In the morning I moved to untie myself, but pain shot up my arm and throbbed for a minute before fading slowly. I winced in pain and clawed gorges down the bark with my nails.
"Mmmhmmmmhmmmhmmm!" I hummed brightly, smiling and staring with wide eyes ahead of me. Taking a minor note, I let myself breathe. "Well that hurt." I stated. I turned to look at the hag's scratch. Pus oozed out with brownish yellow stuff and the blank gunk and scab flakes. The sight made me sick.
The wound was swollen, an angry red color near the base and a rainbow of sick colors across the top. A thin, almost oily liquid dripped down my arm while the ooze just kept on slowly rising out of the scratches.
"What disease could I have gotten?!" I exclaim, ripping a slice of bark from the tree and scraping the stuff off my arm despite the mass amount of pain. Only more and more came, and dizziness started to pound at my head. "Bacterial infection probably. Fatal, considering my luck." I slowly untie myself and climb down the tree, trying to find my way to a river.
All things illuminated by sunlight glowed and glared, making them look like blurry images. The light made my head pound harder as I stumbled towards the sound of rushing water.
Reaching a river, I grabbed a rock with a sharpish edge and stuck my entire arm in the water, relishing the numbing coldness. In the sunlight, most of the snow had melted into the river. Reluctantly, I placed the rock at the start of the swelling and raked it down my limb, squirting oily glop into the clean water.
I gagged, and repeated.
Place, rake, gag, repeat.
Place, rake, gag, repeat.
Place, rake, gag, repeat.
After about ten more painful rounds, most of the swelling was gone and what was left was four bloody, still slightly infected-looking, gashes down my left arm.
"I need soapwart, burdock root or chervil leaves, dock leaves, goldenrod, dried oak leaves or marigold, and horsetail. Lots of horsetail." I said to myself, listing the natural remedies I could use to help.
"And wild garlic, stinging nettle, and yarrow, just in case." A female voice added. I turned sharply to see a girl in a tattered navy skirt and a torn blouse. A navy tie was wrapped around her head, holding back the mousy blonde curly bangs that threatened to spill over into her face and tying up the excess in the back.
"Hi." I greeted warily, gripping the rock tightly.
"I'm Amanda. Rouge Soul Fae. I came from Fae Academy, and I'm pretty good at fighting, if I do say so myself. So don't try and beat me with a measly rock." She replied.
"Rouge?" I asked. My mind was racing with a thousand other questions.
"Not a rebel. A rouge. I pickpocket and shoplift for survival, then move on to the next town. I don't go and kill people like the rebels. They hate our government and are doing something about it. But the new leader went overboard and said if they froze time they could create a tenth dimension in which they could roam free like the days when Zanterra was still like a bus ride around the dimensions, before it became the forbidden city. At first they rebelled to find Zanterra, you know, get back to the roots, but that new leader said the only way to find Zanterra was to become strong and freeze time and search. I'm the child of two lovers set on finding the forbidden city. My mom and dad are long dead now though. Killed by their own allies. I couldn't stand how loose everything was within the rebels, so I became a rouge. No one will take in a rebel child, they'll just interrogate me. I'm telling nothing to no one. I've got friends in the rebellion, and they're not dying." Amanda started off smooth, but spat her last words with obvious distaste.
"Mm." I responded. "I'm from the Academy too. I'm sort of against the rebels, and my best friends betrayed me."
"Good! You're just like me! My friends said they had changed, were rouges like me. But then they tried to drag me away back to the new leader for interrogation and execution." She chirped. I narrowed my eyes.
"How can I trust you? I can't even trust my own protectors, my own friends." I asked.
"You can't. That's the problem. But anyway, you're a rogue then? A runaway? Because I can help you with that nasty Hagslash. You knew the basic remedy, but there's a special cure that fights off the magic infection by the hag mercenaries. Hags and demons are often befriended by the new leader for needed deaths. She never sullies her own hands. Anyhow, the poison has already spread throughout your body. You'd get hagsrash, many burr-sized lumps anywhere. They're itchy and throbbingly painful at the same time. Um, your eyes would weaken, and you'd only see blurry stuff. An increasing pounding headache that never goes away. Loss of use of fingers, toes, lips, eyelids, and your nose. Liquid in your lungs. Insomnia. Intestinal issues. And that painful, icky swelling lump of oozing pain would grow again. That's if the cure is not used. It's natural too, and pain reducing medicine will only help the poison along. So, you want the cure?" Amanda asked. I nodded shamefully.
"Then let's go, before you fall asleep and the poison spreads."
***
"Here, throw these clumps of lavender, celadine, and water mint into the fire." Amanda ordered. I did as she said and the scent that came up cleared my sinuses and eased my headache. "The alderberries done yet?"
"It's bubbling." I stated.
"Then lower the fire and add the chamomile and chickweed." I brought the fire down and dropped the herbs into the waterskin. The steam rose up and collected at some leaves, the water dripping down into a roughly woven bucket with dock leaves in it to save the water. A purification method.
"Ground these herbs into a powder on those stones, then add some purified water. There should be enough to make a paste." Amanda said, handing me soapwort, burdock roots, some sort of bark, and marigold. "I couldn't find any horsetail. Too late in the year. I'm surprised I could even get chamomile and celadine. Anyway, I've got the drink that can just be watered down in the dock bucket. That's what's going to help a lot with your head pains and the intestinal problems.
As the confusing rememdies were used- the paste on my clawmarks, the potion and water some not-so-flavorful drinks, and the smoke just a refreshing breath of air- my head started to clear and I started to feel better.
"Now you are rouge. You can't ever go back to that wretched school. Lies and ties and ties and lies. That's all that awaits there. Countless lies from the people you love, those ugly ties, and the ties to your friends and family. Lies and Ties. A horrible mixture. And the place is way too preppy anyway." Amanda said. I smiled.
"Sure, okay. I'm a rouge, and I swear on my friend-... I swear on my life that I won't ever go back to that horrible school full of lies and ties." I replied. "And I won't ever betray my new friend."
YOU ARE READING
Too Late To Save Time
FantasyRebellion War Fighting Drama It's the end of the school year and Fallon "Fog" Clearse is ready for a stress-free summer. But what happens when someone she barely knows forces her into a life she never knew she'd have to live? Her own world is frozen...
