You did something I couldn’t. Don’t think I won’t forget that. You have my gratitude.

Timeline/World: Newfound Worlds – Iais’i
Current Date: February 6, 2619

Character: Tiberius
Race: Iais’ian – Jungle Tribe
Age: 30
Current residence: Borderlands Minhir-Taylien
 

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I don’t know that I ever expected to have the healer’s hut as my own. The woman whose hut this was had still been reluctant to let me in most of the time. I might have made it very clear to her that I knew what I was doing—especially with pregnant women, it seemed—but she still wasn’t comfortable letting me help with most things. The vast majority of my time was spent gathering and while I didn’t complain, I still felt as though my ability to help with the healing of the people went vastly ignored.

That was, at least, until two moons back. It was just before the chill truly came—a cooler few moons to deal with when crops are far more sensitive and gathering is more difficult—that a heavily pregnant woman came into the healing hut. She was not a resident of the village, I would have noticed her before. As an in-between village, we get a lot of visitors, most are very temporary, but some, like myself and Bast, eventually settle in.

Words seemed to be very difficult for her, she struggled to put them together in a way that made sense, but by the size of her belly and the few words she could manage to string together in a coherent, way, she managed to get across that the life inside of her should have come to be nearly a moon ago at this point. I had never heard of a child taking this long to come and it did worry me. The healer was gone, she had left to help another village just some hours away. I had been told to not do anything stupid as I assume she fully expected that no one would come by. I wasn’t about to let this woman keep on suffering because it was clear that she was suffering at this point.

So, I got to work. I put all of my knowledge and that which my mother had ever taught me to use. I made sure the woman was as pain-free as I could possibly get her before I placed the blade where it needed to be. I had never done anything of the sort, it was a very, very wild guess but she clearly could not deliver the child in the other way. I checked that thoroughly. I even gave her herbs that would get her body doing what it needed for the birth but those didn’t help either.

I am more than grateful that Bast was with me during that time. I was so careful in the cutting, so careful in reaching and drawing the single, but very big baby. I used strong animal hair to seal the nearly gaping, open wound left behind by the whole ordeal, but the mother and child turned out all right, in the end.

The healer came back in the morning and nearly screamed at me about the mess in her hut but the new mother still was there with me, recovering slowly, visited by other women who had heard of the tale. Moving her for a few more days was out of the question. I explained what I’d tried, what had happened, and what had led to my cutting this woman wide open—or so the healer accused me of though it wasn’t far from the truth—and I was offered grudging respect. Something about how I had done something she would not have thought of.

Possibly, this thought to open her up and get the child from her belly had come from my knowledge as a hunter, it is the only thing I can figure. The new mother and her little one are still in the village now. They’re doing well, though they come in every day for a quick check-in. The healer, a few nights back, packed up her things and told me that while she thought I had a lot to learn yet, she felt more needed in the other village that she had been visiting, so she would leave her hut to me.

She didn’t even ask me if I wanted this role. Now, it would be a lie to claim that I didn’t want it—especially since I had been trying to convince her to let me help her more—but I didn’t expect her to just walk away the way she did, not even looking back, and not even warning anyone else. Plenty were surprised to see me when they dropped by on their sort of scheduled days, but I’d like to think that I’ve adapted. I don’t know that the healer truly agreed to my methods with the pregnant woman, but I had saved her life and I acknowledge that while I could have cut wrong and done more harm than good, in the end, all turned out well.

Final Word Count: 811

I didn’t ask for your opinion, but I guess I’ll allow it this time, because it actually helped me decide on something.

 
Timeline/World: Newfound Worlds – Iais’i
Characters: Tiberius
Race: Iais’ian – Jungle Tribe
Age: 28
Current residence: Borderlands Minhir-Taylien
Final Word Count: 878 words
 

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I am plenty aware that I will never know everything there is to know. There are days when I will find myself wondering if there are other means of helping out with all there is for me to work with. There are so many remedies that can be put together, I know that new discoveries will always be made and that is why I keep an open mind, as far as these things are concerned.

I will never turn my back on someone telling me they have discovered a new property to a plant, or a new paste or remedy. I think that the discovery of new things only helps us further and shying away from that is living locked in a past with limited knowledge.

Thinking back to my parents and the way they raised me, I want to believe that they would be proud of all that I have accomplished, but on that same note, somehow, knowing what my mother thought of me, I know for certain that she would turn her nose at me and roll her eyes at my ways of looking at things. As far as she was concerned, I was meant to be a hunter and I simply cannot be. My knowledge turns to medicine and how to help others. It is in my blood and my build belies that way of life and it has its positive and negative sides.

Most take a single look at me and think that I will be of no help to them. So many are biased in thinking that hunters lack the possible smarts to be able to heal others. True, there is plenty of intricate knowledge to be had for someone to understand just which ingredients to use and in what quantities, but hunters can learn to be healers and healers can learn to be hunters. My scars are proof of my travels, and I have no regret as to their presence on me. They don’t change, however, the fact that I still am not a hunter; I much prefer to heal others instead of taking their lives from them.

Yes, the life of a hunter is a necessity. Certainly, animals raised for slaughter is something that certain tribes have begun doing, especially when they have enough room for that, but, for the most part, most villages still are small enough that they mainly rely on agricultural growth and hunting. Chickens are one thing, they are easy to care for and don’t need an overly large amount of space, but bigger animals that I’ve known to be raised for slaughter take more room and a lot of the villages we came across in our travels before settling here didn’t really have the room.

I remember how things were when we first came into this village. The elders took one look at us, and we were branded; at least, I was branded. Bast has this build that could lead him to help in a few different places around the village but my own, well, people quite often assume. I didn’t argue, not at first. We were visitors, we weren’t truly expected to help out much, though, when it became clear that we were interested in staying, that changed.

We found a hut to call our own and despite the elders telling me that I would be joining the hunting party soon, I argued my point. It took time, it took even longer before the healer agreed to let me even step into her hut, as though she only allowed others in when they needed help and I didn’t need help.

She wasn’t easy to deal with at first, often, stopping me from even touching anything of hers; I’m sure she thought I would destroy everything. It took one particular night for her to change her mind. It wasn’t instantaneous, but it was that night that changed things. We had a pregnant woman in the hut, one who was long overdue and clearly was struggling with things. I told the healer about a mix of herbs for tea that would help with the labour, I remember how she scoffed at me, told me that she hadn’t asked for my opinion but, just for this once, she would allow it because it had helped her decide on what she was going to use to help the woman.

She hadn’t even really been looking at the ingredients I mentioned, and she’d only been mumbling about pastes, but I let it slide because, well, I was finally being given half a chance, if you would, at proving that I knew what I was talking about. The woman and her two beautiful children were fine and healthy when morning came. I know the healer gave me a look when I pointed out that the mother-to-be was clearly expecting more than one and that she would need my help for handling the little ones but that happened too, so I guess I must have proved to her that I wasn’t completely stupid.

After that, she allowed me more easily into her hut, though I still spent more time with the gathering team, I feel like I split my time evenly. Both gathering and healing are in my blood; that will never change.

The thing about starting over is that you weren’t supposed to follow me, but if you’re going to stick around, make yourself useful.

 
Timeline/World: Newfound Worlds – Iais’i
Characters: Tiberius
Race: Iais’ian – Jungle Tribe
Age: 27
Final Word Count: 727 words
 

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There are days when I feel old. It’s a strange sensation, considering I know I’m not that old. Looking back, though, I’m older than my parents ever told me I’d live to be. We didn’t seem to be set to live very long. I know my grandparents only lived to the point when I was two or three, they were old and worn out and eased away into their graves by the time they were maybe four or five years older than I am now.

We seem to be living longer. All the stories I used to hear from the elders—who weren’t that old, not really, except for one but she was a myth as far as everyone was concerned—spoke of people who didn’t live to be much older than very early thirties. The thought was depressing and it only pressured everyone else into having kids as soon as the woman could carry them so they could keep their bloodline running.

That seems to have changed a little over the span of my life at this point. Maybe it’s also the fact that I’ve travelled and people beyond the jungle live longer. I’m not too sure. It doesn’t really matter that much. There are days when I feel old but it’s only when I remember the stories my parents used to tell me. Most of the time, I still just feel so young and strong and my memory hasn’t even begun to falter.

We’ve been living in this little three-element village for a few years now and I think we’re pretty much considered as part of the family. I think we made it to that point when they let me take over for one of the gathering team leaders. I know my stuff and I know how to make sure everyone I take with me is safe and sound as we gather.

Someone I’ve had issues with in the past decided to leave, about a year ago. I wasn’t the only one having issues with him. He was an idiot who couldn’t seem to understand the point of paying attention to what he was told. After he got essentially removed from the gathering team for nearly getting himself and everyone else poisoned while out gathering—he was told almost every five minutes not to touch one plant in particular but he kept on going back for it—he was moved to a hunter’s team and that just turned out to be even more disastrous.

Sadly, about three months back, he came back. He said he had learned his lesson—which, doubtful—and that he wanted to start over.

Even more sadly is that, so far, he’s made it clear that nothing has changed about him and that he’s still the same idiot he was when he left. He didn’t get set on my gathering team up until two weeks ago and, at this point, he’s still as frustrating to work with as he was before he left. I even took him aside and told him that if he really was set on starting over, he was going to have to make himself useful.

Starting over isn’t just about leaving, coming back and going right back to the way things were before. That’s not how it works, not even if he follows me right at my heels and makes a bother of himself. He gave me this wide-eyed look as though he couldn’t believe I’d just told him that he still was completely useless and then he turned around and went off to gather berries.

Thankfully, these berries were safe for gathering and consumption, at least, only if you ate so many as if you eat more than your share, you’ll have a real hard time digesting them and you’ll wish you’d never taken them to begin with.

Was I keeping an eye on him while he gathered? Only half so. I had to do my own gathering and mine is a little more sensitive since they’re part of herbal remedies needed to help the people.

Did I notice he was eating almost every third or fourth berry he was picking up? Sadly not.

Did I lecture him when he landed in my healing room because of it? You can be sure of it.

Will that lecture stick with him? I highly doubt it.

You can’t run away from what you’ve become.

 
Timeline/World: Iais’i
Characters: Tiberius
Race: Iais’ian – Jungle Tribe
Age: 25
Final Word Count: 534 words
 

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According to my mother and to a whole lot of people, I should have been one of the greatest warriors our village had ever seen. The irony is not lost on me that I was born from a long line of herb gatherers and healers but I grew up to be far too big, too ‘bulky’ as my mother would say. I had the build of a hunter. I hated that particular mindset; I’ve never been comfortable with the hunting, let alone the raiding and taking of lives.

Of course, the whole raiding thing is what led me to Bast but that’s one of those things and while I am grateful, they still expected me to remain a hunter once we made it back to the village. My parents would go on and on about how I would be a hunter and I was the best and no, I could not be a medicine man because I couldn’t change the path my life had taken.

That became a case of ‘fuck that’ and I left. With Bast. We went elsewhere.

It wasn’t easy, not at first. Sure, I had to rely on my hunting skills to get us to a safe place between the borders and every night it made me worry that my parents had been right, that I never would be able to be anymore other than a hunter. It terrified me to think that I would never be anything else.

Now, well now we’ve found an almost tiny little village of mixed origins, people from the jungle, some from the water, and some from the sands. The only ones we have none of, are those from earth but we make do with the knowledge we all have to work well together. I still hunt somewhat with the others but for the most part, people have turned to me as one of their healers. I know my herbs, I know which to mix to what end, I know how to help a pregnant woman make it through to the end of her pregnancy without complications just like I know how to ease anyone’s suffering in a painless way should they need it.

I am who I am. No one can tell me what I might or might not be able to do. It really is just a matter of putting my mind and my heart to the task at hand and I can manage. I believe that anyone can manage what they set their minds to if they truly want it. No one should have to be forced to be something they have no desire to be.

There have been some rumours, talk that some of the royals in particular tribes in the jungle and in the water are beginning to trust in the people to help them make decisions. I’m not sure how they’re going to call that type of thing but I’d like to think that it could make it far; it could perhaps stop raids and other things from happening. Not that I expect that to happen in my lifetime but I want to think that this is a big step forward, it will do good for all of us.

Whoever put you on my team is getting a stern talking to.

Timeline/World: Iais’i
Characters: Tiberius
Race: Iais’ian, born of the Jungle
Age: 24
Final Word Count: 533 words

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“Don’t pick those up, they’re poisonous!” I watch as he stumbles back, his eyes wide, his hand held close to his chest as though he’d been bitten and I roll my eyes, breathing out a sigh as I feel my shoulders fall slightly in exhaustion. This is the third time in this outing alone that I’ve had to pull him away from plants he shouldn’t even be near—the same plant all three times!—and yet he doesn’t listen. Whoever decided that he would be a good gatherer was wrong about him and I can’t even do my own part in the gathering from having to keep watching him.

I’m seriously going to need to have words with the person who gave the okay on this idiot being out and about with my team. I understand the whole point of learning on the go but this is ridiculous, I’m thinking he’d belong better with those who remain at the village and deal with the other chores, the clothing, the cleaning. I don’t know that I would want to trust him with the idea of cooking, considering how poorly he does with following simple instructions on gathering, I feel like he’d end up poisoning us all.

“Matari, this is the last time I’m telling you this, these plants are poisonous, do not touch them.” Everyone who says things come in three and all that rot? Dead wrong when it comes to Matari. Not five minutes after I tell him not to pick up the plant or touch the leaves or berries that he reaches for a bush, not a yard away from where he was standing that is absolutely identical in all ways to the other one that he’s reaching down to touch it. I swear.

“Koora, could you please take Matari back to the village? We’ve been gone long enough already and we’re not even halfway through what we’re supposed to bring back.” I call out the words to a tall woman just a few yards off, she’s in the process of picking up some mint and her satchels are already full anyway so I don’t really feel bad about sending her back. She sends me an amused look and walks to the idiot who huffs and sulks—and I’m sure he’ll be trying to badmouth me to the village elders, too bad for him I’ve been there longer than him—but goes with her as they start on the way back.

Breathing out a relieved sigh, I turn my gaze back to the other two still around me, gathering what we need. “All right, let’s pick up the pace a little, we’re behind schedule and some of these herbs and berries are expected for our noontime meal!”

It took a lot of time before I was comfortable enough to pick up the role of team leader for these little expeditions. It was only on our third stop that we really found a village we were comfortable enough to settle in properly that I did. I’m glad though, this village, right on the edges of not two but three elements, is perfect, the people are nice and it’s never boring.