18 Natural ... medicine?

That female voice! It turned out to be Charlotte! How did she suddenly appear here in front of them?! She stood there in her usual clothes, her breathing was heavy, maybe because of the hammer she had raised before to hit the guard with. Her fiery red hair was stressed out even more with the flames of the torches in her background and gleamed a little. She had seemingly appeared out of thin air, and nobody had realised her approaching the guard at all. He might have been too concentrated on taking care of the children before him, while neglecting his surroundings but especially his back area!

"Charle!", Claire had been feeling a storm of emotions brewing in her head all this time, setback after setback hit them all, and now that one of her best friends had saved her, she couldn't hold herself back anymore and rushed to her and hugged her deeply. If it wasn't to not alarm any more guards to their location, she might have even cried and screamed to rid herself of her sadness. Charlotte was surprised but didn't stop her friend at all.

Claire's face was full of tears but she still managed to ask Charlotte some questions:

"H-how did you do that? Where have you been? Why are you here?". There were too many things she couldn't make any sense of right now.

Charlotte just shook her head and looked at Vincent. It wasn't the right time for her explanations. Claire didn't seem to be in the best condition so she hoped Vincent might come up with any plans for their next actions.

He stood there on the spot in front of the guard, his fists still clenched together and his heart pounding like a drum. He trembled madly and didn't know how to react. His presence of confidence and bravery vanished into thin air since he had seen his closest friend's body fall down and touch the cold ground. His emotions were in total disorder, guilt, despair, sorrow and anguish filled his mind and left him unable to make any decisions.

Charlotte's eyes fell on the other body lying on the ground ... Panda!

"Guys! Wh-what do we do?!", she exclaimed and wanted to shout out loudly yet Claire found her senses back and covered her mouth before more sounds came out.

Charlotte looked confused at Claire and pointed crazily at Panda.

Claire indicated to her to keep quite and moved towards Panda. She braved up and touched his neck and the lack of warmth made her worries grow exponentially! His clothes on his side were already drenched in blood, his forehead was sweaty and his breathing was weak. She was afraid to move him, afraid that her actions might worsen his injuries instead.

Charlotte guessed her thoughts and whispered anxiosly:

"But we have to do something, right? We can't just leave him here!"

None of them was any wiser about what they should do, they were only children after all! How could someone expect them to cope with such dangerous and sudden situations. Just when they were about to fall into the deep abyss of despair, an old hoarse voice speaking with a foreign accent sounded out from the cages:

"Hurry, bring your little friend to me, that is, if you want him survive, kekekeke!"

Vincent was jolted awake when he heard the voice speak. It belonged to the old man inside one of the cages and it sounded middle eastern, maybe arabic, but what triggered him was the word 'survive'!

He walked straight to his cage, grabbed the iron bars into his hands and looked into the old man's eyes and asked with a begging tone:

"Can you save him? Can you really do it?"

He didn't question the origin or the motive of this old man who had not spoken a single word before. No matter if his background was shady, and no matter what he wanted in exchange, Charlotte was right, they had to save Panda somehow! And the old man seemed like the last ray of hope left for them.

"Kekeke, well, not sure if I can still save him, bring him to me, at most I can delay his demise. He has to be treated somehow but as that animal previously said, I don't think you have the time and leisure for that."

Claire and Charlotte were still suspicious about this person who suddenly became a samaritan on the spur of the moment. Could he even help them? Yet time was of the essence so they hurriedly pulled Panda under his armpits towards the old man who had already approached the iron bars.

Panda groaned all the while in pain, yet his friends sighed in relief instead as that was prove that he was still alive. Dead people felt no pain after all.

The old man stretched out his skinny bony brown arms towards Panda's waist and tore his bloody clothes open without any regards for his well-being. Panda shuddered but remained silent, his consciousness only half awake.

"What a weak body, a small cut and now look at you. Loss of blood, quite heavy, hmmm, his vitals seem ok, hmmm, the most I can do is stabilise the wound for some time ...", the old man muttered while his hands kept touching the injured spot on Panda's waist.

The other children looked in shock but didn't dare say anything, too afraid to interrupt and disturb the treatment. Was this person a doctor maybe? He behaved like one at least, but his methods ... was it ok to use fingers so much without any form of protection or disinfection? While they were still unsure about this person's methods, what happened next made their eyes open wide in complete astonishment and disturbance!

The old man put his right hand before his mouth and ... spit a huge load of saliva onto it! It was so much, that some of it spilled down onto his garbs instead! It was almost too disgusting to watch.

Claire wrinkled her eyebrows and asked:

" S-sir, what are you doing?"

"Keep quite and don't ask unnecessary questions, kekeke!", after which he rubbed that very same hand onto Panda's wound with all his dripping saliva. He made sure to not only cover the surface but also dig deep into his flesh with his hands as well!

"Are-are you crazy!? Are you trying to kill him or what?", Vincent as well as Charlotte couldn't hold themselves back anymore and became angry. Instead of helping their friend, the old man seemed to prank them and do more harm than good. The wound might have become even worse now, after all his tinkering with his dirty hands!

"Kekekeke, well, that's the best that I can do, you can blame that guy above your heads for that. He took all my potioneering equipment, so there is only my own secretion that I could use! Don't be ungrateful brats! Even my saliva still has some basic magical properties rivalling common medicine, even surpassing them!", he rebuked them nonchalantly,

"Sadly, this is just a temporary fix and the wound will open again soon enough, so you have to make sure and bring him see a doctor, healer, priest, shaman or whatever you can get!"

The children were still dazed and weren't sure about what had just happened. Did that guy say he had helped the wound by rubbing his spit on it?! Was this supposed to be a joke? Only Claire seemed to be noticing something:

"Look, the wound!", the others followed her gaze and the wound still looked the same sadly. Reality hadn't changed however ... the blood didn't pour out anymore! His skin was coloured red, especially after that old man had touched the area over several times already but compared to before, flowing and trickeling blood wasn't visible any longer!

He looked at the group of three and reprimanded them instead:

"What are you standing there like a rooted dryad, get going now! That guy you beat down earlier, he will wake up in a couple of minutes, and I promise he will try to go after you! Even worse, I am not sure why their leader and his lapdog haven't been alarmed yet ...", he took another strange long glance at the children,

"but your luck will come to end if you continue waiting here for him to come and pick you up, kekekeke!"

"Th-thank you!", the three replied weakly in unison. It was weird, yet somehow that old man had helped Panda recover a little, so a thank you was a must. Vincent asked in addition:

"We-we can't get you out of here now, but we will definitly do so the next time we come back, I promise! C-could I ask for your name?"

"Kekekeke, you don't need to worry about me. I am fine for the time being. Can't say the same about you lot. My name, kekeke?! I am just an old man, who was caught in the whirrling winds of misfortune just like you, but I guess it doesn't hurt sharing it with you. My family called me Hamdi Jakeel from my birth onwards, pleased to meet you, and now get going already!", he answered with a smile that didn't look like a smile and then ordered them strictly.

The group gulped down all the questions they had. They couldn't linger around this place forever, so Charlotte and Vincent worked together to pull Panda up. Luckily, Panda was half awake and he could at least stand a little on his own.

When the group finally departed from their spot and left through the entrance, Kyle and Lora still looked distressed while the old man laid back against the cage and quietly muttered under his breath with closed eyes:

"Go, go forth ... continue and don't stop ... and inshallah you will reach your destination unscathed ... ya allah, please protect them!"