Quinn
The next day was the usual routine with me doing my duties as the Lady of Norsewood, running the kitchen and guiding the staff in preparing meals, checking on everyone to see if they needed anything, and taking care of the new arrivals who were severely injured.
Yes, there were continuously new arrivals since now that the monster subjugation team had returned, there were more minibus carriages to rescue the stranded civilians across Norsewood. It was this day, too, when the first seven cases of influenza made appearances. I had known it was going to happen since it was winter, and we now had more than one thousand people living and sharing a small space.
"My lady!" It was Mr. Lark, one of the new arrivals. He came begging while coughing, his eyes red and his skin pale. "Please, help my family. Everyone has been very sickly. Please help them."
"It's the winter disease," Frances said. "What are we going to do?"
"We're going to lose many lives again," Eden said.
Winter disease. I suspected they meant the flu.
I said, "Take me to them."
The Larks were a family of seven, Mr. Lark and his wife and three children ranging in age from seven to thirteen, and his elderly parents. All of them were coughing, their skin pale, their eyes and noses red and runny. The parents and the youngest looked like they had fevers, too.
Knowing how contagious the flu virus was, I summoned my magic circle and created a bottle of hand sanitizer and a box of face masks. I put the face mask on the lower half of my face and then squeezed a drop of sanitizer on my palms rubbing it into my skin.
Eden asked, "Why are you wearing that?"
"I suspect it's the flu. Since the virus can be quite contagious, I need to be careful and protect myself," I said.
"You know what it is?" Sara asked, her eyes wide.
"Yes." To Mr. Lark, I said, "It looks like you have been infected as well. Can you please tell me what your symptoms are?" Meanwhile, I began examining the youngest, Sam, since he appeared to be suffering the most.
Mr. Lark said, "I've been having this cough for a couple of days now. My throat is sore, and I've been feeling out of sorts."
"Do you feel the chill?" I asked.
"Chill?"
"Cold," I said.
"Well, it's winter, my lady," he said.
"I mean even when the room is warm, do you still feel cold? Sometimes you can get vomiting and diarrhea, too."
"My parents had vomiting and diarrhea," he said.
"Then it's influenza," I said. "I'm going to test Sam's and everyone's blood to see what type of strand it is."
It didn't seem he understood what I meant, and neither did Eden, Frances, and Sara. I summoned my magic analyzer and pharmaceutical circle and a finger-prick pen. Young Sam was pretty out of it as I pricked his finger and dropped the blood into the circle. As everyone watched in fascination, the circle analyzed the boy's blood, and within seconds, results popped up. At the bottom, the diagnosis stated, apart from all the vitamins and minerals Sam was deficient in: Viral infection.
In my head, Vicky stated: Would you like to analyze the strands and produce vaccines?
Since I didn't want people to think it was strange of me to be talking to myself, I stated in my head: Yes.
In my head, Vicky stated: Analyzing influenza virus strands.
While that was happening, the circle popped out a bottle of pills for Sam's deficiencies. Handing the bottle to Mr. Lark, I said, "This is medicine for Sam. He's lacking in a lot of important vitamins and minerals his body needs. It'll help with fighting the infection. He needs to take one pill a day for the next seven days. Please give him one as soon as possible."
Mr. Lark eagerly took it and asked, "This medicine will help cure my son, my lady?"
I shook my head. "The thing about flu is that the body needs to fight it out. There's no medication for it. But the medicine will help his body in fighting the flu."
"I see," he said. "Will... he survive, my lady?"
I said, "Back in my hometown, most healthy people do if they are looked after properly. I'll do my best to make sure he survives, Mr. Lark."
He nodded, his eyes misting with tears. "Thank you, my lady. Thank you."
While I examined and analyzed the rest of the family's blood and gave them their pills, the news that there was an influenza outbreak, or rather the winter disease, had reached everyone's ears, and fear and panic erupted.
Once I had finished examining the Lark family, I wanted to isolate them to lessen the chance of an outbreak but knew I couldn't. There was simply no room. We'd have to endure four more days until the lodge was complete.
Aldric was very concerned and drew me to one side and said, "Please, Quinn, do whatever you can to save our people."
The look in his eyes nearly broke my heart, and I knew he didn't want to lose any more of his people. I nodded and said, "I'll do my best, Aldric. But to do that, the people of Norsewood will have to change how they think and behave."
"Whatever it takes to protect and save everyone's lives," he said.
That afternoon, after I had a short conference with the important members of the Norsewood community, mainly Aldric, Uncle Colt, Mr. Morton, Mark, Allen, Mr. Lamont, Mr. Ingram, Mr. Henley, and Mr. Dunn, I climbed on the wooden boxes that was my makeshift platform to confirm the people of the cases.
"Quiet, everyone!" Uncle Colt's voice boomed out into the hall. "Lady Quinn will address you all now."
"Thank you, Uncle Colt," I said.
"Pleasure, lassie," he said.
Turning my attention to my audience, I cleared my throat and then said, "As you all know by now, the winter disease is here."
There was an eruption of noises, mostly worried ones, which was understandable. I knew I had to stamp out this panic and fearmongering since it'd be of no help and would only cause problems. After all, we had enough to deal with during this time of crisis.
I said, "In my hometown, the winter disease is nothing but the flu. It comes every year. Some people, mostly the vulnerable ones, will get sick while some, the healthy ones, don't."
"What's a flu, my lady?" one asked.
"I'll explain that now," I said. "And I'll explain how we, as the people of Norsewood, can fight it together."
"We can cure it, my lady?" another asked.
"You can fight it and win," I said. "Now, let me explain what a flu is and I'm going to do it through our Norsewood land and the monsters as an example so that it'd be easier to understand. First, a flu is a type of virus. Now, a virus is one of the three types of pathogens, or little monsters that you can't see with your naked eye." I summoned my magic circle and used it to project a hologram of a virus.
Almost everyone sucked in their breaths in horror at the sight of the three-dimensional virus.
"Look, it has so many hands and feet," Leo said.
Jonah said, "Of course it has many hands and feet. It's a monster."
"And it's ugly," Max said.
Children. They were always so vocal in commenting. Actually, I was glad they were taking this so seriously and were paying me their undivided attention.
I continued. "These viruses, or monsters as Jonah stated, are so tiny that you can't see them at all. They are everywhere in the air. Now, imagine your body as our Norsewood land. Around the border of our land, there are monsters like orcs and goblins."
"Goblins are scary," Max said.
"That's right. Just like the goblins and orcs and other monsters, these viruses want to come into our body, like the goblins want to come into our land, and take over. Now, like we have Lord Aldric and Vincent and Theo and our warriors who protect our land and us from monsters, our body has little soldiers, too, that are called white blood cells. They protect our body from the tiny monsters. When they fight the monster, that's when our body shows symptoms like coughing and we have runny eyes and noses and we feel very sick, because our body is working very hard in killing and kicking out the monsters."
The children gasped, and Jonah said, "So the tiny warriors are fighting with the tiny monsters in our noses and mouths and throats and bodies?"
I chuckled. "That's right, but the problem is, you see, when our body kicks the little monsters out, they go flying in the air, and when other people breathe in that air, what do you think happens?"
Jonah said, "The tiny monsters invade those other people's bodies, and they get sick, too?"
"That's right, Jonah. You are a very clever boy," I said.
The boy smiled in delight while Aldric ruffled his hair proudly.
To everyone else, I said, "That is how a virus spreads and infects everyone. If you sneeze or cough or you touch other people when you are sick, they get sick, too. It's very contagious."
"How do we prevent that from happening, my lady?" one of the men in the back asked.
"That's easy. You protect yourself and everyone else by wearing a mask and cleaning your hands regularly," I said. "Since we're at high risk, everyone needs to wear a mask except small children and the very elderlies who can't breathe properly when wearing one. You can take the mask off when you're eating or drinking, of course. When eating and drinking, you must also clean and sanitize your hands. You also must clean and sanitize your hands after you've used the toilet or when you're cooking and handling food. That is very important because you see, little monsters like viruses can only invade your body through your nose and mouth. Now, I've provided masks and handwashing stations over there." I pointed to the end of the hall where there was a series of vanities with running water. Beside those were paper towels and bottles of hand sanitizer.
"If you have any questions about handwashing and sanitizing, simply ask one of our healthcare members." I directed to the small group of men and women who had volunteered to spread the teaching of handwashing and sanitizing.
"Also, I will be examining everyone's health starting tomorrow morning," I said. "When you're not healthy, you'll get sick easily. I want to ensure that we, the people of Norsewood, are strong and healthy so we can rebuild Norsewood together. Are you all with me?"
A loud cheer erupted, echoing in the hall, and I chuckled in delight at the enthusiastic response. I turned to Aldric, who was watching me. Oh dear, did I see mists of tears in his eyes?
I jumped down from the platform and headed over to him as the healthcare members started giving out directions for everyone to line up so they could get their face masks. Close, I asked, "How did I do?"
"You did great," he said as he gently stroked my hair.
I said, "I suppose we should postpone kissing until this flu blows over?"
He nodded, though he looked rather disappointed about that.
That evening, I added chicken rice porridge to the menu for dinner since I knew the Lark family and those unwell couldn't take heavy, solid food. Aside from it being light, chicken rice porridge was also very nutritious, especially when one had a flu or other type of infection or was just feeling unwell in general. When the cooking started and the aroma danced up into the air, there was much curiosity, and when I started serving it, there were many requests and afterward, a lot of compliments on how delicious and hearty it was.
For the next four days, I was off my feet, examining everyone's health, distributing medications, and injecting the flu vaccine Vicky created. As I had suspected, everyone here was deficient in the most basic of vitamins and minerals. They had been through one disaster after another and were in famine, after all, so it wasn't surprising.
I had to admit it was quite amusing to look up from my work and see one family or another taking their medications, lining up to get a mug of water or hot cocoa to down the tiny tablets. It seemed they took their pill-popping very seriously here.
As for the flu vaccine, it worked marvelously, though a few got the usual light symptoms, and after reassuring them that it was just their body working hard, they relaxed and put their trust in me.
During the four days, too, I'd walk up to the lodge site to check on the progress of the building. I must say it was wonderful to see, especially when it was happening so fast. Back on Earth, to build anything like this would probably take at least three to four years if not more.
Because it was always snowing and a horde of people were always watching, I ended up making a tent as a shelter and installing dispensers for hot drinks. I also made umbrellas, too, which helped during the walk.
Whenever I was up there, I'd see the usual audience—Mr. Lamont, Mr. Ingram, Mr. Henley, Mr. Dunn, and now Mr. Lark as well after he had recovered from his flu. They were never without an umbrella as they rounded the perimeter of the site, taking in every detail as the magical men worked. I suspected they were studying and making notes. I knew they would have loved to go into the circle and watch up close, but Vicky had installed a barrier, which not only protected the site from the harsh elements, but prevent living beings from entering as well, since it was dangerous and interfere with the progress of the building.
"What are those metals, my lady?" Mr. Lamont asked.
"Those are steel," I said. "They're very strong as building structures."
"And the walls," he asked. "What are they made of? I've never seen stones like those before."
"They're concrete blocks," I said. "There is a way to make them."
"If we have materials, could we also make the concrete walls, my lady?" he asked.
I nodded. "Of course. I'll find the methods for you; how about that?"
Then I thought about asking Vicky to make manuals and videos that Mr. Lamont and those interested could learn from. After all, if we were going to build Norsewood from scratch, we might as well do so with the modern knowledge from Earth, since it was far more advanced than this medieval-like era that was Athol where most homes were built from wattle and daub.
Finally, the day was here, and everyone—with a sense of excitement—headed up to the site and watched the finishing touch to the building. It had stopped snowing and the sun even made an appearance against the backdrop of the rare blue sky. I could only take that as a good omen.
Before us, the magical men finished up with the planting of the cherry blossom trees, which was bare, with only trunks and branches, of course, since it was winter. Then the last two men put up an opening ceremony ribbon, which made me chuckle with amusement.
"What's that for?" Ruby, Mark and Frances's daughter, asked. She was a pretty little girl, and I couldn't help but ruffle her hair.
"It's an opening ceremony ribbon," I said. "We usually do this back in my hometown when we open up a new building or shop."
"So today we're opening up the new castle?" she asked.
"That's right. We're opening Norsewood Lodge, the first ever modern building in Norsewood," I said as I, as well as everyone else, gazed up at the edifice that looked so very out of place in this world—a majestic structure that even five-star hotels back on Earth would be green with envy.
The building was covered in pale concrete stone and double-glazed windows. At the entrance were grand pillars upholding porte cochere, and beyond that inside were the automatic sliding doors. At the top there was a sign, both in the common as well as the English language, that stated Norsewood Lodge.
To say it was breathtakingly beautiful was an understatement, and I knew everyone here thought the same. When I turned to look at their reactions, I could only chuckle at the expressions on their faces. Indeed, they were stunned into silence. It was as if they had seen one of the deities for the first time before their very eyes.
"What do you think, Aldric?" I asked the only person amongst the people who didn't seem to have much of an expression on his face.
He turned to look at me, and for the first time ever, he smiled broadly, and it snatched my breath away. His eyes twinkling, he said, "It's beautiful, Quinn. Thank you."
I felt my cheeks burning hot and said, "You're welcome, husband."
He leaned in and kissed me on the lips.
I savored that brief, yet sweet kiss that was filled to the brim with gratitude and appreciation. We hadn't been able to kiss for the past four days, after all, due to the flu. Now, however, we could since we had stamped it out and no longer needed to wear face masks.
Turning to Abi and Alex, I asked, "What do you think? Do you like our new temporary home?"
Abi jumped up and down and said, "A castle! A castle!"
"I like the castle," Alex said.
Jonah said, "We're going to be living in a castle?"
"Yes, indeed we are," I said.
Max asked, "Are we allowed to live in there, too?"
Children! It seemed they hadn't been paying attention, huh?
I nodded my head. I said loudly, so that the other children could hear, too, "Everyone is living in the new castle."
Suddenly, they jumped with joy and started begging, "Can we go in now! Can we please?"
I chuckle and said, "But first, we have to cut the ribbon." I summoned my magic circle and created a pair of scissors. Handing it to Aldric, I said, "Here you go, my dear husband. As the lord of Norsewood, it is your duty to cut the ribbon and let us all in."
Cheering erupted then, and Aldric took the scissors. He easily snipped the ribbon, and Jonah started off in front of everyone, sprinting toward the door.