Welcome to my seemingly endless journey.
A trip that will take you to places I might have visited many moons ago.
It´s a tale that came back to me when I meditated on one of my past lives. A life I told you about in my unbelievable true story.
As promised in that story I will now share this story with you.
Chapter 36
After dinner, we thank the lady of the house and get up to take our place in the barn. When we step outside I hear Kosa´s voice: "Gentlemen can you stay a little longer?" He opens a bottle and pours four glasses. The drink smells like Reiku, but it isn't. This drink turns out to be extracted from grain while our Reiku is made from rice.
For both Numico and Rechmana, it is the first time they have consumed a drink that has been distilled. Both are very impressed after that first glass. We are due to leave early the next morning for Kosa's cousin, so I thank our host, and we leave for the stables.
I think it would be a good idea to take the first watch myself so that Numico and Retsj can use the potion's effects to sleep quickly. When both are asleep, I take out the map, and on the back my drawing of the flower and the pearl.
Can it exist?
Is it a runaway fantasy?
After all, no one but me has ever seen it. No one ever mentioned the existence of such a sign.
After several days Kosa visited his nephew's farm. He was happy with the choice he had made.
The place had grown under our hands. Abd we were therefore well rewarded in the evening, the food, which mainly came from our host's land, was always more than enough. Even to satisfy Rechmana's hunger.
Numico had found his calling and started taking care of the leg of a beast of burden, much to the delight of its owner, who is deeply attached to the animal. The three of us slept peacefully at night, as no danger had made itself known to us during several nights of watching.
However, this tranquility is disrupted with Kosa´s next visit, when he tells us that his wife fell seriously ill. This was just a few days before the farm would be completed.
I accompanied the old merchant to his mansion and there I see that her once-pink skin is gray now. When I enter the blood stains on the cloth next to her showed she has been coughing up blood. Her incoherent mumbling removes the need to put my hand on her forehead.
It´s evident that a high fever put her into a delirious state. Kosa is beside himself with grief. He tells me that he had the village medicine man come every day and every day he brought new powders. But they turned out to have no effect and the situation remained unchanged.
In silence I study the symptoms, since disease was not common in our tribe, we had built our knowledge of healing from the means we had already developed in the past and from healing those that were not of our tribe.
We had applied that knowledge of herbs to the sick of the villages we had contact with. Even though I was never trained as a healer I felt comfortable around the ill. My mother had been a great healer, all too often I helped her make balms and herbal drinks as a kid.
I pushed myself to remember, these people that have been so good to us deserve nothing but my best effort. I sit with her all night and try to remember as much as possible about healing.
Herbs to lower the fever seem the most important because by now the woman was overheating. Then we should settle her stomach. Chamomile and birch leaf would ensure that she could keep the food and fluids to strengthen.
To cleanse her lungs she should steam with baths of salt chamomile and menthol. In any case, this combination was a first step towards possible improvement.
The next morning I mustered up the courage to go to Kosa. The old man looked exhausted. Night after night he had taken care of his beloved wife. The fear that she would soon leave him showed on his face.
"Lord," I said. “The village I come from has a reasonable track record when it comes to medical knowledge. Unfortunately, I am a teacher and you would be better off with a herbal woman, but they have either fled or been killed. So I offer you my knowledge of herbs and diseases to help make your wife well."
"It is not that I can guarantee anything, but your medicine man has so far failed to improve the situation. You waited while practiced his craft. But now I fear that we need to thank him for his services. If we don't take action quickly there may be no chance of a cure“
Kosa looked at me, his gray tired eyes didn't know whether to cry or laugh; "Martio I am not a religious man, never have been. Last night I got down on my knees for the first time in my life. I have turned to the great, of whom so many speak. I asked them for help, feel free to say begged. Something tells me my pleas have been heard. Go ahead, do what you have to do.”
I nod and then I head out to find all the herbs, spices and means I can think of.
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