The forest is as quiet as ever as I slowly make my way to my secret hideout. Not in a hurry today as I woke up early. Some kind of massive kerfuffle apparently happened last night and master wouldn’t shut up about it. I didn’t really pay attention, but it certainly has the adults in an uproar. Anyway, to escape I decided to just start work early. Master never complains about me being eager to work, and though he seemed unusually hesistant, waved me off without saying anything.

I gently hop over where a rabbit makes its home, barely thinking about it. The fresh smell of the morning in the forest fills my nose. It always makes me feel so happy.

In passing I note the various herbs and ingredients I’ll need to bring on my way back. I’m not sure if master is aware that I spend half the day playing before starting work, but if he doesn’t comment on it I certainly won’t point it out to him. I’ll start doing more when he notices this has become too easy. I smirk, I’m fairly certain the old man does not care one whit, and is just happy to have found someone actually interested to pass his skills on to.

To my continuing amazement, none of the other apprentices show any interest in his work, being more inclined to becoming lumberjacks like their fathers. Or… whatever it is the girls and women do. But when they make a mistake and cut themselves, who are they going to go to? It may feel like master has lived —and will live— forever, but one day he'll join the spirits too, unable to affect the living world any longer.

A small flower in a little hole next to a tree is noticed in my peripheral vision, and I feel a little jolt of joy. Got one! I rush over and carefully extract it. That’ll save me a lot of searching later. I carefully stash it in my satchel, taking care not to crumple the all important leaves.

I shake my head, these flowers are so silly. Super easy to extract and keep, but damnably hard to find. Glad today is not one of those days I spend hours after getting everything else searching for one of these. If only there was a logic to where they grew...

I’m getting closer to my hideout now, and the surroundings begin to get a bit more rocky. Trees slowly thinning out as I get closer to the outcrop in the distance. As every time, I feel a little satisfaction at knowing of this place.

All the others, kids and apprentices both, seem to think the forest is a dangerous place. No doubt instilled by their parents, who want to keep them away from falling trees. Master has no such compunctions. He couldn’t do his job without the forest, and until he found me that meant he still ventured inside nearly every day. The proximity of the forest here also means the lucky villagers have a skilled herbalist living with them.

I still think he could make a much better living in the city. Take more apprentices and send them out to gather the necessary materials. But he’s adamantly refused any such suggestions. Says you can’t be a good herbalist without living close to the land. Of course I understand that. He’s right. I just want to go to the city.

Anyhow, that’s why I get to go into the forest without fear, and all the other apprentices stay away, so while all the best spots in the village are taken, I have the whole forest to make mine. And the forest is a lot bigger. Still, it’s lucky the other kids can’t go out here. I found the cave just a few weeks after my first solo trip, so it’d have definitely been found by others if they ever went further into the forest.

As I step from the soil onto the rocks, I’m reminded of the only real negative of this place. Rocks are great, but I prefer the forest.

A minute later, I round the bend to my cave, and just a second after I do so, I freeze. My heart starts to race, and I quickly step back, peeking around the corner. Everything looks the same at first. I take a moment to really look at everything in sight, but I can’t quite understand why I feel so uneasy. I remind myself to listen to my instincts, even when I can’t explain them.

Has an animal finally taken it upon itself to lair here? I can’t believe that. To my everlasting surprise this cave has been utterly deserted for years. I don’t know what keeps the animals away, but at this point I’d consider it surprising if it suddenly changed. I can’t think of anything else though. I guess I could just walk away now, come back later and find out it was nothing...

Before I know it, I find myself sneaking towards the entrance, pressing myself to the side of the cliff. I reach it without any issue, and peek around the corner.

My eyebrows almost climb off my face. There is… a woman? She’s deeply asleep by the looks of it, but god does she look like shit. There’s blood everywhere. I take a step forward, overcome by the desire to look at the wounds, but hold myself back. I shuffle back a bit, and sit down on a large rock, contemplating what to do.

Her breast raises and falls in a steady rhythm, and if nothing else, that assures me that she’s not in imminent danger of death. My eyes keep jumping to the glob of madness that’s wrapped around her arm, and if the bloody stain on her dress is any indication her legs aren’t in great condition either. What has she been doing?!

Just as I’m about to move towards her, there’s a little pause in her breathing, and her eyes open. She looks around in bewilderment for a bit, before her eyes shoot to me. They unfocus for a bit, and I do not like the expression that crosses her face. She's like a cornered animal, and you never know what those’ll do.

As I get ready to run for it, she focuses on me again, and very slowly and deliberately sits up. So far so good.

How did this woman get here? Who is she? She’s wearing a dress that’s a dime a dozen in the village, but her face and hair are completely different. I didn’t know people with black hair actually existed. I hold my breath as she opens her mouth.

"Hey cidh”

I tilt my head and frown. What was that?

She seems to realize I didn’t understand, and a vague expression of annoyance crosses her face. As I’m considering what that means, she patts the ground next to her.

I involunatarily glance back at the forest. Running away now is still possible.

As before, curiosity wins out. It’s not that I’m careless, but I’m strong, and she looks half dead. I’m sure it’s fine, though I sure hope master never finds out I so blatantly ignored his wishes. He doesn’t hit often, but that branch is hard...

I slowly creep closer, still ready to lash out or run away in equal measure, depending on what happens. In the end I’m sitting right next to her, and nothing has happened.

When she finally moves to sit across from me, she suddenly winces, and my eyes shoot to the presumed injury on her leg. When I point at it, she responds "Yep, thaat's a woond kid, an' no' th' only wan.”

At least the previous words were clearly some greeting, but if she told me anything about who inflicted this wound and why it’s not been treated, I completely missed it. She realizes this, and instead points at the… growth on her shoulder.

What, is she trying to tell me there is more? I grimace, I suppose at least this wound is treated, but… it could hardly have been done in a more incompetent way. I point at the wound, soundlessly asking permission, and when she doesn’t refuse, inspect the mass of blood, moss, dirt and whatever else made it’s way into this madness.

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Seeing it close up does not improve things, and I can’t help but start feeling that she did this to herself. Something about the combination of challenge and apprehension in her eyes. If it’s left like this her arm will eventually fall off, or she’ll wish it did anyway.

“Who treated this wound?” I can’t help the slight trace of dismay that creeps into my voice. Master would scold me if he ever heard. I’m not supposed to react that way to seeing the wound in the first place, but especially not to another’s work to treat it. People are already reluctant enough to visit and drink their medicine. But there is a limit. The best that can be said here is that it didn’t make anything worse.

"Ay doonae chidd, ay didnae jis miss haaf o' it, it wuz completelee incomprehensible."

I smirk. She doesn’t seem too defensive, but as expected I didn’t understand a word of what she said.

“Never mind”, I say, as I step back and consider the best way to deal with this.

As I already noted, she won’t immediately die from this, and the arm isn’t beyond saving. My professional pride will not let me leave this alone, and it doesn’t appear likely she’ll move any time soon.

“I’ll be back later”, I say with a smile, willing her to stay in place, something I know can be difficult with willful women. Doubly so when it’s an apprentice telling them to do so. I may be wrong but she looks like she could be a match for Catriona.

She shrugs though, apparently not bothered by my strict tone, but evidently also uncertain what I meant. Well, whatever, I suppose that’s the best I’m going to get now. Lets try to figure out who she actually is.

I move back to the spot I was originally sitting, facing her squarely. Wondering if she’ll introduce herself first, or if I should. I suppose I kinda ruined the chances of that by immediately jumping on her wounds… but I just couldn’t leave that alone.

We stare at each other for a bit, and I’m starting to get mildly uncomfortable, when her expression suddenly relaxes, and she sighs. Something approximating a smile appears on her face, even if it is fleeting. She gets up and walks to the back of the cave. Not very far, but I still follow her, careful of what she could be retrieving. It’s just some bag though.

As she walks back, I see her eyes briefly flit towards her attire, and she frowns. I can only agree, it looks terrible, but I’ve seen worse. At least half of her dress was spared. She should be happy the wounds were in her arm and leg instead of torso, there’s no coming back from that for your clothes. I’d swear there’s a faint blush on her cheeks though.

She digs through her bag, and retrieves a piece of jerky, which she then offers to me. I can’t help myself from immediately reaching for it. I love jerky, and I was only halfways through breakfast when I ran out. She doesn’t seem put off though, so I happily munch away. I can live with people feeding me before introducing themselves.

As if on cue, she points at herself, and says: “Eama"

I blink. At last, a name! I sound it out again in my mind. Names are important, and I want to get it right the first time. Then I remember myself, and I quickly point at myself and say “Ronain”. Then I point at her, and very carefully pronounce her name “Eama”.

She nods, and points back at me "Ron-ahn”.

I’m pleased she seems to have put a lot of effort into getting it right the first time as well, though it could use a bit of work. I’m about to correct her when she frowns.

I pause, and after a second, she starts pointing to random things in the cave and on our person, and saying those strange words I’ve never heard before. It’s like a secret language! I quickly respond in kind. There seems to be a whole extra language stored in her mind, and like master, she doesn’t seem averse to just handing out the knowledge. The least I can do is respond in kind.

I lose myself in the game for a while, but now that I’ve inspected the wounds, I find my eyes getting drawn to her hair again and again. I know master has said that people with black hair exist, but they’re supposed to be over the mountains, or through the forest, far from where we live. Further than even the king has traveled, master said. I’m sure master doesn’t actually know how far the king has traveled though. I never expected to see someone with black hair.

She notices my fascination, and after a small laugh, just motions me to touch it, which I don’t hesitate to do. I try to figure out if there is anything that makes it different from ours, but no matter how I look at it or touch it, it’s exactly the same thing, just a different color.

It’s dirty though, just like her, and as I sit there holding her hair, I wonder if she knows there’s a pond just a few hundred meters beyond the cave that she could wash herself in. I can’t think of a way to tell her that wouldn’t be unbelievably rude though. I’m sure if she scouts around a bit she’ll find it.

My attention instead shifts to something I’d missed before. She has something that looks like a spear propped against the wall. I look at her askance, but when she doens’t respond, I walk over and grab it. It’s actually pretty decent, for something improvised. I glance back at her, wondering who would need an improvised spear. It’s nearly stranger than her being covered in wounds.

The spear is nice though, I kinda wish I’d thought to make one myself. I’ve just been waiting for Blair to come around and teach me some more, but if I just made my own I could practice! He keeps telling me that war is around the corner, so it wouldn’t be a bad idea.

I look carefully over the spearhead, noting how she’s tied it to the handle. It looks embarrasingly easy, though finding the right stone head might take a bit. Either way, I’m confident I can replicate this. I hold the spear out to her, and state the name for her

“Spear”

“Sle-gh” she repeats after me. I grin. Pretty good, but I’m starting to doubt she’s actually trying to get it right on the first try. I nod at her. Fair enough, we can’t all be trying to do it perfectly. I set the spear back against the wall, and proceed with our earlier game.

As fun as it is to teach her my language —seldom has an adult paid this much attention to me— I think it’s so much more exciting to learn hers. I’m rushing past my words in an attempt to get as many of hers as possible. It’s so hard to balance the wish to do it correctly, and the wish to know more. It’s almost as if I’m back at my first lesson with master, when everything was still new.

I find myself acting out the words when we run out of things inside the cave and surroundings. Verbs make for very amusing motions. I guess you could make a game out of this.

Eventually though, to my great embarrassment, the cave resounds with the sound of my growling stomach. I look at her in embarrassment, but when I see her amused face, no trace of the reprimand I expected, I begin to laugh. Whoever she is, she doesn’t follow any of the norms and conventions I’m used to. She laughs with me, and quickly runs back to her bag to provide me with more food.

I can’t let that stand though. She caught me by surprise last time, but I can’t let this second gift of food go unreciprocated. I dig through my own satchel, and pull out what I’d intended for lunch. To my great dismay I haven’t taken great care of the loaf, since I wasn’t expecting to share it. An oft repeated admonishment from my master comes to mind, and I wince when I realize that all this time he’s been right. I resolve to be more careful with my food going forward, you never know when you might want to offer it to someone.

I carefully tear my loaf in half, and offer her the larger piece. She looks at it as if constipated for a second, but after a moment she accepts and tears into it with gusto. At which point I feel safe eating my half too. I take the cheese she’s brought to our table, and tear that in half too, as with the other bread, and all combined it’s honestly a better lunch than I’ve had in a while.

As it comes to an end though, I realize what my hunger and the shifting sunlight means, and I look at her apologetically. I really need to get to actually doing my job, or master will scold me when I return tonight. It’d be beyond disgraceful to be out all day and not bring back the small list he sent me out for today.

I try to show her, taking out the herb I stashed earlier “I’m sorry. I have to gather more.” As much as I’d love to spend more time here, I can’t risk it getting dark before I find everything.

She nods, and smiles, like she’s telling me it’s not a problem. I really didn’t want to disappoint her. I nod at her, and make my way to the entrance of the cave. I wonder what she’ll do the rest of the day. My eyes dart over the inside of the cave. Maybe practice the spear? No, not with the state her arm is in.

I guess I might as well invite her to come along if she wants to? Not much she can do besides walking with that arm anyway, and out in the forest we can definitely continue the game of point and say. I look back her way, and make a questioning gesture. We’ve covered this one, so there’s no mistaking it on her part. I guess I could have said it, but over the course of the morning we’ve found that sometimes the gestures are easier than the words.

When I look at her, I’m surprised to see the expression of disappointment that she’s been unsuccessfully trying to hide. But then it morphs into an expression of childlike glee that’s entirely misplaced on an adult, and for a moment I wonder if I’ve really found a little girl in a woman's body.

It takes but a moment before she follows me out of the cave.