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FLUPPIT AND CHICK-CHICK rushed back into the infirmary where Sha-cha was attending to Sari. Chick-chick brandished a bunch of plants, Fluppit tried to restrain him. Just as they spilled into the room, she lost the battle.
“Are these the right ones sis? Are they? Are they? Is this the last one? Do we win? What do we get?”
“Chicky!” Fluppit tried to collar him before he threw the plants all over the bed Sari lay in.
“Oh, leave him he’s fine,” Sari croaked.
“Sari! You’re okay!” Now it was Fluppit’s turn to throw herself onto the bed.
“Can we stop harassing my patient, please?” said Sha-cha.
“Did we get all the right things?” Chick-chick bubbled over with enthusiasm. “Did we?”
“Let’s have a sniff,” Sha-cha found herself in a pile of plants. “One at a time, you flappy cave bats. Right yes that’s Bubblit. Smell. No, here, the leaves. The flowers don’t smell on this one, it’s pollinated by tiny spiders. Okay, that one does have a flower scent, have a proper sniff. Subtle, right? That’s Darkstar.”
“You’ve been so clever finding these,” Sari croaked.
“What else is there here?” Sha-cha rustled in a pile of foliage. There was a nasal explosion from the head of the bed.
“Sneeze-pea!” Fluppit and Chick-chick said together.
They fell into fits of laughter until Sari launched into a discussion of what other identifying features the plant had and what it was good for when everyone stopped. And the ground began to shake.
Sari grabbed Fluppit’s hand and squeezed a little too tight.
“What the hells?” said Sha-cha. The scurrying of early work-span activity outside the infirmary amplified tenfold, in as many clicks. There was much rushing and securing things, shouting orders, waking people. Seismic events were not unheard of with the Fire-folk but they were not by any means common. More a once-in-a-lifetime kind of occurrence. It was alarming but not astounding, the Fire-folk understood the fickleness of the deep vents over which they stood vigil. Someone arrived at Sha-cha’s elbow, then she apologised and withdrew in the direction the messenger had hailed from.
Fluppit felt another squeeze of her hand, but this time one of determination and not surprise. “Are you okay?” she said to Sari.
“Yes, my dear, I think I’m well enough to sit up. Could you get me a sip of water?”
“Oh sure,” Fluppit said, but before she could move Chick-chick was back there with one at her elbow in a small metal beaker.
She drank deeply, then satisfied, moved to sit. “Do you want to stay there for a few clicks?” said Fluppit. She thought it was what Sha-cha would say if she was there. She didn’t have to wait long to confirm her supposition.
“Where are you off?” said Sha-cha, returning with another in tow and Air-sensing her patient sat up on the side of the bed. “Take it easy there, you’ve had a nasty few days, it’s going to take a little while for your body to adjust.”
“Yes, but it felt like it might be a good time to ready ourselves for- eventualities.”
“It might be that too,” she said. Then turning to the new person to the room, she said, “Tell them what you told me.”
“I- er-,” he began.
“It’s okay, you’re among friends here,” Sha-cha prompted as much as she reassured.
“Well, I’m a shaman of sorts, one of the ‘newly awakened’ as Folk would have it-.”The voice had none of the sibilance or unusual speech tics of the older Fire-folk. Fluppit still wondered about that, there was a story there, but she’d had no time to find it out because of the serious business of plant hunting.
“Get to the point Gra-ti, there’s a folk,” Sha-cha was kind but restless.
“Oh, sorry, well, I’ve been monitoring the voice, well voices, of OneLove, since I came into my powers and the Fire-Watchers, were pleased of my services—”
“Point?” said Sha-cha.
“The signals, stopped.”
“That’s mostly why we’re here, dear,” said Sari. “OneLove as you call him, has had a misfortune. We’re here to collect medicine ingredients to put that right.”
“Oh, I know that. Nearly a cycle ago, the talking, became babble and screaming. I couldn’t sleep. It was awful.”
“Yes,” said Fluppit, “That’s when we left.”
“Well now she’s stopped making any noise at all,” said Gra-ti.
“And—?” said Sha-cha.
“What?”
“Tell them what you told me,”
“Oh,” Gra-ti seemed even more on the back foot, if that were possible, “that was merely speculation.”
“Re-speculate.”
“Okay,” he began nervously, “well, I wondered, or at least myself and my superiors in the Fire-Watcher council thought that the two things might be connected.”
“Sorry, which two things?” said Sari.
“Oh, the voices stopping and the earthquakes.”
There was silence while that sank in. Then the deep silence of everything in the dark holding its breath and the next wave of vibrations shook them all.
“We need to go,” said Sari when the shaking had stopped. She slid off the bed, groaned and lurched sideways into Fluppit who caught her and steadied her.
“Easy there,” Fluppit said.
“You’re not fit enough to travel yet,” said Sha-cha.
“And yet we must,” said Sari, “It seems like the world may depend on us.”
