3. In Need of Healing


Florence was a strong woman, though she maintained a certain elegance as well. Born into the alpha family she’d had a head-start in life. Her father, clan leader Daniar Murrinck, had been a powerful warrior until his death. If all had gone well, Florence would have been the new alpha female of the Murrinck clan. And she would have picked her mate who would then have become the new clan leader. The old grounds where they had lived was not too far from their current home, but the wolf could not bare to return. Every wolf in her father’s clan had been family to her. There had been about sixty members. She hadn’t found out what had caused that explosion, but she knew she would never see any of her beloved clan again. In stead she had started her own group together with Minkle, joined by a few distant relatives and since a few years, the boy who ran away from his own family to join theirs. By now,  Florence was twenty-four, by far the eldest of the clan and she maintained her alpha position fiercely, even if it was somewhat unconventional. None had dared to challenge her strength.
       She picked up the young man easily and carried him out of the cave, wondering if their current provisions would manage to sustain a sick human. “Aidan, let’s go!” The boy nodded and dragged the midget along. He wanted to ask where Minkle had run off to, but upon seeing the serious look Florence wore he decided to keep quiet.
       “If you wish to deal for your gold, you come quietly,” said Florence to the small whimpering creature. She felt no pity for it, since they were competing for territory and possession. However, the dark mud on the midget’s hands had even lost some of its color. This worried her, regarding the future of their clan here. Perhaps it would soon not be their territory after all. Aidan bound the creature’s arms and gagged it. The midget made an awful noise in protest until Aidan swore and cursed it with such dirty language, even Florence was taken aback for a moment. The rains had let up and the sun was lowering in the sky. Through the long shadows of the woods, they pursued their way home in silence.  

Minkle arrived at the den and scurried down the secret entrance to the treasure room to inspect the gold. After confirming it was still there, she went back up to find Ishka, her fellow team mate, and told her to guard the gold.
        “I wonder if that midget is telling the truth about that human,” she said out loud, to which Ishka looked up curiously. Ishka Lyall was a tough wolf bitch with few manners and lots of attitude. She was a distant relative of Florence who had come to live in their clan as the beta-female. She had little grace, but a big chest to compensate.
       “Human? Where?” She looked up at Minkle, her ears twitching. “I’m hungry!”
       “Ehh nothing, nothing!” The mithra shook her head and smiled nervously.
       “Well, if you bring any humans home, you know where to dispose of them,” Ishka replied and continued filing her long nails, looking bored.

At that moment Florence entered the hidden den carrying the stranger. She sent Aidan out to tell everybody about the midgets and the water. The boy threw their captive midget into a cage and sat down near the others around the beginnings of an evening fire. With much exaggeration he described what they had encountered. Meanwhile, Florence silently carried the human to her personal quarters.
       After a few minutes Ishka interrupted Aidan’s explanation and stood up. “I smell food,” she said. “Florence are you hiding a precious dinner from all of us again?” Ishka’s cousin Itzak, a tall male garou with untidy face and clear blue eyes, followed her example and sniffed.
       “I smell it too. Damn I’m hungry, Florence.” The two of them paced towards the largest cottage in the den. They were shape shifters by nature but kept their demon forms—with human like faces and furry ears—for comfort and close communications. Both could transform into wolves when they pleased, unlike their leader who had no wolf form. They were of separate family trees and therefore their traits differed.
       Florence put the covers of her guest bed over the stranger, hiding most of him and keeping him warm. “Well, that’s good to hear,” she told her two fellow wolves, “Because today you two are in charge of the hunt. Bring us back some game and fish and we shall have a feast tonight, spices and drinks included!”
       “But-…” Ishka tried to sway her leader.
       “This is our new prisoner. No one is to touch him, or to let him out. We shall treat him according to the code.” She glared at everyone to make her intentions clear should they disobey her rules.
       “Fluffy, you ain’t foolin’ this nose!” said Itzak, trying to peek inside Florence’s room, pushing Ishka aside. “That’s a human you’re hiding in there! Everyone knows their meat is the tastiest!” Outside, at the fire, Minkle looked worried.
       Florence approached them with her teeth bared, snarling menacingly. “Well, it’s my meat,” she growled. “With any luck there are more out there where this one came from.” She eyed the two hungry party members dangerously.
       “Fine, fine,” Itzak backed off. “Tonight’s dinner will be human if we find any.”
       “But I want that one in your room, Florence,” Ishka tested.
       Florence looked at Ishka with unmistakable superiority. “Well that’s not my problem. Minkle, get in here.” With one finger she pushed Ishka out of the door and told the other wolf softly, “If you stay quiet about this, I’ll share a secret with you tonight.” Ishka’s eyes glowed with pride and she transformed into her wolf form. As a large dark gray-and-black wolf, Ishka passed Minkle, who walked up to the cottage, wagging her tail with worry.
       Florence shut the door behind Minkle and pulled the curtains closed. “Well now,” she turned to Minkle and eyed her, “you know why I’ve chosen you to guard him. You are the only one I can trust not to eat humans. If there are any more out there tonight, pray they hide well, for Ishka’s nose proves to be sharp as ever.”
       “I don’t like to question you, Fluffy, but…” Minkle hesitated, her eyes drifting to the dark hair visible from between the warm home-made sheets. “Is that the only reason you don’t eat him?”
       “What do you mean, kitten?” she asked Minkle, wondering if the human could actually hear what they were talking about.
       “Why do you trust –me- not to eat him?” The mithra girl looked at the stranger. “He doesn’t look older than sixteen.”
       Florence smiled a little. “Because you found him and he’s your prize,” she said initially, but continued, “You’ve made me soft. Just remember, they still don’t belong here. Wise men claim they have destroyed their world. They may not invade ours.”
       Minkle nodded and sat down on the bed next to the stranger. Carefully she touched his dark hair, brushing it out of his face. “What do you think happened?”
       The woman shrugged, picking up a basket and found some bandage materials. “It looks like he fought something, but I did not see tracks leading towards that place. It might be he just floated downstream from somewhere. That reminds me, the water hasn’t cleared by now has it?”
       Minkle shook her head, “No, and it’s harder to see at night.”
       “I hope it doesn’t turn into black water like the legends say,” Florence said with a shiver. Black water meant the gods were angry and they would pollute the land and have it destroyed. No living thing could consume the black substance until it drifted into the sea and disappeared into the deep. During those times many offerings were made at sea, usually in the form of people. Florence had heard the tales since she was little, and had passed them on to her clan.
       Minkle regarded the human from all angles and then looked up. “You’re right. We didn’t look at the water anymore when we ran into those midgets.”
       “I think the midgets are responsible for what happened to the water but I don’t know what happened to them…” She looked puzzled and Minkle realized Florence had been unconscious when the single surviving midget had explained.
       “Well, that one Aidan caught said they wanted the gold to offer to their Goddess of Healing.” She tried to remember the name. “It said their race was dying.”
       “Goddess of Healing, eh?” Florence repeated, looking at the human absently. “They must be scared. I don’t see why they would otherwise risk such an operation when they can’t heal themselves. Was the surviving midget hurt?”
       Minkle shrugged. “I think Aidan kicked him once or twice, but otherwise it should be fine.”
       Florence pondered hard, trying to make sense of the information they had. “If their race is dying then either soon nobody will come for the gold, or maybe the gold is the curse that is killing their race. It has happened before. Perhaps the gold has cursed the water.”
       “Maybe the gold is a demon in disguise,” Minkle offered. “What are you going to do now? It could be better to take the gold out of here. But maybe that’s exactly what those midgets were thinking?”
       “We’ll have to question the one we’ve caught,” said Florence, thinking aloud.
       “Should I call him in here?”
       Florence shook her head. “I don’t want it to see our private quarters. We must learn more soon though. The land is suffering. I’m not sure, when the divine powers are concerned it might be dangerous. Maybe we have to take a chance and contact this goddess of healing. She could help our human, because I wouldn’t know how to fix him.”
       Minkle looked back down at the human. “How do we contact the goddess then?” she asked, but then it hit her, “That midget is sure to know how!”
       The wolf nodded. “Tell Aidan to interrogate him and cross the code if he has to.”
       “Yes! And we should change his clothes too,” she said, jumping up from the side of the stranger’s bed with a smile, “His are torn and damp. I’ll go take something from Aidan’s room.” With renewed energy, Minkle ran out.
       Florence sighed and looked at the human with mistrust. “I’m sure you’re going to bring us more trouble than you’re worth.”

Aidan punched his palm with a fist and grinned as the midget looked alarmed. He had removed the gag and told it the rules of their new game. He started to ask it questions as Minkle tiptoed past them into Aidan’s quarter to find some old clothes. She hid behind the boy’s makeshift closet and overheard the conversation outside.
       “No, I mean are there more nearby, at this time?” he asked the midget, yelling at it when it didn't answer. “Will they be coming for the gold? Why is such a small pot of gold worth your lives?”
       The midget frowned at that and answered “You have no idea...”
       “Then TELL ME!” he yelled again, preparing to kick the midget once more.
       Minkle found some loose-fitting clothing that Aidan mostly used to sleep in and folded them in her arms, twitching an ear to hear better.
       Aidan rolled up his sleeve and the midget squeaked: “It no belong to us! We have to bring to someone...” it said with shaky voice, to which Aidan answered:
        “To your goddess?” The boy saw the midget break a sweat. “Well?? Were you going to offer that small pot of gold to your goddess? What do you have to make up for?”
       The midget fidgeted. “We must to protect it...” it answered with shaky voice, “you have it?” it asked, and Aidan yelled back.
        “Oy, I ask the questions here! You want to be buried with your buddies? Huh?”
       Hidden in her teammate’s room, Minkle giggled a bit. She’d always known Aidan to have a short fuse. She hoped the midget would survive long enough to spill information.
       “Well, who do you protect it against?” Aidan asked the small creature.
       “Gold seekers…” it said with a petite voice.
       “Are you making fun of me?!”
       The midget squeaked. “No, no. It is prize of our people, we have taken it from hiding for offer to goddess when she became sick...” it scratched its head “We really need to offer it to her.” The midget sighed, “we are so few.”
       Aidan glared. “But that is a lie. If you were –so–  few you wouldn't have offered yourselves up in masses today. Sure, you're desperate but you went in without knowing who you had to fight. That's just stupid. How many of you are left anyway?”
       The midget refused to answer, even when Aidan held it upside down for a while.
       “Well how much gold have you offered to this goddess Ixchel of yours?” he asked, setting the creature down. The midget looked up to the ceiling, trying to remember. “I think about fifty gold pieces,” it answered with care. Aidan didn't believe much of it.
        “And now you were going to just dump everything else you had at once?” The midget nodded. The boy narrowed his eyes. “So, have you ever seen Ixchel?” But this time the midget shook its head.

        “Fluffy?” Minkle asked carefully, peeking inside the leader’s room after she had snuck back from Aidan’s room with some clothes. She was called inside and closed the door behind her. “Aidan’s still interrogating it. From what I heard the goddess is sick.”
       Florence had prepared a few towels, a sponge and a comb. She took the spare clothes from Minkle. “Right, let’s hurry with this. Can we ask the goddess to heal him?” she wanted to know immediately.
       “I don’t know,” replied the kitten. “The midget didn’t say.”
       “Well, let’s first change him. If the midget can tell us what we need to know, at least the human is already decent. We can’t let her face a vile package like this, I’m certain she’d be offended.” Florence threw off the covers and started to shake off all the pieces of clothing the human had on. Minkle flattened her ears and blushed a bit.
       “Oh dear,” Florence said at a certain point. Minkle covered her eyes just to be on the safe side, but the wolf continued, “One thing is for certain. He never visited a healing goddess before.” When the young man seemed decent enough, Minkle dared to open an eye and saw that his body was covered in scars. It surprised her. Demons like themselves could usually use some minor restoration powers, and there were specialists trained in healing and recovery. Scars were not uncommon themselves. However, this many were.
       “They look like knife scars… What do you think happened?”
       “I don’t know. Either he’s been in a lot of trouble, or he’s been the troublemaker. Either way, it looks like he’s used to pain, which is good.” Florence buttoned up Aidan’s old shirt and smiled reassuringly at Minkle, “Shall we put a pink ribbon in his hair, just to see how long it will last when he wakes up?”
       Minkle giggled, “You’re so evil, Fluffy!” But before she could say anything else, they heard a thud against the wall outside. Aidan seemed to have lost his patience.
        “You've never seen your own goddess? Then how are you offering anything to her? Why are you offering? You can change gods you know, there are many more who are willing to accept your offerings... Why is Ixchel so important?”
       The midget trembled and rubbed it’s shoulder. “She... heal us... she is energy.”
       Aidan trembled in anger. “But you've never even seen her! How do you know it's even a woman?!”
       “How do you know its even a –god-?! It could be some selfish demon keeping all your loot!” Minkle piped in, surprising Aidan for a moment.
       “…Yeah!”
       The creature looked to the ground. “Because gold is hers, it’s what makes it shine.”
       “Then why do you have it in that pot?” asked Aidan.
       “How do you know it’s not some demon’s power making the gold shine?” Minkle demanded and she bopped it on the head.
       “I don’t know, I don’t know! I don’t make decisions!” it cried.
       “Pull yourself together, man!” Aidan yelled. “Teach us what you know about the goddess. That will keep you alive, get what I mean?” He was hoping to ask the goddess about that gold and other riches.
        “We need to talk to this Goddess of yours to find out how to help the human –you- injured!” said Minkle accusingly, even though the midget had denied it earlier. “Talk now or taste my dagger.”
       “O-okay, I tell!” it hiccupped, shivering in fear.
       Minkle hissed at it, “Tell us how to contact your goddess.”
        “The elders... they say need to find waterfall... offer greens, don't know which. The sun must come. Only then she appear. Or in morning after storm... she comes to us as light, they say.” It finished with a frown, clearly despising itself for having talked in such a manner to these people. Aidan grinned at Minkle and tied and gagged the creature once more.