Someone to trust (Books of the beginning fanfic)

Chapter 21-Black death

I looked at the person next to me. Emma, who apparently had crawled into bed next to me while I was asleep, was clinging on to me and mumbled things in her sleep. I carefully took Emma's arms from my shoulders so I could slide out of them. Half of the blanket was wrapped around her feet while her torso was in the cold. She was shivering until I tucked her in properly. She gathered some of the wool in a ball and hugged it tightly as if I was still laying there. I tiptoed between the filled beds, trying not to wake anyone. Now that the shelter was open tons of homeless, chased and hurt orphictants of all different magic races. 

Finally reaching the back of the room, I softly shook Margery to wake her up. "Margery? Margery, please wake up. I need your help," I whispered.

She yawned and rubbed her eyes. "Kate, what is it, dear?"

"I'm scared. There's something wrong with him."

"Who? The wolf?" I just nodded. "I'm coming, dear." 

She got up and walked alongside me back to the herb room where Rafe was laying. He was still unconscious, but now his soft twitching had become very wild. 

"Oh, goodness," Margery gasped and quickly walked over. She placed one hand on his heart and one on his head. A white light danced through the veins in her arms and flowed into Rafe. His twitching stopped but his breathing was still heavy and a bit uneven. She looked me right in the eyes and with a very serious tone asked, "How did you know something was wrong?" 

I really didn't want to tell her about my dreams with Rafe. "I... I just had a very bad feeling." Her expression softened and she gave me a compassioned look. 

"Maybe some magic traces of the atlas still have an effect on you." She softly caressed my hair, just like Rafe did just a few minutes ago. Then she said, "It's very late you have to sleep. I'll do what I can for now. And tomorrow I'll do a proper check up to see what the problem is, okay?" I just nodded as a response while still looking over at the black wolf on the table. "Don't worry, dear. I'll make sure he's in stable condition before I go to bed."

Again I nodded, mumbled a 'thank you' and 'good night' before leaving the room. I had already put my hand on the knob of the door that let back to the room where my sister was sleeping but couldn't bring myself to actually open it. 'I wouldn't be able to sleep when I'm so worried about Rafe anyway.'

I dragged myself down the stairs while the memory of a droes leading down the stairs with Rourke, or rather Rafe disguised as Rourke, standing on the bottom of them popped back into my head. I reached the end of the stairs and looked at the window next to me. It had a different frame than the others in the room. I still clearly remember how Rafe kicked the droes out of it and how we both ran back up to escape. And now the same boy was laying upstairs in the body of a wolf almost dying and there is nothing I can do to save him. 

I finally reached the kitchen and started melting the last bit of chocolate. I turned on the little, old television and watched a documentary about the communication methods of different mammals as I prepared the warm drink. When I finished the warm drink with some whipped cream I pulled out a chair and watched the black and white screen, listening to the narrating voice talking about wolves.

"Their howls warn any other packs that the territory they are standing on is theirs. Also, they are able to-"

The screen showing the image of two wolf pups changed to a young woman in a studio who took the word.

"We apologize for interrupting our viewers' programme but we just got hit by breaking news."

After a loud sound and a logo flashing over the screen she continued.

"Good early morning. My name is Sara Evans. And we have some shocking news. Twelve people have been diagnosed with the infamous 'black death', or so it was called in the medieval times where the plague killed a big portion of the European population. The sickness has shown up throughout our history a couple of times before. But the sickness was easily defeated by our modern medicines. However, the patient's illness didn't shy away after the shot. And just an hour later all victims were dead. We send our journalist, Henk Berens, to the hospital where the twelve people died. He will ask the doctor that personally treated them some questions live on television."

It cut to two men standing in front of a tall building.

"Thank you, Sara. I am here with doctor David Williams. Nice of you to take the time."

"No problem at all."

"So what exactly makes this different than the other instances that the plague popped up?"

"Well, this situation is different because usually there are three types of the plague. The first is the bubonic plague, which is the most common one, gives you boils. Then there is the septicemic plague which is most famous for turning the skin black. And lastly, there is the pneumonic plague, it affects the lungs and is the most dangerous and easily spread. But with these people it was different. All of them were infected by all three of these forms. This alone is astonishing but what was even more shocking is the fact that none of the diseases could be cured with the medicines that have worked for decenniums now."

"So what are you going to do about this situation?"

"We'll do some research and-" A loud rumble stopped the man from explaining any further. I wasn't sure whether the sound came from the television or from outside, or maybe both. 

"What was th-a_aa-a-_a-" The screen flickered and changed back to the studio.

"Henk? Henk, can you hear me?" She then smiled back at the camera clearly nervous. "Our apologies, we are experiencing some technical difficulties but don't worry we'll keep you up to date an-" The screen turned completely into static. 

"Well, guess that's enough TV for tonight." While trying to process what I had heard I got up from the chair and washed out the chocolate remains inside the mug. I sensed my eyelids slowly getting heavier as I enjoyed the warm water running over my hands. I finished washing the mug than left the kitchen. Still not ready to go back and lay in my own bed. I ented the little herb room with Rafe laying there. His breathing was normal again and didn't twitch at all. The candles that lighted the room earlier when Margery was working here weren't lit anymore. Herbs and crystals were spread over the desk. She had probably worked really hard to care for Rafe. I was happy that he looked so much better and as I felt the relief I also felt just how tired I really was. Rafe covered about half of the wooden table so I crawled on the other half and snuggled against him. I yawned. "Goodnight, Rafe." 

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