Challenge #04711-L327: Patience of the Doctor

They called me freak and fled. I realized, it was not prejudice, it was fear. They constantly had bloody noses, and not from being struck. I had no choice, I gently sedated them and checked them. It's good I did, they were not long for this world. Now, they will be able to grow up into an adult. -- Anon Guest

[AN: This prompt was rearranged from being freeform poetry for space reasons.]

Life should never have settled in this place, but the people here had their reasons. Wealth. It overrides sense for a great many. The rare gemstones drew them in, and then they stayed to gather more. Naturally, the economy was rigged so that once they came in, they couldn't afford to leave. The plants they knew how to farm could not grow in the arid soil. The potable water was miles underneath them. So they dug rare gemstones to pay for food, water, and shelter, and thus lived in misery.

And thus, also, lived not very long.

As a traveling physician, I noticed in a handful of days. The town had no old people. They didn't live far past their forties. Nosebleeds were common to the point of being an everyday ailment. People had nose slings to get through their day without getting blood on everything. Some of them fancied them up to make them decorative.

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