“Good morning!” Emma says with almost too much energy first thing in the morning.
“Good morning…” Maya replies sleepily.
“Well get up sleepy head, we have a big day ahead. I’ll start some breakfast and see you in a minute.” Emma says as she springs out of the room.
Maya gets up, slightly forgetting everything that has happened in such a short time, she looks down and realizes she is a girl again. Almost shocked as everything floods back to her. “Enit, are you still there?”
~ Yes, I am still here. Is everything ok? ~
“Everything is fine, just remembering that this isn’t a dream.” *sighing* “I don’t think I feel comfortable staying here every night at least until I get use to everything first.”
~ Understood, in the meantime you probably smell bad, not that I have a nose to smell with. This would be a good chance to practice another spell that will clean you and your clothes up quickly ~
“Seriously, no shower? Just clean?”
~ Yes, just need a mirror to see yourself in, your wand and get your spell book out ~
Maya gets up and walks out of Emma’s room, “Hey Emma!” Maya shouts out to the kitchen.
“Yeah, Maya?!”
“Where’s your bathroom?”
“It’s the door almost right across from my bedroom.”
“Thank you!” Maya walks into the bathroom and closes the door. She then proceeds to pull out her wand and book. Flipping through the pages to find the self-cleaning spell. “Hey Enit, I’m not finding the spell.”
~ That’s because you are looking for the wrong name, the spells name is ‘Luminacleanse’ ~
“Ahh” flipping through the pages, “Found it!”
~ Good, now practice what we have already gone over ~
Clearing her mind, trying to relax, Maya begins to breathe in and out. The spell book begins to lift itself from Maya’s hand as she focuses on feeling clean, looking clean, and smelling clean. She then looks at herself in the mirror and points the wand at herself.
~ Now repeat after me, Luminacleanse ~
“Luminacleanse” Maya repeats calmly. The moment the incantation leaves her lips, a sensation akin to a gentle breeze flows forth from the wand. The sight resembles the transparent flow of water from a hose, evoking a distant memory for Maya—much like the heat waves off the rain-drenched pavement during her childhood, every time the sun emerged from the cloudy sky. Beginning at her head, she guides her wand downward, the magical current following her motion. As the ethereal stream touches her skin, the accumulated dirt and grime begin to dislodge and dissipate into thin air.
“Wow, well that worked better than expected. I look and smell clean, but I guess without the act of a shower or bath I kind of just feel dirty inside” *sighing* “At least I’m more presentable” Maya then put everything away before heading out of the bathroom and to the kitchen for breakfast with Emma.
“Glad to see you’re up and about now, and you freshened up quickly, impressive.” Teasing Maya, “I don’t have a whole lot for food, but I was able to whip up some bread and jam with a couple of eggs.” Emma brings the food to the table.
Both Maya and Emma sit down and quietly eat for a short while. “Well, I am going to see if Lizzy can eat anything this morning, I’ll be right back.”
With some food still in her mouth trying to swallow it down, “Mff-kay” Maya replies.
Emma gets up from the table and heads to Lizzy’s room with some bread and an apple.
“After we get information on the living situation, I’ll need to find some ingredients to help Lizzy. Do you think I’ll be able to learn enough between now and then to be able to cure this curse Enit?”
~ If we get some time to practice, I think you should do just fine. Typically, with curses, the worse the symptoms are the stronger the curse. With it just being a basic sickness, we can assume that the curse grade is relatively low ~
“Then it will be a good thing to have my own space to practice then. I would rather not be too close to others just in case I make a mistake. Best not to draw any attention to myself just yet.”
~ Agreed, at least until you are better at spells and protecting yourself. On top of that I don’t know all that has changed since your birth. We should investigate what rumors happened to your family and if anything has happened to any of the other 6 powerful witch blood lines ~
Sounds of a door closing from the background, Emma begins to walk back into the room with Maya. “She was able to get a few bites of bread in, I left the rest in her room in case she gets hungry. We should head to Johnathan’s if you’re serious about staying in town and having your own place.”
“Who is Johnathan?”
“He is the local carpenter of sorts. He has lots of materials for helping build buildings, mainly wood, and stone. He would be our best bet to acquire material.”
“Will your sister be ok with us leaving her here by herself?”
“Yeah, mom should be home soon. She works the overnight shifts at the tavern, serving drinks and food on top of checking on guests that stay the night. Best time for tips too.” Emma says with a weak smile.
Even though it was obviously something that bothered Emma, Maya didn’t feel it was the right time to push the topic. “Let’s go visit Johnathan then.”
They head out and go straight into town. Not that Emma lived very far to begin with, so they got to the middle of town quickly before turning and going down the next road. Arriving at the Carpenters shop, Emma opens the doors and they both head inside.
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“Hey, Johnathan, you here?” Emma shouts.
From the distance, coming from outside and from the back of the warehouse, “Yeah, I’m just out back.”
Emma and Maya follow the voice to the big open door in the back that leads back outside to the backside of the building. There was Johnathan pulling in a tree he had just chopped down to begin working on. “Hey Emma, good to see you again. Who’s your friend?”
“This is Maya, she is new to town, and well, putting it lightly, new to living on her own as well. We were hoping to talk to you about getting some supplies to help build her own place.”
“Hi Maya, nice to meet you.” Johnathan smiles as he puts a hand out to shake her hand.
Maya respectfully shaking his hand back, “Nice to meet you too Johnathan.”
“Just now moving out, well, Welcome to Wolfcrest. Our town, as you can clearly see, is not very large but I’m sure you will get to know everyone and how nice they are.”
“I look forward to getting to know everyone, also I enjoy the atmosphere of smaller towns. Something quiet and homey. But to be honest, Emma hasn’t said the fact that currently I have no income nor money so I am not sure I will be able to get any supplies from you until I can get a job and actually pay you for them.”
“Oh, don’t worry about that. If Emma is already coming here to ask me with you, she must think you’re a good enough person to stick her neck out for. We can arrange a deal to have you pay back the materials, even if it’s just by working for me. And of course, I wouldn’t expect you to work right away, once you are finished building your place and have a home to sleep in, we can work out those details then.”
“Are you sure? I don’t want to have you lose any of your sales or burden your business from this.”
“Non-sense! I have plenty of material around. I do apologize but I don’t have the spare time now to help you build your home, though Emma here already has experience from helping me in the past so she can help you. If you can find a good spot you are welcome to grab what you need to help build. Just let me know what you take, and I will mark it out of my inventory” Johnathan smiles.
“Emma, I don’t really have any experience building homes. Would you mind helping me with that once I find a spot to build at?”
“Of course, though you better be willing to put your back into it. It’s not going to be easy.” Emma smirks at Maya.
“Thank you for your time and everything Johnathan, we had best be heading out so I can locate a good spot to build at. I also need to go foraging for some ingredients in the woods.” Maya informs Johnathan.
“No worries, you ladies have a great day, and I will see you both very soon.” Johnathan says while waving Maya and Emma off.
Both Maya and Emma take their leave and head back out to the front of the building. As they head out Maya turns to Emma, “Before we look around for a place to build, lets hit the forest so we can cook something up for your sister.”
“That sounds great! Do you know what you’re looking for? I may be able to help.”
“Yes, I am looking for a plant called Echinacea. It is in the daisy family of flowers, typically in an open wooded area, and when they bloom the petals are typically a pinkish/purple with what looks like a prickly center.”
“I know if we head that way” Emma points to the other side of town, “I remember seeing some pinkish like flowers in the woods not overly far from town.”
They set off in the direction Emma had pointed out, their steps in sync as they ventured forward. Absorbing the landscape during their departure from town, a refreshing breeze gently brushes past them. The day is beautiful and it’s not too hot outside either. As the town grows fainter in the distance, nearly out of sight, “Looks like we are getting close to where I remember seeing flowers that match your description.” Emma says.
“Great, if those end up being the flowers all I’ll need is some water, a way to heat up the water and some honey.”
“Well, we have the rest of that back in town, I believe one of the local vendors sells some honey. Are we going to need a lot?”
“No, not at all, just a spoonful”
They come across a bit of an opening off the road they were traveling on where the trees are a bit more spaced out. “If we go in here, I think I remember seeing them just past those trees over there” Emma points to some trees that were not very far away.
Approaching the stand of trees that Emma had just pointed out, there were some patches of pinkish/purple flowers. As she drew nearer, the intricate details of the Echinacea flowers came into sharper focus. “Awesome, these are exactly what I needed. I just need to pull a few of these out roots and all. Then we can rinse the dirt off when we get back.” Maya says smiling before pulling three of them out. “That should be plenty for now. Since we know they are over here I can always come back for more.”
“Great, lets head back to town!”
“This area might not be too bad for a spot to build my home at. Not too far from town and easy access to some herbs in the area. Be able to start a small garden” Maya says as she looks around while walking back to the road.
“If that’s what you want. I would say it’s a little far, but you do you. We will most likely need to borrow some horses and a cart to carry the wood over here but we only need them to drop it off so I don’t think that will be a big deal.”
As they return to town, Emma stops by one of the shops set up in the market to get a small bottle of honey as they head back to Emma’s home. Once they arrived, Emma brings in some water to rinse the dirt off the Echinacea, then they place some clean water over the stove to begin boiling. As the water temperature rises, Maya sticks in one of the flowers, roots and all and begins to let it sit. After about 15 minutes of letting the flower steep in the hot water Maya pulls it out and adds about a spoonful of honey into it and stirs everything together. “Okay, that should do it. Just need to pour this into a cup, let it cool off so it’s not so hot to drink and have Lizzy drink it.”
“Is that it?”
“Yep, Echinacea is known for healing and is very helpful for colds and the flu. Steeping it in hot water basically turns it into a tea. Adding the honey will help with the flavor and because the honey is local that also has healing properties with allergies.”
“It almost seems too simple to work.”
“Yes and no. We will have to give it some time and maybe make some more tea but the idea is to soften the symptoms so Lizzy can regain strength and be able to eat more. The better we can get her feeling the easier it will be to fight back against this curse.” Maya says confidently.
----------------------------------------
“Where did the day go?” Emma says to Maya, sweating, taking a break on the side to cool off.
“Ha ha ha, that’s what happens I guess when Johnathan puts us to work” Maya replies, who is also taking a break trying to cool off.
“The sun is starting to go down, probably going to be calling it for today. Thank you again Maya for everything you have already done for Lizzy. If it wasn’t for your tea you made, I don’t think she would be eating as much now, and she has more energy lately.”
“It’s the least I could do with everything you’ve done for me. Only three more days until the full moon. Hopefully we can get rid of the curse all together and she will be feeling like she used to and be able to run around outside again.”
“If we keep this up three days will pass in no time!” Emma laughs.
“Good work today! Go on home and enjoy the rest of your evening girls.” Johnathan says popping out of nowhere.
“Thank you, Johnathan, see you tomorrow!” Maya replies. Turning to face Emma, “I do not have the energy tonight to celebrate the completion of my home, but maybe after we cure your sister, we will do something fun. For now, I just want to go home and sleep.”
Laughing “Sounds like a plan, I think I’m ready to crash as well.”
“Hold up!” Johnathan stopping both of them “Here you both go for a hard day’s work” as he hands out a small bag with money inside.
“We can’t accept this, we are working to pay you back for the materials.” Maya says trying to hand the money back.
“No, I will take it out of your pay, but I will not let you work without some pay. You two need to take care of yourselves and that won’t happen if you don’t have money to buy food.” Johnathan says with a stern voice.
“I don’t know what to say, thank you Johnathan, you are too kind” Maya replies.