Ari (Child of the Beastman Goddess)

Slowly, more and more livestock are domesticated by the tribe to keep up with the food demand of the tribe so the hunting of food became lesser.

My father constantly reminded the group assigned to the animals to always keep the area clean and dry all the manure collected from the animals daily and use them as fertilizer for the vegetables we are growing on the mountain.

They also started helping me in raising my silkworms as they also used them as feeds for the quails and chickens.

The river was quite near the tribe so access to the water supply was easy except winter. Rain water was also collected in huge clay jars to use during winter. Constant water supply was needed for domesticating livestock to keep them hydrated and clean.

Keeping animals in the tribe took a lot of effort and it can also invite mosquitoes and other insects if not handled properly.

Ever since the tribe started keeping livestock, mosquitoes and other small insects started to multiply even though the tribesmen kept the animals clean.

So when I went to the mountain with the elder healer to collect herbs, I asked her “Grandma Lony, is there any herbs that can make insects go away?”

“Yes, there are several herbs you can find here in the mountains that can drive away insects because of their scent, such as lemongrass, lavender, marigold, rosemary, catmint, basil and many more. See the grass over here, these are called lemongrass. Mosquitoes dislike their scent and don’t go near these types of plants”, she explained while showing me an example.

“Grandma Lony, can we plant these in front of the treehouse so that the mosquitoes won’t swarm inside? I hate insect bites. Look here at my legs, I have many insect bites.” I desperately pleaded

“Ok, take some of those herbs back in our tribe so that we can plant them later.”

I took some of the plants and planted them around the treehouse with the help of elder Lony.

I also secretly planted the lemongrass around the tribe to protect the others from mosquitoes.

Chicken and quail eggs became a delicious delicacy of the tribe since there are various ways to cook them and they lay eggs all year round, especially during the hotter season such as summer, but the scent of the grass used for them attracts mosquitoes and other small insects.

Eggs cook faster than meat so it became easier for the assigned females to cook meals for the tribe.

I suddenly miss eating rice eggs. Rice was the most common staple food in my previous life. However, I am not familiar with how to grow them and I haven’t found one around the area or maybe because I fail in recognizing them since I grew up in the city so I am originally ignorant in farming. I only relied on watching video tutorials on the internet at that time to learn more about the things about urban life.

One time, an infestation of mosquitoes occurred. Most of the houses are infested by mosquitoes and all the tribesmen are baffled because of the sudden increase of the number of the insects.

Elder healer Lony’s treehouse was the only one that was not infested with mosquitoes.

My father called for a meeting so I looked for him before their meeting started. I ran near the pavilion as fast as I could and saw my father standing near the entrance.

“F-Father! Father! D-Did the tribesmen remove the lemongrass I planted around the tribal territory?” I asked as I gasped for air from running.

He gestured that he had no idea by shaking his head lightly while furrowing his thick silver eyebrows showing his confusion.

“Grandma Lony taught me that the lemongrass and several types of herbs can drive away mosquitoes so Ari planted many of the grass that Ari took from the mountain every morning around the tribe so we won’t be infested with mosquitoes since summer is the peak season of mosquito infestations. Look at grandma Lony’s treehouse, there are no mosquitoes going in there because of them”, I explained to him as I pulled him to the treehouse of the elder healer and pointed out a grass near the door and the windows.

“Those are lemongrass, they drive away mosquitoes and other insects due to their strong aroma.” I stated, as I pulled him near the grass and let him smell the leaves to help him familiarize and identify the plant.

After he understood the situation, he brought me back to my room hurriedly and then talked to the elder healer before they went to the tribal meeting together.

During the meeting, they decided to educate the whole tribe about plants that can drive away mosquitoes and then they started to gather them the next day and plant them around the tribal territory.

They also cleaned all the water reservoirs and smoked the whole tribe to drive away the mosquitoes.

After they planted the plants, the mosquitoes naturally went away so the tribesmen went back to their normal routines.

However, a few days later, after the mosquito incident, there were a few hatchlings, cubs and younglings who suddenly mysteriously fell ill. There were only a small number and it started with inconsistent low fever until they showed rashes all over their body and suffered from stomach ache and headache. Even though it was not contagious, the whole tribe went into panic.

I knew what it was since I myself experienced it in my previous life. It was dengue. A fatal illness that is brought by mosquitoes. There was no cure for dengue even during the 21st century. The only way to help the patients to survive such illness was to constantly hydrate them and boost their immunity by providing nutritious food or vitamins. There were also vaccines created for dengue, however, it caused chaos in some countries because the vaccine had so many complicated side effects.

I pleaded to the elder healer to let me help the patients, especially because three of the infected were my brothers.

I secretly added salt into their drinking water and provided them with some fresh fruit juices constantly to hydrate them.Belonging © NôvelDram/a.Org.

Despite our efforts, some of the hatchlings still died, including two of my hatchling brothers since they were still too young and weak while Askook and the others survived.

Despite the incident, the tribe still moved forward, thanking the elder healer for curing most of the patients while grieving for the young ones that didn’t survive.