Looking back to the group that had been left dealing with the adult spider, Sabine had lost her spear but Hank could see that it was firmly lodged in her target spot and that the spider was almost done. She bashed away using her hammer, and Jamie had recovered sufficiently to return to the fight using a very nice sabre. If Hank had ever been confused about the relative status he and Jamie held, that sword dispelled it. The blade gleamed, even from where Hank stood, which, combined with the tassels and workmanship of the guard and handle, simply confirmed that the weapon was worth more that a small city.

Hank’s thoughts returned to the battle and a particularly savage spider attack was blocked by Sabine and Jamie working in tandem. Fritz continued his attempts to bash, chop and hammer the rest of the life out of the monstrous arachnid, as Raudh charged back towards them. Whilst Gruffly turned to Marko who’s cries tampered off as he entered into shock.

Glancing further afield, Hank reasoned, if they had been driven by the Exi then there was only one logical place they could be. A Harissi den. A clearing with large rocks didn’t seem like much of a den, but what did he know. On the bright side, Tom had been right, Harissi were insane and they loved fighting spiders. They sounded crazy with that giggling sound that still rang out around the clearing. All three were bleeding from numerous wounds. One even had the tip of a fang stuck between two of its ribs. None of them had slowed down.

Surveying the battlefield he noticed that most of the spiders were dead. All the juveniles were done. Some having died at the fangs of the blind adult, but it too was dead. Only three arachnids remained. One adult the harissi treo where biting chunks off, literally. The one that had been watching the trees was surrounded by seven exi. It was trying very hard to back out of the clearing, but the exi were having none of that. They drove it towards the harissi. Made sense to Hank. Why go to all the effort yourself when there seemed to be creatures on earth that just laughed at attacking giant spiders.

The, all of a sudden the fight was done. The spear in their adult spider finally did it’s job and the beast collapsed, legs curling underneath it in death. The harissi, dispatching their spider, pounced on the last whilst it focused on the exi. A few moments later and it expired as well.

“Hank, can you do anything for Marko?” It was a question Hank had been dreading.

“Sabine, Gruffly, there might be a cure for the giant spider poison, but I don’t know what it is. Usually anti-venom has to be specific to the bite and I don’t know of anything that might work for these beasts.” Right then he regretted not buying Nancy’s book on cures. “Besides, I don’t think there's much hope when the bite is that close to the heart.”

“Can you try?” Sabine translated reflecting the pleading tone in Gruffly’s voice.

Hank retrieved his pack from his paltry. The animal had recovered sufficiently that it looked reproachfully at him as he did, as if to say why didn’t you get that off me earlier. With a high he started examining Marko, pulling various medical ingredients from his pack. It was hopeless his identify skill didn’t give him any help. He pulled out Lenard Williamson’s book of cures racking his brain for anything he could remember from flicking though it earlier.

Towards the back of the book there was a recipe for Malcham’s wort which looked promising. But wouldn’t do all that he needed. In a flash of inspiration he dragged out his heavily annotated copy of Nancy’s book on GNF plants. If he remembered, Tom mentioned something about the pears native to the region.

After digging through his notes for a few minutes he found what he was looking for. A comment he had added. “When pulped, mixed with mint and applied to wounds these pears introduce enzymes that cancelled some side effects of some venoms found in the fauna of the GNF.” Further comments said that it would be very painful. But hey, it was Marko, so Hank wouldn’t feel too bad.

Digging though his pack, Hank pulled out a couple of those weird pears. It was fortunate that he had some left over from a ‘breakfast’ on the way to ‘Big tree’. Breakfast, that was a laugh, that weird vegetarian diet didn’t break any kind of fast Hank knew. With a sigh of regret he put them aside for use. He had planned on planting them in his orchard when he started one. He would just have to harvest a few more.

Hank pulled out more of the dried herbs from his pack, sorting those to be used for his wort to one side before returning the rest to his pack. Before jumping to combine the rough recipe Tom gave him with Malcham’s wort Hank concluded he better make sure he had some basis for his efforts. He looked through his flora book and other parts of Williamson’s tome to make trying to work out what all the various herbs did. He guessed some were numbing agents, others blood clotting, antiseptics, antihistamines, anti inflammatory and disinfectants from the various notes and book descriptions.

Hank set to work. After a few minutes he had combined the mint and the pears as instructed from Tom’s recipe. Then he mixed in the numbing and clotting agents as required for Malcham’s wort. He didn’t think a number of the other items did much so he left them out but at the last minute added some thistle leaf before combing the two mixtures into a thick pungent paste.

He realised he had forgotten some of the ‘anti’s. Looking back through the Williamson’s book he decided that some seemed to cancel out the effect of others. So after careful consideration, he ground a few of them up with a few drops of water before adding it to his earlier effort.

Hank was nervous about experimenting on a man, but he reasoned Marko would probably die anyway. Besides he was unconscious, so he couldn’t object. Returning to the side of the previously injured man he spoke. “Ok people you may need to hold him down.”

The wound was still leaking a lot of blood, thankfully it wasn’t squirting out, still the oozing blood flow almost washed out the paste. But Hank held it in with some bandage cloth. There was a struggle for a minute or two earning a few comments before Marko seemed to calm down. The purple tint that had been creeping through the vessels just under Marko's skin seemed to slow its spread and his breathing started to regulate itself a bit better.

As Hank stood up he spoke to Gruffly via Sabine’s translation. “To be honest, I don’t know if this is going to work Gruffly, but it’s the best I can do.”

He started to move away when there was a yowl behind him. He turned, one of the Exi had emerged from the forest, sniffing Marko. Gruffly pulled his hammer back to attack the large cat.

“Don’t move Gruffly. Back away.” Sabine spoke calmly and slowly. “That’s an Exi, isn’t that right Hank?”

“I think so, yes.” Hank confirmed.

Gruffly didn’t move, tensing in preparation to attack as he snarled at this sister.

“What was Tom’s comment about making Exi angry?” Jamie remarked jocularly.

“Don’t.” Jamie replied to himself. “Well actually he was quite long-winded but the relevant bit I believe was ‘there are not enough forests to run through nor places to hide. Exi will repay blood for blood.’” Remembering conversations was what Wanderers like Jamie did. “So please don’t attack the big kitty, I’m not defending you from it’s irate pack mates.”

“As I thought, this is a beast we do not want to make angry.” Sabine spoke.

Watching Gruffly, who seemed unsure, Hank remarked calmly to Jamie. “I do believe that Tom said the collective noun for a group was a ‘meld of exo’, exo being the plural of exi. Seems a little strange. But those naturalists were weird in general.”

Gruffly remained unsure. The Exi however continued sniffing the wound. Then a tongue the width of a saucer flicked out and barely touched the paste that Hank’s hastily applied bandage hadn't covered. The Exi backed up, yowled, then sneezed, shook its head and yowled again, pawing at its tongue. Hank snorted at its discomfort. “Didn’t moma teach you to watch what you put in your mouth.”

The cat coughed at Hank in response. Still shaking its head as it walked up to Hank and head butted him in the chest. It wasn’t hard or hurtful but it forced Hank to take a step back. The Exi repeated the shove. And again. Next thing Hank knew, he was being pushed across the clearing. On the far side, a smaller Exi with a wound that looked similar to Marko’s though much worse lay panting in the shade.

Hank crouched down and inspected the animal thoroughly. The female Exi was starting to waste away, so he concluded she had been injured sometime in the last three or four days. He reached out, gently touching the wound. The smaller Exi responded with a weak yowl and hiss. He stood up to walk away and was promptly knocked over by the first Exi.

Turning slowly, he spoke to the large exi. “I know you want me to help her you silly animal. But I need my medicines.” He shook his head as he pointed to his pack. He couldn’t believe he was talking to an Exi.

The Exi cocked its head as if in understanding. It let him get up and walk back to where he had been treating Marko, shadowing every step Hank took. Hank retrieved the remains of his hastily concocted paste hoping it would be enough as he was out of Cabus root and those weird pears. He also grabbed a sharp knife.

He walked back to the ailing Exi. The wound had scabbed over, so he was going to have to cut it off. As he drew his knife all the Exi in the clearing looked at him and there was a collective cough. Hank looked up to see that the hair on the back of the entire meld was standing up. They were all tensed ready to spring in Hank’s direction.

“You silly things, I can’t push this stuff through her scab.” He gestured to the whole Meld of them. Once again, they seemed to understand and settle down. Hank decided that a running commentary might be useful. “This is going to hurt so please let me keep my limbs.”

He cut the scab off.

A whimpering mewl came from the Exi resulting in a general flattening of ears around the Exo. Some turned their heads away but no other sounds or movement came. As he pushed all the remaining mixture into the open wound he spoke to the small exi before him. “Now this is the medicine. Don’t let your friends lick it off. Hopefully it will do you good”. The only reaction he saw was all the Exi in the clearing twitching their tails in time with the female in front of him.

Hank spent a few moments just watching the Exi lying in front of him. Just like with Marko the poor animal’s breathing started to ease and the discolouration around the wound started to change. Hank took it as a positive sign. He rose and turned to walk back across the clearing. The big Exi walked up to him and licked his face. Hank was partly disgusted and partly surprised. But before he could react the Exi started pushing him towards the Harissi.

“But I don’t have any more” Hank said showing the empty pestle to the Exi. It didn’t make any difference. In a minute, Hank stood where the Harissi were licking each other’s wounds. As they noticed Hank, there was a deep throaty growl from three throats. But the Exi just roared right back. Hank, who stood between the two parties, thought that the volume was a bit much, greatly regretting that he would be in the middle of any disagreement.

Only one Harissi came over to them. It sort of turned and Hank could see that it was the one with a piece of fang stuck between two ribs. He reached over to touch it, and there was a rumbling from three throats. Hank pulled his hand back and promptly received a nudge from the Exi.

Fantastic. He thought loose a hand to a dog or a cat. Wonderful choices. The Exi just nudged him again. So carefully reaching down he grasped the fang, earning a few more growls and pulled it out. There was a yelp and a loud bark and the Harissi took off back to its fellows. Hank received another lick and a head butt back in the direction of his people.

He didn’t need to be told twice.