|
MIDWINTER MAGIC: NINE
Arista spent a few days careening between wild happiness about the upcoming event with Kylan, and being perturbed at the complete absence of Lady Jera. Uncle Ashe finally appeared again, but Arista was so far unable to catch him alone to ask the lady's whereabouts and she dare not risk her mother overhearing it, lest she find out about Wallace. There too was the problem of keeping her father in the dark about her wedding escort. Ian Blackthorn, like most fathers, had the annoying habit of being somewhat overprotective. Once again Arista stepped into the firehall and looked around quickly. Seeing no Lady Jera and no one really watching her movements, she made her way to the door of her mother's workroom and pulled out her trusty hairpin. Quickly she unlocked the door, quite deftly with all this practice, and slipped inside. Arista let the door close behind her with a soft click then fastened the latch. As she continued through the room to the little solarium, where the glass windows let in the sunlight and the warmth, Arista quickly laid her cape aside and peered under the leaf where the spun treasure was suspended. With a gasp, her eyes widened and she muffled a little oath. Harriedly she looked around with eyes the color of new leaves. Her gaze darted about the solarium... searching... looking... The cocoon was broken open, so... Where was Wallace? What was Wallace? Alas, she found no other sign of him, no moth nor butterfly nor anything that might have emerged from that broken chrysalis, as far as she knew. Arista pulled over a stool and slumped down on it. With her elbows on the table, chin in her hands, she pondered this latest development. After several long minutes, the stool scraped the floor as Arista stood up. Her course of action was decided. She picked up her cape and came back out through the workroom. Opening the door just a crack, she dared a peek through to the firehall and then slipped out, locking the door behind her. She slung her cape over her shoulders, preparing to go out and find the woman she had been missing these last several days. Jera had been gone from Camelot for nearly a fortnight, all told. Upon returning from her trip to the Library at Green Silences with Ashevathallion, she had a bit of catching up to do with her gatherings and herb deliveries. Among the last to get her current again was quite a collection of medicinals to be carried to Camelot's infirmary. After completing her business with the healers and attendants, Jera collected her empty pouches and wandered from the infirmary into the firehall while concentrating on folding the pouches into one another and stashing them on her belt. She was still in her green cloak as she bent to do this, and how very similar the cloak was to the one Lady Skye wears, since it was made by the same hands. Arista continued into the firehall, frowning in concentration. When she looked up, she caught sight of a familiar green cloak and stifled a gasp. Was her mother about to catch her after all? Cautiously she went toward the figure and ventured, "Mama? Aren't ye s'posed to be out on patrol?" Jera looked up from her fiddling with the pouches and turned, having recognized Arista's voice. "Your mother has gotten much taller since you saw her last?" She grinned, "Good morrow, Lady Arista." "Jera!! I've been looking for ye forever! Where hae ye been?" The girl forgot herself momentarily and flung her arms around the elven woman's waist, giving her a hug. "Yes! Tis me!" Jera chuckled, playing at the girl's enthusiasm. "I was on a journey with your uncle, as it happens. We weren't gone so very long were we?" Stepping back and catching Jera's hand in hers, Arista tugged toward the workroom. "You were gone TOO long! You missed it! He did his thing and I waited and waited and now he's gone prolly hiding or sleeping or something but we need to go LOOK!" Nearly laughing as Arista rushed her toward the workroom, Jera realized what a week or two might mean to a teenager. "Well, I suppose I was indeed gone long enough to miss a bit of excitement, at least here. He, being Wallace, I presume? So, did our little friend learn the art of spinning after all?" Arista nearly dragged her to the door. Picking the lock again and opening it, the girl entered with every muscle tensed, her cheeks flushed pink, and her eyes beckoned Jera to hurry inside. She quickly shut the door behind them and nodded. "Aye! He made his chrysalis and I watched and waited and now... he's GONE!" The last was said as she stripped off her cloak and hurried into the solarium, leaving Jera to follow. The elven woman removed her own cloak and folded it gingerly then laid it aside on the cleanest spot she could find in the workroom before stepping after Arista. With her long stride, she need be in no hurry to keep up. "Gone, you say... Where is the chrysalis? Perhaps we begin to look there." Arista finally stopped at the leaf where Wallace had been resting and changing. She bent to peer under it. There was indeed an open cocoon and she only looked, afraid to touch anything. However, her friend curled to look under the leaf then gently turned it up for a better view. "Well, well. He does seem to be catching up. A fine cocoon it is... or was." Jera let the leaf slip from her fingertips to bob back into place and looked around. As she peered through the foliage in abundance around them, she squinted and distractedly asked, "Arista, have you noted anything else different here?" The girl shook her head, copper tresses glinting in the sunlight, "Nay, I just saw it opened today. What should I be looking for? Other than a moth with wings?" Arista began to scan around at other leaves, really looking inside the plants now, but still not at all sure what she should be spying. Drifting away a bit, Jera wandered along the main row of plants. Now and then she stopped to look very closely at a stem then moved to another. "Well, this would be the first time I've ever seen monkshood with red berries. Ordinarily they're orange to yellow, and pale at that, but this vine here..." She let the greenery dotted with red berries slip through her fingers as she moved along to other plantings. With a frown, Arista noted, "There's something wrong with this mistletoe too, Lady Jera. The berries should be white, but they're not, they're red. God's boots, is it a blight? Mama will be furious!" Jera shook her head, almost disbelieving her eyes, as she brushed another stem laden with bright red berries. "I do believe... Well, the stem and leaf here tell me this should be inkberry, darkest blue in color, but..." Again she shook her head, very slowly, as she contemplated. "These are so red as to glow." Then Jera turned to Arista, having registered her alarm. "Your mother may indeed be quite distraught. Hmmmm..." The girl looked back nervously and there was still no sign of a moth anywhere in the solarium. So now Arista saw two distinct and equally disastrous problems. "What are we going to do, Lady Jera?" END NINE © 2002 DP & SO along with all other participants ~ This and other stories may be found at Willow's End |