While everyone ate porridge and the two donkeys frolicked together one last time, Kibi took Ilika aside. “Noni has pitched in way more than her share of the food. I think we should give her a nice gift. Maybe . . . a great silver?”
“Good idea,” Ilika said. “And I know who would love to present it to her.”
“Yeah!”
They returned to the breakfast circle, and Ilika dug out the coin. “Noni, we have a little gift for you, and I’m going to pass it around so each of us can make a wish on it. Buna, you’re last.”
He kept the shiny coin cupped in his hand so Noni couldn’t see it, closed his eyes for a moment, then passed it to Mati. Each person who received it looked to see what it was, but kept it hidden. Noni squirmed with curiosity.
Finally Buna made her wish with a big grin on her face, and handed the large coin to the shepherdess.
“Wow! I’ve never even touched one of these before!”
Toli suddenly looked very smug and started to pull something out of his money pouch, but Buna stopped him with a hand on his arm and a dirty look.
Noni didn’t notice.
“Thank you! You guys are so sweet. I’m going to keep it for something important.”
All the girls shared farewell hugs with the shepherdess. The boys hugged Bo and waved good-bye. Mati hugged Ri, the second donkey she had ever known, and now the best friend of her own donkey.
NEBADOR BookTwo: Journey 76
Noni turned to get her wagon ready for the trail, not bothering to wipe the tears from her eyes.
Ilika helped Mati mount, and everyone else grabbed their saddlebags and bedrolls. Boro and Sata led the group southward.
Buna repeatedly turned around to glance back at Noni and her wagon, but they soon crested a slight rise. She didn’t bother to wipe her tears either.
The wagon road wound its way south and west over the grassy hilltops for several miles, each hill a little lower than the one before. About mid-day, they sat on the last hill eating lunch and looking down into the huge green valley spread out before them. It contained not one, but two rivers that met on their way to the sea.
But the valley also contained something none of the students had ever seen. White plumes rose straight up from the ground at several points on the edge of the valley.
“What’s the smoke from?” Neti wondered aloud.
Ilika got out the map. “I didn’t know we’d find geothermal activity! Ah, yes, I see some symbols for springs on the map. That’s not smoke, Neti, it’s hot water.”
“You mean . . . we could take a bath?”
“Maybe. Sometimes geothermal activity is just steam vents, like we can see here. But there might also be pools of wonderful hot mineral water at just the right temperature.”
“Where does it come from . . . the Underworld?” Sata asked with a tinge of fear in her voice.
“Time for a little geology,” Ilika said. “Think back to our very first astronomy lesson. Imagine our rocky planet sliced open like an apple. The
skin of the apple is the crust of the planet, all the rocks we can see. The rocks of the crust are always moving around slowly because of heat and gravity. Big blocks of crust slowly crack, smash together, pull apart, or slide past each other. Sometimes the rocks melt and spew out of a volcano.”
Miko shrugged. “Never heard of that.”
“There aren’t any in your kingdom. But sometimes, like here, pockets of hot rock heat up the water deep underground, boil it into steam, and it heads for the surface through any cracks it can find.”
Although they all looked forward to hot baths, they agreed it wasn’t important enough to walk the entire huge valley, so they selected a plume to the southeast that wasn’t too far off their path.
Ilika took questions as they left the road and worked their way down the hillside toward the mysterious white column of vapor. Tera gave her two-toned call of happiness as they entered the shade of the forest on the edge of the valley.
“Phew! What’s that rotten smell?” Toli asked, nose shriveled.
“Those are sulfur compounds, mostly hydrogen sulfide. They often come with geothermal activity. Many different minerals get dissolved by the rising hot water or steam.”
“I can see something!” Mati announced from her elevated viewpoint. “A clearing . . . and the dirt is white . . . and yellow . . . and pink . . . and I don’t know what else!”
A few minutes later, the entire group stood gazing around them with awe.
Pools of steaming water began on the hillside more than a hundred feet above, trickled from one pool into the next, and ended near their feet where the water from the lowest pools gathered into a warm stream. Many different pale colors created a rainbow all across the hillside.
“What a rare sight!” Ilika said, smiling. “Several different minerals are showing, and some of the colors are from algae.”
“Algae?” Kibi inquired.
“Little one-celled plants. Some can grow in hot water up to a certain temperature. Notice how the shades of green only start about half way down the terraces? Near the spring at the top, it’s too hot for anything to grow.”
Neti grinned. “So . . . we could pick any temperature we want!”
“Are the minerals . . . poisonous?” Sata asked with a deep frown.
“No, not in the trace amounts in the water. I’ll do a chemistry lesson when we get settled.”
Almost everyone turned their attention to selecting a campsite. Miko started walking toward the hissing sound about a hundred yards farther east.
“I’m gonna look at the steam thing.”
“Steam is very hot!” Ilika warned.
“I know,” Miko said without pausing or turning around.
Deep Learning Notes
Rituals usually make painful transitions easier. One common ritual of parting is gift giving. Can you spot any other rituals that took place on the group’s last morning with Noni?
A map shows the large valley south of the hills where the group met Shepherdess Noni.
The steam vents they discovered on the edge of the valley are called fumaroles, and occur when the amount of ground water reaching super-heated rock is small compared to the size of the opening to the surface.
What water there is flashes into steam and remains in the gaseous state until cooled sufficiently by the air.
The hot springs, however, have a large amount of water compared to the opening, and that water is being heated to less than the boiling point, or the water circulates enough to avoid large amounts of steam.
NEBADOR BookTwo: Journey 79
Chapter 16: The Gaseous State of Water At the base of the steam vent, guarding a small dark opening, strangely-shaped rocks clustered near the ground. The white vapor plume started about ten feet higher up and sliced its way into the sky until dispersed by the wind. Between the rocks and the plume, there seemed to be nothing but air.
Mati guided Tera toward a grassy area somewhat downhill from the hot spring terraces.
Ilika set down his bags near Kibi’s, and just as he looked up, saw Miko put his hand into the empty space between the rocks and the white plume. “No!
Mik . . .”
Miko’s blood-curdling scream cut off all other sound. He fell to the ground and held his right hand out as if it burned with fire.
“Miko!” Neti screamed and ran toward him.
Ilika dashed, and others came close behind.
When Neti landed on her knees at Miko’s side, he was screaming with pain and his right hand was rapidly turning bright red.
Ilika was there a moment later. “Don’t touch his hand! Don’t let him hit it on anything!”
Miko started shaking his right hand to be free of it, but Neti grabbed his
arm. Blisters rapidly formed on the palm.
“Boro, help me carry him. Kibi, his bedroll, in the shade. Neti, keep that hand safe. Rini, a pot of cold water, quickly.”
Kibi dashed away. Ilika and Boro got on both sides of Miko to carry him, now crying like a baby, but every few seconds screaming in pain.
“Clasp arms behind his back and under his knees. One, two, three, lift!”
They moved their patient, trembling and screaming, slowly back toward the terraces. Several others went to help Kibi make a comfortable place. Mati quickly dismounted and tied Tera to a tree.
As Miko was lowered onto his bed, Rini dashed back from the nearest cold stream. Ilika quickly guided the shaking hand into the sloshing pot of water.
Miko soon quit screaming, but his crying and sweating continued.
“Buna, a cup of cold water. Kibi, find that really soft ointment. Boro, you’re on duty here with Neti. You must keep him from damaging those blisters. Nothing else matters. Sit on him, if you have to.”
Boro
nodded.
“Mati, a damp cloth for his head. Sata, will you plan a soup or stew?
You’ll have helpers free in a few minutes. Berries, too. Sour ones, if possible.”
“Kibi, can you come?” Sata asked. “I don’t know that much about wild foods. Buna and Rini too.”
Kibi located and delivered the ointment, then left to join the foraging team.
“Neti, he’s almost settled down enough to take spoonfuls of water. Go slowly.”
“We need to change his clothes,” she said, her nose shriveled.
“I know, I can smell it. That much pain can make the body lose control of things. But we need to get him out of danger before we can deal with it.”
Toli edged near. “Um . . . what can I do?”
“Take off Miko’s boots, put some folded cloaks under his legs, and massage his feet.”
Toli opened his mouth, but no words came out. Slowly, with a slight frown, he did what Ilika asked.
By evening, Miko had gained enough presence of mind to be ashamed of
what he had done, ashamed of his complete dependence on others, and ashamed of the odor coming from his body.
He had taken some water, and was bravely sucking on sour berries. Each one made him shudder.
“Why sour, Ilika?” Sata asked as she stirred the hearty soup simmering in the bronze pot.
“The biggest thing we have to worry about now is infection.”
Their faces were blank.
“Microbiology lesson tomorrow, but sour means acid. Remember the hydrogen ion? It kills, or at least slows down, the little bugs that cause infection. That’s also why we have to keep those blisters from tearing. If they get torn, microbes would get in, and that kind of infection would be very hard to fight.”
“How long do I need to keep my hand from touching anything?” Miko asked.
“Two or three weeks.”
“I can do that, now that it doesn’t hurt so bad. For a while I wanted to chop it off, but Neti and Boro wouldn’t let me.”
They both smiled.
Ilika said, “I know you’ll be okay while you’re awake and thinking about it.
What I’m worried about is at night when you’re asleep.”
An anxious look appeared on Neti’s face.
“I want to take a bath and change clothes,” Miko declared.
Boro helped him stand up, and Neti got out fresh clothes. Ilika showed them how to splash water from a nearby pool, but not let the mess get into the pools or streams. Miko required Boro’s strong arms for the entire bath. Neti did the splashing, then helped Miko dress.
As they settled down to dinner, Ilika thanked those who had found wild foods for the stew. “And I want to thank you, Miko, for creating a situation very much like a real emergency on a ship. I’m sorry you had to pay so high a price, but it was good for all of us. In an emergency, the commander doesn’t have time to say ‘please’ and ‘thank you,’ or explain things. You all took it very well.”
Many sparkling eyes met his.
“Miko came very close to going into shock, but we managed to avoid it.
Shock is when the body thinks it is dying, gets very confused, and starts doing things on its own that don’t help. Losing the bowels is pretty minor. The worst is when the heart slows down, the blood pressure drops, and eventually the heart stops. Toli helped avoid that by elevating and massaging Miko’s feet.”
Toli’s smile was mixed with a little guilt.
“I trust that no one else is going to stick their hand, or any other part of their body, into the steam vent. There is a big lesson here I want you all to learn. Either that, or go back to the slave compound where it’s safer.”
After a long silence, Buna mumbled, “Ilika’s angry.”
“Yes, I am. There are a million things out there that can kill you, and about half of them are invisible. If you’re going to stick your body parts into them just to see what will happen, even after I’ve warned you about them, then you won’t live long, and you certainly can’t work on my ship. I’m going to be watching to see if Miko learned this lesson well, and if everyone else learned the lesson he paid for.”
Silence stretched for several minutes as bowls were refilled and those who had not yet eaten were served. Miko didn’t take his eyes from his stew.
“Um . . .” Rini began tentatively, “what do we do if Miko gets an . . .
infection?”
“Good question,” Ilika said. “Port Town is closer, but we don’t know if it has a good healer. From what I’ve seen, Doti would be our best chance. But without antibiotics, even she can only do so much.”
“Anti . . . biotics?” Neti questioned.
“Medicines that fight infections directly.”
“And if she can’t help?”
“We’d do everything we could to help Miko’s body fight the infection.
Sometimes a person can be saved by cutting off the body part that’s infected.”
Miko’s face suddenly shriveled up like a prune.
Before bed, Ilika coated Miko’s blistered hand with ointment, then wrapped it loosely in their cleanest cloth. He set his bracelet to chime every hour, and they took turns all night long tending the fire and watching over
their injured friend.
Deep Learning Notes
One of the handiest lists to remember in a medical emergency is The Five B’s: Beat, Breath, Blood, Bones, Burns. The order of these is very important. A heartbeat is the first priority, followed closely by breathing.
Cardio-pulmonary resuscitation (CPR) deals with both. Next comes loss of blood (external bleeding) and broken bones. Finally, burns must be quickly protected.
In Miko’s case, Ilika saw that the first four B’s were not immediate dangers, so he jumped to Burns to protect the hand. However, because of the extreme pain Miko experienced, shock was a danger, which can affect both heartbeat and breathing if not treated soon.
As Ilika explained, any sour (acidic) food helps to fight infection. The best, of course, is ascorbic acid (vitamin C).
One of the basic techniques of avoiding pollution is to keep the pollutant in a part of the environment where it can harmlessly degrade. The mess in Miko’s pants, caused by him going into shock, would be quickly made harmless by microbes when placed, as Ilika instructed, on the dirt. If washed off into a pool or stream, it might end up in the drinking water of a farm downstream.
