Dreamers- A Merome, Pooflan, Wroetostar and Minizerk Story

⋖Chapter 4⋗

Harry's P.O.V.

I had been alone for a long time, a year or more, when I first met Vikk. He was tiny, emaciated and starving to death when I stumbled across him, curled up by a river a possibly hours from dying. I had no regrets in my decision to save him, nursing him back to health in my tiny shelter made for one, and three years on I was so glad I had done that. He was my best friend and my brother, and I loved him with all my heart.

He was permanently stunted from the years of starvation and often couldn't do physical labour because of rickets, a bone disease because of a lack of vitamins as a young infant. I was unsure why he specifically had been afflicted with this disease and I and many other hadn't, we had all starved as children. I didn't mind, I could do most things myself and he was quite happy to the more menial tasks that I hated to entertain himself when he was wracked with pain.

We were young, only just 20, but we had a lot of experiences that we probably shouldn't have had. Vikk had watched his entire family starve to death around him, only surviving by pure luck, and couldn't talk about it because of the trauma associated with it and I had seen much the same thing, with my friends and small community we had formed. In the end me and a couple of others had left the group and they had died from water poisoning, leaving me on my own at 16 or 17. I had wandered alone for just over a year before I found Vikk, and saved him.

I flopped down beside said boy as he flicked the shell to some tree nuts across the ground. He winced when he moved his arm and I sighed, smiling sympathetically and taking everything from him- he would work himself to the point of passing out if I didn't stop him, and if he was hurting then he needed to take breaks often.

"Come on Vikk, take a break. I know you aren't feeling well." He sighed but didn't fight me when I put everything away, knowing that it was good for him. I scooped him up in my arms and carried him back to our little shelter which was pretty easy considering he was 4 or 5 inches shorter than me and a lot lighter too, despite eating more.

"Thanks Harry." He mumbled, settling back on a cushion of pine needles, his eyes closing within moments. He was exhausted, and just needed some time to rest.

Outside I sat down on the small embankment that protected our shelter from flooding, dangling my legs. I didn't regret ever saving the boy, he had undoubtedly saved my life and sanity, but his illnesses were getting... not worse, but they weren't improving, despite better conditions and more food. I was worried that he would get even worse and die, leaving me alone once again.

Death was common, of course it was, we had illness and disease, starvation and water poisoning which we didn't have a name for, things like rickets from childhood starvation, and, the scariest thing, the unknown disease that killed a lot of people. There was no explanation, seemingly no reason, but people simply got ill, lost a lot of weight, their hair fell out, and they died. It scared us and Vikk may have been more vulnerable to it than others because of his condition. I worried for him because if he died, then I knew I would follow not long after. I simply couldn't live without him.

A wave of nausea shook me and I closed my eyes. This was becoming more common but I put it down to my excessive worrying about Vikk and about our future. I was in good health, it wasn't going to be anything serious so there was no point in worrying about something like would likely lead to nothing.

I only sighed and buried my head in my hands, closing my eyes. What could I do?

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Vikk was feeling a little better the next morning, but the dew that covered the forest the next morning was worrying because of his health. Winter was the most dangerous time for us as the cold weather made us more susceptible to illness and disease. I just had to make sure that Vikk kept warm, stayed out of the rain and didn't injure himself, and hopefully this next season would be okay.

With gentle motions I massaged Vikk's shoulders, hoping it would ease some of the pain he was in. The skeletal deformities, stunted growth and pain were all apart of his disease and I did my best to soothe it with massages and warm water, but it almost never helped. He was still in a lot of pain, and I had to watch as he suffered.

My main concern, other than Vikk's health, was food for the winter. We didn't farm other than the naturally growing fruit and nuts trees around what we called our home and the occasional plant growing wild, and we weren't able to farm animals either. All we would have for the cooler season was the dried fruit and nuts Vikk had spent so long preparing and some dried rabbit and squirrel. It wouldn't be enough to pull us through.

I hated leaving Vikk alone, but I had to do it. I spent days wandering the forest, hunting small animals in hopes that we would have enough. There were barely going to be enough time to dry it but by the first frost we had some more security in feeling that we would make it through the cold.

"Harry?" Vikk asked, looking up from where he was picking at the shells of hazelnuts.

"Yeah?" I thought I already knew though, his face was pinched and he was barely able to move his shoulders. "Come 'ere, it bad?"

"Mm, real bad." He mumbled, wincing.

"Alright, rest time." I whispered, taking everything from his hands. He pouted and opened his mouth to complain, what he was doing was probably to distract himself from the pain, but I shook my head. "Don't make it any worse."

I didn't even have to take him into the hut before he fell asleep, his head dipping to fall against my shoulder. I smiled and decided to take the time to rest and let him lie there, occasionally reaching over to run a hand through his hair. God, I worried about the boy so much.

Leaning back I closed my eyes, a hand resting gently on Vikk's waist.

I wasn't looking forward to the coming months.