Chapter 4: I do not own Merlin, wish I did though, might've had more than 5 seasons and Arthur would have died much later than Camlann. I may have gotten my hands on a thesaurus, wanted to make me sound smarter, LOL ;) Italics are still Latin, the normal font is English (unless the words are in Spanish, then they're obviously Spanish) ;) Tell me what you think Cassie's secret might be in the comments!
"Gaius, have you any news on this girl?" Uther asked of his old friend.
"Casiopea is no spy from Caerleon, she comes from Hispania and left there for reasons undisclosed. I will try to find out why, and let you know, my Lord." Gaius told him the well rehearsed words. He found out why she left the previous night.
Cassie had finally been given leave by Gaius to stand carefully, and wander the elderly physician's chambers with the aid of a walking stick. Gaius had been called away for a difficult birth in the lower town by the midwife. While he was away, she took the opportunity to look around his workspace. There bottles and bottles of potions, and salves, and dried herbs, and powders of varying colors. There were quite a few mortars and pestles and a fully stocked chemistry set with fractionating columns and varying sizes of round-bottomed flasks and test tubes. She found some strange herbs on the desktop with notes accompanying them. Obviously, Cassie had no clue what any of this was for, didn't stop her from picking everything up and examining it with a keen eye. She had just gotten near the herbs when the door opened and Sir Owaine was there.
"Oh. Hello miss. Have you any idea where Gaius is?" Sir Owaine greeted
"Gaius? He's out assisting someone with childbirth." Cassie responded in Latin.
"Parturire? What does any of that mean?" he asked, perplexed.
Realizing that they would get nowhere talking, Cassie pointed out the window, then to her womb, then made a cradling motion. 'Hopefully charades works with him' she thought absently. Meanwhile, the knight just looked on in amusement at the pretty foreigner.
"He's helping a delivery?"
"Delivery! Yes that's where he is!" she affirmed, nodding to him.
"Ah. you wouldn't know how to do stitches would you?" he asked, motioning with his hand a stitching motion, although it was closer to miming a fish out of water. Cassie laughed blithely and motioned for him to sit down. She reached over to where the needle and thread were and expertly thread the needle.
"Show me your arm, please, Sir Knight" she asked looking at his arm. Owaine took off his shirt, revealing a chiselled chest and strong sinewy muscles, and turned around to show a superficial gash near his shoulder blade.
"I apologize for this, miss…"
"Casiopea, señor" she responded, recognizing the pause for introduction.
"Casiopea. I'm Sir Owaine, one of the King's knight's. Are you sure you know what you're doing?" he asked, the trepidation clear in his voice.
"Si, señor, sé lo que hago." she chuckled as she started stitching. When she finished the nine stitches that were needed, she looked around for the salve to prevent infections. Seeing that it was on one of the many shelves in the workspace, she hobbled over and inspected it. Cassie smelled it, to make sure it was the correct salve, and noted the scent of turmeric and honey with a grin.
"Are you sure that's the salve? Gaius usually uses the green one."
"Green? Este tiene el olor de miel y curcuma. Es lo que usaba en mi tierra." she responded nonchalantly. "Pero, si prefieres esperamos a Gaius" she shrugged.
Sir Owaine just looked on dumbfounded and relented to using that ointment. When Cassie applied it, the knight smiled in relief at its cool sensation on his skin.
"Thank you, Casiopea." he said, taking her hand and gently kissing her knuckles while blue eyes met her blue ones. Cassie could only giggle and blush at the attention of the handsome young knight.
"Llamame Cassie, Sir Owaine." she told him with a coquettish smile.
At that moment, Gaius entered the room and saw the shirtless knight with fresh stitches and the blushing girl.
"Gaius!" Sir Owain blurted out, like a schoolboy caught in an embarrassing situation. "I must say, you should make her your new apprentice! She has very good hands, I could barely feel the stitches she did."
Gaius approached the young knight and appraised the stitches.
"These are remarkable! Evenly spaced and taut. Where did you learn to take such good stitches?" he commented.
"My brothers. They used to need stitches practically every day. Mother taught me when I was twelve, and between my six brothers and all the injuries they acquired on a daily basis,I got good at them. Practice makes perfect, does it not?" she answered with a smile, happy at the praise from the old man.
"And the salve, which one did you use? I took the one I always use and it was my last flask, I was planning on making more tomorrow."
"Oh, I found one that had honey and there was turmeric lying around, It's what we always used back home."
Throughout the whole exchange, Sir Owain just stood there, shirtless and confused.
"The stitches are fine, Owain, you can put your shirt back on." Gaius reprimanded.
"Of course Gaius, I should get back, the knights are expecting me. Goodbye Gaius, bye Cassie. Thank you again for everything."
"Vide te mox, Sir Owain!" she waved happily. "How is the new mother, Gaius? And the baby?"
"Both fine, dear. Niniane suffered some minor blood loss, but I have come to prepare my blood stew to help her replenish and will check on them later. So, have any other visitors come, or just the knight who made you blush as bright as a red rose?" he enquired teasingly.
"If you must know, he was the only patient to call on you today. Although, if I am to stay, I should probably start to learn English. I can hardly go about miming everything and hoping I am understood, I will seem a jester of the court." she joked.
"And a very pretty jester you will be dear, but you should keep off that leg for now. I will try my best to teach you. But it might be trying to teach you two things at once. That is if you'd like?" the hope in his voice was palpable.
"If I'd like what, I don't understand."
"Sir Owain brought up a good point, when he suggested I should teach you to speak English if you are to be my new apprentice?"
The grin that spread across Cassie's face at those words could not have been bigger. She finally felt like she was where she needed to be.
"I would love to be your apprentice, Gaius! But can we wait for a bit while I get my bearings here, and also while I learn English? After I can at least have some basic communication skills, then we can proceed with the training."
"Very well, then. Let's begin!" And so they went, Gaius going around the room, pointing out objects and saying their name while Cassie wrote on a spare bit of parchment everything, from apple, to window, to flask. They carried on in that fashion with the basic words, they then moved to the common adverbs and adjectives. Once that was solid-which took them the better part of the afternoon- and Gaius had taught her common phrases, Cassie went about making dinner for her new tutor and friend. As she went about heating up the rabbit, and repeating the name over and over in her head, and placing the condiments Gaius went to give Ninane and her baby a check up. When he got back to his chambers, the stew was prepared and a peasant from the Lower town was waiting with her son, eating some of the delicious smelling stew.
"Ah, Alex! Fallen again have we?"
"No sir, Gaius! This time I'm not the one hurt! Mum got burnt and this nice girl helped her! And gave us some delicious soup!" He answered jovially! "She's very pretty and funny too! Keeps saying 'rabbit'!" he whispered excitedly at the old man while his mother looked on fondly.
"Yes. That she is. Are you okay, Mary? Let me see the burn."
"Quite fine actually Gaius. Your new apprentice is very good, if a bit confusing. Kept making hand signals at random things. Great entertainment though, Alex couldn't stop laughing." She said as Gaius looked her hand over.
"The dressing looks fine. She never ceases to amaze me! She is still learning English so, pantomiming is how she communicates for now. Stew any good?"
"Delicious! Thank her for the stew, I don't think I would have been able to make him any dinner with my hand like this. Alex certainly seems to be enjoying it! I've never tasted anything like this. Come, Alex. It's time for you to go to bed. Bye, Casiopea!" Mary said while prying Alex from the chair
"This bodes well for me! Goodbye, Mary. In the morning, wash your wound with clean water then apply more of this and rebandage" he instructed her. "Bye Alex!"
"Bye, Gaius, Cassie!" the boy said, exuberant.
"Bye!" Cassie replied as Gaius plopped down on the bench.
Cassie got another plate and served him his portion of the soup and did the same for herself. She waited for Gaius to begin eating before doing so herself, mainly because she wanted to see Gaius' reaction to her cooking. She wasn't disappointed when his eyes opened as wide as saucers and he looked down in awe.
"I've never tasted anything like this! Rabbit has always tasted bland to me!"
"I... cook... good?" she asked, testing out the words on her tongue.
"Delicious! You must give Cook the recipe! The royals would love this! You are just full of surprises today! Aren't you, Cassie?" he told her while she just looked on with a charming smile gracing her features.
"Thank you, Gaius. I think, before I become your apprentice, I should be completely honest with you. You should be able to trust me. Completely. And trust is not given, it must be earned. I want you to trust me, Gaius. I want to stay here, I think I might have a good life in Camelot."