Willow's Point of View

The long trudge back into town was all the time I needed to go from calm and collected to a ball of anxiety. How could I have agreed to something so ridiculous?

I Just Wanted a Peaceful Life, but Now I Have to Stop the Demon Lord and His Entire Army! was a famous book series. People had been waiting years to see how it finally ended, so it wasn't something an amateur like me should be writing. Not at all.

I pulled open the door to our shop, inhaling the calming scents of honey and ginger. Gran must have been cooking a new batch of cough syrup. I hurried inside, dropping my bag behind the counter. I'd find a way to tell the demon lord I'd made a mistake and couldn't write his book. Maybe I'd even get Nyssa to do it so he couldn't trick me again with those intense looks of his.

Having a demon lord look at me like I was his best chance at being happy was exhilarating...and terrifying. I didn't want to be responsible for somebody else's happiness like that, keeping track of my own life and Gran's was enough for me.

"Welcome home." Gran smiled at me as she stirred a pot of honey simmering on the stove. "How'd the meeting go?"

"Fine," I said, heading over to the table covered in freshly harvested yarrow and twine as if she'd been in the middle of bundling them up to dry. "He liked my book."

"That's great!" The corners of her eyes crinkled as her smile grew. "Now you'll let me read it too, right?"

"Sure."

The yarrow smelled sweet and earthy, grounding me in my work as I hung each new bundle from hooks on the ceiling. I used to lay on the floor as a child, gazing up at all the dried herbs like they were a mysterious upside-down garden. Grandpa had caught me doing it once and joined me, telling me wonderful stories about the tiny fairies who dried the plants out for us.

I'd spent the next few years trying to spot one until I realized he was kidding.

If only he were still here. He could help me come up with something great for the demon lord's story. He never wrote any of his stories down, but he loved to brainstorm and think of all the possibilities. They were my happiest memories of him, gardening or mixing medicines while we talked about fantastical worlds and fictional people. Work never felt like work when he was there.

"Are you okay?" Gran asked softly, joining me at the table. "You said he liked your story, so why do you seem so sad?"

I sighed. Gran never missed a thing. I should just tell her what happened and see if I could get out of it somehow. I hung another bundle of yarrow up, its delicate leaves soft against my skin, before grabbing the flyer from my bag to show Gran.

"There's a contest to finish the demon lord's story?" Her eyes widened as she read it. "Are you going to enter?"

"Apparently, yes." I sank onto a chair, fiddling with a piece of twine on the table. "The demon lord kind of asked me to."

Gran paused for a while before answering, her forehead creasing. "Why don't you seem happy about that?"

"I mean, I'm flattered, but there's way too much pressure for that final book to be amazing. There's no way I'm writing it."

The bell above the door chimed as one of our regulars came in, a young professor at the university who taught a class on caring for magical creatures. I usually preferred delivering his order so I'd get to play with whatever creatures he had for class at the time, but he was here earlier than I'd anticipated.

The dark circles under his eyes and pale skin told me everything I needed to know. He wasn't sleeping, even with our best sleeping drafts.

"We'll talk more about this later," Gran whispered before turning toward the professor. "Welcome, Professor Ashford. How have you been sleeping lately? Are these still working well?"

So she'd noticed the dark circles then too. I busied myself gathering up all the sleeping drafts we'd made for him earlier, boxing them up for easy carrying.

"Yes and no." He winced, glancing between me and Gran. "One of the slimes I'm caring for might have drank some of them. Okay, a lot of them." He held his hands up. "It's fine, no need to worry. The slime loves the valerian root inside your tonics and proceeded to sleep all cozy by the fire like it was mocking me."

I raised an eyebrow. "And what about you? How have you been sleeping then?"

"I've been sleeping fine?" He rubbed the back of his head, smiling bashfully as he handed us the usual payment for his order. "The slimes all pile up around me and it's extremely cozy."

And yet, he still had those dark circles. Which meant he was probably watching the slimes all night instead of resting. I sighed, adding the last of his order to the box along with some valerian root as a treat for the slime. Maybe the slime would let the professor have his sleeping draft if it had its own snack too.

Gran crossed her arms, staring him down. "I expect you to take one of these every night. Lock the box if you have to to keep the slimes out, but you need your rest. If you don't, your insomnia will make you start hallucinating. Or worse."

"Or worse?" His eyes widened. "Okay. I'll be more careful."

I pressed my lips together to keep my laughter to myself. Gran was so tough sometimes, resorting to scare tactics on difficult customers. The professor needed a bit of that, otherwise he'd keep putting his beloved animals before himself. He had to realize that the only way to care for others was to take care of yourself first.

"Try some chamomile tea during the day too." I added a few bags to his order. "It's on the house."

"Oh I can't accept that." He shook his head, but it just made me add another bag. "Oh fine. Thank you."

"You helped us with the mossmews," I said, motioning to the tiny cat-like creature slinking over to him. "This is just repayment for that."

He smiled as the mossmew wove figure 8's around his legs, holding his hand out to pet her. The mossmew purred softly, leaning into his hand like they were old friends. We wouldn't have made such a good home for them without the professor giving us tips on how to keep them comfortable and what to feed them.

"They're really thriving here," he said, glancing at the back door. "Mind if I take a peek at your garden? See how the rest of them are doing?"

Gran shoved the box of medication in his arms. "Another time. Right now you need to go home and sleep."

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"But I've got class–"

"Sleep!" Gran commanded.

He sighed, nodding. "Okay, I'll cancel class today. I honestly don't know what I'd do without you, so thank you for everything."

Sometimes people just needed a little push to be kind to themselves and Gran was great at that. Once he was gone, her kind attention turned back to me.

"So tell me more about this contest," she said. "It says the family of the author will choose the winner, so they probably have a good idea what he wanted. If your story doesn't line up with that vision, they won't choose you and nobody else will see your story. So what's the harm in trying?"

That was a good point. It's not like the whole fanbase would be reading and criticizing my work, just the people closest to the author. I'd let the demon lord read my book and that hadn't gone so bad...

I glanced around the shop, noting all the empty jars and half-made medicines. This was our busiest time of the year preparing for winter when colds and fevers ran rampant. Writing a book just took too much time, time I didn't have right now.

"Did you see the deadline?" I asked, bundling up more yarrow as we talked. "It's only a month away. How anyone thought that was a good idea is beyond me."

Gran frowned as she took the simmering cough syrup off the fire to cool. The honeyed ginger smelled sweet and slightly spicy. "Isn't that the same as the Tales and Tomes Festival?"

"Yes, but I spent months planning for that before I actually wrote anything." I took the pot from her shaky hands, putting it safely on the table. She really shouldn't be lifting heavy things like that anymore. "It's been a few years since I read the demon lord's book series, so I'd have to re-read it and take notes before I could even think about planning the final book."

Gran dipped a spoon into the cough syrup, ladling it carefully into jars. The golden syrup filled the glass, sparkling warmly in the light. Every medicine we made was like a gem, vibrant and beautiful.

"But the demon lord must believe in you, right?" Gran handed me a jar to label. "That should be enough reason to try."

"Right, because having a literal character from the book eagerly awaiting my ideas is no pressure at all." I laughed, writing the date and medication type on the bottle in clear letters. "I just don't have time right now."

Before she could answer, the bell above the door chimed again. I raised my eyebrows, giving her a "you see?" look. If we were too busy to even finish this conversation in peace, then we were too busy for me to take time off to write a book. The demon lord would just have to find another writer. Gran shook her head and kept jarring up cough syrup, so I turned to greet the new customer instead.

"Welcome to Fern and Fable Apothecary," I said warmly as a woman around my age walked in, heavily armed. She looked familiar, but I couldn't place where I'd seen her before. "What can we help you with?"

"I'm looking to stock up on potions for an expedition the adventurers' guild is going on." She handed me a rather long list of tonics, salves, and potions, most of which we didn't have on hand. "The guild master said you were the best place to go."

"Ah, yes, of course," I said, waving her inside. "How is Master Carmine doing? He usually comes to place orders himself."

She smiled, looking around the shop curiously. "He's doing well, just busy. I'm his daughter, Jade."

Yes of course, that's where I knew her from. She was the adventurer who'd been causing Nyssa some grief at the library. I remembered her being at the festival though, so they must have patched things up. I really should volunteer at the library more often, catch up with Nyssa and see how everyone was doing.

If only free time wasn't so hard to come by.

I passed the list to Gran so she could look it over while I started writing down how much each item would cost and totaling it all up.

"This is a big list, dear," Gran said. "What's the guild up to that they need so many supplies?"

"Training new members," Jade said proudly. "We're taking them out to the Ironroot Dungeon for a month to see how they do. You never know what's out there though, so we wanted to be prepared. Can't have anyone dying on my watch." She laughed a bit at that, but then seemed to realize we hadn't joined in. She worried her lip. "So anyway, we'd need it in a few weeks. Think you can handle that?"

It was a lot to add onto our already full plate, but Gran just nodded and smiled. "Of course, we'll send for you when it's ready."

"Sounds great," Jade said, smiling. "What do I owe you?"

I finished adding it up and handed her a slip. "We know the guild master's good for it, so you can pay us when you pick it up."

Her eyes widened, but she just nodded. "Thanks, that's kind of you."

The bell chimed again as she ducked outside. I rolled my sleeves up, gathering everything we'd need to start making the first item on the list.

"What are you doing?" Gran asked. "We're not done talking yet."

I froze, arms full of ingredients. "Well, no, but does it really even matter now? We're way too busy for me to write a silly book."

"There's nothing silly about doing something you love." She took the herbs from me, putting them back on the shelves. "You can't keep using the apothecary as an excuse not to do things. You're young and full of energy, you should be experiencing life to the fullest not working so hard you miss out on everything else."

I rubbed my temples. We'd been having this conversation more and more often lately, especially since Grandpa passed away. Gran kept wanting me to get out and try things, which I did, but none of them made me as happy as working here. Well, writing had been fun, but what was so bad about enjoying my work too?

"I really appreciate it, Gran, but the odds of my story getting picked are slim to none. What's the point of wasting all that time writing a book that's never going to get read anyway?"

Gran slammed the mortar and pestle on the table a bit too hard, making me jump. Her eyebrows knit together as she stared at me. "Willow, you can't run away just because you're afraid of failure. Putting yourself out there is hard, getting your hopes up about something you might lose is hard, but you still have to try. I know life has been rough on you with losing your parents so early–"

"Gran, stop." I shook my head, holding my hand up. "They've got nothing to do with this."

She sighed, pulling me into a quick hug. "They've got everything to do with this. So please, just give writing another chance. If not for yourself, then for me."

Gran never asked me for anything, not even when we were so busy we almost couldn't finish the orders. And the way she was looking at me right now made me feel so...unsettled. Like she was worried about me for some reason. I hated seeing that expression on her face more than anything else.

"Fine, I'll try, but only if you let me hire somebody to help out a bit here and there." I raised an eyebrow, shutting down her argument before it started. "You know you can't handle this all on your own and I won't feel right leaving you to try."

"That's fair," she mumbled. "It's not like we haven't hired some runners to help with deliveries here and there."

"More than runners, actual help." I crossed my arms, unwilling to budge on this. "You know Mila has been wanting an apprenticeship with you for years. Now's the perfect time to let her try."

"First, let's finish this up"–she motioned at the mess on the table–"and then you can go meet the demon lord to discuss his book tomorrow."

My stomach fluttered at the thought. Was I really doing this? I mean, having the demon lord's help should give me a leg up over the other writers, but still. It was such a big commitment and there were so many ways to fail.

But the satisfied smile on Gran's face got me thinking. Was the reason she hadn't retired yet because she was afraid I wouldn't be happy running this shop on my own? Like she didn't want to force the burden of it on me?

Maybe this was my chance to make both of us happy.

"You didn't say yes," I said. "I'll only write the book if you take on Mila as your apprentice."

Gran busied herself with the herbs, completely ignoring me. It was a bad habit of hers that she'd used on me far too often as a child. Eventually I'd get bored waiting and just forget about it, but not this time.

"And you need to set a retirement date."

Her hands froze, but then a wry grin stretched across her face. "When did you get so shrewd with your deals? Fine, fine, if you write the demon lord's book, then I'll take on an apprentice and retire in the spring." She scrunched up her nose, looking at the ceiling. "Or maybe the summer. No, the fall. Definitely the fall. Then I can curl up by the fire all winter watching you work."

"Gran!"

My laugh made her laugh too and soon we were back to work, having a wonderful time like usual. Being here in this shop with her brought me so much joy and I'd savor every minute of it. Even if she was planning on ordering me around from a comfy chair by the fire. At least she'd be resting.

Writing was a lot of fun, but this? This was my entire world.