The Sisters bring one of the mutants to the hospital to remove the medallions from Roland and the patient next to him, since the Sisters are unable to touch the medallions themselves. She sneaks a dose of a powerful herb to Roland, which counteracts the weakening potions, and he slowly regains his strength until they are ready to escape. One of the Sisters, Sister Jenna, reveals to Roland that she had involuntarily joined the others and longs to leave them. Roland's wounds are eventually healed, but he is powerless to escape from his malevolent benefactors, who keep him weakened with potions. He notices another "patient" next to him who bears a matching medallion, and Roland comes to learn that the dead man whose medallion he removed is the brother of his fellow patient. The medallion Roland took from the dead body in the village proves to be a sort of holy protection from them. Roland slowly discovers the Sisters are actually vampires, who bring stray survivors back to their "hospital" only to feed on them once they've recovered. Calling themselves The Little Sisters, they use tiny bug-like creatures they call "doctors" to heal his severe injuries. He later awakens in a hospital marquee run by a strange group of nuns. Roland takes it and is immediately attacked and rendered unconscious by a group of slow mutants.
Roland scares it off, and while looking over the corpse, finds a rectangular medallion. Roland and his horse arrive at a deserted village, Eluria, where they encounter a feral dog bearing a cross-shaped spot in its fur attempting to eat a dead body. He plans to eventually buy another horse, or perhaps a mule, which ties in with the events at the beginning of The Dark Tower: The Gunslinger.
At the time of telling he is accompanied by a horse and is already following Walter o'Dim, the Man in Black. The tale features Roland of Gilead, whose quest for the Dark Tower is in its infancy its events precede those of the body of the Dark Tower cycle, but occur after Roland's experiences in Mejis, as chronicled in The Dark Tower IV: Wizard and Glass. Both editions contain Whelan's additional new illustrations for The Gunslinger. In 2009, it was published together with the revised edition of The Dark Tower: The Gunslinger by Grant in a limited edition of 4,000 numbered copies of the Artist Edition signed by illustrator Michael Whelan and 1,250 numbered copies of the Deluxe Edition signed by Whelan and Stephen King. In 2002, it was included in King's collection Everything's Eventual. It was originally published in 1998 in the anthology Legends. The Little Sisters of Eluria is a fantasy novella by American writer Stephen King.
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