Young Writers Society

9.

Lessons of Medicine

Nami bit into a slice of fresh sweet smelling bread which had just come out of the small mud oven. The smell of the food made her insides feel all warm and cozy. Hart was standing next to the table slicing the rest of the bread into small parts.

“So, um, what are we going to, uh be doing today?” asked Nami between mouthfuls.

“I was thinking that today we should go outside of Tradhalem and we’ll do a little “find’n’learn” today. Whatever we find, you will learn about. I also want to show you some plants which are important for you to know about. We’ll leave after you finish breakfast.”

Nami shoved the rest of the bread into her mouth and they ventured out into the rising sun with a pack of bread and water, leaving Goneck and Sabrawnia in the house. They walked out the west gate of Tradhalem and walked to the edge of the forest that covered the whole western border of Saradana.

“Ah! Here is where we’ll start.” Hart said, while picking up an ordinary looking brown dead looking leaf. “This one is called a Brongoo Leaf. Although it doesn’t look like anything special it is incredibly helpful. It’s a common tree in a valley, but it cannot survive well in a forest for the tree’s roots grow so much that it would have to compete for other tree’s which would end up in the other tree’s deaths or its own. You can recognize it by the veins. If you look here,” Hart pointed her finger at the small vein. “The vein’s color is green. No matter how dead the leaf is, the vein will always stay green for the toxic which is in the leaf makes it green and the toxic will not fade until the whole leaf has been burnt or destroyed. The leaf shape itself will also only have three points and the bottom will be fully curved in a half moon shape. It has smell, when you burn it, so toxic that it will cause any creature, human, or insect to turn away. One leaf itself is only enough to create a faint smell of toxic waste. A handful of these, say about ten, could kill a whole ant farm. Now, if you collected about a bagful of these, and burned them all at once, it will be so dreadful that it could turn away a whole army and evacuate a whole village." Even though this leaf is dead and dried it will emit an awful smell, but the more alive the leaf is the more horrible a smell it will create. I will show you what one leaf can do.”

Hart grabbed a flint and stone from her small bag and struck them, the spark of fire landed on the leaf that was placed on a stone and the spark created a small burnt hole in the leaf. Then smoke started drifting out of the leaf, followed by a faint smell. Nami sniffed, but she instantly stepped away. Her nose felt like it was burning, her nostrils felt inflamed and the smell was so horrible! It was nothing like she had ever smelled before. It was a mixture of garbage, with chemicals, and rotting flesh, and something else that she could not even begin to describe.

“Oh, that is awful!” Nami cried ou as she gasped for air through her mouth.

“Horrible, I know. We are guessing, as in us people, that this tree had been planted on a decaying garbage pile. All the smells and chemicals imprinted themselves onto the seed, but the tree still grew. It grew and grew into a beautiful tree, but inside of the tree the smell and rotting flesh is flowing through its veins. That is why we think that when this tree burns, it emits this horrible smell. These leaves have been burnt in mountainous quantities during wars to distract enemies. It will come in handy during your trips if ever something evil is to follow you. Collect them whenever you see them.” Nami nodded in acknowledgment. Hart led on in search of other plants. On the way Nami spotted some other Brongoo leaves and stuffed them into her pack.

“Here’s another one,” announced Hart as she bent down to pick up a oddly twisted stick. “This here is part of a tree called the Hunbender tree. This tree is knurled into a knot of wood and twigs as it grows. It just grows like that and no one knows why. It is very bendy and soft on the inside, watch.” Hart slowly, with her nails, peeled off the bark. On the inside were soft green threads of moist wood. She worked to peel of the last of the bark. Soon she held a foot of loosely held wood. “Now you can peel these threads apart. Like this.” She held one thread and pulled all the others away from it. They came apart like yarn. “This thread is very soft, but durable. Women used it for weaving their clothes. It’s very soft on your skin, like silk. People don’t use it anymore, for it is hard to collect and takes long to separate the threads; nowadays they use cotton and wool. And these threads can dry up and break after long use. It lasts for about a month. Here you go.” Hart passed the tree thread to Nami and she packed it into her pack along with the Brongoo leaves.

“I’m guessing that since we’ve found these things here, the Brongoo tree and the Humbender tree should be nearby. Right?” Nami asked.

“Yes, that’s what I was thinking too. Let’s walk closer to the forest and see if we can spot anything.” Hart led in the direction to the forest. They neared the edge of the forest and Hart and Nami scanned the forest for the Humbender tree. They both knew that to find the Brongoo tree, they would have to do more than just scan the forest and they would have to look harder. Hart spotted the Humbender tree first. A knurled branch stuck out from behind a pine tree.

“There.” Hart said, pointing at the branch. She led the way and thankfully, Nami thought, it wasn’t too far into the forest. The woods were light, and shafts of light flooded onto the forest floor. Birds chirped and small animals scurried across the ground. A cool breeze blew toward them. Dead leaves crunched under their feet as they advanced toward the tree.

“Ah, here it is. See what I mean? Even the trunk is knurled.” Nami stared at the tree. It just looked like a huge mess of twigs and wood. Twigs poked out from the crevice of two vines of wood that twined together. The wood was literally braided together.

“Damn. That’s pure chaos.” Hart nodded in agreement. She went toward the tree and snapped off a handful of branches. She handed them to Nami, and Nami snapped them into halves so that they would fit into her pack and then stuffed them in along with the other things in her bag. They walked along the edge of the woods, looking for more interesting things. Hart showed her leaves, mushrooms, and twigs that are good for eating, fires, weaving, healing, paint and all kinds of other things that would help you survive in the wild.

One thing that Nami made sure to remember was a plant called Futhem, a type of moss. It was a rare plant that many would pay immense amounts for. Hart told her what it was, even though they hadn’t found it. Futhem could be used for many purposes. It could be used as a paste that could be used permanently to close up holes in wood or any type of other materials, and it would immediately seal up, or it could be used as a healing herb for food poisoning, or if mixed correctly it could cause death. A person would only have to sniff the concoction to fall dead. After 6 days Nami had learned about 50 different types of plants. She felt a little overwhelmed by all the information, but tried her best to keep it from all floating away.

“How was it?” Goneck asked after they came home from another search-and-learn investigation.

“It was fun. I learned a lot of things.”

“That’s good.”

Then Hart poked her head in from behind the door and said, “I think you’ve learned all I can teach you for now. Your studies with me are done. So just remember everything I said and it will help you later on.” With that she left to return to the kitchen where she could continue working on her own studies.

“Oh, ok then…” Nami returned to dressing into her nightclothes. “So when are we going to leave then?”

“Well, I guess you’ll be leaving the day after tomorrow. Good night.” He trotted off to her bed and plopped down, curled up, and within minutes he fell asleep.

As Nami slowly combed her hair, she remembered about her maid Helena. She wondered how she was doing and whether she was still a maid at her house or she had been fired, but even if she was, thankfully, she had given Helena enough money to buy a house and even possess a shop perhaps. Her father was probably worried sick or perhaps not, but even so. Suddenly Nami felt an ache in her chest. It was not an ache of sadness but an ache of regret. She felt regretful that she was not able to actually ever connect with her father on any level or was able to ever have a regular father daughter relationship like so many other girls. Perhaps if she had stayed longer than things between them might’ve taken a turn for the better, but she doubted it.

She finished with her hair and slowly tucked herself under the covers of her blanket. Careful as not to disturb Goneck, she too soon fell into a deep slumber.

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I need lots of help w/ this ch. I like it, but the way i made the characters say things seem so cheesy, and off flow. I need help plz!