Chapter Nine
oOo
Their next assignment was to Verrell, a planet where there was an unexplained illness. Moth and Yoda arrived to find the medical system overwhelmed. Many of the healers had been infected so patients were placed randomly on every possible bed and pallet. Yoda set to organizing the treatment area like the Naboo had in his first assignment, pre-Padawan that is.
"An empty room, can you find?" Yoda asked catching the closest men still standing. They wanted to leave so they wouldn't get infected but the little green thing had a way of convincing them that they couldn't resist or understand. "Help, you will. Afraid to leave, you are."
"Yes, there is an empty school next door." The taller if the to said.
"Over there the less critical patients, you are to take." Yoda instructed in his most authoritative voice. "Then, the most critical in here, you will move." He pointed to a room that already had a large population of the sickest people. They flinch at the thought of working with the sickest people but couldn't bring themselves to run.
Moth asked the planetary official that was hesitantly escorting him around. "What are the symptoms that the patients are experiencing."
"I am not a healer, I am just supposed to show you where to go." The nervous man said as he backed toward the door.
"You are not leaving until you answer all the questions that you can. Where can I find a healer?" Moth firmly caught his arm and informed him.
"The healer was among the first to die and most of the other healers are ill also. I only know of one, Sage Taryn that is still well. She has a cottage west of town between the fork in the river and the forest. She is working on a treatment. I have to go now that is all I know. I have a family to care for." The man broke and ran out of the infirmary.
Moth approached a young woman encouraging a patient to drink a pinkish brown tea. "Do you know what the symptoms are of this illness?"
"Yes, sir. They are a high fever, then a dry cough and later red spots come up all over the patient. We never have had this before. Nothing that has been tried has helped except this tea. It brings down the fever but doesn't help with the cough or the spots. Taryn has gone to her cottage to get more flowers and herbs but she's not sure if they will work any better." The young lady answered with a tired scratchy voice.
"Does anyone know who got it first?" Moth asked.
"Yes, sir a worker at the spaceport. He said a man on the trading ship had a cough but he didn't have spots or a fever that we know of. The healer called for the traders to come back and bring some of the medicine they use for the illness on their planet but it didn't work here. That's all I know about it, Taryn may know more." She sighed and looked around. "Taryn and I are the only healers left that are not ill and my throat is starting to get scratchy."
Moth assured her. "I brought a little green a… person, named Yoda, who is helping organize the sick and will help where ever he can. I will find him and tell him about the tea is there more of it anywhere."
"Yes in the cookery down the hall and to the lift. Tell Sabin that Lona sent you." Lona added as he started off.
Moth stopped and said. "When I get Yoda set up I am going to find Taryn and see if I can help her with the medicine. West of town between the fork in the river and the forest, Right?" Moth verified his directions.
"Yes, sir. Tell her to hurry." Lona added.
The people didn't use flight as a form of travel on planet, so Moth had to take his ship to the area in question. He followed the river to the fork then to the edge of the forest and set down in the meadow as directed. There was a path to the nearby house lined by flowers and herbs of every description. The house was a stucco and brick, with a walled garden made of the same materials. There was nothing square in the whole layout, the doors were oval, the windows were round and the walls curved every thing flowed like one continuous line around the whole compound. As Moth approached the waist high garden he could see a woman wearing the sleeveless shift of an unmarried woman yet her hair was the style of a married woman according to the local custom. It gave the impression; 'I'm single and intend to stay that way.'
"Excuse me do you know where I can find the Taryn Granywoman." Moth asked softly, trying not to startle her.
She stood slowly, stretched the kinks out of her back after her long session of picking herbs, laid down her basket and turned to see the strangely dressed man with shoulder length light brown hair and brown eyes and said. "I'm the Granywoman called Sage Taryn. How may I help you?"
"I'm sorry, you don't look like a Granywoman." Moth said surprised the young lady with honey colored hair and green eyes was called a granny.
"Well, you don't look like your expecting a baby." She replied with a mischievous grin on her face.
"I hear you also treat other conditions besides childbirth, particularly the new illness that has been infecting so many lately." Moth back peddled.
"I'm sorry I get mischievous when I'm tired and I have been working on a treatment for the illness, not completely successfully, yet."
"Yours is the closest thing to success I have heard of so far. I have had experience working in herbs and plant therapies, may I help you?" Moth asked.
"Men around here don't usually work in the medical professions, can you work under a woman's direction?" She asked, not really expecting him to say yes and she wasn't going to allow him to take over her work.
"I have worked well under a woman's direction before and would welcome the chance to assist you in your work." Moth said quite humbly.
She stood and looked at him in disbelief for a few minutes then said skeptically. "I will allow you to help me but if you start getting uppity you are out of here."
"Uppity…Uppity I don't think I have ever been accused of being uppity but if you catch me being uppity I will leave promptly." Moth assured her.
"Yes, when I get tired I get bossy, crabby and obnoxious that's why I'm unmarried and intend to stay that way. So if you can work under a crabby woman I will try to control myself." Sage warned him.
"I will attempt to work around your many moods for the sake of the patients." Moth teased her.
"Do you want to learn what I have discovered or not." She scolded.
"Lead the way." Moth said as seriously as possible.
"You see this yellow flower by the gate you came in, if you make a tea with it and give the patient some of the berries from the bush along the wall the fever is lowered but the red spots get worse. If I give them a tea from the red flowers back by the water fountain the spots get better but the fever gets worse. I can't mix the two because they clash and cause a bad case of the hives. The herb I have been picking is a buffer cuts down on the harmful side effects of some plants I hope to find a balance between the group and not kill the patients. I also have to go about three laskels a… kilometers to you and get some roots that only grow on the sunny side of that hill." She said pointing to the hill on the horizon. "They are ground up and used in the bath water to ease the itching that accompanies the spots. Does any of this make any sense to you." She said in one winding statement.
"Yes I have worked with herb and teas before and a few roots. These flowers look similar to the flowers I have seen used on other planets but the herb you are picking is new to me. I have equipment on my ship that can tell the chemical compounds that make up the teas so you can tell what is causing the clash as you call it." Moth clarified his experience for her comfort.
"Good I will add these to the tea I have steeping in the drying room, it has to be cold brewed which will take about six hours. I am steeping the three teas separately so I can mix them when I get the right proportions. If you want you can come with me and dig up the roots or do Jedi dig." She ranted as she headed into the drying room.
"Do you have a shovel or do you want me to use my lightsaber?" Moth asked with a smirk on his face.
"Shovels behind the door." She said as she dropped the herbs in the large pot of water she had already filled. She picked up the basket and started out down the path Moth had just come from, passed his ship and toward the hill and the sunny meadow on the other side. Moth allowed her to set the pace and conversation as they traveled. "Big ship for just one person." She commented.
"Actually there is two I have a Padawan, a student, a little green a… he hasn't really said what his species is." Moth said glad she finally said something.
"You are training someone you don't even know what he is, how do you know it is trustworthy or won't turn against you some day?" Taryn asked.
"It's a Jedi thing we can sometimes see things in the future." Moth explained.
"So you have looked into the future and seen that he is going to be a great Jedi Knight, that is what you call yourselves isn't it?" Taryn questioned Moth.
"No, we have not been able to see what his future will be." Moth answered realizing how this must sound.
"And you decided to train him on blind faith that he will turn out not to be Dark as you call it." Taryn said astonished at what she was hearing.
"You just have to meet Yoda. He is a little annoying at first but you soon feel you can trust him and he has proven his loyalty on many occasions." Moth defended his Padawan once again.
Taryn walked for a few minutes in silence then asked. "You can't look and see what formula will be effective on this illness can you?" Taryn asked hopefully.
"I'm afraid it doesn't work that way, emotions always cloud the future. Sometimes you see thing that will happen and sometimes you see thing that could happen if changes aren't made." Moth tried to explain.
"It never does on thing that you really need." Taryn sighed. As the entered the clearing she pointed out the plant and instructed Moth how to dig up the roots in a way that would not damage them. Just them a strong wind started to blow and the air smelled like rain. "Do your Jedi senses tell you that it's going to rain and we are going to get wet if we don't hurry?" Taryn asked.
"No but my nose does." Moth said as he carefully dug as quickly as possible. The storm had come up suddenly as storms did this time of year and was soon drenching them. As soon as Taryn said that was enough roots Moth grabbed the basket and that ran for the closest shelter, which was Moth's ship. Taryn ran up to the ship and stopped suddenly about twenty feet from the ramp Moth had lowered with the Force.
"I can't go in there!" Taryn insisted. "I will go on to my cottage." Taryn started to go around the ramp.
Moth couldn't believe what he was hearing. "Stop! You can't go on in this rain. You could get sick and then who will find the cure." Moth reasoned with her.
"But you don't understand what this means." Taryn tried to explain.
"I understand there are customs but if you get sick and die what will your customs mean to the hundreds of people that depend on you. We can deal with the customs later." Moth assured Taryn that it was all right. Under protest she relented and entered the ship. "This is the guest quarters there is a fresher in here. A warm shower will get the chill out of your bones and here is a robe." Moth said pulling the silken robe from the Coronation ceremony that Nyla had refused to take with her when she left and showed Taryn cabinet with the necessary supplies.
"These will be all right they will dry in a fairly quickly." Taryn protested.
"No! You will catch a chill!" Moth reasoned.
"You won't like the outcome of this!" Taryn insisted.
"We will deal with that later. Now you have to stay well so you can find the cure." Moth said and left closing the door behind him and ending the discussion.
"Why do men never listen, and then they are upset when they realize what they have done." Taryn mumbled as he left her in the strange room alone.
oOo
Moth showered, changed and prepared soup before the guest sheepishly came out of the guest quarters. Her hair was still down and slightly damp when she came into the cookery. "Here this will warm your bones." Moth said handing her a large cup of soup.
"I am full. I will just wait until I get home to eat." Taryn shook her head in protest.
"Sit! Eat!" Moth ordered. "What is it with women and strange foods?" Moth said exasperated.
"I don't…"
"Eat! We can deal with the rest later." Moth assured her that it was all right.
Taryn sat looking at Moth for a few minutes. 'Apparently he doesn't know that this is the marriage ceremony on this planet and he won't listen when I try to explain. Do I really want to marry someone that is so obnoxious? He has kind eyes and I have never met a male healer before. He will not be happy when he finds out what he has gotten himself into and probably won't want to stay that means he will have to give me a child before he can divorce me. Do I want to raise a child alone? Who came up with these customs, not a woman I'm sure? I have to tell him what he is getting himself into.' "Moth, I have to expl…" Taryn started then was interrupted.
"Eat first! Explain later!" Moth ordered.
Taryn looked at the cup, then back to Moth, then sipped the soup, quietly.
"That's better. I will take care of any local customs that come up. It's better to do what is necessary sometimes and deal with the consequences later." Moth assured her naively.
"Are you at least curious what consequences you are going to have to deal with?" Taryn asked mischievously.
"No. We have enough to deal with for now. We can handle the customs later." Moth promised her.
oOo
The unofficial title of this chapter is: How a Jedi accidentally gets married.