The Only Way to Save Her

**ERICKSON'S POV**

"Where is she?" I heard a gruff male voice call out as it got to the top of the stairs.

"Briar, in here." I called out as I walked briskly over to the door and pulled it open. "In here, please hurry." I beckoned the man inside and showed him where my little girl was laying on the bed.

"When did she get sick?" He was rushing to her side as he spoke, already reaching toward her to start examining her.

"My son found her by the stream. She is asleep and won't wake up. She has a high fever and won't respond to us no matter what we do." I explained to him what we knew so far.

"Has she been sick lately? Any cough, fever, difficulty breathing? Anything?" I saw him force open one of Addie's eyes and look at her pupil.

"No, not at all. She has only ever been sick once before in her entire life." Helen answered him this time.

"Hmm?" It seemed to me that Briar knew something that he wasn't telling me. All he was doing was concentrating and not speaking at all.

After several minutes of having him check around her neck and head for injuries or causes, he turned to look at my wife.

"I need to know if she was injured. Something that could cause this. A fall into a plant that could have gotten into her system, a bite from an animal or insect, there could be many different things that caused this, and I need to know for certain before I treat her."

"How will we find that out though? She is asleep." I was at a loss here, but Briar was still just looking at my wife like she was going to tell him something. That was when it hit me. This man wanted to check for those things. He wanted to look at my little girl. "No!" I snapped at him. "You can't."

"Would you rather that she dies?" He growled the words at me so fiercely that I snapped my mouth shut and just looked at him with fear in my eyes. The way he sounded just now was frightening. I never heard a man sound like that before.

"N..n..no, I would not like for my daughter to die." I hung my head. "B..b..but-."

"But nothing. This is not some cheap trick to take a peek. I am here to help her and nothing more. I need to know if there is an underlying cause. Will you help me or not?"

"I..I..I-." I faltered as I tried to answer him, then I took a breath, swallowed my anger and spoke again. "Yes, we will help."

"Erickson? What is happening here?" Helen looked at me with confusion in her eyes.

"I will be standing by the door. I want you to help Briar search Addie's body. Check to see if she has been injured in any way. Check for animal or bug bites, scrapes, rashes for plants, anything."

"E..Erickson? That's not appropriate." She had to point this out to me. Didn't she just hear the conversation that we just had? Didn't she get it?

"Just do it, Helen, our daughter's life is at stake here." I yelled the words at her, angrily silencing her protest.

"Yes, dear." She nodded and agreed to do as she was told.

I stood there, next to the door with my arms crossed over my chest. All I could do was just watch on as Helen and Briar removed the dress from Addie's body and started to search for possible causes of her illness. I could tell that they weren't finding anything that could have been the cause of this, but that wasn't making anything better for us. If there was no cause, then, what was happening to my daughter?

After they were done, Briar walked away from Addie and came to stand next to me.

"Mr. Mercer, we should talk about this alone for a moment." He looked me in the eyes then and I saw an underlying note of unease that didn't make me feel better at all.

"Of course." I nodded at him. "Helen, since Addie's dress has already been removed, why don't you clean her up. That will be the best for her right now. It might help her fever somewhat."

"Yes, dear." She nodded and went to heat up some clean water.

While Helen was out of the room, I took the time to talk to the healer that was trying to help my little girl.

"What is wrong with her, Briar?" This man, this outsider, he didn't have a last name for me to call him by like he called me. Or, if he did, I just didn't know what it was. He had been here for so long, but was still considered an outsider because he hadn't assimilated into the village life.

"I have seen this illness more than a few times. It is not that common, but it is not rare enough that no one has ever heard of it." His voice was calm and even as he spoke, but the words that he was saying were making it sound frightening.

"I have never heard of this illness." I shook my head at him.

"Maybe not by name, but you know of it. Do you remember the boy, John, that died last year? He had the withering flu. His parents only contacted me when it was too late to save him." That one line there gave me hope. When he had mentioned someone that I knew who died of this illness I had immediately lost all hope.

"She can be saved?" I grasped onto that one sentence, that one jumble of words that gave me at least a semblance of hope.

"There is a possibility, but I can't be the one to help her. This is something that you will need to do on your own."

I didn't understand what it was that he was saying to me. Could I heal her on my own? What could I do for her? Before I could ask that, though, Helen came back up the stairs with a basin filled with water.

"Let's go outside so that we can discuss this further." Briar suggested and started out the door.

"I will be back soon, Helen. Keep an eye on Addie." I kissed my wife's cheek then and looked sorrowfully at my daughter's sleeping face.

"I will, Erickson, I will." Helen nodded in response to my words as I walked out the door and followed the man out into the night.

I found Briar leaning against the hitching post that was next to my shop. The shop was in front of the house and next to the main road but there was no one out and about right now so we would be able to have a private conversation.

"Briar?" I said his name softly when I was close enough to him. I didn't want my words to carry across the yard.

"Mercer, there is something that you need to decide upon here and now." He looked at me with serious eyes.

"And what is that?"

"How badly do you want to save your daughter?"

Was he kidding me? Did he think that I didn't love my child? Did he think that I didn't want her to live a long life?

"What are you talking about? I would do anything to save her."

"That's what I was hoping you would say." He lowered his head then looked at me. "Or maybe I wasn't, I'm not so sure. That doesn't matter though, what does matter is that you must work fast to save her. This illness, this disease, will eat away at her until there is nothing left. If you are not quick with this, then she will ultimately die."

"What do I need to do? What can I do to save my little girl?" I could feel the panic and the fear setting in. This didn't sound like it was going to be easy.

"The only cure for the withering flu is a potion that has to be brewed by a wolf. It is called Flourish, and it can only be acquired in the city. However, they would never sell it to a human, even if he or she could pay for it. You need to find a wolf that is willing to barter with you. Someone willing to make a trade for the potion."

"Is that all?"

"Do not take this lightly!" Briar snapped at me and the flippant tone I had used. "This is a very serious matter. Most wolves in the city will not make this kind of deal with a human at all. And most of the ones that do will require a trade that you might be unwilling to accept." I completely ignored the warning tone in his voice as he spoke, all I heard was that there was hope.

"I will make any trade. I will do whatever it is that I have to in order to save her."