grown warm.
I didn’t take long to figure out that cloths cooled with just water wasn’t going to be good enough. If one thing worked out in my favor, it was that it was winter — I dashed outside and tore some icicles hanging off of the roof of the house (standing on a bucket to help me do so) and hurried back inside, wrapping a big piece of icicle in one of the cloths. But even that wasn’t good enough — within a couple of hours, the ice had completely melted.
‘Father, I have to go into town and get a healer,’ I said, scared.
If anything, he seemed to be able to speak a little easier. ‘It’s… freezing outside, you don’t have… the supplies,’ he whispered. ‘Even if you… did, you… know we don’t have the… coin.’
‘There has to be something I can do,’ I pleaded.
Father was quiet for a moment, and then he said, ‘Stay with me.’
His deliberate tone frightened me, but I had to concede that he was right. If Agatha were still around, I could have gone to seek her help, but I didn’t even have that option.
I was so frightened for my father that I couldn’t even think straight — my mind couldn’t form a single coherent thought as to how I could help him. Finally, after my father gasped for water, I started to pull myself together. After I got him the water, I thought that some broth might be good for him, and then I decided that I would try my hand at a healing potion (although my skill has a healer was somewhat equal to my inept skill in mending tools). Interestingly enough, I knew the recipe for a rudimentary healing potion from Agatha — years ago, when I had been sick, she had helped my father tend to me. I had asked her what was in the potion, and she told me, as well as how it was made.
I tried to recall the ingredients of the potion. One I remembered immediately: Blue Heart’s flower, a fairly common plant that grew in the woods I always played in — a forest that was now covered in snow.
That realization brought on a fit of despair, but nevertheless, I tried to recall the other ingredient. Suddenly, I remembered…
‘Lion’s toe root,’ I whispered to myself. I remembered because when Agatha told me, I was instantly repulsed. Smiling, she reassured me that it wasn’t a real lion’s toe, it was the root of a Lion’s toe plant .
I had once read about it in a book and, as far as I knew, Lion’s toe was only available at the alchemist’s shop in the city.
Frustrated and terrified, I began to search for alternative solutions — when suddenly, I opened the drawer to small end table in the living room, and there it was — a Lion’s Toe plant, laying right there in the drawer.
I knew in my heart it hadn’t been there before.
I didn’t know what to think, whether it was some divine force, or whether it was my mother, or even Agatha who had somehow supplied the plant. After a moment of pointless musing, I gave up the idea of trying to figure it out.
‘Thank you,’ I whispered, to whomever it was. Somehow, Agatha seemed like the most likely candidate. Even if it wasn’t, thinking that it was her instilled me with a sense of peace, as if she was saying, ‘I forgive you.’
Now realizing what I had to do, I rushed back into my father’s room, quickly exchanging the damp cloth for one wrapped in ice. ‘Father, I’ll be back,’ I said quickly. ‘I won’t be long, I promise.’
He didn’t even have enough strength to ask me where I was going. I ran out of his room and out of the house, not even bothering to cover myself in wool to protect me from the biting cold. I ran across the fields, up the slightly inclined hill to the woods. I don’t know how I hoped to find a Blue Heart’s flower, but I had already been helped once… maybe there was another miracle waiting for me.
I desperately began digging with my hands through the snow in various places — places where I had remembered seeing the plant. But every time I reached the ground, the flower either
I didn’t take long to figure out that cloths cooled with just water wasn’t going to be good enough. If one thing worked out in my favor, it was that it was winter — I dashed outside and tore some icicles hanging off of the roof of the house (standing on a bucket to help me do so) and hurried back inside, wrapping a big piece of icicle in one of the cloths. But even that wasn’t good enough — within a couple of hours, the ice had completely melted.
‘Father, I have to go into town and get a healer,’ I said, scared.
If anything, he seemed to be able to speak a little easier. ‘It’s… freezing outside, you don’t have… the supplies,’ he whispered. ‘Even if you… did, you… know we don’t have the… coin.’
‘There has to be something I can do,’ I pleaded.
Father was quiet for a moment, and then he said, ‘Stay with me.’
His deliberate tone frightened me, but I had to concede that he was right. If Agatha were still around, I could have gone to seek her help, but I didn’t even have that option.
I was so frightened for my father that I couldn’t even think straight — my mind couldn’t form a single coherent thought as to how I could help him. Finally, after my father gasped for water, I started to pull myself together. After I got him the water, I thought that some broth might be good for him, and then I decided that I would try my hand at a healing potion (although my skill has a healer was somewhat equal to my inept skill in mending tools). Interestingly enough, I knew the recipe for a rudimentary healing potion from Agatha — years ago, when I had been sick, she had helped my father tend to me. I had asked her what was in the potion, and she told me, as well as how it was made.
I tried to recall the ingredients of the potion. One I remembered immediately: Blue Heart’s flower, a fairly common plant that grew in the woods I always played in — a forest that was now covered in snow.
That realization brought on a fit of despair, but nevertheless, I tried to recall the other ingredient. Suddenly, I remembered…
‘Lion’s toe root,’ I whispered to myself. I remembered because when Agatha told me, I was instantly repulsed. Smiling, she reassured me that it wasn’t a real lion’s toe, it was the root of a Lion’s toe plant .
I had once read about it in a book and, as far as I knew, Lion’s toe was only available at the alchemist’s shop in the city.
Frustrated and terrified, I began to search for alternative solutions — when suddenly, I opened the drawer to small end table in the living room, and there it was — a Lion’s Toe plant, laying right there in the drawer.
I knew in my heart it hadn’t been there before.
I didn’t know what to think, whether it was some divine force, or whether it was my mother, or even Agatha who had somehow supplied the plant. After a moment of pointless musing, I gave up the idea of trying to figure it out.
‘Thank you,’ I whispered, to whomever it was. Somehow, Agatha seemed like the most likely candidate. Even if it wasn’t, thinking that it was her instilled me with a sense of peace, as if she was saying, ‘I forgive you.’
Now realizing what I had to do, I rushed back into my father’s room, quickly exchanging the damp cloth for one wrapped in ice. ‘Father, I’ll be back,’ I said quickly. ‘I won’t be long, I promise.’
He didn’t even have enough strength to ask me where I was going. I ran out of his room and out of the house, not even bothering to cover myself in wool to protect me from the biting cold. I ran across the fields, up the slightly inclined hill to the woods. I don’t know how I hoped to find a Blue Heart’s flower, but I had already been helped once… maybe there was another miracle waiting for me.
I desperately began digging with my hands through the snow in various places — places where I had remembered seeing the plant. But every time I reached the ground, the flower either
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