Clarke could hear the screeching long before he could see it. Mrs. Bruin and her husband were at the door of Clarke's home, dozens of elves milling about the lawn, many of the townspeople there armed with whatever tools they had at hand, backing the loudly yelling mother bear. Veins popped along her neck and she fairly shook in anger.
“You kidnap my boy right from out of my home, you call all these elves here, you won't tell me what's wrong. You're in league with these elves, aren't you, you little rat!? Sacrificing my boy for some magic non-sense. It's an uprising!”
She towered over the stooped rat like a bear, finger jabbing down at his shoulder. The other humans in the group were getting angrier, loudly joining in her mob as she egged them with her insistence. Twinty batted her hand away.
“For a baker that's pretty half baked. Look, the elves are hurt too! What kind of uprising starts by wrecking your own base?”
He waved Clarke over, all eyes now on him and the head of the magic school. The two mothers locked eyes, Mrs. Bruin settling her eyes on Alouella.
“Mrs. Bruin, I can assure you this had nothing to do with the magic school except that we suffered too-”
Mr. Bruin cut in.
“Nothing to do with it!? Then why did that rat over there say it was some strange mana illness? The only people around here that have any magic doings are your mana worshiping long ears!”
“Sir, we have plenty of HUMAN students, some from your village-!”
“Who I've always said are being brainwashed by your nasty elf-”
Clarke pushed between everyone, making himself the very center of focus. All eyes fell on him and he could feel something rising in his belly, rolling like the sea in his gut. It was likely to start painting his shirt if he didn't get inside soon.
“All of you be quiet. Mrs. Lawfer, take your daughter inside. Twinty, please make the medicine. And the rest of you listen to your hometown black sheep.”
He fought to keep his insides inside, mopping blood off of his face and smearing it worse.
“Have you really all forgotten your most notorious neighbor? The one who always seemed the most suspicious, who always seemed up to something but you never knew quite what? Isn't it strange that I came back into town the same day all of this happened?”
A light came on in the eyes of all those present, of old prejudices in tormenting a young boy. It certainly took a lot less effort to blame one single person, a lot less effort to ride him out of town than to form a lynch mob to hang every elf in the town.
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“I encouraged Wade and Alouella to visit this rumored dwarven city without checking it out first and they resisted at first but I needed the story to sell. Is everyone familiar with the mining canary? Little bird that dies when there's something poisonous in the air in mines?”
A few hands went up.
“Well we didn't have one of those and we are now all deathly sick because we caught something in those mines. Now if you'll excuse me, Twinty is going to brew us up something that will keep me from vomiting my guts all over the ground and will likely save Wade. I highly suggest anyone that hasn't touched one of us get away from here since this seems contagious and we may not have enough medicine for everyone.”
The word contagious spread through the group like it described and had the whole mob take a synchronized step back, some grabbing their nose, others covering their mouths but all of them quickly beating feet except for the Bruins who stared him down.
“You're more than welcome to stay but-”
The sentence ended in a burst of blood from his mouth. He felt weak, the whole world shaking around him either because there was an earthquake or his eyes were twitching in his skull. Someone caught him but the red coating his eye blinded his vision as to who.
He was carried inside where the whistle of a kettle sounded, the warmth in the air from steam. Twinty hobbled around continuously, back from the kettle to a pot, hmming and haaing at the mixture, adding this and that.
“Boy, where's that hole I gave you? Tell me you have a supply of Plus Wing in there so I don't have to go back to my house.”
He only had the strength to flop his coat open like an apothecary's closet for Twinty to rifle through. Gwen set him down on his old bed, now little more than sheets spread over a hard wood frame.
“Don't knock anything over...I have it how I like it.”
He mumbled.
“I don't know how you'd tell, everything is a mess in here.”
A cool cloth mopped his face and washed the blood away, cooled his burning head. Through the blood in his eyes he could make out a blurry dwarf, a worried look stuck to her face.
“...you are the moist god...”
“And you're burning up. Not as much as Wade over there but still.”
“I was carrying the moss...the stuff Twinty is boiling over there. Must have been living off of whatever is in us. That'd explain why I've never seen it anywhere else...”
He couldn't even turn his head but he could see Alouella's foot resting on the edge of a bench.
“Is she okay?”
Twinty knelt into his line of sight, a stone tumbler steaming over with moss tea. A bit of the plus wing floated on top, a small gossamer glimmer that sank into the thick green goo.
“She'll be fine. You'll all be fine if you just drink this. More or less.”
Gwen held his head up and Twinty poured it into his mouth. The taste was about what you'd expect of moss found in an old cave, like dust and slime, like sucking on a tombstone. His tongue burned as he drank until there was nothing left in the cup.
“Now you sit there and don't throw up. You did really good to grab this stuff while you were there or else you'd all probably be dead right now.”
“My old teacher...used to yell at me about keeping my eyes open for...ingredients. 'Why buy what you could pick up for free?'”
“He was a very smart rat, your teacher.”
Twinty had Gwen follow him, helping the others to take their share and drinking a full cup herself. Clarke curled up, hands putting pressure on his belly to hold it down from flip flopping any more. Sleep was the best pain killer he could get and after cringing and trembling, it finally let him rest.