job than with what Eld's would have been, had his life gone according to plan--and if all had gone well, both Eld and Davis would have eventually been economically dependent upon one another.

"But you are making their lives better," Eld replied, looking at him as though he'd said something incredibly strange. "The drugs you make go a long way toward saving lives and easing pain...there wouldn't be much we could do without the medicine we get."

And to him, it was that simple. Sure, his parents (and, if his life had gone without supernatural intervention, likely he as well) may have been the ones dealing with the patients directly, but Davis's profession was no less important in the chain.

It was the same reasoning that kept him from looking down on the rest of the village, even though he was one of the few educated kids (or even people in general) in it. Sure, doctors may be more directly helping people than most, but they still ate the food the farmer's grew. There's was a no more or less important role.

"You do what you can, and I...well...I guess I'll do what I can." He got a far off look again, something Davis was probably familiar with. Occasionally Eld spoke as though he was in another world...

"Yeah . . ." Davis nodded, "We do what we can, whether we notice a change or not."

Because the truth was Davis didn't see the faces of the people that his medicines were distributed to. If they lived or if they died, he just didn't know--if he saved lives, he'd never know, if he changed the world, he wasn't aware, and never would be. That's how he wanted to be. Davis wasn't the type of man who wanted to be extraordinary; he didn't want to change the world, but he still understood how much pain there was there--so he remained a blank face. His medicines weren't attributed to him, and the effects of which he did not attribute to himself, either. He was simply giving the people who could do the real life changing the methods and utilities with which to do so.

It wasn't much longer than a minute later that they heard a third voice, calling out to them from a not-so-far distance, "Hey! Davis! You started without me?"

The voice was familiar--to Davis, and would be to Eld. All too familiar. Davis turned a bit to look back, and saw his friend approaching from the forest, a cooler of his own in one hand and a fishing pole held over his shoulder with the other. Although his blond hair was short, it was long enough to look almost permanently and stylistically unkempt; he had a young face, probably no older than his twenties, and a five o'clock shadow . . . also probably a stylistic decision on his part. He was a thin man and about as tall as Davis, and wore a gray jacket over a white shirt and dark slacks--all of which were somewhat frayed for much more casual outdoor wear, also probably a stylistic decision on his part.

Noah Herst was his name, and he was someone that Eld was all too familiar with. Perhaps not in the best of ways . . .

Eld turned his upper body in surprise to look at the newcomer, having momentarily forgotten that Davis had invited another. However, the voice was familiar, which was odd...he didn't know too many people in Galaens.

When he recognized the man, he quickly turned back to his line to prevent either of the other men from seeing how his face fell. What's he doing here? I thought he was still at school.

Noah Herst was actually from Hillcrest, and to say that Eld had never gotten along with him was an understatement. When they were younger he'd bullied the small, frail boy, and up until he left for school a few months ago he made fun of him whenever he saw him.

Several possible courses of action ran through his head: he could fake being ill and leave, make some excuse about remembering he had to do something, or slip into Purgatory when they weren't looking and just disappear. He couldn't think of anything that Davis wouldn't either see through or be suspicious of, though.

Instead, he sighed and resigned himself to putting up with Noah for the time being. He sat silently, pretending to be focused on fishing and hoping that his presence would be overlooked.

"Just put our lines in!" replied Davis, loud enough for his friend to hear.

Noah was an energetic man, that much was for sure. Even carrying as much as he was, he wasn't phased in the least. To a certain extent, he was athletic, and that was one of many things he had over Eld. Eld had recently accrued muscle mass, but Noah always had it, and the attention of the other villagers. He wasn't quiet, far from it, and the only information reserved with that man was where he intended to go next--because even he didn't know that one.

Herst dropped his cooler next to Davis's, and first made she to approach Davis, the two men shaking hands, one grinning, the other smiling a bit. Davis was definitely much, much more laid back than Noah . . .

Initially, Noah figured that he'd hook a worm up and toss out his line, but that was before he noticed that there was a third person with them. He remembered something about that; Davis had mentioned it a little while ago, but he hadn't paid that much attention.

"Hey, who's this?" Noah pointed his thumb at Eld, not speaking antagonistically, but curious nonetheless.

"Em's surrogate brother--you know, Eld," replied Davis.

For a moment, Noah stood there, silent. It wasn't long before he had a wide smile on his lips. "Eld? Eldridge Tsukimono? Seriously? Is that you?"

Hearing that voice call his name made the hair on his neck stand on end, but he knew there was nothing he could do about Noah's presence. "Yeah, it's me," he responded, turning around with a smile on his lips. Fortunately, Noah at least didn't know him well enough to recognize it as less than sincere, and hopefully Davis wouldn't notice either.

Really, it was a stupid thing to worry about--it wasn't as though Noah was going to beat him up anymore, and even if he made fun of him, was there anything he could say anymore that would bother him? He had bigger issues in recent times than worrying about the locals making fun of him.

Besides, maybe Noah grew up a bit while at school and was no longer an insufferable prick. "How have you been?" he asked politely.