A day later, Feyra woke up with half of the village in front of the tent.
"What is going on here?"
"We want to apologise. It's true, we didn't think of the value of a life nor did we think about how horrible it must be to burn alive. Not only that... You also went there and helped Kerstin and now Hilde too. Please forgive us. We were too drastic.", the man, who had been at the front that day, was kneeling down and keeping his gaze down. Everyone else also looked down and nodded.
"I will only forgive you if you promise to only do so with the deceased. And if anyone gets sick you help them. Promise it.", Feyra said, knowing she may be a bit childish. She also knew though, that if they promised it, they may keep it.
"We promise to value every life from this day onward and reduce the pain of the sick as much as we can. Please forgive us now. We have heard of your strength. We don't want to be at the receiving end of them.", the man said, tears and snot streaming down his face. He was now looking up and pleading.
"Fine. Then help me to make Hilde feel better. I give you some instructions and lessons on things you need to help anyone who gets the plague.", Feyra said. Every woman in the rows nodded and the men did so too after seeing their wives do so.
"The women come with me. I'll teach you about the herbs to gather and how to make the medicine. As for the men... I'll tell you about that in a few days."
The women followed Feyra, while the men walked away with their heads still hanging low.
"This herb is what you should look out for. It's quite rare and often likes to hide. Once you find them however, it's going to be easy as they grow back if you don't pull out their roots.", Feyra showed an herb to the women in front of her, who looked at it, stunned. They took it in their hands and gave it around so everyone could also see it up close.
"You take a few leaves of it. Not too many, and make this into an extract. The amount should be around one quarter of a bowl in the end. This, you could already give to your patients to make the healing process a little better, and to avoid the bitter taste, you give them another mixture which consists of these two herbs.", she gave the herbs around again and let them look at each one to get the details. "This mixture helps the body take in the medicine and it is a little sweeter. The herbs can be found in forests around the Alliance. Some of them prefer more moist areas while others grow even in drier areas."
The women noted all of that down before Feyra showed them how to prepare it. She then went over to Hilde who drank the extract and then the mixture.
"The only downside of the medicine is that it makes the person tired. They will require a little more sleep but if everything was done right, then it should take effect pretty quickly and in about a week the patient should be healed.", she explained.
After she had explained everything and also answered the women's questions, she got to grinding the dried flowers and plants she had. Now it was time for her to try and make incense and use it. If everything went as Feyra had expected, then the village could get rid of the rats and minimise the danger of someone getting infected by the plague.
Feyra took everything and went outside, knowing the smell of both plants could be strong. She mixed them together after grinding and got some wooden sticks. She then mixed a little bit of water to the powder and some other plant, before dipping them inside the mixture and letting them dry.
After that, she took them to the village and asked around if someone had a lot of rats in their house or cellar.
"I think the mayor has a cellar full of rats.", a man told her.
Feyra went to the house and knocked. The man who opened the door was none other than the man who had cried while apologizing.
"What are you doing here?"
"I heard you have a cellar full of rats. I want to test something.", Feyra said.
The man thought for a while, letting her in and walking to the cellar door.
"Be careful. These beasts scurry around and hide in every corner."
"Before I go down... Do you have a fire source?", Feyra asked.
The man went to the living room, waving Feyra over. She took out some incense sticks and lit them slightly, so fumes would start to drift up.
"What are you planning to do with that?", he asked, being a little confused.
Feyra went to the cellar and placed the incense sticks on the ground, in a pot she had previously filled with some dirt.
That'll keep them in place.
"You can look later again if there are still rats down here. If not then the incense works.", she said, before leaving again and walking to the tent.
Hilde was sleeping once again, but her symptoms were already getting better. Feyra cleaned everything she had used before she continued to make some more incense.
The man, who had cried while apologizing, came running to the tent.
"The... The sticks... That what you used... It worked!", he said, completely exhausted. He couldn't believe his eyes when he had gone to the cellar and saw no rat scurrying around any longer.
"That's great. Get all the men together. And if you can... I need a letter pigeon.", she said, heading inside the tent and gathering everything she needed.
Not long after, all the men had gathered behind the tent and held their noses closed.
"I'll teach how to make those sticks that are called incense sticks. For them I use two plants to create the smell they have. Both of them smell strongly, so my apologies should it be too much. However, in order for them to become their stick form I need another plant." Feyra started putting everything in front of her.
"First I take these two plants which have a strong smell and let them dry in the sunlight. After that I crush them into fine powder, which I then mix together. After everything is mixed, I take some water and this plant and mix these two together.", she did so as she explained, before she then had two bowls. One had powder and one had a weird mixture of a weird colour.
"This mixture is used as a binder which keeps the incense sticking to the stick later. I pour the mixture into the bowl with the powder and then I mix it, so it becomes a bit like a dough. Then I take these thin sticks here and dip the upper part into the dough before I let them dry. Once they're dried, all you need to do is hold them to fire and let fumes go up."
"The smell of one of those plants is very unpleasant and strong, which keeps animals of any sort away. The flower, which smelled that strong, is so humans don't have to deal with this terrible smell.", Feyra explained, the men nodding before also trying their hands on making a few.
"And what was with the letter pigeon now?", a woman came, who carried a pigeon on her arm.
"Just a moment. I'll write a letter.", Feyra said, heading inside the tent and taking out her notebook and pen.
Dear Ida,
I know it hasn't been long since I have visited your village but I have found something incredible. Do you remember the old man who asked me to carry the wine? His cellar was full of rats. I've found something that can help him.
I know you may not be able to understand everything in this message but I'm sending a few sticks with this letter. Those are incense sticks. You just need to hold them near fire and then secure them in a pot that the fumes can drift through the room.
The ones I sent with the letter pigeon in specific are incense sticks that can help get rid of rats. You can share this with the others too. I can also write down the recipe and how to make them.
But let's put that aside. How are you doing? Are the other children playing more with you now?
Sincerely yours, Feyra
With that, Feyra ripped the page out of her notebook and tied it around some incense sticks, before giving it to the letter pigeon. "To Ida who lives in the next village towards the Capital.", Feyra said.
The pigeon made some sounds before it started flying away.
Everyone seemed surprised at the letter pigeon being able to carry such heavy weight. Letter pigeons usually didn't carry that heavy letters, but occasionally some also carried larger letters that were just as heavy if not even heavier.
The week passed without much happening besides Feyra instructing the women and men further on the crafts they wanted to learn. Occasionally, she also checked up on Hilde, who was already doing better than before.
By now, the villagers had opened up a little and weren't looking at Feyra with suspicion anymore.
"So I'm fine now? Do I need to look out for anything or be careful about something?", Hilde asked.
"Not really. You should just look if there are any symptoms coming back. If not, you're good, but if they come back you should take some more medicine.", Feyra explained. She looked at Hilde, who still couldn't believe she had survived something that had claimed her friend's life.
"I... Thank you...", she started to cry, out of happiness and also out of sadness. She was happy she was still alive, but she was also sad her friend was now gone.
Feyra went over to her and sat beside her until she had calmed down a little. After that, Hilde and Feyra went outside and were greeted by the whole village.
"You saved her!", a man came running towards Hilde and picked her up. They turned in circles for a while, before their heads felt spinning too.
"That's truly marvellous. It actually worked!", voices from the crowd drifted to Feyra, before they all cheered together and ran around in happiness.
A man came over to Feyra. "I'm the mayor. I'm sorry again for how we treated you. Thanks to your help, we no longer have any rats around. How can we make this up to you?"
Feyra had heard this question countless times by now. She would usually say coins. On a journey like the one she did, it would be better to have more coins, but at this moment she had enough coins.
"Let me think... I have an idea. Since you know how to make incense sticks and you also have the ingredients around... Let's do it like this. You make more incense sticks and occasionally send some with a letter pigeon to a peculiar traveler with leather armour, a chainmail skirt and a peculiar hair colour.", she answered. The man nodded and called everyone together, explaining everything.
At the end of the day, there was a feast held for Feyra as well as Hilde and the deceased Kerstin.
"Tomorrow you'll travel again. It's been now about a week that you've been here.", the mayor came over, clinking glasses with her.
Feyra had chosen something non-alcoholic once again. She didn't like alcohol, especially the smell. No matter which kind of alcohol she had in front of her, she smelled it out.
This feast is not only for me. But it smells terribly of alcohol... I hope I can sleep soon.
With that, Feyra went back and laid down in the tent. The next stop she wanted to reach was the harbour city.