In the fantasy story I am currently working on I have a human MC (a prince) who has been taken captive by (not very nice) elves. The elf king is quite a shit and decides he's going to send the MC back to his family piece by piece. He starts by cutting off the baby finger of the MC. (I plan to have other elves there to hold the other fingers out of the way while this happens.)
The MC receives minimal treatment (i.e. it gets wrapped only enough so he doesn't drip blood on the floor while being taken back to his room).
What I want is for the wound to not bleed horrendously, but it doesn't exactly heal either. It stays wrapped in the bandage which is not changed. Within a day or so, the MC will be rescued (before the elf king can cut his hand off) and will travel with the person who frees him. I'd like for the MC to develop an infection that progressively becomes worse so that within about two weeks, he's going to need some treatment or he'll die. Also, the MC will be ingesting a couple of berries that will make him violently ill. The companion gave them to him to ensure he was not taken to have his hand cut off that day. He was given the antidote to the berries once they're free of the city, but I'd imagine he'd still be rather shaky and not feeling too well)
I have a couple of questions with regards to this. Firstly, is this plausible? The person travelling with the MC has little to no healing ability or first aid (he's much better at killing people). He knows to clean the wound and bandage it with clean material, but that's about it. Secondly, the MC and his companion are travelling by horseback. Ideally I would like to have the MC stay on his horse for as long as possible. The MC is a very experienced rider, although he's never ridden that particular horse before the escape. I'm assuming the infection would make him feverish and possibly delirious and/or hallucinating eventually and the hand would likely be very painful/throbbing. And thirdly, once the MC can no longer sit his horse, how will the companion transport him to the closest manor house (within a day to day and a half of the MC not being able to ride unaided). The companion doesn't know the manor house is there, he's just trying to get help from somewhere and that is the first place he saw. They've been avoiding people as they travel because the MC is ashamed and embarrassed that he wasn't able to prevent the amputation - he's certain his brother would have escaped uninjured.
Eventually the MC will need magical healing to cleanse the infection and save the hand - but that's not an issue. I'm good with the magic bits, it's just the realistic injury and travel details that I'm not so good with. (My only experience with horses is a week of riding in high school, and then a trail ride on my honeymoon (where the rotten horse damn near killed my knee trying to get through the gate but stay as far away from the camel in the next field as possible))
Given that it's fantasy and I can pretty much do what I want with the story, I still would like to have the injury and travel be as realistic as possible.
I did spend the last three days reading every horse and medical thread in Research that I thought might have any information I could use - but nothing quite answered my questions.
Any and all help/advice would be greatly appreciated.
The MC receives minimal treatment (i.e. it gets wrapped only enough so he doesn't drip blood on the floor while being taken back to his room).
What I want is for the wound to not bleed horrendously, but it doesn't exactly heal either. It stays wrapped in the bandage which is not changed. Within a day or so, the MC will be rescued (before the elf king can cut his hand off) and will travel with the person who frees him. I'd like for the MC to develop an infection that progressively becomes worse so that within about two weeks, he's going to need some treatment or he'll die. Also, the MC will be ingesting a couple of berries that will make him violently ill. The companion gave them to him to ensure he was not taken to have his hand cut off that day. He was given the antidote to the berries once they're free of the city, but I'd imagine he'd still be rather shaky and not feeling too well)
I have a couple of questions with regards to this. Firstly, is this plausible? The person travelling with the MC has little to no healing ability or first aid (he's much better at killing people). He knows to clean the wound and bandage it with clean material, but that's about it. Secondly, the MC and his companion are travelling by horseback. Ideally I would like to have the MC stay on his horse for as long as possible. The MC is a very experienced rider, although he's never ridden that particular horse before the escape. I'm assuming the infection would make him feverish and possibly delirious and/or hallucinating eventually and the hand would likely be very painful/throbbing. And thirdly, once the MC can no longer sit his horse, how will the companion transport him to the closest manor house (within a day to day and a half of the MC not being able to ride unaided). The companion doesn't know the manor house is there, he's just trying to get help from somewhere and that is the first place he saw. They've been avoiding people as they travel because the MC is ashamed and embarrassed that he wasn't able to prevent the amputation - he's certain his brother would have escaped uninjured.
Eventually the MC will need magical healing to cleanse the infection and save the hand - but that's not an issue. I'm good with the magic bits, it's just the realistic injury and travel details that I'm not so good with. (My only experience with horses is a week of riding in high school, and then a trail ride on my honeymoon (where the rotten horse damn near killed my knee trying to get through the gate but stay as far away from the camel in the next field as possible))
Given that it's fantasy and I can pretty much do what I want with the story, I still would like to have the injury and travel be as realistic as possible.
I did spend the last three days reading every horse and medical thread in Research that I thought might have any information I could use - but nothing quite answered my questions.
Any and all help/advice would be greatly appreciated.