Day 496

The doctors were gathering again, how had Autumn come by so quickly?
In lieu of the harsh winter ailments they would meet by the capital city's oldest fountain.
It had been made before the city's first building and nobody quite knew why.

Some reckoned the fountain's water had curative properties so doctors met there to stock up on it.
The doctors themselves never said why they met there, not even to their families.
It was always in Autumn though, just before September's end.

People would gather around the alley entrances to the fountain square, hoping to glimpse the event.
It's rumoured to be good luck if they look at you through their red glasses.
They never looked outwards though.

Their gazes were always focussed on the fountain's waters and the papers they carried there.
Thick binders full of diagrams of some kind of creature, possibly human but probably not.
After all, how many humans had eight stomachs and poison glands?

At least, that's what people had said they've seen from the balconies of the surrounding homes that
have sprung up around the fountain over the years that act as both protective and observative.
Some of the higher ups in the city still don't trust these doctors.

It ends at dusk like it has done for hundreds of years.
They throw their papers into the fountain's waters and they dissolve near instantly.
Sugar paper - clever of them really.

After that they nod to each other, those beaked masks bobbing never fail to draw a few laughs from
the gathering crowd, be they fear, nerves or genuine amusement.
Usually a mixture of all three as the doctors sweep past the civilians in their billowing coats.

Once the gathering is over everything goes back to normal and the doctors resume their work.
Winter brings out the worst in sicknesses and no-one bar them is safe.
We don't know why they are never sick but some primal part of our minds screams to not question it.