Nightshade Academy | Episode 15 | Not a Bunny (Audio)

I vow to guard the lives of those who are worthy of the empire two days pass before quacks entered the lecture hall with bandages on his face if you're going to show up show up on time Professor Ember paused her lecture to stare him down as he walked to his seat next to Vel you're either all in or all out understood yes Professor sorry Yoshi waited for quacks to glare at him but he never looked over his shoulder quacks is over it so please just leave him alone quacks was the one to blame but Yoshi wasn't in the mood to argue with Sana he nodded bitterly and continued taking notes on the lecture for the next two weeks Professor Ember introduced the many rules of Guardian protocol along with the history of their creation and the varying punishments for breaking them Pinto quizzed Yoshi and Bell over supper every day positive that their knowledge of protocol would be crucial For an upcoming filtration with Dr blimery they learned how to prepare Belladonna serum along with its two remedies anti-serum and emergency neutralizer during lunches velquiz diacion is belladonna detection skills when their juice didn't contain Belladonna Pinto allowed Val to secretly lace his glass with serum from a vial she'd stolen from the Infirmary Pinto never felt fully well but his tolerance strengthened every day in defense classes Commander Ross trained them in hand-to-hand combat with the inclusion of daggers every guardian's concealed secondary tool their lessons would always end with a few casual sparring matches and without the stress of having dirt in a pen Yoshi found them enjoyable at one point Commander Ross requested they removed the pins from their collars Yoshi expected another filtration but apparently they only removed them because limbo had complained about detaching and reattaching his pin every day and a few trainees had lost theirs they were an unnecessary hassle Yoshi entered the lab to find medical equipment on his table he identified simple items Dr blimery had familiarized them with over the previous two weeks beakers mortars puzzles and syringes dice examined a pair of gloves before slipping them on I guess the time has finally come hasn't it the time for what our next filtration obviously limbo slammed his hands onto his table oh shut it KO what is filtration a bad word now you know the drill if something's off routine we're being tested the door busted open and Dr blemery wheeled a cart into the room they're relaxed relax ation all right just a normal exercise to practice what we've been studying so far thank the Stars Dr blimery's cart contained 14 wooden boxes with two holes on each side he set a box in front of each trainee as he rolled his way to the front of the room Yoshi squinted at his box noticing fur through one of the holes we've covered plenty of medical material in the past five weeks it's about time you kids put that knowledge to use Dr blimery brought his car to a stop gloves on as Yoshi slipped his gloves on he concluded that the exercise would involve preparing a Belladonna remedy Dr blimery had demonstrated the process on several occasions but the trainees had never participated themselves yeah she wondered which of the two they would have to prepare the safest remedy was anti-serum which contained water ground mustard seeds and salt its purpose was to induce vomiting but it needed to be ingested almost immediately after Belladonna consumption to work effectively and the intoxicated person would have to be fully conscious to take it the second was neutralizer used as a last resort of the intoxicated person lost Consciousness consumed Belladonna too long beforehand or failed to recover after taking the anti-serum neutralizers were made of caliber beans another plant grown in the city Hospital's lab Dr blimery had explained how the cure for one plant's toxins were the toxins of another plant with opposite side effects in your box you'll find a rabbit that has been injected with Belladonna your goal is to create neutralizer out of Calabar beans to heal it I have a bowl of beans on my desk help yourself as needed remember to use gloves at all times unless you find rashes fun they had started to build a tolerance to Belladonna not caliber beans prepare the diluted mixture like we've reviewed in class and change the concentration but would change the dose for your rabbit like with humans the Calabar Bean solution should be injected into muscle but instead of the shoulder it'll be injected into the rabbit's front thigh be careful with the dose because it's possible to over correct in which case you will poison your rabbit with the cure your kids following yes doctor once you save your rabbit or fail to save your rabbits find another trainee to Shadow until the Bell Rings Dr blimery held his arms out well what are you waiting for those rabbits won't heal themselves Yoshi opened his wooden box a white rabbit was lying inside its stomach rising and falling in an uneven pattern drool dripped from its mouth as it trembled its feet twitching and hitting the sides of the Box poor thing he bit his lip and closed the box with determination unable to watch the rabbit any longer its life depended on his neutralizer but he couldn't remember the ratio for the number of caliber beans to liters of water on his way to Dr blemry's desk he glanced at Pinto who discreetly held up four fingers one to four thanks Pinto Yoshi grabbed a single caliber bean from the bowl and returned to his table it was about the size of his pinky and he struggled to believe that such a tiny black bean was just as deadly as Belladonna he tossed it into the mortar and smashed it repeatedly with the pestle until it was fully ground after verifying that his Beaker contained one liter of water he added a quarter of the ground bean and stirred until it was fully dissolved Yoshi grabbed a syringe and studied the numbers on its side a human dose contained two milliliters of neutralizer and he estimated that the rabbit weighed about 20 times less than him it's not like I have a scale one tenth of a milliliter it is he filled multiple syringes with his chosen dose in case he'd need to use more than one he was the first trainee to complete his preparation perhaps I wouldn't be a bad fit for medical yeah she gagged as he lifted the drooling rabbit out of the box when he was younger he would imagine catching one someday but he always imagined the moment in nature never in a lab he laid the rabbit out in front of him and held it down with one hand gripping the syringe with the other I'm sorry bunny it's going to hurt but it will save you he laid the rabbit out in front of him and held it down with one hand gripping the syringe in the other he stuck the needle into the rabbit's front thigh and injected the dose the rabbit squirmed under his hand before settling down but it was still trembling Yoshi gritted his teeth as he reached for another syringe he injected a second dose into the rabbit's other thigh and waited for the shaking to stop this time it intensified what did I do wrong he held the rabbit down watching in horror as it spasmed its stomach swelled under his gloves which made him push down even harder after struggling in his grip for several seconds the rabbit stopped moving Yoshi pulled his hands away he could hear his own heartbeat in his head as he waited for the rabbit to hop back up good as new but it lay unresponsive no no come on you're okay he pulled his gloves off and held his palm against the rabbit's warm unmoving fur the eyes of his fellow trainees burned through his skin as he lifted the limp rabbit onto its feet its legs collapsed Bonnie's dead yeah she slammed his fists against the table and lurched forward his eyes shut Ting me he could hear the clinking of pestles against marble and the stirring of spoons against glass as the other trainees resumed their work the noise was sinful he needed the quiet back so he could bask in it and think about what he'd done but everyone was ready to move on everyone's always ready to move on too quickly a hand warmed his shoulder followed by Dr blimmery's voice hey you made a good effort kid gave your rabbit too much neutralizer that's after the first injection few minutes for the effects to start kicking in you should wait between 10 to 30 minutes before injecting more the second dose overcorrected and the neutralizer overpowered serum dosage Choice was excellent and you did a wonderful job moving quickly those are important factors when lives are on the line I see he opened his eyes slowly lifted the rabbit's body and set it gently into its casket of a box for the remainder of class he shadowed dice watching him finish and inject his neutralizer they waited a few minutes and eventually the rabbit regained its strength wobbling back to its feet dice placed the rabbit into its box and closed the lid so it couldn't escape good job dice he tried to act cheerful but he could still feel the haunting ghostly fur against his palms tiashi's dismay he wasn't the only trainee who had performed the exercise poorly Sana mixed too much ground caliber Bean into his Beaker and the first injection alone was enough to send his rabbit into permanent Slumber I'm sorry limbo's first dose of neutralizer wasn't enough but before he could inject another one the rabbit stopped breathing wake up you stupid thing quarks wasted too much time jotting numbers on a page to ensure the accuracy of his dose his perfectionism killed his efficiency and the rabbit died before he could fill a syringe damn it my neutralizer is perfect and I didn't even get a chance to use it sawing his knife through a piece of chicken left Yoshi shuddering he took a bite set his utensils down and rolled himself to chew he had taken a life that day and here he was eating the result of another so what's your assessment she pointed to Yoshi's glass but he wasn't in the mood to participate in her guessing game his juice smelled too much like blood we all make mistakes Yoshi it's not easy to gauge how much neutralizer to use but you'll get better with practice it's dead huh killed the bunny Pinto he scowled at his friend's oblivious expression I had the power to save it but it died in my hands we're only five weeks into the program we're not expected to be prodigies don't get it nothing to do let's talk about of laughter filled the room Yoshi turned to see the other trainees staring at the glass wall in Amusement Sana was on his knees in the field digging through dirt and grass with a flat stone at his side was a stack of four wooden boxes poor Sana wow he's slipping isn't he Sana stared back at everyone through the glass tears streamed down his cheeks but he wiped them away and continued digging I can't allow myself to slip Yoshi raised his glass of beet juice and took a sip it tasted like blood too I need to pull myself together Belladonna book one Nightshade Academy written and narrated by Mel Tory Franca produced by Mal Tori Franca and Wilson Hensley edited and Mastered by Juan Pablo Diaz [Music] cover art by mad Studio score by G depita azri theme song composed and produced by James Sinclair stodd starring Jason Brown Anthony Andreas echeveri Philip kryonoff Melissa white Alex Bowie Patrick verzba Julia risto David John bores Connor Blanc Cody keel Ellie Chua Ben Autry Walter Mack [Music] [Music] ering the voices of Gwyneth Evans Jeff Rosenau Lucas Hensley Levi Titus Angie Eggers Willem dagar Allison Prophet Maria palmo Knight shield Academy is produced in association with Lost Island press if it's really true if it's really true