Pertemis A Moon's Tale

Chapter XXXI: A New Tale (part ii)

The sound of bird chirping again woke me. By back felt a bit sore from sitting up the entire night to sleep. I wanted to move but felt something heavy on my shoulder. I looked to the left and saw Lunar's head resting there. She scooped close to by body, her arms hooked around mine and was shivering a little from the morning cold. The fire already went out sometimes around dawn. Judging by the direction of the light and its intensity, I guessed it was around midday.

Lunar groaned and I stiffened. She started mumbling something in her sleep and scooped over closer to me, continued on snoring. I chuckled. She clearly had no sense of shame at all. Yesterday we talked late into the night and she seemed quite fascinated about the journey of mine across the Earth. From the brazen desert of the East to the vast open seas of the West. I captured her attention with the first descriptions of the White Mountains thousands of miles in the South. She read my story like a kid, her eyes open wide and laughed and cried for she regretted no having travelled to all these places.

"You are so fortunate" I could remember her pouting under that veil. "How come someone that does good deeds all her life is not blessed with such opportunity. Yet, a bandit like you could. Life is so not fair"

That somewhat adorable side of her made me wanted to resist patting her head. It was the first time since Artemis that I have developed this kind of feeling. Now with her resting on my shoulder, the urge to touch her face came again. There was this thing about her unlike any other females I have met in the past three thousand years.

My hand was about to move and touch her cheek when Lunar suddenly opened her eyes. I had never retreated my hands for fast.

"Mamma?" She was still in her sleep.

The moment she saw my face, her eyes went wide open and immediately jumped away. She looked at the ground embarrassed.

"Haha" she tried to laugh it off, scratching her head. "Good morning to you...uh...it was cold last night...haha"

"Oh the spirits!" She suddenly screamed when her eyes landed on the ashes of yesterday fire. "No my herbs!" Her hand started digging through the coals and ashes, and had no consideration whether it was still hot or not. This girl really loved what she does to death.

Finally, the herb she left to roast under the fire last night emerged. She picked them up, blowing the ashes off and slumped to the ground with a big sigh.

"Fortunately the fire went went out early so it wasn't destroyed." She cladded the hard like stone herb together, muttering. "After being left under fire for a night, some of the toxins have been removed"

I tapped on her shoulder and gave her a thumb up, asking if they were alright to consume. Lunar shook her head and took a stick and wrote on the soil.

They still have a bit of toxins left in them. I have to stew them for several more hours to get grid of all the residual toxins.

I took another stick and started writing.

I didn't realise that being a doctor is not easy

The girl seemed to have taken that as a complement. I could tell she was smiling broadly under that veil. But then she started sighing.

"People day is doctors save people and treat diseases. But we actually compete for people. We compete with heaven, earth and all thing in the world. We compete with the king of hell and time..."

I somehow lost track of her because I was fascinated by the sound of the herbs cladding against each other. I tapped one on top of another, since they were hard like rock, I decided to create a few rhythm of music.