The morning came with a peaceful approach. Most of the village was already up and awake as indicated from the smoke from their chimneys. Cyrene was already wide awake, her wounds healed into a few bumps and bruises. Just an old scar from the past now.
The boy was still fast asleep, the exhaustion from helping all the children around the village taking its toll on him. Cyrene smiled and decided to toy with him a little.
She leaned close into the boy's face and poked his nose, slightly tickling him until he scrunched his face and slowly woke started to wake up. Eyes drowsy, relaxed, slow breathing, and tangled up hair with straining yawns. He looked like a teen without a sleep schedule.
"You'd think that those three days of sleep would've helped you," Cyrene joked with a small chuckle. "Guess you're still pretty tired."
"I probably just look tired." The boy said, half awake.
"Well, if you're ready to get up then come on. I've got breakfast ready."
There were an assortment of various fruits plated on the table with two large bowls of hot soup and a cup of pale white liquid.
"We like to go easy on our jaws in the mornings," Cyrene said, taking her seat. "We eat tamer foods that help slowly get our teeth prepared for the tougher stuff. You could basically think of it like a way of waking them up"
Eyes slightly red from rubbing them awake, the boy took a seat at the table, barely catching himself from falling after getting a slight head rush.
"Hey, take it easy," Cyrene said. "Food's not going anywhere."
The boy took a few deep breaths, short, ragged breaths that were off beat and spasming.
"Hey, are you ok?" Cyrene asked with sincere concern.
"No…I…I feel…"
Cyrene swiftly got up from her seat and vaulted straight to the struggling boy, stopping him before he crashed down onto the floor.
"Hey, what's wrong?! Talk to me!"
"It's…my leg…" the boy choked. "Something's…moving…"
"What…? What do you mean-"
"Move!"
The boy bolted up off from the floor and limped to the door, shoving it open after grabbing the knife that Cyrene had given him.
"Wait, where are you going?!" Cyrene chased after him.
The boy crumbled down to the snowy ground, ragged, desperate breaths entering and escaping from his mouth as he led the knife straight towards his pulsating calf.
"What are you-! …wha-what the…"
Cyrene was exasperated after seeing what the poor boy's calf had become. There was a noticeable, jagged, jet-black mark on his calf with blackish-brown veins sprouting all over his right leg, looking like they were about to burst.
"Cyrene…look away," the boy said, straining his voice. "This isn't something you're gonna wanna see."
"Wait, hold on a second! Do you even know what you're doing?!"
"No, but I know that whatever's inside my leg shouldn't be there…"
With one deep breath and a low growl, the boy plunged the tip of the blade into his calf and began to pull the knife across, cutting open every layer of skin and exposing the flesh within.
What was inside was not flesh however.
"GRRRAAAAAAAHHHHHH!!!!!" The boy screamed in agony, the searing pain of his leg being cut open and exposing the horrid smell of rotting flesh sent him into a frenzied state.
There was a burning liquid that poured out from his calf, most likely the stuff that made his leg look really swollen. It was black and murky with hot steam rising from it. No part of it looked or felt natural.
"Hrrrr…HRRRRR…get…OOOOOUT!!!!!"
The boy dragged the knife all the way across the swollen calf, exposing more rotting flesh and murky liquid. He grew even more desperate in his frenzied state and started squeezing and ripping the flesh and liquid out of his leg. Doing whatever he could to get it all out.
Cyrene watched in horror at the boy shredding his calf into pieces with his bare hands. A horror that continued for five straight minutes. To the boy, that felt like a years worth of agony crammed into one moment.
Even after going through all that pin, the boy still fought the urge to pass out, keeping himself awake by face planting into the snow as hard as he could. He forced himself to stay awake until he pulled the last strand of rotting flesh and squeezed out the last drop of the murky black liquid out of his calf. All that was left was exposed pink flesh with blood slowly oozing out of his calf.
Cyrene quickly carried him back into the house, keeping his calf upright so that none of his exposed flesh would fall out accidentally. She had him lay down on the couch on his stomach and ran to grab the plant liquid to numb the pain.
The boy boy down hard on a rag Cyrene handed to him as she applied the liquid onto his wound.
"Ok, what do I do now?" Cyrene asked.
"You need…to close the wound…" the boy said, barely conscious.
"H-How? What does that mean?"
"I'm not like you… I…can't heal on my own… There's…some items in the kitchen counter… They look like a prong tied to a piece of rope…"
Cyrene sprinted in and back out of the kitchen with the items.
"Ok, now what?" She asked.
"You need to…you....nnh…"
The boy nearly fell off the couch before Cyrene quickly caught him.
"Wait, no no no no no I still down know what to do! Hey, wake up! Please!"
The boy didn't respond. He was out cold, his calf still bleeding badly. Cyrene quickly calmed herself before putting everything together. She took a glance at the prong with the thin rope attached to it, then quickly figured it out.
"Ok, calm down." Cyrene said to herself.
She took a few deep breaths as she got to work, carefully sliding the prong through the detached areas as neatly and carefully as she possibly could.
"Ok, that looks good."
She was almost out of the thin rope, but she managed to finish stitching the boy's wound together. Blood covered Cyrene's shaking hands as she let out a few more deep breaths.
"I should cover it up now."
Cyrene applied more of the plant liquid for good measure, then gently wrapped his calf in a few layers of bandages followed by one last spread of the plant liquid.
"There…"
*Tick*…*Tick*…
A few droplets of tears dripped from Cyrene's eyes, her grip on the rag of plant water tightened, unintentionally wringing out the water from the rag.
"Please…I need to know…" Cyrene whispered, straining her crying. "Who…are you?"
She knew he wouldn't tell her because of what he said earlier, but it was frustrating for her. Despite being a lone wolf, she always had a natural instinct to help people. Even in moments where her own life was in peril, she still did what ever she could to help them.
But in some moments…
"I'll never let that happen again. So please, let me help you in every way I can."
…she couldn't save everyone.
Cyrene got herself dressed, readjusted the patch on her eye, and headed out the front door, leaving the boy to sleep on the couch.
'I hope all the children are doing ok. I'll try and help cook something nice for them all.'
Cyrene was immediately greeted by the pool of black sludge and rotted flesh on the snow from the earlier incident. The smell was putrid and incredibly potent.
'I hope something like that never happens again.'
Cyrene walked through the village, greeting the children with smiles and ingredients to cook with. For the most part, they were all doing fine.
All, except for one little wolf girl.
"Hey Katherine," Cyrene greeted the little wolf girl. "How are we feeling today."
"N-Not so good big sister," Katherine groaned. "Nathan's been fed already, but I can't move anymore. I can barely lift my arm anymore."
With each passing second, simply looking at Katherine made Cyrene hurt more and more.
"Hey, I have some soup for you," Cyrene said. "Ayala, your favorite."
However, she did whatever she could to smile for the little wolf girl.
"Hey, big sister," Katherine said. "When…do you think I'll die?"
…
"…"
'No…please. Don't ask something like that.'
"Please, I at least just want to know."
Katherine was so innocent, yet she was asking such a painful question. Cyrene couldn't take it anymore.
"No…it's not fair," she whimpered. "No child…should have to go through this… No one here should have to go through this…"
"Big sister, please don't cry. I didn't mean to make you sad. I just-! …urk! *BLEH!*"
Katherine tried to apologize to Cyrene, but was interrupted by a stream of blood and chunks that she vomited. The fluids splattered onto the floor, a horrifying atmosphere shrouding inside the house.
Katherine coughed violently, more droplets of blood escaping from her mouth. Cyrene had water and a rag ready for her.
"How…bad is it?" Cyrene asked her.
"Sometimes, I can't even breathe because of the coughing," Katherine choked, wiping the blood off of her mouth. "When I vomit, it's more blood than anything else. And I'm starting to not see very well."
Everyday, Katherine's condition grew worse and worse as she became more and more bedridden. No one knows where her illness came from, but everyone knew that her time was running out. Her parents fought with Cyrene's father as well as the Chief, trying to convince them to let them stay. However, Katherine was not having it.
"Just go," she told them. "I'll be fine."
She said all of this with a smile on her face, but everyone knew that it was all an act. Deep down, she was in pain, crying, begging for mercy from this pain. She stayed strong and made her parents leave for the sakes of everyone in the village, but she still cried in the endless nights. A mixture of internal pain and somber torturing her mind and soul, constantly in a battle with life and death. All while taking care of her baby brother.
"Hey, Cyrene," Katherine muttered quietly. "I'm gonna need someone to take care of Nathan."
Cyrene immediately shook her head.
"No, you need to be there for him. You still have so much to see him do. His first words, his first steps, his first hunt, education. He needs his big sister to-"
"I'm sorry, but I wasn't asking Cyrene."
"I DON'T CARE IF YOU WEREN'T ASKING!!!"
Katherine wasn't fazed by her sudden outburst. Though Katherine was only nine years old, she was like Cyrene's older sister. She knew Cyrene better than most.
"Do you realize…how selfish you sound right now?" Cyrene choked, struggling to keep her voice right without crying.
"I could say the same to you." Katherine muttered.
Neither one of them spoke after that. Instead, Cyrene cleaned up the bloody vomit off the floor and crawled into bed with Katherine, holding her head tightly to her chest while trying to pretend like she was in a dream. It was the only way for her to keep herself from breaking down completely.
Katherine smiled weakly.
"What will I ever do with you…" Katherine joked, drifting to sleep with her.
The boy woke up silently, not even making and effort to get up from the couch. Instead, he just layer there while looking at his bandages leg. And for a brief moment…
"Thank you…"
…he smiled, as he closed his eyes and drifted back to sleep.