I hate this rain.

I spurred the horse on once more. It sped up for a moment, but is slowing down again. Both me and the horse are exhausted. We’ve been running raggid for days now. Only stopping for the short breaks. I just don’t have the time.

I wish I could have swapped the horse out several towns ago, but I know that it would just give me away. If I stopped and got a new horse they would find out soon enough.

The only silver lining of this damn weather is the fact that my tracks will soon be washed away.

Cough! Cough!

‘Dammit... it’s getting harder to breathe. I knew it was spreading fast, but this is faster than I expected.’

After wiping the blood from my lips with my already filthy sleeves I focus back to the road. The turn should be coming up soon. If I miss it and have to back track I’ll just waste more time. Something I have verry little of.

Even with my stats I can only see a few dozen feet in front of me because of this rain. Every evening it shows up. The water seeped through my rain coat days ago.

There it is!

Coming up in front of me is a side road. It is barely visible and in worse condition than this one, but large boulder means this is the right one.

I slow the horse down only enough so that we don’t go sliding and tumbling through the mud. As I’m coming around the corner I just hope the farmer gave me the right directions.

I avoided and went around all the towns I came across if I could help it. The less people see me the less they will have to go on to track me down. But there aren’t any accurate maps of this area. None that I would be able to get without standing out at least.

The farmer was alone in his field so no one else would see me. Luckily, he knew where Tulip was. When he told me it was only a little under two days away I felt hope. I was almost there.

I can’t speed the horse up any more on this side road, if you can even call it a road. The trees are encroaching and there is barley a path visible, but it is there.

‘Why the hell is Roth all the way out here? I know he wanted to get away, but this place is even more remote than I imagined. That might be a good thing now though.’

The trail winds through several trees and small hills. The rain causes several bodies of water to form on the road. Some of them block the whole road and more so I have to go even slower through the dense trees.

After an hour the sun has started to set and visibility is getting worse so I have to slow down more, or risk hitting a tree.

Once dusk is gone it’s even worse the rain is still here and it blocks out all possible light from the moon. I’ve hit more than one tree, but I can’t stop now.

Soon I see a light in the distance. It sticks out as the only light in an otherwise inky dark night.

‘I’ve made it!’

I pick up speed, but I need to temper my excitement. If I’m wrong and got lost I need to be ready.

Soon I get close enough to see the light if from a window of a home. The light of the fireplace leaking through the window.

Soon I’m at the door. Once the horse has stopped, I swing my leg over and slide off. I try to go as slow as possible, but when my feet the ground my knees buckle.

I make sure to land on my side. Can’t risk falling forward. After a though to curse my state and those who made it so I use the horse to steady me as I stand up.

To think I would become this weak. Not to long ago I could break stone walls with my fists, now I can barely stand. If my vitality wasn’t so high I would have died days ago.

‘Focus. I need to find out if this is Tulip and where Roth is.

I wobble as I walk, but soon I have the door to lean on.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

As I slam my fist on the door I can only hope I’m close.

Bang! Bang! bang.

-----------------------------

Bang! Bang! Bang!

“Who the hell could that be!?”

“Ron! Language!”

Bang! Bang! bang.

Before I can say anything back my door is beat down once again.

I get up to answer the door and avoid my wife’s glare. Who would even be beating down my door in this weather?

Bang! bang. -

“What in the hell do-Oof!”

As soon as I sling open the door to give them a piece of my mind, I get tackled!

They don’t knock me over though. Whoever they are they feel like ice.

“Is... this Tulip?

Their voice is weak. Now that I look at it, they didn’t tackle me, they were leaning on the door when I opened it. They are shaking so much I’m not sure how they are standing.

“Yes? But who in Tarnon’s name are you!?”

They still as soon as I speak. When they look up at me I can finally see her face under the hood. She looks deathly pale, but has nothing but relief on their face.

“Finally.... Where does Roth live? I need to see him!”

Her face changes to one of severe determination. She also grabs me with a strength that scares me. I try to wrench my arm from her grasp, but she doesn’t budge.

How high is her strength that she’s still so strong in this state!? Her grip tightens on my arm so much and it starts to hurt. Any more and she might break my arm!

“He lives up the road! Just follow the road! It will split and you just need to follow to the right. He’s only a few minutes away!”

My arm is freed from her grasp and I feel coins in my hand before I realize it. She turns around and heads right out the doorway. Before she makes it three steps, she breaks out into a coughing fit doubling over. With nothing to lean on she falls into the mud.

I’m hesitant to help her. That grip was not the strength of a sickly low leveled woman.

“What are you doing Ron! Help them!”

I give a quick glance back to Tala who had made her way behind me. As I look back to the cloaked woman, I see her pull her arm from her face to steady herself. It’s covered in blood.

Cursing myself I trudge out into the rain to help the woman.

“You can’t go like this, you probably won’t even make it to Roth’s!”

The woman gives me a glance, but soon after ignores me and tries to climb on the horse. Her legs give out though and she is soon laying face up in the mud coughing up even more blood.

This is when I see that see is very pregnant. I hurry over to her and try and help her up.

“Tala help me get her inside!”

Once my wife gets a look at the pregnant woman she pales and runs outside to help me bring the woman inside. The terrifying strength from a moment is all gone. She just feels like a twig about to snap.

Once we get her inside by the fireplace Tala runs to grab blankets. A second later she is back and I’m heading for the door.

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“I’m going to get Roth. Get her out of those wet clothes otherwise she’ll never get warm.”

Tala looks at me with concern and fear. We lock eyes for a moment. I try and speak as calm as I can.

“I’ll be back in a few moments with Roth. He can heal her and help the baby.”

She takes a breath and replies.

“Be safe and hurry.”

With that I’m out the door into the rain once more. It only takes one look at the horse to know its exhausted. Even then it’ll get me to Roth’s faster than I can on foot.

I have to go slow because of the dark, but at least the rain is starting to lighten up. Soon enough I’m at Roth’s house and can see the firelight in the windows.

BANG!-BANG!-BANG!

“Open up you old coot!”

BANG!-BANG!-BANG!

“Get your old dusty ass out here!”

Soon enough Ron was graciously greeted by Roth.

“What the hell do you want!? And who are you calling a dusty coot!?”

“You, that’s who! Just now some random pregnant lady that can barely walk just beat down my door asking for you! And to top she coughed up so much blood you could fill your tankard! If you don’t help then she and the kid will die in my living room!”

After a second the look of anger faded to surprise, then to severity.

“Give me a second to grab some medicine.”

Roth darted back inside. I saw his throw things around as he gathers what I assume was medicine into a small pack. Once his boots were on we were back on the horse. It was struggling to carry a second person, but we didn’t have to far to go.

Once we got back to the house Roth ran into my house scaring Tala and the children. They must have been woken up by the banging and yelling.

“Taml what can you tell me?”

Once Tala realized it was Roth she visibly relaxed.

All I can tell you is that her breath is weak and cold. I pulled off her clothes and dried her off, but she feels like ice. Also her water just broke,”

Oh no. this just got even worse. Roth has helped deliver babies before, but now the mother is already one foot in the grave.

“Ah...Roth.. It’s been so long.”

Roth looks at the lady verry confused.

“I’m sorry but I don’t remember you. Who might you be?”

While he was talking Roth started to look the woman over. I can even see the telltale light of healing magic come from his hands.

“It’s me Alena.... Gron told me to tell you that you’re even for the teacup now...”

Roth froze and looked at the woman. The surprise and shock were clearly visible on his face. After a moment he focused back on her body.

“You can tell me more later, first we need to save you and the baby.”

Alena looked at Roth with sad eyes and spoke.

“You and I know that won’t happen.”

Roth didn’t stop what he was doing, but spoke to me and Tala.

“Ron, Tala, take the kids to the other room and stay there with them. She is very sick and if you aren’t careful it could spread to you too.”

Tala looked at Roth in horror.

“We’ve been with her the whole time! Are we going to be ok?!”

“It is easily treatable in the early stages, but impossible in the late. I will check you after I help her. I don’t have the time right now.”

With those words Tala grabbed her kids and went to the next room. I followed after, but gave one last look at Roth. Roth had a different look to him now.

Previously Roth always cracked horrible jokes or said inappropriate things at the worst times. Even when he helped deliver our youngest never stopped making fun of me for worrying for my wife.

Now though, there was no jokes. His voice left no room for debate. He was serious. And if I was reading him right, burning with fury. There was a pure anger in his voice. Soon I was with Tala and the kids behind the closed door. All I could do now was pray to the gods.

--------------------------------------

As I looked down on Alena memories came flooding back.

Alena was thin, but the young woman I met many years ago was still there. She was quite a handful back then. All the energy of a lightning bolt and the spitfire of a demon. I couldn’t believe she was engaged to Gon. He was wrapped around her fingers, but they looked at each other with nothing but love and happiness.

Reganold was bragging nonstop about his new daughter-in-law. He even teased Gon by saying she was his new favorite child.

As soon as I looked away from her face the bad memories came. The death and suffering that no one should have to experience.

My spells told me a lot about her condition, but none of it was good. She could only use a quarter of her lungs. That wasn’t all though. This infection had spread from her lungs to her stomach, upper intestines, liver, and heart.

The white plague. I know this one well. There are few left alive that knew it more. That’s why he knew I couldn’t save her. It had spread to far.

The white plague starts off light. Just an occasional cough, but soon it starts to spread. By time you start coughing blood it has already spread to several organs. At that point it’s almost impossible to cure.

Alena is even worse than that. Most of her lungs are useless. Her liver is shot. Stomach and upper intestine right behind. Even her heart is starting to fail.

The only silver lining is the baby is safe. She has been using her mana to create a barrier around the child. This has prevented it from spreading to the child, but at the cost of fighting it back for the rest of her body.

I use my mana to reinforce the protection.

“...his name is Glim...”

Alena smiled as she looked at me. I could tell she knew how this was going to end and didn’t regret a thing.

“Please watch over him. All we wanted was for him to live a simple happy life....”

I used my left hand to gently grab hers.

“I swear that I will do my best to give him a happy life. I need your help to bring him into this world though.”

Alena struggled to take off her leaf charm necklace and handed it to me.

“This is for Glim.”

I use my mana to sweep over the necklace to make sure none of the plague on it survives.

“I understand. Here, drink this. It will give you some strength.”

I grab one of my simple concoctions from my bag. They aren’t anything compared to something from a real alchemist, but it’s better than nothing.

After several small sips and some coughing, she is able to drink most of it.

As the only person even close to a real healer in this village I have helped to deliver several babies, but this is going to be much worse. Most of my mana will be tied up making sure the baby is safe from the white plague.

This means it is almost completely up to Alena to deliver the baby. There were lots of screaming and blood, but in the end Glim was born. He was wrapped up in a small blanket and the glow of my spell. Without the spell he would most certainly get the plague and die.

“Well aren’t you the cutest boy....I wish Gron could have met you Glim, but you are still his kid. Grow big and strong and have a good life.”

Alena gently handed me Glim. She was only able to hold Glim for a moment. My mana was running low and the spell protecting Glim was slowly draining the last of it.

With that she leaned back staring at glim with such a beautiful smile on her face. Then her eyes slowly fell shut. Her breathing slowed until there was no more.

The previously quiet glim started crying.

-----------------------------------

Ron’s point of view

After a long day in the field I was looking forward to come home. Terner would probably still be out playing, but he should be back soon. My youngest was nine now and only stayed at home as much as he was forced to.

He was still too young to go out by himself, so he usually tagged along with his older brother.

As I opened the door I saw that we had guests. Roth was here with Glim once again. That poor child.

“Is there anything else I could be doing?”

Roth was here to pester Tala with questions again. I felt for him. Having to raise Glim, but he was always worrying and asking for help from Tala. Not that she had any experience with kids like Glim though.

Glim was just sitting there next to Roth. His face was blank. He was growing very slow for a child his age.

Physically he looked fine. He was growing up well, and with Roth always looking over him I’m sure he is the healthiest kid ever raised in Tulip. Mentally though he was barley there.

Glim could just sit there for hours and stare into empty space. By himself he would forget to eat or drink water. He could understand words and respond to simple questions, but that was all.

Roth had helped deliver babies for many years, but he never had to raise one before Glim. After that night eight years ago where his mother died Roth had taken Glim in as his own son. I never thought I would see that old recluse care so much for someone.

Most of the time he would only interact with people to get them healed. It was obvious he came to Tulip to hide away from the world. There is no reason for someone to come this far away from the cities otherwise. Even more so for a mage and healer.

Tala let out a sigh. “I said it before Roth, but I don’t know anything that might help Glim. Doing some more word exercises won’t hurt him though.”

Tala had raised our kids, but they were all much more active when they were his age. She had no experience to help Roth with, but he would still come and ask her the same questions.

Tala and I even watched Glim every now and then. Roth couldn’t always have Glim with him. Sometimes Roth needed to go places in the village and dragging Glim along with him could be bad.

Roth would always have to keep one eye on Glim to make sure he didn’t hurt himself. Soon Roth started leaving him with us after Glim almost got run over by a horse. Glim was just standing there. If Roth wasn’t always watching him he could have been severely hurt or worse.

Gilm gave us no trouble, and Tala felt bad for the poor child. After seeing his mother dead on our floor Tala took up the role of his Aunt. Roth would never talk to us about who his mother was.

As I took my boots off and came into the living room Roth turned to me.

“How’s it going Roth? Glim looks to be healthy.”

“It’s going well. Thankfully the accident with Ren wasn’t too bad. After a week or so his arm should be better. Maybe next time he won’t be so reckless with his ax.”

Roth smiled at my greeting, but stiffened up when I mentioned Glim. Crap. I shouldn’t have worded it like that. Me and my mouth.

“I still can’t believe he dropped his ax on his own arm.”

I tried to divert the topic. Tala was already talking to glim. Asking him how to spell certain words.

“Neither can I. How are the fields?”

“Thanks to the rain a few days ago the Kotu and Wheat is growing nicely.”

Since it was growing season there was little work in the fields today. Just the usual check for signs of vermin and pests. I had spent most of my day helping Charle cut down some trees. He was planning on expanding his fields next year.

“That’s good. Any signs of pests?”

“Nothing yet. I’m more worried about the rakas though. I haven’t seen any tracks, but it was an exceptionally light winter. Every time that happens we have trouble with the rakas.”

“I’ve already talked about that with Granon. He told me that he warned the hunters to be extra careful and report and raka they see or any tracks to him. Even with that I’m already making and saving some medicine for when the inevitable happens. Hopefully no one gets hurt to bad this year.”

Rakas are awful beasts. They are about three feet tall and six feet long. They hunt the animals in the forest and usually aren’t too big of a problem. The hunters can kill the few that come close to our village.

The big problem is the short winter. While it makes it easier on us it does the same for the rakas. The have larger litters which means more internal fighting. When that happens some of the rakas get kicked out of the pack. They are pushed out, and if they come in our direction, we have to deal with them.

We go from a few raka a year to a few a month. If several raka travel in a group it makes it harder for the hunters to kill any of them. If they get to bold they could even try and attack the village.

“We can only hope. You should never leave Glim alone though. If you ever need he can stay here. He’ll stay inside with me or Tala.”

“Thank you.”

After that I got myself a drink of water and we continued our conversation. There was never much happening in Tulip, but that never stopped people from talking about something.