Chapter 3

“Thank you, Miss Runella,” Apple blushes as she turns her head around to look at a new outfit she wears that’s been given to her by Runella. It’s fairly simple, consisting of a long-sleeve linen tunic that hangs down to her ankles, forming a makeshift dress.

“Mhm,” Runella ties off a length of hempen rope around Apple’s waist to secure the tunic, “Sorry it’s a little big, I didn’t really have anything your size. Hopefully it’s okay, though.”

“Oh— of course! I think it’s perfect!” She twirls around with a cheery smile as Runella takes a step back to avoid being whipped by her tail, chuckling a bit.

She smiles at Apple, speaking with a motherly, understanding cadence, “Why don’t we cut a hole for your tail so it doesn’t flip the dress up when you move it around?”

“Oh—” her face goes red as she giggles nervously, “Yeah, that’s probably a good idea.”

“Alright sit still, I don’t wanna accidentally nick you,” Runella carefully takes her herb knife off of her waist and holds the dress in place as she squats down, “Okay, just tell me how far to cut.”

Apple turns around and watches as Runella cuts into the dress thoughtfully and with intention. Once the hole is cut, she pokes her tail through it and flicks it up and down with a smile.

“Thank you so much! I-I’m sorry you had to ruin your shirt for me, though,” she clasps her hands together and looks down, glancing her eyes up at Runella with a faint smile.

“Don’t sweat it,” Runella stands back up as she playfullly tousles Apple’s head, “Alright Percy, you’re good.”

I step out of the storage room as I look to the two of them and smile, “Oh wow, Apple. You look great in that!” I try my best to show my sincerity without sounding patronizing or creepy — my heart beats a little bit faster than before, desperately hoping that she won’t take my words the wrong way.

I don’t know what it is, but since I first met Apple, every time I see her I get so nervous and antsy. I feel like I constantly need to shake my hands up and down to get my energy out, and I can’t stop fidgeting with my feet no matter how hard I try. I just… really want her to like me, and I don’t want to make a fool of myself.

“Thank you, Percy,” Apple smiles, though I can see her body tense up a bit as I return to the room. I can’t blame her, given the things she must have been through.

I take a seat on the other side of the room; the apothecary is small, so it’s plenty close enough for me to talk without being so close that I make make her uncomfortbale. I sheepishly fidget with my fingers as I try to find the nerve to speak to her, “Um— I’m— I’m glad you decided to stop by here. I know the trip probably wasn’t easy, what with the guards and other humans everywhere; I hope they didn’t give you too much trouble.”

“I’m pretty small,” she blushes, “so I was able to slip by without being noticed too much,” she restlessly taps her fingers on the table and looks down as she shifts around in her seat, visibly on edge but trying her best to stay calm, “I had to wait until nightfall though. Kobolds can see a little bit better in the dark than humans, since most of us live in the forest.”

Upon her mentioning the forest, I poke my head up curiously as I remember a question I was meaning to ask, “Oh yeah, that reminds me — I was gonna ask, do you live in the forest too? Or have you got a place somewhere else? And if you don’t mind my asking, what we’re doing all the way in the city?”

My heart drops and I slink back in my chair as I see her suddenly grow very reserved. What little bit she had started to open her posture and relax her body is quickly undone as she tenses up once again, pulling her legs up into the chair and wrapping her arms around them as she gazes downward toward the floor. I think to myself, “Why am I such a dumbass? Runella’s done everything perfectly and I keep messing things up…”

“Um—“ her eyes dart around as she timidly tries to speak, “I— um— no. I don’t live in the forest.”

I start to reply, but I silence myself and look over at Runella fearfully. I silently mouth to her, “Did I do something wrong?”

She lets out a tired sigh and crosses her arms as she turns to me, closing her eyes and gently shaking her head “no,” but it doesn’t make me feel any less bad for triggering whatever painful memories Apple must be thinking of.

Runella kneels down and looks at her, “Hey, it’s alright. You don’t have to talk about it,” she stands back up and looks at me, “So did you ever get ahold of that plant elixir you were looking for?”

I timorously chuckle just a little bit, shrinking back in my seat, “Oh yeah! Heh heh, yeah, yeah yeah yeah— no…” I look up at Runella, embarassed, “No I did not. I got robbed.”

With a disappointed facepalm, she takes a long, deep breath and replies, “Of course you did,” she heads over to the counter and begins picking back up the bottles I knocked over earlier as she continues, “Well I hate to tell you Percy, but your moonbell is fucked.”

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I look down defeated, as I meekly reply, “Yeah… I know…”

Unexpectedly, our gazes shift over to Apple as she suddenly pipes up, looking over towards us, “What’s the matter with it?” Her voice is still weak, but it now carries a tone of attentiveness and interest.

“Oh— um,” I struggle to find my words as my heart rate shoots up, but she was bold enough to join the conversation and I don’t want to leave her wanting, “About a week ago it got this weird disease and—”

“Redrot,” Runella corrects me.

“Right — about a week ago it caught redrot and I had to quarantine it off from the other plants. I’m trying everything I can to heal it up, but without that elixir it’s looking like I may just have to pitch it.”

“You don’t need plant elixir for that,” my eyes and Runella’s widen with interest as Apple speaks.

“Y…you don’t?” I blink intently — this is certainly news to me, and it seems to be to Runella as well.

“No,” Apple continues, “redrot happens when moonbells get too much sunlight and not enough water and the dry heat makes the bulb start to crack, then mold will start growing to feed on the healing sap inside. All you have to do is put it in a cool, dark place and give it extra water for a few days and the mold should start to disappear as the bulb grows back together and the sap stops leaking.”

Runella and I are both left speechless. After a beat, Runella takes a step forward and brings her hands up toward her head in disbelief, “Oh my god, that makes so much sense. How did I never figure that out!?”

Apple blushes as she looks to the side, a little flustered, “I— I don’t mean to sound like a know-it-all, I just used to grow them a lot. They’re my favorite plant and we used the sap to make potions and salves just like you do.”

Runella blinks a few times before shaking her head and excitedly replying, “No, no, no, not at all! In fact, I’m so glad you said that because now we may be able to fix Percy’s plant, and lots more in the future, too! I didn’t even know where redrot came from — I always thought it just happened sometimes and you had to suck it up and deal with it. But now that you said that, I don’t know how I never figured it out before!” She paces around the room with a massive smile on her face, like she’s just had some sort of grand epiphany, “This is gonna change everything! You have no idea how many plants I have to toss because of that goddamn rot — I’m gonna save loads of time on having to cultivate new ones!”

I stop and laugh for a moment at Runella’s antics — she’s usually so serious, it’s never not amusing when she gets like this. I look over at Apple with a big grin, “Thank you so much, Apple. You have no idea how much that’s gonna help us!”

Once again she turns her head down to the side and blushes as she bats her eyelashes. Her tail flicks back forth almost involuntarily, like an excited puppy, “It’s really not a big deal. It’s just a little tip — I thought everyone knew that,” her nerves seem to calm just a little as she looks up and smiles at us, “But I’m happy I could help you two. You’ve been really nice to me so I’d like to pay you back somehow.”

I can’t help but giggle at just how cute she is — I don’t even mean to, but it’s like looking at her fills my heart with so much joy that my body doesn’t know what to do with it and it just makes me laugh. I can feel my heart rate spike up as I grow more and more excited, and I struggle to keep still in my seat.

“Well I can assure you, Miss Apple, that you’ve been a great help to us today,” I grin like an idiot as I talk to her; not only am I overhwelmed with excitement as just how pretty and adorable she is, I’m also thrilled to see her starting to open up and let her guard down, “Maybe sometime if you like you can take a look at the moonbells I have and see if you’ve got any other tips on how to take care of them. You seem to know a lot about it.”

Her tail flicks a little faster, nearing on a wag as her face turns red, “I— I don’t know— I’d like to, but…” she shrinks down in her chair a bit as her smile slowly turns to a slight frown, “to tell the truth… I’m scared. P-please don’t take it personally! But I— I have problems trusting people… I— I promise it’s not anything you’ve done. Honest.”

I stand up and give her a gentle, understanding smile as I take just a couple steps forward, not close enough to scare her, but just enough so that I can speak a little more softly and still be heard, “Hey, it’s okay, Apple. There’s nothing wrong with that — you don’t have to do anything you don’t want to do.”

She looks at me with big, sapphire eyes, “But— but—“ she screws her face and tenses up her arms as she brings them up to her head, a little embarassed, “but I do want to! Y-you’re the only people who have ever been nice to me in years, a-and I’d love to spend more time with you. B-but— I— I just don’t know— I just don’t know if I—“ her breathing becomes faster and sharper as her words turn into nearly inaudible whimpers, and her eyes start to water up before she fearfully throws her head down into her knees and begins to tremble, “I— I— I’m sorry… I’m sorry, I swear— I— I didn’t mean to—“

“Hey, hey hey hey, shhh, shhhhh shhh shh shh shh. It’s okay,” Runella places a gentle hand on her back, “It’s okay, Apple. You don’t have to say anything. If you need to cry, it’s okay. Nobody will judge you for it, promise.” She smiles and holds out a pinkie finger as Apple apprehensively lifts her head to look at her.

“I— I don’t wanna… I don’t wanna bother you all…” she pleads, her voice shaking as tears begin to roll down her face, “I don’t wanna make it awkward…” she wraps her arms around her knees again and rests her head on them as she looks at Runella.

“I can step out of the room for a bit if it’d make you more comfortable, Apple,” I look over at her tenderly, and I’m being sincere. I understand her apprehension to let her guard down, and doubly so with me in the room, “I promise you won’t hurt my feelings,” I let out a small chuckle as I take a step over to the storage room door, watching as Runella gently rubs her back to try and calm her.

Through teary eyes, Apple’s voice cracks as she weakly gets out, “A-are you sure? I-it’s okay if— it’s okay if you wanna—”

“Uh oh, too late!” I flash a cheeky grin to try and cheer her up and I slowly begin pulling the door open, “I’m already going in, uh-oh, bye!” Playfully, I stumble through the door as though I’m being sucked inside, and I see Apple giggle as she cracks a little smile. I wave as I pull the door closed, and before it shuts completely I see Runella proudly looking up at me with a warm smile as she gives me an approving thumbs-up. With a click, the door falls closed.

My curiosity begs me to listen at the door, but I pull myself away to respect their privacy and the sanctity of their moment together. I find a decent-enough looking crate and as I go down to take a seat, suddenly a realization hits me: I’ve only known her for a couple of days, I’ve only been with her for a couple of hours, and the time I’ve spent actually talking to her is negligible even compared to that. But some way, somehow, for some reason, I feel it. The swelling heartbeats, the shaky hands, the rush of excitement — there’s only one thing it can be. My face breaks out with a goofy grin that spreads from ear to ear as I finally put it together: I’ve fallen in love.