Skylor frowned as she vigorously scrubbed the blanket clean by the river. Herself and Shade volunteered to clean the clothes and blankets for the day and after they were given almost a dozen baskets of dirty laundry they headed down to the river. Yet she was quickly finding the task slow and boring. As the blanket was soaking, she glanced up. She saw Shade scowling in a focused manner as he squeezed the water out of a shirt before dumping it in the basket.
Feeling a bit bored and a little mischievous, Skylor smirked and suddenly flicked some water at him. Shade jumped from the sensation and Skylor laughed before repeating the action. The two then started splashing each other as if they were cubs. They only stopped when Ash approached them with an annoyed look on his face. He had a deer carcass over his shoulder from a successful hunt. They would all be eating well tonight.
"Still feeling clever that you cheated the Gods?" He glared at the red-haired alpha.
"If that's what you wanna call it, then yeah." She smirked triumphantly.
"Pity Kataru wasn't so lucky." He snarled and Skylor's smirk suddenly dropped. Without another word, she bolted from the river and headed straight for the healer's tent. When she ripped the covers back, she was horrified to see Kataru in an even worse state than he was before. He honestly looked like he was dying. Mystake and Garmadon were there tending to the young boy.
"I thought he was getting better." Skylor hissed as she rubbed Kataru's scalding forehead with a damp cloth as he whined and shifted around in clear distress.
"It's come back," Mystake growled as she desperately tried mixing her potions. "I have tried every remedy, but he's burning up."
"Ok, but that's just the body's way of fighting infection," Skylor said, remembering back to what she learned back at Ninjago High. Sadly, not everyone was convinced.
"A high fever can kill a werewolf; I've seen it happen," Mystake warned and Skylor couldn't deny that that was true. High fevers that were a hundred and three degrees or above could be fatal and needed immediate medical attention. It was not a quick death either. If it rose too far, the cells began to die, releasing proteins into the blood that could damage the kidneys and other organs, resulting in their failure. The exact temperature at which this happened depended on the source of a person's fever as well as other factors.
Skylor wished that they had a thermometer or something.
Unfortunately, they were in the middle of the forest and too far from modern immediate medical attention. Not to mention the lack of sanitized products they were using like the rags and bowls were not helping Kataru's chances. With that in mind, Skylor made her final decision.
"Then he needs medicine."
"I told you I've tried everything." Mystake snapped as she gestured to the empty vials they had been using.
"No, HUMAN medicine." She argued and an uncomfortable silence filled the tent.
"But we have never used human medicine before." Garmadon eventually said cautiously. He was raised in the human world so he knew that things like all the vaccines, medicines, hospitals, and doctors were researched and very effective. But he also knew the risks of bringing this to the humans. If Skylor started asking a pharmacist or nurse for something to combat Kataru's symptoms they might get suspicious. They could track the wild pack down.
If they saw how the pack was living and that they had children with them, a human might get the wrong idea and take the cubs away.
"Do you wanna do what we've always done? Or do you want him to live?" She snarled and when neither of them said anything, she took that as acceptance and left to inform the pack. They all gathered around as Skylor made her announcement. Sadly, not everyone was so quick to follow their leader. "I'll say it again: I'm going to get something to bring down Kataru's temperature and I want three of you to come with me to see how easy it is; or are you so afraid of humans?" She frowned and they all snarled and growled in the offense.
Three pack members emerged from the crowd.
They were Griffin, Karlof, and Krux. Satisfied by this, Skylor ordered Garmadon and Mystake to keep an eye on Kataru. With that done, she and the three volunteers ran off to the nearest human town...
It didn't take them that long to arrive at a small human town on the very edge of the forest. But it did take them a lot longer to find a pharmacy for Kataru. Mainly because Karlof, Griffin, and Krux were taking in this strange, new human world that they had never seen. They had never seen things such as cars, buildings, roads, or street lights. Heck, they hadn't seen humans before, except at a distance or with Jōhō. Their enhanced hearing was picking up all kinds of different sounds and smells.
The sounds of the cars driving past and honking their horns were giving Karlof and Krux a headache.
Yet Griffin looked excited and wanted to chase and race the cars. All three of them could agree, however, that the smells from the cars, stores, and garbage cans were making their noses burn. The feeling of the pavement beneath their feet was a unique experience for them too. It felt artificial and unnatural. All three of them flinched and jumped at every little movement around them, whether it be the cars or people passing them on the streets.
The only one who was calm was Skylor.
The only thing that was stressing her out was how the trio was handling this strange new world. She was starting to regret bringing three people with her. Especially when she started hearing Krux, and to a lesser extent Karlof, growling and snarling when something walked by a little too close for comfort. The only other werewolf who seemed too bright light was Griffin. But Skylor and sometimes Karlof had to stop him from running after something, mainly a car and the odd jogger.
Thankfully they found a pharmacy, but by then Skylor had decided that she shouldn't take them inside.
It was a hassle getting the three of them to stand on the pavement, so she didn't want to risk taking them inside a building. When they were around the corner of the pharmacy Skylor forced them all to stop.
"Stay here and be... normal?" She winced before growling in frustration and running into the pharmacy. She hoped that people passing the trio would just think they were homeless and pass by without paying them any attention. Not even ten seconds later an old woman in her eighties riding a mobility scooter and her eyes narrowed at the rough-looking trio. As soon as he saw the mobility scooter, Krux's eyes widened in horror and he started snarling like a mad dog.
When she heard him snarling, the old woman's eyes narrowed.
"Don't you dare snarl at me, young man!" She shouted as she started smacking Krux with the purse. Back inside the pharmacy, Skylor found what she believed was the best medicine to help Kataru's sickness. She paid for it with the money her friends from Ninjago had given her and gave the cashier a friendly smile as she was given her chance. Her relieved feeling was soon shattered when she saw her pack mates. Krux was still getting beaten up by the old woman with her handbag.
Karlof looked like he was trying to shield Krux, grab the handbag, and attack the old woman all at the same time.
Griffin was standing off the side, holding his ribs as he was laughing like a madman at the scene in front of him. Skylor ran towards them to break up the assault before someone wolfed out and that old lady was hurt.
"Come on!" She shouted as she pushed the werewolves down the street, shouting a quick apology to the old woman as they ran for the forest...
As soon as they arrived back at the wild pack's campsite, Skylor bolted to the healer's tent with the medicine before anyone could say anything. With Garmadon's help, she gave Kataru some ibuprofen to help relieve his symptoms and cure his sickness. The cub gladly accepted the medicine, trusting his alpha, and now they were all waiting. While the amount of time it took for ibuprofen to work could vary, it usually took about half an hour to start feeling symptom relief.
After they administered the medicine, Mystake forced Skylor and Garmadon to leave the tent so he could rest.
Garmadon had left for the camp to check on how Karlof, Griffin, and Krux were feeling after their time in the human world. After an hour of not hearing anything from Mystake or Garmadon, Skylor decided to get some food for Kataru when he awoke. Even if the medicine was effective, he would need food and rest to regain his strength and fight against the sickness. As Skylor left the tent where they stored the food with a small bowl of beef, Krux suddenly approached her.
His body language was tense and he looked ready to murder.
"Do you seriously think anyone's going back to buy human medicine after today?!" He spat and Skylor was at her wit's end. Throwing the bowl to the ground and ignoring it shattering, her amber eyes turned yellow and her teeth sharpened and she and Krux got into a loud snarling match. They stopped, however, when the sounds of footsteps approached them and they turned to see Kataru standing there, watching them. His hair was soaked with sweat, but other than that he looked fine.
Skylor was most happy about this, seeing how the cub looked to be on death's door this morning.
Even Krux looked relieved that the boy had seemed to recover.
"I'm feeling better, much better." Kataru smiled and he gave the red-haired teen a grateful embrace, which she returned. Before any of them could say anything else, there was the sound of laughter approaching them. They all turned to see a small crowd coming towards them following Griffin, Karlof, and Garmadon.
"You're just in time to hear Griffin tell us about Krux again," Garmadon smirked and they all turned to Griffin expectedly.
"So then the old lady got her bag and started beating up Krux with it!" He re-told and used a small blanket to represent the old woman's bag as he started hitting Karlof with it in a reenactment of the events. Everyone, even Acronix, laughed along with it as Griffin and Karlof finished retelling their experiences. Skylor was overjoyed by this. She was hoping that this would help the rest of the pack open up to human solutions in the future and work towards reuniting their worlds.
As they all talked, laughed, and expressed relief over Kataru's recovery, no one noticed Krux storming away with an enraged and vengeful scowl on his face.
He vowed that Skylor would pay the price for this humiliation...
NEXT CHAPTER: The Dobson family's newest foster child creates chaos and upset for Morro...