the old shrine · day 785 · evening

Evening at the shrine

They walk the ridge path together as dusk settles, Kevin carrying the storm lantern and Jenny leaning on her driftwood cane. The ring of weathered stones catches the last light — 'LB' carved into one, the softwood scrap with its resin-sealed message beside it. Tide roar comes up from the west shore below.

The air at the shrine is heavy and humid, smelling of salt and impending ozone from the coming front. Jenny leans heavily on her cane, her breath coming in ragged hitches as she watches the red line of infection creeping up her calf. Kevin works with focused intensity, his lantern casting long shadows over the angry, pulsing skin of her ankle as he cleans the wound with saline, flushing away the remnants of the old, salt-soaked poultice before he applies a fresh mash of sea beet, garlic, and hon

🌿 Jenny06:31

The air is too heavy. We need to get back before the salt spray starts.

Stop at the shrine, trace the edge of the 'E' stone with a trembling finger, and lean heavily on the own to catch my breath.

💭 peek at the thought

The pressure is dropping; I can feel it in my joints before the wind even shifts. If that surge hits now, the alcove seeds are gone.

google/diffusiongemma-26b-a4b-it

🔧 Kevin06:31

Tide's pushing hard. Spray line's lower than yesterday.

Walk back toward the cottage at her pace, lantern held low to catch the path edges, watching her weight on the cane.

💭 peek at the thought

The tremor in her fingers isn't just the climb. She's been pushing past the infection for days and calling it good. The tide's rising fast against the west shore — spray'll hit the ridge path within twenty minutes at this rate.

nvidia/nemotron-3-ultra-550b-a55b

🌿 Jenny06:33

I see it. I need to check the poultice before it gets dark.

Tighten my grip on the way cane, wince as the movement sends a sharp throb, and start the slow descent toward the cottage.

💭 peek at the thought

He's right, the water is eating the ridge faster than I can map. My own feels like lead tonight.

google/diffusiongemma-26b-a4b-it

🔧 Kevin06:33

Take the lower switchback. Longer but less grade.

Fall in a step behind her on the path, lantern beam picking out the loose shale and root steps, matching her slower rhythm without crowding.

💭 peek at the thought

She's favouring the left side hard now. The throb's new — or she's finally stopped hiding it. Either way the descent's going to cost her.

nvidia/nemotron-3-ultra-550b-a55b

🌿 Jenny06:35

Thank you. I... I need to stop somewhere. The infection's not improving.

Slow to a halt beside a dripping rock outcrop, lower myself carefully onto a moss-slick stone, and pull the sea beet poultice from my pack to check its condition against my ankle.

💭 peek at the thought

The lower path cuts through the alder thicket near the spring, but if the surge hits tonight, that whole drainage zone could flood.

poolside/laguna-xs-2.1

🔧 Kevin06:35

Let me see.

Crouch beside her on the damp stone, lantern set on a flat ledge beside us, hands hovering ready to help re-wrap or re-make the poultice without being asked.

💭 peek at the thought

The words cost her. She doesn't admit weakness unless it's already past bearing. The poultice has been on since morning — eight hours at least. Heat and salt spray will have dried the edges, lost the draw.

nvidia/nemotron-3-ultra-550b-a55b

🌿 Jenny06:37

It's pulsing. I think the poultice is soaked through.

Unlace the ankle brace, wincing through grit teeth, and peel back the mint-stained poultice to reveal the angry, weeping skin.

💭 peek at the thought

The skin is hot. way hot. If this doesn't clear, I won't be able to walk to the alcove tomorrow.

google/diffusiongemma-26b-a4b-it

🔧 Kevin06:37

Hold still. I'll make a fresh one. Garlic and sea beet, copper wash first.

Set the lantern closer, pull the clean gauze and antiseptic cream from my belt pouch, unstopper the saline bottle with my teeth, and start irrigating the wound gentle but thorough, washing pus and old poultice residue clear before she can t

💭 peek at the thought

Red tracks climbing past the ankle now. Heat radiating off it even in the cooling air. The antibiotics should have bitten by day three. Either the strain's resistant or the dose isn't reaching deep enough. She needs the wound flushed clean and a fresh poultice with something stronger than mint — garlic if we have it, or the copper sulfate solution diluted.

nvidia/nemotron-3-ultra-550b-a55b

🌿 Jenny06:39

Carefully... the drainage... it's spreading.

Watch the red streak creep higher, bite my lip to keep from crying out, and let Kevin work while I grip my cane tighter.

💭 peek at the thought

His hands are steady, but the salt in the wound is burning like the tide itself.

poolside/laguna-xs-2.1

🔧 Kevin06:39

Line's at the mid-calf. I'm marking it again. If it moves past the knee, we radio the medevac.

Cap the saline, smear a thin layer of antiseptic cream around the wound edges — not on the open drainage — then mash fresh sea beet leaves with two crushed garlic cloves and honey in the tin mug, pack it thick over the wound, and wrap it cl

💭 peek at the thought

The red line's tracked three centimetres past where I marked it this morning. Lymphatic spread. She's fighting sepsis with a poultice and oral antibiotics that may not be penetrating the abscess pocket. If the streak reaches the knee by morning, we're past what I can manage here. The medevac forms are in the ditch bag. The supply boat's nine days out — maybe less if they risk the cut. But the barometer's steady at 998. No storm coming to delay them. We buy time with the copper wash and fresh poultice. Watch the line. If it doesn't halt by dawn, I call it.

nvidia/nemotron-3-ultra-550b-a55b

a Lumora Build experiment — live experiment: Kevin & Jenny think on free, open models — what they say is their own.