Press Firmly Here

[Sej]

Milling about the Innorsford proving grounds, Soren recognized a few of the other recruits from his camping training as he slid into the group near the appointed spot he'd been instructed to go to for basic first aid training. When he'd asked what the point was for someone like himself to learn first aid when a surgeon could simply treat whatever poor dying fellow might be on hand, it was pointed out to him that he might be the fellow bleeding out in the dirt one day and a surgeon might not always be on hand to bandage him up. Would be awfully useful for him to know how to bind his own wounds.

A tired man wearing the sort of smock one might expect to see worn by the local butcher approached and addressed the group. He had a stained leather satchel slung over his shoulder and spoke in a monotone drawl that made it very difficult for the young noble's inquisitive mind to avoid dwelling on what some of those stains might be.

"Right. So, the Alliance is now offering this training because skilled medics are in rather short supply, particularly on a battlefield of wounded. To reduce casualties, I'm going to show you all how to stop bleeding and stabilize the incapacitated. Pay attention because one day you're probably going to need to save the life of a comrade next to you."

[Sej]

"I'll need a volunteer," The tired looking instructor drawled, gesturing randomly toward the group even as he did so. Soren found himself pushed forward from the group so he shrugged and stepped next to the man who then proceeded to demonstrate to them how to tightly, very tightly wrap injured limbs to stop bleeding. By the end of it, the young noble's limbs were covered quite fully in bandages, tied in various ways to demonstrated how to secure an injured individual's bandaging well enough to allow them some mobility without fearing the dressing would come undone.

"Without bandages and or time to wrap the wound, pressing tightly to the wound like so," He demonstrated, drawing a slight grunt from Soren as a wad of cloth was shoved against his abdomen. "This will help to staunch the bleeding until better treatment can be afforded."

Soren was then jabbed several times all over his body to indicate locations that, when punctured or cut, could bleed quite profusely and it was best to bandage them as quickly as possible to prevent the injured individual from bleeding out. The instructor indicated for the rest of the group to come up and allowed each to have a chance at bandaging Soren's imaginary wounds.

"And don't be the idiot who binds a wound without cleaning it first. You may save a few moments and some discomfort from not scrubbing a cut out but you'll definitely regret it later when it goes septic. Treating an infected wound is largely beyond you lot and if it gets bad enough, you could lose the limb or even your life."

[Sej]

After having lectured them all on the basics of first aid and demonstrating a number of techniques including but not limited to the binding of wounds, the splinting of broken bones, construction of a sling for either arm, relocation of dislocated joints, and how to move an incapacitated individual depending on their specific injury, the instructed rounded the group up into pairs.

"Now we're going to play a little make believe," The man began, showing some animation for the first time as he snapped a switch through the air. "Take it seriously, because this is some pretty serious stuff. Don't be the one who lets his buddy die because he couldn't be bothered to pay attention during first aid. You are all going to alternate between being the wounded and being the one performing first aid."

"Whenever you make a stupid mistake or seem like you're not taking this too seriously-" Snap! "I'll be right here to remind you."

So they began. Soren felt the burn of the instructor's switch on the back of his hands more than a couple times but it just made him focus more intently on what he was doing and by the end of the training he was more or less confident that in a situation where someone was bleeding or incapacitated he could attempt to stabilize them and it would be possible that not only would he not make things worse, but he might even succeed.

Rubbing the welts on the back of his hands, Soren left, glancing up at the sky to figure out if there was time left in the day to attempt to cram some more training into his head before turning in. Who knows, maybe he would even camp under the stars tonight.

[Azuloth]

Soren gains First Aid I
+2 Stat points.