When Keo woke next he realized he had a different need than the night before and his left leg and right wrist were in splints. The swamp water had worked its way through his system and wanted to come out, explosively. The rest of the trainees used trench latrines constructed on the first day for that purpose. With his knee in a splint he found it difficult just getting up, and unable to squat. Without the healer’s ready and skillful assistance it would have been an uncomfortable as well as painful morning.
Crystal returned to the wagon just as the healer helped Keo back onto the bed of the wagon.
"Did I miss something?" Crystal asked.
"No. Nothing that you wouldn’t want to miss," Keo said. "I am feeling much better now, except that every muscle and every joint in my body feels like a blacksmith beat on them.”