Note: Written for FandomWeekly on Dreamwidth, prompt “Handle With Care”. (I’ve gotten my PC “knocked unconscious” in the mines far too many times, and I feel sorry for Maru as she does warn the player if married.)
Whispering Something Along The Lines
by EstiRose
“Mom found her, in the mines.” Harvey’s nurse’s face was grim, but he imagined he’d be grim too if his mother - not that she was there of course - had found his wife in the caves, unconscious from injuries and bleeding her life out on the floor. Alyssa, Maru’s wife, had been somewhere in the mines getting gems, which meant fighting monsters.
And from the look of her injuries, from the fire and the bites, she’d been far, far down. She’d managed to find the mine elevator somehow, and it had been pure luck that Robin had walked in looking for a spare piece of coal for her work.
“We got the worst of her injuries, Maru. She’ll be-“ Not all right, Harvey knew. He’d lecture Alyssa later, when she was conscious enough to appreciate it.
“I think she went down there for me.” Maru spoke softly and hesitantly. “To make me happy.” Her skin seemed too pale in the fading light, and Harvey wondered if he’d have two patients that evening - Alyssa and Maru. “She brought me some quartz yesterday….”
“You don’t have to go down very far to find quartz.” He’d tended to adventurers. He knew what the common, easy to find minerals were. “She wasn’t down there just for you.”
“No, but she wanted a bigger farmhouse, so that we could have kids. She thought the best way was to get gems out of the mines. I warned her not to go deep, but….”
Harvey sighed. “That was her choice, not yours.” Maru could be too damn responsible for her own good. And Alyssa seemed intent on making Maru a widow before she could go to college.
“We both wanted kids, Harvey.” Maru shook her head. “I feel like I pushed her into it.”
“Maru….” But he wasn’t getting through to her, he could tell. “Rest here tonight, by her side. And maybe tomorrow, we can convince her to do something less hazardous to her health to make the money you need.”
“She can’t fish.” There was the world’s slightest smile in there. Possibly it was because Maru knew Alyssa far too well. “She’s a good farmer, though.”
“Then that’s what we’ll encourage her to do.” Maybe convince Willie that Alyssa needed more fishing lessons, too. Fish might fight back, but they didn’t attack people fishing.
There was a bigger smile this time on Maru’s face. Harvey smiled back.