Although Remal had managed to get a bit of sleep earlier in the evening, it wasn’t enough to make him stop feeling tired. However, once he’d woken up to see that girl Emri at the work table by herself, he was again wide awake and alert. He was annoyed with Faver for it; she wasn’t supposed to be left on her own like that, unobserved. She hadn’t even been in the camp for an entire day, and Faver was trusting her like an old friend! Remal worried that one day, that sort of attitude would land Faver in danger… hopefully not because of this visitor, but really it was too soon to be sure.
Remal hated not being able to do anything to fix things, but since Faver hadn’t approved of him helping mix medicines (and Emri refused his help anyway) Remal had to find other things to keep himself busy. He couldn’t stand to be idle, and merely keeping watch on someone wasn’t an active enough pursuit for him. Fortunately, he had remembered that his spear would have to be sharpened after the encounter it’d had with gravel earlier that day. Upon inspection, the blade hadn’t been nicked up as much as he’d feared, but it still took a bit of doing to get the edges properly sharpened, straight and keen.
The blade of the spear was fine bronze, though not the very finest – it was still rather skillfully crafted, all the same. It had been made by an uncle from one of the outlying hamlets on the western side of the Downs, a place which had been attacked around the same time as Remal’s own town, but by people from a different warring faction who were rumored to have carried off everyone they didn’t kill, to use as slaves. No one from that hamlet had made it out to come away with the camp when they left Oxhale Downs, except a handful who had been away from that hamlet at the time, or moved from there previously. Remal didn’t know whether that uncle who had made the spear was alive or dead. Remal’s cousin, one of that hamlet’s few survivors who hadn’t been there when it was attacked, declined to go with the camp and instead went to look for survivors taken captive. Maybe she would find her family, or already had by now… but Remal doubted it. Even if any of them were still living, he didn’t think his cousin was likely to be able to find them. She’d insisted on trying, though. Maybe Remal would have gone on that doomed trip with her, if he hadn’t had his mother and other close family to protect. In any case, he was sure he would never see any of that branch of the family again.
He wished those relatives could have escaped with the camp, and not only because they were family. In his opinion, the smiths they had with them were not as skilled as his uncle had been. Even so, they were short on supplies and opportunity for the smiths to make new things. Most of the time these days, they never set up a full forge fire anywhere, and only rarely would build up temporary structures that would just get hot enough to mend a few things here and there when they had time for it.
That made a spear like Remal’s quite valuable to him. He could hardly afford to replace it, even if they ever came across any town or village that had anything near as good of quality to trade. Most people in the camp had already long since traded what they had which was of any value but not strictly necessary, for provisions along their travels. There wasn’t much left that could be traded in the future, except what the Leaders and some others had held back for emergency use (what little was left of that, anyway) and everyone in camp had done what they could to get as much food as possible through foraging, hunting, and putting a priority on keeping the remaining flocks alive and well. They had far less animals than they’d started with, so it was more important than ever for those who could hunt, to bring in wild game as much as possible. There was a forest a little way north of the lake; once they had moved the camp away in that direction, he and others might be able to find a respectable quantity of game there, perhaps including large game.
Though Remal couldn’t afford a new spear if anything happened to this one, he had saved a few coins for the purpose of getting a new hunting knife if he ever came across a good one for sale someplace. Or, at least, a newer knife. The hunting knife he had already, had been handed down to him and was not as fine of bronze as the spear, but it had been made with considerable skill – by his grandfather, who had taught his blacksmith uncle. The knife had been given to Remal while he was still a boy, when his father and older brothers first started teaching him to hunt and skin animals. It had seen a lot of use in its time, and while it had originally been a long-bladed knife, it had been sharpened so many times over the years that it wasn’t quite so long anymore. He was used to its current length, though, and quite liked the balance it had. It was good enough to be reliable if well-maintained, but he tried not to sharpen it any more often than strictly necessary. It had been awhile, though, so after sharpening the spear he’d given some attention over to honing the knife.
For good measure, he also checked over the utility knife that he had on him as well. It was older and shorter than the hunting knife, being used for all sorts of mundane things like cutting rope, textiles, bark, or any time he might need to cut branches, whittle wood, or any other cutting tasks he wouldn’t want to dull the hunting knife on. He actually ended up using that to cut string next, keeping himself busy by looking for places on his shirt that could be mended. Aside from a tear that had been over where his shoulder got injured not long ago, there were a number of other smaller places that could use a bit of repair. He wasn’t particularly good at that kind of work, but if he took his time at it, he could make serviceable repairs.
Still, Brylin was quick to critique his work when she brought over some seed cakes and berries for everyone there to have supper while settling in for the night. Brylin poked at the shirt in Remal’s hands.
“Why didn’t you tell me this needed repair? You know I could mend it better in less time.”
Remal sneered at his sister’s smugness. “It doesn’t need repair. I’m only fixing a few… little irregularities so that I have something to do while I have to sit here. You have plenty of more important things to keep you busy, than to bother with this.”
“You could be napping instead.” Faver suggested, coming over and giving Brylin a kiss on the cheek.
Remal rolled his eyes. “Not sleepy. Maybe later.”
“Speaking of keeping busy,” Brylin said, now addressing her husband, “you’d better not be planning to work all night. You need your sleep, too. I know you’re exhausted.”
Faver nodded and gave Brylin a quick kiss on the lips. “We’re just finishing up and putting things away now. We’re basically out of herbs for these medicines anyway. Have to hunt some more tomorrow.”
“Just so long as you get some sleep tonight.” Brylin commanded, then turned her attention to Emri, offering her a seed cake with a handful of berries. “Try this, and make sure you get some rest too, miss. Take better care of yourself than these fools.”
Emri muttered something that was probably some expression of gratitude at Brylin which Remal didn’t hear clearly, then Brylin gave Faver a hug and kiss goodnight, and excused herself with another admonishment to everyone there to get some sleep.
Remal heaved a sigh of relief that Brylin left soo soon, then saw Emri looking at him, so he narrowed his eyes at her. It was gratifying to see her respond by opening her eyes wider and turning back to her work.
Faver clicked his tongue at Remal, then went back to cleaning up his workspace. He had some bottles there that he’d put the new medicines into, and it looked like Emri was putting labels on them.
Nathley came in to report to Faver. They briefly discussed how many of the temporary helpers and relatives of people who were sick, would be staying by them through the night, and that Faver wanted Nathley and Acker to stay by Hin’s boys, with Acker going around every so often to check on everyone. Remal saw Faver hand Nathley a note which probably had instructions for Acker so that Nathley wouldn’t have to relay everything secondhand.
Meanwhile, someone came in with a cot for Emri to sleep on that Brylin sent over, and Faver instructed for it to be set up by the work table. By the time that was done and everything had been cleaned up and put away for the night, Remal had gotten well and truly bored of looking for places to mend on his shirt. Not that they were hard to find, only that they seemed unimportant to him. Insignificant places, minor damage. It was wearable regardless.
He was glad when Faver put out the lantern, leaving only a small candle burning on the work table. The same had probably been done in all the tents where the sick rested; lanterns put out with only a candle here and there. They probably didn’t have a lot of candles left in the camp beyond those, but Faver wanted a close watch kept on everyone who was ill, and they’d want to have at least a little light to see by even when everyone was resting.
The last thing Faver did before settling down on a chair by the door to nap, was to have Emri hold the candle for him while he checked Remal over to make sure that everything appeared normal with him and that his shoulder didn’t need to be cleaned and re-bandaged again yet. Faver declared everything to be fine and that they’d change the bandage over Remal’s shoulder in the morning, then ordered him to rest and saw to it that Emri had a good blanket and got tucked in comfortably, then took up his place by the door.
Remal was fairly certain that none of them actually slept much, only having catnaps in between the times that Faver got up to go around and check on the sick people, and when Acker came in from making checks of his own and exchanged notes with Faver. When Faver himself went to make rounds, he motioned for Emri to stay behind, still wanting there to always be someone in the tent with Remal, to keep him under observation. He probably didn’t really think it was necessary anymore, but Faver was professional like that, always following through with what he said he’d do.
Remal wasn’t convinced that Emri was actually asleep during the times that she appeared to be napping, and for his own part, he pretended to be asleep while keeping tabs on Faver’s movements and watching Emri. When she looked to be genuinely asleep (probably) Remal observed that the blandly neutral look on Emri’s face appeared almost normal for a sleeping person, in candlelight and with eyes closed in what seemed to be a relaxed manner. If he didn’t know better (from having observed her throughout the day) then he possibly wouldn’t have figured there was anything strange about her by the way she looked then – well, not by her face. There seemed to be something a little odd about the way she rested with her arms in front of her, one crossed over the other. Not crossed in the way that a person might normally fold their arms in front of oneself while sitting or standing with the elbows bent at right angles, but instead having the elbows only slightly bent and the wrists being near each other. He wasn’t sure what was so odd about that, just that it seemed unusual. He couldn’t think of a time that he’d ever seen someone sleep like that.
Combined with how strikingly normal her face looked at the time, it reminded Remal of how surprised he’d been that her hand would be as soft and warm as a normal person’s hand, when they’d first met and shook hands briefly. That led him to wondering if the skin on her face – since it was of a remarkably smooth complexion – would also be as soft and warm as it might be on any normal young woman. It would, wouldn’t it?
Faver stirred, and Emri’s eyes opened. She clearly saw Remal had been watching her, and stared back at him coldly.
Embarrassed at being caught staring (and maybe a little because of what he’d been thinking) Remal tried to act as if she’d stared first, sending a bit of a glare back at her before pointedly looking away.
Then Remal saw that Faver was watching them as he stood up and stretched. Catching Remal’s look, Faver rolled his eyes at him and pursed his lips, giving Remal a small, disapproving shake of the head before exiting the tent to make his rounds.
A little later, after Faver had gone back to sleep and Acker had come in and gone back out, Emri got up and went out. Remal had been trying harder than before to appear asleep, only looking out through the tiniest crack between his eyelids. He thought he saw Emri glance at him with a suspicious look before leaving, so he waited until he was sure that she wouldn’t notice, then got up to follow her. It seemed that Faver might have been just barely awake enough to notice, but he stayed put in his chair and made no move to hinder Remal’s leaving.
Out in the other tents, most of the people minding the sick were dozing, only stirring if the people they were minding coughed, mumbled feverishly, or moved about in another way. Then they’d check to see if the person needed water or some other sort of help. Otherwise, all was still and quiet. Being practiced at stalking wild game, Remal could move very quietly when he chose to, and anyone he passed who wasn’t sleeping and looked straight at him didn’t seem to think anything of it, probably expecting he was only trying to pass by quietly so as not to disturb anyone’s rest. He was, however, trailing Emri and trying his best to not be noticed by her. He stayed back as he followed, only approaching enough to keep her in his sight from around tent doors and the like. He was fairly certain that he was doing well at it and she hadn’t noticed… but would he be able to tell if she did? She seemed to be a rather unpredictable person, sometimes reacting not at all or only very little, and other times seeming to startle over very minor things.
Emri seemed to look at every sick person, but only stopped by the ones who were worst off. She appeared to take longer than necessary on checking how feverish they were. After she moved on, Remal looked each one over briefly, not noticing anything strange except… there was a faint floral scent of some kind that there didn’t appear to be a reason for. On second thought, it was perhaps the same scent he’d noticed earlier when Emri had been mixing something on her own, when she claimed that it wasn’t anything different than before. The faint scent dissipated quickly, however, as if it were following Emri and not staying with the sick people. They had balm applied to their foreheads, but it only smelled like the one that Faver had approved of, and there was no sign of anything else on them.
What was she doing? Remal tried following closer to see if Emri was administering some kind of new herbal concoction to the patients. She didn’t appear to be, however, and though he was as silent as ever, she looked back at him as though completely unsurprised that he’d been following her. Infuriating.
She continued on as if he weren’t there, so instead of following at a distance like he had been, he caught up with her between two tents and stopped her before she entered the next one.
“What are you doing?” Remal demanded.
“Nothing.” Emri replied. “Just checking on people.” Something in her tone of voice sounded… nervous. Like she had something to hide. The moon was bright out at the time, but unsurprisingly, he couldn’t read any clear expression on her face, and she stared back at him without flinching. Without blinking, even. Absolutely infuriating.
He sucked air in through his teeth and then bit his lip. Otherwise, he might have started yelling, and then he’d never hear the end of it from Faver. Grabbing Emri’s hands, he looked them over. They were not only empty, but clean. There was no sign that she’d been handling any medicines just now with her bare hands, nor that she’d even touched the balm that was on the foreheads of the people she’d been checking.
Frowning, he wondered if perhaps what she’d actually done earlier was to put on some kind of perfume, except that between then and now, wouldn’t he have noticed it? Besides, it seemed to be even fainter than before, dissipated to almost nothing. Could someone else have been wearing some novel new perfume, and only coincidentally had been nearby at the times he’d noticed that scent?
He couldn’t have imagined it, could he? He was not in the habit of doubting his senses. Bemused, Remal glanced around. There was no one else in view, the closest people were in the nearby tents and no one had gone in or out of these while they’d been standing there. Something about this was puzzling in an exceptionally frustrating way. While he was looking elsewhere, he only noticed how sharply Emri pulled her hands away because of the sudden change in temperature. Oddly, in the cool night air her hands had felt warmer than he’d expected them to. He watched her clench her fists and then stretch her fingers, then dig her nails into her palms again. Suddenly, she tucked her hands behind her back as if hiding them away. He looked at her face, which appeared inscrutable for a moment until she narrowed her eyes at him.
“Leave me alone.” She said in a low tone, then hastily made her way back to Faver’s work tent. She stumbled a little in her hurry, but somehow managed to not fall, so he didn’t bother to help. She really was… odd.
Since he was right by there anyway now, Remal went through to the last tent, where Acker was dozing near Hin and his boys. Hin looked up, and in response to a questioning look from Remal, Hin made motions indicating that things were ok with them. Of course, those boys had only just taken sick; there were others there in the same tent who’d been sick far longer and were very badly off. Clearly, Acker didn’t want them to be disturbed; when he looked up, it was to wave Remal off with dismissing motions. Hin nodded and then also motioned for Remal to go back, so he did.
Upon his return to Faver’s work tent, Remal got a rather severe look from the Healer, who then insisted on checking him over before making him lie down and tucking him in securely. Remal immediately loosened the blanket up again so as not to feel constricted and confined, but in any case Faver ordered him to stay put for the rest of the night. He briefly wondered if Emri had been given similar treatment; she looked to have also been tucked in and might have been sleeping… but he doubted that.
