Chapter 2

Karen coughed. For the millionth time. Damn, did she ever hate colds.

I hate this, she thought, sniffling. It was all her father's fault - and that came as no surprise. He cared more about his damned vineyard then he ever did about her.

If he had just helped her dig the stupid ditches...

Two days before, Ann had come by to visit Karen, and, of course, she had to drag Gray along. And, of course, Gray had predicted an awful storm was to come the next day. And, of course, Gotz made sure that Karen and Kai were the ones who were to dig the ditches along the grapevines to make sure they didn't get waterlogged.

Too bad the rain came pouring down before they'd even started digging. Too bad Gotz made them do it anyway.


And now Karen was horribly sick in bed all because her father had been the inconsiderate devil he had always been and didn't allow her to stay inside. He hadn't even offered to help, the bastard.


Karen hacked up another round of coughs, and then turned over in bed and moaned into her pillow.


There was a knock at the door. Karen quickly sat up in bed, wiping her nose. "What do you want?" she groaned.

"Karen?" said the voice from behind the door. "It's me, Jack. I heard you weren't feeling well, so I brought you something..."

"Hello-oo?" called a sing-song voice from outside. "Hello? Is anyone home?"

"Mint?" Jack said as he stepped out of the house. "Mint? What in the Goddess's name are you doing here?"

"Well," said Mint, huffing and reminding Jack greatly of her mother, "Please, don't act happy to see me or anything."

"Oh," said Jack, kneeling down to hug his niece, "Of course I'm happy to see you! It's just that I'm surprised that you'd be here, especially after the storm and all - shouldn't you be taking care of the animals?"

"Dad and Gramps already have that taken care of," Mint said. "Mom's going to the flower shop to check on Grandma. I thought I might stop by and check on you guys."

"Well, Mint, that's very kind of you," Jack said, nuzzling the top of her head with his hand. He opened his mouth to continue, yet before he could say anything, Mint interrupted.

"Is it true Sonya spent the night here?" Mint asked, her bright blue eyes suddenly turning very wide.

"Yes, but we're returning her to her home soon. Why are you asking?"

"Oh," she said lightly, "no reason."

Inside of the household, Sonya was awakening from her sleep - if that's what you would call it. She had tossed and turned throughout the night, and, quite frankly, she couldn't remember sleeping at all. A headache seemed to split her skull into two, her eyes ached and begged for rest, and her joints were stiff and difficult to move. She soon discovered that swallowing her own saliva meant swallowing a dozen knives, and she gripped her throat in pain and groaned hoarsely.

"Sonya!" John called as he entered the room. "My dad made eggs for break-" He cut himself off after seeing her condition. "Hey, you feelin' okay?"

"I'm fine," she said flatly, though her vocalization had morphed into a rough and grinding sound overnight. John burst into incontrollable laughing.

"You sound like you swallowed a frog!" he jeered, and Sonya threw her pillow at him. Hard. She missed, but just barely.

"Shut your face," she demanded in that same hoarse voice. John did no such thing; he only laughed again. Just hearing her voice was too much.

She growled ferociously. "I said shut your face, you--"

"Whoa!" John shouted before she could continue. "No need for name-calling, I was just playing." He grinned crookedly. "And you have to admit, you do sound pretty funny."

Sonya growled once more, her mind told her to leap to her feet and tackle him - but she didn't have the strength. Instead, she moaned again, grabbed her quilt and yanked it over her head. "Go away," she ordered.

At that moment, Ann entered the room. "Sonya, get up," she said firmly. What Ann assumed to be Sonya's head shook from under the blanket. Ann sighed, walking towards the quilt and pulling it off of her head. What Ann saw was nothing good - Sonya looked terrible. Her eyes were red and bloodshot, accompanied by the bags which had formed under them. Her nose had turned a pinkish color. Ann bit her tongue nervously and felt Sonya's forehead with her hand. She had guessed correctly: she was burning up. "Aw, man!" she groaned, and turned to leave the room.

"What?" Sonya asked, glancing curiously at John.

"I'm guessing you have a fever," John said. "She does that whenever I get sick."

"She's not gonna give me one of Kent's..."

"What else?"

"Great!" Sonya moaned. "His medicines are just... gross!"

It was then Ann walked back into the room, a bottle of some thick, yellow liquid in hand. She carefully poured some into a spoon she was holding and approached Sonya. "Open up," she commanded, smiling in that instinctively loving way she showed with the barn animals. Sonya only frowned.

"Come on, please?" Ann said, showing another smile. "It won't bite."

Sonya did nothing.

"She's just scared," said John matter-of-factly.

"No-" The second Sonya had opened her mouth, Ann had seized the opportunity and shoved the spoon into it. Sonya glared at John, who was grinning like a fool. She mentally slapped herself; she'd fell for it. She winced and swallowed the liquid, and it was, by far, the most vile thing she had ever tasted. "There," Ann said, satisfied. "Now we can get you home and into bed."

Mia usually wanted to spend her days alone. She'd always been the one in the back of the room, her nose stuck in a book, absorbed in her own little world. No one ever even bothered trying to converse with her; she'd always been interested in odd things, such as the meanings of the constellations and insects and centuries hundreds of years before hers. Mia always found it odd that Mint, the village's fatale, would even bother spending time with her, yet she would come to her house on an almost regular basis.

Mint was the daughter of the rancher, Gray, and the florist, Popuri. From what Mia understood, (and she should because she tended to keep a record of these things) Popuri was the village's belle, and her daughter seemed to uphold her mother's title quite well. Popuri was often dubbed Goddess at the annual Flower festival; her love of flowers gave off such a feminine aura that Popuri often seemed the only one fit to be Goddess. Of course, her only major competition back then was that woman who left years ago, but that was another story.

Since she was young, Popuri had possessed a distinct love of nature, and by the time she had wed Gray, she had already decided what to name her children: If it was a boy, she would name him Parsley, if it was a girl, she would name her Mint. Mia came to know these types of things were from journals she secretly read, gossip she overheard and ramblings Mint often fed her.

"Mia!" called her mother's voice from the other side of the door. "Mint's here to see you!"

"Oh," Mia said, shoving her little blue book into her bag as Mint entered the room. "Hello, Mint."

Mint sat down on Mia's bed, grinning at her in that naturally cheerful way she had. Mint ran a hand through her bushel of strawberry hair, looking at Mia. "So?" Mint said.

Mia blinked in confusion. "So what?"

"Rune!" Mint exclaimed, as if whatever she was trying to say was the most obvious thing in the world.

"What about him?" Mia cocked her head.

"He spent the night here, didn't he?"

"Yes..."

"So what happened?"

"Nothing," Mia said in all honesty. "Why, did you expect something to happen?"

"Of course!" said Mint, placing her hands on her hips. "This is Rune we're talking about! Now tell me what happened!"

"Okay," she started politely. "Dad brought him home in the middle of the night, saying something about Rune sneaking off to Sonya's. I brought him towels and went to bed. I woke up and he'd gone back home."

Mint looked almost appalled. "That's all?"

"Afraid so."

"Oh." Mint frowned, disappointed. She placed her hands on the back of her head, lying down on Mia's bed. "Well, if you didn't know, Sonya also spent the night at my uncle's."

"How ironic," said Mia, vaguely interested.

"She was apparently caught in the storm too. I think she was up in the mountains..."

"Not surprised. She's never at home."

"Well, can you blame her?"

"Yes," said Mia, surprising Mint. "Kai's a nice guy."

Mint frowned sympathetically. "But Mia, they're always fighting..."

"I refuse to believe that a decent man like Kai starts all those squabbles," Mia cut in curtly.

"You're not blaming everything on Sonya..."

Mia shrugged. "Maybe I am."

"How can you blame her? Life's been rough on her."

Mia glared at Mint through her glasses, obviously irritated that anyone would take pity on such a girl. "Just because her mother doesn't live here anymore doesn't give her an excuse to act rude and disrespectful. She's not the only one around here with a single parent. Look at Rune, his father died. I'd say that's worse than someone who just left."

"That's not fair." Mint wove her arms together. "Rune and his mom get along great."

"And why shouldn't Sonya and her dad?"

Mint sagged her arms in defeat. "I dunno."

"I rest my case." Mia took a book off of her shelf and sat on the bed. Mint smiled gently. Perhaps Mia was right.