The Lightest Path

13

It was cold up in the mountains. The Jabari men leaded them to the long throne room. It was modern. Beautifully in the mountains with a lovely view.
But the rough looking man in the simple throne in front of Grace looked at at them with eyes filled with an animal like calculation.
"My son... was murdered in ritual combat," spoke Ramonda. She showed respect, but Grace saw the sharp undertone in her eyes. Deep in the dark brown sea.
"Were the odds fair?" asked M'Baku, the Chief of the Jabari Clan.
"Yes, but..."
"So it was less a murder than a defeat," concluded M'Baku and Grace bit her tongue. He seemed quite alright with the fact that T'Challa was dead.
"Do not rub our noses in it!" growled Shuri loud. The fierce of the Wakandan girl was overwhelming Grace. Even in this dark time, she stayed so strong. She grabbed her hand and squeezed it.
Grace wished she knew how Bucky was. If Killmonger found him. What he was doing to him or not.
"Silence! I make the pronouncements here, girl. Look, uh, Your Highness, the new king is a U.S..."
Ross spoke up. "The new king..."
He was just as surprised when all the Jabari men started to grunt, like apes. Loud and dominant. Grace knew Sam would've laughed at this, and that Bucky would've raised his brows.
Grace and Ross stared at each other.
"You cannot talk!" grunted M'Baku. "One more word, and I will feed you to my children." A silence fell upon the room and Grace was filled with disgust. He had to be making a joke. And apparently, he was.
"I'm kidding. We are vegetarians." He laughed loudly. Grace blew out her air. Nakia stepped forward.
"Great Gorilla M'Baku... this is why we are here." She landed on one knee and opened her folded hands, to reveal the Heart-Shaped Herb. "To offer this to you. An outsider sits on our throne. Only you can help us stop him."
But M'Baku shook his head.
"Come with me."

- - -

He leaded them higher into the mountains and have Grace another layer of clothing, because her teeth were clapping so loud that he was complaining about hearing damage.
It was colder and darker here. M'Baku escorted them into something that looked like some kind of temple, but open and simple.
Ramonda gasped, tears filling her eyes. "Impossible!" Just like Shuri, Nakia and Grace she dropped onto her knees next to a frozen T'Challa. Laying in ice.
"Is he breathing?" she asked and Grace checked it immediately, the doctor in her had been awoken by this situation.
"He's in a coma. Barely clinging to life. One of our fishermen found him at the edge of the river border. He brought him to me," told M'Baku.
"Why do you have him in the snow?" asked Nakia and Grace swallowed when she analysed T'Challa's situation.
"It is the only thing keeping him from joining the ancestors."
Shuri spoke up. "We need to get him to my lab. I can heal him there." She looked at Grace an they both thought about the same thing - Bucky.
He was in the same situation- sort of.
"Take him. He'll be dead in seconds," said M'Baku sarcastic.
"Grace?" asked Nakia, wanting to know if the Gorilla spoke the truth. Grace looked at T'Challa again and nodded.
"He's right," she said. "See it as a... as a cryo. He's in a frozen state, so everything is stopped to a hold. It keeps him alive. But I don't have any medical things with me, I don't even know what I could possibly do to wake him healthy."
Everyone nodded and M'Baku smiled, like he was satisfied with her knowledge.
"Nakia, the Herb," said Ramonda, remembering. She closed her eyes and laid her head in her neck, praying.
"I call upon the ancestors. I call upon Bast. I am here with my son, T'Challa. Heal him." Then she opened her eyes, fire filled the black depths. "We must bury him. Cover him. Cover him!"
With numb fingers of the cold and tension, they all started to move the ice over the sleeping King. Grace's teeth clapped uncontrollably and she wished this would work. She had no idea.
"Praise the ancestors. Praise the ancestors. Praise the ancestors. Praise the ancestors," mumbled Ramonda and Shuri in Xhosa, as Ross just watched the woman. Softly Grace started to mumble to same, cracked and with an heavy accent. But she tried, at least. Shuri grabbed her hand and squeezed thankful.
Nakia bowed over to T'Challa, whispering in his ear: "Wake up, T'Challa. Wake up."

- - -

They were all very surprised and relieved when T'Challa woke up. It was a true miracle in Grace's eyes and she wished that Bucky was here to see the same.
Right now everyone was talking in the throne room, making a plan to take back Wakanda.
Everyone agreed with the fact that Grace would lead at the medical wing during the fight. They trusted her the most right now when it came to the wounded and the sick.
She felt honoured and listened to their plans. It was a good plan. Grace was sure Steve and Bucky would've agreed with this.
Ross talked and talked, he seemed to be accepted, too, by the Wakandan and Jabari people.
He knew more than Grace expected and they locked eyes for a moment. She nodded to him - and she knew that everything between them was forgiven.
Right now Grace was so busy she had no room in her head for something else than taking care of the wounded warriors.
"Bandages!" she yelled in the great fuss. Hell, she had never seen so much disoriented nurses. Everything she needed was not at the place she expected. She pushed a group of nurses aside. "I need bandages!"
Someone threw them at her, and luckily and rarely, she was able to catch them - if you knew Grace well, you knew that she is a terrible catcher.
She ran back to the Dora that she had dragged inside. Grace had seen her, ran up the battlefield. It was dangerous, but she didn't care. The more wounded people she could get away, the better. And if people didn't bring them, she would get them herself.
"You okay?" asked Grace out of breath when she started to clean the dirty wound on her leg.
The Dora grunted in pain. "I don't like joking doctors right now."
"It was a serious question!" Grace bounded her leg and swiped away the sweat that was pearling upon her forehead. Her hands were dirty of the grass and earth that she had been removing, and blood. So much blood.
"I have to go," said Grace when another wounded man crawled inside. "Stay here unless you feel needed outside."
Grace ran and treated, so many and much that she didn't even notice that the battle was over, and peace returned to Wakanda.