“Ah fuck,” Charlie grimaced as he held his wrist tightly. Looking at his wrist, he moved it side to side. Pain flooded through his arm, forcing him to stop moving his wrist. Moving his glance from his wrist to the table, he saw the small pile of documents he had written.
Each document contained the different points of criteria to document who was in each clan and what that person was good at. Roughly the estimated there to be about 900 to 1000 people in the tribe, so he had spent the last couple of hours making copies of these documents. How many documents had he made now? Well, he wasn’t sure himself. All he knew was that his hand bloody hurt.
A rustling of cloth came from behind him. Turning, he saw Ourupadia standing in the doorway. In her hands sat a bowl of what looked to be water, and a white cloth. A concerned look sat glumly on her face as she saw him holding his injured wrist. Quickly, he tried to conceal his wrist to avoid her having to worry about him. But before he could do so, she was by his side and already had his wrist in a gentle grip.
Examining his hand closely, she placed a gentle finger onto the reddest, most painful-looking part of his wrist. Tugging his hand away as her pressing him fired another shot of pain through his hand. Placing her bowl of water and cloth down in a hurried, but still careful action, she grabbed his arm and yanked him onto her lap.
Squirming Charlie tried in vain to escape the fast stronger warrior woman and her loving yet vicelike hold on him. Seeing that he was distressed, Ourupadia did the only thing she knew that would probably calm him. Turning to look at her, she lifted a firm hand and slapped it around his face. Momentarily there was silence before Charlie burst into tears.
Waving her hands, Ourupadia started to franticly beg him to stop crying. Alright. what was the second option Nolkonoe said would work? Remembering what she had said, she wrapped her arms around him. Holding him tightly, she began to gently stroke the back of his head. what was the next thing she had said? Oh yeah, the chest. Grabbing the back of his neck, she caringly placed manoeuvred him until his ear was against her chest.
Now she had him in this position, she allowed him to listen to her beating heart. She remembered this worked on her when she was younger and considering that in their species, he is he was still very young she assumed it would also work on him. Charlie panicked a bit more and see try to escape from her grip, but the beating heart soon had its effect as he calmed.
Not wanting to waste an opportunity, she grabbed his arm and began to again examine his wrist. It was swollen red. With her fingers, she gently moved his wrist. Hearing him yelp from under her, she stopped. Taking her bowl of water and cloth, she placed it onto his lap so he could see what she was doing. Soaking the cloth in water, she rang out any excess before then wrapping the cool cloth around his wrist.
Charlie shuddered as she began to gently chant as she squeezed his wrist. Greenlight flicked around his wrist as she held him. All pain seemed to vanish from his wrist. Turning to look up at Ourupadia, he blushed as he saw her smug grin. She was amazing, he had never seen something like that before. Seeing through the doorway that the light was slowly fading.
Knowing how important these documents were if the tribe was to start having any form of identity anywhere else in the world (considering that these documents could be used as immigration or passport documents), he darted to pick up another piece of paper and continue his work. From the speed and clumsiness of his movements, as he grabbed one of the documents, he slit his finger open on one of the edges.
Seeing the blood dripping from his finger, Ourupadia wrapped him in her arms and retreated from the paper. Raising her tail, she growled towards the paper. Charlie smirked and giggled a little as she continued to try and ward off the evil paper with barks and growls. Smiling, he found it entertaining how she thought the paper was somehow this dangerous monster, and it wasn’t his stupidity.
Noticing his laughter, Ourupadia blushed. Coughing, she stopped her barking as she grabbed his hand and began to look away at the blood. While the wound was somewhat clean, she placed her hand over the cut and began to mutter the strange chant again. Like before, the wound was healed. Smiling, Charlie looked up at her.
“Thank you,” he said, blushing slightly before looking away. Noticing his blush, she grabbed the sides of his face and turned him to look at her. Ploughing her mind for the right human words, she eventually found them.
“Ill?” she asked as she stared at the bright red face of Charlie.
“n..n.nno” he muttered, feeling himself just getting redder as the woman held him tightly with one arm.
With her free hand, she began to flick strands of hair from his forehead. Next, she did the same to herself. Pressing their foreheads together, she felt how hot he had become. Panicking, she leapt up and sprinted from the room, Charlie forced against her chest. Getting out the door, she hopped and sprinted through the village. Dodging and darting between buildings, Charlie bounced in her arms, a pale look coming over him as they moved through the village.
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He wasn’t good with moving fast. Especially while bouncing around so much, it gave him horrible motion sickness. This problem became present on his face as he became ghostly pale.
“Bloody hell,” Charlie muttered, realising that this was the second time that day this had happened.
Peeking out from her arms, he looked to see the Vulture compound. Flying past the guards and inside, Ourupadia sprinted through the compound, ignoring all her friends until she found Phukomeia.
“What are you?” Phukomeia went to question Ourupadia about her storming through their compound like a wild beast, but when she saw Charlie in her arms and his condition, she understood what was happening.
“What’s happening?” Nolkonoe grunted as she exited her bedroom. Annoyed at being wakened from her sleep, she only became more irritated as she saw the almost deadly pale boy in the arms of Ourupadia.
“Alright, which one of you fucks am I beating?” Nolkonoe said, cracking her knuckles.
A couple of smacks and rantings later, Ourupadia and Phukomeia knelt along the side of the lake where the tribe bathed. In the water, Nolkonoe washed Charlie’s body.
“How did you get a bruise here?” Nolkonoe said as she washed the middle back of Charlie.
“I don’t even know how we got here,” Charlie said, his mind and body too badly beaten by the day’s events.
“You need to be more careful!” Nolkonoe reprimanded.
“You tell them that!” Charlie scorned as he felt a little sick rise in his throat.
“Shit sorry,” Charlie said, politely pushing back Nolkonoe as he threw himself out of the water. waddling over to a bush, he began to throw up.
“How do you even do this to him?” Nolkonoe said, seeing that what was happening was far beyond normal motion sickness.
“Well, I haven’t eaten today. At least I don’t think so,” Charlie said before throwing up again.
Sighing, Nolkonoe moved to the two girls. Flinching, they shrank a little as Nolkonoe raised a hand about their heads. Grabbing both girls’ ears, she tugged on them. Squirming and yelling, they dropped to the ground. Placing their heads on the ground, they bowed and begged for mercy.
“You alright over there?” Nolkonoe got her response as Charlie threw up again into the bush.
“Are you sure nothing else has happened? Have you drank anything weird?” Nolkonoe continued to question. Turning she walked towards him, making sure her tail smacked the faces of the two girls as moved over to him. Giving his answer through a form of throwing up again, Nolkonoe had her answer.
“Ourupadia, when you brought him to me, why?” Ourupadia thought for a moment while she thought for an answer.
“He was hot, like very hot, like fire hot! I panicked and came to find you because I… oh no… I should have just used the water I had to cool him,” Ourupadia said, embarrassed by her mistake. Pricking her tail up, she remembered something that could spare her from the wrath of Nolkonoe.
“He had cut himself on some of that strong cloth,” Ourupadia informed, her tail wagging excitedly. Nolkonoe was quiet for a moment. Strong cloth? Paper! That had to be it.
“Let's go back to the temple, I want to see the paper. And this time try not to kill him!” Nolkonoe said, staring down the two girls who had almost broken him twice that day. There was little chance the paper had anything to do with it, but still, she wondered if there was some dirt of grime on the paper that could have gotten him ill.
Charlie narrowed his eyes at Ourupadia and Phukomeia as they moved towards him.
“Don’t even fucking think about it,” he said, stumbling to his feet.
“I can walk on my own,” Charlie tried to plead, but Ourupadia and Phukomeia already had their hands on him. Hoisting him into the air, the two carried him back through the village.
“Wait what about my clothes!” Charlie shouted as he was too distracted with feeling as if his throat was on fire from the sick to notice he was nude. The two women only ignored him as they continued to carry him. Looking remorsefully back at his clothes, he realised that struggling would probably only cause them to be rougher with him. Deciding to relax, he allowed them to carry him back to the village. Arriving back, a shirt landed against his chest. A young Vulture handed Nolkonoe a fresh pair of trousers.
“Thank you,” he said, nodding to the vulture woman as he slipped on his shirt and trousers.
“I had asked her to bring them to you when we left. Sorry if they are a little bit, the Chiefess liked the smell of your clothes, so she decided to put them on in her human form. She accidentally went into her true form, and…” Nolkonoe said, gesturing to the small tears and stretches in the fabric.
“It's fine, I just think we should get back to the temple,” Charlie explained, wanting to be a bit more serious. Seeing some colour returning to his cheeks, Nolkonoe ordered the two women to stand down.
“Can you walk?” Nolkonoe asked.
“I can walk,” Charlie responded, giving her the best smile, he could in his current state.
“Let's go then. There was so much food last night that the tribe didn’t get time to eat it all, so we are having a nice feast to eat the rest of the month's food,”
“Is that alright?”
“It's fine, we planned to eat one month of food that night anyway, just turns out that our tribe underestimated the amount of food, so we have quite a lot left over,” Nolkonoe said, gesturing for him to follow her.
Together the two began their walk through the village. Ourupadia and Phukomeia weren’t far behind them. Keeping close to Nolkonoe’s side, Charlie noticed the stares of devilish lust and glares of curiosity from village women. She wasn’t wrong, it seemed that the clans were trying to fight over who owned him.
“So, when are the Forgers returning with the results?” Nolkonoe asked.
“Maybe another two days, maybe three. Those Desert Claimers are fast and could probably reach the capital either by the end of today or tomorrow,” Charlie explained.
“And what about the documentation process?”
“It’s going fine, I got wrist cramp from writing too much and Ourupadia healed him. I then did something stupid and got a paper cut, which she also healed. So don’t be too rough on her, she has good intentions, just a bad process of getting there,” Charlie said, showing his healed finger to her. Nodding, she continued down the path.
There was only silence until they reached the temple steps. Nolkonoe was the one to carry him up the steps, and unlike the others, she made sure to stop now and then for a few seconds to allow him to not get motion sickness. Reaching the top, they made their way through the temple and to the room where Charlie was doing his work.
Once in the room, Nolkonoe put Charlie down. Peering over her shoulder at Ourupadia and her daughter, she smugly grinned at how her taking him didn’t make him sick. Moving inside, Charlie moved over to the table and grabbed a few documents. Walking back to Nolkonoe, he presented his work to her. Smiling like a loving mother, she took the papers.
“What is this?” Nolkonoe asked in a motherly tone.
“A contract. I would like your help with documenting the people in the village, and to do so I would also like to begin showing your people how to use documents and how to make sure you aren’t scammed in the future,” Charlie smiled, offering the contract. Without thinking, Nolkonoe smiled. Such an adorable thing. He was harmless, so she decided to entertain him.
A wicked smile came over Charlie’s lips but quickly vanished as he carried on.
“So, how shall my tribe be of assistance?” Nolkonoe asked.
“Well, first I want to ask if you are any good at drawing?” Charlie asked. Nolkonoe pondered for a second before responding.
“No, that more of a forger thing,”
“I see, so what is the possibility that I could talk to the forgers?” Charlie questioned, sighing as he realised that he wasn’t going to get that much rest that day.