Undead Fate

Chapter Four

THE HEALER

Healing the boy was an exaggeration. I couldn't possibly cure a sick person in an instant. But I didn't bother mentioning it to Medea, the Chieftain and later on I learned was also the shaman of the village, whatever that meant. I was just glad I was rid of the ropes that were burning my wrists.

I stood up and stepped towards the boy with keen caution, wary of the glaring men behind him. I bent my knees to level myself with the lad's height and raised my hand to feel his forehead. He flinched but didn't move away. His mother was wailing for her child from behind as if I might swallow him whole in a blink of an eye.

I paused and regarded the boy fondly, "Hi, what's your name?" I smiled at him into what I hoped was reassuring.

He looked at me with heavy lidded eyes for a long time as if sizing me up. At last, he decided I was harmless enough, he responded weakly, "Kili."

I beamed at him. "Hi, Kili. I'm Isabella. I'm gonna check you up, okay?" He nodded and I did my best to diagnose him despite the lack of proper instruments.

A moment of silence, apart from my voice and a few coughs here and there, passed when I finally finished. I noted the anorexia and irritability, reddened and extremely sore throat, high-grade fever, and visible papules erupting on his skin. I knew what Kili's sickness was and it sure wasn't a curse from any Greek God whatsoever.

"It's measles, eruptive stage." I declared and turned to Medea who only responded with a blank stare. "Give me at least a week. I can heal him."

The mother's cries intensified and murmurs buzzed within the crowd. Medea pursed her lips, "why not do it now?"

"Because it takes a lot of time for the treatment to work."

The Chieftain's dark eyes strained on mine as if daring me to say I was lying. I returned the look with resolution and confidence.

After a few seconds, Medea nodded but her brows were furrowed and her lips were tight, as though already regretting what she had yet to utter. "You are free to use the wards and facilities. But you have only three sunrises to cure the cursed child." Medea turned to her heels and walked away.

I gaped at her retreating back. Everyone seemed to be dumbfounded by the leader's pronouncement, why would she leave the child on this "spawn of Hades's" deathly grip?

Kili's mother was the first one to recover. She ran to her son's direction only to be blocked by the village guards. "I have to get my son! You can't abandon him with her!" she cried, but there was nothing she could do to challenge the chieftain's words. "My poor son!"

I, together with Kili, was escorted to a decrepit hut that was what Medea had called a ward. It was made of tree trunks, mud, and bristles of pine trees. A gap in the wall that was a poor excuse of a window and a door that was seconds away from falling apart were the only signs of ventilation in the room. The only things that this room had that resembled a ward were a bed, a table, and a chair. Beyond that, the hut was more like a compost pit with all the junk consuming all the spaces of the place.

I was beyond horrified of the room's state. But first I had to secure Kili's wellbeing.

"Is it true?" the boy asked as I guided him to sit on the bed.

I raised an inquiring eyebrow to the kid, so he reluctantly continued, "Am I sent here with you as the sacrifice to a-appease the Gods?"

I sighed. "No, I believe not because you are going to recover. I am going to make sure of it." I was already planning my course of action. I had to work on sanitation first. Then I'd pore over treatment later on.

Kili's eyes were huge and shining as he gazed up at me. I beamed down at him. "Fancy a bath?"

I had never done this much of manual labor in my life, I could tell now that it wasn't my favorite thing to do. After I fetched water from the lake enough to fill a tub, I had worked on heating it. I'd only watched it on TV reality shows but now that I'd done it myself, I realized that it proved to be the most challenging thing, starting a fire using sticks.

Then I bathed and clothed the boy with clean clothes. All the while, the people had watched me from a distance. They didn't dare to approach me in fear of their Chieftain. Having so many eyes on me made me uncomfortable, but I never let it show on my face that I was unnerved by them.

I fed Kili warm broth and encouraged him to drink a lot of clean water. I managed his fever by putting a wet cloth on his forehead, gave him sponge bath often enough that after a few hours, I knew I had broken the fever down.

Meanwhile, I started doing a general cleaning inside the shack. It took me until sunset to finish cleaning. When the nighttime fell, I had never been more tired in my life.

A woman reluctantly approached me just when I was about to go back inside the shack. "T-the shaman is seeking your presence to her dwelling."

"Where is she?" I asked, knowing that this was inevitable.

"You can f-follow me," at once, the woman turned away and walked. I hastily followed her and I was brought to another decrepit hut. The woman didn't as much look at me when they arrived, she just left me alone. Well, not that I was complaining, I wouldn't want to hang out with her either.

I didn't know where to knock so I just carefully opened the door.

The chieftain was sitting behind a feeble-looking table made of tied twigs that had a dark red fabric draped over it. She was no longer wearing the same tacky garments she had earlier, now replaced with simple rags similar to the other common folks. She looked up when I stepped inside her place and regarded me with tired eyes.

"How is the boy?" Medea asked at once.

"He is a lot better now that I can say though it will still take a few days for him to fully recover. Three days won't really cut it."

Medea sighed. "The people of this village believe that you are the person sent to the lands by Hades. They believe you are a bad omen. They will not sit still for more than a day, which is why three sunrises the most that I can offer you safety is already."

"But I am not some evil creature. And like I said, I am not sent here by anyone...I just..." I trailed off, not knowing what to say.

"You have an unusual aura about you, Isabella. You are not like anyone from around here."

"It's because I am not from around here. I-I think from some unknown reasons, I teleported to Greece or something. Gosh, I sound lunatic. But I am from America."

"Greece? Murrica?" Medea parroted awkwardly.

"I just assumed that we are currently in Greece, well because of your clothes and stuff...you keep on mentioning the Greek Gods."

"Greek Gods, you say?"

"Yes!" For a hopeful moment, I thought Medea would say something normal for a change.

With a small shake of her head, she murmured with notable amusement, "You say a lot of odd things, Isabella. But I don't believe you are something vile. I can as far say that you must be Apollo's gift. You have a curious way of healing."

I could only gape, my mouth opening and closing but my voice failed me. I desperately wanted to wake up from this horrifying dream. I'd rather take up a whole day in ER without help than to be here.

Medea stood and retrieved familiar things from the corner of the room. She laid a stethoscope, a penlight, ballpoint pens, and sodden white handkerchief.

The shaman regarded me, "Can you tell me what these are? We got this from your clothes."

I named the stuff in the table, my mind in a whirlwind. These are the stuff I had in my pocket back in the hospital. Fear was slowly invading my chest but I pushed it down. I'd wake up. This was just a bad dream. I knew I'd wake up, hopefully soon.