Qeya River we'll kill all the beautiful things

She chose not to visit the healer's place, although by now she knew where it was. Tulukiri was self-sufficient enough and pig-headed enough to believe herself safe from infection; she could at least roll in some mud to keep the wound area protected, she thought.

So she traveled to the river's edge and sluiced into the shallows, foremost to clean the debris from her coat which had been trapped there during her journey, but also to shock the surface of her wounds so that they would stop their bleeding.

A plume of red drifted through the water where it came leaking from her neck and shoulder.