42 Emily vs. Leafia

I looked around the room. It seems like for now everything had returned to how it should be. There were no trees or primitive humans. And Emily was definitely not merged with a tree. I was present for now, but I did not trust myself to be leading any coherent conversation. "Emily, I don't remember you speaking up at all," I said. I was not sure if I could trust my memory, but the sapling version of her never said a word. She quietly shook her head to confirm that she had not talked much. "How about you tell them more about our journey? I think all of them would rather hear the story from a beautiful lady like you than from one of these men." As I said this, I gestured toward Istan and Gray. Gray was working hard to force open a nut that did not seem to be cooperating. It was comical to see him fighting so hard against something so small. Istan offered to try but was not doing any better.

Several of the oldmen in the room nodded to my statement. It seemed to young ones were too shy to agree with me.

"But what about Leafy?" Emily protested.

"You are trying to sell out your your friends, I see," Leafia said while making an evil smile.

I was confused, and not in the mood for an argument. I was afraid I might get lost again. This fear made my voice come across a bit sharply, "If neither of you want to tell the story, how about we have a test between my two students? Emily, if you can prove that you now have more control than Leafy, you don't have to tell the story." Emily had gotten much better since we left Ivy's woods. This will be an interesting match. "Lets go outside. There is some grass near the door of this place. The one that can make one blade of the grass form a square the best will win." Forming a square was one of the harder shapes to do, since you needed to quickly change how the plant was growing to make the corners.

It looked like everyone in the place also accompanied us outside to see the match. I might have made this sound more exciting than it really was. All you could see was two beautiful girls staring at some tufts of grass. If you looked closely you could see one of the blades growing, but that was far from riveting.

In the end they both did well. "I think I will declare this a tie," I said with a smile.

"I finally caught up," Emily said with a gloating look on her face.

"But what does that mean about telling the story? Will you do it, then?" Leafia asked full of concern.

"Of course not. The contest was between you two. Since neither of you won, you get to share the duty." I said with a smile before walking back into the building. But then realizing that this was not completely fair to them I turned and added, "Unless you want to challenge me."

Hearing my response the shoulders of Emily and Leafy both slumped. I did enjoy being able to tease these two. I really think Faun would get along with them. I should make sure they have a chance to get to know… I quickly stopped this branch of thought as I started to see cottonwood fluff floating past. I really could not handle any more of this issue. I just wanted to think. I was having a hard time keeping anchored in the present. Even when I was alone back in my woods, I had the life of the forest I could hold fast to. But now Faun and Mist were not here and there were only a few trees and strands of grass turning brown for winter. I tried to draw on these plants' modest energy, but it was nowhere near enough to anchor me.

I paid little to no attention as Leafia and Emily told them briefly about our journey so far. This was probably not the best idea I ever had since I would not be able to make the story consistent if the need arose. But I couldn't fight off my thoughts any longer.

How was Faun? Was she okay? Was she even still alive? I shook my head at that. I could not be thinking that way. She had to still be alive. She was not allowed to be dead. I would find her and bring her back home. I was not allowed to think otherwise. I could still hear her laughter ringing through the room around me. But I needed to stay strong, if I joined in Faun's revelry I might get lost for good. The others would not be able to find her without me. It would not be fair to them anyway. I was the one that had dragged them from their homes, and in Istan's case his family. I was not permitted to be the weak one. Several times tears threatened to come, but I suppressed them. I did not want to cry in front of strangers. It was hard enough doing it in front of my companions as I did back in Ivy's forest.

I was aware enough in my mental wanderings to notice when the old man said, "Well, it has been about a half an hour," as he stood up and stretched out his body. The other two men that took the medicine with him did the same. "My knee did not hurt while I was standing up!" the first exclaimed.

"My back does not hurt right now," the second one said, while the third one just nodded that he agreed.

"This medicine is a miracle. How long did you say its effects would last?"

"A few days to a week at most," I responded hoarsely. It seems that even my restrained tears still affected my voice.

The men quickly huddled together to talk about their plan. After a few moments they asked, "How much can you give us?"

I looked around the room quickly and saw some medium sized barrels that were used for the ale. "I can supply you with one of those barrels worth," I said. "But you will need to provide the barrel."

"How could you carry that much with you? You don't have a wagon hiding somewhere, do you?"

"I will brew it overnight. I have enough of the ingredients with me and it will be ready by morning." Seeing this as a good chance to escape, I pressed on. "I will need to get started soon to make sure I am done in time. Will you want any of the medicine to treat injuries, too? I promise it is just as effective as this one has proven to be."

After some more discussion among themselves, they said, "We will take a small barrel full if you can provide it. How long will it maintain its effect?"

"I have never stored it more than a year. But at that point I have not seen any notable decrease in its efficiency." The actual fact was the opposite. After a year the strength seemed to have increased. But I knew it was not normal for human medicines. That was actually one of the clues Faun and I used to come up with a better medicine. "I can promise you that even if the effects start to diminish after a year it will not turn toxic."

The man then turned and called into the kitchen. "Hank, do you have an empty medium and small barrel you can sell us?"

Sharlin's grandfather called back from the kitchen, "There are some in the shed, help yourself."

Seeing that things seemed to be working out I said, "I am going to start setting things up to brew. Leafia, can you and Istan bring me the barrels? Emily, Gray, I will leave the negotiations to you." Seeing the look on Gray's face, I realized I made a small misstep. So I turned to the men and said, "Don't get any funny ideas since I am starting to brew. The first few steps take a long time but the ingredients are easy for me to come by. It will not hurt me to lose them." Now hopefully they would not try to force a lower price since I already started the work. I got up and said my goodbyes and saw myself out. I was not sure I could hold it together any longer.