Chapter 30
After it placed Hana's head gently on the forest floor, it slithered around her body to check for problems.
[Aha! There was a fish stinger on her palm!] Kuro pulled out the venomous stinger with its mouth, but it made the condition worsened as the blood splattered everywhere and kept on flowing for a while. Kuro was very worried. It didn't know what to do when it noticed the palm swelled bit by bit as its mommy was losing her consciousness.
It went to the stream and sucked in a large amount of water. Slithering back to its mommy's side as fast as possible, it sprayed the water from its mouth towards Hana's injured palm to clean the wound. It then 'kiss' the injured location in attempt to stop the bleeding.
Hana was currently drifting in and out of consciousness as she felt a warm feeling on her injured hand. She opened her heavy lidded lashes to see her beloved little snake trying to treat her using its own means. Her heart felt warm inside as she gradually calmed down. She knew she won't die from this tiny little thing. She did hear about catfishes' ability to sting but had forgotten all about it due to being too excited when reeling in her harvests.
Her head became clearer and she felt so much better gradually. Whatever little Kuro had been doing, it was effective.
Unbeknownst to her, Kuro was actually very poisonous. Its clan was famed for their highly lethal venom in the beast community. n.o.body would willingly offend them if necessary. Although Kuro had left its clan long ago to establish itself on its own, the surrounding beasts still remember and revere the young snake beast's prowess. Some stupid beast ignorantly p.i.s.sed it off and was immediately disposed. Since then, they could only submit to it; stepping back a pace to give it a personal territory for it to play to its heart's content. Hence, to Kuro, the venom of a small una.s.suming fish was just a small white bean thing (1).
While extracting the venom, Kuro inadvertently tasted Hana's blood. As Heaven fated it, the familiar feeling was getting stronger, as the bond between it and Hana consolidated perfectly. Kuro nearly couldn't stop itself as it accidently sucked in a little more without endangering Hana's life. As it understood the properties of the venom and in turn released the counter-antidote into the same puncture wound, it reminded itself to be more careful in taking care of its fragile mistress. The venom was actually not harmful to any of the beasts around; it was super low-leveled. Yet, its mommy couldn't even take it.
The wound automatically closed after a short while after Kuro licked it with its forked tongue. It turned out that Kuro's saliva had healing properties!
Kuro vengefully went to the flopping fish and bit its head off in fury! The top part of the fish was pulverized into meat paste before it spat it into the stream. It tossed the lower part back into the trap hole in disdain. Kuro made a murderous hissing sound and all the fishes in the trap froze in fear. Some even died on the spot due to fear!!
Kuro then fetched out the dead ones with its mouth. None of the surviving fishes dared to move.
Then, it coiled itself beside Hana's head and waited patiently. It placed its head on Hana's cheek
....
Fifteen minutes later, Hana was trying to open her eyes when she was blinded by the sun. She kept on blinking while looking up at the beautiful clouds in the sky. She just realized she was lying face up beside the earthen fish trap she made. She could barely remember a soft hissing 'Twinkle twinkle Little Star' tune beside her ear. Looking at her healed hand, the missing stinger and the dead fishes around, she realized that it was her 'magical' Kuro that helped her once again, as usual. Turning to the side, she realized Kuro was looking at her just beside her head.
She smiled and kissed its presumably 'nose' location. "Thank you, sweetie. I don't know how you heal my hand, but I know it's you."
Kuro swayed to the left and to the right in elation.
Chuckling, Hana sat up and saw a few dead catfishes in various sizes placed in a neat line a few meters away from her. None of them were flopping. She patted Kuro's head and added, "I love you so much Kuro!"
She took a long stick and cautiously prodded the dead fishes before touching them. She had learnt her lesson. One can never be too careful.
Once she confirmed that each one of the fishes were deader than dead, she carefully carried each one to the edge of the stream to wash them and tried to gut it and remove the gills and internal organs using a sharp stone she casually found at the stream. Thank goodness these catfishes didn't have scales. If not, her work would be doubled.
It was real hard work!
The stone was not up to par in sharpness, but Hana persisted until all fishes were cleaned well. She even made three to four diagonal deep gashes into the soft yet firm bodies of the fishes on both sides.
An hour went by just like that.
Kuro patiently waited for Hana at the side, worried that she might collapse again when it stepped out. It was a wonder nothing happened to her when it was not around these couple of times.
When Hana asked its help to find a vine, it happily obliged and returned with a string-like vine just a few minutes later. Hana was speechless but happy with her pet's efficiency. She didn't know it did that because it was reluctant to leave her defenseless even for a short moment.
As usual, she patted Kuro's head lovingly, "Good job sweetie."
She stringed the fishes from their gills to their mouths and tied them on a nearby tree. There was a total of six catfishes; two of them were as big as her s.h.i.+n, while the other four were about the thickness of her fatty arm. The smallest one which had finned her before was gone; Hana looked everywhere and just a.s.sumed Kuro took a bite as a reward for helping her out.
She was so pleased while she hummed a cheerful song under her breath. She had already forgotten her plight just now. What made her happy was the weight of the fishes. They were heavier than two fat whole chickens! It meant that the fishes were probably more than five kilograms even after they were being cleaned!
Such fat fishes! Organic to boot!
Organic well-fed catfishes were all the rage now. Even the normal ones were around RM7/kg! So expensive! For a kilo, one could get about three tiny catfishes, where the restaurants will charge about RM5 each. b.l.o.o.d.y strangler! (2)
Hana knew she had hit the jackpot as of now. She happily scored some more bamboos with her chisel to ferry them home in her other shopping bag. Surprisingly wasn't that tiring today.
After she filled her bag with a few empty bamboo canisters, she bundled up the longer ones and tied them using the leftover vines Kuro gave her before. These bamboos were as long as four segments each.
"Urghhhhhhhh! Urghhhhh! Urghhhhhh!" The not-so-cute aunty dragged the tied bamboos with one hand on the uneven ground while making laborious breathing. The little snake was following her worriedly at her back three paces away. Tiny creatures, fowls and birds were scurrying away from her clumsy intrusion. As usual this aunty made quite a scene.
Hana was already on her way back. She dragged the bamboos with her left hand while bringing along two bagful of bamboo canisters and fishes on her left and right shoulders. After she placed all the items inside her humble cave, she went out again for a second trip.
This time Hana dug up some more turmeric tubers from the turmeric herb tree cl.u.s.ters she found on the way. The fishes in her possession were a lot; her previous haul was not enough. The turmeric tubers looked like irregular shaped fat hairy yellowish slugs. The size and shape were just like old ginger, only the color, smell and taste were different.
[Huhu, so many turmeric tubers! I can even continue with my beauty regime over here.] She grinned happily thinking since she was going to make a second round, better she helped herself a little bit more. Today was already the weekend. It's her turmeric tea consumption day.
At home, she always uses traditional methods to maintain her beauty. One of the many uses of fresh turmeric was for internal beauty and health. She had a routine of drinking a gla.s.s of soaked raw fresh turmeric in a gla.s.s of warm water weekly (3). It stemmed from her habit after her postpartum treatment (4) from her second childbirth. Hana figured since she had the resources, why not just continue with the practice even though she was trapped over there.
After she fetched two bottles of water from the shallow stream and cleaned her body with a small napkin dipped in the cold water, she went home happily.
....
Author's Notes:
(1) a small white bean thing = [lit. Translation: kacang putih], it's an informal saying which means 'too easy'.
(2) b.l.o.o.d.y strangler = [lit. translation = cekik darah] a malaysian proverb with the meaning "greedy" for charging too expensive a price for something
(3) drinking a gla.s.s of soaked raw fresh turmeric in a gla.s.s of warm water weekly = this is a traditional beauty regime Malay lady used. Can only works when used fresh ones, powdered ones don't work, and you can't drink more than once a week.
(4) postpartum treatment = after childbirth treatment. Over here we have a strict wellness regime for 44 days consisted of hygiene, eating, and wearing.