I walked behind her with my ponytail clenched in my hands.

Sidmund, Hector and Klyn all looked up at once as we emerged from Mama's room. They didn't say anything, but just kept looking at us to initiate conversation again.

"You all are in luck today," Mama announced in a booming voice. All three men perked up. "Fortunately, we have some ointment at home that can help your injuries."

All of them looked at her as if she had gone crazy.

"Mama," Hector began bravely. "Are you sure mere ointment can heal all this?" He pointed towards Sidmund's stub of an arm which still dripped blood, and then to a large slash on the side of his waist, drenching his black shirt in visible blood. It was daft to recommend an ointment in this situation, even I knew that. But what else could we do?

"Don't worry!" I spoke up. Sidmund, Klyn and Hector turned to look at me. Suddenly, I felt uncomfortable bringing all the attention to myself. "This ointment is not like any other; it does wonders."

Everybody except Mama and I exchanged glances. "Are you sure?"

"Absolutely," Mama responded and nudged me. "Go upstairs and lay down on any of the beds. We'll bring the ointment right in."

There was a moment of hesitance. Then, groaning, the men stood to their feet and headed upstairs while Mama ushered me back to her room.

"Okay, what now?" I hissed as I shut the door behind me.

"Sh-sh-shush. Calm down," she muttered as she went to her set of drawers and fished around in the lowest one. Then she handed me a bowl. "Put some hair in there."

I winced as I took it. My scalp was going to face some serious pain after this.

"How much do we need?" I asked as I slipped off my hair tie and let my hair dangle to my knees.

"Mm… 20? 30?" she said as she looked up at me.

I frowned. "That much?"

She shrugged. "One for every injury. No excuses. Just drop them in there."

I sighed and got to work. I decided to break the hair in groups of 5. I gathered the first lot and with a deep sigh and a prayer to God, I yanked them from their roots and felt the pain wash over my scalp.

"Ouuuuuch!" I wailed as I rubbed the painful area, the hair in my other hand.

"Good job, good job," Mama muttered without even looking up. She had pulled out several glass jars of what seemed like different color goo- or ointment- and she was twisting open the lids of each one before taking a sniff at them.

"What are you doing?" I asked, rubbing my scalp still.

"Searching-" she said as she paused to sniff at a jar and then crumple up her face in disgust. "Phew! Searching for ointment. I didn't know I'd accumulated so many jars of 'weird things' over time. I thought I would have ointment, but I really can't tell which one it is. They all look like sticky goo, and that's what ointment basically is. I don't want to pick whatever and then infect their wounds."

I watched her sniff some more jars before I turned back to my own task. I gathered 5 more strands, cringing at the thought that I would have to do this four more times again.

Ughh, the electric pain when someone yanks out your hair… I'm no stranger to it. Back in Daegu, and it just hurts me to say this, I barely saved myself from getting kidnapped once.

It was a weird neighborhood where we lived. The police rarely answered our phones. Gangsters roamed the street. Even when I went to the local park, I had to stay in areas where there were a lot of people and I had a less chance of getting picked on.

But at that time, I was coming back from getting some groceries. Usually, it was my eldest sister who did this job whenever she was coming home from work. But my sister was working overtime that day and none of my other sisters were willing to go instead of her, so that only left me.

I had picked up the tattered cloth bag that hung at the back of our door and headed out with the key in my pocket. Everything had gone smoothly, until the time came for me to return back.

It had all happened in a moment. Hands grabbed at my shirt, my hair. The people, men, I presumed struggled to pull me in their wan since I was flailing the shopping bag full of groceries at their faces. I had many bald spots for months after that, since the men had tried to pull me by my short bob. I shiver even when I think about it.

"Are you okay?" Mama asked, shaking me by the shoulder. "Did you put in 30 hairs already?"

"Uhm, just a moment," I mumbled as I shook awake from my trance of thoughts. I quickly broke the remaining hair and put them in the bowl, trying to unsuccessfully conceal the electric pain that shot through my body from each pull.

"Here you go," I said as I handed the bowl to Mama.

Mama took the bowl and whispered numbers as she counted the hair. "Okay, let's see here..." She took a jar with something grey-green inside and dumped its whole contents into the bowl with my hair.

I watched in shock as she swished around with her bare hands the contents of the bowl to mix them up. I looked away, trying not to gag.

"Will this even work with it being mixed in ointment?" I asked, my eyes at the large painting on her wall.

"What do you mean?" The sticky, goo-ey noises continued behind me.

I shrugged. "Reynard and I tried to check if my hair still had the powers after it was covered with dye, and yes, it did. But I'm not sure mixing it with thick ointment will be the same."

She didn't say anything for a few minutes. "Let's try it, shall we? Where's my knife?'

I turned around, alarmed. "Knife?" But she was already pointing a dagger at her palm. "Mama, no!"

"Shh," she hushed me and proceeded to make a thin cut over her hand, not even flinching at the sight of the thin trickle of blood that flowed out. Then she scooped up a finger of ointment out of the bowl, and I could see a thin strand of my hair wedged in there. I watched in anticipation as the green-grey substance was slathered on her palm. God, please make it work! I do not want to look like a fool in front of her.

A moment passed by, and I thought nothing would happen. But then, right in front of our eyes, the ointment began to glow white very, very slightly and my eyes widened as her wound stitched shut. It was nothing short of a miracle, and no matter how many times I witnessed at it, it never failed to amaze me.

"Fascinating," Mama breathed, as if in a daze. She rubbed off the excess ointment off of her palm and paused to notice that the hair in it had disappeared. I stood there in awe of my own incredibility as Mama inspected her hand from all angles.

"Wow, this is amazing!" Mama muttered as she brushed a gentle finger on the palm that had been wounded just a second ago. It looked brand new right now, probably even younger.

Mama coughed and stood straight, regaining her composure. "Shall we go upstairs, then?"

I smiled and nodded. Let's see how Mama lies her way out of this one.

As we ascended the stairs, I held my nose since the stench of blood kept getting stronger. I wondered how Sven would be faring in this situation. It seemed as if he couldn't stand the sight and stench of blood, so I hope he was okay.

Anyways, we went into the first room and with an unfortunate stroke of bad luck, Klyn lay there with a hand over his hand.

"What was your anime again?" Mama asked as she put the heavy bowl on the nightstand beside Klyn's head. He didn't answer Mama's question. "Oh, so we're not talking now, are we?" Mama scoffed as she scooped up some ointment from the bowl, carefully making sure she took a hair with it. "Which wound first?"

Still lying down, Klyn pointed to his legs. Our eyes trailed there and widened in shock at the sight of the deep red-black gash over there. Under his leg, the bedsheet was stained red. Mama moved closer to the wound and with the strong intent not to hurt him, she slathered the ointment on.

Klyn flinched as he felt the cold medicine come in contact with his warm skin.

"No moving!" Mama chastised and Klyn went back to normal. "Ashli bring the bowl here."

I did and asked and went back to pick the bowl from the nightstand. As I did, I noticed Klyn's eyes on me. A shiver ran down my spine as I matched his intimidating gaze and went back to attend beside Mama.

"Put the ointment over the cuts on his arms," Mama instructed me quietly. "His leg's just about healed up."

I nodded.

"Your arm, please," I said to Klyn as I approached his...erm...upper body. He remained silent and motionless for what seemed like 10 minutes, but couldn't have been more than a few seconds. Then with a grunt, he removed the arm off of his face and put it to his side. Taking it as a sign to carry on, I applied our Wonder Ointment on the largest of his sword slashes, flinching every time his arm trembled under my touch.

"Am I being too harsh on your skin?" I whispered but received no reply. Shrugging, I moved onto his other arm and I hoped to God Klyn wouldn't notice the slight glow that the ointment transmitted every time it came in contact with the cuts.

I noticed that while I had been attending to his wounds, he had dozed off. Relieved, I applied ointment to his face and stood back to admire my handiwork. Mama also seemed to be done with the wounds on his lower body.

"He's as good as new. I just hope he doesn't have any more injuries on his back side," Mama whispered to me. "Your divine powers are really coming in handy, huh? We should've put them to good use long ago. Anyways, shall we move on to the second person, then?"

I smiled and nodded, ointment bowl in hand.

"Of course."