Cured (15 page)

I held the braid up for him to inspect. It
had taken a long time to keep every strand neat, but it would be
easier to manage the main braided into a plait rather than in
bundles.

“
Shall we
find a base location?” he asked.

“
I think
that'
s a good idea, let’s go back to the
water and get away from this lion before the pills wear
off.”

Felix stood up and gathered the lion mane,
tucking it into my pack. He picked my tourniquet up from the
ground, and wrapped it around my injury again before we headed off
in the direction of the stream.

I lost count
of how much time was passing. Felix and I fell into a rhythm, each
getting between four and five hours sleep while the other kept
watch. Luckily, Felix had managed to pick up a few basic survival
skills from training. He patiently taught me which roots were
edible, and how to find them. He taught me to light a fire and cook
the vegetables. Now that we were back at the stream, we could catch
fish too. Felix had woven some flax nets that the fish sometimes
got caught in, and when he was bored he would use a sharpened stick
as a fish spear. A few days passed and we began to worry. Maybe we
were meant to go and physically hunt out the next task. We didn’t
talk about it too much, or we started to stress out. Instead we
chatted and laughed, but we both knew it could not last for much
longer. Something was coming.

I woke up from my sleep, groggily scanning my
surroundings for Felix, and beginning to panic when he was not in
sight.

“Fe?” I croaked.

There was a stirring from a mound of flax a
few meters from where I lay. I stood up, my injury largely healed,
and nervously approached the moving pile of flax. I reached my toe
out and prodded the lump. Felix grunted and I groaned.

“Felix you scared the daylights outta
me!”

There was more movement and Felix’s head
popped out of the flax, he was blinking and holding his temple.
“Wha-“ He mumbled confusedly. “Ave… what is going on?”

“You fell asleep whilst you were on watch,
you loser!” I prodded him with my toe again and giggled. Felix
rubbed his head.

“I can’t remember…” He started. His face was
pale and beads of sweat lined his brow. I stopped giggling and
crouched next to him. “Avery, there was all this fog,” He said,
“This really thick fog that was over there.” He pointed.

“What are you talking about Fe, you’re
scaring me!”

“It was this wall of fog and it kept coming
closer, it moved through the trees, it hid everything that it
reached.” He shook his head as though he was having trouble
believing himself. “I swear it Avery, it happened.” I nodded to
reassure him and he continued.

“I tried to wake you, but you were out cold,
you know how heavy you sleep.” He rubbed his temple again. “Then
the fog reached us… it smelt weird, but it was warm, kinda like a
blanket…”

“And…?” I waited for him to continue with the
story.

“Nah, Ave.” He finally met my eye. “That is
it. I can’t remember anything else.”

We kept waiting for something. Sure the fog
would return. But nothing happened. We packed everything we could
into our two backpacks and in case we needed to make a quick escape
from the mysterious fog. Felix decided it must have been a sign,
telling us that the next task was coming, but I wasn’t so sure. We
tried to remember the next challenge Hercules faced after the lion,
and decided that it was the Hydra. The great monster, with nine
heads, that tortured villages. We remembered that every time one of
the beast’s heads was severed, another two heads regrew in its
place. Hercules eventually defeated the creature by scorching its
neck with fire before a new head could grow.

This made me nervous. Sure, Felix had learnt
to light a small cooking fire in basic training, but there was no
way that we were going to concoct a flame fierce enough to slay a
hydra. After we had considered every possible cause for the fog,
and discussed everything we knew about hydrae, Felix and I sat in
silence, my head resting on his shoulder, silently comforting each
other.

I am not sure how much time passed, whether
hours or minutes, but Felix decided he needed a meal. He began to
stand to prepare the food, but had to grab my shoulder to steady
himself.

“Fe! Are you okay?”

He nodded and held his head, “Must’ve just
been head rush, I think.”

“Is your headache getting worse?” I asked
him.

“I’ll be fine, Ave, stop worrying.”

Minutes later, Felix was crouched over a
fire, roasting some small fish from the stream. I wandered over to
him and breathed in the smoky aroma.

“Smells so good, Felix.” I smiled.

Felix attempted to smile back, but it ended
up as more of a wince. He watched me breathe in the smoky smell
again, and a look of realization passed through his eyes. “Avery.”
He said to me in a serious tone. “My headache started right after
the fog put me to sleep, yeah?”

I nodded, not following his train of thought
at all.

“Well, what if I inhaled the fog and it has
given me this headache? What if the fog is the start of the next
task?”

That made sense, except…“But then why don’t I
have a headache? I inhaled the fog just as much as you did.”

Felix shook his head, “I covered you from the
fog.” He explained. “I pressed your face into my chest so you
didn’t breathe it in.”

Felix’s theory seemed likely. But how was the
headache related to a hydra, and how were we meant to beat this
challenge? Felix must have been wondering the same thing, because
he kept mumbling to himself as he continued to prepare our meal.
Once we had finished eating, Felix lay down on the forest floor,
gripping his head tightly, his knuckles white with strain.

“It can’t get much worse, surely.” I said,
trying to reassure him.

Felix groaned in pain and closed his eyes.
When he opened them to look at me, his pupils were enormous and his
irises were rolling to the back of his head. His entire body had
started to spasm, first in little twitches, before becoming more
and more exaggerated. I held him in my lap. I had no idea what to
do.

“The task must be to cure you, Felix. The fog
must be some sort of poison, and we have to find the antidote.”

“Berries.” Felix managed.

I remembered back to basic training, and how
the trainer had talked about berry antidotes. “Small, red, and
three to a bunch?” I wondered aloud, trying to recall the trainer’s
words about healing berries.

Felix let out a little cough, “Four to a
bunch.”

“Fe try and stay awake for me, please,” I
begged him.

There was no reply. I had to move fast. I
scanned the forest floor, but saw no such berries, nor were there
any in the shrubs or small trees around me. I moved back to Felix.
The spasms were closer together now and a white froth had gathered
at the corners of his mouth.

“Where would the berries be?” I asked, but
received no reply. Felix’s eyes drooped shut. I reopened them,
forcing his eyelids open, and shaking his face until he was alert
again. “The berries, Felix, where?”

Felix began to cough, choking on the froth
that was forming in his mouth. I propped him up against a tree
trunk, but his head lolled back, his neck unable to hold its
weight. Suddenly, Felix began to make a sound, and odd gurgling. I
looked at him, he was facing the sky. His finger twitched as he
attempted to raise his arm. He was pointing. I looked towards the
sky, in the same direction as him, but could only see thick leaves
overhead.

Suddenly I saw a glimpse of red. The tree
above us had red spots hidden amongst its branches. They were too
high. Way over my head, too far above my maximum reach height. I
looked at Felix who was now curled up in the foetal position. I had
to do this. I moved to the tree trunk that the berries extended
from, wrapped my entire body around it, and began slowly sidling up
the trunk. I reached the point where the branches began to separate
the thick trunk. Keeping my eyes on the bunch of berries I crawled
along the branch that they hung from. Don’t look down Avery Rose.
Do not look down. I neared the end of the branch, which was know
very flimsy. The whole branch was swaying dangerously every time I
moved. I reached out, but the berries were out of reach. I couldn’t
go further or the branch I was clinging to would snap in two.

Then I remembered the lion claw in my
backpack. I pulled it out and began sawing away at the tree. The
claw was so sharp that it took only a few minutes until the branch
snapped off and the berries fell to the floor below. I quickly
swung myself down from the branch, falling with an ungraceful thump
to the ground, and picked up the berries, carrying them over to
Felix.

“Fe?” I gently touched his shoulder, “Can you
hear me?’ Felix’s hand twitched in response. I touched his forehead
and gasped when I felt how hot it was. He was burning up. I crushed
a few of the berries and pried Felix’s mouth open, tipping the
powder down his throat and following it with some water from the
stream. He began to splutter as the water hit the back of his
throat, but he managed to swallow most of the berries. I sat by his
limp body, stroking his arm and praying that the berries would kick
in soon.

Minutes later, Felix’s eyes fluttered open
and he grunted. It was the most beautiful grunt I had ever heard.
Tears sprung to my eyes and I choked on my own saliva.

“F… F… FELIX!” I coughed as I wrapped my arms
around his neck and squeezed so hard that Felix began to choke too.
“Oops sorry!” I squealed in delight, “But you’re alive!”

Felix sat up, his face returning to its
normal colour and his breathing slowed to a healthy rate. He
reached out a shaky hand to me and I grabbed it. Tears began to
roll down my cheeks, and my shoulders began to heave, the last few
hours of terror finally taking their toll on my emotions.

“Ave.” Felix murmured, and I looked up at
him. “Stop crying like a girl.”

When I met his gaze he shot me a meek
half-grin and my crying stopped almost instantly. I punched him in
the arm, hard, and responded to his smile with a scowl.

“DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA WHAT YOU PUT ME THROUGH
FELIX?!” The smile fell from Felix’s face at my reaction, and I
instantly felt guilty. I wrapped my arms around his neck again.

“Woman, you’re sending me really mixed
signals! You’re absolutely bipolar. Are you happy or angry that I
am alive?” Felix laughed his deep chuckle and I couldn’t help but
smile into his collarbone.

Half an hour later, Felix was back to his
normal self. Joking and goofing around. His impersonations of
Regina had us both rolling on the forest floor in fits of laughter.
He wiggled his fingers and spoke in a squeaky high voice, “Toodaloo
newbies.”

I laughed so hard that my stomach ached and I
had to hold my cheekbones. We lay on the leaves and looked up at
the green canopy above us, trying to guess where the sun was in the
sky, when I must have nodded off.

I awoke, to feel a twinge behind my eye. I
unthinkingly reached up and stroked my temple. Felix lay sleeping
next to me, and I smiled at his peaceful face, thinking how lucky I
was to have him alive and next to me through this whole mess. As I
watched him sleep the twinge turned into an ache, and seemed to
expand to cover my entire head.

Oh no. I tapped Felix’s chest, and when he
didn’t wake, I grabbed his shoulders and shook him so violently
that his eyes sprung open with a terrified expression. “Ave what’s
going on?” He asked. “Just because you saved my life, doesn’t mean
you can manhandle me whenever you fancy!”

I pointed to my temple, “Massive
headache.”

Felix cursed loudly. “We gotta get you some
of the berries. The task isn’t over.”

Felix went to stand up, before coming
crashing back to the floor, holding his head and groaning
loudly.

“What the hell…“ he moaned.

“Your headache is back too?” I asked and he
nodded in reply. I groaned, “The berries didn’t cure it at all.
They just sent it away temporarily.”

“And it feels way worse than before.” Said
Felix. He then looked over at me anxiously, “And I’ve given it to
you too!”

We both slumped to the ground, nursing our
own heads and trying to think of a way out. I had never experienced
a pain like this. I felt as though someone was hammering my eyes
from inside my skull. I squeezed my eyes shut and tried to think
happy thoughts, picturing my life back on Olympia. My mum would be
in the spa, having her nails done, probably with a cocktail in
hand…

Felix interrupted my happy place “AVE!”

“What?” I was irritable with the pain.

“I think I have a theory…”

I nodded for him to continue.

“Do you remember what task we are up to?”

I rubbed my forehead as I tried to
remember.

“Erm… I think… Didn’t we decide… If we are
following Hercules’ order, we decided must be onto the Hydra?”

Felix nodded, “And do you remember what was
special about the hydra?” I winced at the throbbing pain behind my
eyes, wishing that Felix would stop the stupid trivia and just tell
me,

“I dunno Fe. Maybe that is was a massive-ass
snake-dragon thing?”

Felix sighed in frustration. “The reason
Hercules had so much trouble slaying the Hydra, Ave, was because
every time he severed a head, two new heads grew in its place!” I
nodded along, thinking that the headache must be making him insane,
because I saw no relevance whatsoever.

Felix continued, “So, when the fog hit, it
had some sort of infection in it, right? Because when it hit me I
got the massive headache.”

“Yeah but-“

Felix kept
going, “I covered your face, so you didn’t get infected, but then
when you cured my headache, mine came back worse, and you caught
the infection as well! You see? It doubled! Just like the Hydra
gets one head chopped off and two grow back!”
I finally understood.
The concept seemed to make sense, but it didn’t get us any closer
to being healed.