The Elemental Sisters: Spirit
Chapter Thirty Five (Akasha)

Everything hurt, the movement from the horse made my healing wounds stretch uncomfortably and I felt exhausted. "Akasha, wake up." I heard Tyr's deep voice in my ear.

I looked up at him as he touched my forehead. "What's up?"

"You have a fever; we are going to make camp for the night."

"We have been riding all day?" I asked, alarmed that I had slept so long.

He nodded, yeah, The Drow have moved their camp further, our scouts had been mistaken."

"Okay, we will find them tomorrow."

"Akasha?" Gia asked, looking at me, "let me take a look at your wounds."

I shook my head, "I'm fine. They'll heal. I just need sleep."

Gia looked at me, her face turning red, "Sometimes you are an idiot, if you have a fever, it could be infected. Let me look at it."

"Says the one who gave me one of them." I snapped at her irritably.

"Let her look at them." Ela stated as she looked at me, worried.

"By Accident." She retorted, upset. "Please."

I looked at her, feeling bad for snapping, and nodded, "Sorry. I'm just grumpy."

"It's fine." She hopped off her horse, Tyr dismounted so I could get down. I slipped, and he caught me.

"Something's wrong with you." Karm noted.

"Gee thanks."

"You know what I meant."

"Set up camp." Tyr ordered the army as everyone dismounted. I followed Gia behind a large tree and undressed while Tyr stood guard. Gia unbandaged my wounds. Frowning at me, she snapped, "See, it's infected, dummy. What did you do last night?"

"I had a bath." I replied, waiting for her to yell at me.

"Are you an idiot? Heat breeds bacteria. No wonder it is infected."

"Tyr cleaned and bandaged it and put medicine on it, I didn't think it was a big deal." I defended, a little insulted by her tone.

"What kind of medicine?" she asked, looking at Tyr, who had turned around in alarm.

He reached in his pocket and handed the tin to her; she opened the container sniffing it and looked at him with a frown.

"Where did you get this from?" She asked, disgusted.

"The castle herbalist gives it to everyone in the army." Tyr replied, "Why?"

"Tell your men to throw it away and don't use it again. Your herbalist is an idiot." Gia snapped.

"Why? What is it?" He asked, worried.

"He mixed up the herbs" Her eyes turned emerald green and two similar plants popped up from the ground.

"This one," she declared, holding up one, "is poisonous and has now infected Akasha, whereas if he had used this one," She held up the other plant, which looked similar, but the leaves varied a little. "Would have fought off infection." She shook her head, grabbing her motor and pestle from her bag and some plants and her canteen, dumping them all into a bowl before dumping and mixing it in her motor in pestle until it turned into a paste.

She applied the paste to my wounds, saying, "this will counter the poison," before shoving the non-poisonous plant she had shown Tyr into my mouth without warning.

"Hey." I choked.

"Eat it, it will fight the infection."

"Something could be said for your bedside manner." I muttered after I managed to swallow the vile plant.

"I keep you alive, don't I?" she scolded me.

"So far." I laughed.

"I'm going to go help set up camp, get some rest.” Gia ordered, then added, glaring at Tyr, "and I do mean rest."

Tyr came to sit beside me, "I am so sorry I poisoned you."

"It's fine, how could you know the herbalist made a mistake?"

"I am still sorry."

"It's fine, but you should probably warn the army, so they don't end up in the same boat. This is a blessing in disguise. Can you imagine us fighting against the Drow and then accidentally poisoning our own army?" "I'd rather not have found out; I don't want you hurt." He frowned.

"It is a little odd that the herbalist would make this mistake and right before we were sent to defeat the drow. You don't think this was planned, do you?"

"It can't be. Who would it serve? Unless the herbalist is working for the enemy."

I frowned, "were there enemies on the Goblins side in the castle"

"We will have to look into when we get back." Tyr said, brushing a stray strand of hair from my face.

I nodded, "Until then, we have to hope that none of the enemy has infiltrated your army. We have to let them know about the medicine." I sighed, getting up. "What are you doing?"

"We have to let the army know."

Tyr went to pick me up, and I backed away from him.

"What?" he asked, confused.

"I don't want the army to see me as weak. It is bad enough that you doubled with me on the ride in. I need them to respect me if we are going to face the Goblins."

"I'm sorry, I hadn't thought of that."

"It's fine, but please don't worry so much." I smiled.

He nodded, and we headed back to the army. The tents went up surprisingly fast and fires were already being lit throughout the encampment. Tyr told his men to pass on the word about the tainted medicine. I walked over to my sisters and took a seat by the fire; I was freezing, and the warmth was welcome.

"You look like shit." Huricana laughed.

"Thanks sis." I muttered. I watched the flames dance against the coming darkness, the smell of dinner filled the air.

"I don't know what the cooks are making, but it smells delicious." Sunama stated, and I nodded in agreement.

The green sprite showed up to announce dinner and Ari jumped up, stating, "Don't you dare you little devil, every time you say a rhyme it gets stuck in my head and jumped for him to cover his mouth."

He dodged and said, "Dinner is complete, it was no minor feat, we are having stew, but only have enough for a few."

"God damnit you little shit I am going to kill you." Ari fumed as she chased off the Sprite.

"The army can share the stew; we can make something for ourselves." Gia stated, "We don't eat meat, anyway." Before heading towards the woods, coming back a few minutes later with an armful of vegetables. "I'll go get a pot." Sunama stated as she skipped away from the camp.

"I'm guessing the King didn't send many supplies?" I asked Frey as he took a seat, watching Ari give up her chase and stomp back to the fire.

"He rarely does, I bet Prince Uda has a stash hidden somewhere." Frey accused. "If he didn't, he is going to be a grumpy guy, he's used to living in comfort."

Tyr sat down behind me and let me lean against him, "What are you guys up to?" he asked.

"Making something to eat, seems your king doesn't like to send food with his men, but that's fine by tomorrow morning at least the supplies will be restocked with fruits and veggies, just going to have to send men hunting if they want meat. I suppose it also depends on how long we are out here." Gia shared.

"Hopefully we won't be out here long, my father wants us to get the Drow to flee the kingdom, then he will give you and your sister's control of the army, and we can get rid of the goblins."

"We have to speak to our allies first, and get them to help us as well, who knows how many allies the Goblin army has, we will need to find out their numbers." I informed, yawning.