Chapter 2.5: A Horse With No Name

## Start

Damn, these boys just took a break and did some wiiiild shit. After leaving Fickensteijn, the caravan with refugees headed up north into the mountains, to Outer Heaven. Moving so many people would take them 5 days, and Jesus made sure to include some stops to feed the hungry and heal the sick. During one break the following ensued:

## Felipe's part

As the caravan stopped to rest, Felipe, being his usual bleeding heart self, aided Jesus in handing out fish and bread to the refugees. After doing this for some time, however, he apparently decided Jesus could handle it on his own and made a round through the camp to check on the refugees. He encountered an older woman who was rubbing at her foot in pain. He attempted to speak to her to ask what was wrong, but she did not speak Candi. Nevertheless she gestured to a tiny dark something lodged in her foot and allowed him to inspect it. With his characteristic ability of diagnosis, Felipe assumed this something was merely a splinter. He pulled at it with a pair of tweezers from his kit, only to discover it was part of a cactus tick, a spiked creature with the horrifying tendency to bury itself in its victim and drink their blood, making it swell inside the victim's flesh and driving its spikes deeper. Needless to say, the poor woman was in agony. Still, Felipe knew the best way of removing the tick is simply to pull it out. The woman cried more. But Felipe succeeded in removing the tick, squished the tick in half between the tweezers, and stitched up the wound on the woman's foot. After ensuring she would be fine, he patted her shoulder and continued on his rounds.

After some time Felipe returned to where Jesus was, only to find that Jesus had finished handing out food and was now himself eating. Felipe intended to let him be since there was nothing he could help with, but Jesus called out to him. Jesus apologised to Felipe for dragging him away from his duties, but Felipe assured him he had the consent of his liegelord. Felipe asked Jesus what the 'AC JC' with which Jesus had signed his letter with meant, correctly guessing that the second half referred to Jesus himself. Jesus explained the 'AC' was an abbreviation for 'anonymous contact'. Relieved that Jesus was not secretly the Antichrist, Felipe took his leave.

Concerned by the rate he was using up his medical supplies, Felipe decided to go into the forest to find medicinal herbs. To his luck he found a number of daybloomer mushrooms and collected bark from an oak tree, both ingredients for the healing ointments he keeps burning through. He also found a curious, sickly-looking mushroom he was able to identify as Drought's Cap. Felipe had just harvested it when someone approached him.

## Bennis and Crysis' part

Bennis and Crysis found themselves in the surprising location of Bennis' Carriage. Crysis suggested to go out for a walk with their mast, Rupis. After some gemok Bennis agreed and they walked into the woods, locking their dog in the wagon. They found a red yarn going into the woods and reluctantly followed it. They met a distressed yarn creature, pointing in the direction of the yarn and it followed them at they moved on.

After a while, they heard voices from behind a bush. Bennis had Crysis throw a rock to the bush. After some unkind words from Bennis, demanding to know who the owners of the voices were and what they were doing and learning nothing, he ordered Crys to hit the bush they were hiding behind.

Crys ripped open part of the bush with his whip, revealing a young girl with a bow pointing right at him. She shot, Crysis dodged and charged up to her, grabbing her. Bennis shouted mean things and the second bush-person entered the scene by plunging an axe in Crysis' shoulder. He dropped the girl, and Bennis ran up to the lady still attached to the axe and put his knife to her throat. She was larger than him though and resisted, elbowing him substantially. Crysis let out a battle cry, stunning both ladies as Bennis ran to the little girl and took her hostage, putting the knife to her throat instead . Crysis managed to entangle the other woman in his whip and after some demands of them leaving their weapons, they were released and ran off.

Bennis and Crysis saw the yarn creature run after the two, supposedly to save his wife, at the ladies had captured and wounded her.

As they were heading back, a fat, probably not naked, man charged at them and attacked them with a club, wounding both Bennis and Crysis to the point of Bennis nearly fainting. But Bennis managed to stab both the man's arms, ramming his dagger down the second time, through the mans arm with him as he fell to the ground. Bennis got up, kicked the "filthy animal" as he called him in the crotch and went back down.

Crysis looted the now-dead body, picked Bennis up, and carried Bennis back to the camp.

## Ending

Bennis' broken body was promptly fixed by Jesus, who merely placed his hands on his dislocated shoulder joints to sooth the pain and then set the bones. Felipe patched up Crysis' axe wound with a more down-to-earth approach, by simply applying ointment and bandages. Bennis promptly got up after being cured, slipped 50 dookoos to Jesus and walked away, briefly nodding over his shoulder in a cool fashion. Crys thanked the doc and was met with a lot of concern from Felipe, who encouraged him to take it easy. Whether this concern is based on professionalism or on affection, is yet to be seen...