CHAPTER 11

RECOVERY

It took everyone the better part of the day to get the antidotes ready. They literally had to strip the entire long neck carcass down to the bone to get enough meat for all of the doses, and it took multiple runs from all of the volunteers to get enough medicine plants, as well.

Lesik, Alaina and Petrie took a break to go collect themselves in front of the long neck carcass one last time, as a final tribute to the great giant green eater. They stood in silence for awhile, gazing at the skeletal remains of the long neck. Finally, Lesik spoke.

"He sacrificed his life so thousands could live..."

Alaina nodded. "There is an old saying: The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few..."

Petrie nodded. "... Or the one..."

They spent the next few minutes comforting each other before they headed back to their assigned duties.

In the end, Petrie gathered up the most plants of all; mainly because he was a flyer, and he flew as fast as he could on each of his runs.

There was a sad indicent on one of his runs that deeply affected him. While he was collecting plants under the watchful eyes of his protection guards, he saw that two healer sharptooths had showed up at a nearby sharptooth dwelling. The female sharptooth living within came out to greet them. Though the sounds he heard emanating from them were mainly grunts, groans and soft roars to his earholes, he knew that they were talking in the sharptooth language.

He jumped slightly when the female suddenly let out a huge roar, then fell to her knees on the ground, her hands balled into fists. He saw large tears running down her facial features. Then, two young ones came out from the cave dwelling, wondering what was wrong with their mother. She took them into her arms, then let out a huge roar again.

Petrie didn't need any translation to know that what was said was something like: "Mommy? MOMMY! What's wrong! Why are you crying?" "It's your father! He's DEEEEAD!"

The two young sharptooth let out their own sorrowful roars in mourning for their now deceased father, another victim of the "Bloody Tummy" disease. Petrie could only look on in sorrow at the scene. He would love to be able to do more for them. To comfort them, give them hope, somehow. But he knew there was nothing he could do. He felt a clawed hand on his shoulder, he looked back to see one of his protection guards looking down at him. He made a low rumbling sound at him. Though he couldn't understand him, he knew he must've said something like "Do not concern yourself with them. They will be looked after. Continue collecting the plants." Petrie just shut his eyes and nodded. He had time to look back one last time to see the two male sharptooth healers comforting the female sharptooth and her two younglings. One even hugged the largest male youngling as he wept openly, calling for his father.

By the time evening rolled around, all of the doses were ready. Chief Berserker stood at the top of the hill at the valley entrance, let out a huge roar to bring eveybody to silence, then made the annoucement that the antidote can now be ministered. The entire valley was literally echoing with sharptooth cheers and roars of joy. This went on for quite some time before Chief Berserker put up his hands and let out a few more huge roars that translated to "SILEEEEEENCE! HEAR MEEEEEEE!" in the green eater language. He then announced that the healers will begin distributing the medicine to the sick, but that if there were any relatives or friends of the sick here present, they must form an orderly line at the base of the entrance so the doses can be handed to them by the volunteers. He did not have time to even finish his sentence that many sharptooth were already storming the area trying to get their hands on the medicine. Chief Berserker threw up his hands in exasperation, looked at the sky as if to say "I should've KNOWN they were gonna do that ANYWAY, no matter WHAT I said!" It was a good thing that he assigned enough guards to keep the mob at bay. All throughout the crowd, there were cries and pleas from many sharptooth calling for the doses. They were pleading for the volunteers and healers to give them the medicine to save their mates/sons/daughters/parents. There were a few minor skirmishes with the guards, and a few sharptooth got trampled in the initial stampede, but they were none the worse for wear. One male sharptooth twisted his knee out of place, and had to receive a different kind of ministering that the healers have been giving over the past two weeks or so.

V'Leck waited her turn in the "orderly" line, like dozens of other sharptooth who knew it was pointless to be part of the initial desperate stampede. They knew it wasn't gonna get them the medicine any quicker. She got two doses, one for Chomper and one for Roary.

While Chomper took his own medicine without hesitation, things were a little bit harder for Roary. He took one bite of the medicine plant/meat antidote, cried out "Oh! That's DISGUSTING!" as he stuck out his tongue.

"I know it doesn't taste good, Roary" his mother had told him. "But you must take it, if you are to live."

Roary nodded, then closed his eyes as he took the dose his ministered to him. "Now, you have to chew on it a few times before you swallow it." she told him.

He made a face and squinted as he did as his mother said. Then he swallowed with an audible gulping sound. "OOH! That was horrible!" Some healers had brought over 2 leaf trays filled with water that Chomper and Roary used to wash the antidotes down with.

"What was it that threehorn said earlier about this cure?"

Chomper shrugged. "That we really won't know until tomorrow if the medicine will actually work."

"Well, I know I feel better already." Roary said. If anything, both he and Chomper felt that the antidote settled their respective stomachs.

Cera came by to inspect the two patients."How's everything here?"

"Just fine." Chomper smiled and said.

"Great!" Cera said as she gave a happy nod before moving on to the next set of patients.

"I'm beginning to like her. She seems real nice... for a threehorn."

Chomper smiled and gave V'Leck a light squeeze on her shoulder.

"You two should get some rest. I'll see if I can go lend a claw to all of those poor volunteers."

"Yes, dear!" Chomper said.

"Yes, mother." Roary said.

She smiled back at them as she walked off.

In the end, the antidote DID work. All of the sick sharptooth reported that their symptoms were alleviating somewhat. Cera ordered additional doses to everyone who still did not quite feel well. The sharptooth healers asked her if it really was necessary. Cera said that, sometimes, a green eater had to take 2 or 3 doses, and in the most extreme cases, 4 doses, before being fully cured of the sickness.

That meant every volunteer had to strike out in search of more medicine plants, and a hunting party had to be sent out to bring in another long neck kill to provide the meat. The story the hunters told was that the long neck voluntarily gave up his life for the cause. Matter of fact, he had heard about the disease that was afflicting the sharptooth; and was able to grasp a few words of the sharptooth language to understand what they needed his flesh for. The hunters said the long neck put his head down for the killer blow.

Among the many groans of protest, the sick sharptooth took their addtitional doses.

After the sick sharptooth started recovering, Cera ordered all those who were still healthy to take one dose as a precaution to avoid the disease from resurfacing. This meant that more hunting parties had to be sent out, and yet more medicine plants had to be brought in.

Chomper needed two doses of the antidote to fully recover, while Roary needed three. The still healthy, like V'Leck, only their one precautionary dose.

All of the green eaters took their one dose of the medicine plant(without the meat, of course.)

Then Cera ordered the sharptooth healers to canvas all over the sharptooth lands to make sure everyone was inoculated, and to check to see if there were any sick sharptooth who weren't able to make their way down to the valley. They found several dead corpses that were left rotting in their cave dwellings, left there by their families out of fear of catching the sickness that killed them, should they try to remove the body.

In the end, the green eaters spent nearly a month and a half in the sharptooth lands helping out in the inoculation and education program. Cera gave seminars in how to recognize the symptoms of the "Bloody Tummy" disease, and what to do, should someone get sick from it. Many of the local healers, and members of the general population, attended her lectures.

Meanwhile, Chomper had reconciled with V'Leck, and they became mates again. Despite her still looking down upon it, Chomper began to teach his son Roary the green eater language, as well as their way of life and beliefs. Roary always listened eagerly every time his father gave his lessons, and Roary always had lots of questions to ask.

After Chomper moved back in with V'Leck and Roary, he offered his old cave dwelling to Cera as a temporary residence while she stayed in the sharptooth country. She graciously took up the offer. While she felt grateful at the gesture, she also felt kind of sad. She had started feeling something akin to more than friendship towards Chomper. She never thought she would ever feel this way towards a sharptooth. Her heart was joyous at the notion that Chomper had reunited with his family, yet hurt at the same time at the notion that they could never be more than friends. Then she thought about Wendyk back home in The Great Valley, at how he said he would wait for her when she got back. She began thinking that becoming mates with a threehorn like him'd might not be such a bad idea after all.