章 163: She Tests Their Mettle
"...Does this mean there are bad bugs in me? and in my friends?" The little girl asked, starting to understand.
Robin nodded. "That's right. there are some bad bugs in you and your friends, too. There's not much in you now. But if we don't do anything, the bad bugs will grow more and hurt you from the inside just like they hurt your mom."
"And the bad bugs are hurting my friends, too?" The little girl asked. Robin nodded.
"That's right. This is why I need you to be a very brave little girl, and to get your friends to gather everyone who has bruises like yours into one spot. Especially those who can no longer move on their own. If they doubt you, you can tell them to come and see your mother. Look, see? The king slime is almost finished."
The king slime was vibrating to destroy all the parasite eggs. Although the treatment had been short, the mother had been fully healed not moments before. Then it separated from the woman, and began to digest the parasites.
"Ma-" The little girl called out, wanting to run to her, but was stopped by Robin, who shook her head kindly.
"Wait a bit longer please, little one. We just got the bad bugs out of your mother, but we still need to get rid of the bad bugs in you. Otherwise, they'll hop over to your mother, and make her sick again. okay?"
The little girl looked up at Robin, then looked down at Robin's hand on her shoulder.
"Aren't you afraid of the bad bugs making you sick?" The little girl asked.
"Why need I be afraid when I've got a wonderful friend over there who can help me deal with them? Instead, I am more afraid of not being able to reach everyone in time to heal them." Robin replied, ruffling the girl's hair.
"That's why I need you and your friends to help me find the ones who are like your mom was earlier, so that I can help them, okay?"
The little girl glanced over at her mother. The vivid purple and blue bruising on her face had completely disappeared. She looked like she was resting peacefully, having a wonderful dream. With that, the girl felt relieved.
"Okay! If you can get the bad bugs out of me and my friends, I'm not afraid of them either!" The girl said, determination growing on her face.
Despite the near constant presence of steam and smoke about the city, at that moment, the sun broke through the clouds, shining upon the girl's dull hair, making it gleam red it the light.
Robin broke into a wide grin. "Good! With you and your friends helping me out, we can heal the whole city together!"
The king slime that finished digesting waved a tendril in the air, agreeing with Robin's words. Robin looked at the slime, surprised.
"You can understand me?" She asked.
The king slime paused, then nodded slowly.
"Can you speak?" Robin asked. The king slime shook horizontally.
"That's a no, then...well, I'm sure we can figure something out. From what I hear, there are a lot of these bugs out there for you to eat. Probably even too many."
The king slime shook in a strange pattern.
"What is it doing?" The little girl asked.
"Maybe it's excited? Those bad bugs I told you about are its food, after all." Robin replied, uncertainly. But that wasn't the reason.
After shaking about, the king slime separated into two king slimes.
"Ah! There's another one!" The girl exclaimed.
"Can you both understand me?" Robin asked. One nodded, while the other moved a tendril into a simplified thumbs up.
"There's two of you now. I'll need to call you something to tell you apart...You're Nodd." She pointed to the first one. It jiggled in delight.
"And you're Hiker" Robin pointed to the other. It had reminded her of the hitchhikers she had sometimes seen on the side of the road. Hiker seemed to puff up proudly.
"Hop on, I'll take you to find food." She told them. The two shrunk in size and bounced up to land on her shoulders.
"All right, let's go see your friends, little girl." Robin said, turning to the door.
"Hey, mah name isnae 'little girl'! It's Gretel!" the little girl said, running out ahead of Robin.
"Got it. Let's go, Gretel." Robin replied with a bemused smile.
------
"First things, first, I suppose." Robin looked over the group of children with various numbers of bruises on them.
"I just healed Gretel's mother." Robin said seriously. "If you have any relatives or friends, or neighbors that have the same bruises as you do, then I will need your help."
"What? Izzat true, Gretel?" One of them asked.
"It's true! Mister Pretty Guy here helped me out!" Gretel nodded. Robin almost burst out laughing at what Gretel had decided to call her.
"Mister Pretty guy?" One of the boys glared sharply at Robin with a scrutinizing gaze.
"Is that what he told you to call him, or what you decided to call him on your own?"
'Ah...Even disguised as a man, I can't help but attract jealousy, huh.' Robin sighed inwardly.
"Nice to meet you." Robin bowed towards the children in introduction. "You may call me, Robin."
"Tch!" The boy turned to the side. "It can't be helped that he knows the cure, but I don't like him! Not one month ago, ya wouldn't see this bruise anywhere! And now that even we've got it, a miracle doctor comes around? Sounds mighty suspicious if'ns ya ask me."
'Wow, so honest...' Robin held back a smile. She knew smiling would not do any good here.
"All right. The sooner we can gather the sick ones, the better! Do you all know of a large place where we can gather them all?" Robin asked.
"Iffits a large place inside tha walls...than..."
"It's that, right?"
"But, we aren't allowed ta go there alone..."
"But, since it's an emergency, it should be all right?" The children discussed among themselves.
"Mmmn." The sharp-eyed boy nodded. "I can't think of any place larger than the Companions Green!"
"Companion's Green?" Robin asked, not understanding.
"It's a ground covered in green moss that was built fer tha nobles' pets ta run around and play in. We aren't allowed ta enter without a pet unless there's an emergency." Gretel explained to Robin.
"All right. If worst comes to worst, I'll take responsibility for it, so bring them there!" Robin nodded.
"Wait! If we go looking like this, we won't be able to get anyone to come. They won't believe us if you don't heal us first!" The sharp-eyed boy explained.
Robin smiled. "Oh? I didn't tell you? I was going to heal you all at once."
And with that, Hiker jumped off Robin's shoulder, and expanded, sweeping out, and catching all the children within it's large body. Before they could even so much as squeak, they were submerged, and rendered unconscious.
Skye glided over and landed on Robin's shoulder as she heard footsteps running up behind her.
'I brought them' Skye said, licking its paw.
"Whoah! What is this!?? A king slime!? Robin? What is it doing??!" Christian exclaimed in panic, seeing it had swallowed a group of children.
Robin stopped him from moving forward. "They've been infested with a truly nasty parasite. They're being extracted right now. Please don't interrupt the process." Robin said.
"Is that true!?" Keith asked, seriously. Robin gave a brusk nod.
"I'm afraid so. It's not just them. There's probably at the very least a small crowd that will need my attention. And at worst...this might not be a problem only within the city. We may need to create a long-term treatment plan." Robin looked at her companions.
"That's why I need your help. We need to gather all the sick people to make sure this doesn't spread any further. This means you too might be at risk, but don't worry. We have the world's best doctor here." Robin glanced with appreciation at the king slime, although her expression still remained solemn.
"Sure, this has nothing to do with us. These aren't your subjects or your people...I got involved in this, of my own volition. So if you are reluctant to help, or don't want to get involved, I can understand." The group stood there, astonished at what Robin said.
"What do you mean?" Christian said, a strange light streaking across his eyes.
"I won't force you to help if you are squeamish at the sight of blood, or think this is something gross. But I need compassionate hearts willing to help those who can not help themselves." She said, slowly.
"What are you talking about?" Christian asked, an angry smile had taken over on his face. "Do you think we are so faint-hearted that we fail at basic compassion? Do you think so little of us, Robin!?"
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