Chapter 40

To say our new life was an adjustment was an understatement. Everyone was used to having servants to do things like dishes, laundry, cleaning, and meals. Everyone was also used to going to the market or sending a servant to pick up goods. Now everyone...OK...everyone else, was having to do what the servants had done before.

Mom was amazing and I "watched" as she made meals, cleaned our cabin, washed clothes and showed Jasper and Sapphire to wash dishes. Dad would go into the forest everyday and came back with either nuts, berries, wild edibles, or meat. Often it was a combination of those. I didn't really notice how run down my mom had gotten until one day when the three of us realized that our dad had gone into the forest early and our mom was still in bed.

Sapphire grabbed my hand and pulled me into the room with a "come on". We were very quiet as we neared the bed. I got quite close to her and could feel the heat radiating off her as well as could feel her shaking under the blankets.

"Mom has a fever" I whispered.

"Obviously" Sapphire snapped, then asked almost meekly "what do we do?"

"We need cold water and tea with honey." I stated.

"Okay" they both said and left the room to get the water and tea. I really prayed that this was going to be enough since there was no doctor nor drug store that I could seek help from. While waiting for Sapphire and Jasper to come back, I searched around my parent's room for a cloth I could use for helping to cool her head down. I couldn't help but wish this hadn't happened until I was much stronger and able to 'conjure' water. I finally found a couple of pieces of what felt like wool and seemed to be quite absorbent.

About half an hour later Jasper brought in a bucket filled with cold well water which he must have worked very hard to draw up since he is still quite young himself and Sapphire brought in something that resembled honey tea. I placed the bucket down next to our parent's bed. Thankfully the bed was low to the ground and I was able to climb up to help my mom without too much mess. I soaked two of the fabrics, did my best to wring them until they were at least no longer sopping wet, then placed one on her forehead and one behind her head. Jasper helped me spoon small amounts of the honey tea into her mouth. I tried to do it, but ended up spilling more down the side of her face than the amount that actually made it into her mouth.

We stayed with her for hours, changing the cloths and spooning tea. I listened to her breathing, but it didn't sound too laboring, so I had high hopes that this fever was just due to overworking or a cold and not from an infection like pneumonia. I also noticed that her temperature had seemed to have gone down noticeably from early that morning.

Dad came back from hunting in the forest much earlier than he had been before which was great. I was tired of hearing and feeling empty stomachs growling. I was so hungry that I tried some of Sapphire's tea and decided that she should never make tea. It was so awful that for one minute I even pondered whether we were actually making mom more sick by feeding it to her. After that I insisted that it would be better for mom to drink warm water with honey instead.

I immediately felt relief when we heard the sound of dad's footsteps and his unique whistling, which I had never heard until we moved to the woods. I could also feel the tension and fear that had been building around me ease as well. I knew that Jasper and Sapphire were also very relieved that dad was home.

"Dad!" Sapphire called out as dad walked into the cabin with the food item he had hunted throughout the day. "Mom's sick".

That got his attention in a hurry and he immediately dropped everything and rushed to their bedroom.