It was like a dream but somehow resembled to death as well. Limited consciousness gave him feeling it was dream but the blank period of time with no thoughts to engage himself in, Shinji felt he it was death.
His senses blacked out. Then came again. This sequence continued for a long time till he could not tell if he was still on Ouskerus or was in purgatory ruled by the mighty gods. Shinji believed he had heaven booked for him because of his good deeds. When he tried to remember what good he had done, he got interrupted by noise of something bubbling nearby him.
Hot water? His senses gained more strength with his voice bouncing in his head. The very sound of bubbling was bringing him out of consciousness, he thought when he smelled fumes coming from there. His smelling and hearing sense had come back to him after a long time. And it seemed it had come all of a sudden because the smell was becoming unbearable.
Just a wisp of smoke was behaving like burning fire within his lungs. His lungs tried pushing the invader out. Shinji coughed as hard as he could to relieve himself. The cut-throat coughed as if he was trying to shoot lungs out of his mouth.
Coughing, he did not realize when he had opened his eyes. But as he the moment he did, the smell irritation had disappeared and the same pot with boiling water was spreading fragrance. He crawled to the floor from the cloth where he had been lying on.
Shinji only scanned the surrounding after hearing multiple men coughing and clearing their throats. Many soldiers were unconscious nearby him. At other times he would have counted their numbers but with degraded mental ability, he was unable to keep up with their numbers on fingers.
What am I doing? Shinji yelled at his slow brain then looked around to see where they were. As far as he could tell they were inside a cave. And without any source of brightness other than a lantern about to die, he presumed they were in heart of the cave.
Genzou came running in the cave with a torch emitting more smoke than fire to check on the coughing soldiers. He was stroked to see Shinji looking straight at him.
“Commander, he is alive!” Genzou bellowed, stretching his head towards entrance but answer didn’t come.
Meanwhile Shinji couldn’t tell whether Genzou was delighted or disappointed to see him alive. It was hard to read his expressions in dim light.
“What is going on?” Shinji held this throbbing head.
“I’m surprised to see you alive.” Genzou smiled.
Shinji clutched back of his head after finding out the most painful spot in his skull.
“Headache is the fall’s effect. Not the poison’s.” Genzou revealed to him.
“Poison?” Shinji removed hand from his head.
“The fruit you picked was poisonous. The tree released toxic air when you plucked it.” Genzou said as Shinji noticed his blackened fingers, “We just wanted the fruit but you wouldn’t loosen your grip on it even after the fall. So we had to drag you out of forest too. Our soldiers also got in range of the toxic fumes and got sick while putting you in carriage.”
“You people made me a scapegoat to bring Wernh’An’s cure.” Shinji uttered.
“I thought you would die soon. Foam was coming from your mouth yesterday.”
“Yesterday?” bulging sensation in Shinji’s head went faint, “For how long was I like this?”
“Almost two days.” Genzou said and walked away with the torch about to lose its flames.
Shinji staggered then followed him while Genzou marched towards the mouth of cave.
“Is Wernh’An cured?” Shinji tried to hide his panic with someone who would not look back at him.
“He will be fine in an hour.” Genzou said before stepping out of there.
The moment Genzou moved aside, Shinji saw Wernh’An lying passed out on a pile of wood. Shinji didn’t know if Wernh’An was albino by nature of had lost his skin pigmentation due to sickness. Wernh’An was shorter than how he was depicted in paintings and from the wood stack, he did not look as menacing as told in tales. The only thing paintings and stories were correct about him was the mustache.
Wernh’An’s hands were put on his chest with his red robe covering him below his neck. The cloth possessed the brightest red tone Shinji had ever seen. His boots were near the bed and a needle was penetrated in on his foot.
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