Donkeyskin - ON HOLD

Of Illness

*Of Illness*

After the storm, the mountains were a frozen wasteland, the air so cold it turned boiling water to snow in an instant. Elodie prayed that no one had been unlucky enough to be caught outside when the blizzard hit.

She rode the pony back to her cottage, trotting so as not to freeze, but not overheat, either. The wind buffeted her, a gust that could knock over a child with its force, and this was within the shelter of the trees. She dreaded feeling how strong those gusts would be on the open mountain face.

She rounded the bend in the road leading to her cottage and nearly fell from the saddle. Smoke curled from her chimney, and the clearing smelled of woodsmoke. The fire had been burning for awhile.

She hurried the pony into the barn, unwilling to risk her to the cold, untacked and brushed her down, and fed and watered her, then barred the barn doors.

Outside, she broke into a run, partly to warm up, and partly because there was someone in her cottage, someone who shouldn't be there. She wished she'd accepted Birch's offer of an escort, but she'd been stubborn, and now someone was in her house.

She stopped in front of the door, hesitating, her heartbeat sounding loudly in her ears. She reached up to unlatch the door, but paused, hand outstretched. Steeling herself, she knocked.

No answer.

Taking a deep breath, she pushed open the door and looked around. At first, nothing seemed out of the ordinary, except the raging fire in the hearth, but then the flames cast their light across the cottage, and Elodie noticed the little bundle of rags and flaming red hair curled at the fireside.

Elodie shut the door and crept up to the girl lying prone on her floor. She laid a hand on the girl's forehead, and jerked it back, heart pounding. The girl was practically burning up with fever. She must've been caught out in the storm.

Gently, she shook the girl's shoulders. She needed to get her up into the spare bed, but she wasn't strong enough to carry her unexpected guest herself.

Outside, her pony whinnied, and she jerked upright, startled. She heard a voice in the yard, someone calling her name.

Running outside, she had to shield her eyes from the glare of sun-on-snow. Juliette stood out front, a sled behind her, and a goat on the sled.

"Juliette!" Elodie hailed her in relief. "Juliette, I need your help. I've got a patient, who's very ill, and I need you to help me with her!" 

"Can I leave Daisy in your barn?" the girl asked, wary. "She's got a busted hip." This, with a nod in the goat's direction.

Elodie waved her off and ran back inside. "But hurry!" she shouted back at the girl. Juliette's affirmative shout drifted across the clearing, and Elodie knelt beside the strange girl. She pushed back the matted red curls, and took in a face, purpling with bruises, marred with cuts. 

Juliette burst into the cottage, and stopped dead when she saw the strange girl. "Oh, rocks," she whispered, pressing a hand to her mouth. "What happened?"

Elodie looked up, and then back at the red-haired girl. "I don't know. She was like this when I found her."

"Rocks," Juliette said again, and then stepped closer, kneeling beside Elodie. "What can I do to help?"

Elodie bit her lip, thinking. What did she need? This was worse than anything she'd ever treated before. But she was all this girl had. She had to do something. "Can you make up the extra bed upstairs? I'm going to put some water on to boil, and when you're done, we can move her upstairs."