7. Stung - The Work Camp Earth-boy

The Work Camp Earth-boy

By Earth-boy

Comments are welcome at earth-boy-2755@proton.me, and constructive criticism as well. As I’ve mentioned before, this story is complete (12 chapters in all.) But as of the date I’ve posted this, I can entertain suggestions as long as they don’t break the established plot or have a serious impact on the remaining chapters.

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Quick disclaimers:

• This story contains descriptions of sex between teen and pre-teen males. Do not read if you’re under 18 or it is illegal where you’re living.
• Copyright by the author. Do not upload to pay-to-view sites.
• This story is fiction; references to individuals are coincidental.
• No children or teenagers were harmed in the creation of this story.

Chapter 7. Stung

The next two days were fortunately uneventful. Riley suggested Martin take some time off to rest, but he was away from the work area for just one morning. He walked a little stiffly that day and seemed more tired than usual. But even those symptoms disappeared overnight and by Friday there was no real indication he’d suffered a serious wound just two days prior.

Like all the other days I delivered hot water to the huts in the morning, had a quickie with Jared, helped Savros with the meals, and (my least favourite chore of all) mopped down the floor of Egan’s hut and made his bed. These days I was also cleaning the floor of one of the five other huts each day, as well as the main hut. I was also making everyone’s bed, which I didn’t mind too much and seemed to be appreciated. In the evening I sometimes joined a board game and sometimes didn’t.

Thursday night I was supposed to be with Larry but he quietly suggested I should visit Jared instead. Fortunately he mentioned the change while the poker game was on, giving me time to let Savros know I wouldn’t be with him that night.

Savros took my absence better than the last time. Indeed, he’d cooled down from the total infatuation he’d shown the first week with me into something more sincere. He was still enjoying sex with me almost every night, even if some of it was in his sleep, and during the day would give me the occasional affectionate hug. But he wasn’t pawing me all over like he’d been doing earlier. I sort of missed that attention, but from what I knew of humans I understood this was a pattern they often showed in relationships. I was beginning to wonder if Savros was expecting me to stay with him after the work was over. And that concerned me a little: an extended stay with a human was certainly something I had no experience with.

✵   ✵   ✵

⟡ Friday at dinner Riley asked me, “Do you know how many earth-boy groves there are?”

I didn’t have to think very much about the answer because I already knew it. It was something we learned during the dream-time and on occasion was repeated, usually after a census run by the human government in our area.

“There are somewhere between 58 and 59 million earth-boys world-wide. At about 250 earth-boys per grove, that’s between …”

Larry managed the calculation before I could. “Between 232,000 and 236,000 groves.”

“That’s a lot,” Riley answered. “How do you keep track of them all?”

“The same same way humans do, by putting them into groups,” I answered. “We have what we call a region, which is 250 groves. Each grove has three councillors that form its government, and by tradition the longest serving councillor is a representative to the region. So a region is a grove’s worth of councillors. In Europe there are something like six hundred regions in sixteen provinces. Those were set up a really long time ago based on geography, so they don’t follow the borders of any of today’s countries. In other parts of the world we just use the same groups humans do like cities, states, and provinces.”

“So do you guys have a parliament or anything like that?” Jared asked.

I shook my head. “No. Each grove sort of does its own thing. We’re a lot like prairie dog towns or ant colonies in that respect, except groves can communicate with each other. The regions and provinces are there so we can place the groves on a map and tell two groves apart that have the same name. Regions are sometimes important if humans start meddling in our affairs, or we want to hash out things like trade deals.”

Larry joined in the conversation. “I’ve learned quite a few things about earth-boys in the last couple of years. I’ve even visited a few groves, but I’ve never been in one of their meadows. What are they like? I saw a couple of documentaries that said they were shot in meadows, but everyone they showed was wearing a breech-cloth, so it didn’t seem realistic.”

“What’s the meadow?” asked Martin.

“The central part of the grove where we all live,” I answered. “You see, a grove is a bit like a walled town. We have an outer defensive ring of trees. Inside that are our fields and grazing grounds. Well, that’s for rural groves, which typically are a section or two of land. Urban groves often cover only a city block or so, so that area is usually a park or maybe gardens. Then inside that is a smaller ring of trees surrounding the meadow. It’s where we live, play, cook and eat our food, and have our pool.”

“And do earth-boys ever wear anything in the meadow?” asked Larry.

“Are you kidding? Those films you saw probably managed to convince a few earth-boys to put something on just so they could get some footage acceptable to humans. Did they show the pool?”

“No. Neither of the films said anything about a pool.”

I nodded. “Not surprised. The pool and the kitchen are the centre of earth-boy life in the meadow. Now, with some work you can convince a few earth-boys to put something on in their meadow, but the pool? No way! No earth-boy would ever wear anything in the pool.”

Jared added an interesting tidbit. “I remember when I first heard about earth-boys being naked in their groves. I was thirteen, so I tried to sneak into a grove to see if it was true.”

“Sneak in?” I asked with a grin. “I bet you didn’t get very far!”

He shook his head and smiled. “Nowhere. Sure, there was a path leading in, but I followed it for the longest time and it didn’t go anywhere. And when I saw a path out I found myself on the opposite side of the grove from where I’d entered.”

“Did that grove have a gate?” I asked.

“Yes. At the time it was the only grove I knew of in town. I was too nervous to go in through the gate—I didn’t know how the earth-boys would treat me. That’s when I tried to sneak in.”

“Well, that certainly wouldn’t work. The first defence a grove has against unwanted visitors is the endless path. As earth-boys we can see the true path, but humans see only the one the grove wants you to see. You could walk it for days and never get in.”

“I found that out later,” said Jared, “Then I heard some groves are more open. They don’t even have a gate, just a hedge around the whole thing, so the grove’s like a park except for the meadow area. But whenever I visited there the only earth-boys I saw were wearing something.”

“I guess you were in the wrong town,” I replied. “In some towns we know humans don’t like seeing naked people outside, so we’re polite and cover up when we’re outside the meadow. In other places the humans don’t care so much and we’ll be naked everywhere in our grove and cover up only when we go into the town itself. And some groves don’t care what the humans think and just go naked within the grove. And sometimes outside it, too. But not here in prudish North America, only Europe.”

“So what’s the meadow like?” That question came from Larry.

“Well, first thing you’d notice is it’s cold. We evolved in Europe where the climate is a lot cooler than Africa, so we tolerate cold pretty well. We’re comfortable being naked down to fifteen degrees.” [That’s 15°C, which is 59°F. Many humans wear a sweater at 68°F. —EB] “Most meadows are at about eighteen. There’s the kitchen, which is a lot like a cooking shelter at parks and campgrounds, but these days they’re like a modern restaurant kitchen. You know, gas or electric ranges, big refrigerator, prep tables, and sinks with running water.”

Martin raised his eyebrows. “Earth-boys can get trade certificates in things like gas and electricity?”

“Well, I think we could if we wanted to, but we don’t bother. We just pay humans to do the work. We tell them they need to be comfortable working in a chilly environment with lots of naked people running around. Naked males, that is.”

That got a grin. “I can see a typical guy making that mistake—once!”

I smiled back. “And I think most of the tradesmen who like working in the grove meadows are gay. Anyway, in addition to the kitchen there’s an area under the trees where the undergrowth’s cleared out and the ground’s been levelled with really short grass or even moss, sort of like a golf green. It’s where we mostly eat and just sit around playing games or reading, like humans do in their living rooms. No tables or chairs; we just sit on the ground. Then there’s a clearing where we play group sports, and that’s where the pool is. Every grove has a pool because we love playing around in the water.”

“Don’t you freeze during the winter?” asked Jared.

I told him the same thing I said when Savros asked me that last week. “No. There’s a lot of eren in the meadow because it’s sort of crowded with earth-boys. That keeps the temperature the same all year round and shelters us from storms. Even hurricanes. A couple of times I’ve seen lightning hit a meadow, or try to. It goes all around the meadow in a really bright flash, followed by the loudest thunder you’ve ever heard. It scares the young ones terribly.”

“What about TV?” asked Martin. “I can’t imagine 250 earth-boys all agreeing to watch the same channel.”

“Of course not! In the early days of television we often had one TV for each major network. When cable came we’d set up a few more. Now most of us just stream on cell phones and tablets.”

“Oh, that’s an interesting image!” said Larry. “A naked kid who looks like an elf tapping away on a tablet in the middle of a forest. It would be like seeing an Amish girl using a laptop in a horse drawn buggy.”

“Well, it’s common in most groves today. Except for the really traditional ones. A few groves don’t do modern technology. An earth-boy from a thousand years ago could walk into one of them and not see anything different. Those groves don’t even have gates, just a path leading into them, and usually it’s hidden. And mostly they’re out in the country so they just look like a copse of trees, or are even hidden away inside larger forests.”

Riley asked, “So you split up into different types of groups like humans do? You know, traditional, progressive, anarchist, and the like?”

“Oh, for sure! The big difference is we live in groves. We don’t form provinces or countries like humans do, so we don’t have a king trying to tell all the groves what to think or how to behave. If one of us stops liking what a grove does or how it’s being run, we believe the proper thing to do is simply move to a different grove. There are so many of them it’s usually easy to find one. And it’s a lot easier these days because most groves have web sites.”

“Most groves,” said Larry. “I’m guessing the really traditional ones don’t.”

“Actually, they do, but that’s because a regular grove sets one up for them. From what I’ve heard they don’t mind it, for it allows them to be found by earth-boys looking for them. And, strangely, it even allows them to find each other, but that’s because they ask another grove to do the search.”

“I recall something from a few years ago,” said Riley. “I’ve only ever visited a grove once, on Prince Edward Island as part of a tour group. Every one of us got a large bead on a band when we went in and were told to wear it on our wrist. We had to give them back when we left. What was it for?”

Jared answered quickly before I did. “That was a friend-bead, right?” he said while looking at me.

“You got it. You see, earth-boys and humans haven’t always gotten along. You guys can be friendly enough, but if there’s a storm or a crop goes bad or an important human suddenly dies, you often look for someone to blame. Sometimes some poor lady gets called out as a witch, and sometimes the local earth-boy grove comes under attack. So we developed defences to keep unwanted humans out. Part of it is the groves themselves view humans as hostile and works to get rid of them. But not all humans are bad. We needed a way to tell the grove about the good ones. That’s the friend-bead.”

“What if I didn’t have one?” asked Riley.

“Like I said, the grove would try to get rid of you. You just might get confused and wander out again. If you’re more determined, the grove will send something after you: bees, wasps, even birds. If you’re well protected from them, there’s almost always a deer or two hanging around to chase you out.”

Egan spoke up. “So what’s to prevent me from smuggling in a handgun, getting a bead, and then shooting up the place?”

“We can sense intent—I talked to Larry about that last week. The earth-boy giving out the bead usually asks a question like Why are you here today? Regular visitors know the routine and have a ready answer. First time visitors are often nervous but easily pass the intent check. A person intending to cause harm usually doesn’t and we ask them to leave.”

“But a human should be able to get past that, right?” asked Egan.

“Unfortunately, yes. Sometimes the earth-boy gatekeeper gets careless or unlucky. Down in the States a few have been killed by an unhinged human after being asked to leave. And there was that incident a few years ago where a human even manged to get a friend-bead at the gate, only to go on a shooting spree and kill nine earth-boys who weren’t in the meadow at the time. He stopped only because he couldn’t find any more victims and couldn’t get into the meadow.”

“Why not?” That was Egan again.

“The meadow has the same protective tree border the grove has, with the same endless path. The man walked it for a long time trying to find his way in. Finally the earth-boys set up an ambush. Two grabbed his arms so he couldn’t shoot, and two more sent him strong calms. He was no threat after that and they turned him over to the police.”

“I remember that,” said Jared. “I was fourteen at the time and was friends with a couple of earth-boys at school. That man was convicted of nine first degree murders. He’s not getting out of prison for a long time.”

✵   ✵   ✵

It was Saturday afternoon. Lunch was over and I’d completed my simple tasks of making the beds, cleaning the floors of Egan’s and Savros’ huts, and a general cleaning of the main hut. It wasn’t glamorous work, but because I wasn’t in a grove with over two hundred earth-boys to play with, it gave me something to do.

Savros and I were spending some quiet time together outside. He’d been growing closer to me, and the afternoon was ideal for us to be together because his main competition—Jared—was working in the north field. This past week he’d taken an interest in practically all things earth-boy, probably because he wanted to spend time with me, and because I was an earth-boy.

Savros was introducing me to all things Greek. He was the grandson of Greek immigrants, but his parents had been raised to be more at home in Canada than Greece. They had insisted on speaking English at home while he was growing up, but Savros had learned Greek from his grandparents. He was keen to recapture his Greek heritage. In addition to being a Red Seal cook, a bit of an accomplishment considering he was only twenty-five, he had an interest in Greek mythology and knew much more than average about the ancient history of the land of his ancestors.

Earth-boy culture and Greek history and mythology; between the two of them we found a lot to talk about.

I was demonstrating to Savros how I could use eren to speed up plant growth when we were interrupted by Egan calling from the main hut.

“Boy? Boy! Get in here!”

“Should I?” I asked Savros. “I rather talk to you than Egan.”

“Just go see what he wants. I can wait.”

When I entered the main hut Egan was busy at his laptop. “I’m hungry,” he said, barely acknowledging my presence. “Make me a sandwich and some coffee.”

Somehow Egan always managed to find ways to annoy me. First he’d interrupted my time with Savros, and now he was giving me an order like I was a waiter at a café.

I pushed back. “Shouldn’t that be, ‘Can you make a sandwich and some coffee, please’?”

His face popped up from over the laptop’s screen, very much more annoyed than I was. “Don’t tell me how I should talk to you!” he snapped. “You’re just an earth-boy. This computer’s giving me trouble and I’m not in a good mood. Get me a sandwich already!”

So much for the carrot approach, I thought. Had it been a polite request from anyone else, even rather brusque Martin, I would have happily done it. Not so much for overbearing Egan.

“Riley said I don’t have to take any orders from you that I don’t want to. And right now I don’t want to. So I’m afraid you’ll have to get your own sandwich.”

“You fucking little brat!” he yelled. I was too far away to touch him so I couldn’t have sent him a calm if I wanted to. The next thing I felt was a sudden pain in my chest where a spoon hit me. It clattered to the floor.

“Dammit, Egan, stop treating me like a bloody slave!” I cried, and ran out of the hut.

“What did he do to you just now?” asked an astonished Savros when I was back with him. He glanced down between my legs. “At least you still have all your bits.”

“He told me me to make him a sandwich, and when I refused he threw a spoon at me! It hurt! Why is he like that only with me?”

He gave me a hug. “You’re not a human, so he doesn’t see a need to treat you like one. Are you alright?”

“I will be. But I’m not very happy with Egan right now.”

“Let’s go for a walk in the forest,” Savros suggested. “It will help you feel better.”

While I wasn’t really in a mood to go anywhere, I couldn’t ignore a suggestion like that from Savros. “Sure. Let’s go.”

Savros was aware of my pathfinding gift, and I explained he needed to be touching me for him to see the paths I did. It seemed only natural he take my hand. When he did, he gasped. “I never knew there were so many paths through the forest. It just looks like solid bush to me.”

“It does for me, too, unless I use eren to see the paths. Let’s take that one heading west. I can see a stream some ways off. We don’t have to go that far, just for a little walk.”

We didn’t go very far; we walked for maybe five minutes when my pathfinding alerted me to a blueberry patch nearby. I found a path to it, on a hillside with very few trees. There was still a fair amount of short brush around, but we easily located the patch.

“Too bad we didn’t bring a pail with us,” Savros said as we plucked blueberries from the bushes and snacked on them. “It would make a nice dessert for one of our meals.”

“I’m sure this isn’t the only patch around here. I can use my pathfinding to find a few more. Besides, I don’t think we’ll eat through this patch this afternoon.”

“They’re good, I’ll say that.”

“Oh, yes. Maybe I can find some chokecherries, too.”

“Why?” asked Savros. “They’re awfully tart, and I don’t have the things I need to make jams or jellies.”

“When we’re enjoying fresh blueberries for dessert, we can mix a few chokecherries into Egan’s bowl.”

Savros laughed.

I moved around to another part of the bush we were enjoying. I was gathering some nice large berries when I felt several sharp stings on the back of my legs and my bum.

“Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow!” I yelped. I dropped the berries and jumped away.

Instantly Savros was at my side. “What happened? Are you okay?”

I looked around, but didn’t see anything obvious. However I had a good idea what it was. “I think I disturbed a ground wasp.” I paused to draw eren to dull the pain, then turned around. “Can you see anything?”

“He got you pretty good. There are—” he stopped to count them “—five stings all up your right leg and two on your bum. Do they hurt?”

“Not really, now. I’ve used eren to turn down the pain.”

“Lucky you,” said Savros. “I can’t do that.”

“Should we head back?” I asked. “We got a nice snack and an idea for a few desserts.”

“What about Egan?”

“He’s going to be there no matter how long we stay here, unless we want to overwinter here. But I still think the chokecherries are a good idea.”

✵   ✵   ✵

The symptoms started even while we were preparing dinner. First it was a mild headache, a little annoying but nothing I couldn’t handle. Then my appetite fled so I ate very little. I sat out the board game, my stomach becoming progressively more queasy. No sooner had the poker game started than I raced outside and threw up what little supper I’d eaten into the bushes. I crawled back to the main hut, but sat outside on the ground, trying but mostly failing to use eren to comfort my symptoms.

Savros was the first to notice my absence from the hut. He and Larry came outside.

“Are you alright?” Savros asked.

“No, not really. I think it’s nalëthonth—literally, wasp-fever. One of the few disadvantages of being an earth-boy is sometimes we’re more sensitive to natural protections. Eren can handle poison ivy, but venom from some bees and wasps can make us pretty sick.”

Larry said, “I thought you could use eren to speed up the healing process, like you did with Martin.”

“For physical injuries, yes. That’s repair. But something like this we can’t do very much for. It’s like what you’d call a cold or the flu. I can sort of keep the nausea down, but I just need time for my body to clear out the wasp venom.”

“How long?” asked Savros. “A few hours, or a week?”

I had to think. I’d been stung only once before in my life, on a school outing maybe eight years before. “I’m going to be really tired for the next day and shouldn’t eat very much. Oh, crap! That means I can’t go into town tomorrow!”

“You were going?” Savros asked.

“I was. Martin gave up his seat for me—it was his way of thanking me for what I did for his leg.”

“But you can’t make the trip now, right?” asked Savros.

I shook my head. “The way I’m feeling right now, I don’t want to go anywhere. And I really don’t want to spend three hours in the truck.”

“Who’s hut are you supposed to be in tonight?”

“Jared’s. You forgot? Every time I’m with Jared I don’t come back yours to sleep.”

“Oh, right. Is there anything we can do for you?”

I could think of a couple of things. “Uh, do we have any natural fibre rope? Not the stuff it seems like all ropes these days are made out of.”

Savros shook his head. “Sorry, I don’t think we have anything like that in the shed. Why?”

“I’m cut off from eren when I’m in a hut. That’s why I’m outside now. But I can get some if I can hold on to a rope that’s tied down to a pole driven into the ground outside. But it needs to be made out of hemp or sofell or something like that.”

“I thought you had a small store inside you,” said Larry.

“Yes, but my body’s using eren to fight my illness, so I think I’d run out really fast. Then I’d be in even worse shape. Remember, in the grove we can always get eren.“

Once again Larry showed his impressive knowledge of us. “You said earth-boys sometimes carry a staff when they do business with us because it acts like a battery. What about the trees we cut for Martin’s stretcher poles? Do you think there’s enough in them for you?”

That was harder to answer. “I don’t know much about the staffs councillors carry to town. But I think they take more work to make than just cutting up a tree.”

Larry concurred. “I think you said they were hardwood. Most of the trees here are softwood, and the poles are probably only a few years old. So I guess they’d be a pretty weak battery.”

“Instead of a rope, would a bed sheet work?” asked Savros. “I think they’re either cotton or a cotton/polyester blend.”

I liked the idea. “Yes, one would work, or two tied together. All we need to do is stick a pole into the ground outside Jared’s hut and tie one end of the sheet to it. As long as I can touch the other end with my foot I can get a little bit of eren.”

“Then let’s do it,” said Savros. “We have extra sheets in the shed. I’ll get them. Then we can start digging a hole for the pole.”

“We need a shovel, too,” Larry added. “If there’s one in the shed it will save me a trip to the north field to get one.”

“There’s a spade there. I’ll get it along with the sheets.”

Feeling slightly better for the attention, I moped over to Jared’s hut, Larry following. There I sat on the ground again and concentrated as best I could through my headache and fever. A minute later I was rewarded by feeling the ground beneath my bum break up. I kept it up for thirty seconds, trying to make it go deeper. My headache came back with a vengeance. I rolled on to my side to draw more eren and dull the pain.

“Alright,” said a bemused Larry, “what did you do? It looks like you just called on a whole bunch of eren there.”

I smiled weakly. “Ploughing. Well, soil breakup. Humans use plows and horses to till the ground. We use eren to break it up and the earth spends the next day turning it over for us. It should be easy for you to dig the hole now.”

Larry was used enough to earth-boy gifts that he didn’t express any outright amazement. Instead he asked a thoughtful question. “Won’t the earth drive the pole out of the ground when it turns over the soil?”

“Maybe. Just check it tomorrow morning and put it back in.”

Savros appeared with the spade and two bed sheets, still in their packaging. “We’re in luck!” he said with a smile. “100% cotton!”

The others now showed up. Riley quickly assessed something wasn’t normal. “What’s up?” he asked.

Savros answered for me. “Our boy here got stung by a wasp this afternoon and his body’s reacted badly to it. He says he’ll be pretty sick for a day. We’re working to give him a supply of eren into Jared’s hut to help him overnight.”

Larry quickly dug a hole, found one of the poles we used for his stretcher the day before, and put it into the hole.

“Would it work if it was shorter?” he asked. “This long pole is unsteady.”

“Sure, it just needs to be in good contact with the earth,” I answered.

Larry ran to get an axe.

“What’s the pole for?” asked Jared.

Again Savros answered. “He’s with you tonight, but he needs eren to help fight off whatever the wasp venom’s doing to him. Except he can’t get any when he’s in your hut. So we’re sticking a pole into the ground and tying these bed sheets to it to connect him to earth, sort of like a water pipe.”

“Oh neat,” said Jared. He looked at me. “Are you going to be alright?”

“Yeah, sort of,” I replied. “I won’t be feeling well and may not be very good company, but I’ll survive.”

Savros unpacked one bed sheet while Jared did the other. In a few minutes Larry had the long pole whacked into two pieces of unequal length. A two foot stake he put into the hole. He and Martin worked together to pack down the soil as best he could. Savros tied the two sheets together and tied one end around the pole. He offered the other end to me.

“Does it work?” he asked.

I grasped my end with both hands. “Yes. I can feel eren coming into my hands. Thanks, guys.”

“You’re more than welcome!” said Larry. “After everything you’ve done for us, it feels nice to be able to give you some help, too.”

“Get rested, and get better soon,” said Riley, giving me a quick hug. “We’ll try to help out as best we can.”

The others did the same, save for Egan who’d disappeared into his hut almost as soon as he found out what was ailing me.

Now assured I’d be looked after, they let Jared take charge of me. We went into his hut. He made sure the bed sheet fit under the door and I had enough to hold on to. Then he got naked and climbed into bed with me, spooning me from behind like he always did.

“Here’s hoping you have a good night,” he said, putting his arms around me and kissing me.

“Thanks. I might not, but with you here it’ll be a whole lot nicer.”

✵   ✵   ✵

Twice that night Jared had sex with me in his sleep, but didn’t cum. In the morning I was feeling only slightly better, with a persistent headache and low grade fever made tolerable only by suppressing the symptoms with eren. Jared’s presence comforted me.

“Feeling better?” I heard him ask.

“No, not really. I’m going to be out of it for the day.”

“Yeah, you’re warmer than normal. You must be burning up inside.”

“It’s not that bad. At least I’m conscious. I’m afraid this morning you’ll have to get your own hot water.”

“Should I do Egan’s and Larry’s as well?”

“If you want to. I dare you to do it naked like I do.”

That got a laugh. “I don’t think so! Besides, it’s Sunday, and you don’t do hot water on the weekend. And I think they’ll understand if things go back to our pre-earth-boy days for a day. Do you want me to stay with you today?”

“You’d do that?” I asked in surprise. “Last week you weren’t very happy when I got to go to town and you had to stay behind.”

“Yeah, but today I’ll be with you without Savros getting in our way.”

“Thanks, but remember I’m sick. I won’t be any fun at all. You go to town, okay?”

“Yeah, I guess you’re right.”

Because the stake in the ground was in front of Jared’s hut, it made sense I’d spend the day there. But I got a surprise when Larry came by to tell me he’d set up a second stake in front of the door to the main hut, and had even moved his own mattress there.

So I went to the main hut, Larry moving the bed sheets for me and re-tying them to the stake he’d set up there. I found the main hut to be rather loud, but that way it was much more like being in a meadow. Larry’s gesture meant more than he realized; staying in Jared’s would have been like solitary confinement.

Savros of course came out of the kitchen to check on me. He looked very concerned, despite my protestations I’d survive. He brought me a pancake to eat. Which I did, slowly, for I had no appetite at all and was afraid it would just come back up again.

Right now I was really missing my grove. There I’d have access to our medicines: plausse to keep my stomach settled, tenstral to reduce the fever, and fennet, which would help with my headache. There was nothing in the first aid kit except ASA and acetaminophen.

Once everyone had showed up in the main hut, Riley announced, “Well, I’m not going to cancel our trip to town just because the boy’s fallen ill. If nothing else, Savros needs to buy food and there’s laundry to do. But I think one or two of us should stay behind. I’m willing to. Anyone else?”

“I can,” said Savros. “I’ve got a shopping list, but I don’t need to be there to buy the stuff.”

“What if we miss something?” Martin asked.

“I’m a cook. We’re flexible. And maybe you add some extra things that grab your fancy.”

“Hey guys,” I said to get their attention. “Can you find some plausse or tenstral for me? Both would be nice, but I think tenstral would be best if you can find it. And greywolf, too. I know the town’s small, but I think they’ll have it.”

“Are there any groves around?” asked Jared. “For you maybe we should get them straight from the source.”

“Would you? You should be able to find the groves on your phone’s map. Then look up their web sites—they’ll tell you if they’re open to humans showing up at their gate. If the site says ‘traditional’ or ‘conservative’ they might not even have a gate so you won’t be able to get in.”

“How do we pay?” asked Larry. “Do they accept credit cards?”

“Beads and wampum, I guess,” said Egan.

“Egan, please!” said Riley, a little exasperated.

“They might take cash,” I said. “In fact, they’ll probably give it to you if you can convince them it’s for a sick earth-boy. Hey, that gives me an idea. Can someone get me a sheet of paper and a pen or pencil?”

Larry found them quickly. In my current state it took me a few minutes to compose a note.

“What’s this?” asked Jared when he saw it. “It looks like a bunch of leaves.”

“It’s our writing system. The part on the left is formal leaf-script. It’s my name and says I’m ill with nalëthonth. On the right is a more compact form asking for what we need. Drive up to the gate and sound your horn a couple of times. An earth-boy will come out and you can give him this. He’ll accept it without question because very few humans know our language and can write it. Oh, and take a pail or two with you; I’ve asked for some koy berries. The medicine they’ll give you for free. Offer him fifty dollars for the berries, but don’t be surprised if he refuses it.”

“I’m guessing rural groves aren’t set up to handle cash,” said Larry.

“Right. So for something like this they’ll just give you the stuff and not worry about getting paid.”

“All right,” said Riley. “Larry, you make sure this gets done. You or Jared can handle the business at the grove.”

Jared said, “If you don’t mind, I’d like to do it. I’ve visited groves before.”

“Okay,” said Larry.

Savros got two large pails from the kitchen and gave them to Jared to put into the truck. With their earth-boy out of commission, Savros and Jared worked together to gather laundry. Savros prepared a lunch for us, and just before one in the afternoon Larry, Martin, Jared, and Egan got into the truck and left.

✵   ✵   ✵

It was a very long afternoon. I asked Savros and Riley to move the mattress outside, into the shade of the main hut. There I untied the bed sheets from the stake and put them partly under the mattress and partly over top, so I could lie down on them and get more eren than what I could draw through the stake alone. Even in the shade the day was warm enough that I felt no need to cover up.

Savros gave me warm tea and a couple of pills from the first aid kit, which he insisted I take. I did so. They did a good job with the headache. I still felt awful but managed to keep down the one pancake I’d eaten that morning. Outside there was a breeze and the occasional bird song that reminded me of the grove’s meadow. I was able to get maybe four hours of fitful sleep.

Savros and Riley set up chairs outside with me, occasionally chatting and drinking tea, at other times playing chess or reading Larry’s magazines. Savros appeared to have downloaded a course on Greek mythology to his phone and read aloud a couple of tales with some commentary.

Just after 8:30 in the evening the rest of the crew returned. Jared sought me out immediately to let me know they’d managed to get everything on my list, including two large pails of koy berries. I asked him to give me the tenstral and a spoon, and make me greywolf tea. To my amazement he brought me a beautifully glazed and covered earth-boy vessel, a squat urn with a capacity of perhaps two litres (about half a gallon—US or Imperial.) It was full of prepared tenstral, with honey and even some dace to cover its bitter flavour, and far, far more than I needed. I took only three spoonfuls.

Jared told me the plausse and fennet also came in similar vessels. The grove they’d visited had been most generous. When he came back with the greywolf tea, he also had a sly smile on his face. He showed me a small bag with some fresh first year wundgheri leaves. He managed to score some yovissi, too! I’m sure he was looking forward to enjoying it in his hut that evening.

I took some plausse to help my stomach. Larry and Martin worked to move the stake in front of Jared’s hut to Savros’. I was supposed to be with Egan tonight, but in my condition I really didn’t want to see him. Between the tea, fennet and plausse, with eren trickling in through the bed sheet and Savros holding on to me, at last I was able to get comfortable and fall into a restful sleep.