Sugared water

"Wait, wait, wait, Fred," interrupted Ingrid. "That was no magic potion, and it will have no magical effects."

"But you said..."

"It will, however, save her from dieing. She hasn't eaten anything for at least four weeks, perhaps longer. With the magic that was supporting her taken away, all that hunger and weakness hit her at once."

Ingrid turned to Astra, and quietly parted her hair out of her face. "I didn't think it would be this bad, but she's clearly been here for too long."

She faced Fred again, and said rather loudly in a you're-supposed-to-know-this tone, "her body is too week to accept anything, even a magic potion. The only thing it can accept, is the simplest sugars."

"Simplest?"

"Yup. Simple sugars are what the body can turn directly into energy, as opposed to complex sugars. Bread, beans, rice... all these things are complex sugars."

"But they don't taste, er, sugar-y."

"Because they're complex! If you were to hold a piece of bread in your mouth for half an hour, without chewing or swallowing, it would break down into simple sugars and taste sweet!"

"But who would hold..."

"Shush!"

She turned back to Astra, and spoke softly again. "But Astra doesn't have half an hour. She needs the energy from the food as quick as can be, and only when she has enough energy, can we chance giving her a magic potion, because only then will her body have the energy to process it."

1. They waited and waited in silence. Finally, Astra gathered the strength to say something.
2. Fred looked around. All that food they had brought... none of it was simple nor sugar-y. It would be a pitty if it was going to go to waste.

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