for sci- witchcraft, it's witchcraft

An old hat at this sort of thing, Hazel finished grinding the contents of her bowl quickly. She then set her pestle down and began to mix pinches of this and that from various other containers into a larger bowl. To that bowl she added a dirty, thick liquid before handing it off to Barnabas who got a spoon and began mixing it. "It varies. No two creatures are the same. Some take weeks while others are sickened and struck down in a matter of hours. I've dealt with both; it's a terrible illness." She sniffed. "The power behind it is quite formidable. I dealt with it once weeks ago." The cloaked figured that Barnabas had described to him was quite something indeed. Hazel had half a mind to switch patrons.

After mixing briefly Barnabas shuffled over to Inoki and scooped some of the crushed leaves out of her mortar. He then added it to his bowl and shuffled back to Hazel. "A dozen or more if you count the wee ones." Infected birds and mice were easy to come by and those she'd collected from and experimented with by the handful. Hazel turned her attention to Barnabas, who was no longer mixing. "We're ready, yes?" The capuchin nodded.

Hazel got to her paws. Barnabas would be doing the heavy lifting here, but she could hold the cage.

The little monkey stuck a stick through the bars of the fox's cage and after some wrangling managed to pin its neck to the bottom. He tied the ends of the stick firmly to the cage and then tipped the whole thing on end so that the fox stood on its hind legs with its mouth pointed upwards. Another stick was poked into the cage. This one he inserted into the corner of the fox's mouth and after a moment of fighting a biting frenzy, managed to lay it across the fox's back teeth. Working quickly as he knew the fox would chew throough the stick, Barbans then poured the 'cure' down its throat. The fox gagged and spit, but was unable to avoid most of the concoction.

Hazel took a deep breath when everything was said and done, and set the cage back down. "Now we wait."

"Speech"