Chapter 6 – A Peculiar Disciple (2)

The man was still asleep after Zhao Xi finished with her own supper, so she simply weighed down the pot’s cover with a few rocks, just in case some of the neighborhood stray cats were attracted with the scent of the fish soup. She then proceeded to her last task for the night: preparing medicine for her patient. Considering how she barely had money for simple things like food, going to the nearest town to buy modern medicine was out of the question.

She walked to the back of the house with the stool. She laid it down on the soft soil, and sat on it as she waited for the tell-tale sound of snakes slithering through the grass. Zhao Xi often used venoms and other poisons for many of her concoctions, and snakes were one of her more common sources as they were all too common in the area.

As such, she had developed a sort of pattern, a dance of death with the snakes. She would catch one, alive, and then extract the deadly liquid from its fangs without killing it. As intelligent creatures, they would come back after several days, when it had produced enough of their poison to kill a creature. In this case, it would be Zhao Xi.

But these creatures, if anything, were predictable. They almost always took the same number of days and hourse to return as it sough revenge, and they certainly took the same path: through the fields behind the house and into the back door, hoping to catch Zhao Xi unawares. This was something she could count on to happen, like the rising and setting of the sun.

Still, snake bites were painful. While she had antidoes at the ready inside the house, there was no reason for her to be careful. So, she sat on her chair, breathing controlled so she could hear more clearly. It was the only way Zhao Xi could detect them in the dark. She never brought a torch, lantern, or even a candle with her when snake-hunting, as the light would ony scare away the serpents.

It was part of the laborious training under her master. Animals were even better than plants as sources of the various substances needed in concocting cures, elixirs, and poisons. Instead of actively seeking them, one would be better off luring them in traps using food or mating calls. Zhao Xi would spend entire afternoons listening to these creatures and deciphering their meaning. With that knowledge, it became easier, not just to imitate them, but to know which intonation or inflection is appropriate for a particular situation.

The snakes, for example, make for noisy attackers: some would hiss noisily, some would lift their heads high into the sky, while some would even rattle their tails as a prelude to its attack. Thus, Zhao Xi was perplexed as she in the dark—there was absolutely nothing that her ears could pick up. Was the ground tonight too muddy? Did certain beasts come in to drive them off?

After an hour’s wait, she shrugged and stood up, stool in hand. Tomorrow’s another day, thought Zhao Xi as she walked back into the house. She froze. It was the sound of a teacup shattering, possibly against the house’s earthen floor. Oh dear, she thought, he must have knocked it off the table since I didn’t leave a candle in his room.

Lantern in hand, she entered the house’s sole bedroom only to find that there was a snake on the bed, mere inches from the man who’s eyes were wide open with terror. It took Zhao Xi a split-second to understand: unable to get out off the bed, much less run away, the man threw the teacup at the serpent in desperation. Speaking of the creature, it was not the one she was expecting. This one had the patterns of a species known for its near-instantaneous venom. More importantly, it was huge.

And it was now raising itself in preparation for a strike.

With speed more at home with a fearsome warrior than some healer hiding in a dirty hut in the countryside, Zhao Xi took two huge strides and grabbed its neck, preventing it from biting her as well as moving to bit anyone else. The rest of its body flapped noisily in struggle, but it was all over.

Without another thought for the man on her bed, she walked to her table full of tools and extracted the snake’s precious poison. Suddenly, Zhao Xi remembered something. Snake gall. It was the essential ingredient for many potions, including one which knit broken bones. For this reason, snake galls were much sought-after.

But the healer remembered another part of her training: not to take the life of any creature unless absolutely necessary.

She did not relish taking the life of the snake, especially this one which did the dance with her for quite a few times now. Yet, without its gall, Zhao Xi could not hope to fully heal the man’s bones.

She took a good look at the man again, and she shivered at his beauty. The decision came quite easily for her now.

I am sorry, my friend, said Zhao Xi to the snake in silence.