Hide and Seek

The Clearing

"Marien!" Em yelled from somewhere outside.

"Here!" I called back, not taking my eyes off the distilling apparatus, counting drops of pale liquid under my breath before turning the tap off. I leaned up to grab a box from the top shelf when Em burst through with her usual energy.

"Ri, I need another poultice for infections and a few more packets for moon cycles." She was panting.

"I'll get them for you, but in the meantime you might want to try breathing." I shook my head as I went to store cupboard to collect what she'd asked for. Em hadn't learned that it was actually possible to walk from place to place, she was in a constant state of running, it was the only way she could move.

"Here you go." I handed them to her. "The usual precautions for the poultice, you know the drill."

"Thanks, you're a lifesaver!" She hugged me as she tucked the wrapped packages into her satchel. "Oh and I bumped into Nara, she said to tell you 'you can run but you can't hide and I know where you live'. Her words, not mine." She looked at me enquiringly. "Are you avoiding her or something?"

"Or something." I said, rolling my eyes, turning back to the table and pounding the pestle into the herbs hard.

"Wait, you've had an argument with your precious Nani? No! Not possible!" Em lifted herself up to sit on the table next to where I was working.

"Not an argument." I muttered under my breath.

"Then what?"

"Nothing." I continued to pound away with the pestle, until Em's staring began to annoy me. "Em, it's nothing, leave it."

"Then why is she trying to track you down?"

"Em, ever heard of this concept called privacy?"

"In a Clan? No such thing." She laughed. "Everyone knows everyone's business." I could feel her looking at me consideringly. "This doesn't have anything to do with her wanting to jump Maddox's bones, does it?" I dropped the pestle with a clatter, looking at her startled. "It does, it does!!"

"How the..has she been complaining to you about that?" I asked, picking the pestle up and wiping it.

"Ri, she's been complaining to anyone who'll listen that she thinks her mate is the hottest thing she's ever seen and she wants to lock him up and do dirty things with him but he's holding her back and she's at her wits end, blah blah blah..." I snorted at her spot-on imitation of Nara's voice. "But what has that got to do with you?" 

I sighed.

"Em..."

"Come on, you know I won't tell anyone. And she's our friend, not just yours."

"She wants me to concoct an aphrodisiac, ok? So she can slip it into Maddox's food and they can bonk the weekend away." I said, exasperated. There was silence and then Em started laughing and once she started laughing, I did too.

"So that's why you've been avoiding her? Because she asked for a love potion?"

"Not asking, she's been hounding me for it. I'm a Herbalist, not a Witch Doctor!" I protested, which set her off again. "I'm supposed to be there to help heal, not help some randy female get laid!"

"And you told her that, I assume?" Em said weakly, in between laughs.

"Damn straight I did, not that it worked. Matehood has boosted her hormones, I'm considering sedating her." I carefully measured the herbs I'd been crushing into small pieces of paper, in equal quantities.