#ah yeh german folksongs

[irrfahrer]

“You’re covered in blood! Is it yours?”

"Wir Lagen Vor Madagaskar Und hatten die Pest an Bord In den Kübeln da faulte das Wasser Und mancher ging über Bord Ahoi! Kameraden. Ahoi, ahoi Leb wohl, kleines Mädel, leb wohl, leb wohl"

The song the sailors had sung on the ship was still stuck in Zivs mind like an echo and she found herself humming it while she rubbed the red liquid that smelled sour and fresh into her pelt. It was not only a echo in her mind- the melody gently swept from the middle of the bay outside the harbor towards the dock in the tact of the waves and the melody tasted of salt, heavy, making one gasp for air because the throat had turned dry and aching. It was so late in the night that the rushing of the waves beneath the wooden dock sounded almost loud in the Tynnans ears, and the ships lay on by the dock looked like quietly sleeping seacreatures swaying in the tact of the waves with the ship set on anchor in the middle of the bay in quarantaine looking in the little starlight like a looming giant ready to swallow the docks and everyone living near. The lights of the harbour were nothing but wisps in the black night and the noises of teh late night were swallowed by the breeze. Ziv wasalone nothing but a shimmer of white fur in the low starlight that could even be mistaken by one of the hanging down sails of the ships bound to the dock for the night. From what her translating device had told her the ship put on anchor in the middle of the bay like an island, had been put under quarantaine because of a plague, yet when she had swamm there with her medical tools in her backpack, she ahd only needed to climb up half the side of the ship or the scent to hit her in the face like a miasma- sweat of fever, vomit, and a certaine scent in the feces. Before Ziv had sneaked past the sleeping sailors who had not been infected yet into the belly of the ship where the sick had been locked in, she had already known what would await her even after she had taken a closer sniff on one of the sick men and had taken a sample to look at through a miroscopic lnse: Typhoid Fever. Night by Night Ziv had returned to the ship b swimming through the bay, first she had isolated the bacterium in  the foul watertanks of the ship and cleaned it with chlorine to prevent any further infections- not exactly something thatwould be comfortable to drink but not high enough in concentration to kill any of the sailors-, then in the following night she had cleaned the belly of the ship with alcohol and had started to treat the sick with antibiotics. Ziv had not bothered to hide well on the ship, although she had made sure that she was not seen when swimming to the ship- after all the sick sailors were feverish and who would believe them if they said that they were treated by a furred little thing that would give them vinegarwater with strange little drops in it.

By the others voice Ziv flinched so hard, she was, for a second, turning around with her teeth bared and claws drawn and ready to jump and rip out the guts of whatever had approached and startled her so suddenly like that predetor that was despite milions of years of evolution still stuck at the farest edge of her brain. The second ended as soon as it came and the smile returned to the Tynnans adorably fluffy face, splitting her muzzle almost in half.

For a second she did not knew what the other meant and her ears flicked up as if she was a confused animal. The wet noise of her fur when her ear moved made her realize that she was still coverd in antiseptic salve that she had smeard all over herself to kill every kind of bacteria she might was still carrying on her fur or skin and in the low light the ironheavy salve must have looked like blood. Laughing almost relieved she grabebd for the bucket of seawater standing to her hindpaws, grinned wildly, winked and Without breaking eyecontact Ziv simply turned the bucket over her head, making the water rush over her like a icy veil and wash off the red liquid. Still laughing the Tynnan shaked like a happy puppy, getting rid of the rest of dampness ticking to her silverwhite pelt: "Nope! On my way here I massacared a swarm of fish and had a kriffing feast all for kriffing myself!" A breeze came from the ship in the middle of the bay, carrying with it another verse of the song and Ziv found herself looking over her shoulder, ears turning after the melody that had followed her every night she had been swimming to the ship to definfect the rooms and treat the sailors locked to die in the belly of the ship like dangerouse animals. "Ahoi! Kameraden Und endlich nach 30 Tagen Da kam ein Schiff in Sicht Jedoch es fuhr vorüber Und sah uns Tote nicht Ahoi! Kameraden,Ahoi,Ahoi " At the edge of her mind she wondered if what she was doing actually helped the people on the ship, or if they would be forced to stay ont he ship until their water and food had ran out, even when they had recovered under the Tynnans treatment. It remainded her of the time she had been stranded in a starstation because of a sickness that had broken out, with dead space around her cold and black like the waves of the sea now around the quarantained ship. Wringing carefully the rest of the oinment out of her fur and even more carefully making sure Henry would not come near it, she flicked a ear in his direction- even if she knew that the red oinment had killed any bacteria clinging to her and what she was washing off herself was nothing but dead biomatter, she did not wanted to risk for the other to come into contact with it considering the bacteria was made for his species biology. Suddenly the young woman felt cold, as cold as the breeze on her damp fur that swirled through the hanging down sails of the ship by the dock and made the waves beneath the dock that were as black as ink rustle quietly: “Aren´t pups suppose to sleep at this hour?” [ @lighthouseborn ]