Zyanya's story - Written by squeaker
Zyanya knew a lot about Cocao trees. How tall they get, what their pods look like, how to get the seeds out, what their flowers looked like. She also had a good understanding of the uses of the Cocao seed, bark, oil, leaves and flowers. She always traveled with maize kernels, dried cocao seeds, dried ground cocao paste, and a small mortar and pestle in her pouch. It was a guild standard. One day as she was traveling through the rain forest to check on her favorite tree, she ran into a man that was just lying on the ground under a Cocao tree. Thinking that the man was just resting she continued on by.

It was at that time that the man woke. He was so happy to see her, "help me" he said. She walked over to where the man was lying. "What is wrong, why to you need help?" He explained that he got sick while traveling through the forest, and decided he would just wait the sickness out, he said he had plenty of water and food in his backpack, so he felt safe with this decision. However, that was a few days ago. Now he is not sure where he is, and he is feeling very weak and thought he was running a fever. Zyanya had to admit that when she really looked at the man he did look a bit pale, a bit sick. As she looked very closely she also noticed some infected bites and cuts.

She asked the man when the last time he had anything to eat or drink. He had said that he managed to get some water down prior to going to sleep. He thought looking up at that sky, that it was about 8 hours ago. She knew that she would have to get the man up and able to walk. They were 2 days out from the village, there was no way she could carry him, and he would most likely not be able to say out here for the time it would take her to get to the village and back with help. But, she believed that she had the answer right in her pouch.

She know that in ancient times, and of course in the guild even today, that they use products from the forest for many cures. She remember passing a silk cotton tree, so she ran and got some of the liquid from it bark in her canteen cup, with her mortar and pestle she ground up 9 cacao beans and a few maize kernels and blended it with liquid in her canteen cup and feed it to the man. She feed this to the man. This mixture she knew was used to relieve infections, fever and faintness. Also the cocao itself would help with digestion problems. She also cleaned his cuts and bits.

A few hours later she woke him and give him more of the cocao mixture. By the time he woke on the next morning he was doing much better. She had also foraged for some food for them. After they ate and she made more of the mixture for the man, they started to walk back to her guild. It took a little longer to walk back with the man in his weakened state, but they both made it safe and sound.