The girl approached a maja fruit tree—Aegle marmelos. On the branches of the tree that was not too big, there are hung several types of leaves from various types of plants. The leaves are hung by a rope from the stems of vines. Some have dried, some are half dry, and some still look fresh.
At the bottom of the maja tree, there are some tools made of wood. There is also some pottery shaped like a crucible in various sizes.
The girl reached for a medium-sized pottery container. She picked out some hanging leaves and placed them into the pottery jar on her lap.
She then checked the condition of the medicinal herbs in the pot on the stone stove. After that, she grabbed a small wooden crusher and curved from under the maja tree.
Then, the girl sat by the stone stove, on a piece of wood. She placed the pottery jar on her lap and used the crusher to crush all the leaves in the jar.
From time to time, she set the fire in the stone stove, sometimes adding dry twigs for fuel before continuing to grind the leaves in the pottery jar.
It took her a long time to grind the leaves until they became blackish green, then she stopped grinding.
She simply put the jar on the ground. Then approached the small, low table by the water barrel. The girl grabbed a bamboo cup, as well as a coconut shell scoop from the water barrel.
The girl carefully dipped the coconut shell dipper into the pot on the stone stove, then poured the herbal water into the bamboo cup.
When finished, the girl returned to her hut with a pottery container filled with crushed leaves and a cup of herbs.
"You have cooked the potion well?" asked the old and blind woman as the girl entered the hut.
"Yes, grandma," said the girl. "I cooked the potion over low heat according to your instructions."
"Good, Jihan," the grandma nodded. "That's good. The potion will quickly heal that Angholi warrior."
The 16-year-old girl named Jihan smiled and nodded, then she walked towards the back room.
Leyman still seemed to be unconscious, and when Jihan returned to the room, the girl looked down again with a red face because she saw Leyman's naked body without a single thread. What's more, on the thing in the man's crotch.
Jihan placed the pottery and bamboo cups onto the small table on the right side of the divan where Leyman lay.
The girl again cleaned the wounds on Leyman's body with plant fiber from a container she had previously used as well. After that, she grabbed a pottery jar containing crushed leaves.
With the mash that looked like blackish-green pulp, Jihan covered all the wounds on Leyman's body. From the left shoulder, left chest, a wound in the abdomen that extends to the right thigh.
Luckily for Leyman himself because he was in an unconscious state. Had it not been, the man would have screamed in pain.
After all the wounds were covered with crushed leaves, Jihan cleaned her hands with plant fiber in another container. Then, she grabbed the bamboo cup, then tried to lift Leyman's head with one hand. Slowly, Jihan pours the herbal concoction that still warms into Leyman's mouth.
Although it was a little difficult, Jihan managed to make Leyman drink up to half of the reddish-black herbal liquid.
After doing all that, Jihan then covered Leyman's body with a rough cloth made of woven plant fibers, from his chest to his knees. And then, she left the room. Leaving all the potions she had made earlier on the small table.
*
When the dusk had arrived, and the sky on the western horizon looked copper-red, Jihan stood up and came out of the river completely naked. The flow of the river water was quite slow and only about that girl's thigh deep and was part of the Last River.
She climbed onto a boulder where she had put her clothes before. Without being afraid that someone might see her, the girl put her clothes back on.
The clothes are very simple. Only a long, dull black cloth wrapped around her body, from her chest to her knees. With clothes like that, the girl's breasts look more squashed. Yes, the typical clothes of women who usually come from low-caste families.
Done wearing very simple clothes, Jihan walked home barefoot.
The girl walked cheerfully with a beautiful hum from her mouth, without lyrics, just a murmur. Her carefree steps made her long black hair sway. The hair was still wet. The girl looks as if she is enjoying her life in the middle of the wilderness without having to mess around with other things.
Meanwhile, in the hut in the back room. The eyes, which were still closed, seemed to move. Slowly Leyman opened his eyes, he winced because now he could feel the pain in the wounds on his body.
He blinked for a moment. After his eyes got used to the condition of the room, only then did Leyman fully realize that he was in a hut. Someone saved me, he thought.
Then, Leyman pulled the rough blanket over his body.
Right, he thought. Even that someone had treated his wounds.
Leyman tried to remember the last thing before he fell unconscious. But it just gave him a headache.
Gradually, he could remember all the events he had experienced with the soldiers from two different kingdoms. Horrible experience with Jumara. The man must be dead now, Leyman thought.
Then, he remembered that he slipped and fell and hit his head on a boulder, and finally passed out.
After that, Leyman could vaguely remember the face of a young girl and he tried to ask her for help before finally regaining consciousness.
That means… Leyman looked around the small room with bamboo walls with thatched leaves. This is the girl's house. Her hut.
And then, Leyman heard two people talking from the direction of the vestibule.
Yes, just at that time, Jihan had arrived at the hut, and she was talking to her blind grandmother.
TO BE CONTINUED ...