The Cave - Chapter IV - The Four Kingdoms

The old man burst into the threshold of a particularly small hut. The inside was dim, lit only by a fire place in the dining room. There were yet even more jars and bowls in the area, and several strings of strange plants hanging from the ceiling. “Gabriel, I’m home!” He shouted to no one in particular, bustling around the kitchen. He snatched up seemingly random items laying on his countertops, and wrenching open cabinets. “Finally, a challenge.” He muttered to himself.

“So uh… didn’t catch your name,” Luke said over the din.

“Jason.” The old man answered, filling a small wooden bowl with a foul smelling yellow herb.

“What do you want me to do with Oliver, Mr. Jason?” Julia asked.

“Oh, just lay him on the table,” Jason answered distractedly, waving his hand in the general direction of the table. Julia gently eased Oliver onto the table. Lee lifted his feet, and lay them onto the surface.

Oliver propped himself up on his elbows. “What are you going to do for the treatment?”

Jason added a bowl and pestle to the ingredients on the table. “Some simple things, snap your bones back in place, you’ll eat a couple of treatments, and I can fix this in no time at all. The mere fact that you got this splint on yourself is miraculous.”

“It wasn’t just me,” Oliver corrected. “My friends helped.”

“Then even more miraculous is the fact that you persuaded them all to work together.” The man said brightly as he began grinding the yellow herb with the mortar and pestle.

A boy came into the room. He was dressed in dirty white breeches, and a grubby top. His hair was undone, but he had a handsome face. His eyes were a light green, almost silver, rimmed with forest green. He stopped, and stared at the four. “Customers?” He asked, astounded.

“Yes, can you believe it? Came begging for help.” Jason grinned at the boy and added the herbs to an iron bowl filled with water. “Get the Flicker-er.”

The boy nodded, and skirted around Jason to a queer device on the counter. It had a small cylinder on the bottom. On top of it, was a small iron bowl with a small pile of some cinnamon looking powder. The boy set the device on the table.

Jason hummed, striking two black stones together. A spark landed on the brown powder, which suddenly combusted into flames. He rested an iron disk on top of the bowl. He then set the water filled bowl onto the flicker-er. “Thank you, Gabriel.”

“You’re welcome, grandfather.” Gabriel said, facing the four. “Where are you from? I’ve never seen you in this area of the kingdom before,”

Julia traded looks with the others. Lee looked suspicious, Luke a little concerned, while Oliver looked plain wary.

“We’re from…” Julia began, but she wasn’t sure what she would say next. “… Far away.”

“Where, Ganado?” Jason asked, chopping up something that looked like a lizard tail.

Luke’s eyes lingered on the tail. “Where?”

“Ganado. The livestock kingdom?” Jason added hopefully.

“Doesn’t ring a bell.” Lee admitted.

“Perhaps Eau?”

The four stayed in silence.

“You’re not familiar with any of the kingdoms?” Jason was wary now. Julia glanced to Gabriel, who had his eyebrow furrowed, studying them as if they were a rubix cube.

Julia’s eyes flickered back to Jason. “The whats?”

Jason set down his knife altogether. “This could only mean that you are from Up-Above.”

Lee crossed her arms. “And that means?”

“That you are unfamiliar to the cave. That you are from above ground. That you are foreign. Alien, almost.” Jason answered, eyeing them warily. “You could be dangerous. You could be carrying viruses, or be feeding information to the others.”

“The others?” Luke asked confusedly.

“The others who live at Up-Above. Who may want to take over the kingdom.”

“We promise we’re not.” Oliver assured Jason. “We only got lost. That’s the only reason that we’re down here.”

Gabriel stepped back. “Do you swear? If it were on your lives themselves, would you swear?”

Lee straightened. “I swear.”

Oliver and Luke swore.

“I swear it.” Julia added.

“Yes, well…” Jason gingerly stepped forward and threw a handful of roughly chopped lizard tail into the herbs and water. The chunks floated up toward the top. “If you have sworn, you must be serious.” Jason kept bustling around, adding random ingredients without a reply.

“So, what are your names?” Gabriel asked.

Lee stuck her hand out confidently. “I’m Lee.”

Gabriel looked at Lee’s hand confusedly, but he reached forward and grasped it. “Gabriel.”

Oliver, with some difficulty, twisted around and grabbed Gabriel’s hand firmly. “Oliver.”

Gabriel nodded and shook his hand.

“I’m Luke,” Luke waved at Gabriel distractedly. He was watching Jason with some sort of fascination as he stirred a pinch of blue powder into the water, making the mixture acidic green.

Julia reached out her hand. “I’m Julia. Lovely to meet you.”

Gabriel eyed Julia’s hand the same way he studied Lee’s. Nonetheless, he shook it loosely. “And I you.”

“Finally!” Jason grinned, squeezing a yellow pod over the bowl. A drop of silver liquid, like mercury, dropped into the bowl. Tendrils of orange smoke streamed over the top of the iron bowl and crept a few inches across the table before evaporating into thin air.

Oliver stared at the bowl tensely. “What’s that supposed to do?”

Jason swished the contents of the bowl around like a panner searching for gold. “Just a simple bone correcting solution.”

Oliver’s eyes were alight with curiosity. “How does it work?”

Jason palmed two more pods from a bowl beside the flicker-er. “You will swallow the solution, which contains patinae. The silver liquid. There are several components in the solution that will mend your bones. Patinae is attracted to more patinae. So the solution will be drawn to the correct area to mend the bones.” Jason said, rolling Oliver’s left pant leg up to above his knee as Oliver hissed in pain.

“That’s amazing.” Luke said. “How many broken bones have you fixed before now?”

“Me?” Jason handed the bowl to Oliver. “Drink.” He turned back to Luke as Oliver gulped down the first mouthful. Oliver grimaced, and quickly gulped down the rest. Jason squeezed several drops of patinae onto Oliver’s leg. He rubbed it over the broken sections of bone. “You’re my first treatment.”

Oliver hacked and choked on the last gulp.

Jason waited for Oliver to finish choking patiently, washing his hands of the patinae.

“What?! Did you go to school for this?” Oliver asked.

Jason frowned and dried off his hands. “You need to go to school for this job?”

“Yes!” Lee shouted.

“Well that’s curious.” Jason muttered. “The treatment should work any second now.” The room lapsed into a brief silence.

“Well, how about some tea?” Gabriel offered.

Julia nodded. “Thanks.”

Gabriel lifted the kettle off of the counter, but dropped it again when Oliver let out a loud scream.

***

Sorry to do this to you all, but I was perhaps thinking that if I made the chapter shorter, I may get more reviews. But that just makes it better, right?