Reunion of Friends [Ariel]

[Zane]

They walked in relative silence, that was until Zane noticed a berry bush growing off the path. He nudged Ariel's side and brought her over to the bushes. "You know what these are? They are a very special kind of berry called ultima lux. It means last light. If you were to outright swallow one without chewing on one. It would put you into a deep sleep, lasting for as long as a day or even two. If you were to chew one. It would kill you. It has two uses, one being for surgeries the other is making a very strong wine, also very sweet. I've had it before."

[Ariel Buchanan]

Ariel cocked her head and studied the berry bush. "Talk about two very different uses," Ariel said. "Drinking that wine kind of seems like a dangerous gamble to me. I don't know that I would ever be able to drink it." She laughed. "I would be afraid that it would somehow kill me. How do you remember all these things? There's so many herbs and berries, and so many look similar."

[Zane]

"Well that is both correct and incorrect, it's not the berry that will kill you but infact it's seed at the center." Zane plucked on of the berries off the bush and pulled out one of his arrows then cut the berry in two, "You see the seeds outer wall is a membrane that the stomach cannot digest, but if you chew it, your teeth break the membrane and it is the core of the seed that will kill you." Zane tossed the berry to the ground and placed the arrow back in his quiver. "Oh it's easy, I'm a nature spirit, I learn about nature just by being in the same area as it, I've also had a while to learn these things."

[Ariel Buchanan]

Ariel nodded her understanding at Zane's berry explanation. "So for you it's more like you just know?" she asked and grinned. "You do realize that statements like that are dangerous around me. I would love to pick your brain and have you teach me even a portion of what you know." The pair finally reached the front lawn of the manor. As they neared the front door Ariel stopped and looked at Zane. "Did you want to go around to my study and get the flax you need or do you want to go see Grandmother first?"

[Zane]

Zane laughed heartily. "I'm sure you would." It had been a while since anyone had last made him laugh like that. Maybe he was just too stressed or maybe it was because of the company he was in. He tossed over the thoughts his head at her question. "I think it would be more polite to go visit your grandmother first. After all. Don't you think she would be a little hurt if she knew that I was in town and the first thing you did was not take me to see her?"

[Ariel Buchanan]

Ariel smiled. "Yes you're right," she said. "It definitely would be more polite and Grandmother might be unhappy if I didn't bring you to see her first, but I just wanted to make sure. I know how Grandmother can be. I thought it would be best to at least offer you a temporary reprieve."
 

  Ariel walked to the front door and it opened soundlessly. An older woman with dark hair pulled back from her face in a low bun appeared from behind the door. "Hello Ms. Ariel," the woman said. "Mr. Zane! How wonderful to see you. I know Ms. Evyn will be so happy to see you again. She's in the library." "Thank you, Lisbeth," Ariel said as Lisbeth took her cloak then took Zane's. "Can you bring us some wine please? That walk has made me dreadfully thirsty." Lisbeth nodded and hurried off. Ariel and Zane walked down the main hallway to the library.
 

  Ariel smiled as she always did when she came to the library. One of the largest rooms on the main floor of the house, the library was expansive and contained more books than most small libraries. Floor to ceiling bookshelves lined every wall, with 6 more rows of bookshelves dominating three quarters of the room. Each shelf had sturdy wooden ladders set in tracks that the length in order to reach the books on the higher shelves. To the left was the small sitting area comprised of 4 well stuffed chairs, a low slung table, and an ornate oak desk. Ariel saw her grandmother sitting in one of the chairs, apparently engrossed in a book. As Ariel and Zane entered the library her grandmother glanced up, delight streaking across her face as she spotted Zane.


  "Look who I found today at the market Grandmother," Ariel said laughingly. Evyn quickly put down the book she was reading and got up and crossed the room. She reached out and wrapped Zane in a quick hug. "Hello my dear," she said as she released him. "It's been far too long since you came to visit. How have you been? Please come sit. You know how I love to hear your stories." Evyn reached over and kissed Ariel's cheek and led the pair across the room. Lisbeth came in with a tray laden with wine, bread and cheese. "Thank you my dear," Evyn said as Lisbeth put the tray down on the table. "You can just leave it. We can serve ourselves just fine." Lisbeth smiled and nodded then retreated from the room. Once everyone had wine and had gotten settled Evyn looked at Zane. "So," she said. "Tell me all about your adventures."

[Zane]

Zane uncorked the wine and poured three glasses, giving the first to Evyn, the second the Ariel and then serving himself last. He then sat back and took a sip of wine, setting about telling about the last six months or so of his life, most of it being rather unremarkable, the only real stories sticking out were his tale of killing the banshee, the winter in Niahi with the huntress Owlet and meeting the two nature spirits. "So according to the younger female spirit, when her and her friend catch word of a banshee, they will track me down and we will all take it on together, I plan to go back north before then and meet with the other spirit and find out what I can about my past. He seemed to be well informed about my parentage."

He must have been talking for the better part of an hour, "I apologize, I seem to have rambled."

[Ariel Buchanan]

Evyn shook her head. "Please don't apologize," she said. "You know how I love hearing about what you've been up to since the last time I saw you. I'm very impressed that you took on a banshee. That takes a lot of courage, though you've never been short on it." Evyn stood and and smoothed her skirts. "I hate to cut this short but I'm quite tired," she said. "I seem to get tired much more easily these days. Please excuse me. I'm just going to retire to my room until supper." She started to walk toward the door then stopped and turned around. "I don't know how long you're planning on staying in the area Zane, but you know you're more than welcome to stay here," she said. "Ariel darling make sure Lisbeth gets a room ready for Zane. I know you're more than capable of entertaining our guest." She turned and continued out of the room. Ariel looked at Zane as she finished her wine. "Would you like to go to my study now?" she asked.

[Zane]

Zane nodded, setting down the wine, his glass being a little less than half full. "Sure We can head over to your study now, but tell me how often has your grandmother been getting tired and about how long does she rest?" It was very concerning for Zane to see the old gale getting tired so soon, it was barely two hours past noon. "Also how old is your grandmother again?"

[Ariel Buchanan]

"Grandmother is 85 as of this spring," Ariel said. She walked out of the door of the library and turned left, continuing down the hallway to one of the rear entrances. "She's been slow to recover since she was ill. She gets tired easily now, but the last few weeks it's been more and more often. You know how stubborn Grandmother can be. She just says it's her age finally catching up with her. She won't let me examine her. She says I'm worrying unnecessarily." Leading Zane outside she walked past the entrance to the gardens and turned left, coming around to the side door of her study.


Ariel's study was more like it's own small house. Built off the main house it was originally intended to be the gardener's quarters, but since grandmother preferred to tend to her own gardens it wasn't used for that purpose in ages. Ariel had begun using it as a child as a playground of sorts. When she was a teenager she had gotten her grandmother's permission to turn the unused space into a study. She had converted the main floor into one giant space that contained all her medical books as well as the books she had amassed about medicinal herbs and their various uses and her supplies of herbs. Ariel walked to the far wall and ran her finger down the row of herbs, stopping and pulling out a jar clearly labeled "Flax" in Ariel's neat script.


"Here you go dear," she said, handing Zane the jar. "I'm just going to put these things away. Oh and as for Grandmother when she rests it's normally for a few hours. Normally not more than two but I honestly don't know if that's because she genuinely feels better or because she won't allow herself to rest any longer. Do you need any help?"

[Zane]

Zane took in all this information carefully, while it was true that Ariel's grandmother was getting old, Zane refused to believe that nothing could be done. He was already formulation a diagnosis. Last year the common illness was troll fever, Zane was now pondering weather or not she had that when she got sick. He pushed aside these thoughts for now. He began going though the Flax, most of it was healthy and could be used quite well, those that weren't he picked out and set aside, there was enough left to make four bowstrings. "Do you have a spinning wheel?"

[Ariel Buchanan]

Ariel nodded and motioned for Zane to follow her. She walked into the next room and pointed to the spinning wheel set up in the left corner. "As far as I know it still works properly," she said. "But I haven't used it in a very long time." She laughed. "You know I'm hopeless when it comes to those kind of things. I'll be just around the corner if you need me. " Ariel left the room, leaving Zane alone with his task.

[Zane]

Zane quickly set to work turning the flax into a thread, in less then ten minutes the had twelve four-foot threads of flaxen string. Then he took three and began to braid them together, this tripled their strength and prevented breakage, also gave a nice groove for an arrow notch. He repeated the process for the the remaining nine threads until he had four strong bowstrings. He took off his current bow string and replaced it with one of the new ones then tested the strength of the flax to the draw strength of the bow, which was about ninety-five pounds. He did the same for the other bow stings, they would all work perfectly, he wound three and put them in his bag. He walked out to where Ariel was, not twenty minutes had passed. "Well, do you have any plans for today?"

[Ariel Buchanan]

Ariel looked up from the herbs she was bundling to dry and shook her head. "Not particularly actually," she said. "The only thing I really needed to do was replenish a few stores of herbs." She finished bundling the herbs and hung them on the hooks by the window. "Now that's done," she said, wiping her hands. "Was there something you had in mind?"

[Zane]

"Oh I don't know. Something silly, a bit dangerous and perhaps a bit foolish. But it will be fun too. Come on," Zane led her out of the storehouse and around the side of the main building. He had spotted it on the way in, climbing ivy. It went all the way to the top. Zane ran his hand along the vine, bringing new life to it and strengthening it. "Come on." And he began to climb up. One little bit at a time.

[Ariel Buchanan]

Ariel looked up at Zane as he began climbing the ivy, shaking her head the higher he climbed. "Are you crazy? Why is it always climbing to some mind-numbing height?" Shaking her head she began to follow him, willing herself not to look down lest she completely lose her composure. Zane stood at the top, waiting for her to catch up. When she finally reached the top Zane helped her over the ledge and onto the roof of the main house. It looked so very different up here, and she had to admit the view behind the house was amazing. She smiled at Zane. "What made you want to come up here Zane?"