Chapter 2: The Healer
Liena
sighed contently. The twilight was a pleasant one. The
breeze was warm with the heavy sent of summer flowers, a fragrance very
different from the sweltering smells of dung and grease that permeated the
village. That is why she had moved here closer to the woods she felt
so tied to. Liana loved them and relished in them. Only
rarely did she deal with the villages by making medicinal herbs and embroidered
trinkets and goods to sell to the village merchants.
It was with this endeavor in
mind that she was taking a brisk walk in the twilight, breathing in the
refreshing breeze. She enjoyed this daily walk through the
forest. Not only did it give her time to think, it gave her an
opportunity to look for herbs. The traders had warned her
though. The woods were no place for a woman, especially with dark
elf attacks increasing. The twilight brought their madness upon the
outskirts of the village. Every night brought them closer to Brook
End's Valley. What were they planning? She did not know,
so she focused on the work at hand. Things in the forest would be as they
were. The spirits of the forest were all that she
needed. The Drow would pass her over. Who would bother a
tiny hermit's hollow in the woods? If the villagers called upon her,
she would help them.
A tiny bed of white cloves
caught her eye as the brambling voices of the small river caught her
ear. The little clovers were flourishing on the river's
overflow. Like little stars in the growing night sky, the clovers
twinkled against the emerald bank. Liena knelt, pulling her white
woven skirts beneath her, and began picking them for the perfume she intended
to make and sell the next day.
Liena
froze. Something was not right. The river babbled louder
to her, almost as if it were trying to talk to her. Liena stroked a
curly piece of auburn hair behind her ear, her soft lavender eyes searched the
river's edge. Nothing but the quiet sounds of dusk nature. The
little clover flowers waved in the wind, beckoning towards the
east. The night creatures grew softer as she padded slowly towards an
old oak tree that grew at the river's edge. It's bark was growing
black with the coming darkness of night. The old oak whispered to
her silently. Liena eyed the mushrooms
that grew at the tree's front and gathered in a cove at the tree's roots near
the brook's edge. She gasped when she saw what lay there.
It
was the likeness of a man clad in armor, a warrior. The suit of
unearthly metal reflected the water's ripples and the stars in the night
sky. He looked pale, starlight cast in his white skin. The man's
eyes were closed tightly, his mouth lay slackly open, a thin trail of blood
winding down his chin. Liena paused. Some poor soul
left by highwaymen in the woods. She gasped again when she saw
his ears. They swept out to pointed tips marking him as a creature
she'd only heard stories about as a child. He was an Elf.
Liena
crept slowly around the oak tree's side and closer to the fallen
figure. She observed him
cautiously. The Elves were not always known to be kind to the human
lot. He did not move. She detected nothing from
him. When Liena crept further around his side, it was then she
noticed the blade peeking from his back. It had pierced the back of
the armor, leaving cracks along the reflected starshine. With
renewed courage, she knelt beside his figure and put a gentle hand to his
chest. Under her palm, she felt the faintest hint of breath escaping
his chest. He was alive!
Upon that realization, she lifted him up with the gentlest of care, draping his arm across her neck. She used all her might to lift him. No matter the lot, elf or man, she was sworn to help anyone in need. As a healer, it was her rite and duty. A small hope for the Elf bloomed in her when he groaned as she raised him. It was a sign of life!
And now there was no time to waste.
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