Just when he had attempted to pass by the shackle next to the line where the woods ended, the door flew open and a girl ran after him… "Brother, please, brother, come in. Help us." Her face was red when she reached him. "My mother fears she might die. The babe." The gravedigger stiffed, but turned to come with her. A baby would only need a small grave.
They reached the cabin and heard muffled cries. A woman held a small package to her chest and sobbed, a young boy sitting by her feet. "Please brother, can you bless her? We think she might die", they begged him. He searched in his pockets for the scented oils, and put a drop of each on the infant's forehead. It burned from fever. He cleared his throat with a bursting sound. "I bless you in the name of the seven. May their light shine upon you on all days and guide you through dark nights."
He handed some herbs to the girl, to make a tea for the babe. They offered him to eat with them, and the broth tasted like boiled branches. He noticed the sharp features of their starved faces, and they noticed the burns on his, but only the little boy starred.
Whispered words and tiny wheezing sounds woke him in the night. "Don't die my sweet girl. Stay with me, don't fly away little bird." His chest tightened. The woman looked at him with wetness on her cheeks "She can hardly breathe."
He took the tiny babe and looked at her in the scarce glow of the almost extinct fire. The skin felt cooler, but something made her struggle to get air. Six dark circled, desperately hoping eyes lay upon him while he lowered his head. The boy gasped when his mouth was on the tiny nose, sucking the bad stuff out of the baby's head and spitting it on the ember.
Everyone heard her loud cry, saw how she took a deep breath, kicked her legs, and started laughing.
Before he left, they asked him to baptize the little girl. They had begun to call her Elli, but begged him to choose a second name for her. "Name her Sansa", he said.