Morning began with the wailing of children who had wet the furs beneath them and their scolding parents. Pustakawan grimaced at the awful headache and looked around at the other members of the Stone Tribe that were stirring. Over half of them seemed to be in the same condition and they were all putting water to boil over the fires to make something to get rid of their hangovers. Stumbling over to the nearby creek, Pustakawan filled his pot with water and then fumbled about with his packets of dry herbs, tossing a few in almost at random, before putting the pot onto the fire that he stirred back to life. Sprinkling some salt and sugar that he'd kept hidden from the Stone Tribe members into the drink, he figured his usual remedy should do. From what he could see, the Stone Tribesmen and women were warming up the remains of last night's stew, while adding in bundles of some sort of spiky looking grass.
Vevie woke wincing and with a groan just when the water came to boil. Pustakawan poured her a cup of the tea.
"Careful, it just boiled," he warned.
"Oh," was all she said, holding the wound site and looking in pain. It was as if she couldn't decide whether the knife wound hurt more or her head hurt more. She left the cup untouched where Pustakawan placed it on a rock to cool down a bit. Pustakawan tapped a tiny amount of powder into her cup.
"For pain relief," he explained and then indicated her belly. "Let's have a look before everyone else wakes up," he said and she pulled her shirt up to let him unwind the dressings. Pustakawan nodded and replaced everything, helping her tug her shirt straight and pulling her up onto her feet. "It's healing well, but I'm lacking certain herbs to make an ointment that could lessen the scar and pain. We should probably move on either today or tomorrow, depending on what the Stone Tribe does."
"Yeah," Vevie said, wincing when she tried to nod. Pustakawan handed her a long stick to lean on and she stumbled away to relieve herself.
In the meantime, Pustakawan busied himself with preparing some breakfast, sipping from his own cup of the hangover tea. There were plenty of leftovers from last night's feast and so it was a simple matter of warming the food up again. When Vevie returned, more of the Stone Tribeswomen were awake. They dragged her aside into some bushes whispering and giggling. When she returned, she was wearing her new chamois skin clothes.
"Very nice," Pustakawan commented. "Good clothes for travelling and working in."
"You're going to make her work when she's injured?" a women slapped his arm hard enough he almost upset his pot.
"I'm talking about the future," Pustakawan explained. "We will have to work on our way back in order to earn the funds we need to travel back to the other side of the warlands. What I mean is that the clothes you all made for her are very well made and will keep up with the rough wear and tear we will have to put it through. I'm not going to make her work until she's healed and ready."
"Hmph," the woman folded her arms and snorted and thrust her chin at a pile of folded clothes on the rock beside her. "In that case, I'll forgive you. We made you a set too. It's over there. Go try it on to make sure it fits."
"Thank you," Pustakawan said, unfazed by her abrupt speech. "I appreciate all your hard work. I'm honoured that you thought of me as well."
"Hmph."
Pustakawan changed and when he emerged from the bushes, the women turned him around and made him perform several exercises, muttering to each other.
"It'll do," they told him. "We made Vevie two sets. You only have one."
"That's fine," Pustakawan smiled. "She didn't have any spares. I'm glad you have seen to her needs."
"There's no angering you, is there?" a curious woman with a mole above an eyebrow asked. "I've never seen you get frustrated, angry or impatient all this time. Vevie is soooo lucky."
"We're just travel partners," Pustakawan protested at the implication. "Nothing else."
"That's right," a woman who had been sitting near Vevie last night agreed and pulled the women away into a huddle, muttering something into their ears.
"Ohhh, is that it," came a chorus of sighs from the other women. "Why didn't they explain sooner?"
Pustakawan raised an eyebrow at Vevie who shrugged. Whatever. It wasn't important.
"Come and eat," Pustakawan held out the cup of cooled tea to Vevie and filled her bowl with warmed stew and toasted bread scraps.
"What's this?" the curious woman returned, sniffing at the pot of leftover tea.
"You can try it," Pustakawan said with a tinge of amusement when the woman poured a little into her bark cup and smacked her lips.
"This is weird," she said, frowning and then pouring herself some more, "but tasty."
"Let me try, let me try," her friends suddenly gathered around her. Before he knew it, the rest of Pustakawan's tea was gone and in it's place was a clean and scrubbed pot.
Vevie just laughed, holding her stomach where the wound must still be hurting a little. Pustakawan wrinkled his forehead, thinking what else he could do to help her.
"It's lunch time!" Dorit yelled from further away in the camp, banging his pot.
"But we just had breakfast," Vevie said in a furtive voice to Pustakawan.
"Brunch is more like it," Pustakawan looked up at the sun and then the length of the tree shadows. "Maybe you don't know, but when a feast in the Stone Tribe starts, it doesn't usually stop for a few days. They pretty much eat non stop."
"They're trying to fatten us up."
"No," Pustakawan's crinkled the corners of his eyes in silent laughter. "Just you, Vevie. Just you."
"Hoy, Juta!" Dorit bellowed in Pustakawan's direction. "We're going hunting and you're coming. Grab your stuff. We're going now!"
"I thought you just said that it's lunch time?" Pustakawan yelled back. "Where's the food?"
"In the mountains," Dorit rolled his eyes. "Do you expect it to magically appear in front of you? Come on, you snail."
"Coming!" Pustakawan gathered his bow and arrows and followed Dorit. "Rest up," he advised Vevie before he left, "and no more alcohol."
"Noted," Vevie returned, waving away a bowl of the farty drink. She sighed. "I'll try."