Chapter 6: Emergency

“We’re finally in town, huh?”

“Y—Yeah.”

Emiko gave a pained smile.

“A—re you alright?”

“I don’t feel so good.”

I didn’t wanted to believe it, but she was sweating heavily from her forehead.

“Here, get a hold of my right shoulder. We’re going to find a doctor.”

It seemed like Emiko wanted to reply but concentrated on continuing to walk.

I do not have healthcare in this work. How am I supposed to get treatment for her?

I looked around as much as I could. A huge wooden hut on the right side stood out to me.

Maybe house medicine could work?

I knocked on the door.

Is there even anyone going to help me?

“Hello! Do… you… have… medicine?”

As a woman, with black skin and hair, opened the door, I was lost for words. The ones at the assembly looked white from afar. And I was unfamiliar with black women.

“Are you looking for medicine? Hello?”

“Y—yes. Yeah. I absolutely do. Do you mind if I can have some for her?”

“Oh, she looks terrible! Come inside. Quickly!”

Her signalling me to hurry coming inside made me even more nervous than I was. What if it was serious? I don’t want to lose her. She offered me to take a seat as she placed her on a bed.

“Do you know what happened to her?”

“Well, she was unconscious yesterday for a few minutes. I think she was bitten by an Evil Rabiter then. However, when I woke up today, she was just fine and got us water.”

“Assuming by those markings on her body… it doesn’t seem like she wasn’t just bitten by an Evil Rabiter.”

“W–What do you mean? Is she going to be alright?”

“I guess? For now, I can try a Heilungsflammer.”

“A Heilungs… what?”

“Heilungsflammer. It’s a medicine made from the flower Heilungsflamme. It looks partially green and red. I’m applying it for now…”

“But…?”

“... but maybe you need to get me some Heilungsflamme flowers. I don’t know for sure yet. Let’s wait for a bit. For an icebreaker, how about you introduce yourself to me?”

“Alright. My name is Melo. I’m 13. I come from Germany and—”

“Germany? Where is that?”

Oh crap. What should I tell her?

“It’s far away. I think.”

“You think? Are you sure you didn’t make this up?”

“I mean I was there myself. If you want, we can go there sometime.”

“Now you’re going for a date already, ho ho ho. I can see why she trusts you.”

“I didn’t mean it to be like that! I—”

“I know. I know. You really easily fell for being played with, don’t you?

“Maybe. Well, yeah. So… what’s your name?”

“The town’s people call me the Anarcho-Primitivist here. But my real name is Elany. As for my age… that’s a secret for now. Instead, I give you what I like to do when I’m not here in this house. I like to go mountain climbing.”

“Sorry, what’s an Anarcho-Primitivist? I’ve never heard of it.”

“You haven’t heard of anarchism? You really aren’t from here, are you?”

“Sorry.”

“No. It’s nothing to be sorry for. Basically, Anarchists are people that want to abolish all kinds of hierarchies. That you can meet with whoever you want and stay away from whoever you deem unwanted. And they’re for voluntary mutual aid.”

“Mutual aid? So like you giving her this medicine?”

“Right! Speaking of, let’s see if she got any better. By the way, what’s her name?”

“Emiko.”

“Well, Emiko… She’s going to be fine for now, but you will go on an adventure to pick up some of those flowers we talked about. We need some more.”

“Alright. I’ll do anything to help her. Where is it?”

“Did you pass a mountain by chance? On the left side of it, there are those flowers.”

“Alright. I’ll get going then. Whoops. Before that. Do you have anything to eat?”

“Sure. Is anything okay?”

“Yeah… I’m just really hungry. We haven’t had anything since yesterday.”

“Okay, just gimme a sec.”

She offered me a never-seen-before mixture. I think she called it “Nutrition Milk” and after asking for the ingredients she said it’s a mix of oat milk and vitamins.

Now that I was refreshed on some food, it was time to get some flowers for Emiko.