“This is getting scary.”
Lindworm’s heat wave just wouldn’t end.
Glenn looked down on the Vivre Mountains from high in the sky, his face pale.
“Ha ha ha! Don’t worry, Doctor! No one’s fallen yet!”
“Then…I hope I’m not the first.” Glenn closed his eyes, as if in prayer.
Glenn was rushing to the harpy village because he’d received a report that Dione, the gigas, had lost consciousness. A young man from the village had greeted him, and then he was rushed to the village via a strange vehicle.
“This…is the latest model?” Glenn moaned.
He was riding in what they might call a palanquin in the east, only instead of being carried by people in the front and back, this palanquin was flying in the air.
This is really high.
This mode of transport had been a joint development between the harpies and Scythia Transportation, in order to make trips to the harpy village more pleasant. Eight poles supported the palanquin, carried by eight flying harpies. Although it could only hold one person, it was remarkably faster than climbing the mountain on foot. The only flaw was that, since it was essentially just a chair with a roof, Glenn felt like he was floating in the air—at a height he could barely stomach.
Glenn tried to keep from looking down, but there was nothing else but sky in every direction. Still, it could have been worse. Beside him, Sapphee rode in a larger palanquin made for monsters, but her body was so big that it stuck out. Even with fourteen harpies carrying her, half of her tail was unsupported, just swinging in the air.
“Are you scared, Doctor?!” the young man asked.
“Uh, well, yeah.”
“Don’t worry! Even if you fall, there’s a lifeline, so you won’t fall far!” All the harpies laughed.
The “lifeline” was nothing more than a thick rope wrapped around Glenn’s torso. The other end was connected to the lead harpy, but Glenn couldn’t help but think that if he did fall, the rope might just snap. The whole setup felt way too primitive to be considered the latest model.
Glenn shook his head, trying to calm his thoughts. Right now, I have to focus on Dione.
The gigas had passed out from heat exhaustion. Generally speaking, the colder their habitat, the larger most creatures grew. With more body mass, they could retain more heat. Conversely, smaller creatures could dissipate heat more easily.
In other words, a giant as big as Dione would have difficulty dissipating body heat. That might be the reason she passed out.
I hope she’s okay.
“Would you prefer to go home by cart? We can contact Tisalia and ask her to pick us up,” Sapphee suggested.
“Yeah…good idea,” Glenn agreed. They were both pale with fear.
“But we may have to do this again in an emergency,” Glenn said. “so we might as well get used to it.”
“Yes.” Sapphee nodded her agreement, but she still looked sick.
“Also…it’s really hot,” Glenn added.
“It seems the village is suffering from the same heat wave. No wonder Dione fell ill.” Sapphee was using the parasol that Arahnia had given her to avoid the same fate.
Lulala had mentioned that the Waterways were hot, too. The water in Lindworm flowed down from the Vivre Mountains. If it was this hot mid-slope, then naturally the river temperature would rise as well. Nevertheless, this was unusual, especially considering it was still spring.
Thankfully, the heat-shielding fabric that Arahnia had brought them was also in use here in the harpy village. It hung in the entrances of houses, like curtains. Harpies’ feathers protected against the cold, but they didn’t do well in heat waves. The same was true for Dione, who visited the village often.
“We need to get to Dione quickly.”
“Yes.”
Luckily, they didn’t have to search far. They saw the giant lying limply on the ground in the village square. She was surrounded by harpies, including the village chief.
“Dione, are you all right?!” Glenn cried out.
“Huh? Doctor?” Dione responded but didn’t move.
Glenn felt a rush of relief. If she was conscious, then he could rule out a number of serious conditions.
“I was just eating…and then I got dizzy all of a sudden. I can’t move!”
“Just stay there. I’m going to examine you,” Glenn said, approaching her.
Dione was wearing winter clothes that Arahnia had made for her. They certainly didn’t help in this heat. She must have really liked wearing them. It looked like she’d taken her boots off to soak her feet in the river and then passed out. Luckily, there weren’t many houses nearby, and she’d fallen into the square. If she’d passed out like this in Lindworm, it would have been a mess.
That’s probably why she doesn’t come into town.
Glenn started by checking her breathing. “How do you feel, Dione? Do you have a headache or feel nauseated?” He came right up to her face.
If she rolled over right then, Glenn would be crushed. He kept an eye on her movements as he spoke to her.
“My head…is fine. I don’t think…I’m nauseated.”
“What were you doing before you passed out?”
“I was just eating…and then I got dizzy.”
“I see.” Glenn spied a tray covered in nuts.
It had probably been an offering to the gigas.
“Doctor, both her breathing and body temperature are normal,” Sapphee said calmly. “Her heartbeat is a bit weak…but it’s a normal rate for Dione.”
“Hmmm.” Glenn thought to himself.
“Doctor, how is the gigas?” the village chief asked.
“Is it from the heat?”
“I don’t believe so. She’s coherent, and her temperature is normal.”
“So…what is it?”
The harpies were all watching over Dione, looking worried.
“Well, this might be hard to believe…” Glenn looked at the faces of the harpies and then at Dione. They were all eagerly awaiting his diagnosis. “Dione is suffering from malnutrition.”
“Whaaat?” Dione cried out.
The condition was common. She simply wasn’t getting enough nutrients for how much she was moving her body. However, this didn’t explain why she’d collapsed while eating.
“Dione is the only gigas in the world, but I’ve been studying the history of the gigas tribe with Dr. Cthulhy.”
“Ohhh. You and Miss Cthulhy sure do like to studyyy.”
Dione was probably the one person who could get away with calling Glenn’s mentor “Miss.”
“Yes, well, anyway…gigas have characteristics of both giants and plant monsters, but their metabolism is extremely slow. There’s actually a rare beast that’s quite similar to them.”
“A r-rare beast?” The village chief laughed nervously, seeming reluctant to compare Dione with a mere animal. Dione, however, didn’t seem bothered. She stared at Glenn through her bangs, rapt.
“I’m thinking of the tropical sloth. It doesn’t move much, so it’s thought of as a lazy animal. However, it’s not lazy. It survives by slowing its metabolism to the bare minimum to conserve energy.”
“Slow metabolism. So, in other words, the same as Dione?” Sapphee caught on quickly.
“Yes. And the same nutritional deficiency, even while eating, occurs in sloths, too.”
Since sloths were tropical, Glenn had never seen one. He would have liked to, but the animal apparently didn’t adapt well to other environments, so they couldn’t bring one to Lindworm. Its metabolism was so slow that it didn’t even generate its own heat. If anything, Dione was probably more adaptable to fluctuations in temperature.
“Doctor, I don’t really understand. What does it mean to be nutrient deficient even though you’re eating?”
“Let me explain. All living things consume energy, even while eating.”
Normally, the energy required for digestion didn’t exceed the nutrition gained from food. However, in animals with an already slow metabolism, if something caused the digestive function to slow, nutrients wouldn’t be absorbed at all.
“Basically, the strength you’re using to eat is exceeding the nutrition acquired from food. It leads to a nutritional deficiency over time. That’s why you passed out.”
“That can happen?”
“Not with normal animals, but it happens with creatures that have extremely slow metabolisms. Also, digestive capabilities are reduced in heat.”
Dione probably had low digestive capabilities in the first place and ate very little for her size. If she’d had the same metabolism as a human, she would have needed to eat a monstrous amount of food to maintain her weight.
“Ahhh, so that’s what happeneddd.” Dione took her time to understand, almost as if they were discussing some other patient. “Long agooo, my fellow tribespeople passed outtt. Now that I think about it, maybe that was from hunger, tooo. At the time, we didn’t know the reasonnn.”
“It’s hard to recognize on your own that you’re not getting enough.” Even if someone felt sick, if they were in the middle of eating, it probably wouldn’t even cross their mind that they could be lacking nutrients.
“Yeahhh.” Dione giggled. “Now I understanddd.”
“So, what can we do?” the village chief asked.
“First, we need to supplement her intake,” Glenn said. “Harpies, can you please help me?”
Treatment for a giant like Dione was never easy. He needed the cooperation of the entire village. Luckily, the gigas was loved by all, and not a single harpy complained.
“Doctor, you look sharp!” Dione said. “You’ve grown uppp!”
“O-oh, thank you.” Glenn chuckled at her carefree attitude, which remained undaunted, despite her collapse.
First, Sapphee needed to inject Dione with nutrients.
“Doctor, it’s no use,” Sapphee said, the ampoule still in her hand. “Her skin is too tough. The needle won’t pierce it.”
“Hmm, is that so?”
Dione’s skin was as hard as tree bark, which meant an injection or an IV drip was out of the question.
“We’ll need a special needle, but we don’t have time to prepare one now.”
“No, we don’t,” Sapphee concurred.
“In that case, we’ll have to feed her.”
Dione needed nutrients. If they couldn’t run an IV, then she’d have to eat something. The problem was whether or not she even had the strength to eat. Her reduced digestive capability meant they’d have to try something easy to digest, like a soft stew.
“Dione, do you think you could eat rice porridge?”
“Ahhh, I like, rice porridggge!”
Glenn nodded. That might work. “Then we’ll prepare it right away.”
Before long, the harpies had made a rice porridge per Glenn’s instructions. They served it in a large pot that had been cooled to just the right temperature, so there was no concern of Dione being burned. Glenn was stirring the porridge with a long ladle, looking more like a chef than a doctor.
“Now, then,” Glenn said.