The house was cold and dark. The fire had gone out in the hearth and Kaitlyn stumbled outside. Already, she could feel her hands and arms beginning to prick like pins were pressed against her skin. She drew water from the well with shaking hands and cupped her hands to drink. She rubbed the cool water over her hands and arms, wincing with pain.

Kaitlyn went back to the house and put a hand on the doorframe. She closed her eyes and slowly sank into the mediation calm. The darkness still swirled around the house, but it was less now. She imagined just a drop of magic like the fire, only instead of turning it into heat, she tried to infuse it with love and gently she pushed this into the door frame, giving the house some magic.

“I am exhausted,” Kaitlyn muttered.

Fapallo had followed her outside and not picked up a bundle of nettles from the ground near the gate. She looked at him and said, “Is this what you were doing this morning?”

Fapallo nodded and she tried to whistle “thank you” but she knew she got it wrong even as it came out. Fapallo laughed a little and whistled back to her the correct pronunciation. She whistled again and he nodded.

Javorora looked at Kaitlyn and said, “Kaitlyn, what just happened?”

“I… I’m not sure,” Kaitlyn admitted. “The house was… angry? No, not angry. It… so when I agreed to live here I think…. the house wants me to be happy. I was unhappy so it… it was trying to do something to make me happy? It isn’t human, it isn’t alive. Emotions are the wrong words. I think the witch who lived here put spells on the house to make it…. help her be happy?”

Kaitlyn shook her head. Her own pain was pushed aside again, the panic that she might have lost the house was sinking in. The pain spreading along her arms reminded her why she needed the house. It was still protecting her from most of the pain. She could tell it was struggling to maintain even the protection she was feeling. When she meditated she could sense the bindings on her arms that the house’s magic was holding back from squeezing her until she screamed in pain endlessly.

“I need to stop thinking the house is alive,” Kaitlyn said, “Master Garthis said it’s just spells on the house that are following specific instructions. The house can’t think. I was angry and sad, so some spell in the house triggered to try to make me happy. But there wasn’t… there isn’t really anything it could do.”

Kaitlyn closed her eyes to concentrate. Fapallo whistled and she looked up at him. He took a deep breath and finally lifted a claw and wrote in glowing letters, “Message.”

“My family…” Kaitlyn said. “Can Master Garthis contact them? Warn them? I couldn’t bear if they got hurt because of me.”

Fapallo snorted and took off into the air without another word. Kaitlyn took a deep breath and said, “I feel like I owe you all so much. I would have died without you.”

“Well you don’t have to thank me,” Javorora said, “I’m just glad to have a nice neighbor.”

Kaitlyn laughed a little and said, “Well as I get better with my magic, I plan to be an even better neighbor.”

“Oh? You are going to bring sexy males to the forest next spring so when my tree is flowering I can get lots and lots of males for myself?” Javorora waggled her eyebrows up and down teasingly. Kaitlyn stared at the dryad in shock and then burst out in slightly hysterical laughter.

“You have the worst timing possible,” Kaitlyn said, “I don’t know if I can take this anymore. You can’t throw these things at me like this.”

“What? Didn’t you and that fiance ever…?” Javorora asked.

“No!” Kaitlyn objected fiercely.

“Wait, you really are a virgin?” Javorora gasped.

“You don’t have to make it sound like a bad thing,” Kaitlyn protested, a little offended.

“No, no!” Javorora said quickly, “It isn’t a bad thing. I’m just surprised. You are so beautiful.”

Kaitlyn shook her head and pulled loose the white hair and said, “This used to be brown Javorora.”

“I bet it was still beautiful,” Javorora insisted.

“Well, none of the boys in my hometown noticed,” Kaitlyn said, “and apparently the man who did noticed, also noticed that no one other man was interested and used me as bait for unicorns.”

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Kaitlyn walked away then, finding the thought made her more angry than she might have ever felt before. She went through the house and out into the garden in the back. She suddenly had an urge to unleash every ounce of magic she had. She looked up at the trees and sighed, any fireball would probably be a bad thing. She sank down against the low stone wall and stared up at the leaves, not recreating her little flame and not working in the garden. She just sat.

Javorora woke Kaitlyn up with a supper of mushroom soup, baked potatoes, and tea. The dryad sat down in the garden beside Kaitlyn and asked, “Are you ok now?”

Kaitlyn looked at her hands, still prickling with sensations. Her stomach was still tense and at first all Kaitlyn did was sip at the tea. She finally sighed and said, “Yes. I’m sorry I panicked and… is this house evil?”

Javorora shrugged and said, “The stones building it aren’t. The spells on it might be. You need to get strong enough with magic to find out and undo them if that’s the case.”

Kaitlyn looked at the house and repeated, “The stones aren’t evil.”

“I’ve never heard of evil stones,” Javorora said, “so when the witch built the hut originally it couldn’t have been evil. Even what you described earlier wasn’t evil. The house wanted to make you happy, that sounds pretty good to me.”

Kaitlyn shook herself a little and sat up. She sighed and said, “It’s not like I have a lot of choice, do I? Even a few hours away from here, my fingers are so weak I can barely hold a cup.”

Javorora spent some time with Kaitlyn, telling the human of some of the forest inhabitants Javorora was friends with. There were the satyrs Javorora had mentioned before, but there was also a group of fox-people, known as kitsune. Kaitlyn had never heard of them before, but Javorora promised to introduce her one day. There was also a teasing warning that they were incredibly handsome males with a wicked sense of humor. Kaitlyn had to smile at the descriptions of the pranks they apparently pulled.

There were of course gnomes all over the forest, and several groups of elves lived here and there, but this was pretty central between all the elves so they probably avoided it to make sure they didn’t start any petty wars with each other. Javorora knew of two dire wolves that traveled around the forest sometimes.

“…and of course the leshy and the dryads are all over in various places,” Javorora said. “I don’t mind some of the other dryad, but I will warn you if you ever come across a leshy you need to be careful.”

“What is a leshy?” Kaitlyn asked, “I don’t think I’ve heard of them.”

“Some humans call them imps, but they hate that because imps are something of fire and leshy are of wood and earth,” Javorora said. “They live under the roots of trees and dig into the earth to find gems and things I think. They are about my size, but darker. They are mean.”

“So dryads, gnomes and elves I could trade with,” Kaitlyn said. “If I can start imbuing potions like my book describes, they could come and bring me some of the things I can’t get for myself.”

“Oh, that is a very good idea,” Javorora said. “Do you need anything next time I come?”

“Some sanity?” Kaitlyn asked.

Javorora shook her head, “I don’t think I can find that in the market even in one of the elven villages. They have some good mead, can I substitute that?”

“That would be wonderful,” Kaitlyn said, “How can I repay you?”

“Give me some of those dried lavender bunches you have inside,” Javorora said. She then added, “Really. I can’t grow lavender near my tree, it’s too dark and wet. I would love some lavender to hang up in my house.”

“Here, let me get you a few bundles now,” Kaitlyn said.

The two women went into the house. Kaitlyn carefully prepared a few of the partially dried lavender bundles and Javorora kissed her cheek, “I’ll try to come in a day or two, and I’ll see what I can do about getting you some customers soon.”

Kaitlyn smiled and waved as Javorora left. When the dryad was gone Kaitlyn decided to spend the rest of the afternoon reading her book on herbs. She took both books outside to the garden with the stool from the spinning wheel. She sat on the stool and began the work of gathering the herbs for her first potion.

The first potion Kaitlyn wanted to make was a potion to help someone sleep. Combining chamomile, valerian, and lemon balm it asked to have the herbs ground fine and then “suspended” in water. This is where magic came in. While suspended, the water should be brought to a point just before boiling and kept there for ten minutes. That would be a challenge.

Kaitlyn carefully used her knife to cut a few leaves from the valerian and chamomile. She had transplanted the lemon balm, so she was careful to only take the oldest leaves, even though the book said new growth would provide the best results. She wanted all the new growth she saw to have a chance to claim the plant’s new space.

Inside Kaitlyn used the pestle and mortar for the first time and ground the plants. Her hands ached, and there were several times she looked at the leaves and tried to decide if she could stop before they were “ground fine like sand.” She flexed her fingers and then finally resumed grinding. It took her a long time to get it ground to the point where she thought it was acceptable.

Now came the part she really wasn’t sure how to accomplish. She needed to “suspend” the ground herbs in the water. She carefully poured a small part of the herb mixture into water and tried to focus her magic on holding them. She grabbed a few with her magic, but as she sought for them, she realized there were just too many. Most of the herb grains settled to the bottom of the kettle. She frowned.

Kaitlyn tried to hold the herbs in her hand and “pick up” the mixture with her magic. When she put this in the kettle however, it was like there was a bubble of air around the herbs, and when she mentally tried to shrink it or squeeze it, it popped. The ground herbs settled to the bottom of the kettle again.

Kaitlyn ground her teeth, she needed the herbs in the water but held together. She needed something the water could pass through, but the herbs could not. Before she tried a third time and used up the ground mixture of herbs, she decided to take a break for dinner. She needed to get her pheasants cooking.