How to cure a sore throat

How to cure a sore throat

The girl's name was Guinever and she was crying because she was sick and had to stay in her room, while all the other children were playing outside. 

'I'm feeling sick, my throat is sore, I can't swallow properly and at night I can't sleep because of the cough.', she told him.

'That's terrible!'  Max exclaimed and felt really sorry for Guinever. He contemplated how he could help her.

'Well, where I come from, we take a little of this wild cherry-sirup from our woods Maybe it would help you, too?

He gave the girl a drop of wild cherry-sirup on the tip of her index finger and Guinever licked it.

'Hmm, it tastes like  peppermint and cherries.', Guinever said surprised. 'I think, I'm feeling a little better!'

Max smiled and thought 'I'm glad it worked.' But to be extra sure, he'll wait until Guinever is fast asleep and then use the special skill of the Tiny people to help her get healthy again.

Since the sun was already setting when the raven grabbed him in the woods, Max didn't have to wait long until the girl was tired and fell into an anxious slumber.

Quietly, tiptoeing, Max climbed on Guinever's nose and started to concentrate really hard. For a few seconds, nothing happened, but then Max started to shrink. Slowly at first, but then increasingly faster.
That's the special power of all Tiny people. They could shrink themselves as tiny as they wanted to be.

Max is shrinking

Max shrank until he was tinier than a grain of dust. He started to climb into Guinevers nose, switched on his firefly lamp and looked around.

workers transporting defect material outside

He stood in a cave that was moving up and down with the breathing of Guinever. Whenever she inhaled, the ground perked up and the wind pulled Max further into the cave and whenever Guinever exhaled, Max had to stem himself against the wind to avoid being blown out. 
On the ground lied lots of garbage, that was being transported out of the cave by a chain of workers. On the left, you can see how they looked like.

Walking further into the cave, it didn't take long before Max reached an even bigger cave. Max looked down and there! On the ground of the big cave lied the source of all the garbage. He used a rope to let himself down and reach the huge garbage mountain.

The garbage mountain lied on a huge ball shaped thing, that filled a good part of the cavern. Max landed on one of them, and now he could see, that there were people living down here. It almost looked like an peculiar little city, full of the most colourful and different people.

That's how the police down here looks like

Suddenly, Max was surrounded by a group of little white guys, that looked like cotton whool balls. Most of them were busily scurrying around but a group of about 10 of them surrounded him and asked:

'Who are you? Identify yourself!'

'I'm Max and I'm here to find out why Guinever feels sick. And who are you?'

'We are the the police down here. Right now we have to deal with some intruders, therefore it's a little chaotic. We have troubles finding them. They're damaging everything and therefore, we have those big garbage heaps.'

'Maybe I can help', Max said. 'I think all this chaos and chasing after these intruders is making Guinever sick.'

'The problem is, that we don't know how these intruders look like. Some of us have confronted them, but before they could report it, the intruders beat them unconscious.'

'I'll keep my eyes open' Max said.

The cotton balls nodded and turned their attention to a yellow guy, who just walked by.

Max looked around. This place looked like a big city. There were thousands of the cotton whool police men, but even more yellow, green, blue or red guys walking down the streets. Most of them were chatting peacefully or eating, but in a dark corner Max spotted a chain of red guys with clubs, that spitted on the ground, pinched the walls, and mobbed all the other people.

The bad guys

Max hurriedly went to them and stemed his fists into his sides.
'Oi!' he shouted. 'What are you doing? You're hurting poor Guinever!'

But the chain of red guys just laughed. 'So what? What can a tiny thing like you do about it?' They scoffed.

Max was so angry his cheeks turned red. But he forced himself to concentrate and started to grow until he was almost twice as tall as the red guys. Certainly, in the big word Max was tiny. But here, in Guineves body, surrounded by bacteria, he was the biggest.

They gawked at him with mouths open.

'That's what I can do about it!' Max countered. He seized the whole chain of red guys and pulled them towards a nearby big officer with an even bigger backpack. They tried to escape, but Max simply closed his fist thightly around their bellies and lifted all of them into the air.

'Officer!' Here're some of the intruders. Look!' Max said.

Surpriced officer

The officer was surprised, that Max found those troublemakers, but he looked at their cubs and unfriendly behaviour.

'I see' he nodded and opened his backback. 'So that's how the intruders look like'

A swarm of neon colored and weird shaped arrows flew out, targeted the red guys and got stuck on them.

Max looked around astonished. Neon colored arrows flew around everywhere, found chains of red guys in their hidings and stuck to them. Now, the white cotton shaped officers had no troubles spotting the intruders.

Bad guys trying to avoid the arrows, that're revealing their hide-outs

And it became clear, that the cotton whool officers where not as cuddly as they looked. Even though the red guys struggled, tried to resists and fight back, the cotton officers' movements were faster, more precise and stronger. It didn't take long for them to arrest most red guys and take photos of them This way, they'll always know how those intruders looked like and if they dared to come again, everybody'll be alarmed.

Max walked to one of the photographers, who turned around and smiled.

'Thank you for your help!'

'You're welcome. Will Guinever now get healthy again?'

'It'll take a few days to repair and clean up behind the intruders - you know, when they spitted on the floor and damaged the walls - but we'll work very hard to repair everything and soon our Guinever should feel a lot better.'

'That's good to hear', Max said relieved.

He said goodbye to the officer and turned around to walk back cheerfully the same way he came. Soon he got out and started to grow into his original size. It was just dawning. Max tiptoed on Guinevers' nightstand and lied down on the petal of a big flower. He fell asleep immediately.

Photographers - The memory of Guinever's immune system

The next morning Max was woken by Guinever.

She was grinning brightly. 'I feel so much better!' She exclaimed.
Sleepily, Max blinked up to her. Her face was not as pale as yesterday and her eyes glowed happily.

Max smiled back and said:'Very good. Now the intruders have been caught and it'll take a few days, but then they should have repaired everything. You'll get better soon.'

'Intruders? Repair?' Guinever asked baffled. Still smiling, Max sat up and started telling her the whole story.

When he ended Guinever's eyes have turned big and round from astonishment.
'Wow, you've experienced quite an adventure tonight.'

Max got out of his flower and shouldered his backpack.

'You're not already leaving already, are you?' Guinever asked disappointed.

Max put his hand consolingly on her finger.
'Yes, I still want to see the world. And I'm certain there's a lot of poor sick children and adults out there, who're just waiting for me to help them.

'Very well then' Guinever said. She blew Max a farewell kiss and carried him to her window.
'Goodbye Max! Have a exciting journey and I hope, someday we'll meet again!'

'Goodybe Guinever!' Max said.

And like this, Max continued his journey into the big world. Everywhere he traveled, he helped sick people to get better, because Max was really angry at all these intruders, mischief-makers and swindlers, who give the humans such a hard time. Soon, he was called: Max, the bacteria fighter. But he didn't only fight bad bacteria, no, Max fought against viruses and parasites, too. He motivated depressed white blood cells, settled disputes between red blood cells, who let blood pressure rise too high in their rage, repaired various defects, guided the lost and confused and a lot more.

His reputation even reached his old mushroom village and the villagers began to eagerly await the story of Max's next adventure from all over the world.

If you are a sick child, I'm sure Max will find you soon, too. You have to have a little patience and preservere, until one day he'll appear in front of your window, carrying his backpack and his firefly lamp and offer you a drop of wild cherry sirup.

The End.
Okay, this was Max's story about helping a girl with tonsillitis (streptoccocus). I hope you liked it and I would appreciate some feedback :) What did you like most? Were the drawings okay?

Next up will be about chicken pox. 

Helena Sparks

Max in the giant's town

 The tree tops have now disappeared and they were flying above something that seems to be a giant's town. Max looked around astonishedly. He could see streets that were wider than his whole village, people whose little finger was bigger than Max himself and giant houses with yellow, white, pink and light blue walls.

The giant's town

 Suddenly Max heard a loud caw, as another black raven appeared, bigger than the one that still clutched Max in his iron claws and tried to steal Max away. For a moment, the claws around Max loosened a little and he grabbed the chance to wind out of the grasp, just when they flew over a rooftop with red tiles.  

The angry raven

Max managed to land in the roof rail, the puddles of water absorbing the impact of his fall. Quickly, he ducked under a fallen leaf and waited until both raven stopped looking out for him and flew away. 

Hiding under a fallen leaf

'That was exciting', Max thought and wondered what he should do next. 'I can't stay here the whole night. I should look out for some shelter'. 

He crawled out of his hiding and looked around. 

'There! A leafy bush on the ground, just next to the house he landed on. That would be perfect for the night. The bush would shelter him from prying eyes and it would be bouncily comfortable to lie on the big leaves.'

He quickly followed the roof rail and and began to climb down the rain water downpipe. 

Not long, still far above the ground, Max heard a gentle sob out of a window next to him. He looked up and saw a giant girl with pale skin and long red hair flattering in the wind, her green tear-filled eyes looking at him, wide in surprise. 

'Why are you crying?' Max asked taken aback. 

The girl looked shocked that he adressed her, then hurriedly wiped away her tears and spluttered: ' Who are you?'

 'My name is Max and I'm on a journey to discover the world.', Max answered, while carefully sliding onto the window sill. 'And who are you?'

Max away from home

Max took a deep breath and left the trails the villagers had created by walking the same path over and over again. His grandpa had left him an old map and he was going to follow it until he reached the the unkown lands, that no Tiny people had ever seen. This is how the map looked like:

Grandpa's map

 
The entire day, Max jumped over puddles, climbed up bumpy rocks and glid over a field of wild flowers. 

Traveling witht he wind

 Finally, the reached a glade. Proud, to have come so far in that short amount of time, he sat down on a flat grey rock for a break. The sun was already setting and painted the sky dandelion yellow and yew cone red.

It's been some time, that Max could spot the village and just as he was about to take out something to eat, satisfied with himself and the world, a black raven appeared out of nowhere, clutched poor Max with his scaley claws and rose high into the air again.

Max had never been this far above the tree tops and out of shock, he squinted his eyes as hard as he could. After some time, when nothing terrible happened, he cautiously risked a glance through his eyelashes.

Max's journey begins

Max's position on the yew cone

        One day, when he was gazing after some swallows once again, Max decided he wanted to see the big world with his own eyes. The villagers were outraged at this formidability. 'Tiny people can't simply travel around the big world!', 'What's there to see? We have everything we need here', 'It's too dangerous. He must have lost his mind!'

        But Max didn't let the villagers demoralize him. He had sat a lot of times on his yew cone, day-dreaming about the big world. I don't want to do that my whole life, Max said to himself.

       So it happenend that Max packed his daypack and stepped out of the village.

Who's Max? And what makes him special?

           Deep in the forest, well hidden and sheltered from prying eyes lied a small village. Here's where the Tiny people were living.
           The appearance of a Tiny people was very similar to that of the large people from today, with two arms and legs, one head, ten fingers and toes. Some of them grew beards, like walruses, others looked just like you and me. But, and that made them special, they were a lot smaller.
           Now, you may think 'What's so special about being tiny? Giants are way more amazing!'. But you just wait. You'll be surprised by all the things tiny people can do better than giants.

This is how their village looked like (there were of course more than three mushroom houses) :

Hidden mushroom houses

            One of the tiny people was called Max. He was the tiniest in the village. In fact, he was so tiny, that he could effortlessly climb into a yew cone or bath in a drop of morning dew - even the other tiny villagers made fun of him.

           Then he was told: 'Hey Max, how's the air down there?' or 'Oi, do you need help to reach for the highest shelves again?'. But Max just shrugged briefly and let the villagers have that little pleasure. He knew, they didn't mean to harm him.

           From his position in the yew cone Max observed the birds in the sky everyday. Then he dreamed of flying and traveling the world.