You stand at the edge of the woods. The harsh wind swirls around you, briefly picking up rotten leaves off the ground before hurling them back down. The branches of the trees stretch high over head casting shadows on the ground and you supress a shudder when you realize they look like claws. On a normal day you wouldn't dare step a foot past the treeline, but today is not a normal day.
There is a child in your town with a fever that just won't break. Today, the local doctor told the parents to prepare for the worst, to prepare to bury their child, and you, as the doctor's assistant, were forced to bear witness to this. The mother's knees began to buckle as she receives the news. You move to help her, but she pushes you away. Her mouth opens in a silent plead, begging for you to tell her there is something. That there is something out there that can save her child.
And you think there just might be.
There's a girl who lives in the woods who you think can help. She runs a small apothacary, and her brews and salves are said to be near magical, healing everything from the common cold to a broken rib. You don't really believe in that psuedoscientific mystical stuff, but you are out options. You are forced to turn to a girl who lives alone in the woods. A girl you don't know anything about besides that she's a sick childs last hope.
Well that isn't quite true. You know her name.
Her name is Solitaire
[[Step into the forest|Into the woods]]You take the first step into the woods as you try to ignore the first twinge of fear you feel in your chest. You shove that feeling down and begin to walk. The trail you are on is well worn but covered with forest debris from a recent storm forcing you to carefully navigate fallen branches and leaves.
As you continue to walk, the fear subsides, but you are still nervous. To distract yourself you begin to think about the more outlandish rumors you've heard about the girl you are going to see. Everyone loves a bit of gossip, and the rumor mill about this girl has kept the town talking for months.
*Solitare*, You remind yourself *Her name is solitare*
They say oh so many things. They say she's a demon. They say she's a healer. They say she's crazy. They say she's perfectly normal. They say she's a conman. They say she's the real deal. They say she's an orphan runaway. They say she killed a man and is hiding from the authorites. They say she's just a harmless hermit. They say her pills and potions can cure anything. They say she's enchanting. They say she's terrifying. They say her her hair looks like it was made of sea foam and her eyes shine like crystals.
They say she's beautiful.
They say she's got vines growing out of her body.
They say she's blessed.
They say so many things.
[[Keep walking]]
You shouldn't believe everything you hear.
[[Ponder the nature of rumors]]You scoff at the thought of what some these people say! Solitaire is probably just a normal girl with a few weird quirks. So she's good with plants and can make some handy salves. So what? Everyone needs hobbies!
You collect model trains, and she is possibly an unholy witch crafting potions to take over your minds and bend you to dark desires. Perfectly normal hobbies.
The sun has hardly moved positions in the sky so you know not much time has past despite feeling like you've been walking this dreary path for hours. You are chilled to the bone, even though the sun is out, as the cold autumn winds cut through your thin jacket with ease.
You decide to just focus on one foot over the other to distract yourself from silly rumors and your own discomfort. You count your steps and try to pace your breathing with each foot fall. It is a suprisingly effective tactic, and it feels like only a few minutes more before you arrive at the worn front door Solitaire's apothacary.
The building is a dreary structure made of weathered planks and held together with what looks like rusty nails and hope. Emerald Vines creep up the wall and all avaliable spaces in front of the building are filled with flowers of every color. You recognize a few of them as common things like daffodils and lillies, but there are even more you don't recognize. Despite this, you think they're beautiful and the sight of them banishes some of your nerves.
Flowers are beautiful but so fragile
You wonder how she keeps them all alive. All the flowers in your village died a few weeks ago after the first frost.
[[Go inside]]At the front of the shack is a wooden door that is just as weathered as the rest of the structure. You step towards it and pull it open, and the creak it makes causes the fur on the back of your neck to stand up. You push past that and take your first step into the building.
The inside is just a floral as the out. It takes a second for your eyes to adjust to the dim lighting, but the first things you see are vines and flowers litering almost every surface in the tiny shack. The second thing you notice is that there are shelves along the wall all filled to the brim with jars and flasks. Each one has a small tag tied to it, detailing its price and and the ailment it can fix. You pray that one of them can help the child in your town.
The third thing you notice is that you aren't alone. A girl is standing behind a dingy counter at the back of the shack. She is crushing up some kind of leaf in a small mortar and pestle, and it takes her a moment to notice your prescense. Her hair is long and shiny(and it does, in fact, kind of remind you of sea foam), and as she turns around your eyes meet and you marvel at the clear blue color of hers. They look like the sky has been captured in a glass bottle. Your so busy admiring the way they look framed agains't her fur that you don't notice her mouth break from a gentle smile as she begins to speak.
"Oh hello. What can I help you with?"
[[Ask if she can help]]You tell her about the sick child. You tell her about all the things you've tried, and how they all didn't work. You tell her the child probably won't make it through the night without something to treat his ailment. You tell her you need help.
Solitaire's expression is calm and focused, and she waits only a moment after you finish explaining to begin talking.
"I can help with that. I have a herbal mix that works excellently for reducing fevers. Although, that has been a very popular product lately due to flu so I believe I may be out at the moment. However, I can mix up some more, it will just take a few minutes." Her voice is gentle and she flashes you a kind smile before turning back around. She grabs some herbs out of a carefully organized cupboard and begins to crush them up.
And then there is silence.
Solitaire seems perfectly happy to work without any kind of chit chat, but you feel a little awkward.
After meeting her you are pretty sure she isn't secretly a she-demon but you never know with these things. Should you make small talk with her?
[[Talk to the possible she-demon]]
[[Don't talk to the possible she-demon]]You ask her if she likes living in the woods.
Solitaire's tone is gentle as she replies, "Very much so. I've always felt that I had a connection with nature. I'm happiest when I'm
surrounded by the dirt and the trees. Plus living out here makes it much easier to get supplies for the apothocary."
You tell her that you also love nature, but you would get lonely all by yourself out here.
Solitaire giggles at that "Oh not me! I like being alone! I have so much time to think and embrace the world around me. I enjoy being around other kalons too, but I find being surrounded to be stifling. Draining even. When I want to be around others, I just walk into the town and strike up a conversation with the locals. Although I pull up my hood pretty far so they don't know its me. I don't know if you've notice, but they have some pretty outlandish ideas about me!"
You laugh at that. You tell her you have noticed, and you think its ridicolous the things you say. You tell her that the only reason they spread rumors about her is because they have nothing more interesting to do than talk about a pretty young girl living alone in the woods. They think it's a little strange.
Solitaire's eyes seem to darken at that and her smile falters but only for a moment. It was so quick you might have just imagined it.
[[You probably just imagined it]]You stand around for a few more seconds in silence. The only thing breaking up the monotony is the occasional sound of her mortar and pestle as Solitaire grinds down the herbs. You begin to shuffle your feet and play with the fur on the back of your hand.
Yea this is weird. You're gonna talk to her.
[[Talk to the possible she-demon]]Solitaire pauses for a second before starting to talk.
"You know... it's funny they say that. My mother used to tell me something similar. She used to tell me I was born lucky. I had been placed on this earth with gifts far beyond that of a normal kalon. She would stroke the fur along my cheek and whisper to me that there were others who would die for my gifts. My pretty face and my dainty features, and... other things"
You swear you see her role her eyes at that last part.
"She would lean in until we were eye to eye and I could feel her breaths stir my whiskers. Her voice would grow dark as she would ask me a simple question. A question she seemed to ask me every day. If I had all these brilliant gifts, if I was truly was blessed by some higher power. Then why did I seem so keen on wasting them?"
While she was talking, she seemed to have gotten distracted. Solitaire's hands stilled from where they were mixing the herbs. Her face had gone hard, and her gentle smile was nothing but a memory now. Her eyes had taken on a far away look, and she seemed to be staring at something only she could see. But she continues to talk.
"I have certain attributes... my mother called them blessings."
Her hood falls down a little, and you notice a single green vine twirling its way up her back along her neck. Although before you can get a good look she yanks her hood back up.
Blessings. She said Blessings. The people in town said she was blessed.
[[You shouldn't believe everything you hear]]"People wanted to take pictures of me. Wanted to poke and prod at me. My mother was more than willing to allow it in exchange for a few coins. Some even wanted me to pray for them. After all I was blessed right? A holy creature sent down to earth, but then why didn't I feel holy?"
Solitaire seems to have forgotten you are even there. She sounds bitter.
"I endured years of this. I begged my mother to let me stop. I told her how every person who visited me seemed to take a peice of me with them. How each one carved out a chunk of my soul to keep like a novelty store key chain. I told her I was worried soon there would be nothing let. But she told me to be grateful for my blessings. That I couldn't waste them"
She lets out a small sigh. Her voice has taken on a harsh tone and her face shifts into a stony mask.
"Some years later, certain moronix rich kalons were giving my mother a pretty penny. They wanted an afternoon tea session where they could gawk at the freakshow with the flowers. I was preparing in front of my vanity when I saw something beginning to change with my petals."
Petals? Did she say petals.
[[You must have misheard]]"I could only stare in horror as one of my precious petals shifted from its normal hue to a diluted gray. The petal shriveled up before sloughing off my body, and I watched as it floated down to the floor. I stared down at its wrinkled shape as I felt myself begin to wretch. Dread filled me as I realized that a part of my body, a part of my *blessing*, was laying on the floor like a crumpled discarded napkin. I held back vomit as I bolted out of the room. I couldn’t tell mother, and I had nowhere else to go so I ran to the only place I had ever felt safe, the woods."
Solitaire sounds angry.
"I will admit that the first few months in the woods were hard. I was often hungry and cold, but whenever I was close to giving up and going back to my mother, the woods would bless me with a ripe berry bush or a cozy hollow. As I grew older the woods seemed to grant me with knowledge too. I learned which plants to mix into delicious teas and which berries could be combined into a potent salve. It wasn’t long until I was opening up my own little apothecary shop, and the kalons who once paid to gawk at me were now begging for my cures. Not that they recognize me as the little girl with the flowers now."
No... not angry. Victorious. She's talking with her hands now, obviously enthralled in her own memories.
"I never saw mother again. She couldn’t even be bothered to search for her little blessing, instead just assuming I had perished in the woods. That I was too weak and pathetic to survive on my own. Well she was just as wrong about that as she was about most things. Although she was right about one thing. I have a gift. My vines and flowers mark me as something special, something that some higher power had decided to bestow a gift on. I don’t know why I was chosen for this, but my mother was right, I’m blessed"
Solitaire turns around to look at you and her face is twisted in an expression of pure conviction.
"And I’m done wasting it. "
[[Come back to reality]]Solitaire snaps back to reality. You watch as she shoves down emotion and returns to what is obviously a carefully choreographed performance. Her gentle smile is back and she returns to mixing up the herbs.
You sit there in silence, unsure of what you should say. Unsure of what you even could say.
It isn't long before she's shoving the mix of herbs into your waiting hands and pushing you out the door.
You tell her you didn't pay for it, and Solitaire tells you not to worry about it. She tells you to hurry home and save that child. She turns to walk back inside, but just before the door slams shut you hear her small voice let out a whisper.
"And please don't tell anyone what I told you"
You tell her you won't. You tell her thank you.
Then you turn around and walk back into the woods.
[[Save the child]]You make it back and give the sick child the herbs. It's miraculous really. By the next morning, the young boy is back to his feet, running around making messes and playing with his friends. His mother is beside herself with happiness, and she can't stop thanking you for saving her baby.
You tell her you're welcome, but inside you think that you aren't the one she should be thanking.
She should be thanking Solitaire.
You think about all the things they say about her.
They say she's a witch. They say she's a criminal. They say she's a hermit. They say she's a lost child. They say she's a demon. They say she's a healer.
They say she's blessed.
You say they shouldn't believe everything they hear.