The Littlest Warrior

Chapter 7 - Mission To Expunge

The Littlest Warrior
Chapter 7
Mission To Expunge

Ezra's mind was whirling as the feverish dreams turned into vivid frantic nightmares, the mental stress was also putting physical stress on him which was beneficial to the germs, but not to Ezra. Kanan could sense his inner turmoil and ran to his room to wake him up.

"Ezra can you hear me? Kanan began to shake him. Ezra only groaned weakly in response, his eyes rolling back in his head. "Ezra, snap out of it!" He gripped him hard by the shoulders.

"Huh?" Ezra's eyes finally fluttered open groggily.

Kanan's eyes went wide as he finally looked at the teen, "Ezra... what happened to you!?"

"What are you...." Ezra looked down, following his master's gaze. "What!?" Ezra freaked out, seeing spots and swirls of rash lesions on his face, neck and chest. "What in the galaxy?"

"The infection is spreading. It's breaking out of your body and onto your skin."

Ezra struggled, "It itches. It burns!" He began to scratch his face and neck fervently.

"Stop Ezra, no! Don't do that!" Kanan grabbed his hands and pulled his arms down. "Here, wait here." He ran out of the room and Ezra went right back to frantically scratching his neck. Kanan rushed back in, holding a tube. "Stop scratching yourself, you're making it worse!"

"I can't help it!" Ezra whined.

Kanan grabbed his hands and pulled them away once again, "You're doing more harm than good. By scratching you open up the wounds and get the fungus under your nails, as you scratch it spreads it to new parts of your body." Ezra's hands flinched. "Here, I'll show you a secret tho. Don't use your fingers, use your arms, hands or fists. Rub like that, it won't open the lesions and won't cause new scabs to spread." Ezra thought for a moment and then began to rub his face with his arms and fists. Kanan was right, it actually did seem to help. Kanan tried desperately hard to hold back laughter at Ezra's expense. With the rash markings on his face and rubbing himself like that, he literally looked just like a grooming loth cat. Kanan shook his head, snapping out of it. "Anyway, here, I got you this. It's an anti fungal topical, you can use it to help the pain."

"Oh that's great!" Ezra took it eagerly. "Thanks Kanan."

"Do you need help with that?"

"No, uhh, actually, I'd like a little privacy if you don't mind."

"No problem." Kanan headed out and made sure the door closed behind him.

Ezra sighed and looked down at the tube thoughtfully and then reached out, "Hey. Germs."

What is it Ezra?

"This rash, this is you guys getting stronger right?"

Yes! We have grown in droves since yesterday, we are nearly complete.

"If I use this ointment on the rashes, will it hurt you?"

No, such a thing would only control the symptoms and not fight the cause. You are safe to use it and we shall remain unharmed, thank you for your consideration.

"Thank you for some good news!" Ezra eagerly opened the tube and began to apply the cream, he practically purred in his throat from relief.

A short time later Kanan decided to go back and check up on Ezra, "Hey kid. Are you awake?" Kanan got no response as he went into Ezra's room, he was asleep again. "Well, at least he's actually resting." He walked over towards the bunk, Ezra was snoring slightly, his breathing was raspy. Kanan frowned, that didn't sound good, in fact it didn't sound like that earlier. He put his ear against Ezra's chest, he could hear the wet congestion rattling in his lungs. "Great...." He shook his head. He felt his forehead, he was getting warmer, he felt his neck, his glands were getting larger. Now the fungal infection had moved into his lungs. Things were getting a lot worse. "Hey, Ezra, wake up." He grabbed him and propped him up gently.