Blood Lily Company - Afghanistan, year 1

LXXXVI

After lunch, I went to the infirmary, for two reasons. First, to get news of the brothers.

I ran into Kris walking across the yard to the showers. He had his head in the T-shirt he was taking off, involuntarily showing everyone the perfection of his musculature and he did not see me. Erk was sleeping, all alone, and I saw, by glancing at the monitor, that his temperature had dropped. Good. Things were back to normal.

The second reason is that I had a slight fever and I was seeking treatment.

Nanny changed my bandages, gave me ibuprofen, and put me to bed, hooked up to a monitor, until my fever subsided. Before falling asleep, I saw that I was not the only one: JD, Quenotte and Tito were already asleep. Can't wait for Doc to allow Erk to Heal again. We're not used to normal healing anymore. We had taken a liking to being repaired as if by magic...

Well, I'm kidding a bit, but it's true that Erk's Gift is awfully useful, all the same...

Anyway, I kind of missed what happened in the afternoon, but Curly kindly told me.

At the mess, because it's really too hot outside, Curly told Lin and Katja (and Vlad) how they finished clearing the battlefield, picking up and erasing all traces of our passage. Then, inspired by the night attack, they rounded up the dead, covered their faces, crossed their hands over their bellies, and lined them up, facing Mecca. I felt proud of them.

Then they went down to the farm, approaching cautiously, thinking, correctly, that some guys had stayed behind. They were met with flying chunks of lead, so they fought back. Then they planted explosives in the buildings, and dumped petrol in the fields, but did not set them on fire: too dangerous, what with the summer drought and the wind. But the opium fields were ruined. And that was all that mattered.

They came back, encountering a patrol of Durrani who met the same fate as the one encountered ages ago while on their way to throw dye in the Pashtun's fountains.

I think Durrani must have lost nearly a hundred men that day. Too bad for him. Even if, by dint of living along Erk for almost a year now, I started to feel sorry for these poor sods. And their families, but I thought the Pashtun would not be crazy enough to eliminate a hundred families. Well, so I hoped. We have learned to be wary, with him, since Rafa's story.

Well.

So we slept for a good four hours, all four of us, then we were better so Nanny sent us out for a bit, to walk and as evening was falling - the days are short, at this latitude - it was less hot and it was actually quite pleasant.

Yaka, to whom the infirmary had been forbidden so that JD wouldn't get too hot, was delighted to see her human again and showed him with a tail wagging so much it looked like it was going to fly off any minute. And since she has been well educated, she came to say hello to us too. The other girls in the patrol, the two-legged ones, Baby Jane and Kitty, joined us with tea and cookies. All that was missing... Ah no, here they were...

Supported by Kris, Erk limped over to us and Nanny followed with the same mattress we had brought out for him after the night attack. The two men helped the giant sit on it, JD dropped down beside him, and Yaka decided that the small space between the two men was perfect for her.

To the right of Erk, we all let some space for Kris who, after putting his brother on the mattress, had gone to get us a bench.

And here we were, sitting, some on the mattress, some on the bench, sipping our tea while nibbling on Cook's cookies.

- You can tell that Ketchup is not there, noticed Quenotte. The cookies are melting too well, that means there is too much butter... well, more than Ketchup allows Cook.
- Yes, he must miss her... said Kris
- I wonder... started Erk. Say, guys, since I still can't Heal but I have two hands in working order, I thought maybe we could help him and Mustard? Do any of you know how to cook?
- I know how to follow instructions, I said.
- I'm not doing too badly, said Tito.
- Erik and I are pretty good with knives...
- Guys? Girls?
- I scorch water, said Baby Jane.