Marko

Marko walked carefully along the path, which Julia was constantly clearing of snow. Finn held on to his fur sluggishly and limply. His friend felt too warm. He had caught the virus from the children. Finn was still trying to cover up the fever. He wouldn't be able to do this for long. His delicate body grew warmer and warmer.

Marko barked worriedly.

"What is it? Am I too heavy?", joked Finn. He sounded tired.

Marko barked again. No. You're not feeling well. Say something?

Finn sighed. "So that's how heavy I am?" He couldn't hear Marko's thoughts and held on to his joke. Mako didn't know what to do. He couldn't tell Julia that Finn needed a break. Emmie, Mads, and Levi smelled the fever as well. They all had their eyes on Finn. And Julia, too, turned around from time to time. Her gaze was full of concern. Marko made eye contact with her. But Julia didn't understand how bad the situation already was.

"Finn? Is everything okay?", she called out to them. She walked in the front now. Together with Leopold and Josef. The cat now sat on her shoulder like a warm scarf and purred so loudly that Marko could hear it. He was the last to trott behind the group. Emmie and Peyo walked beside him.

"Yes", Finn lied. Marko huffed outraged.

"Fritz!" Emmie shook her head. Fritz walked right in front of them. He turned around with a smile.

"Yes?", asked Julia's eldest brother. "What is it, cutie?"

Emmie wrinkled her nose. She didn't like to be called cutie. Marko would have made fun of it if he could speak out loud. But his concern for Finn spoiled his joking mood. "Finn has a high fever. We can't go any further", Emmie grumbled.

"Oh!" Fritz immediately rushed to Julia to inform her. Shortly after, the group looked for a sheltered spot where they could rest and spend the night. They found a suitable place between tall hedges and trees. Here it was a bit sheltered from the wind. No snow covered the ground. But slightly damp moss.

Levi and Mads wrapped Finn in a warm blanket, while Julia used her magic to build a shelter out of branches, roots, and moss. Before that, she sucked the water out of the moss on the ground so that they had it dry in their hut. Fritz tried to get rid of Finn’s fever, but it was persistent.

"Juli?", he called. In the meantime, he had also adopted the nickname.

"Yes?" Julia had just finished her work, and Emmie, Peyo, Chloe, Benjamin, and Paul brought their mats and blankets into the hut while Leopold tried to light a campfire. Josef was happy to help him. Marko had never seen a cat breathe fire before. Creepy!

He lay next to Finn and watched warm magic seep into Finn's body. Magic that emanated from Fritz's hands. A warm light. Iridescent. "I need some help here. It is the same virus as with children. You got the fever under control, right? At least to some extent. It's hard for me to make any progress here. It seems..." He shook his head worriedly, then pushed up Finn's sleeve. "Oh."

"What?", asked Julia, hurrying to them. Light pink dots adorned Finn's arm. Marko sniffed it skeptically.

"Chickenpox!", announced Fritz. "But..."

"Don't say it's the disease? The one from three years ago?" Julia looked at the dots shocked.

"Yes and no. Another variant, perhaps? I'm at a loss. The fever is aggressive, but... resistant to magic. Just like with the children. But they didn't have any dots. Just fever. Fever that I couldn't take away from them." Fritz sighed. "That's unfortunate. Does anyone feel sick?"

Marko shook his head.

"Maybe it's a... Variant that is specifically harmful to werewolves?" Julia reached out and let her magic flow. Together with Fritz Magie, the dots disappeared and the fever dropped a bit. "We should get Finn inside the hut first."

"Wolfpox!" Emmie poked her head out of the hut. "Finn? Have you ever had wolfpox? It's like chickenpox, only nastier."

Finn shook his head. "No. Just chickenpox." Marko snorted in relief. Wolfpox. A werewolf that had contracted chickenpox could also contract wolfpox. The course was similar. People, if they had chickenpox before, could become infected when they were young. And only then. They developed a very high fever for one to three days. In rare cases, it led to death. In very rare cases, when no one treated the fever. Paul's children had been out of danger since Julia had taken care of it. For wolves, wolfpox was fatal in half of all cases, unless the disease was detected early. Certain rare herbs, or the magic of the healers, were needed to fight the virus. And they had two healers here.

"Wolfpox?" Fritz frowned. "I haven't heard of that."

"Wolfpox is rare because it is contagious only in a short window of time. And you had to have been infected with chickenpox beforehand. Otherwise, the disease won't break out", Emmie explained. "Paul probably got infected by a wolf. But he's a grown-up. Unlike his children. They got sick and infected Finn. I also had wolfpox once. Once you've had it, you're immune. Mads is also immune. I infected him at the time."

"You wanted to kiss me!" Mads shouted from the hut. Emmie happily stuck her tongue out at him. "Yes! To annoy you. With success!"

"Thanks to you, I had a fever for a week, stupid cow!"

"I love you too!" Emmie shook her head. "Finn? You should have said something! What if none of us had noticed, huh? You could have died, silly."

"Hm." Finn just moaned and grabbed Julia's hand.

Marko had also had wolfpox. As a baby. At that time, there was an outbreak in their pack. About a quarter of the pack fell ill and there were two deaths. As far as he knew, Levi had never been infected with chickenpox. So their group should be safe. Nothing could happen to Finn with two healers around. He licked Julia's cheek gratefully. And before Fritz could escape, he gifted him a wet wolf kiss as a thank you too. Fritz jumped up and rubbed his cheek with his sleeve.

 Then they took Finn to the warm hut.

Julia

Everyone slept peacefully. Finn was feeling better. Together with Fritz's help, the fever and spots were almost completely gone. Julia stroked the sleeping Finn's hair, letting some magic flow from her hand. Josef watched her lazily. She lifted the cat up and yawned. Julia got up, let Finn sleep in peace, and sat down next to Leopold. The elf hummed in his sleep. Josef curled up on her lap and closed his eyes. Julia stroked his soft ears.

If we hadn't noticed the fever... The thought frightened her, and she couldn't find sleep. But Julia didn't want to sleep either. She sat awake next to her boyfriend for a long time, searching for her magic. It was still enough. It's all good. I mustn't give up! Leopold slept peacefully. She envied him a little. Josef's tail twitched back and forth in his sleep. He was dreaming. Leopold had buried his hand in Julia's long hair. She looked at him with a smile.

Of course, there was a reason why she was still awake this late. She didn't just stay awake to check on Finn. Julia wanted to float. And finally, she had the peace to try again. In front of her lay a thin twig. She called out her magic, gathered some air, and lifted the branch with it. It slowly started to float in the air. Then she let it sink again. That was easy. She closed her eyes and called for her magic again. Just like with the branch, she gathered some air and tried to lift herself up with it. To float.

At first, nothing happened. But Julia didn't want to give up. She tried again and again, until suddenly she couldn't feel the ground. Instead, she noticed a tugging on her hair. She opened her eyes, continued to focus on her magic, and smiled. She now sat cross-legged, floating in the air. Josef was still sleeping on her lap and didn't notice anything of their trip together just below the ceiling of the hut. The tugging came from her long hair, which Leopold was still holding onto. Sleeping, he didn't notice that his hand was being raised while clutching some strands.

Julia grinned when an idea came to her. Now she also collected some air under Josef and then made the sleeping cat float as well. Josef didn't notice anything at first. His tail was still twitching back and forth, but just as he was about to spin, he woke up. The cat was shocked to find that he was hovering around his axis. "MEOW!" Kicking, he hung in the air and looked reproachfully at Julia. "MEW!!"

Giggling, she rescued him from his predicament and took him in her arms. "I can float!"

"MEW!" the cat mewed, looking down from her arms. "MIAOW!"

"What... OH!" Emmie had been awakened by Julia's laughter. Just like Benjamin, who absent-mindedly stared at Julia, turned to the other side, and then went back to sleep. "Juli! I want too!", demanded Emmie. "Come on! I want too!!"

"Mew!" Josef hung wriggling in Juliet's arms. She kissed his head, then focused on the wolf girl and brought her to the ceiling.

"I can fly!" Emmie wriggled excitedly with her arms and legs. "That's funny! Don't look so grim, cat!" Emmie wanted to stroke Josef's head, but he immediately hissed and then tried to crawl under Julia's warm tunic.

"Yikes!" Distracted by the stubborn cat tickling her, she lost control of her magic. All three fell into the soft moss. "Ow!"

"Again!", cried Emmie.

"Emmie! Julia? Bedtime!", Paul grumbled, looking at them. He sat up and shook his head. "Why are you making such a noise? You're waking everyone up! Finn needs rest!" Then he yawned. Leopold and Fritz had also woken up. Fritz blinked in confusion. He was lying next to Lea, who had turned around in her sleep and was now holding her feet in his face. He pushed it aside. Leopold blinked.

"What's wrong?", Fritz asked.

"Our sister and your wolf child are up to mischief!", Paul explained. "Floating on the ceiling and tumbling down like heavy, noisy stones! Witches! Teenagers! Girls!"

"It's time for Julia to finally act like a teenager", Fritz grumbled. "Girls? Continue! Just not so loud..." Then he rolled away from Lea and closed his eyes.

"Don't continue. Sleep!" Leopold grinned and opened his arms invitingly. Immediately, Julia snuggled up to him. With Josef now between the two of them. The cat purred in relief. Emmie snuggled up next to Peyo again. "Killjoy!" She stuck her tongue out at Paul, but he ignored her.

"Yes. Sleep!" Paul yawned. "Sleeping is great."

That night, Julia did not seek out the deity of the harpies. She was too tired. She just made sure she still had enough magic.