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982 Words
I helped her settle into my bed and covered her with a sheet, more for proprietary comfort than warmth. Then I set about my home, doing mindless house chores, sweeping my wood floor, scrubbing the table, and so forth. I needed to seem busy while she rested if only to save myself from staring at her or pacing in front of my home as was my habit. So to make her comfortable with normalcy I did common housework, going about as though having a strange and injured creature in my bed was just as normal. Eventually, her eyes closed and she slept again. I slipped out then and visited my herb gardens, tending them and refilling my stores, keeping a keen ear out for any changes in her position or breathing.
It was only a few hours later that a piercing scream left her lips as I stoked the fire for another pot of tea. I was at her side in a second but had to try several times to wake her, and when I did her reaction to me was severe. She moved away in a rush that had to be painful, scooting back until she was wedged between the wall and the headboard, her knees drawn against her and her arms protecting her head.
I backed away from her showing my hands though she wasn't yet looking at me, and I knelt at the opposite end, “Sadie,” I said gently, ashamed that my actions combined with what I could only assume was a hellish nightmare, had garnered such a reaction. She cringed at the sound of my voice and I felt hurt by the small movement. I placed my hand on her head, the one place not marred by some wound or bruise, “I promise I will not hurt you, I will not let anyone hurt you, I will keep you safe. I will treat your wounds until they are nothing but memory.” I let my full range of emotion and resolve fill my voice, giving truth and meaning to my otherwise empty words. “I could never hurt you, listen to me, feel my touch, know that I speak true. Please Sadie, do not be afraid of me, I wish only to help you. To keep you safe from your tormentors, whoever and wherever they may be.” She tightened up, seemingly trying to make herself as small and hidden as possible in such an open space. I slowly took my hand from her head and keeping my palms within her sight I stood up and backed slowly away, watching to see if she would come out of her curled form enough to look at me. When I felt the curtain that served as my door shift behind me and she still hadn’t moved, I turned and fled.
I left my home and wandered the small clearing outside, doing the one thing I had almost forgotten I was capable of doing. I let my store of Fae power radiate from me, casting a barrier of protection along the edges of my clearing. Effectively sealing us inside a bubble of magik that no one could penetrate save my few trusted animal friends and any injured being that came to me seeking help.
My self-designated role in the forest was to be a doctor to the beings of Mother Nature. My magik was the one thing I didn't need to fill this role. I had often felt in my youth that my magik was useless among the Fae. My empathy unnecessary when anyone with practice could read the colors of our wings. My affinity for healing wasted on a race that harmed nothing and felt no ills. In my healing of the animals in the forest I only rarely used my empathetic powers, for feeling a creature’s emotions and hidden pains. Such usage was rare enough but also simple in its findings, animals are not as complex as Fae, or any of Mother’s children.
Few Fae have my affinity for Mother’s healing ways, and none I was raised by putting it to use in Mother’s world, choosing instead to play at alchemy and give other Fae ways to change their hair and skin colors, using their affinite knowledge to create dyes and freeing beverages or food than to use them to heal wounds. They called it healing in their way, but I only saw their ways as a means to propagate the Fae vanity. Mother’s gift of empathy had no true place in the Fae kingdom, for any dispute could be often settled with a skilled wing reader, and refusal to unsheath one’s wings was an open admission of fault through pride.
When I came of age I traveled and learned more about Mother’s natural ways, I learned from her humans and her gnomes, her dwarves and her giants, each race had their ways of healing themselves and their pets and with my experiments, I gained confidence in treating most any creature. Until now, for now, I felt just as useless as I had when I was young, unable to truly help because no Fae had ever needed help like this before. I had never needed my magik to do anything like this before, I only needed my mind and Mother Nature herself, as she provided everything I needed for healing. The actual use of magik, though inherent in all Fae, had never appealed to me. Glamour and spellcraft meant manipulation and lies, vanity and pride, I felt disgusted by its blatant usage in the kingdom. When I left Fae, I left magik within its borders. I sat at the door and began to meditate, trying to empty my mind of all distractions and find a solution for how my Fae patient would find the will to trust me and know absolutely that my words were true.
- Writer
