Whispers From Below

Chapter 9

 Ryland had told me what valerian root looked like so I could take Amice's advice to try it out. After walking around with the cethin at the forest edge for some time I was able to find its tiny puffs of purple and white flowers stemming up from fern like leaves.

Ryland had gone out for a few but left instructions on how to prepare the root for tea. Sitting on a tall stool in the kitchen with the cat waiting for the tea to boil and snipping off the pieces of the root that I needed.

He jumped up onto the counter watching what I was doing, "yunno I feel like I should name you... I cannot just keep calling you 'the cat'."

He looked at me and made a chirping meow. It felt like he was agreeing, "alright well, hmmm."

I thought about it hard till the kettle started screaming, I poured the boiling water over the roots in a mug.

"How about Binx?"

He meowed then leapt into my lap as if to say he liked it.

"Alright, Binx it is."

~~~

The tea did help, I was finally able to calm my mind and get a full night's sleep, Ryland even let me sleep in. Feeling rested I was able to get myself to take a full bath. There was definitely still blood caked in my hair but that could also just be my mind playing tricks.

Looking into the water too long it would turn to thick blood and I felt like at any moment someone was going to pull me under, so I made it quick and dried off.

Then started tending to the bite and gash, both had been sewn with strings. First I cleaned them out well with alcohol, gritting my teeth when the sting hit me.

I took cotton puffs to put into my side, the bite still pussing and swollen, skin still hung off a bit, and blood seeped out.

It was completely surrounded by blue and purple bruises as was the rest of my body, even some on my jaw and face. I could not look at it for long or I would start to get sick, so swiftly I wrapped my torso then my leg and got dressed for the day.

Jace was out front helping out, when he saw me he immediately came over and hugged me. "You seem super well rested today Snowflake."

Smiling and nodding "yeah I took a tea last night and it really helped."

He patted my hair "good means you can help with the front."

At the front desk of the bakery we put out a chair for me to sit on since standing was hard, so I would greet and take customers orders while still resting. It kept my mind distracted from horrible thoughts and daydreams.

That night after close Jace, Ryland and I were in the back house just hanging around. Rylands face was buried in letters and notes, Jace and I just made small talk.

"When are you guys moving to the city Ryland?" He looked up from his papers to look at us both.

"Soon." His voice trailed off while in thought. We will be moving into Rylands actual place in the inner ring of Lambegus. This one in Kardama was just temporary, it was half way from all other Kingdoms if he needed to ship off anything to other places. He just found himself here more than the city recently.

Jace looked at me, "I can't wait to show ya around my neck of the woods. There won't be a dull moment, I'll tell you that." I was so beyond excited to get out of this place, and even more so to learn how the real world truly is.

"Ry, will I have to go back to school when I am there..?" Was the loaded question on my mind since last night. He raised a brow, nodding "yes you will still continue your education. It'll be much different there though, trust me."