John says to Kenta “We have to get her to a doctor or healer or…whoever helps slick people as quickly as possible.”

Kenta says “But she is impossible to move. I mean I can easily push centaurs of her weight aside. But she is long and thin.”

John says “Then we’ll have to make her easier to move.”

Kenta says “what if we wait for another traveler to come along.”

John says “Do you really want to risk her life in the hopes of someone else coming along. We haven’t seen another traveler since we left town.”

Kenta says “okay how do we make her easier to move?”

John thinks for a moment then says “we need some long logs.”

John has Kenta chop down four small trees with trunks as big around as he is. He then ties them into a form of a triangle with one running down the middle with about Kenta’s length sticking out at the front. He then warps Nasha’s bedding around the frame and ties it to it, making a stretcher. John and Kenta move it next to Nasha. John says to Kenta “Okay, I’ll grab her upper body and you grab the first part of her lower body.” They lift Nasha and put her upper body near the top of the stretcher. They then start working together to move the rest of her lower body into the stretcher. John sees the ooze settle in Nasha’s arms.

John picks up the front part of the stretcher to bring the wooden piece up for Kenta to grab. They look at each other then start pulling as fast as they can.

Kenta brushes Papi off when she tries to climb onto Kenta’s back and John shoos Papi off the stretcher. John looks back after a minute or two and sees Papi is falling behind. John says to Kenta “Keep moving!” and let’s go. He runs back and gives Papi a piggyback ride so they can keep moving. John eventually relents and lets Papi ride on the stretcher while he and Kenta pull it along. John can hear Nasha murmur about needing to get warm.

John tries to get Kenta to stop as the sun sets saying “Kenta we have to stop for the night.”

Kenta says “You said we had to get her help quickly.”

John says “and we can’t if you are too tired to pull or trip over something in the dark. Let’s make camp and try to get some sleep.”

John soon has a fire started and they have moved Nasha as close as possible to it. John checks on her to see how she is doing. Nasha hasn’t improved a bit. She still murmurs in her sleep and seems to drift in and out. The ooze stays with Nasha for the night.

John is awaking by Kenta in the early light. Kenta says to him “Get up, we may be able to move quicker in the cool morning air.” John gets up and gets ready to pull again.

He and Kenta pull Nasha along for almost the full day when they see a farmer’s field. They quickly wave a work hand down to go get a wagon and some help to get Nasha on it. They race into town with John and Papi riding along and Kenta running beside them.  They find some healers working at a house in town.

Once Nasha is inside the healers change her bandage and John asks the head healer “Can you help her?”

The head healer says “I don’t know? I have never seen her kind before.”

John looks at Nasha and puts his hand on her bare skin. She is still cold. John says to the healers “We need to get this room as hot as we can.”

The healers close the room off and work to get a roaring fire started. They then put coals in pots around Nasha’s bed. They put bowls of water on top of the coals to create steam. Soon everyone is starting to sweat and John checks on Nasha again. This time her skin is hot to the touch. John says to the healers “Okay, try to keep it like this until she wakes up.”

The head healer says “Are you sure this will work?”

John says “She’s been saying she’s too cold.  I know her kind needs to be near a source of heat to stay warm. So we just gave her a fever to help her fight off the infection. Let’s talk more outside.” John grabs the ooze before leaving the room.

John takes a deep breath of fresh air once outside in the evening air. The head healer walks up next to and asks “What do you have there?”

John holds the ooze up to show her saying “We found this little guy in the woods” and passes the ooze to her.

The healer says “I will take it as payment.”

John asks “Do you know what it is?”

The healer says “Yes, it is an extremely rare creature we collect.  Its juices are uses in a lot of our healing potions. Once extracted of course.”

John quickly swipes the ooze from her hands saying “It’s not for sell” and tries to hide it from her.

The healer says “do you think our services are free! That little thing would more than cover the cost of your friend’s healing.”

John looks at the ooze to think then says “What if I told you that I had found a nest of theirs? Where there was more than a dozen of them.”

The healer says “Where!”

John says “I will tell you after my friend feels better and not a moment before.”

The healer huffs and says “Deal, but mark my words.  You better not betray us.” John nodes and leaves.

John finds Kenta asleep at some stables she acquired for them along with Papi. Kenta is leaning up against the wall resting her head on a makeshift pillow while Papi sleeps in a nest she made out of hay. John sees that Papi raided the food ratios and has eaten most of it. He realizes that he and Kenta had a quick meal before taking off and didn’t stop for lunch. John sets the ooze down in Papi’s nest then sits down next to Kenta’s lower body. He pulls out Nasha’s dead skin to look it over some more. He puts the skin away after a minute or so and then leans back to rest on Kenta’s lower body. Kenta stirs and John starts to move saying “Sorry.”

Kenta stops him and says “No, it's okay. You rest however you like. You earned it.” John leans back and goes to sleep.