The Five [EDITING]

Chapter Nine: Help

VENNY

   I shifted restlessly against the tree I'd sat against for nine days and counting, waiting for someone who wasn't an Outsider to go by.
   After Hark and I had escaped the Outsiders, Harks wound had very slowly become infected until I was forced to cut a good chunk of the muscle off. By that time, he'd been so delirious that I don't even think he felt it. I'd watched anxiously for day, cleaning the wound with spring water that flowed under ice, until his fever miraculously broke in the night. I hadn't wanted to move him, but Hark refused to stay put any longer and so I'd helped him het up on the horse and we continued.
   But neither of us knew how to survive off the land. Stick us by the ocean and we'd feed a large family into fatness, but on land we were useless and quickly growing weaker and more desperate. When we'd both become violently sick after eating some bad berries, we'd decided it was time to kill the horse. With no way to build a fire, we'd eaten the meat raw for two days. When it began to smell on the third day, we threw it out but nearly cried to do it.
   We'd found the road by then and headed north, walking just out of sight of it, looking for a town or village.
   We came across only the ruins of one where homes and crops were burnt to the ground --- natural fires, not dragonfire, easily seen as different by the skeletons of homes that once were. We risked searching the wreckage for food but found only a broken jar of canned pears that had rotted before freezing onto the ground.
   As the days went by, we steadily grew weaker, but Hark was much worse and suddenly befell pain in his belly and collapsed. Now, there was a fever as well and I feared that if I did see anyone, they would more than likely be unable to help us.
   That didn't stop the surge of desperate joy to flow through me when I heard hoofbeats and saw no black cloak. I ran out into the road in front of the horse.
   "Woah!" Came a voice and I was surprised that it was female.
   "Help us!" I begged, grabbing the reigns so she couldn't get away. "Please! My friend is ill!"
   The woman, no, the girl, stared down at me with a frown then glanced around in the trees as if searching for a trap.
   "Please." I begged. "I don't know how to help him. He's dying and he's all I have left. Please."
   She pursed her lips, looking around once more, then sighed and slid off the horse. "Alright." She said, but took her bow in hand and shifted her quiver on the belt over her fur to keep it easily accessible. I could care less if she trusted me or not, I just needed help.
   "This way." I said. "Hurry." I don't know why, but I felt rushed to get her there as if these precious seconds would save Harks life though I had been waiting for days. Perhaps they would.
   The girls stayed wary and careful through the trees, but when she saw Hark laying wrapped in leaves which I'd used in a pathetic attempt to keep him warm, she instantly dropped the reigns and rushed to his side, feeling his forehead.
   "Is there any infected wound?"
   "I don't think so. I didn't see any. He said his belly hurt and collapsed. The fever is new."
   She brushed all the leaves away and lifted his shirt to bare his belly which, though he'd eaten nothing for day, was bloated and swollen. She removed her mitts and pressed down with her fingertips. She was missing one, I noticed absently, a pinky.
   "Has he eaten any red berries with white on the inside? They would have tasted bitter."
   "No. We ate some berries that made us sick a couple weeks ago, but they were blue with red inside."
   She shook her head. "That would not cause this. Has he eaten any spoiled meat?"
   I shook my own head. "We threw it out when it started to smell."
   She paused. "Was it raw?" When I nodded she asked, "What kind?"
   "Horse, ma'am. We were hungry and couldn't make a fire to cook it." When she said nothing, only frowned and lowered the shirt, I had to ask. "You know what it is, ma'am? How to make him better?"
   "I cannot say for sure as I've never seen it firsthand myself, but I do believe it's some sort of worm."
   "Worm, ma'am?"
   She nodded. "In the meat sometimes, if it's not cooked, the worms can lay eggs and grow in the belly."
   I swallowed nervously. "I ate some too."
   She gave a small smile. "Not to worry, the body usually kills the worms itself, but I'm assuming your friend had some sort of an illness or infection recently?
   "Infection on his arm."
   "If you ever need to do that again, eat the heart. So long as you cut off anything that doesn't look like muscle, you should be fine. And a heart can keep your body going for days if it's forced to. Tongue is good too, though I've never tried it raw." As she spoke, she was searching Hark's arms and she came across the scar and winced. "He'll never have full use of his arm again, I do not believe. Not as well as before anyway, but it kept him alive, it appears as if this were an awful infection." She covered him again and sighed, meeting my eyes. "As for helping him... I cannot make him healthy, but I know a way to make him feel better. There is a herb, poison really, but if given a drop or two every day in a tea is best, it will keep the worms from laying eggs."
   "That will make him better?"
   "It... no." She said, her eyes sad. I was shocked at how silver they were. "It will only make him feel better for a while, slow the process. It may take a few weeks, months if he's lucky but... I'm sorry."
   I felt my heart clenching. "But it will make him feel better? Make his pain go away? And the fever?"
   "The pain, yes. The fever is from cold, I think." She looked me over then and touched my forehead with a frown. "Looks as if you have one as well. Here." She went to a pine tree and cut away the outer bark, then scraped her knife across the inner bark. She returned with a stringy mess of it. "Eat this for now. It does not taste good and it will not do much actual good for your body, but it will fill your belly some to last until I get you some meat. I'm all out I'm afraid."
   "You're going to help us?"
   "Of course." She said as if I had insulted her by asking.
   I watched as she set up a bedroll and moved Hark onto it, then covered him with fur, then she started a fire in only a few minutes and laid out leather for me to lay down, giving me her fur coat and handing me a bladder of water to wash the harsh taste of bark away. She took her bag from the horse and unattached her crossbow.
   "Won't you be needin' the coat?" I asked her.
   "I'll be fine for now, this is not that cold to me." She checked my forehead again with a frown. "Stay warm, I'll be back soon with food and herbs for you and your friend."
   "Hark." I said. "His name is Hark."
   "For Hark then." She said with a small smile. "And yours?"
   "Venny."
   "It's nice to meet you, Venny." She stood and headed toward the trees.
   "Wait!" I called. "What's your name?"
   After a moment, she answered. "Alie." She said. I didn't hear her leave.
   Shivering, I curled closer to the fire and, safe for the first time in weeks, I fell into a wonderfully deep sleep, pine still clutched in my hand and sticking between my teeth.

ALIE

   I would have like to have gotten bigger game, but didn't want to stray too long from the boys, especially not when night was falling and they were so close to the road. I'd need to move them back a ways further so I could build the fire higher and hot enough the embers would burn long after we all fell asleep.
   I'd snared three rabbits and two quail that had been about the small pond on the other side of the road. I'd stew the rabbit so I could feed the broth to Hank if he wouldn't wake, and set about smoking the meat. I'd never had smoked quail before and wondered if it would be as tasty as I hoped.
   "Sir?"
   I gasped and dropped the game, instantly swinging the crossbow around to face the man. A Ranger. Three of them. I'd been so lost in though that I hadn't heard them come down the road.
   The Ranger raised both arms. "I ain't here to hurt ya, girl."
   "To annoy me then?" I questioned, irritated that he'd caught me off guard.
   He pursed his lips. "We're lookin' for a thief. This man may have sold some jewelry."
   I lowered my crossbow. "You're on a Hunt then." I understood. This happened rarely but when it did, Rangers even risked running through the cities in search. It was a time when kingsmen did not go for those Rangers but looked for the ones at the tail end of the Hunt, knowing this person would be unprotected. "I'm listening."
   "There's a rose ring and four necklaces. A mermaid scale, a dragons claw and glass eye and one beaded with silverwood bark." He told me and I nodded. "If you finds anything out about the one sellin' that jewelry, send some information to a Ranger, or by note to Leafinton in east Averton."
   He nodded once and motioned to the men to get moving. "Enjoy the eve, girl."
   "Enjoy your Hunt." I said and he winked with a smirk.
   I waited until the Rangers were out of sight, then jumped in the air and let out a squeal. Averton! Someone in Averton was sending a message. It had to be another with a necklace or the ring. Someone else who'd seen the vision. I felt such a great relief that I now knew for sure I was no longer alone that I very nearly forgot to pick up my game.
   The boys first, I reminded myself. I'd teach the boys how to survive out here. Once they knew the basics and had enough to set them on their way while I went to Leafinton, Averton. A bit of a mouthful to say but I wanted to repeat it over and over again.
   I finally had a destination.
   Leafinton, Averton!
   When I reached the boys, they were sound asleep so I let them be while I started a fire a little ways further in. I skinned and gutted the rabbits as well, but I'd pluck the birds after I moved the boys to this larger, warmer fire.
   I carried Hark, bedroll and all, feeling worry over the fact that the fur and bedroll was heavier than the boy himself. Then I went back for Venny and woke him, having to shake him awake.
   "Hm? What?"
   "You need to get up." I told him. "I need to move the leather you're on and get some food into you."
   He stretched. "M'kay." He said and went right back to sleep, arms still above his head from his stretch. I chuckled and shook my head in amusement. I'd carry him too then, he wasn't that much bigger than Hark.
   But when I slipped my arm under his neck, I felt a sharp jab on my arm and hissed. Felling around curiously with my hand, I found that it was a blue scale on a chain, reflecting green even in the firelight.
   A mermaids scale.
   After staring in surprised at what I held in my hands, I leaned down and grinned at the sleeping boy and whispered to him in excitement. "We're going to Leafinton, Averton."

***

Bit of a short chapter compared to my usual, but I felt that I needed to end this part right there, right at the cusp of knowing the five would finally join together. I'm so excited! Hope you are, too!
Now, I will be posting the PART and then the next chapter on the same day (TOMORROW!) and I know when I post two chapters at once, people tend to miss the first chapter notification so I'm warning you now, THERE WILL BE TWO.
Hope you enjoy! Happy reading everyone!