69th of Ymiden, 721
Nason Greythistle was expected to arrive within the break, while Woe was in his garden, trying his hand at speaking to the plants there. The Blue Hood had discussed the possibility of inspecting Woe's garden, and seeing what kinds of useful herbs might be growing there, what was worth discarding, and whether the soil might be amenable to receiving seeds of more useful plants.
Woe for his part, had a bit of trouble communicating with the plants. He never expected that he would find in himself a green thumb. Perhaps it was a new phenomenon, born of his newfound connection to his Aunt Moseke. Or perhaps he'd always had it, just languishing in the more civilized and barren spaces of the world. Whatever the case, he found it relaxing to care for green things, even if they wouldn't talk back so readily.
"What has Toutouye been up to out here, you?" Woe asked, trying the flower in front of him. Toutouye popped his head out of his tent to the northwest of the cabin, on hearing his name, frowned, and then retreated back into his shelter. Woe told himself that the boy would get used to civilized areas, sooner or later. He only had to be patient. Yet his aversion to going into town and Iago's ambivalence toward Toutouye made it difficult to keep tabs on him. That was one of the reasons he was trying to get friendly with the plant life around his house, so he could use them to keep track of Toutouye's comings and goings.
"Hmmhhmm... Let..." Sod murmured from behind Woe's back, as his tail curled around the former mage's neck to grasp the stem of the flower Woe was trying to establish communication with. "Let... I try." So saying, Sod began working his spiritual magic engaging in a mental back and forth with the plant.
Woe sighed, looking at the flower, and waiting for Sod to get on with the communication. "Well, what does it say?"
"Hmmm, patience." Sod replied, slackening his tail's grip on the stem of the flower. "They don't know." Then his tail retreated from the plant, and Woe was left with fewer answers for his questions. He sighed, perhaps learning this ability would take time.
"Its name is chamomile." Sod offered as if that would help. Woe shrugged, not knowing that he was referring to the plant's breed, but supposing that was the name of the individual flower.
Breen was also nearby, sitting, and staring intently toward the north. Breen stared past Toutouye's tent and campsite, toward Egilrun proper. After a while, he began whining piteously. That in itself wasn't anything remarkable, as Breen did little else but whine. Yet this had the sense of the familiar to Woe. He wondered what was going on with the diri of Sorrow.
"Breen? Is there something wrong?"
Breen, rather than answer the concern, merely relayed the message to Woe, "Someone is coming, Master." Then Breen got off his haunches and began moving around to the other side of Toutouye's camp, toward the northwest.
Sure enough, Nason Greythistle arrived at the edges of the property. He approached Woe when he spotted him in the garden, and waved a hand. When Woe saw the bruise over his eye, he became alarmed slightly. He rose from the ground, and went over toward Nason, "Nason, did something happen to your eye?"
Nason smiled, and shrugged, "Nothing to worry about. Just a training mishap with Giselde. She caught me with her fist after a bad grapple." He snickered, "Free drinks for a month is worth all the black-eyes. She was so apologetic!"
Woe sighed, as Nason went over to inspect his garden. But he supposed Nason malingering over an eye was the least of the Order's troubles these days.
Nason knelt by the garden, inspecting some of the weeds that Sod had been conversing with previously. They had white petals, with a yellow inner stamen, and green stem. Nason looked up to him, "Chamomile. A common enough weed, but surprisingly useful if processed properly. I should teach you how., but first the order of the day was to inspect your garden, correct?"
Nason hummed to himself as he combed through the weeds, checking them for other herbs and weeds of interest. Sod approached from the ground, the tiny ape crawling with his lengthy arms and stubby legs until it got right under Nason's area of inspection. Of course, the healer didn't see him, because Sod didn't reveal himself to the man.
At the sight of a brick-red flower, Nason went 'ahh' and plucked a few seeds from it. The seeds he chewed between his teeth, before spitting them out. "You have poppy flowers too. Good luck that. They can be used to make a decent pain-inhibitor."
They continued to comb through the various plantlife that inhabited Woe's garden. In the sands around the more fertile earth, they even found some aloe vera, what Nason deemed to be a very effective antiseptic, good at staving off or preventing infection. Woe was surprised, he had to admit. He had no idea that the spikey plant would be a boon to his garden, or to any of the patients of the Adunih. When he asked if they could be transplanted, the blue hood shook his head. "I'm not the best gardener for that. These are wild growths, as far as I can tell. Best to sparingly harvest them, but it's a good practice for identifying them in the field, knowing what to look for?"
He patted Woe on the shoulder as he rose to his feet, and slipped a small book into Woe's hand. "I suggest you have a look through this book, and see if you can't identify more plants and such in the surrounding area. You're very close to the Sweetwine, there's probably a wealth of plants you could find there." But for now, it seemed Woe had some reading material to go through, for his education into the Order.
Woe was alone in his bedroom which also served as an office, with a desk for space to study and write. He’d managed after some personal struggle to send Iago to sleep, or else to practice his swordplay on the dummy in his room. Gloom rested in his own room, probably crying into a pillow. Meanwhile, Botany slept on the ground nearby Woe. Yet for all that he was surrounded by his loved ones, he was isolated. The boon granted by Chamadarst ensured that he enjoyed peak concentration while engaging in his crafts, which at this moment involved studying and learning the best way to preserve herbal preparations and the way to store them.
He had the stem and flower of chamomile in his hand, a piece of wax paper, and some bottles of water. The herb was meant to be dried, but somehow this involved the use of water. At least for certain kinds of infusions and herbal concoctions. For this particular method, Woe was required to dry the herb as much as possible, as it contained a good amount of water naturally. So he set it out on sill of the glass window, to dry in the sun tomomrrow. It was placed in a jar, with perforations in the parchment cover to allow the moisture to escape as it dried in the sun over the next few days. That done, he set a few more samples of chamomile for the solar infusion.
Then he went about preparing for another form of herbal preparations. Cold infusion. This involved placing the herbal concoctions into the water, cold water, and letting it sit overnight. It sounded easy enough to Woe, and so he shrugged. Not unlike brewing tea, really. In fact, it reminded him very much of his time in Nashaki, learning the finger points of tea brewing.
Next, he worked on a decoction, using the root, stem, and seeds of the chamomile. One ounce of herbs into a quarter of water, into a pan that he would cover and then boil over an open fire. He placed it over the fireplace, and lit the coals beneath after opening the flume.
A few bits later, he had a viable liquid, or what he supposed was a viable liquid. He strained it out, removing the herbal material, and then placing it gently onto the cheesecloth. That done, he set the jar of liquid into a dark cabinet over his desk. He repeated these processes a few times, rereading his booklet to make sure he was following the storage procedures correctly. In the morning, he might taste test the concoctions himself, to see how horrible they’d taste. But for now, he was content to have gotten some practice under his belt.
Template by Natalia Gregorios
At least Sod got to talk to one. Maybe they’ll be friends.