Chapter 7
Sytik, M.D
(My cousin wrote most of this chapter, and I personally liked his choice of a chapter name, which was "Dr. Sytik-House, but I couldn't pass my idea up! XD)
Narrator
--
Sytik knocked on Kai's door, and she called out from around the side of the house in response.
"I'm in the garden!" she called. Sytik walked around to the back of the house, and saw the yoshi picking some carrots. He tapped her on the back, and she turned and smiled when she saw him. "Hey you!" she said. Sytik was being serious, though.
"Lila's sick, and I don't know what it is," said Sytik. Kai frowned.
"What do you mean? I figured she had a cold or something," said Kai. Sytik nodded his head. "I thought so, too. But, I can make out some vague new symptoms. Her joints feel strange to me, her hair is thinner than when we found her, and she says she felt nausea. A cold or the flu would explain the joint pain and the nausea... but the hair thing has me stumped."
Kai stood up and turned to Sytik. "Maybe the hair problem has nothing to do with the illness?" she offered, and Sytik shook his head.
"That wouldn't make sense. Come with me, I want you to take her back here. In the meantime, just to be safe I want to read through our book, and try to match up her symptoms."
Both yoshis were headed toward the medical hut again.
Kai was suprised. "It's a big book!"
Sytik nodded his head. "I know, which is why I need to be alone to read it," he said, opening the door to his hut. He looked at Lila, and she smiled at him, waving jokingly. Sytik immediately noticed something off. He walked over to the girl's arm, and gently grabbed it, looking at her nails. Lila was obviously confused.
"They look... brittle," said Sytik. Her fingernails had a few white streaks on them. Sytik took it as a sign of weakness. He rubbed a finger across a nail, and powder came off.
"How long have we had you here?" Sytik pondered. "A week and a half, maybe two weeks?"
Lila nodded. Sytik looked at her in the eye. "Lila, do you see this dust?" he asked, holding his finger to her. "This is your fingernail. It's brittle. That means that you aren't getting something out of our fruits and vegetables here."
Lila blinked.
"What do you eat at home? Can you describe it?" asked Sytik. Lila nodded.
"At home, we eat fruits and vegetables, meat and poultry. That's pretty much it."
Sytik stared at the girl. "Humans... eat meat?"
Lila nodded, and Sytik looked at Kai.
"We yoshis can't eat meat. We can only turn it into eggs. If we try to eat any meat, it makes us fat.... and besides that, it smells funny."
Kai took a step forward. "Maybe that's the problem. Maybe she doesn't just eat meat, maybe humans need it!"
Sytik's eyes widened. "You might be right, Kai."
Only Lila smiled in response. Sytik rushed to the desk that held his book, and he began to look through it.
He froze in a few spots, only to shake his head and continue skimming through. "I found all the problems you humans might encounter without meat. There are a lot. Kai is right," Sytik gagged. "You need meat in your system for some reason."
Lila shook her head. "There are plenty of humans who don't eat meat and only eat fruits or vegetables. They all live healthy lives!"
Sytik shook his head. "This book says that people who only eat fruits or vegetables are called "Vegetarians", and it says that even they need to take something called a 'Vit-amin' or eat fish. If they don't, they can get really sick."
He looked up from his book. "The only meat on this island are the animals that inhabit it. Most of them are birds, squirrels, and rabbits. Even so, those animals are killed so often by other tribes that they've become very hard to find."
"What about fish?" asked Lila. Kai shook her head.
"This island... The ocean on our part of the island has little growing in it. Whatever the fish eat here, they can't find it. Most fish are found on the other side of the island, near the Hashashins, and we can't go to them for fish. They simply won't give us any."
"Can I still give her fruits and vegetables?" asked Kai. Sytik nodded. "Of course. It's not what she's eating that's causing whatever she has, it's what she isn't eating that is. Still, there is no harm in giving her our food."
Sytik sighed. "I'm going to check out this book for whatever you might have. In the meantime, you go home and rest. I'm sure we can figure something out for you," said Sytik. Kai began to push Lila out of the medical hut and towards her own.
"I'm so sorry, Lila. I didn't know you needed meat," said Kai.
"Neither did I," responded Lila. She looked up and smiled a comforting smile at Kai. She looked down and smiled at the girl's positivity.
"Well, Sytik says you should rest, so let's get you to bed."
Kai looked up at the sky, and saw the sun was below the treeline, meaning it was almost night. She helped Lila out of the wheelchair and onto the couch.
"Lila, Sytik will change those casts tomorrow. I'm going to get some fruits for dinner, okay?"
Lila nodded, and looked at her broken bones as Kai walked out the door.
--
Fajor ran through his house, this way and that way, panicking. He clumsily bumped around, grabbing one of his swords and speeding into his bedroom.
The egg had hatched, and a yoshi looking similar to Fajor himself sat on the bed, eyeing his surroundings. The new yoshi did not even flinch when Fajor exploded into the room, probably a skill he retained from his old form. The new yoshi stared at Fajor, watching as he shut the door and pulled up a chair.
"Hello," said Fajor, holding his sword still. "I am Fajor. And you are?" asked Fajor. The new yoshi began to smile.
"My name is Makal, and it is nice to meet the one who defeated me," said the new yoshi. He frowned. "Why do I feel so..."
"Happy?" asked Fajor. Makal nodded. "It's because we yoshis are naturally gentle. There's no reason to be negative, and our Chief doesn't force us to like him."
Makal's eyes widened. "You can dislike your chief, and he wouldn't care too much?" he asked. Fajor shook his head. "No, he wouldn't care at all! He lets you think what you like. Your leader doesn't do that?"
Makal shook his head. "Master forces us to love him, or we get killed."
Fajor slid closer in his seat. "Do you think you'd side with the Yoshi tribe in the war, or the Hashashins?"
"Neither. I believe this whole difficult conflict is stupid!"
Fajor smiled. "That is true. But, would you tell me of the Hashashin plans?"
Makal stood up, and smiled. "If it will end this whole conflight faster, then sure. The Hashashins let you win. We brought along the weakest armor we could find. The Hashashin armor is impenetrable when it's at it's strongest, even with our weapons. Actually, that isn't true, either. The armor is possible to break through, but to do that, you need to make your weapons with your average material plus crystal. The plan was to make you believe you had them pinned, then you'd put up security, and they'd strike when you became exahusted on defense."
Fajor grinned. Crystal was found in abundance in the yoshi part of the island, and now he could tell the Chief to lower defenses... slightly.
Makal smiled, happy that his 'father' was smiling, though he himself hatched as a full grown.
"Is that the only thing you wanted to ask me?" asked Makal. Fajor shook his head. "One more thing: What is a Hashashin? What species?"
"You never knew? Why, the Hashashins are-"
Makal stopped speaking, and let out a low grunt. Then, he slumped in his seat, and Fajor jumped to his feet. A Hashashin had crawled through his window and knocked the reformed Makal unconscious. Then, before Fajor could rush him, the Hashashin dropped three balls to the ground, smoke erupting from them faster than Fajor could react. He began coughing and waving the smoke out of the way, but it was too late. Makal was gone, and so was his assailant.
"I must report this to Salminar," said Fajor, and he got up and ran. He needed to hurry, and he knew Makal wouldn't lie in his new form. He couldn't. Turning evil forces into yoshis lead to a slight form of mind control, making them good, though some yoshis fought against the control, such as Boshis. The mind control was more of a calming agent, keeping the new yoshi calm and collect toward it's own kind.
If something was already kind, this agent would make little to no difference. It would be like tossing water into a stream.
--
"This is bad... this is bad.... this is bad...."
Sytik was holding his head, reading the book. He knew what Lila had, though it took him a few hours. It was dark, and he walked outside to clear his head a little. It was when he saw Fajor at Salminar's hut.
"Hmm...."
Sytik began to approach, and saw Salminar nod.
"I understand. Gregor!" he called. Gregor popped his head out of his hut.
"Yeeeeeeeeeees?" called Gregor in a singsong voice.
"I need you to reinforce our village fences tomorrow, would you do that for me?"
"Anything is possible."
Salminar chuckled gently. "That may be, but this is certain."
"It will be certain if I get to spend some time with your mate-"
"I don't find you funny, Gregor. You will do this for me, and you will be rewarded," said Salminar. Sytik broke in. "Just not in the way you think!"
Gregor laughed an overly dramatic laugh. "Sytik, I would smack you if I didn't love you so much... well, in that case..."
Gregor walked out of his hut and threw a light smack across Sytik's face. Sytik let out a short laugh, but then he remembered his diagnosis of Lila, and his temporarily good mood collapsed. He frowned, and looked at Salminar.
"Lila's very sick."
Salminar frowned, too. "I know. You should tell them both... tomorrow. Let them sleep, and do the same. Fajor, I will lower our defenses enough so we don't collapse. You would do well to stay here tonight," said Salminar.
Fajor smiled, and nodded as Salminar moved aside to allow him in.
"Sytik, meet me tomorrow once you are free," said Fajor, as the door shut.
Sytik nodded as the door shut, knowing Fajor wouldn't see. He turned away.
"How bad is the human's illness?"
Sytik turned to the still standing Gregor. He sighed.
"I... uhh... It's bad."
Sytik walked back to his hut now, and Gregor was left standing. He sighed, and walked to his hut.
--
"Rise and shine, dear!"
Lila jolted awake, and instantly regretted it. Her bones hurt, and she felt as if she were going to vomit.
"...Mother? What's going on?" asked Lila. She looked at Kai, and saw a mournful smile on her face. She was hiding something.
"Sytik knows what's wrong with you. He wanted me to take you to see him once you woke up. How do you feel?" asked Kai. "And don't lie, I need to know."
Lila smiled. "A little worse than yesterday," she said. Kai rubbed Lila's head once she sat up.
"Let's go straight to Sytik, okay?"
Lila nodded. Kai helped her into the chair, and headed for Sytik's hut. He was waiting at the door for them when they got there. When he saw Lila, he faked a smile. "Come inside, the rains are coming," he said. There was a thunder clap, and Sytik turned and walked inside, Kai following with Lila.
"Lila, how are you feeling today?"
Lila looked at Sytik, now standing behind a desk at the open book and refusing eye contact with her.
"A little worse than yesterday."
Sytik frowned, and shook his head. "It's just as I thought. I've found what's wrong with you."
Lila nodded. "Did you tell Kai already?" she asked.
Sytik nodded. "Yes, she came by before you woke up."
Kai placed her hand on Lila's shoulder, and Lila continued to watch Sytik, waiting for him to tell her what was wrong. He sighed.
"Lila, we've established that humans need meat. It has something in it that you need; something called a 'protein'."
He stopped, and walked forward, kneeling in front of the now very confused girl.
"It's called 'Protein Deficiency'. It's not a disease, but it is caused by the loss of this 'protein' in your system. It is very dangerous."
Lila gulped. "Am I... going to.... die?" she asked. Sytik ignored the question at first.
"Protein Deficiency can lead to Cancers, the wasting away of muscles, kidney failure, you name it."
"Sytik..." began Lila, but he continued.
"Lila, we can't get you the meat you need, not with two tribes at this brink of war. We ourselves are relying on our own foods-"
"Sytik!" Lila shouted, not angirly but in a way loud enough to get his attention. He nodded. "Yes?"
"Am I going to die?" asked Lila again, slowly, trying to keep from choking. He seemed to shrink a little, but came forward again.
"If we do not do anything about it, you may very well pass away, but-"
He trailed off once he saw Kai begin crying, embracing the girl who sat in her wheelchair, stunned. He cleared his throat. "Kai..."
"...poor thing...." she muttered. Sytik did tell her what Lila had, but he didn't tell her it was life threatening!
"Kai."
"I'm so sorry, I didn't know! I'm so sorry, Lila...."
"Kai!"
"What?!!?" she shouted, looking at Sytik with a look of horror on her face.
"Relax, we aren't going to let her die. There's a way for her to live, but she might not like it."
Lila's face lit up a bit. "What do I have to do?"
Sytik sighed. "We yoshis don't need protein to live."
Lila's facial expression became a look of confusion. "What does that mean?" she asked.
Sytik looked her in the eye. "We can turn anything into an egg which hatches as a yoshi, a yoshi that can survive just fine off of the things on this island."
Lila's eyes sparkled with a brief recognition of what Sytik was hinting at. "I..."
"Lila, the only way to save you is to make you a yoshi, too."
End of Chapter 7
Oooh! Cliff Hanger! (Or is it? I can't really tell once I put both our work together... 0_o)
Awww! Poor Lila! I'm so mad at Scorp now for making her so sick! But I also have an idea of how to end my story, too (but not for a while), so also thanks big cousin!
I hope you enjoy! (And see? One POV! ^^)