• Closed • [Lake Lovalus] Seek and ye shall find

[Elowen]

This had been the second trial that Elowen walked along the great lake of Rharne. There was no way for the girl to measure time either since the clouds had obscured both suns. But by the way the straps of her back pack were digging into her shoulders like never before, Elowen assessed she had been searching for a long time. And still, there had been no sighting of the Light Agira that the young apothecary came out here to collect.

She didn't even need that much - just one fully blooming head was enough to last her an arc if not longer. Meira had told her much about this rare herb and its uses. It was of great importance to some of the most potent remedies that came out of the shack. But now, the stock had near been exhausted. So Elowen had no choice but to keep walking along the shore until she had found one of these plants.

It could have been mere bits longer. It could have been a break. But just as Elowen was about to give up, she noticed a point of luminiscence in the white haze that clung to the ground at places around the lake.

"Yes!" Elowen triumphed quietly and navigated the distance, entering the low lying fog, careful about her footing. Meira told her about the slight luminescent quality and in such conditions as to-trial, it was the only thing Elowen was looking for. Unless she was going to stumble on the plant by accident or luck, neither of which she trusted.

The girl put her pack down and rummaged around for a moment to find her harvesting knife. Her victorious smile soon turned into a frown as she considered the plant. It was the size of a lettuce head and Elowen couldn't see a stem she could cut. Meira also warned her about the spines along the leaves, but the girl couldn't see those either. Perhaps this one didn't have them.

Without knowing any better, the girl reached for the Agira to grab and tilt it to the side to expose the stem. But the second she laid her hand on it, she cried out in pain, dropping her knife.

She held her hand at the wrist, squeezing, cutting off blood flow. The pain was immediate, merciless. And it was only getting worse and worse, pulsating with the desperation of her bloodstream.

"What the..." Elowen screwed her face in pain, teeth bared, hunched over. She had to breathe. She had to somehow regain control.

As far as the pain allowed her to remember, Elowen believed the Light Agira wasn't poisonous. But Immortal's be damned, did it hurt like a kick from an ass.

Note for reviewer

According to the flora write up, it is possible to collect this plant even if one is not at Expert level as long as one is willing to accept the risks associated with collecting. Here, I am using Elowen's Gardening (Competent) if that is of any use. Regarding recovery, I would just like to note the following but ultimately it is up to your discretion. Elowen is a healthy youngster with no allergies and skills in Medicine to treat herself - these may decrease the recovery time. However, the size and severity of the injury likely counters that. So from the range of 1-3 trials recovery, I was thinking a full recovery in 2 trials may be possible. But as mentioned, it is entirely up to your discretion.

[Vahekoh]

15th Saun, 724.

Lake Lovalus.

Vahekoh led her horse, Vahdah, along the shore of Lake Lovalus. She'd been distracted by a glimpse of something out on the lake -she wasn't sure what it had been, maybe a leaping fish of some sort?- and in her distraction she'd forgotten what she was looking for here on the lakeshore.

It was one of those days.

Vahekoh's intuition said that she had been looking for something that should not be forgotten. But, for the life of her, Vahekoh wasn't able to remember what she'd been looking for. The leaping fish of some sort had breached out of the waters, Vahekoh had looked over and had gotten distracted trying to identify it, and in those long moments of identification the thought of what she'd been looking for had gone, as fleeting as the leaping fish that was now long gone, too.

It was frustrating, her distractibility, and Vahekoh felt a headache brooding in her head.

It really was one of those days.

Trying not to let herself get distracted again, Vahekoh spoke softly to Vahdah, leading him to walk along the shore of the lake. Vahekoh did not look at the lake, thinking if she simply didn't look at it the distraction of the leaping fish would be gone from her lightly-addled mind. "What was it, what was it," she said in a low voice, trying to remember what it was that she had been looking for.

Vahdah had been listening to her as she spoke, his head grazing her shoulder as they walked. But then he lifted his head a little, his soft gaze going outward as if he were listening to something along the lakeshore.

Vahekoh listened too, looking through the light mists of the humid day, thinking that Vahdah might have somehow located the something she'd been looking for. "Maybe that's it?" she said to Vahdah in a low voice, and she led Vahdah in the direction that the horse was looking.

She had been looking for something living, Vahekoh remembered as they walked slowly through the light mists- something not only that might get lost, but that might lose itself from her, rather than her losing it. Maybe she had been hunting, she thought, and she'd been looking for some sort of game- but no, she didn't have her bow out, so she wouldn't have been hunting something. She was still trying to think what she'd been looking for, distracted by the frustration of it all, when she heard someone speak.

Startled, Vahekoh stopped abruptly, and Vahdah stopped beside her. She was sure she had not been looking for a person.

But it was a person she saw through the light mists, a girl whose age it was difficult for Vahekoh to discern. The girl was by herself, and she wore a scarf over her head in the humidity. Vahekoh's headache wouldn't get better if she tried to speak to the girl, but she tried to shove the headache into the background of her head. She wasn't what Vahekoh had been looking for, but maybe she had seen- something?

"Hello there," Vahekoh said, lifting her voice a little. The girl seemed distracted by something, looking down, and Vahekoh thought wryly that that made two of them. "Hello there," she said again, "I'm looking for-"

She stopped, not sure what to say. "-for something," she said after a short hesitation, a little lost as to how to describe something she didn't know the description of. Ilaren's sake, she thought. Sometimes she didn't think things through.

"Something living," she said, unsure of herself, and then said, "Something that might have run through here not long ago?" That wasn't a good description, was it? But what might she have been looking for, other than game, that might have run through? It wasn't a good day for clarity of thought, and she had to do something for her headache before it got worse, too.

Vahekoh stood there for a moment, lost, her thoughts flitting around her head like a school of silver fish, and then she saw what the girl herself had been distracted by. Pain. The girl was in pain. She was holding her hand, and Vahekoh wasn't sure but- maybe the girl's hand was bleeding?

"Oh," Vahekoh said, stepping a little closer to the girl to look if she really was bleeding. She shouldn't inquire, because it would be sure to distract her, but still she spoke. Maybe she wouldn't have spoken if the girl was in less pain, or was less alone out here on the Lovalus lakeline, but the girl did seem to be in pain and she did seem to be alone.

"You're bleeding?" Vahekoh said to her. The girl was gritting her teeth in pain, and Vahekoh's gaze went over her momentarily looking for other injuries, but it seemed to only be her hand. Vahekoh looked for a moment through Vahdah's saddlebags,

looking for her medical kit,

and then got the medical kit out. "I have some things here that might help," Vahekoh said. "Bandages- things like that."

[Elowen]

Holding her hand so tight was not a good idea. Elowen realized it as soon as prickles of blood started showing up all over her palm and fingers. She released the pressure on her wrist and as blood rushed into the limb, the throbbing made the pain even worse. Elowen moaned, then gritted her teeth.

In her little bubble of agony, she did not even realize that someone had approached her. Elowen heard the second hello which alerted her to the fact that there was someone else nearby. She raised her gaze, tight grimace on her face, to see a young woman with a shock of unruly coppery hair. The colour alone brought the girl partly out of her state of extreme discomfort.

Still cradling her injured hand, Elowen tried to focus on that and what the woman was saying. It was in Common but somehow disjointed, therefore simpler to grasp in her current state. Still, the girl dropped her gaze and closed her eyes. Refocusing on the woman's voice, that slow way of speaking as she seemed to try to remember something, seemed to help Elowen to get herself back under control to a greater extent than if she had to battle it on her own.

By the time she opened her eyes again, she was breathing more regularly with her thoughts more or less in order and not zoomed in on the countless tiny pinpricks all over her hand. She noticed that the woman was by her side with a medical kit. Elowen smiled in gratitude albeit with a little tightness around the corners of her mouth. She didn't look directly at the woman but gave her a nod regardless.

"Thank you," she whispered, feeling a fool. She was meant to be more careful than that. She was meant to know better. But there she was, with her left hand rendered useless for who knew how long and a stranger providing her with help. There was nothing wrong with relying on others on occasion, Elowen had learnt. There was everything wrong with being as careless as she was to be in this position in the first place.

She settled cross-legged by the Light Agira and opened the kit. Then she pulled her own pack closer. Not meaning to take more from the stranger than needed, Elowen picked out only one rolled bandage before returning the kit to the woman. She fished around with her healthy hand in her pack for a while until she pulled out a strip of cloth and two herbs. One was a whole fresh plant - a horsetail that Elowen gathered earlier in the trial as though by some twisted strike of luck. That should help her with the bleeding. She also had a small pouch of dried calendula petals to reduce the pain and possible inflammation. Whenever out in the field, Elowen always brought with herself some herbs from the shack as sort of precaution for these kinds of moments. But they were never full-fledged remedies. So she would have to treat herself properly when back at the shack in...two or three trials. The girl grimaced at the prospect of that.

Then Elowen laid the dried petals on the piece of cloth, then popped the horsetail in her mouth and began to chew. There was no other way for her to soften the plant enough into making a poultice. She did not bring her mortar and pestle because why would she? She wasn't expecting to get injured this badly. When she had chewed enough of the horsetail to spread a thin, irregular layer over the cloth, she applied it to her hand and secured it with a bandage, ending up with fish like fin instead of a functional limb. She was not a doctor nor a skilled caretaker and her wound was so awkwardly spread out across her palm and fingers that Elowen did not see a better way of dressing it. She tried not to think much about any of that, however, lest the heat of anger at herself was reignited.

Then she realized the other woman was still nearby and she had asked her something earlier. The girl laid her hands in her lap as she frowned, trying to remember.

"Something live running here?" She asked and thought, looking at the ground in front of her legs. Then she shook her head. "No, sorry. Not seen anything." Her voice was soft. Then she chanced a look at the young woman, called by the shade of her hair but also something else - gratitude for a stranger's kindness. There was a soft, and somewhat embarrassed smile on the girl's face. "Thank you. For bandage." It was at that point that Elowen noticed the horse and nothing else. Was she travelling by herself too? It was a nice horse as far as Elowen's knowledge of horses went. She liked the creature straight away and found its posture and the way it seized them up to have a spark of cleverness in it.

Her frame relaxed a little now that the height of the agony was gone and her eyes swept back to the cursed herb she was trying to gather. Her gathering knife laid on the ground where she had dropped it. Elowen contemplated the Agira for a moment, then pressed her lips together. How would one gather something that had invisible spikes? She huffed. Leather. Some tough material to protect the skin from the spikes. But she had none of that and the questions she could have asked the woman got stuck in her throat. Could she ask a stranger for more help than they have already given? She stole a quick glance in the woman's direction. It took a few look moment during which Elowen nearly spoke a few times until finally, the need and necessity pushed her. She couldn't leave without the Agira.

"Have you...leather? Glove? Something? To...grab it." Elowen asked in her broken Common, using her only healthy hand to hopefully supplement information where it could be missing in her words.

[Vahekoh]

15th Saun, 724.

Lake Lovalus.

The girl's wound was odd, and Vahekoh watched as the girl used both Vahekoh's medical kit and her own bag to tend to the odd wound.

What sort of wound was it? Vahekoh wondered. She knelt beside the girl on the rocky lakeline, looking more closely- but, not so close as to make the girl uncomfortable, she thought. She'd never seen a wound like it, a wound that was not one wound but many, many. The girl's palm was covered in little pinpricks, the blood welling in many, many little spots, and Vahekoh looked dubiously at the knife lying on the ground. She had initially thought the girl's wound was a knife wound, but now she doubted that it was.

The other thing lying on the ground was some sort of odd plant, and Vahekoh glanced at it momentarily, just as dubiously as she had looked at the knife, before looking back to the girl.

She seemed hesitant to Vahekoh, hesitant to look at Vahekoh and hesitant to invite help. It would have been better, Vahekoh thought, if the girl had invited her to help her. But as it was, Vahekoh watched quietly as the girl got out some herbs from her own bag, biting off a bit of green frond to grind to a paste in her mouth, and getting out some sort of petal. Vahekoh thought of saying something when the girl went to bandage her wounded hand, one-handed, without help. But thinking of the girl's hesitancy she didn't, simply watching the girl as she worked.

It seemed to Vahekoh that the girl knew a bit of medicine, though her medical ability was limited in this moment. It was difficult to work medicine on yourself- it was more difficult to work medicine on yourself one-handed.

Vahekoh glanced at the remnants of the green-fronded plant the girl had bitten off. There was some sort of information to be gleaned from the plant, but with her distractibility and her head pain, it took Vahekoh a bit to process it.

Oh, she thought when she'd processed it. It had been a whole plant.

Like the whole plant lying on the ground by the knife.

Vahekoh was having a bad day for thought but it didn't matter- one plus one was two. She guessed that the girl was out here gathering plants. Vahekoh guessed, too, that somehow the plant lying on the ground had wounded her when she'd gone to gather it.

It was a bit dubious to her that the plant might have wounded her like it did. The plant looked prickly, but at a glance it did not look so prickly that it would have made such a wound.

But, Vahekoh didn't know the plant. It might have some sort of defense.

Vahekoh spoke. "If the plant is poisonous, you should go to the Order," she said. Was the plant poisonous? It was difficult to know, because lots of plants looked alike but had different properties. There were lots of plants that looked alike, but one plant was poisonous, and one was not. "If there is one bit of doubt whether the plant is poisonous, it would be better to have the wound looked at," Vahekoh said.

When the girl spoke she spoke in Common, though she spoke Common like someone who spoke Gernevoir. The girl said something-

"Something live running here? No, sorry. Not seen anything."

-and Vahekoh said distractedly, "Hmm?"

Didn't see something? she thought to herself. Her thoughts were distracted by the girl's wound, and for a long moment she didn't know why the girl had said what she did.

But then, "Oh!" she said. Vahekoh had been looking for something, before! For a moment thoughts of before tried to distract her from the girl's wound, and Vahekoh stopped momentarily to grasp at them. But the thoughts flitted through her mind's grasp, and Vahekoh's head was hurting. It was not a good day for distraction.

"Oh, what I was looking for before-" Vahekoh said. She stopped, but then said, "I'd guess it's long gone by now."

The girl seemed to be thinking something, and Vahekoh waited while she thought. In time, the girl questioned if Vahekoh had something leather to grasp the prickly plant with.

It wasn't simple. She didn't have leather hide with her, nor did she have leather gloves. But her bags -Vahdah's saddlebags, as well as the bag for her medical kit- were leather bags.

It wasn't simple, but it wasn't difficult. "I'll let you borrow the medical bag," Vahekoh said.

It took her a couple of bits, but Vahekoh shifted the things in one of Vahdah's little saddlebags to one of the large ones, and then shifted the things in the medical kit to the little saddlebag. She wore the medical bag over her hand momentarily; the medical bag was large enough to wear as a makeshift glove. It was large enough to hold the whole plant once it was gathered, too, if the girl needed to borrow the medical bag to bring the prickly plant home.

Vahekoh gave the medical bag over to the girl, going back to Vahdah's saddlebags to get out the cloth coat she hadn't been wearing in this heat and humidity. The cloth coat was where Vahekoh had the little loosely-bound book of her writings.

Getting the little book out, Vahekoh knelt once more to begin to write. She thought maybe the girl would think it odd, but it was Vahekoh's way of getting things done- and of remembering to do things.

15th Saun, 724, she wrote.

Met a girl by Lake Lovalus. Didn't get the girl's name, but she's wearing a headscarf. The girl was pricked all over the palm by some sort of prickly-leaved plant. I'm letting the girl borrow the leather bag from the medical kit to gather the prickly plant.

I shifted things so that the medical kit things are in the little saddlebag. The things in the little saddlebag are in one of the large saddlebags- look at the list to move the things back, when I've got the leather bag back. She underlined that she was to look at the list and move the things back when the girl was done borrowing the medical bag.

Vahekoh thought a moment, then wrote, Will bring the girl to the Order in Rharne if she thinks she should go to the Order. Otherwise, what? Bring the girl to her home?

She guessed so. It wouldn't be right to leave the girl here, wounded, one-handed.

"If you need the medical bag to bring the plant with you, you're welcome to borrow it," Vahekoh said when she was done writing. She buttoned the little book back into the cloth coat's pocket, and then tied the cloth coat carefully about her waist. "But I'd like the bag back, Vahekoh said.

"I guess- I guess I'd like to know what you're doing now? Going to the Order, gathering more plants, going home? If you'd like help going to the Order or going home, I've got Vahdah here," she said, touching the horse gently on the shoulder.

Bringing the girl to the Order or to her home wasn't what Vahekoh had thought she'd be doing today, but then- what was it she'd thought she'd be doing?

[Elowen]

Elowen shook her head. Now that she was able to think clearer, she remembered the warning from Meira. "Not poisonous," she said. "Only when black." This Agira was white, as it should be. And that was a relief because the girl had nothing in her backpack for poisons. What seemed to have happened to her hand was a simple but multiple puncture wounds that possibly required only the poultice.

Over their interaction, Elowen's intuition began to awaken, alerting the girl that something unusual was going on. The woman, even though coherent, did not seem to be quite all with it. Elowen didn't know why but she noted it to herself regardless even though her mind was occupied by the Agira and its harvesting for the most part. So she asked about the leather.

The young apothecary saw the other woman think for a moment and she realized that having leather might not be so common. Come to think of it, Elowen didn't really have anything leather on her most of the time. But she was in for a surprise. Where Elowen was single-minded with little consideration for reality, the woman came with a suggestion that might just work - the medical bag. Ingenious. Perhaps need would have pushed Elowen to innovate also if she were alone, but as of there and then, she was both glad and guilty after she saw the amount of hassle it took to free up the medical bag.

Elowen took it, however, with an apologetic smile. So she whispered a quiet thank you, then looked at the plant, the bag now in her lap, her fin-hand...and back again.

As she was considering how to tackle this task essentially one-handed, it was then that she noticed the woman kneeling down, opening a book and writing in it. Elowen couldn't write, nor read but it was curious that one would do so in the open, at this precise moment. The girl watched the focus on the woman's face as though she was recording something very important and she wondered what it was, though she knew very well it was none of her business.

She quickly looked away when the woman finished and tried to refocus on solving the current puzzle, masking that she was, quiet unashamedly, staring moments earlier. The girl nodded at the woman's words considering all of her options.

"The Order not needed," she said. And home wasn't an option just yet.

"Thank you for bag. I return it. Promise. But..." and Elowen sort of spread her hands out to indicate the pickle in which she had found herself again. "Can help...little more?" It was clear she needed the help but was shy to ask for it. She didn't want to inconvenience the other any more than she already had, but she also had little choice.

If the woman agreed, Elowen would place the bag carefully over the head of the Agira, preferring to be the one to get another injury instead of the 'innocent' bystander. When the head was successfully covered, Elowen would pull on it, risking more prickles should they poke through the leather bag. Once the stem was exposed, Elowen passed the knife to the woman. With the cut done, the Agira slipped into the bag.

If the woman, however, did not agree, Elowen would attempt to pull the same move, but holding the knife in her fin-hand, slowly and rather clumsily working away at the stem, possibly damaging some of the lower lying leaves.

Either way, when the prize was in the bag, Elowen smiled. There was a clear relief on her face and her shoulders relaxed.

"Thank you...again," she repeated. Then she looked towards the woman. This time making a brief eye contact. Every good deed needed to be repaid, however. She remembered that from an acquaintance of many, many trials ago. But also, Elowen would feel bad if she were to just take, take and not give. It wasn't in her nature...or profession.

"Me help you? Apothecary." And she tapped her chest with the tips of her fingers, hoping there was something she could do for the other.

[Vahekoh]

15th Saun, 724.

Lake Lovalus.

Vahekoh looked at the girl doubtfully when she said the prickly plant was not poisonous because it was poisonous, "Only when black." Vahekoh did not much like this bit of information. With poison, she thought, was it not better to be safe than sorry? She thought of insisting that the girl go to the Order, because she would not like the girl to be sorry- but, then, she thought doubtfully, who was she to insist?

Her own lack of ability in both medicine and herbalism, compared with the girl's seeming ability in both, stopped her insisting.

The wound itself would not to difficult to heal, Vahekoh thought. She was weighing her doubt with her surety. She was sure it wasn't a difficult wound, in itself.

She wouldn't insist the girl go to the Order.

Having written what she needed to write, Vahekoh glanced over at the girl- and thought that she had been looking at her. Had she been looking? Did she think that the writing was weird? It was difficult for Vahekoh to know what was weird and what wasn't. Then the girl spoke.

Oh, Vahekoh thought. She hadn't thought it through that the girl wouldn't be able to gather the prickly plant one-handed. Of course she wouldn't- not without difficulty. It was the same as when she had tried to bandage her wounded hand one-handed.

It had been pretty thoughtless of Vahekoh not to think it all through. But, Vahekoh's thoughtlessness gave the girl the opportunity to invite her to help. "I'll help," Vahekoh said, glad the girl had invited her this time.

This time was the first time that Vahekoh got a pretty good look at the prickly plant. Her thought before had been that the plant was odd, and the more she looked at the plant the odder it was to her. It looked like some sort of flower, but with the flower's petals being the prickly-pointed leaves. The plant itself was a pretty thing, very like a flower, but prickly and -Vahekoh had learned from the girl's wounding- sharp.

Was it the leaves that had pricked the girl, or something different about the plant? Vahekoh wondered a bit, too, about the plant's color- the girl had said that the plant was poisonous when it was black. But, it wasn't black now. What did that say about the plant's color- that it was sometimes black and sometimes not?

Vahekoh watched as the girl worked the medical bag over the plant before grasping it with her unwounded hand. She winced when the girl grasped it, wondering if the leather bag would work, but it seemed to her that the leather was working- and why not? The girl had seemed to think it should. With the medical bag over the plant, the girl tilted the plant to the side.

Oh, Vahekoh thought. The plant needed to be cut.

Before, she'd thought that the prickly plant was simply lying on the ground- she'd thought that the girl had cut it, before she'd gotten there. But, it was still rooted to the rocky ground. Vahekoh hesitated a moment, not liking the thought of being pricked by the plant. Thoughts of poison, of the plant being black and not-black, flitted in her head. But its prickles were hidden by the medical bag.

With the medical bag over it, Vahekoh cut through the stem, severing it from its roots. The prickly plant slipped into the medical bag, and Vahekoh sighed in relief.

But, looking at the prickly plant in the bag, Vahekoh saw something about the plant that she hadn't seen before.

In the dark of the bag, the plant seemed to have some sort of soft glow to it. Vahekoh blinked, thinking maybe her eyes were playing tricks, but no. The plant was glowing.

"What-" she said, bewildered. "What sort of plant is this? Is it-" She looked at the glowing plant cautiously, before the girl closed the medical bag. "Is it magic?" she said, cautious.

It had to be magic, didn't it? What sort of plant glowed with a soft white light, other than a plant that was magic?

Vahekoh's thoughts flitted about her head, thoughts of bewilderment and doubt and information and distractibility. There were so many thoughts moving about so quickly in her mind, the thoughts like little silver fish in dark and confusing waters, that she had difficulty listening when the girl said something. "Hmm?" Vahekoh said, trying to bring herself out of the dark, dark waters of her mind.

It took her a moment, but then she realized what the girl had said.

She'd thanked her, and though it took her a moment longer than it should have, Vahekoh spoke. "I'm glad to be of help," she said.

There was a moment-long delay when the girl said she would help Vahekoh, but when Vahekoh realized what the girl had said this time, she looked over at her with a look of surprise. This time, what the girl had said let Vahekoh hone in on one of her silver-fish thoughts- the thought of medicine, of treatment. She grasped the little fish tightly, not letting it flit through her grasp.

"You're an apothecary," she said, the surprise in her voice, though when she thought about it she shouldn't be surprised. She'd noted before the girl's ability in both medicine and herbalism.

"What sort of apothecary are you?" Vahekoh said, wondering if the girl's treatments were general, meant to treat general aches and pains and illnesses, or specific- some apothecaries were specialist. But, if the girl was a generalist apothecary-

Well, Vahekoh was looking for a good apothecary, wasn't she? She didn't much like going to the apothecary in the Dust Quarter. The old woman there knew too much about the girl Vahekoh had once been- the girl that Vahekoh did not know at all.

"Do you have treatments for head pain?" Vahekoh said. She winced a little as she said it. "I'm looking for a good apothecary for my head pain. I have herbs I use to treat it, but I'm always looking for more treatments. Where- whereabouts is your apothecary located?" she wondered.

[Elowen]

Elowen had set the prickly herb next to her as though it was a harmless ball of defanged snakes, but snakes nonetheless. Relief washed over her with a sense of completion and gratitude. Her whole body let go of the tension. She shook her head when the woman asked if the plant was magic.

"Herb," she said and then searched for the right words in Common. "It make other herb stronger." But then a small smile curved her lips. She understood why the other was taken with the Light Agira and that glow in the center. She could imagine that at night and without the misty haze around, it would be a rather stunning sight like seeing little stars dotted around Lake Lovalus.

The young apothecary then turned her attention back to the woman. She was getting braver with where she looked, bouncing her gaze from the ground to scouting the woman's body language. With the way the woman spoke, Elowen couldn't help but notice how difficult it seemed for the bronze haired lady to stay present in the moment. It was like she was distracted most of the time, if not all the time. Elowen had never met someone like that before and it made her wonder if the woman just had a lot on her mind. But then the urgency present in the body of someone who was preoccupied, it wasn't there with her new companion. Maybe the woman was just slower.

So Elowen nodded when her profession was stated again, but shortly after frowned. What sort of an apothecary? Were there more than one? Meira never talked about specializations. Did they have a specialization? Elowen did not think they did, but she was unsure. She had never questioned what she did or whether it was special. Now she wondered. So rather than giving the woman a false answer, Elowen chose not to address that particular question and instead focus on what was asked after.

"I have herbs for that. Not...the correct ones here. But..." And she held up her finger and stood up. She scanned the shore line up and down. She remembered seeing Valerian at some point. There was also a willow further back the way she came, but that would need to be boiled. The woman could at least chew on the Valerian which could ease some of the discomfort. That could be temporary solution until Elowen was back at the shack. Then she could make a proper remedy. Granted the woman was willing to go all the way to Mistral Woods for it. After all, Elowen did not know which way the other was going. And though a thought flitted through her head that maybe the woman did not know, she discarded such a nuisance. Surely, someone did not just forget, out of blue, where they were going.

Either way, if the other did not want to go to Mistral, then Elowen could tell her what herbs were best for head pains.

"Ah!" she pointed at the Valerian when she spotted it at last. "That good for pains. Raw help ease discomfort. Shack in Mistral Woods. There I prepare proper remedy. If you go with me?" Her last sentence was spoken in a weak and uncertain tone.

[Vahekoh]

15th Saun, 724.

Lake Lovalus.

When the girl said that the glowing plant was not magic, that it was an herb, and that it made other herbs stronger, Vahekoh brought out her little book of writings. She wrote down,

The girl by Lake Lovalus said that the prickly plant is an herb that makes other herbs stronger. Go back to Lake Lovalus to get some information about the prickly plant, and maybe go back to get some of it. It might be good for strengthening the herbs that treat my head pain.

"Do you know the name of the plant?" Vahekoh asked the girl. She stopped a moment, getting her thoughts about the prickly plant together, and then wrote what she thought would be a good description of the plant. If she wrote a good descripion, she would be able to use the description to identify the prickly plant when she got back to Lake Lovalus.

The plant is prickly-leaved, she wrote. It is pretty to look at. It looks somewhat like a flower, but with the petals of the flower being the plant's prickly leaves. It has a light glow about it, though the girl said that the glow is not magic. The plant grows on the shores of Lake Lovalus, growing low to its roots on the lake's rocky lakeline. The girl said the prickly plant is poisonous when it is black. It is sharp, prickly, and will do damage with or without its blackness, its poison. It should be gathered with leather to stop it pricking, severed at the base of the plant about the roots.

Vahekoh read the description she'd written, her lips shaping the words as she read. There had been something gnawing at her when she wrote and it gnawed at her when she read the words, something that would have helped her write a botanically good description of the prickly plant. But what was the something? She looked through her other writings momentarily, looking for the something, the something. But she didn't know what it was.

What was it?

In her mind's eye, the something was- it was a piece of loose paper. But there was only one piece of loose paper in Vahekoh's little book of writings, and that one was the list of her things, her belongings. The list of her belongings was there to help her; when she had the list, she wouldn't forget what things she had with her and where those things were- in her saddlebags, in her other bags, or otherwise. She looked at the list of her belongings momentarily, but the list wasn't it, it wasn't the something that would help her write a botanically good description.

What was it?

It was when she'd read the description of the prickly plant twice, and looked through her little loosely-bound book of writings twice, that Vahekoh realized she was getting lost in the looking. Vahekoh stopped, drawing in a big breath, and then loosing it. She drew a second breath and loosed it. The something was still gnawing at her, gnawing like a dog with a bone, but the girl was here and Vahekoh was here, and she wouldn't let herself get lost in the gnawing. If the girl hadn't been there she likely would have gone through the little book over and over and over. Looking, looking, looking til she located what she was looking for, or the light of the day died out.

Was it Saun; would the light die?

But the girl was here, and Vahekoh brought her gaze away from the gnawing, the gnawing, from the little book of writings, and she looked at the girl. "I'm sorry," she said, her voice a little bit weak. She didn't think the girl would understand what it was like -was this weird? too weird?- but still she said weakly, "I got lost there for a moment. In the- in the words."

Oh, her head. She dropped her head into her hands, the little book of writings dropping in her lap. Her head hurt.

Get it together, Vahekoh, she thought.

Oh, she thought.

Vahekoh.

"I didn't-" she said, looking at the girl. "I didn't think to give my name before, or get your name." She'd not thought of it before because the girl's hand had been wounded, and thought of normal things, like giving and getting names, had been gone from Vahekoh's mind. "I'm Ekoh," she said.

"What's your name?" she asked, and if the girl gave it, she would write down the girl's name and that she was an apothecary out of the Mistral Woods.

Vahekoh still didn't know what sort of apothecary the girl was. But, based on how the girl had immediately began looking for something to help Vahekoh's head pain, she was a general apothecary.

The girl pointed out what looked to be white flowers, saying the flowers were good for pain. Good for pain, Vahekoh thought weakly, going over to the white flowers that the girl had pointed out. Her head was weak for the moment, but her body was strong. Looking at the flowers, she saw that their petals, though they looked white at a distance, were really a light, light pink.

I should write this down, Vahekoh thought, but then she thought, No, I shouldn't. If she stopped to write about the light pink flowers, trying to write a good description of the flowers like she'd tried to write a good description of the prickly plant, she would get lost in the writing. In the- in the gnawing.

Some other time, she thought. This time, she gathered some of the flowered plants like the girl instructed, if she did.

When the girl said hesitantly that Vahekoh should go with her to the Mistral Woods, Vahekoh brought out a little, strained smile. "I'd like that," she said, her voice a little bit stronger. "I'd like to get you home, too, because of your bandaged hand. I wouldn't like to leave you to tough it out yourself."

She wouldn't like to leave herself to tough it out, either.

[Elowen]

And there it was again. The little book. Its appearance was sudden this time so Elowen did not almost have a chance to look away. And so she didn't. She looked at the woman writing something down and made up her mind that it must had been some sort of notes. The woman must had been out here studying the world. What else? A little curl twisted her lips. Elowen did that from time to time too. But since she couldn't write, she drew instead. To remember. To record the world so that if ever a part of it disappeared, it would not be forgotten.

A shiver ran over her and she looked down. How close had Idalos come to disappearing? How close did Rharne? Elowen took in a breath, holding onto the moment rather than the implications of her thoughts. Not now. Not ever, if it were up to Elowen, did she want to remember how close Rharne was to burning down. And who had almost caused it.

Thankfully, the other spoke, distracting the girl enough from her inner fights. Elowen nodded, then frowned. "Only in Gernevoir," Elowen admitted. "Light Agira." She tried to pronounce clearly for the woman to at least catch the sounds. Then she gave an apologetic smile and avoided eye contact. "Sorry, cannot spell. Cannot write." Elowen was not embarrassed about her lack of literacy. The lack of writing skill never bothered her. She had her memory and her drawings. She was just ashamed that she could not be of more help to the other woman. She liked the idea of writing things down. Maybe one trial.

Elowen began packing her harvesting knife, tying the secured Agira to the side of her backpack whilst the other seemed to be preoccupied with her book of letters. When the rustle of papers continued, the girl glanced towards the woman. Something was off. Elowen could not place it, however. But there was a thread running through the other's behaviour which was as bright as ray of light, yet also as elusive. This woman...the way she behaved was odd. Not in a bad way. She did not think the other was dangerous. Just...away. Whatever that meant.

Then the other looked at Elowen and the girl twitched a little, realizing that she was staring again. She averted her gaze and shook her head, hoping to put the other at ease without words. When the other mentioned being lost in the words, Elowen rose her eyebrows a little, then shook her head again.

"It ok. Me lost sometimes too." Though she had a nagging feeling that their kinds of lost were rather different. Then the other dropped her head into her hands and Elowen felt a pang herself. Ther was something desperate in the woman. So much so it plucked at Elowen's heart. She dared to walk closer to the other and lowered herself back to the ground.

This time the girl looked more directly at the other and nodded. "Ekoh," she repeated. "Elowen." And she tapped her chest. "Walk a little? For root, for your pain." Her words were soft, a natural level of speech, more on the quiet and mellow side.

Once at the Valerian root, Elowen gathered mainly the leaves and passed them to the woman. "Chew. Can swallow too. But chew first. No taste. Then swallow." Then she lifted the rest of the stash. "More for later."

When Ekoh agreed to go with her to Mistral, Elowen's face brightened with a smile as she was now pulling out a few flowers out of the ground. Then she snipped the stem just above the roots with her fingernails. If the leaves were too weak, then they could try raw roots. And if that wasn't enough, then both. Whatever to help take the edge off, Elowen thought.

Though the girl didn't quite catch all of what Ekoh said, she appreciated the tone which was willing, helpful.

She placed the Valerian stash in a pouch on her belt so it was easy to reach and nodded to Ekoh. "Go home then," she told her with a smile.

But before they set off, Elowen remembered something else. She stopped and looked around for a long while, searching. She hoped that the pup that was following her, ever since she gave it food in Rharne a few trials before, was still nearby and that it would follow. She'd hate for it to stay out here on its own.

And at that moment, as if it knew, the pup came running through the growth around the lake, bouncing onto the trail, wet. It spotted the two woman, picking its way towards them, its body bouncing left and right as it shook off the water.

Elowen giggled. "Come, come," she told it and subconsciously tapped her right thigh. The black pup barked and followed.

[Vahekoh]

15th Saun, 724.

Lake Lovalus.

The girl, whose name was Elowen, pronounced the name of the prickly plant in Gernevoir. Vahekoh knew immediately that she would not be able to remember the name of the prickly plant, not in Gernevoir, but she spoke the name of the plant to herself, anyway. It was still worth speaking; it was still worth knowing, in this moment. She spoke Elowen's name to herself, as well.

Having spoken the names, she wrote Elowen's name, as well as a very, very bad interpretation of the prickly plant's name -written as well as Vahekoh could write a Gernevoir word in Common- in her little book of writings.

"Thank you," Vahekoh said to the girl -to Elowen- and they walked over to the light pink flowering plant that Elowen had pointed out, the plant that the apothecary said would treat Vahekoh's head pain.

The pain, Vahekoh thought, was darkening like the dark clouds of a storm sweltering in the distance, and it was a bit worrying to her. But, she believed Elowen when she said that the flowering plant's leaves would help her. Vahekoh took the leaves, grinding them between her back teeth to break them down. They didn't have much of a taste, they simply tasted like leaves, but Vahekoh had tasted a lot of bad-tasting plants in her time. These were simple, green-tasting, with a darker earthiness that wasn't good but wasn't bad. Vahekoh washed the leaves down with a drink of water from her waterskin.

With Elowen gathering the flowering plant's leaves and roots, Vahekoh stood beside Vahdah, her horse, simply letting the girl work. Vahekoh would have been writing it all down, but it was better not to write for the moment. To stop herself writing, she stood still with her eyes shut and breathed softly, listening to the leaves whispering their secrets to Elowen as she gathered them- listening too to Vahdah's bellow-like breathing beside her.

Elowen said it was time to go home, and Vahekoh scritched Vahdah on his side, saying softly to him, "It's time to go."

But, not before one last thing.

A little black dog, little because it was a young dog, bounded out of the bushes, surprising Vahekoh and Vahdah both. But while the horse was displeased by the little black dog, who was sopping wet with lake water and shaking it onto Vahdah's legs, Vahekoh looked at the black dog and said, "Oh." Her head hurt but something was significant about the little black dog. "I think I saw your dog, before," she said to Elowen.

Dog, dog. Had Vahekoh- had she been looking for something, before she'd met Elowen? She thought she had been? She'd been looking for something- something that had led her along the lakeshore? Had she seen the little black dog, lost sight of it, and went looking for it- leading her to the little black dog's girl, the girl in her plant gathering? Maybe, maybe, but Vahekoh's head pain was too dark at the moment, and the timeline of the little black dog too distacting, to give it too much thought.

But, Vahekoh said, "Maybe I saw him, before. I think, maybe, he led me to you."