Chapter 27: The Village
Lara eventually took pity at Abel who stumbled a few times as he trodded down the difficult path. He almost slipped when he stepped on a rock covered with moss. He instinctively used both hands to steady himself and Darius almost fell from his back.
"I’ll carry him." Lara volunteered. She looked worriedly at the young boy whose face has become flushed, a symptom that he has developed fever.
She took a small bamboo tube from the side compartment of her bamboo backpack. The tube also has a lid made from bamboo that needs a twisting motion to open. Lara meticulously crafted ridges around the mouth of the tube so the lid can be tightly closed and easily opened. It contained turmeric in powdered form.
She took another bamboo tube the size of a 200-ml glass in modern times. She transferred an orange powder into it and added water from another bamboo tube that she carried. That tube contained boiled water and part of her emergency supplies.
She shook the tube until the powder was dissolved evenly.
"Let him drink this. This is an anti-inflammatory medicine. I think your brother is starting to have a fever. I don’t have honey so that the taste might be bad, but he has to endure it."
Abel gratefully took the container and assisted Darius in drinking the liquid. The boy frowned but finished the medicine obediently, not wanting to add to his brothers’ worries.
Lara took the rope coiled around her waist and after doing a few weaves and knots it transformed into a makeshift carrier.
She crouched down and Abel assisted his youngest brother to climb on Lara’s back. Lara asked him to secure the young boy with the makeshift carrier. She looped the two ends of the rope around her waist.