“It's... it's not gonna hurt, right?”

  A young boy with a broken knee asked the doctor who was sitting next to him and was squeezing a cloth out of the water into a bucket. He had golden short hair with a fringe combed to the side and bright green eyes. He was a person of medium height and was very skinny. On his right cheek there was a scar, apparently after a deep cut. His laugh was very warm and very pleasant to listen to.

  “No, nothing will hurt. Unless you run away, then yes.” He answered cheerfully and put the material to his knee. “Well, I’ve cleaned the wound. Try not to go run around much, so that it doesn’t get infected.” He said while patting him on the back. The young boy smiled, nodded and ran out. The doctor sighed and looked at the shelf that was hanging right above him. There were various little bowls on it. He stood on tiptoes and looked closely at each of them. Each of them contained herbs, leaves, and other similar things, but unfortunately there were few of them, and some bowls were even empty. He sighed again. He walked into the other room, but before it casting some kind of protective spell on himself. It was a room where there were no windows, only beds where people were lying. They did not look good – some had bandaged all over their bodies. Among them was a young girl who looked the healthiest of them. It was her that the boy approached.

  “How do you feel today?” He asked with care. The girl blinked and shifted her gaze at him. She had brown, a bit short hair and amber eyes. She smiled.

“Nothing has changed since yesterday.” She answered. Although she was smiling, one could see that she was hiding a lot of fatigue. The boy nodded.

  “I understand. I have to go out for a while, so don't go anywhere alone, okay?”

“Okay.” She answered. The boy left the room, took off the spell, then moved the bedspread from the passage to the side and went outside the building. His journey lasted for a while, but finally he found himself in his final destination - in a magical forest. He will not be able to collect everything he needs here, but some of it for sure. He looked at the plants thoroughly and then carefully picked the leaves, green stems and even roots. He collected them in order to be able to heal people in the village and its surroundings – this is what he did. He used magic to heal and prevent diseases. He spent days doing this, researching, putting out hypotheses, practicing and learning to help as many lives as possible.

Once he had gathered enough, he smiled under his nose slightly. He finished, wiped off his clothes, which consisted of a white shirt and black worn-out trousers, and turned around to notice that he was not alone in the forest... but with his much-disliked “buddies”.

  They were thieves, a gang of bandits and bastards of all kinds, who could not earn an honest living, and to anyone who dared to disturb them while doing their "job" they stuck to like leeches and didn't let go until they drank enough blood. It was no different here.

  “Well, well... the dear doc Peter is walking around again collecting weeds!” Said one of them. There were three of them, they were young rookies following in the footsteps of their parents, but it didn't mean they weren't dangerous. Peter knew very well that they had been training from a very young age to be equal to their parents and grandparents in skill, or even better. He tried to keep his cool, but he wasn't doing very well. His legs started to shake a little, which they noticed right away and burst into disgusting laughter.

  “And as always, he’s pissing his pants when he sees us. So, partners, are we doing the same thing we did a week ago? Throw him on the ground and kick him a bit?”

  “Sure.” The second one answered, and the third one smiled broadly. Peter panicked hard, and it could’ve been seen from his eyes, which pupils quickly constricted. He tightened his eyelids and waited for them to hit him, but... but that didn't happen. He heard the sound of an argument and then a fight, but he didn't have the courage to look. He quickly ran a little deeper into the forest and began to take nervous breaths, already with his eyes open. When he heard someone coming, he started to hyperventilate again, but he calmed down when he saw it was just his friend. He was a tall, well–built person, his complexion was tanned, with hair as black as tar, and his eyes were like the colour of caramel. He had a hood on his head, and the rest of his body was decorated with a dark grey sweatshirt, green military trousers and shoes.

  “And again the same thing, you pussy”, he said to the golden–haired and laughed.

  “M–Mateo... How good it is that you are here…” Peter laughed nervously. Mateo snorted, still with a typical mean smile.

  „If I wasn't there, those fuckers would have wiped you out.” He answered. “You're collecting your weeds again and you're not even careful. You know they will attach themselves like a bur to a dog's tail even when under their parents’ care. Your mother had to give their pops a real hard time.”

  “Well, mother was rather stone-cold for people like them...”, he thought about it.

  “Aight, I don't have time. Come with me, Ianny is trying to do something for you again and he wanted me to bring you back, it's so good that I came at the right moment. Which time this week is it that it happened?”

  “The fourth...” Peter sighed. “But let’s go, I'm curious what he's doing”

  “I hope it’s nothing crazy. I've just finished rebuilding that wall after the last explosion.”

  “Ah, Ian and his magic.” Peter laughed.

~

  Ed and Kasei went to the Peter's. They were a bit confused, as they almost broke the flask when the golden–haired stumbled over a pebble. Then the frozen flower, which would heat up from the sun, would simply melt. Peter had no money for a new one, and this one did not cost little, and was a component of many effective medicines which he needed. So they stopped to hurry and walked quietly. Suddenly the fennec noticed a group of people dressed in golden robes, bowing and praying in the sunshine.

  “Soon the time of doom will come!” One of them shouted out. “The devil will come and his evil powers will bring us another apocalypse!”

Edward closed his eyes and sighed loudly. Kasei continued to listen, and then grabbed his hand. He looked at her.

  “Are they The Followers of the Light?” She asked. “Unfortunately.” He answered. “They believe in Ra, the old sun god, and most of them are very radical. These are supposedly harmless, but most of the thieves who usually attack Peter are their brothers. And they believe in some kind of devil from the legends, who’s tempting people with the wishes, they talk all the time about him. Come on, before they see us.”

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They finally reached their destination – Peter's "crypt", where people from the village were treated. The road took some time for them, because it was already three in the afternoon, so they were happy when they saw that they were finally there. They removed the curtain from the passage and went inside.

  “Peter? Are you here?” Ed asked, as he put the flask on one of the shelves and got a bit upset. “Now where did he go?”

  “Maybe he's with Mateo.” Kasei said to calm him down.

  “Mateo hasn't been around at all lately, so I don't know. But it's better to search for him, because if he's stuck with the thieves again, it won't be nice.”

  “He lacks self-confidence...”, the redhead moaned.

  A few minutes later they found themselves in front of a house built in a forest. Ed knocked on the door and went in, and Kasei followed him. They walked through the corridor, where the stairs led down to the room, then descended down. That's where they saw Mateo, who was carrying some boxes. After a while they also noticed the golden–haired boy.

  “Peter! There you are... I thought they got you again.” Ed sighed with relief.

  “No, no”, he answered with a smile. “Mateo just asked me to help him carry the boxes.”

  “What’s in them?”, asked the redhead.

  “Some shit.” Mateo said. “I was supposed to put it in the basement, because Ian thought it might still be useful.” He said it with difficulty, as he put the box on top of another, then sat and put his hands on his knees and took some deep breaths to recover. Peter looked at the box close to him and then lifted it up without any difficulty and threw it easily at the top of the one with which Mateo had been having trouble with, creating another “floor”. Mateo opened his mouth slightly.

  “I’ve told you he lacks self-confidence...” Kasei whispered to Ed.

  “Indeed.” He answered calmly.

  “Oh, did you hear about what's going on? Some people are going around and shouting that soon the devil or a deity will come, or whatever it was” Peter began the topic.

  “The devil? Deity?” Mateo thought about it. “I’ve heard something about it once. He's some kind of thingy who fulfils wishes, and those sun freaks believe it.”

  “Yeah”, Ed nodded. “I have always considered it senseless, like a fairy tale for small children. They take it too seriously, and the violence started again, Emerald told me.”

  “Again...?” Peter was terrified.

  “I don't want to think about what they can do again.” Said Mateo and put his hand to his forehead.

  “What... can they do again?” The redhead asked.

  “Well, it's normal that you don't know, we didn't tell you.” Peter went up to Kasei and stroke her head a little. „Do you know what Ian and I are working on?”

  “On... um, diseases?”

  “That’s right, but... we're working on one that's... different from all the others.” He added mysteriously. “It's a blood disease, we don't know where it comes from. Many years of research have shown that it was created by magic, but nobody knows how to reverse it.”

  “Wait a minute, is it about this... terrible disease I’ve heard about?” she asked.

  “Yes. A disease in which parasites slowly eat the host from the inside, its organs, muscles.... Hemasitus.” Peter answered and curled up. “I look at people suffering from it every day. I locked them in a special magic barrier and all I can do is... ease their pain a little. I can't cure them, and often I just have to....”

The golden–haired started to shake slightly. Kasei lowered her head down.

  “But...”, Peter continued in a quiet tone. “I'm doing all of this so that my mother's sacrifice won't be in vain....”

  “So, Kasei.”, Ed interfered, seeing her confused little face. “My mother was a general in the army, right? When the riots broke out ten years ago, the so–called Rebellion of the Light, she went to a small village to calm down the killing of each other by the Ra worshippers. But then one of them spilled infected blood on her. And we saw our mother dying slowly and in excruciating pain. I was eight years old, Peter was seven. Then... Peter decided that he would devote himself to medicine, that he would sacrifice his magical talent to treat people. I decided to become stronger... I don't know if I can do it, but I’m trying my best” He laughed. „But... Well, at least I can help Emerald with them...”

  “But we're gonna succeed!” They turned around when they heard a positive-sounding voice. A grey–haired boy with blue eyes entered the house and fell from the stairs immediately. He wore a navy blue sweater with a white collar, short, grey trousers and sandals.

  “Ian...”, said the embarrassed Mateo. “Were you making medicine again?”

  “Oh, dear brother”, Ian moaned to Mateo, rising from the ground. “And you won't even tell me you're going to bring someone here. Oh, but it's only them, so there's no problem. Eddy-ooo” he said, extending the sound. “Did you bring the Frozen Flower?”

  “Oh, yes, I left it in your clinic.”

  “Really? Oh, that's great, we can make more syrup” he answered. “There is nothing better for pain than Frosty Flower syrup! Oh, but if you were to add a Silver Daisy, the effect would be doubled! Come on, Peter! We're going to make some syrup!” Said the silver–haired while grabbing the gold–haired by the hand and pulling him outside. Ed laughed, while Mateo had a concerned face.

  “Okay, fine. Just come back and eat with us or something, Peter!” Ed shouted out.

  “Will do!” His younger brother answered equally loudly, because he was already outside.

  “So I’m going to take Kasei and go home. I still have some work to do.” Edward said to Mateo. „Like reading those stupid books?” The redhead smiled.

  “You... Come here!” Said Ed and stretched out his hands to her. Kasei ran away with a disgusting laughter towards the exit, and Ed followed her, but he stopped for a moment. “Oh, something else. Mateo. Talk to us more often if you could.” After that, Ed also ran out of his house and closed the door. Mateo smiled, but after a while his smile disappeared.

  “What absolute dumbasses.” Said the black–haired and went back to carrying the boxes. “This Ian too, thinks only about researching the... AH! FUCK! PETER, WHY DID YOU HAVE TO GO TOO?” He yelled at himself angrily when he couldn't pick up one of the boxes.