CHAPTER 8
THE CURE
The day after, Cera, in true healer's fashion, came up with the answer as to what disease was afflicting all of the sharptooth. She reached this conclusion by examining several of the sharptooth who were still in the initial stages of the disease, and who allowed her to get close enough to let her poke and prood their bodies, as well as look inside their mouths.
When she and Chomper found the Lead Healer to tell him what they found, Cera laid it all out for him. Chomper acted as translator. "We call the sickness 'Bloody Tummy'. It causes a really high fever, huge tummy aches, weakness, and what we call the 'blood vomit'."
"How is the disease spread?"
"We're not sure, exactly; but we believe it has something to do with the air we breathe and the water we drink. Someone can also catch it when a green eater sneezes on another green eater, or gets touched in some manner. We usually get it in the hot times, when the river water gets warmer."
"If this is a green eater disease, how do you explain us getting it?"
"It seems quite obvious to me! If one of you sharptooth ate an already infected green eater, the sickness would've passed into the sharptooth's blood when he swallowed the meat. Then, when he touched somebody-like his mate, or something- he would spread the sickness onto her, then onto her young ones, and so on. But just sneezing in the direction of another sharptooth is enough to spread the sickness, which is why we always kept those of us who got sick away from the rest of us who were still healthy."
The healer nodded. "That is understood. Now, how do we cure it?"
"We need to find a particular kind of medicine plant." She looked around. "LOTS of medicine plant! And quickly, too! These sharptooth don't have much time left!"
The healer nodded again. "All right. I'll gather all of the other healers. Then you can show us where to find this healing plant."
With that, he trotted off.
Chomper placed his arm around Cera's side and gave her a small hug. "Congratulations, Cera! You've given us hope again! I'm so proud of you!"
Cera happily accepted the hug. "Don't thank me yet, though! We've still got a long way to go. We're still not out of the woods, so to speak."
Chomper chuckled. "Dear ol' Cera! No matter what, you still manage to see the pond as half empty instead of half full!"
Cera was about to rebuttle when a roar coming from the entrance hill overlooking the valley got their attention. One of Chief Berserker's lieutenants was at top of the hill talking to a female sharptooth. Chomper thought she looked awfully familiar. Then it hit him. "I don't believe it!" he said.
"What?" Cera asked.
He started running towards the hill entrance to get a closer look at the female.
Cera followed not far behind. "Hey! WAIT UP!"
When he reached the base of the hill, he stopped and he gasped. "V'Leck!"
The female sharptooth turned her head towards him.
"TEEKUL!" she screamed as she ran down towards him. "I knew I'd find you here!" They both joined their hands together and laid each other foreheads against each other.
When they separated, Chomper gestured towards Cera and introduced her. Cera said a meek "hello" when V'Leck nodded her head towards her.
Chomper spoke about wanting to introduce her to his other green eater friends when V'Leck interrupted him.
"We can do that later." Her expression turned more serious. "Teekul..." she began as she grabbed his arms. "It's about my son... OUR son!"
"What about him?"
Then Chomper saw two sharptooth carrying down a young male sharptooth who was barely able to walk. He recognized the young male immediately. "Oh, no!" he exclaimed as he ran toward him.
"Roary? ROARY! Can you hear me?" Chomper called as the sharptooth lay him down on the ground at his feet. Chomper kneeled down and picked his son's head up with his hands.
"ROARY! Stay with me, son! Don't you go out on me!"
Roary opened his eyes just a crack, then opened them a little wider to look up at the face of his father. "Father." he said in a soft and hoarse voice. "It's good to see you again..." He was struggling with every word, but he managed. "Though I wish we could've met up again under better circumstances."
Roary struggled to smile and laugh at his own joke. Then he started to cough uncontrollably as he turned on his side. He spat out a wad of blood just before he fell unconscious.
"Roary!... ROARY! NO!" Chomper shut his eyes as he let go of his son's head and let it thump lightly to the ground. He started sobbing uncontrollably as V'Leck moved in to comfort him.
Cera moved in to check on the limp form of Roary. "He's still alive, but his breathing is very weak." she said as he put her muzzle against his mouth. "His heart's barely beating." she said as he put the side of her head against his chest. "His fever is also very high!" she said as she laid her chin on his forehead. "Definitely the symptoms of 'Bloody Tummy'" she said as she eyed the wad of blood on the ground Roary had spat out just moments ago.
By this time, two sharptooth nurses had rushed in to pick up the still form of Roary and carry him over to where the other sick were being kept.
V'Leck eyed Cera momentarily, then asked Chomper. "Is this one of the green eater healers you said was coming to save us?"
After Chomper finally got control of himself again, he nooded.
Cera screamed out as V'leck grabbed a hold of her forelimb. "Please! You must save Roary! HE IS OUR ONLY SON!"
Cera pulled away from V'Leck. Before she was able to move away, Chomper knelt down beside her. "Cera, if there was any time I needed you, now would be it! If not for me, then do it for my son! Give him a chance at life!"
Cera was speechless for a few moments, then she said. "I... I-I-I'll do whatever I can... I promise." She smiled lightly.
Chomper smiled back and touched her cheek with his hand.
Stomping sounds made her turn her head to see the Head Healer approaching her. "I've gathered all of our better healers at the entrance of the valley. We'll be waiting for you." he said as he marched off.
"I'm coming!" Cera said.
Chomper turn to face his ex mate. "Duty calls." he smiled.
"Hurry back!" V'Leck said as she touched his cheek with her hand and smiled.
When he finally separated from her, he and Cera walked off to join the assembled healers.
They didn't have to go far to find the medicine plant that was needed to cure the sharptooth of the sickness. All of the assembled sharptooth healers listened intently to Chomper's translation of Cera's description of what to look for in the actual plant, how to pull it up out of the ground by the base of it so that it gets uprooted cleanly, and doesn't get broken. She even demonstrated how it was done for them. Then she snapped one of the spiky plants in half to show the yellowish liquid inside that was the actual cure for the sickness.
"And how is it ministered?" one of the healers asked.
After hearing Chomper's translation, she said. "Well, it's actually chewed a few times, and then swallowed. It tastes awful, but it works!" she finished with a toothy grin.
"Our patients wouldn't mind the taste so much." another healer said. "Except for one problem: We don't eat plants. None of us can stomach it. At least, those of us who can still keep their lunch down!" This brought out a small smattering of laughter among those assembled.
"Heh! We have old saying among our kind: A mouthful of sweet plant helps the medicine go down."
The Head Healer had a revelation. "Yes, of course! We can minister the right dosage with a small portion of long neck meat! We keep a huge carcass of a long neck at the other end of the valley. It was brought down a few days ago, and we feed portions of it to those still well enough to be able to eat anything."
"Well, there you have it! You already have the 'sweet plant', now all we need to do is gather up as much of the medicine plant as we can so we can start handing out the dosages."
"EXCELLENT!" the Head Healer exclaimed. "Thank you, Cera! We are forever in your debt!"
"Aaw! Don't mention it!"
After everybody applauded their accomplishment so far, the Head Healer motioned for two of the healers to gather up all of the plants that were in the area of the forest where Cera brought them. They were going to need plenty more than what was in this part of the forest! The problem would be organizing enough gathering parties to collect enough medicine plants to cure thousands of sick sharptooth.