10.3

Seven times during the night Nasch vomited. Krina washed him, and forced him to drink the spring's water. The spring night was warm and heavy with moisture. The acolyte slept beneath a blanket at the far edge of the grove, beyond the small circle of torchlight. The druid Jinkash returned near dawn, while Aytheur still knelt motionless next to Nasch. Nerith had to explain their presence, but the druid paid him little attention. He muttered something about the Fusp being to stupid to accept the inevitable and retreated to cabin with glass windows just outside the grove.

The next day dawned cloudy and bleak. Tyish brought the Kliet food and tents, explaining it was likely to rain. The grove didn't really become light, even at noon, because the clouds grew steadily darker. The orc-healer never stirred, though Nasch became increasingly fevered and fitful.
“What do we do about them,” Nerith asked aloud, “when it rains?”
“We should put a tent over them,” Krina said.
Tyisch said “You can't – these tents have iron buckles.”
“We can't let him lay there when it rains.”
“Maybe we should,” Nerith suggested, “the orc-elf said he needed to be on the ground, outside.”
A thin mist-like rain descended on the forest as they argued. Krina eventually charged them both to bring the tent inside and set it up, but the acolyte saw what they were doing. He stopped them, saying they could not contaminate the grove with metal that had been smelted.*

But Krina persisted, so as the mist turned to drizzle, they removed all the metal fasteners and buckles from the tent. The weather gradually worsened while they worked. Soon Nerith, Krina and Tyisch were soaked, along with the acolyte and the two young Kliet guards. They finally erected a crude but kosher cover over the healer and his patient as the rain became a downpour and settled in to give the world a good soaking.
As soon as they were under cover, Nerith set to arguing with the acolyte for permission to build a fire and warm up. “Though expedient, it would not be permissible,” the druid's assistance insisted.

They were interrupted by Aytheur, who suddenly woke from his trance. He spoke angrily, but his tongue was thick from long disuse, and did not respond intelligibly. He stumbled a bit as he got up, and then further diminished the goblins' opinion of him by bumping his head on the cloth ceiling. This threatened to bring the ramshackle structure down on the group, and had Nerith laughing on the muddy ground.
“You can't have this shelter here. You've got to move it, it changes flows.”
“It's called a tent, ancient** fool. It keep the rain off,” Nerith said.
“I can't help your friend if you don't listen to me,” Aytheur raged.
“He'll die just as surely if you let him freeze in this rain,” Krina said, bitterly. “Your healing has been making him worse, and the chill will surely kill him.”
Tyisch again tried to mediate, “He needs to be kept warm, surely you can sympathize with that? Do the best you can with the magic available, because he'll only get worse if you care only for the wound and not the body.”

Aytheur silently, and perhaps sullenly, accepted this. He returned to Nasch. After he'd settled into the blood-magic trance, Nerith commented, “arse-muncher.”
Aytheur, without moving, replied. “I can still hear you, you should know.”
Nerith was suddenly embarrassed, but Krina added, “Still an arse-muncher,” to general amusement.
Aytheur found himself quite unable to devise a witty retort, and left them with, “Am I going to save this guy's life or should I just leave it to you clowns?” He returned his concentration to the task before they responded.

*To explain: copper and gold both occur regularly in relatively pure forms in nature, so druids consider them natural. Like rocks. Iron and steel do not occur that way, and thus symbolize something distinct from the natural world. Brass and Bronze are excluded for the same reason. Silver and electrum would be acceptable. Druids sometimes take this to an extreme and wear only animal skins.

** [immortal / a synonym of sorts for elf]