Alp didn't stop walking till the first golden rays of sunshine hit his back. He was now located deeper inside the Kolob kingdom, this time he was closer to the pegamos border. By the end of the night, he finally made it out of Solist, the patches of Ceilist now few and far between. Although there was no immediate threat in sight, Alp made sure to travel along the thickest parts of the local greenery. The last thing he needed right now was to get captured. They also had better water irrigation systems we could drink from. He filled his small water bag, another thing that miraculously survived instead of his arm.
He was lucky he had even made it this far, traveling between these lands was dangerous enough, but here he was even missing an arm to top it off. Whatever was going on was definitely affecting the surrounding countries, he wasn't sure how, but the security seemed very lax. So far he had only run into smaller wild creatures, nothing so threatening he should have much trouble with. His body was only sore from his now healed injuries, though he was still glad he wasn't required to run for his life so soon. After all, he had already been walking all night, who knows how many miles he'd managed to cover by now.
During his walk last night, Alp stumbled across a patch of wild crumpleberry bushes. He gathered some in his bag and ate some on the spot, tired from all the walking. He knew they weren't poisonous because his father always took extra time in their lessons to teach the boys about plants and herbs. Alp knew the basics, how to tell if plants were poisonous, how to make herbal remedies and healing ointments. He also knew how to extract certain poisons to dip his spear or arrows in, as well as making antidotes. Perhaps that's just the basics in his family.
His father never preferred violence, as a result his body was slim, and he wasn't strong in a muscular way. Having been a researcher for so long, Alvrin had an uncanny amount of knowledge. He was always studying, often coming up with new antidotes for the hospital he worked at in his younger years. Once settled down in the forest, that same knowledge translated into survival skills. Even though he wasn't traditionally strong, he could still protect himself and his family easily.
All Alp could do now is put his belief in his family, that they were out there, and that they were safe. They had to be, Alp didn't know what he would do if he lost them forever. He already missed them terribly, he hoped everyone made it to wherever they were safely. Although if he didn't manage to survive somehow, it didn't matter whether they made it or not.
The greenery started to thin as a clearing came into view. There were a few old, broken down buildings in sight, a human establishment by the looks of it. Some of the buildings lay in pieces scattered on the ground. The buildings that were still standing looked as if the wooden frames were half digested by termites already. With such damage done, the town looked abandoned, Alp decided this would be a good resting place. He needed to do some recon before he could relax though.
Staying low to the ground, he slinked about through trees and shrubs far enough in the distance to see, while still being able to stay undetected. He was taken by surprise when he saw a small child amongst the buildings. They had messy blonde curls around their ears, barely covered in the torn reminites of some sort of burlap sack. They stood there, their hands on their stomach.
"Mama, papa! I'll be full if I eat these berries right?" a shrill voice gushed. Looking into the child's hands, Alp could see a stick covered in deep red berries. Red was typically an indicator that a plant was poisonous. Alp watched in horror as the child began ripping the berries off the stick and putting them into their mouth. A few berries would be fine, luckily the child's parents seemed to be around if she was calling to them. At least that's what he thought until nobody came to stop the child.
Alp had to stop himself from screaming out, he himself was still in a dangerous situation. Although if nobody stopped the child soon, it would die. Alp looked around, the child called to its parents earlier, but they were nowhere in sight. In fact, no one else was around, it seemed strange. Why was the child alone?
"When you guys come back I'll be strong enough to go with you next time! That way you won't have to leave me to find food."
The child's parents were gone? Alps stomach dropped, the child had already eaten half the berries on the stick. This was bad, really bad, if he didnt do anything this child would die all alone while waiting for it's parents who probably won't be coming back. At the same time, if he revealed himself he would be putting himself in danger. A picture of his parents flashed in his mind, he knew they would be disappointed in him if he stood by and watched another child die, especially considering his knowledge and background. They weren't the type of people to discriminate.
He forced himself to shout, "stop eating those!" Alp waited and watched the child's reaction. He was also concerned about the possibility of other adults still being close by. The child whipped their head in Alp's direction. "Mama papa? Are you back! I knew you would come back for me! There's no way you would leave me here all by myself forever!" the child started running in Alp's direction.
"No! No don't come near, i'm not your parents" Alp tried to tell them. Humans told terrible scary stories about monsters to their children. He didn't want to scare them, especially since they recently lost their family. Alas the small child was still enthusiastically running towards him. Now that the child was closer to him, Alp recognized it as a female.
She was sickly skinny and had mosquito bites covering her tiny body. The clothes she had on weren't actually clothes, rather shredded pieces of cloth sewed together into a torn makeshift dress. A shoulder strap had been ripped, exposing more of her back. Her spine stuck out visibly and her skin was an irritated shade of red. The dress left most of her thighs and calves uncovered also, the same angry red color was across her legs, little to big bumps and scabs blemished her skin. She was in worse shape than he expected, he chastised himself for being surprised. Of course this little girl would be in bad condition if her parents left her here all alone.
Something told him that the parents never meant to come back. From what he could see of the Kolob kingdom so far, there was a severe drought affecting the land. Even if the girl's parents did not abandon her on purpose, they were probably already dead based on the condition of both the girl and the village. For her to look like this, she must have been out here alone for more than a week. It wasn't uncommon, for humans or monsters, to leave the weak to survive on their own.
Before he could move an effective distance away, the child burst through the line of bushes Alp was using as a cover. She started sobbing as she frantically looked around for her family, small cuts started dripping blood all over her arms and legs. There was a scratch underneath her eye, the blood mixed with her tears, a red stream dripped down her face and off her chin. It left a stained trail in wild directions as she whipped her head around painfully fast.
"Mama, where are you!" The girl was screaming at the top of her lungs, she was scared. "Please mama I was a good girl! I stayed here just like you said so I wouldn't slow you down." Alp was hiding behind a tree, it provided weak coverage and he was afraid the girl would find him. He watched as she continued screaming and searching for her mother.
"Mama, I'm sorry papa didn't have enough food. Please don't leave me again, I'm hungry. And thirsty. The bugs keep eating me too. Mama i'm sorry, please mama don't go" The child fell to her knees, her voice was hoarse after all the screaming. She lay there shaking and crying, mouth opening to say words but no sound came out. She was sweaty and her face seemed to be a deeper shade of red. It didn't take long before she was completely unconscious.
Once she stopped trying to move, Alp was at her side. While he was walking through Solist he grabbed some medical herbs, they were excellent varieties. They should be coming from Solist, they were known for producing the finest medical herbs available. He quickly went about making an antidote for the berries she had eaten, he didn't have much time. After turning her body onto her back, and into the shade, he hurried to the center of the village.
Alp needed a sample of the specific berry she had eaten to make an antidote that would work. He was as careful as he could be in the situation, still worried about nearby adults. After picking up the stick with the remaining berries on it, Alp ran back to the girl. He held the child's head up as he tried to get her to drink some water he had been saving, her lips were open sores they were so chapped.
He ground the sample of berries between two stones and set them in a makeshift bowl he made out of a couple of leaves. He did the same thing with little pieces of different herbs he carried in his partially torn bag, he put them into the same bowl as the berries. As the grinded plants started to absorb juice from the berries, a visible reaction started. The berries were changing from a deep red to a lighter pink.
Alp Took the small knife he had hidden away from his bag, the antidote required fresh blood to make the proper antibodies. Sharing blood with humans was considered a taboo amongst underworlders. His father had mentioned this in regards to how he had to work around the law in Lynrith. As long as Alp didn't ingest any of the girl's blood, he wouldn't break the taboo. Although the consequences of blood sharing were unknown to him, he made sure to follow the rules anyway. He held the knife above his leg, closing his eyes and exhaling sharply as he forced the blade to cut across his skin. He let the blood drip from the shallow wound into the bowl. The liquid darkened back into a deep red, before bubbling and turning a bright shade of orange instead. He mixed the ingredients further until it formed into a ball of halfway firm jelly.
He put the jelly as far down her throat as he could safely, lifting her head again to pour water in her mouth. He was running out of water. He set her back up against a tree, he didn't want her to choke on anything if she had an adverse reaction to the medicine. Once he had her situated he began to work the remaining herbs in his pouch into healing ointments. The cut on his leg was still bleeding, after all the blood he had already lost it wasn't a good idea to let it continue. He needed the ointment for her bug bites as well he could tell a few of them were infected.
His entire satchel of herbs was grinded down into a few small portions of ointment. He left a few bunches of ceilist in the bag since it was high in nutrients, he didn't want to starve later if he wasn't able to even find enough nuts to feed them through winter. He quickly put a small dollop across the gash on his leg, it created a cast over the wound stopping all blood flow. Then he went back to the little girl and started applying it over her body. When he lifted her dress to smooth ointment across her chest and abdomen, he was once again shocked to see the condition she was in. He could see each one of her individual ribs poking through her skin.
Her blond hair was yellow in the light, her skin was pale and covered in open wounds. Although her abdomen was caving in on itself, her calves and ankles were swollen. He poked one of her legs, it made a white indent that took several seconds to return to normal. This child had been under the effects of malnourishment for far too long. When she regained consciousness Alp would have to be careful feeding her, he heard of diseases related to malnutrition before. If he overloaded her system with food now, it would do more harm than good. He needed to find some sort of carbohydrate rich foods.
Alp walked a little ways away and started digging, there was a type of nut that grew in dry climates like this. It was usually poisonous to humans unless put through a very specific process. It was called the gredus nut, named after the first prince of greed. Originating from the underworld, gredus nuts caused the consumer to feel an immeasurable hunger that never ended. Once the nut was eaten, it caused the consumer to become addicted. The sweet taste that lured victims to their unexpected death, was caused by microscopic bacteria living within it.
Once the bacteria is ingested, it latches onto the stomach lining, excreting chemicals that pollute their systems with addicting toxins. In order for the host's body to absorb the toxins, they must exert an abnormal amount of energy. Once the host is filled with the bacteria of multiple nuts, their hunger is greatly increased since their energy absorption is also multiplied. They become lethal when the amount of bacteria is absorbing more energy than the host can consume. It drove a lot of humans to cannibalism, hunger driving them insane, they could no longer differentiate between people and food.
Once Alp dug a sizable amount of nuts out of the ground, he started building a fire. Inside the nuts, were soft pits made of built up toxins released by the bacteria living inside. He took out the small knife he still had in his bag, cutting the outer shell enough to crack open. With the tip of the knife he scooped the toxins from the center, after he was done with each one, he set them into another leaf bowl. He would fill the bowl with the least amount of water possible to rinse each nut before throwing them into the fire. The water rinsed away the remaining toxins, while the fire was used to help purify what was left.
After finishing the process of roasting the nuts, he separated the outer shells into one pile and the nut meat into another. He ground the shells into a fine powder, and ground the nut meat into a paste. The shell was a great source of carbohydrates, while the meat inside was a great source of protein. For now he would only be feeding the child the outer shells so her body would be able to get used to the calories. It would be nice if he were to be able to find any fruits or vegetables in the area, although that would be asking for a miracle in a place as dry as this.
Alp wondered how the human kingdom came to be in such a predicament. In the royal capital he knew there was a faction of mages within the imperial army, what was stopping them from using magic to end this drought? He hoped he could find the answers he wanted while traveling further into the kingdom. Once the child was rested enough. he would try to drop her off at some sort of human village. They were sure to pass at least one on the way to find his family.