Chương 22: Chapter Twenty-Two: Mother

The chasm widened here, and the river running through it spread out wide, with a fast center and dozens of meandering fingers running through the canyon floor. Tawny and her patients were in a shadowy cove, an eddy pool with steep, swirling waters where a layer of leaves had entered but could not leave due to the recirculation of the water. The canyon was open enough for a few anemic trees to form a skeletal forest right up against the canyon wall, circling the eddy pool like cloaked voyeurs.

In the center of the pool was a boulder the size and rough shape of an industrial air conditioner. Something lived inside it that even Hollis' inspector could not identify. [Naturalism lvl. 6] You see a large rock that looks less shaped by the forces of erosion and more by the whims of evolution and old magic. The rock was not simply a rock. It was a shell, half-buried in the water.

"Well, come over here if you're going to help. Hand Mr. Wellburn that towel," Tawny said. Hollis walked Mae closer to the water's edge and then gently released her. He grabbed one towel from a stack and walked it over to the man with the bleeding legs, who was washing the remnants of blood off with handfuls of water. The blood seeped down quickly back into the water below. The whole time, Hollis kept his eyes on the rock-shell. Something was moving near it.

Four long, dark appendages protruded from it, mostly keeping underwater. To his eyes, they looked like something between a frog's extended hind legs and a crab's swimming fins, with a shock of feather-like bristles at the end shaped like an oar. The legs moved in a circle, wafting the deep water into a whirlpool around the rock. He saw no head, nor mouth. If it had one, it would be large enough to swallow a person whole. But there was more to see than this.

Down, deep on the opposite side of the eddy from where Tawny stood firmly, was another creature that appeared to be hiding under an upturned sunken rowboat as if it used the vessel as a shell of its own. The broken boards of the boat flexed as the creature moved, slowly trying to escape the pull of the shell-creature's whirlpool, but never being able to completely succeed.

"You really aren't any help, are you?" Tawny asked, candlelight flickering on her face. His eyes flicked back to her. Something about the place sent a shiver up his spine. She didn't seem to care at all.

"What do you need?" he asked.

"Help Mr. Wellburn to the bench over there and then lower Mae down," she said. Hollis didn't know Mr. Wellburn, but he sensed the man wasn't on a first-name basis with anyone. He didn't speak, didn't acknowledge Tawny or anyone else even back at the hospice. That didn't mean he didn't understand, no. His eyes and attention simply belonged to no one but himself. This man had been through something awful, Hollis realized. Mae must have followed Hollis' train of thought as he saw to the man.

"Something came and stole the words from his mouth." Her long, white hair blew toward the water as she spoke, almost like it was faintly being sucked toward the whirlpool itself, right through the air. She flipped it back over her shoulder and laughed, gently. Hollis wondered what sort of things would be so shocking to someone from this world that they could be left in such a state. There were creatures here that dealt less with flesh and blood and more with the soul itself. Had Mr. Wellburn seen one of those?

He walked back over to the edge of the steep pool next to Tawny and helped ease Mae down into the water, noting that the man's blood had been washed away while he was looking away. There was some sort of protrusion down in the water that the patients could wrap their legs around for support. Tawny got Mae firmly planted on it. She then rifled through a medicine bag next to the candles and produced a small vial of cloudy orange liquid.

"You ready for this?" she asked. Hollis almost answered her until he realized Tawny had been talking to Mae.

"Teach him," the storyteller said.

"Show him what you're doing so he will understand." He knew about medicine more or less. It wasn't clear what lesson was in store that would be worth Mae's insistence. Tawny looked annoyed, but mostly resigned. She had clearly had similar conversations with Mae before.

"Few years ago, we ran out of two-headed leeches. Didn't matter much because we didn't have blood donors left anyhow. Now we come here," she explained.

"Go ahead and get down here and help me hold her." Hollis did as requested, stripping down to a scruffy pair of shorts he had been given by one of the residents. She had sewn it together out of the thickest denim he had ever felt. Fighting his fear, he plopped down into the water next to Mae. He noticed there were more small, jagged ledges like the one she was sitting on. They jutted out of the rock wall around the pool at irregular intervals.

"See, there is no such thing as medicine here in Periapt," Tawny explained. She handed the cloudy potion to Mae.

"There is only poison with convenient side effects. Every drip will build up in the system until you drop dead if you aren't careful. Most of the time you don't notice, but with some treatments, the poison announces itself a little louder." If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it's taken without the author's consent. Report it. Mae uncorked the bottle and quickly drank the contents. She clearly found it revolting, but the storyteller in her knew it was her cue.

The medicine tried its best to make its way back up her throat, but it couldn't. Tawny knew how to make potions that only went one way; Hollis knew enough to expect that. Mae began to breathe fast as the medicine worked through her.

"This brew is to fortify the mind. Some older patients need help with that. Treats ailments there are no cure for," she said. Mae struggled to talk.

"It helps me not to be such an old fool." She was trying to be funny. Tawny reached over and grabbed a small packet of powder. She poured it down Mae's throat.

"That was for her heart. These medicines have to be taken out here." Mae was breathing deeply. Hollis held her firmly so she wouldn't slip into the water. Whatever the medicine was, Tawny had not been exaggerating to call it poison. Mae began to fall limp, if only for a moment. The limpness didn't last long. It was replaced by pain and convulsions. Tawny reached back against the wall of rock and breathed out, as if activating an ability in some crafted object.

Hollis did the same thing when beckoning roots to grow, but he wasn't sure what she was giving Breath to. Realization struck him with a jolt to the heart. He quickly felt up against the side of the pool. What he had thought were simply rocks were not rocks at all. He didn't know what they were, but he knew what they belonged to.

"Are we inside a mouth?" he asked. He looked at the rock-shell creature in the center of the eddy pool. That wasn't a creature. It was an organ, something that stirred the water, moving it over to where he, Tawny, and Mae were right at that moment.

"I don't think it functions as a mouth anymore when they get this big," Tawny said.

"It's more like a trap. Maybe a filter." She continued to give Breath to part of the giant creature they were standing inside of. Blood began floating up from the water near Mae's calves and knees. Hollis couldn't contain his curiosity. He put his hand against one of the jagged edges, like the one she was sitting on, and felt a familiar sensation. He had only felt it once before. Willo must have gotten some sort of shared feeling, because off in the treeline where he had been hiding, he began to flash brightly.

The feeling was just like when Hollis gave too much blood to the roots down in the abandoned facility. It was the feeling of blood being supernaturally sucked right through the skin. This giant creature, some sort of bivalve, by Hollis' estimation, was drinking Mae's blood, just as it had Mr. Wellburn before her. Hollis was so shocked he got lightheaded. Were they using this monster as a medicinal leech? As blood-letting? Did they not know that was pseudoscience? Was it even pseudoscience in this world?

"Is it just draining her blood?" he eventually asked as he found his voice again.

"Recycling it," Tawny said.

"Cleaning it. There's no other way to keep someone alive while shoving poison down their throat." Hollis was deeply disturbed. The brutality of it, he could handle, but standing in a creature's mouth was having quite the negative effect on him. Luckily, a distraction showed up right on time. The large, white bird that had been flying overhead earlier landed right next to Mae on the edge of the eddy pool. She reached up and gently stroked its head, as if she had known the bird for years.

Well, "bird" was a bit of a misstatement. [Naturalism lvl. 6] You see a Bird of Oasis. These large, cactus flowers mimic the shape and flying ability of avians in order to travel great distances in search of water for their progeny. Only living for twelve hours after detaching from their cactus, they are said to bring good fortune to those who see them. The creature was like an origami master had folded a large lily into a bird shape. It overshot the size of an eagle, but it favored a cockatiel in form.

Even the most intricate details of the face and talons were mimicked. The flower bird nuzzled Mae affectionately.

"Berrylia, you've returned," she said weakly.

"Oh, dear, I did not think I would see you again in this life."

"Pay attention," Tawny scolded Hollis. She showed no interest in the reunion.

"I don't know what this creature is called by the scientists back at the university, but the folks way back when called it a Mother's Bath or Hunchback's Bath. It's fitting, really. These things can trap a fish the size of an alligator and feed off them for weeks. Both creatures benefit, if the fish is sick or diseased. The old-timers realized they could get in on it for curing disease, or trying to, but I figure we can use it to leech out the medicine after it's done its work. Make sense?" Hollis nodded.

The whirlpool monster was nothing but a big washing machine for your blood. It was no big deal. He looked around and saw the creature within the sunken rowboat. It was some kind of mollusk, perhaps. It tried to escape the pull of the whirlpool but never could. Was it being fed on then, too? Was Hollis himself being fed on?

"Are we in danger?" he started to ask, before finding better wording.

"What are the risks?"

"If you're too sick, you won't be able to get out on your own," she said, getting some sort of satisfaction from the look on Hollis' face.

"Mother here might try to keep you and nurse you back to health."

"I'm fine," he said, though he was feeling light-headed. Mae struggled as she sat in the water. Her bird friend did its best to comfort her. When she cried out in pain, it cried out. When she shivered, it shivered.

"Are you bonded?" he asked. Mae smiled at the memory.

"I met Berrylia when I was a girl with my father exploring the Winded Islands," she said.

"The Desert Trader found me, a wonderful eidolon, with beautiful eyes and a body of wind and silk. She said Berrylia wanted a longer life, that she would die at sunset and never see the sky again. How could I say no? I can't go adventuring with her anymore, but she still comes to see me when I'm sick, don't you, girl?" A bond for life was a bond for life. Twelve hours could be spread to nearly a century. Hollis spied Willo resting on a tree branch at the edge of the canyon. Somehow, he knew right where to look.

The glowbug blinked brightly when it noticed him. Hollis helped hold Mae for a few more minutes as Tawny finally gave her something for the pain.

"If I gave this to her too soon, Mother would just sap it right out. Come on, help me lift her." Hollis did as asked. It was more difficult than it should have been. The monster was pulling on her in more ways than he could see. Mae left a faint trail of blood just as Mr. Wellburn had. Only after a few seconds did Hollis realize that the stray blood on the rock and in the water was soon cycled back into the monster. That didn't make it feel any more sanitary.

"So, the orange medicine lowers Bile and restores Mind. The powder lowers Bile and restores Blood," he said.

"The Mother's Bath raises Bile but costs Blood. Blood restores over time when they eat and rest. Is that about right?" Tawny laughed.

"Maybe I should let you take over; you got it all figured out. Is that how it all looks to you, one thing goes down, another goes up?" It was.

"Something like that," he said. He helped Mae and Mr. Wellburn back to the group up the path and then walked the others to their appointments. It took until the sun had set. By then, Willo helped light the way. Nothing came easy in Periapt. Even healing could be a stomach-churning affair. Surviving here meant suffering, but, like the poisonous medicine, Hollis hoped it would all even out in the end.