Mint and Honey

[heartofcourage]

“No one understands.” Kate said softly as her uncle Boar spoke from his own painful wealth of experience. “And I know Da is hurting. I can’t burden them any longer as they have their own troubles. Kell is trying so hard to keep everything together but I wonder if he doesn’t regret our son. Brogan is difficult at the best of times and I know it isn’t his fault. I feel as if I’ve done the most terrible things in the world to deserve this.”

 

[KieranSoares]

"No, love. You didn't. Fate doesn' care how good 'r bad you are. Our family 'as a lot o' good goin' for it, but when things go wrong... They go very wrong." He sighed and brushed her hair back gently.

 

[heartofcourage]

“I don’t know how to fix this.” She said softly, her sorrow evident on her features as she thought about the son that she couldn’t make better. “I would give anything to trade places with him. In an instant I would take his place.”

 

[KieranSoares]

Boar knew no further words would help. So he simply held Kate against his side for a long while. Eventually as the sunlight faded, the dark figure of her husband emerged coming to find her. But seeing her sitting in the arena with Boar, Kell stopped short a ways within her sight. He decided to step back, letting her take all the time she wanted.

 

[heartofcourage]

Kate had no more tears left after a while. She simply sat in silence with her uncle before she noticed Kell. She felt guilty that she had slipped away from him and their cub but he seemed to understand that she needed the space. Once he had helped Boar back to his feet, she allowed him to pick her up, her arms wrapping around his broad neck as she held him close.

“I know I need help.” She said in a soft whisper to him.

 

[KieranSoares]

Kell simply hugged Kate a little closer as she spoke, carrying her away into the keep as Boar watched them go. Once inside, Kell avoided anyone who might question why Kate had been out of bed, and he brought her back to their room where Rissa and Qira awaited them. Little Brogan was in the care of Mariko Varno and his team of healers for the moment.

When they entered, Qira stood and helped Kell take Kate's gear off. The two men made short work of it between them and soon had Kate cleaned up and settled into bed.

 

[heartofcourage]

"Why does Mariko have Brogan?" Kate asked, looking at Rissa and Qira as Kell tucked her back into bed, a calming tea pressed into her hands a few moments later. "Did something happen while I was gone?"

 

[KieranSoares]

"Nothing new. But Mariko wants to monitor him a while. He and Alex are trying to come up with some ideas," Qira explained quietly in his native tongue.

Kell soon found himself ushered back into bed as well, and he chose not to fight it as he laid his head down on the pillow with a long sigh.

 

[heartofcourage]

After Yasmine had made sure that Boar was alright to start his journey home, she joined Alex and Mariko as they pondered over the cub’s condition. The poor little infant was too exhausted to move, dressed only in a little diaper as he clung to a stuffed dragon that someone had provided. He was slumbering, which was a blessing, but she was sure that he had been screaming only moments earlier.

 

[KieranSoares]

Mariko was conversing with his small team in rapid, quiet Lunar. Alex was listening, sometimes adding in a point. Occasionally one would carefully check the cub over, making notes of vital signs. Little Brogan's breathing was ragged and hoarse, but the longer he slept, the more it was clear that that ragged quality wasn't just his throat from crying. His lungs were starting to sound awful.

 

[heartofcourage]

Yasmine had no hesitation as she stepped forward and gently picked up the tiny prince. He didn’t even stir as she cradled him, the little dragon tucked into the crook of her arm next to him. She wasn’t an about to deny him anything that brought him comfort.

 

[KieranSoares]

Mariko's team looked on quietly as Yasmine offered that simple comfort, and Alex came to her side to stroke Little Brogan's fur soothingly. "I spoke with my Aunt Selena while you were out. She said this happened to Uncle Brogan too, but a different sickness. Pneumonia... I wish this we're as simple. Mariko would have this little one lively and making trouble in two weeks if it were just pneumonia... But we're starting to think it's something specific to werefolk, something Kell probably came in contact with at some point but gained immunity to. Not the plague that swept through, but something more distant. We sent out a letter calling for any tribal healers to send their suggestions and suspicions, and for any who could to come and help if they felt they had some solutions or at least treatments. Right now, we don't even know how to ease his pain without outright putting him in a temporary coma."

 

[heartofcourage]

“I think you might have to. Your cousin can’t take much more.” Yasmine said softly as she looked to Alex. “I just watched her fighting fiercely in the training yard until she was too exhausted to move. I don’t think she is in a good place.”

 

[KieranSoares]

"She isn't. But I don't want to take such risks until I know there's no alternative. If he goes into a coma, he might never come out." Alex sighed and raked a hand back through his hair. "Mariko wants to experiment first."

 

[heartofcourage]

“It might be his only chance.” Yasmine said with a shrug of her shoulders as if it didn’t bother her. “And I’m sure that his parents would encourage you to simply figure it out. It’s a cruel thing that this little thing has to suffer so much.”

 

[KieranSoares]

When the cub squirmed as if in a sudden onset of pain, Alex took him carefully and Mariko was quick at their side with a small skin of something that smelled sweet and a touch bitter. By the time the cub came to, Alex had him loosely wrapped in a thick blanket. Little Brogan had no energy to make a real fuss, tears sliding down his cheeks as he accepted the offered skin after a bit of encouragement. In minutes, his tears subsided and he began to drift off again as painkilling herbs, as much as Mariko would risk, took him over.

This in itself was a clue for the healers, and Mariko was beginning to suspect partially stomach problems as well as lung. He turned to jot down some notes, focusing in on what they'd learned so far.

 

[heartofcourage]

"Is this something you can fix?" Yasmine asked as she watched the little cub try and deal with his discomfort. "I don't want to think about what will happen if you can't."

 

[KieranSoares]

"I won't pretend I know exactly what's happening. But we have a place to start," Alex murmured. "We may even have to try some exploratory surgery when he's regained a little strength."

 

[heartofcourage]

"I'm sure that the both of you already know, but I fear for Kate." Yasmine said softly so that only Mariko and Alex could hear her. "She is so painfully thin and exhausted. Her mind isn't there sometimes and when it is, she's lost. I watched her uncle hold her for hours this afternoon until her husband came to take her back to bed."

 

[KieranSoares]

"Kate's condition is half to do with this little one. The worse he is, the worse she gets. And she has a terrible habit of making herself even worse when she isn't feeling well. She gets angry. It's a spiral that I fear won't break unless a solution is found for this cub," Mariko muttered. "No matter what anyone tells her, she will cause herself damage trying to make fate change its mind."

 

[heartofcourage]

"She's just a mother who is frustrated and scared for her child. In a way, I understand. None of this went the way that she was hoping it would." Yasmine said as little Brogan went limp in Alex's arms, slumbering deeply.

 

[KieranSoares]

"I dare say no one's very satisfied with all of this." Mariko sighed and shook his head. "It pains me to not have the answers. People trust my team because we practice medicine honed by millennia of study by our ancestors and predecessors. We can do things human medicine simply cannot. And yet we don't know if we can save one small cub."

 

[heartofcourage]

"Hopefully another tribe will come forward with a solution." She said softly as she took Brogan from Alex's arms, holding the cub as he slumbered. "Go and finish your business. I'll watch over him until it's time to take him back to his family."

 

[KieranSoares]

Alex kissed her cheek before stepping away with Mariko and his team. After an hour more of discussion, the group split off to go to bed and Alex walked with Yasmine to Kate and Kell's chambers. Kate's lady-in-waiting and her guardian were the only two awake, waiting for the cub.

 

[heartofcourage]

"Qira managed to slip a sedative into Kate's tea." Rissa said softly as she took the little cub from Yasmine's arms and accepted the dragon toy that one of Mariko's aids had given to him. "We wanted them both to get a good night's sleep. So far, she's stayed put."