Chapter 45: Stubborn Patient
Ermin had collapsed from a fever.
By the time Tera reached him, his skin was burning to the extent that when Tera touched his forehead, she quickly yanked her head back.
"Get him inside. Now."
The beast men carried him to the nearest completed shelter, and Tera was already running through options in her head. She had no medicine, no herbs prepared, and no idea what was even wrong with him.
She had watched beast men shrug off injuries that would have hospitalised a human. For one of them to collapse from a fever meant something was seriously wrong.
Ermin was laid in a layer of moss and fur bedding, and she knelt beside him, pressing a strip of wet fur to his forehead to cool him down.
’System. What is wrong with him?’
[Scanning...]
[Diagnosis: Exhaustion-induced fever compounded by prolonged stress on the imprint bond]
[Ermin has been actively suppressing and resisting the bond for some time now]
[Sustained resistance to it has created physiological strain]
[His body has been under constant low-level stress that has now reached a critical point due to added physical strain]
’Then what can I do? Surely you have medicine for the fever in the shop?’
[Advanced medicinal compounds are available in Tier 3]
[Surgical tools and healing accelerants are in Tier 18]
’The fuck am I using surgical tools for?! Do I look like a freaking surgeon?!’
[This system did not design the pricing structure]
’Of course, the good stuff is locked behind tiers I can’t reach yet.’
[This system can help you source fever-reducing herbs]
[The panther’s body simply needs time and adequate rest with Host nearby]
Tera rushed out to pick some herbs with the system’s help.
She had ground them into two separate pastes. One to smear on Ermin’s chest, and the other for him to drink.
Tera returned to the shelter and, using a water skin, which will sadly be forever used for the herbs due to the lingering taste in the sac, she filled it with the paste and water mixture and gave Ermin.
She slightly tilted his head up to support him.
His body was already damp with sweat, and he was heavier than she expected.
"Ermin. Open your mouth."
His eyes cracked open, glassy and unfocused. "What... is that?"
"Medicine. Drink it."
"Where did you—"
"Drink!"
He was too weak to argue. His lips parted, and she tipped the liquid carefully into his mouth. His face twisted at the bitterness, but he swallowed.
Tera lowered his head back down, her hand lingering at the back of his neck for a moment longer than necessary. His skin was still burning, but the tonic was supposed to work gradually.
She wrung out the wet cloth again and pressed it against his forehead, his cheeks, the sides of his neck. Her movements were careful, deliberate, gentle in a way that would have shocked anyone who had known the old Tera.
Ermin lay there with his eyes half-closed, watching her through the fever haze.
Her hands were soft.
He had been touched by this female before — in the cave, during heat and need. Those touches had been charged with other things. This one was different, there was more care poured into it, and Ermin felt touched.
When her thumb brushed the edge of his ear, a ripple of warmth went through him that had nothing to do with the sickness.
He wanted her to keep touching him.
The thought horrified him. He tried to push it down, but his body was too tired to cooperate with his pride.
"You are so silly," she muttered, pressing the fresh cloth to his burning skin. "I had already said we would get rid of this imprint. Why bother yourself rejecting it when I have agreed to let you go?"
Ermin didn’t answer.
Tera had finished wiping Ermin’s face and was about to leave the shelter when he grabbed her hand tightly.
"Don’t leave me..."
[Ermin’s Favourability: 0% → 9%]
’Well, dang!’ Her eyes nearly popped out of their sockets.
"You’re going to be fine."
Ermin’s brow furrowed. His lips moved, forming a word she couldn’t hear.
Tera leaned closer. "What?"
"...stay."
She froze. His eyes were still closed. He might not even be fully conscious. But his grip on her hand was deliberate, and the word had been clear enough.
"I won’t go anywhere."
’I would glue my ass to this spot if need be!’
[Whaaa...?]
[(꒪⌓꒪)]
Tera didn’t know if Ermin had heard her, but his grip had loosened slightly.
It was strange seeing Ermin act so clingy.
Tera had ordered the clan to pause all construction earlier that morning, despite the surprising complaints from the clan members who wanted to continue.
But she had refused, strictly making them stop because she didn’t want chaos to reign while she wasn’t supervising.
Shortly after, the shelter flap rustled. Tera looked up to find the two cubs peering through the gap with the intense, unblinking focus of tiny predators.
"Is the pink one dead?"
’Whaaaatt?’
Where could they have even gotten that conclusion? Or were the clan members gossiping?
"He is not dead. He’s resting. Go outside and play."
The cat cub squeezed in beside his companion, his spotted tail flicking with curiosity. "Mama said beast men don’t get sick."
"If you don’t want his sickness to continue, go away so he can rest."
"But why are you holding his hand?"
Tera looked down. She was, in fact, still holding Ermin’s hand.
She smiled, expecting a cute request from the cubs to come and hold his hand too, only for their next question to floor her.
"Are you going to mate with him?"
Tera’s neck twisted so sharply that her head nearly popped off her shoulders.
"What the—where did you hear that word?!"
Were these beasts mating right in front of the cubs?!
Someone called for them, and they quickly rushed out giggling amongst themselves, and seconds later, when the shelter flap rustled again, Tera faced it, ready to tell the cubs off, but the figure that ducked inside was considerably larger.
Xavi was holding a broad leaf containing meat and small portions of fruit.
His eyes moved from her face to her hand, still clasped in Ermin’s, then back to her face. His expression didn’t change, but his ears gave a small, telling twitch.
He was jealous.