Wolves (English)

Chapter 25

'Are you ready for it?'

I bite my lip nervously and give an affirmative nod to the Healer who is sitting ready in her human form on a chair. We are in the homemade tree house made of branches and reeds which I saw earlier when Finn, Dyre and I arrived at the gathering place. At first, I didn't know what it was for, but now I'm in a kind of mini-laboratory. There are two wooden tables with test tubes, liquids, a number of measuring cups, and a lot of needles. On a third table is a huge computer, with measuring equipment next to it. I strongly suspect that the modern equipment is used to give the results of tests. And also the results of my own test.

The Healer, with her short blonde hair and bright blue eyes, turns to the table next to her chair and takes out one of the sterile needles. She puts it in one of the transparent test tubes which contains a reddish liquid. As she pulls up on the top of the needle, the fluid slowly flows up into the syringe. It's like some sort of chemistry lesson.

I have to swallow as the blonde girl gets up from her chair and walks towards me with the syringe in her hand. I hate needles. Even though I know from experience that such a prick doesn't hurt much, I still don't like the idea of ​​getting some weird liquid injected.

'What is that?' I ask the girl.

She slides her chair next to mine and wipes a strand of hair from her face with one of her latex gloves. 'That, my dear Ester, is a very special fabric. One that you will not find anywhere on this Earth except here. It is a mixture of meadow water from the forest lake, drops of dew from oak leaves, and red forest fruits from the forest. Put in experimental terms: the water analyzes your blood, the dew checks which genes you have, and the forest fruits provide the red color of the fabric. Actually, they're just kind of a nice addition to the whole chemical process. Although I've never studied Chemistry myself, so I don't really know if I'm talking to you in experimental slash chemistry language now. Probably not.'

We both have to laugh a little about that. I decide that I like this girl. The way she talks to me makes the whole process a lot less unusual.

'Wait a minute before you stick that needle in my arm,' I say to her, 'what's your name?'

'My name is Bente,' she replies with a smile. 'And that needle won't go in your arm, dear. He goes in your leg. Don't ask me why. I didn't study Biology either, so I'm not technical at all. I still wonder why the hell they trained me to be a Healer.'

My laughter is abruptly interrupted by the sharp needle which implants itself in my leg with a fierce fierceness. Bente slowly pushes the top part down, pumping the red liquid into my body. Involuntarily I get tears in my eyes.

'Well, the worst part is over.' Bente pulls the needle back from my leg and puts it somewhere behind her. 'Here's a tissue for your eyes.'

Gratefully I take the small tissue paper and dry my tears.

'Now all we have to do is take some saliva and check your reaction speed. It's not all that much work.' Bente turns back to the table and takes out a cotton swab. 'Open your mouth.'

I do what she says obediently. With deft movements she turns the cotton swab around in my mouth, takes it out again, and puts it in a kind of jar. I have no idea what she has done, but it must be good. At least, that's what I'm assuming.

Then she turns on the big computer on the other table, punches in a few codes, and opens a program. She slides my chair closer to the computer and explains that this program is meant to test my responsiveness. In front of me is a black keyboard with three buttons: one blue, one green, and one orange. As soon as a circle appears on the screen, I have to press one of the buttons on the keyboard. The button in question must be the same color as the circle. That doesn't sound too complicated.