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3: Ailing in Darkness

"We won't abandon them," Cantaze insisted. "Close Cassime if you must, but we can't just leave them to die. One death is more than enough."

"That won't work," Perru said. "They'll kick us out. I know it."

"I don't know if they'll even find us here," Atakiru said. "They think everyone's left on pre-exam holiday. I don't know if they'll even run exams this year, with what I've been hearing from some."

While Alia administered a small green tablet to Cayssi, who had been vomiting for most of the day, she saw Miwese sitting up in bed out of the corner of her eye. Miwese was speaking softly to Nessha, who seemed restless in her ailment.

"Relax, feel the cares melting away," Miwese said to Nessha, who looked quite a bit better in the meditation help Miwese was offering. Miwese's voice was weak, and Atakiru presented her with a cool glass of water.

"Drink this," she offered, and Miwese nodded her approval. Atakiru placed the glass on the table near one of the infirmary beds, where it waited for Miwese.

Kowero was sleeping, but seemed to be fussing about in whatever odd dream he was having. Alia placed a cool cloth on his forehead and he settled almost at once.

Cakatu seemed the most calm out of all of the Delerium casualties. He was reading the book he'd checked out of the Academy's library a few days ago. While he'd lost his voice from the symptoms of the disease, Cakatu still would show his peers some of the things within the book.

It was when he frantically pointed at one of the pages that they were really interested. The page held a picture of a brilliantly white flower, shaped like a sunburst.

"Look at this," Alia said to Atakiru, capturing the attention of Liao and Miatiwa who were standing nearby. "It's a page on the Delerium."

"What's the flower do? Does it really shine like that?" Miatiwa asked eagerly.

"Apparently," Liao cut in. "Listen... 'The Daybreak Shoot. A shining white flower found only on the Celestial Soul's Peak... and the only known cure for the Abyss Delerium'!"

"You mean after the nurses here thought there was no cure, it was in a book? IN THE LIBRARY?" Miatiwa groaned.

Meanwhile, the rest of class 15-H had arrived in curiosity for what was going on. "It says you have to mix it with several pure substances," Miatiwa observed. "These are all in the lab! I've used them sometimes, like in those purple fireballs I made!"

"Then we need to gather some Daybreak Shoots," proposed Cantaze. "I will go to the peak."

Liao nodded. "I will go, for their sake," he said, motioning toward the ill feline anthros.

"I'll come, too." Theral agreed, joining the small group that was now at the doors.

Amarsi sniffed. "I'll go. Just to make sure they don't do anything stupid."

"Are you insane?" Perru cried. "You'll get yourself killed!"

"Perru, you great fat stormcloud," Theral chuckled.

"This is for the good of everyone. If we return with the Daybreak Shoot, we can also cure anyone who catches it in the next little while." Liao said, turning toward the doors.

"Get your coats, guys," Amarsi ordered. "We'll be back by noon tomorrow, if we're lucky."

"Good luck," Alia wished.

Siowa hugged Theral tightly before he left, making the orange-yellow feline anthro blush beneath his sunny-coloured fur.

Amarsi ordered them around until they were scaling the mountain itself. "Why do these things always have to be on mountain peaks?" she grumbled as she clambered over large rocks.

"We're lucky it's summer, so the snow isn't heavy, and we're also two-thirds of the way up the mountain," Cantaze replied over the wind. "We will make it through this."

"Just keep singing!" Theral trilled in his strange falsetto. "We'll be at the peak before dawn!"

"We should, if we're lucky." Liao repeated mostly what Amarsi had said just an hour before. The darkness was beginning to lift, into the odd light of just after midnight.

As they pressed on in the darkness, the four feline anthros became frozen by the winds which, even in summer, pierced them with cold. Luckily for them, Amarsi had the sense to go after their winter gear first - otherwise, that was how they would have found them the next day: frozen solid like ice.

Cantaze shivered as he walked, and though his determined spirit kept him walking, he didn't know how long his body would hold out before it faltered. More importantly, though, was how long his peers would hold out with their potentially fatal disease. Every time he thought that, he got an extra boost from his mind.

As dawn broke, the anthros finally saw the pathway rise up to meet them. Their feet fell in a thin layer of frost as their breathing became more difficult in the thin air, and they knew they'd reached it by the sudden glow of shining white flowers.

"We've reached the peak!" declared Cantaze, and everyone got a surge of hope in their minds. They would make it. They'd make it, or they'd never forgive themselves.