The Familiars of the Lost Witch (ONC 2024)

22. Asha

They couldn't do anything except wait, so Cybele and Astoria decided to go back and help the others with carrying their belongings. Asha and Kyrell waited before Dhana's hut anxiously. Dhana had called for Merletta to help her with the cat, but still didn't let anyone else inside.

"Do you think he'll make it?", croaked Kyrell with eyes full of worry. Neither of them knew the other cat, but they still hoped the best for him. They didn't want to see someone die.

"I don't know." She couldn't act all confident and give Kyrell false hope. The cat was in critical condition and before Dhana didn't say anything else, she didn't want to get her own hopes too high. "But I hope."

They waited what felt like an eternity. Cybele, Jeko and the other witches came back eventually, asking about the cat's condition, but they couldn't give them an answer either. Dhana and Merletta hadn't been out since.

After some time, Merletta finally came out. "He's awake, you can come in", she let them know. As the others wanted to go inside, she stopped them: "No, only Asha. He asked for her specifically and is still to weak for more visitors."

Leaving everyone behind she followed Merletta inside. The room was dark with only a few candles giving a soft light. On the end of the bed sat Dhana and at second glance she saw an orange spot next to her, the cat.

Asha hopped carefully on the other end of the bed, as far away from the other cat as possible. "How are you?", she asked in a low voice.

"Better. I owe you all my life." His voice sounded hoarse and exhausted, but he could speak, that was a good sign. He was lying on his stomach, his head on his paws, still too weak to lift it up. "Thank you."

She purred loudly. He would survive, Dhana would take care of him. Now she was sure that he would live.

Outside she shared the news with the others and they all seemed very glad about it. Dhana had asked Merletta to watch the cat for her, he had fallen asleep right after talking to her.

"The cat will make it, he was very lucky, not only because you took him here so fast. His illness isn't a common or very known one, I have maybe seen it two times in my lifetime and that was very long ago. Fortunately Merletta found the illness and it's cure in one of my books that we were looking through while doing research. So we found out very early how to treat him correctly and I also had the right herbs here", the old witch explained further. 

They all listened attentively. "So, is it the mysterious illness pleaging the village and we have a cure now?", Astoria wanted to know.

"It's very likely, but we still need to find out if the illness of the cat is a individual case or not. But if it's the one, then yes, we do have a cure and can treat other animals with it", Dhana explained. 

They send out Kyrell to find out if other animals had the same symptoms. He should stay away from them to not get infected too, but with his sharp eyes he should be able to identify sick animals even from further away.

As he returned he reported that all kinds of animals seemed to be infected, horses, sheep, dogs and more. Some to fair worse than others and you could see how it burdened him, seeing all those other animals suffer.

Now they just needed to convince the villagers that they could treat their livestock and pets and hopefully they would leave them in peace afterwards.

Asha just hoped that the villagers let them treat their animals. It would be cruel to let them die when there was already a cure. And she hoped that the orange cat would recover fully too. 

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wordcount:
chapter: 664 words
in total: 24.191 words

Another small step, but we are getting closer to the solution and the end of this story!