"Kalanie, wake up, I need help with Broans foot infection!" my grandmother yelled through my bedroom door.

I groaned, the dream I'd had last night was far less than pleasant. Even as I slowly regained consciousness the images of the burning people still flooded my mind as if a dam had broken and the vile pictures cascaded into my head.

I cracked open my eyes and squinted as the bright morning light blazed into my small room.

I got up and tossed my bed covers off of myself and glanced around my room in an attempt to find some clothes to wear.

I managed to uncover a dark green woolen dress and I hastily lifted it over my head. I knew from personal experience not to keep my grandmother waiting.

I hurried out of my bedroom and rushed into the bathroom where the wash basin was. I quickly stripped off the dress, washed, then slipped it back over my head.

I barged into my grandmothers healing room to see a young boy wincing slightly as my grandmother applied some sort of salve to his wounded foot.

He looked up as I entered, his dark brown eyes clouded by pain.

I gave him a quick reassuring smile, then started rooting around in the different piles of healing herbs to try to find the bandages that my grandmother would soon need. I almost instantly discovered some hidden under a stack of rosemary.

I then rushed to the fireplace and soaked the rags into the pot of water that was already boiling over the flames, and at the same time tried to avoid burning the skin clean off my hands.

I retrieved the cloth and handed the strips to my grandmother.

She nodded thankfully then turned to dress the boys swollen foot.

"There you go Broan, now just remember to keep your weight off it for a while and reapply the salve every five hours and your foot should be fine by the end of the week." She smiled tenderly at the young boy and ruffled his blond curls with her hand before handing him a bottle of yellow-ish looking potion.

"Thank you kindly Fonda", he replied before hurrying out the door to the healers shop to rush home.

"You know he didn't listen to the 'keep your weight off your foot' bit don't you?" I asked, trying to keep the teasing out of my voice but failing.

My grandmother smiled at me, showing all of her yellow teeth. "Not a chance".

We both started laughing as we turned to scrub the large wooden table in the middle of the dingy room.

"Shall I make breakfast?" I asked, knowing what the answer would be before she said it.

"Of course, what do I look like, a young healer's assistant?" I grinned.

"Young…no". I laughed as I quickly dodged a flying cleaning cloth heading for my head.

"You've got to be quicker than that old lady", I teased, jumping around her just out of her reach.

She sighed audibly, "Kids these days know no respect…" I laughed at that then pranced into the kitchen where I began getting the porridge ready.

While the thick gooey mess was heating up over the kitchen fireplace I went to the front part of our house which was the shop and I started labouredly stacking and rearranging the different herbs, plants, and various wooden mixing bowels.

My grandmother had returned to her healing room and was working on chopping different herbs and spices for a potion she was working on, though its purpose was a mystery to me.

Many people in the village of Menefer proclaimed that she was a witch from her adoration of mixing potions, there was also one rumor that she had various magical items stored under the floorboards, but that was just some story children had made up. And when they grew up they had told their children so that they stayed away from our cottage-like house on the outskirts of the village. Which was more for their safety from our dangerous ingredients than from the fear that my grandmother would turn them into a toad.

I left my piles of plants and went to check on the now-bubbling breakfast.

I ladled some into two bowels and walked carefully into the healing room.

"Breakfast is ready grandmother", I said as I handed her a bowel and spoon.

"Thank you Kalanie, and before I forget, could you please go into Grimshaw and collect more wild roses for my potion?"

I was surprised when she said this because I had sorted many roses this morning.

"But grandmother, we had plenty when I counted this morning."

"I am aware of that, child, but I am in need of eight more if I am ever to complete this mixture." I could hear the patience in her voice and I could tell that she was getting annoyed, so I decided to ask no more questions and just get on with the task.

"Yes grandmother."