I felt my stomach twist. It was a terrible fate; he borrowed gold from some men, to try and cure his wife and daughter. But it was not enough. And when he could not pay them back, he was sold off to slavery.
This seemed like a similar situation; maybe I could help. Prevent something like that from happening. But the kid could be lying!
I took a deep breath. I waited for the boy’s crying to stop. Until he was sniffling, and wiping his nose.
"Fine. I’ll give you some money," I said. His head snapped up, but I spoke over him. "However, you have to prove it first."
"Prove it?" He closed and opened his eyes in rapid succession.
"Yes. I’m not going to just give it to you. Bring me to your orphanage, and bring the Plague Doctor there. Then I’ll pay him— only if he really can heal the Noxeus."
The boy hesitated. "But…"
"Is something wrong?" I asked. "Why can’t you bring me to your orphanage?"
"No, I’m just…" his voice wandered off. Then he straightened. "There’s nothing wrong. I’ll bring you there. And prove to you that you’re an idiot for thinking that I’m lying!"
His eyes flashed; he looked at me, resolute. I nodded for a moment.
Then I snapped.
"I said stop calling me an idiot, idiot!"
Chapter 5: The Plague Doctor
"See? I told you I was telling the truth. Stup—"
Jay clamped his mouth shut as I shot a glare in his direction.
Jay. That was the boy’s name. The little thief who took my coin pouch. He told me it on the way to his orphanage.
On the way here, he made me promise not to tell anyone about him trying to steal from me; that was why he showed apprehension on bringing me here. Apparently he was quite the troublemaker— which somehow, I was not surprised by at all.
And now, we stood right outside of the building; it was not small or run-down. In fact, it was fairly large compared to a house for a regular family. Which made sense: Jay had a dozen other ‘siblings’, so the orphanage had to have been sizable enough for all of them to live in.
"You haven’t shown me anything," I muttered. "This is just a building."
"Well if you still don’t believe me—"
"Shut up, I believe you now, ok? Just… let’s go inside." I said, and took off in a huff.
We entered through the small gate, following the walkway up to the front door; Jay opened it, and I entered after him.
As soon as I did, I covered my ears as a piercing wail cut through the room; I flinched, and nearly drew my dagger as a reflex but managed to catch myself.
I looked back up, and was met with a scene straight from a movie. A little girl, around four years of age, was crying and grasping at a stuffed animal. Not a teddy bear, but a… mole?
Whatever it was, it appeared to be damaged. And that was why she was crying. A teenage boy— no more than fifteen— hastily ran up to a little girl and began trying to calm her down. She pointed at a younger boy scowling to the side, and began babbling incomprehensibly.
"Calm down, calm— he did what?" The teen leaned in, trying to make out what the girl was saying. But it was no use. He recoiled as her crying morphed from nonsensical speech into incoherent screaming.
I turned to Jay. "Uh, is this a bad time?" I asked.
"No," he sighed. "It’s been like this since Ms Sharity got sick."
"Oh," I said, ignoring the incessant shrieking that was only worsened as the other boy began to argue. I honestly felt bad for the teen trying to resolve things diplomatically, but I focused on what I came here for. "So… this Ms Sharity. Where is she?"
"She’s in a room at the back. But I haven’t been allowed to see her or little Patty. Only Eaton gets to check up on her." Jay folded his arms, scowling. "I don’t understand why I can’t see her but he can. It’s unfair!"
"Well, you’ve got to maintain your distance. Because… you know?"
He obviously did not know; there was no way a random village boy would understand the concept behind germs, especially in a world with a different history of science as mine. Perhaps someone— whatever the equivalent of a scientist was in this world— would posit something similar to my understanding about the spread of disease. But it certainly would not have been pervasive enough to have reached Jay: a kid without much of an educational background.
So, he gave me a blank stare as I tried to change the subject. "Anyways, you’ve got a reason to see her now, right? Just for me to confirm confirm that she’s actually sick and you’re not lying."
That sounded a lot better in my head than it actually did. Jay’s stare turned into a glare, and I quickly tried to backtrack.
"Wait— I didn’t mean it like that! I don’t want her to be sick! If she is, I’ll have to pay the Plague Doctor for you, and that’s bad for me!" I tried to explain myself to him. The shouting in the background slowly died down, but his gaze remained locked on me. "That’s not what I mean... I’ll just shut up now."
"You really should."
Sighing, I focused my attention on the approaching figure. Apparently the teenage boy managed to reach a resolution between the two parties, since they were both heading out the door to the outside. He addressed Jay standing right next to me.
"Why do you never show up when I need your help?" he asked. "Where have you been? Who’s this?"
Jay scowled. "You never ask Hannah these types of questions, Eaton. Why must you know where I’ve
