Surprised in the wood

Elantia woke up earlier than usual, she could see that it was still dark outside through the door interstice.

Their hut was the biggest in the village because of her family status. Her father, Talusius, was the village chief so they were having a big and rectangular gathering room with a huge stone fireplace in the middle. A few habitations only used stones in their structures, it was more common to use thatch and straw. Only the wealthiest and modernest ones copied that new trend, since the Aleryans began to trade in Elfis and conquered the south a few years ago. Two hundred men could comfortably fit in their hut. So it was very practical and used for all kinds of gatherings. Proof of a certain wealth, the imposing structure was useful during military or commercial negotiations, to celebrate sacrificial rites and weddings during winter, and it even happened that one time, they had to provide emergency shelter to the few cattle and horses in the village when the building in which they were spending the night was struck by lightning in the midst of a storm.

Slowly, Elantia got up from her sheepskin-covered couch and looked across the central fire in the room, at her little sister who was still sleeping despite their father's thunderous snores echoing all around them. Ilipa undoing blond hairs was half covering her face like a shiny gold river flowing on her. Her thin body curled up to keep herself as warm as possible. This sixteen-year-old girl was the one in charge of the maintenance already, as Elantia has other duties as the first daughter of the chief, but Ilipa has never balked at the astronomical amount of work to do by herself. She is like a little sunshine in the house who is warming up everybody's heart. By her genuine presence and organization skills, she added some sweetness in their lives that would be missing without her.

If their mother had been alive, the tasks would have been divided between them.

Elantia was only ten years old when she died, but she could remember each detail as if it was yesterday. The screams of their mother,the stifling heat of the poorly lit room by the fire pit in the middle of the night, the cauldron filled with boiling water and sanitizing herbs, the smell of sweat and blood on the linens and furs.

Elantia remembered a five years old Ilipa was resting on her mother's lap, and herself was sitting close on the floor.

Vinela had told them how much she loved them and wished to see them grow up happy. How important it was to live by their own choices and not to blindly follow the world as it was, but to try to see it with new eyes, the eyes of the heart.

She wanted her daughters to grow up with an independent spirit, free from the heavy traditions and morals of the past, but enriched by the experience and wisdom of their elders. It's one of the sweetest and saddest memories of Elantia with her mother. She can still see her, gently stroking Ilipa's head who was snuggled against her. Then, their mother sang for the last time the lullaby that had put them to sleep almost every night so far, the song of the moon.

Ten years later, Elantia was still feeling a huge amount of pain each time she was thinking of it like now. She felt so powerless the night her mother passed. After that, she stayed as much as possible close to her Grandma Weleda, to learn everything that would save lives and became her little apprentice.

While walking towards the door and silently crossing the room, Elantia grabbed her woolen cape and frowned at the empty jugs at the foot of the platform where her father had fallen asleep sitting up without even reaching his bed… his head falling limply on his chest. She approached him gently and delicately placed a blanket over his shoulders without waking him. She noticed with a twinge of heart the appearance of fine silver strands on his temples, reminding her that he was not eternal either.

He really tried hard to convince Elantia to not follow the path of her mom and grandma. First because he wanted her to focus on her future duty as a leader and second because since Vinela passed away, he got closer to the Uatis, the medium druid who arrived at the village the same year, and whose had a particular taste for animals sacrifices and blood divination to cure people or prevent diseases.

Elantia wasn't too fond of him but Talusius began to believe that nothing would be stronger than this guy's bloody medicine and advice. Talusius never truly forgives Welleda for failing to save his beloved wife and since, totally distrusted her way to heal their people with plants and natural remedies. So Elantia had to learn and practice despite her father's disapproval, most of the time sneaking out as she was doing today again.

Putting on her shoulders her thick woolen cloak and grabbing her bag, Elantia went outside and almost slipped on the doorstep. The beginning of spring was still quite chilly and a thin layer of frost was covering the new grass.

Elantia wasn't really an early bird but, once outside, the magic of the awakening day prevailed over more time sleeping.

She had to go deep in the forest to fetch some of the healing herbs she needed, like White dead Nettle to help the village's women to go through their periods without too much pain, Mistletoe for heart disease, and some Round leaved Sundew which were growing in the swamp. So she had taken her rope, to secure herself, in her leather bag with her usual tools to cut the rods or even dig a little to get some roots.

Passing through the village she was amazed by the number of new constructions around her. A lot of new villagers came during this winter due to some new and mysterious raids that destroyed everything they had. So her father had made some arrangements and expanded some parts of the wall protecting the village and built new huts. With these new extensions he also had to create a new access behind the central granite fountain, to the river by the main road to the north to facilitate the commodities for so many people. Elantia used this breach as a short-cut to get into the forest faster than by using the well guarded big entrance of the village and not be reported by the guards later. 

Once in the dark forest, she spotted and marked some plants that would not be ready to harvest until the following season, by tying a white linen ribbon around them, she changed the color per season to gain a lot of time when she needed to harvest them. Her grandma gave her a lot of little tricks like this one, Weleda was the best healer among the Eastern tribes. When she fell in love with Elantia's grandpa and moved to his family village in the West side, eastern people crossed the entire country to continue to be healed only by her. She taught Elantia everything she could until Elantia found her own remedies by combining plants with complementary virtues.

Elantia would have to take her father's place one day, but she always had a fascination with the fragrant world of medicine and the miracles that resulted from it, especially after the loss of her mother. Elantia found it heartwarming to be closer with her grandmother. Her feminine presence and her sweetness gradually soothed her sorrow as well as her long walks through the woods where she could forget everything, drown in the beauty of the places and just be a young girl without so many responsibilities.

Even if the teaching from her dad as a village chief was really important and tough she diligently followed it, but her heart lingered with nature and its blessings.

She already found the white Nettles and was bending over it cutting some Male fern leaves that she came across in her way to the swamps, her long wavy nut brown hairs brushing her cheeks on both side like a soft curtain, the sunlight was getting slowly stronger through the branches adding to the contrast with the dark tones of shade between the trees and low bushes. The frozen morning dew gave way to fine crystalline droplets and made the carpets of moss around sparkle like thousands of fine shaped diamonds.The birds were chirping profusely all around sooner but she noticed that they were being less noisy since a few.

Actually, she noticed that the entire forest looked suddenly and strangely rather quiet... she stopped cutting and looked around her suspiciously without raising; then she heard a loud and deep growl from very close, too close.. Her heart missed a few beats, looking a few steps away on her right side from where it was from. She froze, her knife still in her hand.