Maleki:

The doctor, an older man named William Sekund, lived a two-hour walk away in a small home that was still a few hours away from a small village. We had never been farther than his hut, but that’s how it is in the outer quadrants, apparently. Everything is free and open here, and we never see anyone other than the healer. We’ve never even seen anyone in passing. The only people that ever visited were when Miko first started getting sick, but we weren’t allowed to talk to them. I just want him to get better, to be normal again. Hopefully, Dr. Sekund can brew something with all the items he has collected from our parents.

The walks there are always uneventful, but the forest is beautiful, at least. We’ve made this path so many times now over the years that the grass has diverted around our path; our previous trips echoed into the ground. Every two weeks for multiple years, we have come to see the great doctor, and every day I’ve spent in trepidation of the next. Fearing that Miko might give up and the sickness will take over. We just have to keep holding on until we can find a way to make him better.

We reached the bottom of the hill where the doctor lived and worked. His house had an angled roof that was created by a thick green moss that sat on barely visible dark brown beams of wood. The doctor, whose first name was William based on the way our grandfather spoke of him, sat in an oversized chair in front of his house and wielded a cinder orange cigar in the fingers of his right hand. The man had grayish blond hair that ran thin like strands of wheat stalk in a field and parted from the middle of his balding head. His appearance was younger than our grandfather’s, but he also had a ruggedness that made him look just as old.

As we neared closer to the man, he placed the cigar in a glass tube, which clearly did not appear to be the intentional use of the device, and approached us with a booming voice that never quite matched the level of the environment he was in. “My favourite patients, the Mortica boys!” His arms were held out wide as he stood in his loose brown koht with long sleeves that looked a little too big, even for a man of his size.

“We’re your only patients, you geezer,” Miko muttered under his breath before passing under the man’s embrace.

“Sorry we’re late, Dr. Sekund,” I said with a forced smile.

Miko slouched on the open doorway of the house and stared at me with an expression that screamed, ‘Faker!’

“It’s no problem. I look forward to these visits these days. They’re about the only times I see people unless I go to a village for supplies.” The doctor spoke loudly and almost always ended with a laugh, even if the statement wasn’t very funny.

Miko stepped further into the house and out of the way as the wideset man stepped into his home and gestured for us to sit at his table. My brother sat himself into a chair that I lightly pushed forward before taking the seat next to him.

“Would you like any tea? It’s my special blend that helps even these old bones feel good for a little while.” The doctor asked aloud to us both.

“Will it cure me? If not, then I’ll pass.” Miko said in a monotone voice with his chin dug into the wooden table, his arms tight at his side from the pack’s straps, which helped to prevent his arms from dangling and getting in his way.

After accepting the offer, I made a face at Miko to show my disapproval, but his eyes passed over me without care as they wandered around the room, inspecting the equipment and items the doctor had stored on the shelves. All of the doctor’s tables and shelves had charred spots that formed circles from vials overflowing during the mixing progress, and a myriad of different smells and colours emanated from the areas where potions once sat.

Dr. Sekund placed a steaming cup of tea in front of me, and Miko visibly strained his teeth back and forth in a grinding motion.

“I did tell you, you gotta smile more if you want to get healthy, but that can’t be good for your teeth!”The older man said as he sat back into one of the chairs, which he seemed to leak into unfavorably.

He lurched forward out of his chair. “You boys know why they call these Gatcha leaves?” He paused, realizing we had no intention of answering, “The little critters that guard these trees — if they catch you picking the leaves or fruit, they yell ‘Gotcha.’” He reached his hand out in front of Miko’s face in a grabbing motion and let out a deep-hearted, bellowing laugh. “You boys sure aren’t in a good mood today. What’s gotten into you?” The old doctor spoke.

“Miko’s not getting better, sir; this isn’t working. Gatcha leaves, Fyrem Rocks, Nectar Baths, it all ends in the same result. Miko is worse off than when we started. I’m trying to be hopeful, but it feels like time is not on our side here….”

After a moment, the healer looked down at the ground and back up at us. The face of the old jester that spoke was gone, and in its place was one filled with sadness. “I understand what you’re saying, what you’re feeling too. My wife was spurned with sickness as well. It was not the same as Miko; it took her slowly, and my potions only reduced the effects of the dreariness and made life more manageable. I hoped they would eventually have some effect on you as well. Alas, this old geezer has run out of options; that bit is true.”

I looked at Miko with his arms hanging at his side and his chin buried into the wooden desk. He was looking around the room at old artifacts and hung up creature bones on the walls.

His statement was sincere, and I certainly didn’t blame him directly for Miko’s condition worsening, “I know you are doing everything you can, and we appreciate what you have attempted so far, but you have to know of something, somebody, or somewhere that can take us further than this.”

The man thought for a moment as he paced back and forth, likely racking his brain to pull an old memory or a new idea. He then walked over to a drawer, pulled out a single brown parchment, and unrolled it about as wide as his chest. He looked it over with his arms up high, and the light hit it just right so that it was more easily visible.

He walked over and sat down in front of Miko. “There might be a place that can help.”

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I started to interrupt, but he stopped me. “However, I need to assess Miko once more. That will decide if I pass this along to you.”

There was no protesting from Miko, so I nodded my head, and Dr. Sekund asked Miko to stand up so he could begin his assessment.

The old healer grabbed his left and right arms near the elbow and asked, “Do you feel pressure on your arms?”

Miko nodded, so the doctor moved his hands to a different position and applied pressure in one spot.

“Now, which one?” Dr. Sekund asked.

He pointed with his neck to his right arm.

The old doctor mumbled in frustration, “Agh! It would make some sense if you lost just mobility, but to have feeling in your limbs still? Stupid curse.” He brought his fingers to his temples as he continued to speak aloud. “To be cursed to touch but not to move, there is no greater fear of mine, indeed. I’ll give you the parchment.” His eyes locked with mine, and he handed it over to me.

I looked the paper over, “Is it a map?”

The old man nodded, “Of sorts.”

“A map to where?”

The man’s eyes lit up like fire as if he was looking through me. “To a myth. I know not what fruit it bears, only that the journey is treacherous and long. I found the map while searching for a cure, but my wife wanted to pass in peace, not spend the rest of her life sleeping in the woods, moving through cold nights and steep hills. She’d had sooner succumb to the sickness than travel away from our home.”

“Why? Why give this to us now?”

He turned his back, walked over to one of his shelves, and rearranged a few potions in tubes. “I found out not long ago, but the map is to be a ticket of some sort. I was experimenting one night with a concoction that was supposed to emit a healing smoke. I was cleaning up the room and saw something new on the back.” He turned back around to us after saying this and handed me a glass tube with a cork on the top. “Break the seal,” he said.

I pulled the top off the tube, and the air reacted with the mixture inside. Smoke leaked out, and I held it underneath the blank side of the page. The smoke pulled out around the edges of the paper and rose to the top of the high wooden ceiling. I put the paper out in front of me with my arms stretched far enough so that Miko could read it as well.

Runes began appearing individually, but I couldn’t read them. Instead, I started to hear the words that they represented through an unfamiliar voice. I turned my head to both sides to check where it was coming from, but there was no direction, almost as if it was inside my head.

‘Often, I am found in the town between the kings and sound. Listen for the hum and carry with a krown. Judgment of earthen mound and fiery crust around. To the garden, we are bound, with fruit of cursed ground. Cure the pain abound, a cost worse than death profound.’

The runes faded as quickly as they appeared, and we were left with silence.

The older man interjected into our quiet. “I didn’t understand it, but maybe it needs a younger set of eyes and ears.”

I looked over at Miko, and his eyes were shut. He was likely attempting to process everything, much like I was. My memory was hazy at best, and I could barely remember how it went even after just hearing it, but he was repeating the words over and over, imprinting them into memory.

Miko’s eyes popped open after a moment and immediately jolted to me in excitement. “I’ve got it. Most of the riddle pertains to the destination after we find the ticket holder, so we only have to focus on the first two lines.” From what I could remember, he was right. There was a reference to a garden, so maybe that’s where Miko can be healed. We’ll need a guide to get there, though, as there was no mention of how to get there or where the garden is.

“The first line referenced ‘kings and sound,’ right?” I asked while attempting to analyze what I had heard. My brother nodded to affirm me, but I thought about it further before making sure I had heard the voice in my head right. “So, the guide should be between a place where kings are and where a significant sound can be heard?”

“I’m not confident that ‘kings’ is meant as directly as it is said.” My brother responded decidedly. “It was said in a plural tense, which doesn’t sit right with me. It’s a riddle, so it’s meant to redirect us and make us think one thing when it intends another.”

He was right. He usually is, unfortunately. “So, what else could it mean? This map looks pretty old.”

Miko responded quickly, “The riddle would have to make sense in the time period it was made in. The only thing that lines up based on that is Quavoris.”

Quavoris isn’t far compared to the capital, but it’s a two-day journey at the least, presuming we can travel at full speed. “Why Quavoris?” I asked aloud.

The map showed our whole kingdom and more, but Miko was mainly focused on the bottom right side of the paper as he began speaking. “Near Quavoris is an area called Brigan Sound. It’s on the map, so it’s not too much of a stretch. The stretch is the ‘kings’ part….”

I eyed him with a straight face as if annoyed. “Out with it!”

“Well, the only thing I can think of are the King Deer. I read about them in one of Grandpa’s books, and they tend to roam near the deeper woods of Quavoris. So, it’s either literal, and it means between the capital Korvast and Brigan Sound, or it means between Brigan Sound and Quavoris. One of those is a much smaller distance to cover.”

“Well, it’s decided. We’ll head to Quavoris.” I nodded assuredly and smiled at Miko and the older man.

Dr. Sekund’s face had returned somewhat to the healer we were used to. “You boys seem to have a plan — which is good — but know that this journey will not be easy. Finding the ticket’s holder is already a journey some may not be able to solve, but surely what comes after will not be any easier.”

He paused for a second, and I could almost see a tear well up. “I care for you boys. Your grandfather looked after me when this kingdom was much different than it is now. I’m sorry for not saying anything sooner, but I didn’t want you wasting time on what could well be a dead end.”

My eyes met Miko’s, and we both got up to hug the man. “We appreciate everything you’ve done for us, but we have to try this,” I said assuredly.

Even Miko let out a reluctant “thank you.”

The doctor embraced our hug and pulled us in tight.

We headed for the door, and I tied Miko’s bag to his back before departing.

“Take these extra potions just in case, gentlemen!”

I stuffed them in Miko’s bag. “Here you go, pack mule!”

We turned to give Dr. Sekund a wave goodbye. Well, I turned to wave goodbye. Miko just turned, but the effort was there.

“See you soon, boys!” He said with a wide smile.

“See you soon,” we both returned.

I said that, but I knew — I think Miko and I both knew we wouldn’t return anytime soon.