Hero's Journey

Chapter 51

Delia sighs and uncurls her other fist. Her nails left purple crescent moons in her palm. She hadn't realized how much ch she'd been digging in. "Thank you, Kagon."

The hero offers her a sideways grin, but still continues to keeps his hand on her shoulder.

Everyone waits with bated breath as Thil cautiously extract each seed from the first berry and sets them in a separate bowl before cutting open another berry and doing the same. After three berries have been cut open and every seed been taken out, Thil takes a pestil and mashes the juice out of the three berries. Then, he filters the juice into a vial and shakes the pink liquid around a bit as to make sure there are no berry skins or burst seed carcasses in the juice.

"Aunt Heswyn." Thil nods to the librarian. "Please gently open the young man's mouth."

Heswyn complies, carefully doing as asked. Once done, Thil unceremoniously dumps the True Love's Kiss juice down Kip's throat and forces him to swallow.

The minutes eek by like centuries as they all await some sort of reaction.

"How long will it take?" Kagon asks at last.

"There's no way to know, we just have to wait."  Thil says, eyes trained on the unconscious boy.  "The amount I gave him should be enough to quicken up his heart beat and slowed body systems."

Kip's fingers suddenly twitch.  Everyone's eyes zoom in on them as they twitch once more.

"This could be a good or bad sign."  Thil says.  "If I accidentally crushed one of the seeds then he could be reacting to the poison."

Delia's heart thumps irregularly.  "Don't say that."

Thil shrugs his shoulders.  "I'm just being realistic, Miss Delia."

Kagon squeezes Delia's shoulder as Kip's body jumps as if shocked by lightning.  A small noise escapes her throat as his body flinches again before completely stilling.

May the Fates not cut his thread just yet.  Delia prays.  He's been through so much, more than I'll ever know.

Kip's eyes flutter open, revealing his bright amber eyes.

"Kip?"  Delia asks tentatively, stepping closer to the lab table.

Kip makes a high pitched whine in the back of his throat before doubling over in violent coughs.  The writer places a hand on his back and rubs circles, unsure of what else to do.

Letting out one last hacking cough, Kip straightens up and looks around only to fall back on to the lab table, once again unconscious.

"That seems like a good sign."  Thil says.  "I'll check his heart beat and breathing tempo to see if they've quickened, in the meantime I'd like all of you to give him some space, otherwise I'm afraid all of your nervous tension will strangle the poor boy."

"But-"

"No buts, Miss Delia.  You're the worse offender."

A frown creases Delia's lips as she, Heswyn, and Kagon are shoved out of the laboratory.

"Let's head downstairs.  I'll make you the flower-root tea I was taught to make in Paridia."  Heswyn says.

Once everyone has a cup of tea, the three sit in silence.  Not sure what to say and unwilling to utter a word.  Naturally, that all ends with Kagon's big mouth.

"Heswyn told me that she learned about Paridia's culture? What did you do when you were there?"

He must be really desperate to make some conversation in order to ask what I learned there.

"Yetska, the head of the Amazon warriors and leader of the Paridians, taught me some hunting and fighting techniques."

Kagon arches an eyebrow and is about to say something --most likely something offensive-- when Thil suddenly appears at the top of the stairs.

"Kip's awake and it seems that his heart rate and breathing have steadied and gone back to normal."

Kagon and Delia immediately abandon Heswyn to take care of their steaming cups of flower-root tea in order to get their long awaited answers from the secretive and elusive Kipdale.