Closed Mists of morning (Naadiya)

[Cleon]

Cleon tended to hang near the back of the group after his question, preferring to let the two more seasoned members of the group lead the way. He had practically no experience when it came to jungle survival save for a little advice James gave him about camping on the beach. All he knew was that it was dangerous, and that he should never go in alone. Easily enough done when he only had to take the beach to and from work most days, though part of him did get curious at times about what could be found in the jungle. There must be something special about it because they had decided to settle here after all, and reckoned it couldn’t just be for the food.

He held his breath, surprised when Uta snapped at Naadiya and listened carefully as Uta examined the flower before tossing it away. Then he took the offered mask, hastily wrapping it around his face as he gave their surroundings a careful look. Naturally he started to wonder why anyone went into the jungle at all if it was so dangerous, though as he was slowly starting to put together, perhaps it was not all about finding hidden treasure and more about expanding the settlement like Naadiya was in the process of doing. While it was hard to picture now, overtime if she did indeed build where she planned to there would be a path cleared, and stones laid out to join it with the rest of the cobblestone pathway for ease of access. Or not, hard to say when he really didn’t know the woman that well. Maybe she liked the idea of living out in the jungle secluded. He knew of a few people like that already, and couldn’t say he minded the idea himself though he was realistic enough to know he was a long way from such a thing.

Walking behind the two women, he did his best to ignore the view while trying to pay attention to the conversation. They were talking about poisonous frogs that reminded him a bit of the stories he would hear as a boy back in Sunberth, but they weren’t frogs were they? Toads? He wasn’t educated enough to know the difference though he reasoned well enough that there was one because of the difference in names.

Uta had a good way of keeping his mind off of her shapely ass, talking about poisonous things and what to watch out for. Small colorful things was easy enough to remember, however how easy it would be to avoid such critters in practice was another matter entirely. Additionally the sorts of plants she mentioned were significantly harder to identify. Almost comically difficult. If it had been came from anyone else, he might have thought they were playing a nasty joke on him, but he took Uta very seriously because of her attitude.

The plant she described, the Gympy Gympie whatever the petch sounded like the stuff of nightmares, or a particularly handy weapon in a pinch. If he could figure out how to identify it that is. Though the more he thought about it, the more afraid he became of actually trying to use it as a weapon. His first thought had been to blow across it to try launching the needles at an attacker, but there was the wind to consider, and what if something caused him to breath in sharply while he was holding it up to his mouth. Gah.

He decided swiftly after that he would be satisfied with just being able to identify the plant so he could best avoid it, and to always, always wear long pants. Also not to fall onto the jungle undergrowth, but as tripping wasn’t something he had much control over that would be a harder decision to hold on to. Perhaps he should start carrying a stick around on these jungle jaunts. Something to support himself and catch himself well before he landed into anything particularly nasty. Cleon started looking around for decent stick material and when he didn’t see any, he stuck to his previous activity of sneaking glances when finally they walked into the clearing Naadiya had chosen for her new home.

Cleon was reminded of a very pertinent fact of living so close to the jungle when there was a sharp buzz by his ear for a tick. Remembering he had forgotten to apply any insect repellent this morning, he took off his pack letting it fall onto the jungle floor before he picked it open enough to slide out the tin of insect cream. Dabbing a generous amount of the stuff onto his index and middle finger, he started lathering it on the back of his neck, then face and finished up with his arms before holding it out towards Naadiya.

“Insect repellent. I don’t know about you but I can’t stand the itchy bites. I still need to get a net for my bed to keep the little monsters out.” Cleon said with a chuckle as he picked up his pack and slung it back over his shoulder. Just then there was a sharp pain on his lower back causing him to immediately drop the back back on the ground as he arched backwards in an attempt to get away from the fierce burning sensation.

Before he could reach back to feel what it was however Uta stopped him with a firm hand on his wrist, stopping him just shy of touching his lower back.

“Stay still.” Uta said evenly as with her other hand she picked up his backpack and examined it while he did his best to squirm away from her grasp. It was no use, her grip was like an iron vise and beyond that, he was terribly afraid of disobeying her advice out here where she was in her element. So while he bit back outright whimpering in pain, Uta took a careful look at the bottom of his pack and then held it up for Naadiya to inspect. Twisting around he managed to get a glimpse to, seeing what at first just looked like a bit of grass on the bottom of his back before he figured out that they must be those hollow spikes Uta mentioned earlier. Petch, he should have been more careful about where he laid down his pack.

“Yep, that’s Gympie Gympie. Next time don’t take off your pack unless you are a certain about what you are setting it on top of. Now I’m going to let go of your hand, and you are going to avoid touching your back while I try to get out what hasn’t already broken off into your skin. Naaidya, would you mind giving me a hand?”

WC - 1,130

[Naadiya]

Naadiya leisurely reached for the repellent and held it in her palm for a second before applying. Unsure of the cream’s contents, she wondered if it would cause her skin to break out with acne or an allergic reaction. However, as soon as she saw Cleon’s painfully twisted grimace she was rubbing the scented cream over her exposed skin, hoping to avoid whatever had just bitten him. As Uta examined the affected area, a soft grunt left her throat. “Next time, tuck in your shirt, I think your bag somehow touched bare skin, the plant’s needles are not so long to pierce fabric.” Naadiya watched the woman as she was handed Cleon’s bag. “Can you do something with this? Do no touch the bottom at all, to be safe. You could— uhh—“ The woman was looking at Naadiya’s own bag, but it was clearly too small to hold Cleon’s backpack inside. Naadiya noticed her glance and reached inside the bag. From it she pulled one of the flimsy fabric bags she was so accustomed to carrying stuffed in one of her bag’s pockets. The fabric tote was large in size, while collapsable and thin. “Fine” was Uta’s only response when Naadiya took her fabric tote and slipped it over the backpack Uta held as if it was a sock on a foot, avoiding touching any part of the bag herself. She then took the tote bag by the handles and hung it off a branch that stuck out of the burnt tree trunk. Even as she had held the bag out to Naadiya, Uta had been scanning the area around them. Where had Cleon’s bag come in contact with the plant? The ground around her feet bore visible roots in the moist dark soil, some spike moss fern and lichen but nothing she recognized as problematic. A yards behind them, she spotted the culprit. And beyond it, even more of the wretched plant. Estimating that they were far enough from the source that there was no immediate danger for them unless they were hit by a sudden gust, a very unusual things to happen within the jungle or its outskirts, Uta turned back to her subject. The botanist was focused on Cleon’s back, and the man was sure to be feeling the rapidly intensifying burning pain that came from the tiny toxin filled hairs designed to break off with ease. She looked around the fabric of his shirt to make sure there weren’t any visible hairs before asking Cleon to hold it up for her to have free hands to work with. “The pain will be bad,” she said when she saw sweat began to trickle down his back. “But you must do you best not to move or try to touch the area, or I promise it will be worse. Under no circumstance will ANYONE touch their faces right now! Keep your masks on and breathe as slowly as you can manage. The masks will help but best not to risk inhaling the hairs…” From her bag, Uta pulled out a long pair of tweezers, seemingly made of the same bone-like material as the knives and quickly began pulling out the tiny hairs. “Get me somewhere to put these so we don’t touch them by accident.” Unsure of what would be the best container for tiny almost invisible hairs, Naadiya looked around hastily, as Cleon’s pain was even more evident with every passing minute. Remembering, she still had the container of insect repellant Naadiya opened it and held it up for Uta but the woman shook her head. “Might need it later. Never waste the useful things, anything of the medicinal variety is precious. Reach into my bag, I have glass phials, uncork one and hold it out for me. Quickly now!” Naadiya’s movements were hurried, careful fingers quickly finding the objects they sought and grabbing them blindly. She uncorked the glass tube and held the cork between her ring and middle fingers while holding the phial with her index and thumb. Naadiya had an idea but let Uta already start dropping the tiny hairs into the glass as she rummaged through her own bag with her free hand. Uta’s own fingers were just as precise gloved as they were when freed and she quickly plucked the most visible hairs first. As the more visible ones were removed, the smaller ones became more apparent in the absence of larger ones that drew the eye. The phial in her hand already held several hairs when Naadiya managed to one-handedly pull out her waterskin and uncap it. Carefully she dripped some water into the phial until it was about three quarters of the way full. Uta arched an approving eyebrow and proceeded to dipped her tweezers in the liquid when she released the hairs. Some of them were still light enough to float, but a good deal sank to the bottom of the phial, making it easier for the botanist to pull out a clean tool to pluck another of the burning fibers. As she continued to pluck and drop hairs into the phial, Uta made a small grunt that could have been the hint of a laugh restrained to keep the air from flowing too much around the trichome hairs. “Great place to build a house…” Naadiya reddened slightly. She had already scouted the site before and with Artik at her side. Neither of them had spotted the dangerous leafy plant, but then again, if Naadiya had she likely wouldn’t have known what she was even looking at. How close to the plants had the two walked? “How can I get rid of them? If even wind can cause the evil burning needle hairs to spread? I’ll have to find another spot! Upwind ideally!” Uta’s eyes remained on Cleon’s back removing that last of the trichomes she could actually see. “Fire. You can burn them out. You’re going to want a controlled fire so it doesn’t spread. You’ll need a mage, if you want it done quickly and cleanly, a reimancer, ideally.” “Duncan is-“ Another quick shake of the head, “Seladonna. Duncan tends to avoid fire. And the blindness could be problematic. She is your best bet. Do you still have that water? Give it here.” Naadiya handed over her waterskin and watched as Uta poured the contents over Cleon’s back with a frown. “This won’t help much,” she said, “we will need to get him back to town, I’m sure there are still hairs too fine for my eyes to catch. Cleon, my friend, you are in for several days if not weeks of this pain not getting much better. The toxins are already inside, we can only try to remove any other hairs to prevent more of it penetrating the skin.” The group started gathering their things to walk back, but Uta took out a piece of chalk from her bag and after breaking a piece, handed one to Naadiya. “Rub this on the tree trunks near where the plant was, but for the gods’ sake do not touch any leaves. ANY leaves at all, in fact, only let the chalk touch anything. We did not come out here with any healer or kit, which by the way was foolish to begin with. I just didn’t think we’d find any of these plants so close to the settlement. Not these. Cleon, make sure you do not rub your back, even with your own shirt, it might push in any hairs that are sitting on the surface unseen.” A few trunks were marked with white and soon it was hard to not notice the warning signs they’d left for anyone who approached after. The way back the path, felt much faster to Naadiya than it had the first time. Instead of cautious, their steps were hurried. The villainous phial, had been stoppered and packed carefully, and Cleon’s bag was still inside the isuas tote but they still needed to bring these things back safely. The phial, Uta seemed to want to study and the bag needed to be washed as thoroughly as possible, lest the burning stings bite Cleon once again. The brunette glanced at Cleon squinting, “How are you feeling?” Her eyes had been a little watery and the skin around them felt irritated but she refrained from trying to scratch, seeing that Uta’s face looked much the same, the latter keeping her eyes narrowed but not complaining. “Naadiya I’m going to need some sort of sticky paste to pull out the rest,” Uta said as they walked, “I’ve heard candle wax is supposed to be good but in my experience, it tends to break too easily, making the removal messier and then we end up having to clean the wax and even just touching his skin might be painful right now. Last year I tried a chia seed and yogurt paste and that worked a little better but I’m out of the seeds.” They were already on the Cobbled Pathway and Uta had been leading them back to her place, but Naadiya stopped and rerouted the group towards the Protea. “It’s closer,” she explained, “and I think I have something that could actually pull everything out! But it will take a little time to prepare.” Naadiya threw another sympathetic look over to Cleon. She blinked a few times, hoping the moisture of her allergically watery orbs would relieve the itch. It didn’t. But the apparent pain on the man’s face outweighed her own so she said nothing. Inside the inn, Naadiya told Cleon to find somewhere in the common area to lay down on with his back up and went to the kitchen to grab a few things. Into a handled pot, she threw a good amount of sugar and set the pot over the fire to get the contents to melt. As she rummaged through the kitchen for what else she needed, Uta helped Cleon get himself situated. She removed his shirt, putting the garment with his backpack inside the isuas tote they had left just outside the inn. Adding some water to the melting sugar, Naadiya kept stirring to prevent it from burning. She sliced two lemons and squeezed their juices into the pot, always stirring. The sugar was melting and its color reaching a honey hue, so Naadiya took the pot off the heat and transferred the sticky sugar wax into a wooden bowl, keeping the heavy and fire-hot pot far enough from Uta so her magnetism did not pull it in towards herself. Naadiya set the container by a table near where Cleon laid and got on her knees to be at a closer height. Grabbing the waistband of his pants from the back, Naadiya slid them down a little lower to lessen the risk of a mess. “If you haven’t already,” she said, “find something to bite down on. I’ve only done this on a couple of men and they always make a huge fuss, I can’t imagine the gympie needles will make it any better for you…This might feel little hot.” With a wooden spatula, she smoothed the sugar wax over areas Uta pointed to. Normally, she would blow on the wax as she applied it, but the masks they still wore made that clearly a futile effort. Instead, Naadiya had gestured for Uta to take a wooden plate and use it as a fan and the botanist had taken one for each hand. “Naadiya what is this sugar paste? It’s remarkable, much better than chia! Though, I will admit,” she glanced at Cleon, “it does sound a little more painful if also more effective.” “My mother taught me how to make it. We use it for hair removal... I suppose this is a certain type of ‘hair’ removal.” “Ahhh,” Uta fanned with both plates, her eyes squinting with tears. There had been a handful of scatter lost coins that had found their way to the woman, sticking to her forearms, and a spoon that must have been forgotten by one of the inn's guests in the living room, had glued itself to Uta's neck but still, she made no complaints. None of the unwanted accessories had been hot or sharp or covered in stinging hairs, so they were much lower on her list of priorities. “Uta…” Naadiya asked, as she kept waxing the man’s lower back and upper crack. “I can't do this for our eyes...” “No…” the woman replied “No, we will need something else... Though, our faces only got hit with the tiniest of the trichomes, the ones small and light enough to be carried by weak air currents. And none of us has been sneezing or coughing so I don’t think we've breathed any of them in, that’s good.” “But our eyes…” Naadiya was applying the wax with the occasional tear dropping down on Cleon’s back as she tried to blink out the moisture to better see. Every strip of sugar, she pulled back with very visible bodily hairs, and a multitude of near invisible trichomes. The area that she worked on would leave Cleon with a perfectly hairless section from the upper few inches of his buttocks to the middle of his back. At Uta’s suggestion, she expanded the area a few inches in all direction to be on the safe side. “Give me a minute to think” Uta said, narrowing her own teary eyes to think but not stopping her fanning motions. 2251

[Cleon]

Just when he thought that the pain had run its course, it intensified. It felt like someone was taking a hot brand to his back that was getting hotter by the moment and brought with it severe cramps so that it was hard to remain upright as Uta checked his back.

Doing his best to stay still, it was hard to follow the conversation that was going back and forth between them as the pain washed everything out till there was just this white hot pain wracking his form.

He barely noticed the cool water poured against his back, but when Uta started pulling him along he went with the two women without a fuss, although he was having a hard time controlling his legs as every movement sent an arch of vibrant pain up his spine.

Gritting his teeth while squeezing his eyes shut he let them guide him, only dimly registering that he was drooling out of the side of his mouth and his nose was starting to run.

He registered them entering the Protea but very little beyond that as the pain soon became the only thing he could think about. Uta guided him over to a chair that she had him sit facing the back of the chair, arms draped over it as his shirt was carefully stripped off.

Writhing against it, Cleon bit down on the only thing he could think of. The back of the chair, gripping the sides of it till his knuckles were white. The pain only seemed to grow by the moment as he practically laid against the back of the chair waiting to see if there would be any solution to this pain.

He was still bitting on the back of that chair when Naadiya came over with her sugar wax, and began to dribble it onto his back. Strangely it wasn’t much worse than he was already feeling, and he was starting to think the pain had peaked at this point when a shuddering spasm gave him a bone deep ache.

Gripping onto the chair harder, he tried to blot everything out of his mind while he payed to Laviku that this would be over soon because he couldn’t take much more of this as it was.

When the wax eventually got pulled away from his skin it came as a brief respite each time, allowing him a brief moment to catch his breath before the pain sank back deep into his flesh as he chewed the back of the chair.

He was practically insensible at this point. There was only the pain, the wood of the chair he leaned against, his heart beating quickly in his chest as he just kept thinking it had to end. It just had to although it never seemed to be letting up unfortunately. At least it peaked in intensity a couple of chimes ago, but the pain was too strong for him to think of anything else.

Eventually he felt a cool rag on his forehead after an indeterminate about of time had passed as someone gently guided his head up and put the mouth piece of a waterskin to his lips. He drank greedily, wishing it was something stronger but thankful for the relief to his throat which had been worn dry. Had he been screaming? He didn’t know.

Eventually Cleon blinked open his eyes to look around the room as he took in the two women with bleary eyes. He didn’t have it in him to say anything yet with the pain still gripping him so he contented himself with focusing on taking small sips out of the waterskin while he tried to adapt to the pain.

Eventually when he felt like he could stand to, he started to try and hobble around the table a bit, but the pain was still wicked intense and he didn’t see anything at all related to his actual goal with the movement, namely that bottle of liquor they were enjoying earlier that morning.

Swallowing hard, he looked at Naadiya, unaware if he was interrupting anything but still asking. “Hey, do you know if there is still a bottle of something strong laying around here. I could use a stiff drink.”

WC - 707

[Naadiya]

Uta handled the wet rag on Cleon’s forehead while tipping some water into his mouth. What it looked like he may drink too much she pulled the waterskin back, no use in him bringing back up all that water. Naadiya went through the kitchen’s stores, looking for a bottle of wine or something stronger. There had to be something, unless someone had finished it off already when they were gone. Had they left the bottle outside? Naadiya grabbed two bottle that looked very similar in dark glass and another stouter bottle with a bulbous cork and brought them to where Cleon and Uta were. She uncorked one bottle and made a grimace, immediately twisting the cork back in the vinegar bottle. Going for the bulbous corked, black bottle she popped the corked off and sniffed its contents before handing it over to Cleon. “I think it’s whiskey.” Catching a distorted glimpse of her face on the bottle’s glass, Naadiya hurried to a better mirror. The apples of her cheeks were rounder and redder than any make-up had ever made them look and she felt almost as if she was squinting, but in truth it was an effort to even keep her eyes open. The weaver had spent little time in healer’s tents or clinics or any sort during her earlier youth. She had been a lucky child when it came to her health though she saw many who’d suffered from both the mundane and the serious afflictions that plagued the desert people. Now, of course, she wished she’d paid more attention when opportunities had risen. Was her and Uta’s own discomfort so much less than Cleon’s very apparent pain because of the trichomes’ size, quantity, or the amount of toxin in each one? Obviously if they are smaller, and there are less of them there would be a total of less toxin being injected. Also, we did not have any pressure pushing the hairs inside so whatever did get in may have been on a more surface level. Maybe that is why we were not as severely affected despite our areas of effect being more sensitive? Naadiya was thinking as she splashed warm water on her face over the kitchen wash basin, but nothing she had suggested had gotten a positive response from Uta. The botanist had stayed seated fairly still, while Cleon paced and drank with the occasional painful groan. She and closed her eyes, saying that she needed to think. They could see tears streaming down her cheeks but Naadiya had those as well, Uta was clearly not suddenly sad just pensive. Naadiya had tried warm water, a gel of aloe leaves used for burns, and for some reason yogurt as well but nothing helped relieve the peppery sensation around her eyes, the swelling or the stinging. Naadiya wanted to submerge herself in water but heat was her only wet ally, cool water too easily invoked her curse. And anyhow, none of her other attempts had been even mildly successful and removing the gel and yogurt had caused more discomfort than either had soothed. “I have nothing,” Uta whispered. Naadiya was chopping mint to make a tea bath for her face. Mint had cooling, refreshing properties, maybe it would give her some relief. She could apply the tea hot but it should keep that residual coolness even after the tea was dried off. She hardly heard Uta the first time, not stopping what she was doing but then the botanist raised her voice. “There is nothing we can do! If I can’t think of something we could manage ourselves, we need more capable hands! We need healers.” As she had tried different treatments, Naadiya had removed her mask. The redness had not spread but was now more apparent than ever in contrast to the lower half of her face. “Uta I can barely keep my eyes open, I can’t hardly make out what ahead only a few feet ahead of me, I’m not going to make it there and I don’t think you will either, not without a guide.” “How is there no one else at this inn right now? I thought it was filled to capacity!” Naadiya made a noise that could have almost been a laugh, “the gods are testing us. In more ways than one.” Uta was already getting up, albeit slowly so as to not trip or drop anything without noticing. “Cleon, you might have to lead the way or we might fall. We can hold hands or a rope or something. We need ” Her voice was getting breathy, she hadn’t complained but even she was not immune to the pain. 778

[Cleon]

Cleon drank the whiskey he was offered greedily, taking a strong pull of it before sputtering up half of the swig back onto himself. The burn was intense and left a bitter bite at the back of his throat without any of the pleasant numbness he was seeking. Determined more than ever to reach that feeling, he took another drink and managed to control himself enough this time to keep the drink down. He hardly registered the warmth in his belly, or how his belly bubbled uncertainly after putting drink on a mostly empty stomach.

It was hard to concentrate past the pain, but he was cognizant enough to know he certainly didn’t want to make himself sick on top of everything else so regretfully he set the bottle aside while he scrutinized Naadiya and Uta. From the looks of it, he wasn’t the only one who had been effected by their little jaunt into the jungle although their distress seemed to be focused around their facial area.

If it had been any other time, he about some of the remedies she was trying, but this was not the time for such discussion. They needed immediate relief and Cleon didn’t have the capacity for maintaining such a conversation anyways.

Wincing, Cleon watched as they busily tried to find solutions before Uta landed on one that would have seemed obvious had they not been so distracted by what had happened. He had been to the Panacea a few times before, mostly on behalf of Faye so he knew the way well enough. Guiding them there though would be tricky as he was currently hobbled but it wasn’t like they had any other better options.

“Alright. I think I can do that. Just put your arms over my shoulders I guess so I don’t fall, and I’ll guide us the way there. We can keep close to the water till we get close.” Cleon suggested before he took a few ticks to make sure that either of them could find his hands to grasp. For his part he decided to stay in the middle of them because it helped him keep his balance from the cramps that would occasionally twist up his back as the toxin ran its course.

It was a lot harder going in practice, walking down the beach with the other two in tow. Cleon couldn’t maintain any sort of regular pace, having to stop often when a particularly intense spasm of pain wracked its way up his spin. It felt like he was being stabbed over and over in his lower back with a hot knife and regretfully the whiskey he’d drank was doing very little to blunt the pain. Still he did his best to press on, stumbling his way across the beach with the two women until blissfully they ran into James who was running out to meet them from the dock.

“What happened?” James asked moving in to offer his support to brace the trio.

“There was a patch of Gympie Gympie by Naadiya’s place. It’s around our eyes and on Cleon’s back so be careful where you hold us. We need to get to the Panacea to get it treated.” Uta said quickly and with James helping them along they made much better time getting over to the Panacea. Cleon just hoped that the healers there could help with their issue. He was starting to have a hard time seeing straight through all the pain. Then he couldn’t make himself walk anymore and fell into the sand face first.

James hauled him up to his feet and then they were off continuing there way across to the Panacea while Cleon just closed his eyes hoping the pain would stop soon for all of them.

WC - 630