"-"

"-!"

Fix was pulled from sleep by words she didn't have the coherence to understand. Tiny hands were shaking her arm and worried voices whispered over her head.

"Fix! Wake up!"

Her eyes snapped open and instinct finally woke her. Her arms whipped out and grabbed the one speaking and she snapped upright, legs coiling and ready to jump up.

"Fix!"

Dale stared worriedly from her sharp claws and Fix instantly released him, making an apologetic noise. The teen opened his mouth, as if to speak and speak quickly, but then his eyes flashed over her as if remembering exactly who he was trying to talk to.

"Marius is not good." He said simply and Fixed frowned at him. His hair was ruffled and he looked tired.

What did he mean Marius wasn't good? She caste her eyes around the room, quickly remembering that she was in the main room, and noted that most of the children were still asleep. Jen and Botti, who had been sleeping on her, had been disturbed when she sat up and she pet their heads in apology. Zuri however was not by her anymore, but instead across the fire, sitting beside a laying Marius and blocking most of him from her view. Zuri looked just as worried as Dale.

"Dale." Fix turned back to him, confused but not liking the tension she could feel.

The boy just frowned, obviously irritated that he couldn't convey what he wanted, and pulled her arm. She wasted no time in being pulled over to the others.

As she stepped over sleeping children Fix realised that it was quiet. She glanced towards the closed windows and doors, noting to grey of pre-dawn seeping through and the. The storm must have passed during the night. New logs had been put on the fire as well, and only recently too, the fire only just starting to blacken them.

Zuri knelt beside a huddle Marius, keeping the multiple blankets that Dale and Zuri must have given him tucked around him. Marius himself was shivering violently, his breathe slightly wheezing and his skin pale. Fix's eyes widened and she wasted no time in kneeling down and pushing a hand against younger teens forehead.

Fix nearly snarled when the action barely gave her any information, her bones not nearly as sensitive to temperature as her human skin had been. She turned to Dale, who had sat down next to her and motioned to Marius.

"Hand on head." She told him sternly. Dale's eyes widened at her sharp attention and nodded, doing as she asked.

"Hot." Came the short reply. Fix huffed, once again cursing her deficiency in learning.

She focused back down on Marius, his eyes opening and Fix was glad to see they weren't hazy. He coughed a little, eyes tired, and mumbled something into his blankets. A pointed order sent Zuri to get some water from the barrel in the kitchen while Fix sat more comfortably beside the sick boy.

Fix wasn't a healer, not like her mother had been, and her knowledge of human illness was not the best. But she knew some. Keep them warm and hydrated and fed. She didn't think he had the flu (although she wouldn't know how to tell the difference) but hoped it was just a day cold from the bad weather yesterday. For now though, she would stay by him.

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Merl woke at the same time he did every other day with the pleasant sound of bird outside, telling him the storm had passed. His went through his morning rituals slowly, enjoying the unusual warmth that seeped into his room. Must be Fix, he thought, keeping the fire alive. He chuckled at the memory of the giant monster being forcibly snuggled by children. Whenever they asked anything of her she would just roll right over.

Of course when he made his way out into the main room his good mood instantly lowered. On the other side of the room sat Fix, both her right hands carding through his short hair as he shivered. Her mouth was moving, and the odd words of her own tongue whispered gently out in some tune or another. Dale sat beside her, his carving knife and current project in hand but still as he stared into the fire. Some of the other children were up but Zuri kept them from crowding Marius.

He quickly made his way over and crouched to examine the poor boy closer.

"His coughing woke me. He's been like this since before sunrise. I think going outside yesterday did it." Dale spoke, still clutching his block and knife.

"Why didn't you come wake me?" he was curious. Coughs and fever weren't uncommon during winter, but can quickly get worse if not kept in check. Or so his experience said.

"I woke Fixed System. I… I was going to wake you as well but she took charge. She seemed to know what to do." Merl blinked at Dale. It spoke wonders to how much the children already trusted the tall skeleton, and not just liked her, that they had gone to her when one of them was hurting.

"What did she do?" he asked, tilting Marius's face towards himself. Dark eyes blinked up at him before closing again. Aware, but tired.

"She had me feel his forehead, don't think skeletons feel temperature like we do. Then she had me get him water, and has made sure he always has some. Now she's just watching." Dale turned his gaze up to Fix, her red rings glancing at him and giving a reassuring smile before turning back to the boy she was tending. She had stopped humming as they spoke, perhaps not to bother them.

Merl nodded, and went about his own examination of Marius. Fever and chills, and a bad cough. Right now the cough was dry, and Merl could only hope that it stayed that way and Marius would get better as the day continues, as was sometimes the way of these things.

Right now there was not much more he could do that Fix had not already done. He sorely wished he had kept one of the fish from yesterday to make a proper broth, but potatoes and whatever little they have left would have to do. Something warm will do the child good.

As the day wore on towards breakfast then lunch, outside looking clearer and clearer, Marius got worse and worse. And Merl watched as the children got more and more worried, yet Fixed System stayed the same. She sat strong beside Marius, first just keeping him company when she wasn't doing chores, then when lunch passed and his fever rose soothed the fever dreams that followed.

"If he gets worse through the night," Anamira commented, helping him clean up after lunch. "I will take him to the doctor in town. We need more food anyway, and I have my crafts to trade."