|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 Posted: Fri Aug 22, 2014 9:19 am
This Quest is for Ime who is striving to become a Healer.
 OOC
||. The quest prompt must be answered with a 2000 word reply (can be more).
||. Respond to the prompt given with an adventure of your own creation as long as it meets the requirements of the specific tasks.
||. NPCs may be used as long as they advance the quest in an interesting manner.
||. You cannot include any playable characters other than the quest taker.
||. Your responses will be graded with a Pass or Fail. Those who fail will have to continue with assistance from the staff.
||. Questions about quests can be asked here.
IC
The forest of Jahaur had suffered greatly at the hands of the Oban army, and one village in particular seems to have a long string of bad luck. Neued had been plagued by fires, a con artist trying to steal the towns funds, and a cursed tree bringing the dead back to life. Whilst all of these things had happened and for the most part resolved the curse tree had everyone perhaps on edge. A shifter had come and dealt with it and since then no dead had come back to visit their families. Everyone thought that things couldn't get worse, they could only get better from now on...right?
Wrong.
Several people who had helped with the destruction of the tree had fallen sick. This strange illness left them lethargic, experiencing insomnia and a high amount of paranoia which left them suffering from delusions. It seems to have struck the younger members of the clean up crew, those who had just learned how to use magic....how strange.
Quest Tasks
|| Ime has been recruited to try and help cure the five suffering individuals.
|| The tree is only a smoldering pile of ash now, but, a high sense of paranoia seems to have the citizens of the town all a fluster. With the people who had helped clean up one by one succumbing to this sickness it would only be time before mass panic arises.
|| The patients are suffering from lethargy, insomnia, and day/nightmares.
|| It will be Ime's job to figure out what is causing them to be sick.
|| The people who had fallen ill will insist that had been cursed by the tree, which is not the case.
||This illness is uncommon but curable. The cure can be found in every day plant life surrounding Jahaur.
|| It is up to Ime to use her resourcefulness to discover this cure, wither it be by a book, an elder or some other means.
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Fri Aug 22, 2014 11:36 am
Upon First Arrival.
They had arrived in the early evening; a small group of Shifters looking wholly distraught. It was not particularly surprising at the time, considering the knowledge that the Obans had done some serious damage to nearby villages, but something in the men and women caused a general feeling of unease amidst the citizens of the war camp. After speaking with another Shifter, a young warrior who wielded an enormous hammer, the bedraggled villagers had made their way into the healers' tent and simply stood in silence until they were greeted.
"Hello," the woman nearest the tent flap said, "Is there something we can do for you?" It was generally assumed that the Shifter would need some medical assistance back in their own town, and certainly someone could provide the products needed to help.
The story that followed was rather unexpected and had even the most spiritual listeners gaping in disbelief. There had been a tree, they said, that had cursed the village. The dead had been rising from the grave to deal out a spate of terror, shock and grief. Ime wondered what in the world they could possibly be coming to the camp for, but then the leader doubled back on his own story. The tree had been taken care of, it seemed. The members of the village had burned the damnable plant to the ground and ripped up whatever roots they could manage. Undead clanmates no longer plagued the village, but there was a new problem. Members of the team assigned to raze the curse from the very earth were falling ill one by one. The victims could not sleep for days at a time and complained of terrible visions when they were finally able to rest. Some even saw grisly images while waking and wandered around like the dead that had preceded them. The village was growing paranoid that these young men and women were telling the truth and that the tree had not been eliminated. Many were beginning to believe that the great tree had cursed again those who attacked it and had not been truly destroyed in the blaze, but also refused to go anywhere near the smoldering pile for risk of being infected themselves.
"We hoped to bring a healer back to the village in order to try and put rest to this situation." The leader of the small team looked exhausted, at his wit's end.
Someone at the back of the tent piped up. "Surely you have heard that the Obans plan to attack again? We cannot risk having too few bodies when the wounded begin to pour in."
The leader of the Shifters' head began to sink.
"Take my daughter." It was Namora, speaking frankly.
Ime had startled, turning to her mother. What did she mean, take her? She was no healer! Mama did not even make eye contact as she continued:
"She's worked with me since she was a small child. She has a great knowledge of natural healing, and I'm certain that she would be a boon to your cause."
Ime opened her mouth to say something, but found herself at a loss for words. Once her mother had demanded the girl keep within her sight at all times, and now she was being sent away?! It was odd, how the tables had turned. To her further surprise, the Shifter man nodded. "We will take whomsoever will come with us."
Within the hour, Ime was packed up and walking with the Shifters back toward their village, more than a little nervous about the whole situation. She didn't believe in curses, but the idea of some magical force doing ill deeds barely made her want to travel to the accursed village! The small traveling party was able to set her mind at ease somewhat with casual conversation and some more details on the events that had occurred. She would not be lone in this, she was reassured, but it was important to have a neutral party involved in trying to cure the people of Neued. An end needed to come to all of this lest the entire village erupt in hysteria.
Upon arriving at their destination, Ime was brought to her temporary lodgings and allowed to unpack, which brought some much-needed calm to her nerves. She was no healer, not yet, and had never been a part of such an important investigation, but there was a first time for everything. One day Mama had set her first bone and cast her first spell, and so perhaps this was only the beginning of something greater. Once settled in, she requested to speak to the village's healers about the symptoms of the disease. She discovered that the able men and women there had already attempted to treat the symptoms of the disease (or curse, as some insisted) and even went to far as to show her a young man that had been sedated into sleeping. He would wake no better than he had fallen asleep, they assured her. The nightmares refused to yield.
Now it was the next morning, and Ime sat at the bedside of a delirious victim. His mother had been hesitant to allow a stranger to enter at first, but then relented to the fact that she wanted to help as much as she could to cure her daughter. The young woman's gaze rarely stayed in one place for long, often darting across the room or out the window even as sleepy and lidded as they were. It felt odd, to be poised and taking notes on the illness of someone older and stronger than you, but she supposed she had better get used to it if she was going to assist in the coming battle.
"What makes you so sure it's the tree that's done this to you?" she asked gently.
"Because it did," the young woman responded, wrapping her arms around herself.
Well, yes, but, uh..." Maybe it was time for a new tactic. "What... did it do to... let you know that it had cursed you?"
For a moment, the victim simply smacked her lips and looked across the room. Ime was afraid she may have to go visit another handful of the ill if this poor woman was as delirious as the others. She had been more recently stricken, her mother said, and so hadn't lost her sanity entirely. Now the young hybrid was brought to wonder just how fast-acting this disease was.
"It, uh... it just..." her eyes turned to Ime, who raised her eyebrows and nodded in an attempt to get her subject to continue. "How do I know you're not one of them?"
Oh boy. "One of what?"
"An evil spirit, maybe. Or an enemy? I certainly haven't ever met anyone who looked like you.
"Ah, well... I'd believe it. I'm of mixed race, and I assure you that I am far from evil."
"How should I know?"
"Well. Tervin wouldn't have brought me back here if I was going to be a danger, would he?" Perhaps the reputation of the man who had come for her would be enough to reassure the woman, "He hand-picked me from the healers at the camp." Sure, it was a partial lie, but rationality didn't seem like a big theme in this village any more. The young woman sighed and seemed to consider it all a moment, and then nodded.
"I see it sometimes," she said. "I see it, and the creatures crawling out of it. I see the fire. I haven't... I haven't done anything wrong to anyone else. Nobody else would have a reason to do this, unless... do you think the Obans are poisoning us?" Her eyes grew wide, and Ime immediately started shaking her head.
"I really don't think they could sneak in here without being noticed."
"Maybe they are, though. You never know! Maybe it's spies. You know, people from the outside working for the Obans, trying to take us out before the next battle. You never know..."
"Is there anything else you can think of that has been unusual in the recent past? Have you done anything outside of your normal routine?"
"Well, the dead started rising from the grave."
Oh boy. That might have been the wrong question to ask. "Yes, I mean aside from that. Have you eaten unusual fruit or meat? Come across an unusual animal? Anything like that."
"You never know..." the young woman said, and she had begun focusing directly on Ime's face as if something were currently growing out of it.
"Well, if you could think of any th--"
"You never know..."
This... wasn't helping.
1454 words
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Fri Aug 22, 2014 11:37 am
The Cursed Tree Ash Pile.
Investigation was a many-step process, and Ime saw herself having one benefit above the other healers who were working on the mysterious illness. This was that she was not afraid of the curse of this supposedly magical tree and was willing to go search the ashes herself. Of course, there was always the chance that she was wrong and they were right and one bad step would lead to her slowly losing her mind in the jungles of Jauhar. Ime preferred to not consider that option. Mama had always been one for rationality and logic, and had tried to imbue her daughter with the same beliefs. Unfortunately, Ime had a bit of an imagination.
It had taken some time to discover the location of the ex-tree. Everyone she'd asked had first reminded her that there was no way they were going there, and then offered some basic directions as to which way to head. Ime thanked each Shifter in turn and eventually made her way out of the village proper and into the woods surrounding it. For a while she wondered if she shouldn't head back and glean some better instructions, but too many questions would certainly cause more panic than was necessary. As it was, she continued on her path and eventually caught the unmistakeable scent of burning. She found what she thought must be the remains of the tree in a scorched clearing empty of all habitation.
From a short distance, Ime decided that she had better take at least minor precautions. The tree may well not be cursed but did seem to be the origin of the strange illness in Neued. Seeing as to how most the the victims were around her age it only made sense to protect herself. The girl removed her sash and tied it around the lower half of her face to try and filter the smoke that she would be inhaling.
What had once been the cursed tree was now a pile of ash and coal. There was still a bare warmth emanating from it, and she approached with caution. If the dead had been rising in town, who knew what this smoldering mound still held? Ime broke a branch from a nearby tree, apologized to it, and then began to prod the ash with the stick. There didn't seem to be anything unusual about the matter itself. It was consistent with the days-old ash of any burned tree. What she was poking at now was likely just leaves and high branches, though, so she began to shift over great piles of the stuff. Bits of ash fluttered up into the air around her and she briefly put her hand over her mouth. The young people who had burned this tree had gotten ill somehow, and the only thing it was now missing was the fire. Steeling herself, she continued.
Amidst the pile, she suddenly began to find some strange charred substance amongst the bits of wood and grey matter. It came in great twisted clumps that yielded under the sharp edge of the branch to reveal some soft white substance. It could well be the fruit the tree had bore, she thought. Had anyone taken a bite? Did it even matter? She stood to peer around the clearing and saw only one other plant that bore fruit, and it was a low-growing bush with small berries too tiny to be what she was finding amidst the rubble. Ime returned to the pile to sift through it a while longer, becoming less cautious as she discovered more and more of the interesting clumps deeper toward the ground. She would need more information about this plant when it had been alive. Something about it was making young people ill and Ime felt that it was her duty to figure out what.
638 words
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Fri Aug 22, 2014 11:38 am
Seeking Information.
As Ime returned to the village, she had considered her options. Those who were affected by the illness likely had the most vivid memories of the cursed tree but were much more difficult to pry information from and not necessarily the most trustworthy. On the other hand, some of the others may have seen the tree during its stint as a re-animator and, while likely much less struck by the plant than the wandering corpses, probably wouldn't go on a tangent about curses and evil spirits. If only she knew where to find the Shifter that had freed the town from the grips of the tree's tangled roots! Nobody seemed to know his name or where he had come from, though, and the victims of the disease were only getting worse. There was no way to knowing what would come for those already sickened, and certainly the town would lose its collective mind if things continued as they were. While she had no deadline, Ime knew that everything had to be complete as soon as possible.
Her first stop was to one of the younger healers whom she had met the first day, but she found him sitting on a bench and sweating profusely.
"Halid?" she asked, coming up to him with her head lowered. His eyes rolled up to her and he attempted a smile. "Are you alright?"
"Fine, fine," the young man responded, but began to wring his hands together.
"Can I ask you about the tree?"
"The tree?" he asked, his voice beyond hopeful, "Do you see it too?"
Oh, no. Oh, no, no. Well, it was no good to jump to conclusions. Maybe he had just stayed up late in an attempt to find a cure.
"Well, no. I was wondering if you could remember what it looked like."
Halid hung his head and hunched his shoulders. "It was great and twisted, as broad as three warriors with great limbs that reached out toward the village. It was terrible."
"Ah, yes, but I was wondering, did it have anything growing on it or around it? Anything unusual? Did it have fruit? Was anyone throwing anything into the fire?"
"What does it matter? We're all going to die anyway."
Ime sobered, frowning as her brow furrowed. It seemed to have captured Halid as well. They really didn't have much time.
"Try to think for me," Ime said, touching the man's knee, "Please, it may be important. Try to remember. Was there anything strange about this tree? Did it bear any fruit?"
Suddenly, Halid stood and wavered on his feet. "I have to go."
"Halid."
"I'm sorry, I just... I have to go." The Shifter stumbled away, leaving Ime sitting alone on the bench. Alright, well, she shouldn't be discouraged. Someone somewhere would be able to tell her about the tree, once she found someone willing to chat. This whole place seemed on edge. She worried that one wrong move might send everything over the deep end and into
"Hi."
Ime turned toward the tiny voice and saw a young Shifter half-hiding behind a nearby tree. He couldn't be more than two or three, but he looked rather interested in the blue-skinned woman sitting in his neighborhood. She smiled and waved.
"Hello," she said. The child's eyes turned toward the leaf-littered ground and then darted back up toward the young woman. He looked like he may run away. "It's okay," she assured him, "You can come out."
The boy came out from behind the tree, his hands clasped behind his back. He didn't come to sit. The poor thing looked terribly shy.
"You... you talked to the guy 'cos you wanted to know the tree had stuff on it, 'cause it did." He rocked on his tiny feet, eyes constantly moving between the ground and Ime.
"Did it?" Ime asked, trying not to sound too excited or too dismissive. "What kind of stuff?"
"It was like, um. It was like... it was cryin'."
"Oh?"
"Yeah, like it had big boo-boos and it was cryin'."
"Oh no! It had boo-boos? What did they look like?"
The little boy's nose wrinkled. "They were gross."
"Yeah?"
"They were big! and green! Like boogers!" The toddler clapped his hands over his mouth in shock as if he'd said a terrible word, and then couldn't help but giggle. Ime sucked her lips together and repressed a laugh.
"Were they big and hard, or were they goopy?" She learned forward a bit toward the boy, grinning. He laughed delightedly and kept his hands to his chin.
"They were hard! No, they were squishy! My big sister--" the child took a pause to breathe, "She went there even though we wasn't supposed to and she hit it with a stick and smushed it in the ground! It was gross! But don't tell Papa because he'd be real mad."
"Oh, don't worry," Ime said with a soft nod, "I won't tell Papa. Do you think I could talk to your sister, though?"
The boy shook his head and frowned.
"No? Why not?"
"She's real sick," the boy replied, digging a toe into the ground. Such a simple phrase made Ime's heart leap in her chest. It was a bit of a long-shot, but it was somewhere to start. Trees did not generally "curse" people into illness, but there were certain plants that caused bizarre effects in people. She remembered the first time Mama had showed her the numbing herb. It had almost been frightening; she had never encountered anything like it before. She had also seen a younger prentice belly-sick with poison after eating a mushroom he'd found in the jungle. There was nothing she knew yet that caused delirium and insomnia, nightmares and hallucinations... but it could exist, couldn't it? It was at least somewhere to start.
"Well, I think you just helped me a whole lot," Ime said, still offering a reassuring smile. The child may have helped more than he could ever fathom, actually. "Can I ask where you live? I'm trying to make the sick people better here, and maybe I could help your sister." Plus she would want to question the boy if she came across anything similar to his vague description.
"Really?!" the boy chirped, clapping his hands together and grinning broadly. When Ime nodded, he pointed deeper into the village. "I live in there! I'll tell Sissy you can help her, okay? Okay, I gotta go, bye!"
A child had helped her more than a grown man, and Ime couldn't help but smile. The world needed chatty children, whether they liked it or not! Ime watched the boy go and stood, brushing off the back of her skirt and heading toward to Tervin's home. He seemed to be a respected member of this community, and certainly he could lead her to a book or two.
1168 words
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Fri Aug 22, 2014 11:39 am
Losing It?
She was pretty sure that someone had followed her as she traveled back home with a stack of books in-hand. It was still midday, but she could feel the sting of eyes against the back of her neck. Still, when she turned, Ime always found the nearest person turned away or else nobody there at all. When she reached the temporary hut, she put a chair up against the door should anyone try to get in. The young woman sat on the floor instead, opening the first volume. She was searching for any mention of a tree with dangerous sap or a parasite that appeared in clumps on the bark of certain plants. There was already a disadvantage because she could not see the tree or any defining characteristics it had had before the townsfolk burned it to the ground. She couldn't blame them, of course. A tree that brought the dead back to life was assuredly a tree that needed to be removed rather violently. Fire was more thorough than any team of lumberjacks.
Time crept by without notice. Mealtimes slipped through the cracks without so much as a pause. Ime didn't really want to leave the hut, she'd decided. She didn't know the people of this town. Slowly the girl began to lean back against the wall, to lay down and prop her chin on her fist. There were many more pages to go before she could call it quits.
A lot of the information contained in the pages of the books was familiar. Ime recognized certain plants and herbs used in medicine, a few of which seemed to have been relatively unknown at the time. The numbing herb made an appearance, as well as what she assumed the healers had been using to try and bring rest to the tortured souls of the tree's victims.
... the tree's victims? It was hardly the tree's fault that it had poisoned people. She doubted that it had meant to... or had it? If it had been giving mobility back to the dead and buried, maybe it had been more conscious than the average plant. Maybe it had meant to destroy this village. Maybe it was laughing now... Was that someone standing outside her window? She was sure that she had seen someone just then, barely peering in...
Oh boy, where was all this coming from? Ime shook her head to clear it and took a swig of water from the pitcher in her hut before continuing to take notes. Nobody in this village had moved to harm her so far, and why would they now?
After what must have been several hours, Ime was forced to light a candle to read by. Her eyes and limbs were heavy, begging her to sleep, but sleep just wouldn't come. She had laid for what seemed like an eternity on her mat with her eyes closed, but not matter how exhausted she felt, actual sleep never came, save one terrifying moment when she thought something had entered to drag her deep into the forests. There were no claw marks on her ankles, so it must have been a dream, but still she was disturbed. The sun began to rise again and the girl relegated herself to going back over the field guide, eyelids droopy and sore.
A poisonous tree, short and thin with very few branches; definitely not it. An herb that cured insomnia; helpful but not useful. A glowing bug that could be poisonous in large doses; definitely would squish under a foot, but nobody had claimed to have eaten handfuls of beetles. Ah, but maybe it was all futile. She only had a few books left, and this seemed the most thorough so far. It seemed to be the ecological journal of a man who had lived decades before. The ink was sometimes smudged or worn away, but the author had been extremely thorough in his categorization of the plants and animals that existed in the forests of Jahuar. Most descriptions even came with sketches and little notes beneath. It seemed as if the troupe had been interested in consuming small pieces of items to test their viability, which seemed like a rather useful but needlessly dangerous way to go about things.
Striped oak, no. Shrieking tree toad, no. Flickerbugs, small furry rodents, broad-leafed bushes... all of the drawings were beginning to meld together. Notes made casually in a small hand were passed over. She was so tired, so hungry. When she finished this volume she would take a break, she decided, and maybe try to catch a nap. Maybe she just wasn't made out for field work yet. Her training certainly hadn't gone on very long beforeWEEPING FUNGUS.
Ime blinked. Wait, what was that? She had passed by it unthinkingly, but the name stood out in her head in all capital letters. Weeping fungus? She flipped back a page and scanned it for the same words. Her hopes were not high after so long of searching, but she had to be thorough, didn't she?
The sketch of said fungus was rather unsavory. It looked like large clumps of some living organism, growing in organic shapes from the trunk of a vague and half-formed surface. It was covered in flecks of something that pooled on the surface and dripped down. What an odd-looking thing! Something that looked like that shouldn't need a "DANGER" label, but there it was, scrawled hastily across the page.
parasitic fungus- toxic spores- avoid!!
Oh my. That sounded quiet terrible, but it wasn't the problem they were having. Nobody was growing fungus, as far as she knew! It was interesting how well it matched the description the little boy had given her, though, no matter how juvenile. Oh well. She at least knew now to avoid strange dripping fungus. She certainly hadn't seen any before. As she moved to turn the page, though, she caught the faint remainder of a long line branching from the sketch to the margins of the journal. Something was written sideways there in tiny script.
found 5/13- knife passed many hands, Ehua struck ill- fungus?? numbness, hallucinations, insomnia, insanity?? Ehua taken to village 5/24
Wait, wait. Who was "Ehua"? Ime left her thumb in the page to mark its location and then flipped back to the crew manifest at the front of the book.
Ehua- healer 4/16 - 5/24
So a plant that was known to be toxic and happened to match the description of a crying booger had crippled the only magic-user on the team? Another was dated later in the month, presumably to replace their fallen comrade. The symptoms were frighteningly close to those the villagers were experiencing. Ime's heart was pierced with cold dread. She certainly hoped this wasn't it, but she definitely had to find out.
The young hybrid flew back through past volumes. Weeping fungus was not mentioned in four of five, but made a brief appearance in another. Apparently it had been found growing on a series of stored magical artifacts several years back and had been toxic enough to note as felling several young healers for several days. Careful removal had meant the plant never returned. So it was rare, then? And it somehow had the capability to attach to things other than trees.
Wait, magical artifacts? Staffs and enchanted crystals? Things perhaps not often used but certainly imbued with some amount of magic, and attacking healers and trainees. What about a cursed tree? Would a curse be enough to draw this fungus from the depths of the earth?
Newly refreshed, Ime began to flip through the remaining books. With some lead to search for, her work was much faster. She found one more mention of the plant in a more recent volume, noted as growing from the walls of an elder's home. He had not been struck ill himself, but it was described as "parasitic" and "clinging." The elder had asked that no blessings be cast upon his home, and had moved away from it and broke the bridge connecting his old hut to the trees and homes around it. Only a general description of location was given, but Ime's chest was heaving. The damned stuff was listed as "green to yellow-green with seeping clear fluid" and "a wet, spongy yellow interior".
Ime clutched that book and the handwritten field guide to her chest and kicked the chair out of the way of the door. As much as her mind told her to simply stay home and sleep, she suddenly feared for Neued. If the tree had been covered in weeping fungus and burned, who was to say the spores hadn't climbed the hot air and breathed into the lungs of the removal team? It certainly seemed to affect magically-imbued objects and new magic-users. It fit. It fit almost too well. She flew first to the home of Tervin, one of the few people she felt she could trust. He was first concerned for her ruffled appearance, but she held open the book to him and recognition crossed his face. The two of them had gone then to a member of the removal team who had not (yet) been struck, an older man who wielded a blue crystal staff. He had nodded gravely.
They had their cause, and it was no curse.
Only the Sage was brave enough now to lead Ime back to the site. He did not understand just why they were returning, but Ime had been unable to explain herself. She was once startled as a large green creature like the one who had appeared to take her away could be seen watching them from high in the branches of a tree. The sage had squinted up and confirmed the girl's worst fears: there was no creature.
She was infected.
Ime set her lips and began to study the pages surrounding the entry on weeping fungus. Where a toxic plant grew, so too did its antidote. It was a rule of nature Ime had learned after tumbling into a patch of poison ivy, much to her mother's horror. So there she stood in the clearing, a sash tied around her face and her other wrapped tightly around the Sage's nose and mouth. She crouched and bent and plucked at leaves, comparing each little growth to the other plants that appeared to have been discovered with or shortly after the weeping fungus. Time and time again there were no matches, until a small white bud and a tall leafy green stood out. Each grass was different, each leaf had its own markers; Ime was more than grateful for her mother's lessons. She collected great bushels of the stuff, yanking it up by the roots with great yells and grunts. The clearing was stripped of her target plants, and much to the Sage's confusion, Ime took a big bite from one and chewed the petals of the other as they carried the bundles back toward the village. One could never be too safe.
1839 words
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Fri Aug 22, 2014 11:42 am
Found It!
Rather than bring her conclusions to the village at large, Ime chose to carry the great bundles of plant matter back to her hut and begin working in private. She couldn't be sure which plant might serve to be the antidote if either would at all, but she knew that she had to try. This disease had at least incapacitated the mysterious Ehua in the past and might even be fatal if left untreated. What was a trainee to do but try?
She washed the plants first in her private drinking water and then set to cutting them apart and smashing them together in a large bowl. It was tedious work that wore on her wrists and shoulders, but it had to be done. Soon she found herself nodding off while she split stems and decided to risk the nightmares for an hour of sleep. Her nap was somewhat fitful, but lacked the encroaching demons of days past. When she awoke she was made to wonder if it had been her decision to chomp raw foliage or some sort of exhaustion-fueled placebo. Either way it had heightened her expectations as she rose and made her way to the home of the young ill woman she had met previously, but not before smearing a bit of the pulpy green substance she'd created on the inside of her cheek.
Ime spoke first to the woman's father who seemed less than thrilled to invite her inside but eventually relented and accepted that any attempt at help was better than nothing, even if it sloshed around in a chipped bowl. When Ime entered the home, though, she saw a familiar face she had not been expecting. On the floor sat the little boy who had helped her the day previous, and a broad grin spread across his face when he noticed her.
"Are you here to help Sissy?" he asked, getting to his feet. Ime could only smile back and nod.
"I'm going to try."
The boy clapped happily and then turned, making a beeline for the room in which his sister languished.
"Sissy! Sissy! The lady's here to help you!"
Ime wasn't entirely sure if she was old enough to be considered a "lady," but even teenagers had seemed unfathomably old to her when she was his age. She was much more subdued in her trek to the side room and found the young woman lying limp in bed. Her eyes barely moved to follow Ime as she sat at the girl's bedside with her brother, who peered over the edge of her bed as if something amazing was going to happen.
"I've found something that may help," she said, scooping a bit of green paste from the bowl with her finger. The young woman's father leaned in the doorway, carefully observing. "It's just mashed plant and a few stray petals. I can't be positive just yet, but I believe it may help you with your illness. Your, uh... your curse."
The young woman seemed to consider her options for a moment. Should she accept the supposed help of a stranger or continue on in exhaustion and delirium? It didn't take long for her to come to a conclusion and she leaned forward with an open mouth. Ime smiled and gave her a fair amount of the pulp which made her cringe and smack her lips. There was a moment of silence. The little boy scuttled over to the bowl in Ime's lap and peered inside.
"That looks like boogers too," he said softly, and looked up at Ime with a cheeky smile. Ime just gave him a look and smiled back.
"So," the father said finally, "If this works, how long will it take?"
"I can't say for sure, Sir," Ime replied with confidence she didnt quite feel yet, "Not too long, perhaps a couple of hours?"
The father nodded, paused, and then spoke up again with a heavy sigh: "What was this? All of this?"
"I have cause to believe that it was a fungus growing from the tree. When the tree was burned, the spores were released into the air and the lungs of those at the site." She chose to not mention the fact that she believed she had been feeling the effects of the infection herself.
For the next couple of hours, Ime sat and talked with the woman's parents while she played on the floor with the little boy and his safari of wooden animals. She had never been particularly intimidated by conversation with her elders, but it felt odd to receive a certain respect back. She was only a prentice, after all. Eventually the young woman could be heard snoring in the other room. She suddenly appeared in the doorway halfway through a game of Look, This Spitorog is Flying looking rather alert for her previous condition.
"That stuff you gave me," she said, "Do you have any more?"
Ime's heart soared as she left the family with a bit of the plant-goop and left to retrieve the remaining specimens from her hut. A group of twitching healers were brought by Tervin to meet with her while she explained her theory. It was better than nothing, they all agreed, and set to hunting for more of the necessary foliage while others mashed the medicinal paste down in whatever vessels they could find. For the next four days, Ime remained in the village to assist in the treatment of those who had fallen ill. She and the healers experimented with different dosages and ratios and eventually came to find the weak rising to their feet and coming back to their senses.
The gratitude that followed was odd to the young hybrid. She received hugs and great thanks, sometimes even gifts of trinkets or food. The healers, her superiors, congratulated her on her good work. Would she be remembered for this? Was she truly worthy of this reaction? All Ime could do was smile and accept the villager's action graciously. When it was time to go home, Tervin accompanied her back to the camp and spoke with Namora about her daughter's success. Before leaving, he took Ime's hands in his and gave them a squeeze. Ime blushed vibrantly and couldn't help but giggle.
"Thank you for your help," he said, his eyes meeting hers with a sort of deep sincerity, "We will never forget what you've done for us."
Ime offered a polite bow in return, her cheeks a deep violet. "It was my honor, Sir. I wish your village continued peace and prosperity."
The girl was on cloud nine, humming and dancing her way back inside the tent where her proud mother met her with open arms.
1127 words - total words: 6226
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon Sep 01, 2014 8:53 am
Class Quest Result
Pass!
Ime has passed and received the rank of Healer!
Ime has also been awarded a Shop Item because of the creativity in names of creatures/plants used while Ime was researching for the cure. It was a lot of detail that wasn't strictly needed or required but made the quest that much richer and believable.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
