Try and Catch Me

Her decision
“I want to join the medic team.”

That was what Lia said to Eldric when he told her that they would be attacking the Unseen’s hideout tonight. Eldric regarded her coolly before giving her a nod of approval. Tim then took and introduced her to the medic team. Lia expected resistance from them, she was, after all, an outsider with a reputation that preceded her. To her surprise, everyone welcomed her with open arms.

“Any additional helping hand is welcome.” The head physician smiled at her and then proceeded to tell her what still needed to be done.

There was still a lot of work to do despite all the preparation in the past few days. Lia even had to help move crates of medical supplies which was severely lessened by due to the plague. The head physician appointed her for the supplies of their medicine.

Lia began to work by doing an inventory of raw materials. With so little time in their hands, she gathered everything that she could. She listed the ingredients and had one of the guards order them at Yolly’s shop. Then she took some of the team members to gather herbs in the woods.

Going back there was like scratching a barely healed wound, the still-forming scab red and painful just with the lightest touch. Lia felt a lump in her throat as they passed by the familiar way towards her house. The smell of trees, the rustling of leaves, and the gentle breeze hit her hard. Everything was so fresh, so as the memories of that night.

‘Don’t go there.’ She reminded herself. The last thing she wanted to do was to breakdown and weep like a child. She was done with those. And now was not exactly the time for that. She was here to pick up supplies and to, hopefully, start picking herself up, for her and for Tamara.

She picked up the pace. When they arrived at her usual area for gathering, she directed what kind of leaves to take. They all worked in silence with the occasional change murmurs when someone asked or when someone discovered something.

Some members of the medic team had begun creating a newer batch of medicine for those who still had the fever and Lia helped them too once they got back from the woods.

Everyone was frantic doing last-minute preparations with low supplies and an even lower number of members. No one expected the gin and its number of victims so Eldric was not able to get a big number of soldiers, physicians, and servants from the capital. Despite his requests for additional guards, the support was running late. At this point, they were no better than those cops from the movies who arrived at the scene after everything was dealt with.

Lia chewed at the corner of her lips. With this number of staff available, they had to work on a skeleton formation. Someone had to stay with the patients and someone had to go to battle.

“Will you be okay?”

The sound her jolted Lia back to her senses. For a while, she thought she voiced out her thoughts only to realize that the voice came from behind her. She turned and found Eldric standing next to her.

He stared at each other for a while before he repeated his earlier question. “Will you be okay?”

“I should be the one asking you that. With these people, will you be okay?” She gasped when she saw him flinched and realized the implication of her words. “I’m sorry that came out wrong. What I meant was–”

Eldric held up his hand. “I understand what you mean. But we’ll have to make do. I trust all of you. We won’t fail. We’ll catch them tonight.”

He turned and left, leaving Lia puzzled with the intense desire to kill that she felt from him. She could not understand the source of it. It came not only from Tamara’s death or the illness that took over the town. That intensity came from something else, something deeper and old. But Lia did not know what that was. It was not mentioned in the novel. There seemed to be more to Eldric than the protagonist she had read.