"Actually, my friend has something of immeasurable value to offer you." Daliah said and when Herdes, the healer narrowed his gaze at her inquisitively, she continued "Her knowledge. Her wisdom." Daliah said and I quickly let go of my trapped breath.
"Speak directly Daliah." He said and so she proceeded to explain more.
"Karen here is a great healer in her village, Damitro and so is her mother. I mean, how do you think she came to know of the cos... cos..."
"casmasia lobre flower?" I said.
"Yes. The Casmasia lobre flower if not so. Listen, she and her mother have healed a lot of people who got infected by Cyclops and they recovered. Here in our little village, we have no cure for that and recently Cyclops are beginning to invade our forests. Now if you give her that rare flower, in exchange she'll teach you how to use it to cure the venom of these creatures. That sounds interesting, doesn't it?" Daliah said and I grinned widely trying to play along with her lies. I never told her I ever healed a Cyclops wound, I was only going to try.
Herdes scanned us for a moment before he spoke, "You said you're from Damitro?"
"Yes, I am." I responded.
"And your mother is a healer?"
"Yes, she is."
"Liar! I know of just one healer in Damitro girl. I travel there to get these rare flowers. You would've come up with a better lie. Now get out of my shop." He yelled at us.
Just then, a young woman walked into the shop. "Mint leaf, please." She requested.
"Listen, sir. You speak of Mara and she is my mother, so please help us." I pleaded.
"Mara is your mother?" His eyes widened in surprise.
"Yes." I responded.
He handed over the mint leaf to the girl in exchange for coins but when she wanted to take her leave, Daliah held her.
"Now return it." She yelled.
"Daliah what is it?" I asked.
"She took something from you." Daliah replied.
After a moment of commotion, the girl brought out what she had stolen. It was my ring. Daliah snatched it from her and she immediately left before Daliah returned my ring to me and I put it back in my pocket.
"Beware Karen. Our village is full of pick-pockets." Daliah said to me.
"Thanks." I said.
Herdes who witnessed it said nothing about it but gave me all the herbs I asked for without any charge. He was all over the moon by the knowledge that Mara was my mother.
"Send words to your mother for me and let her know I gave you free herbs. She's my idol." He said.
"I will." I smiled and left with Daliah.
"I must say, your mother's name has quite a reputation. Herdes would have never given us those herbs for free if not so. Especially when he saw that expensive-looking ring of yours." Daliah said as we were on our way home.
"Yes. My mother is the best healer in Damitro." I responded.
Soon we got home and thankfully, Dolores still had a pulse and that green color on her face looked like it was fading away.
"You took quite a while." Gilbert said.
"We had to convince Herdes to give us the herbs." Daliah responded.
"Daliah, can I get a pot of boiling water." I said.
"Of course. Hurry up Gilbert." She ordered and in the blink of an eye, Gilbert came in with a stove and put some water on it.
I started to pound the collected items separately into a fine paste. Then next I brought out some mustard seeds from my boot and ground them into powder and when the water started to boil, I added all the ingredients one at a time just as I've seen my mother do.
Soon, the remedy was ready and I took some out in a cup.
"Help me. We must get this down her throat." I said and with the help of the dwarf couple, I was able to make Dolores drink every drop of the remedy in that cup.
"Thank you." I said to them.
"Did it work?" Gilbert asked.
"It'll take some time to take effect." I said then squeezed some fresh mucuna leaves to get out some water and then placed it on her wound.
"It'll help suck out the poison." I said.
We all sat down eagerly waiting for Dolores to respond to her treatment and soon, her eyes darted open.
"Dolores." I exclaimed with joy and as she sat up, I pulled her in for a tight hug.
"Na... Karen." She said.
"Thank the lights. I... I thought I lost you." I said.
"It'll take more than a scratch from a Cyclops to kill me." Dolores said.
"Sorry to interrupt this moment but, we can't let you stay further since your friend is awake. I had to sleep outside with my husband on the floor. It won't happen again." Daliah said.
"Thank you very much Daliah." I said.
"What village is this?" Dolores asked.
"Gepu." Daliah responded.
"Let's go, Karen. Gepu is at the outskirts of Torra." Dolores said.
"What do you want in Torra?" Daliah asked.
"Nothing. We just want to visit an old friend." Dolores responded.
"Oh."
"I'll write down my recipe for Herdes. Help me deliver it to him." I said to Daliah who in turn nodded and after I wrote it down, I left with Dolores.
Her recovery seemed magical. She was suddenly okay and the green color on her face had already faded away. She only had a few bruises on her shoulder.
"I need weapons." I said as we traveled.
"We need to disguise. Change into some clothes that are less pretty. Gepu seems like a very poor village so we need to blend in." Dolores said.
"We'll be out of Gepu in a few minutes so I don't think we need to change clothes." I said.
"Gepu in a part of Torra, the poorest part that the king never cared about, so they seem lawless. If we're going into Torra without suspicions we're going in there dressed as commoners from Gepu."
"So what do we want in Torra?"
"To make a good living."
"How?"
"Using your skills as a healer." Dolores said.
"Torra must have the best healers around here. I don't think it will work."
"Yes, it will. Their healers only specialize in healing fever, insomnia, wounds, and common diseases we any other skilled healer can heal but they'll never be able to come up with a treatment from an airborne disease."
"Airborne disease."
"Yes, it's common in Torra. And you as a healer will come up with it, Damitro is not exactly known to be a village free of different kinds of diseases so I'm sure your mother must have met such a case."
"She has but I'm not exactly sure of the formula..."
"Worry not my dear, we'll heal them and buy them over. Now let's hurry, I see a store down that street, let's have a change of cloth there."
We had our change of cloth and then our real journey began...