Over the next few days, we conserved our food as much as possible, and I got to know both the girls a little better.

Jewel was a certified student of magic – an honest to goodness wizard! Err… Wizardess, I guess. Or perhaps wizardess-in-training? Whatever the proper term was, she could use actual magic, once we got the rings off her fingers. Apparently, the bandits had dealt with magical prisoners before, so the rings all interlocked, keeping Jewel from moving her fingers independently and making the intricate gestures required to shape usable magic.

Apparently, however, she was sick. Touching her caused her to moan in pain and she was constantly drenched in sweat. Even though the rain stopped the next morning, she still shivered uncontrollably all the time. On the second morning of our hiding, Jewel started to develop of fever, with the color of her skin fading ever paler. I was getting ever more worried for her as time slowly crept by in our hidey-hole.

Red, on the other hand, only grew more energetic and restless as time passed. Trained to fight to protect her mistress, Red had an indomitable warrior’s spirit. Completely carefree about me seeing her naked body – she simply waved it off as, “Why the hell would I try and hide myself from Mi’Lord?” – she had absolutely no issues with pressing herself against me, nor with me feeling any part of her that I desired.

Honestly, I had the distinct impression that I could ravish her chastity right there in the cave, with Jewel watching the whole time, without her caring the slightest. Not that the chill, or my lack of courage, would actually let me do such a thing. The most I could bring myself to do, was to simply rub both girls freely, with the excuse that it was, “to share warmth”.

On the morning of the third day, we were out of food and Jewel’s fever had continued to climb. “It’s time,” I told both girls solemnly. “We’ve got to chance it now and get out of here while we can. We’ll just get weaker and easier to catch, if we hide in here any longer.”

“I’m ready,” Red agreed instantly, while taking the hatchet from my pack and then climbing out of the cave on her hands and knees, with both still in her hands. As soon as she was out, she was up and quickly moved off to the side and out of sight. The light sound of wood being hacked drifted softly into the cave.

“Guess I’m next,” Jewel croaked hoarsely, swaying slightly from side to side as she crawled out next. Just how bad was her fever, exactly? I’m really getting worried about her health. Frowning to myself, I hurriedly rushed out after her and tried to help steady her balance as we both finally got to stand under the sunlight once again.

“Are you alright?” I couldn’t resist asking Jewel, even though there really wasn’t anything I could do for her if she wasn’t.

“I’m fine,” she lied, unconvincedly, as I wrapped an arm around her to support her.

Glancing over to the side, Red was sharpening the trunk of a small tree into a makeshift spear. “I’m ready,” she informed us, as she slung my pack over her shoulder and passed the hatchet back to me so I could hang it from the side of my belt. “So what’s the plan from here,” she asked?

“I don’t trust heading directly to Burkshire,” I told them both. “We’ve still got the bandit’s loot, and there’s a good chance that they’ve got someone camping out somewhere along the way to keep an eye out for us. “Even though it’s about three days walk from here, I’d like to stay off the roads and keep to the forest, and head back to Hone instead.”

“That is,” I said, frowning while staring at Jewel, “if we can make it that far with the lack of supplies which we currently have.” Already, my stomach was complaining from hunger, so I could just imagine how the girls probably felt – and Jewel was definitely sick on top of all that! “It’d be about two days walk from here, if we tried to head directly to Burkshire instead,” I offered, doubtedly.

“We’ll be fine,” Red said determinedly. “An extra day isn’t that much further to go.”

Jewel didn’t say anything one way or the other, simply leaning up against my side and sweating profusely. “Then we’ll head to Hone,” I said decisively, praying that I wasn’t making the wrong choice.

Traveling through the forest was much more difficult than I’d ever would’ve imagine it could be, slowing our travel to a complete crawl. Limbs and even entire trees were torn up and scattered haphazardly in the aftermath of the storm, and signs of massive flooding was obvious at any source of water. Everywhere we traveled was a struggle against the devastation rampant throughout the entire trip.

The only good thing about the whole experience was the fact that I couldn’t imagine that the bandits were having any better luck navigating the ruined forest than we were.

The first night out, we all huddled tightly together and tried to shelter under several trees that had been blown half over, so we could avoid the wind as much as possible.

The second day, I managed to bring down a single squirrel for us to eat. Even though my stomach protested vehemently, I knew it wasn’t enough to feed all three of us, so I only chewed a few small nibbles from the pitifully small meal, leaving the rest to the girls to devour.

The second night, Jewel’s fever spiked considerably, and the third morning she refused to awaken no matter how hard Red and I tried to rouse her. In the end, I had to carry her after that, slowing us even more.

The third night, I barely even remember, as we stumbled through the forest, refusing to stop. Sometime before daybreak on the fourth morn, we made it to the village of Hone. I don’t even remember telling Red which house the healer lived in, but she’d somehow ran ahead and the door was wide open and a lantern was burning brightly as I stumbled blindly inside.

Somehow, I managed to lay Jewel on the couch before I collapsed and passed out. I’d wanted to get her at least to a bed before stopping, but my body just couldn’t hold out.

“KA-THUNK!!” Sudden, sharp pain reverberated throughout my whole body, leaving me dazed and bewildered as it blasted me suddenly awake.

“Boy,” an old woman’s voice warned me, “if you make anymore work for me right now, you’re going to need a healer by the time I’m finished with you.”

“Granny Jean?” I recognized the voice, but my befuddled brain had no idea where I was at. Somehow, I was laying on the floor, staring up at a blanket that half draped across my legs, while the other half still sat firmly upon the bed beside me. What the hell had just happened?

Groaning, with every muscle in my body aching and complaining in protest, I yawned so hard that I ended up hurting my jaw as I slowly struggled to get up on my feet. Looking around, I was in Granny Jean’s “treatment room”, which consisted of all of two beds, and both of them were occupied at the moment.

“Don’t wake her,” Granny Jean warned me, firmly, nodding her head towards Red, who was sleeping sprawled naked across the mud coated bed I’d apparently just fallen out of. “She stayed up all day yesterday, helping me with the two of you, and she refused to leave and rest anywhere else,” the hunkered old woman explained, as she busied herself leaning over the other bed where Jewel was sleeping soundly.

“Go to the other room, wash yourself off, and then hide that damn worm with something. It’s really not that impressive.” Cackling lightly, Granny pointed her hand holding a dingy washcloth at me. Glancing down towards where she was indicating, it finally registered that I was just as bare as the day I was born again!

“Eeep!” Quickly grabbing the muddy sheet from the bed, I yanked it off and wrapped it around myself, hiding me while completely exposing Red now.

“Tsk. Tsk. Tsk.” Clicking her tongue several times, Granny Jean tossed the old washcloth at me. “So manly,” she uttered sarcastically.

“Oh shut it.” Grumbling to myself, I indigently turned my back on Granny and strode out the door and headed down the left hallway. Whether it was magical, or natural, I had no idea, but Granny Jean’s basement had a large pool in it. Heated by some unknown source – I didn’t think there was any sort of volcanic activity anywhere near our area, so a geothermal spa wasn’t very likely – steam wafted up the steps as soon as I opened the door leading down to the basement.

Though my muscles ached and protested as I headed down the steps and eased myself into the water, afterwards was pure bliss. For several long moments, I simply relaxed as the soothing warmth settled into my joints and eased my poor muscles. I probably could’ve stayed there forever, except as the ache in my muscles eased, the gnawing emptiness of my stomach grew.

Scrubbing thoroughly, I tried to wash the mud and grime of the last week off me. When I was finished with myself – taking several turns to get all the dried and crusted shit out of my hair -- I tugged Granny’s blanket into the water and made certain to scrub all the mud out of it as well. After all, it was the very least I could do for her, after all she’s already did for us. Hell, after all she’s did for the whole village honestly.

The woman might be older than dirt, with a personality to match, but she’d been the healer for the village since before even my father was born. I just couldn’t leave her any extra work, if I could somehow avoid it. Wringing the blanket out with my hands as much as I possibly could, I carried and draped it across the railing leading up and down the stairs so it could dry, before heading up them.

Granny didn’t allow people into her home while she had patients inside, so I wasn’t concerned that anybody would see me wandering around naked as I headed into her kitchens. Rummaging around her cupboards, I scrounged out a whole loaf of bread and jar of some sort of blackish blue fruit preserves, and I flopped down in one of the old chairs surrounding her table, to eat like a ravenous wolf.

It was only after my stomach was full and bulging, that I bothered to head into the hallway to dig through Granny’s closets. It took me a little while, but eventually I found the long cotton shirts her patients wear, sliding one over myself and buttoning several buttons up on it. Long enough to drape itself all the way to my knees almost, it was more than enough to protect my dignity as I headed back into the sick room with a second one in my hands.

“How is she?” I asked as soon as I entered the room, seeing Granny sitting bent over Jewel, gently giving her a slow sponge bath.

“Out of juice,” Granny replied, shaking her head side to side sadly. “She’s dehydrated to the point of dying, and her life energy has depleted itself completely dry. It’s going to be several days before she wakens – if she ever awakes again,” Granny warned me, grimly.

“Even if she wakes up, she’ll never be the same again.” Looking older and sadder than I ever remember seeing her before, Granny once again shook her head from side to side sadly. “I fear if she’ll ever be able to feel or touch magics again after this, and mageborn who lose the breath seldom live for more than a year after. Most end their own lives within just a few short weeks after burning out.”

“Dehydrated? Burning out?” The weight of Granny’s words were world heavy, but I didn’t understand. “How can she be dehydrated? There was a damn river of water that fell on our heads the whole time we were out there. We might’ve been hungry, but we never went thirsty.” I could hardly believe it’d be possible to dehydrate when consuming so much to drink.

“’Tis the damn herbs in her blood,” Granny informed me softly, as she continued to gently wash over Jewel’s body. “They caused her to leak more out than she was taking in. Her life energy – what many fools will call magics – instinctively tried to fill that gap, until even it was fully spent. Now, she’s an empty pool, with only a small trickle of energy going in, while a large stream runs out.”

“Is there anything I can do to help? Anything at all?” I might not understand all the talk about magics, empty pools, and burning out, but it was obvious how extreme the situation actually was.

“Anything we can do to help,” Red corrected, as she stretched and sat up slowly in the other bed.

Looking over at her, Granny simply snorted dismissively. “You can just go fill your stomach, clean yourself up, and go back to sleep. You need time to recover as well.”

“My needs aren’t as important as Mi’Lady’s,” Red refuted, standing up proud and unabashed. “If there’s anything that can be done, task me with the chore and I’ll accomplish it, or perish trying.”

“We’ll accomplish it,” I reminded her, walking over and holding the shirt in my hand out to her.

“Hmmm…” Granny Jean looked as if she was deep in thought for a few moments, leaving us hanging as Red wrapped her arms inside the shirt without bothering to do up a single button.

“Fine,” she finally sighed deeply and stared at the both of us. “I need clohander, grimvine, dain’s folly, and wrengrass to make more antidote for the herbs coursing through her blood. No fool jackass doses a slave as she’s been, and no healer is going to have even a fraction of the cure she needs on hand for it. It’s not as if anyone ever removes the herbs normally,” Granny muttered moodily to herself.

“Herb hunting. I can do that,” I assured Granny with no doubt.

Nodding slightly to herself, Granny Jane suddenly stopped moving and her face blanked as she stared blankly off into space. Red started to say something, but I put my hands across her mouth to stop her. Every so often, Granny had these fits of sudden silence, and nobody ever interrupted her when they happened. Hell, I’ve even seen the whole inn stop singing, dancing, and drinking, when that peaceful look spread across her features in the past.

Red looked at me quizzically as we waited patiently for several minutes, as Granny sat there still as a statue. Finally letting out a deep breath, a large grin spread across her face and she nodded several times to herself.

“Widow’s Crypt,” Granny told us, smiling lightly. “Go to Widow’s Crypt, descend inside, and find the Widow’s Heart. That’s your task.”

“Widow’s Crypt? Heart?” I knew where the old graveyard was, but there were dozens of tombs in it. I had no clue which one belonged to some widow, just so I could go and dig the heart out of her chest.

“Go.” Turning her attention back to washing down Jewel, Granny completely ignored us now.

Sighing, I knew we wouldn’t get any extra details from the old woman, so I didn’t even bother asking. Moving my hand from Red’s mouth finally, I took her arm and tugged her firmly behind me as I headed back towards the basement.

“First, a bath,” I informed her, firmly. “I’ll bring you something to eat while you’re down there, so take your time, soak, and be certain to clean yourself fully. After that,” I promised, “we’ll go find the needed medicines and collect the heart out of some dead widow.”