It's not a disease, It's a curse.

◈ Chapter-1 ◈ Fifteen Gold coins

It was medieval England. Where a rural but bustling area could be located and there lived a village. This village included a fair amount of inhabitants and in one of the more poorer areas in this village was the slums, which resides a mother and her child.

Their house, couldn't nearly even be called a house. It was a poorly built hut made of mud and hay with a window embedded with planks in a way that would look like an X. The windows brought sunlight, but  also brought coldness and wind.
The child that lived in this hut was sleeping soundly on a mat. Her dishevelled  amber honey hair—so disorganised it practically looked like she was fresh out of a war—was occupied with knots and tangles, cascading all over her shoulders.

The wind blowing through the "windows" caused shivers all around her body, causing her to slightly tremble. Once the sun rose, and once the birds began to chirp, did she gradually start to open her puffy eyes.
She coughed twice before weakly getting up, and once she did, she patted dust off of her oversized clothes with holes and patches of different materials on them, and began taking disordered strides towards the cloth veiled exit out of the hut.

"Mother?..." She called out with a raspy, hoarse voice.

Her mother was outside, feeling the clothes which were hanged on a wire with a frown on her face.

"Zoralyn," Her mother responded softly, whilst turning around to meet Zoralyn's eyes.
"My child, the weather has only but been bitter lately, thus, the clothes are still wet." She continued, whilst gesturing towards the hanging clothes.

"You ought to wear your same warm clothes just for today, to avoid your sickness from getting stirred up from wet garments."

"Oh...okay mother." a very crestfallen Zoralyn replied, whilst motioning her head slightly down to the ground.

Zoralyn's mother felt remorse looking at her, and so then said:
"Tell you what, i'll go to town now and work very very hard, and treat you to a satisfying meal, how's that?"

Hearing this, Zoralyn was over the moon! She looked back up with eyes shaped in crescents and  corners of her mouth curved up into a gleaming smile with conspicuous pearly whites, and nodded vigorously.

"Mother! Mother! let me come with you, okay??" Zoralyn said with enthusiasm.

"You want to help me with work? My dear child..." Her mother said whilst walking towards her, patting her head meticulously.
"You're still oh so young, it's still too dangerous, you ought to stay here and rest, okay?" she softly coaxed.

"Okay.." an acquiescent Zoralyn complied

◈ ◈ ◈

In town, Zoralyn's mother was standing on the side of the road, and placed a pot made of clay in front of her, and began to street-perform.

She noticed that not a single person placed at least one coin in the pot, everyone was walking by, not even giving her so much of a glance. She realised she needed to up her game, to entice a crowd and obtain money for her dear daughter. She looked around the street and her eyes fell on a wooden long pole that was abandoned on the side of the road and quickly went to grab it. She placed it standing tall, and placed her foot on the flat peak of the wooden pole to balance atop of it.

Her heart was beating rapidly and the words "For Zoralyn, for Zoralyn" was repeated inside her head. She bent her hanging leg up like a flamingo to try and maintain balance and her trembling finally stopped.

Bystanders found it quite peculiar, but also impressive. Copper coins were being tossed into the clay pot.

Zoralyn's mother revealed a gentle smile seeing this.