[All Things Wild] A Bit Of Wildness In The City (Johanne)

[Haeli]

Timestamp: Late Fall, 512 AV
Location: All Things Wild
Purpose: Puttering Around The Shop

The Egret wheeled over the shop, banked, and slipped in through an open window. She backwinged all the way down and flapped until she touched base at one of the large indoor trees and dropped her heavy bundle at her feet. The egret was panting, having been heavily laden as she flew up from the south, making the trip in less than three days. Underrated, egrets could fly long distances relatively easily and were often undetected by predators due to their snowy white plumage.

Then, after walking a step or two, turning a circle, and stretching out her wings, the egret slowly began to shimmer and contort. Feathers retracted, sliding back into pale skin. Whiteness darkened to sandy blond and the egret changed shape. It took a while and looked incredibly painful as bones realigned and even joints shifted positions. Soon though, far sooner than it used to take the girl, Haeli stood whole and naked in the sunlight streaming through the glass of the old observatory turned orangery.

She bent, retrieved the bundle and absently carried it towards the counter to begin to unpack it. Haeli had retrieved goodies, from the Gyvaka, to make wonderful things during winter's isolation.

[Johanne]

In her few years stay in Lhavit, Johanne had heard rumours of a strange little shop run by a wildling. The people of Lhavit cheerfully told her of an abandoned observatory, renovated with nature taking residence inside its crystalline walls. Oaks, streams, ferns, birds: they all found their home in a shop called 'All Things Wild.' Johanne, with nothing but a woollen shawl to guard her against the cold of the oncoming season, and a curious mind, set forth to find this strange little shop and the even stranger woman who ran it. After all: why travel to a new city if one were only to stay on the beaten track? Johanne looked for adventures to watch and write down, and this shop seemed like an interesting place to start.

It was near the Koten Temple, the locals told her, as she left her small apartment in the Solar Winds. Her well worn boots carried Johanne through the cobblestone streets of Lhavit. Even now, after years of living here, Johanne still felt short of breath when she saw the stunning views and heart-stopping drops afforded by the peaks. It was so very different to her old home, where all she could see was debris, and a far horizon she longed to fly away to.

She barely noticed how the time passed. Before she knew it, she stood before a breath-taking structure. The large imposing doors called to Johanne. She smiled. Here was beauty on earth. If there was one thing Johanne truly loved about Lhavit--one thing she would miss when she left to find more stories--it was the absolute undeniable beauty of the city. She would miss feeling as though she lived in the spaces between the stars. She would miss masquerading as one of Zintila's children.

She pushed the doors open, with some effort, and was greeted by a marvellous sight: it was as though the wildness beyond the city walls had taken up residence in their own home, and begun to call themselves Lhavitian. The air in here was laden with spices, and smelt as fresh as newly sprouted ferns. The cavernous room was as light as the day outside, and Johanne could hear the trickling of a stream as it made its way through the structure of the shop. Johanne was truly astonished at the sheer display of mankind's will, and the sheer awesomeness of nature.

Johanne began to look around the shop. She began to notice details, rather than the whole. She saw the massive doors at the back of the shop, leading to other unknown wonders. She looked closely at the ancient trunks of the larger trees, and the fragile stems of the saplings. And eventually, Johanne saw the wooden counter, behind which stood a sandy-blonde, tangled haired girl, bent over examining a package. A girl as naked as the day she was born.

Johanne froze. Perhaps the doors were closed to indicate that the store was not open for business. Here she was, intruding on some poor girl's private time. Johanne, wondering what to do, thought it only fair to make her presence known. "Excuse me," she called, still standing uncomfortably near the entrance. "Is the store open...? I can leave..." She kept her eyes averted, for the sake of the woman's modesty.

[Haeli]

Haeli looked up when the bells above the double glass doorways chimed, singing out a lovely lighthearted tone that announced a customer. The swamp witch turned abruptly, smiled, and started to greet the newcomer. And then her eyes met the woman's and she frowned, wondering what was wrong. The stranger looked distinctly uncomfortable. Haeli watched her gaze a moment, then realized the woman's discomfort came from ..... Haeli dropped her gaze, studied her own form for a moment, then frowned.

Clothes!

Haeli had forgotten. She blushed all the way to her toes, whirled, and grabbed at a robe that hung over a chair just for such a purpose. She swirled it around her shoulders and belted it then turned back to the woman. "I'm so sorry! I forget sometimes, about clothes and this place and how people don't wear them. I'm used to being outside, south, where it is warm like it is in here and the cold does not bother someone. Clothing is for nice occasions there, not for traipsing about swamps. I'm sorry. I just came back from there. From south. Do you want to see my treasure?" Haeli asked, moving past the moment, wanting the girl to forget as quickly as she could that the witch had forgotten herself and her manners.

"There's all sorts of things here. Maybe something you'd like, no?" Haeli added, taking more and more things out of the bundle she'd been able to carry as an egret. There were leaves and seeds and a couple of large shells of abalone. There were flowers that had still been blooming in the Gyvaka that gave off a fragrant scent. Haeli even had a few agates bundled up where she'd spotted them on the beach. She liked to keep beautiful stones around, even if she didn't know truthfully what they were or what they were worth.

If the woman moved closer, she'd also see teeth, bones, even a severed claw from something fierce. There was even a single long horn from a swamp deer that had probably been shed in at the end of winter beginning of spring last year.

And, moreso than that, there was a huge amount of mosses and lichens. They came in every color of the rainbow and seemed to be divided up by being tucked into bundles of mosses that kept them from mingling with each other.

"Pick something out. Anything. I'll share." Haeli said. "I'm Haeli, by the way. I didn't mean to be rude. I just didn't think anyone would come in this late and hadn't gotten around to closing the shop. Are you thirsty? I could put on some tea." The witch added, glad for the company after the hundreds of miles of flying she had to do in order to get there and back.

[Johanne]

Through her awkwardness, Johanne could still see the wild eyes on the girl, and knew that this was the wildling that some of the men in the Surya Plaza had been talking about one day. But as the girl blushed, and hastened to throw on a nearby robe, Johanne thought that perhaps she was not so strange at all: just forgetful, or perhaps having just gotten out of a long hot bath. She was happy to give her the benefit of the doubt.

And then the long tirade began.

The girl, now clothed and presentable, rambled to Johanne about strange things: swamps, the south, treasure, and a land where clothing was something optional. This girl was undoubtedly strange, and barely took a breath as she spoke to Johanne as if they were long-lost friends meeting after many years apart. "Treasure?" Johanne mumbled in confusion, even as she stepped forward to look into the package the girl was hastily unpacking.

Standing next to the girl, keenly aware that beneath the robe and belt was a body that Johanne had already seen far too much of, she looked at the wares that the shop-owner (she presumed) had spread out for her to peruse. It was the strangest collection of wares that Johanne had seen: more looking like trinkets a young boy would pick up whilst adventuring through the wilderness, than something to be sold in a shop. She reached out and picked up an old, gnarled claw, gingerly bringing it close to her eyes to examine the grime and muck still covering it. But to sell?

"What would you use this for?" Johanne asked curiously: half expecting an answer, and half simply muttering aloud in incredulity. Ghosting her hand just above the other items the girl had for sale, she picked up the flowers. They were bright and brilliant in colour, and let off a pleasant aroma when Johanne lifted them to her nose. Partially in pity, but mostly because she adored the flowers, Johanne dug out her coin purse. "How much for this flower?" she asked, tucking it behind her ear, and smiling shyly.

"Haeli," Johanne repeated underneath her breath. She liked the way the syllables rolled off her tongue. The name seemed exotic, strange, and Johanne could already visualise a story: a lithe naked girl, baring her teeth at a swamp gator, ready to fight to the death, all for the sake of a single claw. She smiled to herself, making a note to write that later that night, at home.

"I'm Johanne. Tea would be lovely, thank you." She leaned against the counter as she waited, picking up some of the moss and examining it closely.

"And don't worry about that. It's my fault for bursting in, I'm very very sorry." Johanne simply dismissed it, for she didn't feel comfortable about thinking on the nakedness any longer than she had to. She had very rarely seen anybody naked, male or female, and they both made her feel equally awkward.

[Haeli]

Haeli laughed. It was a bright pleasant thing that tended to lighten the mood of any space because it was heartfelt and filled with delight.

"The flowers are for beauty not for coin. They are not for sale. They are gifts. Nature gives them to us. You admire it so you should keep it. But there are other things more valuable here. The claw...." She took the claw gently from Johanne's possession and reached behind the counter and pulled out a small slip of leather. It was the type of scrap material she kept around for wrapping things in or padding fragile glass vials. "Look.. its not probably from an animal you know. But the claws are sharp, very sharp... its a Bubbler we call them... for they are rarely seen above the water except to breathe. They lay in the mud, beneath the surface, and all you see of them before they kill you is bubbles from their slowly escaping breath." Haeli said.

She grasped the claw tightly in her hands, letting it splay out between her ring finger and her middle finger, and then dragged it across the leather. It parted the leather as easily as a dull knife parted soft butter. "They eat crocodiles. And crocs have very thick skin." Haeli said, setting the claw aside. "Finding one is lucky and very useful. " She picked through the other things, pointing this and that out, even handing Johanne a tiny birds nest made of spiderwebs and declaring it from a hummingbird.

"There are other things here. The moss... the light stuff that's almost white? It eases cramps when women bleed. And the deep green? The moss that's almost black? If you brew it into a thick thick philter, it makes an incredibly beautiful deep green ink that never fades on paper. I used to use it a lot when I was growing up to write down recipes or philters I had learned. I hope to sell it here too. Maybe people in Lhavit will like ink other than black." She added, looking thoughtful.

"The Abalone Shells were from my breakfast. But I notice if you put things in the shells, people will come smell them and maybe taste them and be interested in learning new seasonings and herbals." She added, examining the shells thoughtfully. "I need to ... how do you say.... make this place more warm to people, less strange. I wanted to bring the outside inside, but many people visit to see the flowers in the winter but do not shop. I would like them to shop more so I have to put... things in the window that makes them want to come in." Haeli said. "Things they may want to buy.... but its hard to know what people like." She added. Then Haeli turned and asked Johanne a very important question.

"Right now... before I can make tea... I need to know what you feel like. Tell me truthfully what you are feeling right now and I'll pick herbs that will make you the prefect tea for the moment. Be honest." She said, waiting in front of her rather large spice cupboard, most of the drawers overflowing with herbals. She picked up a little fine mesh bag and a set of tongs and began care peering in drawers and looking speculatively at Johanne.

[Johanne]

"Oh, well, thank you for your kindness," she said, as she pocketed her coin purse, with the flower still neatly stowed behind her ear. While she knew Haeli simply meant to help, to share her knowledge, Johanne couldn't help but feel a little chastised for admiring the flowers above all the other trinkets the girl had collected. She did not know very much at all about the wilderness. When she had left Denval, she had sailed directly to the Tranquil Port. She had not seen anything of the Unforgiving, nor any other part of the wild in Kalea. She was not knowledgable about such things. To her, the flowers were what stirred her heart, and it was simple enough that she could understand their purpose: to be beautiful.

But Haeli then proceeded to tell Johanne about the wonders of the claw, and Johanne relinquished the item to Haeli's soft touch. She would try to let her embarrassment go and learn. What was a storyteller if they were not willing to learn new things, new people, new stories?

"A Bubbler..." Johanne repeated the strange animal's name beneath her breath, before shuddering at the image. The last thing you'd see in this world would be the stinking mud, and the bubbles of the vicious creatures breath. Johanne's eyebrows raised of their own accord when Haeli split the leather as easily as breathing.

"How did you manage to acquire the claw, if they are so difficult to find, and the beast is so deadly?" Johanne already imagined the encounter: Haeli wrestling the Bubbler with her bare hands, until it lay dead in the mud, and she could saw the claw from its still-warm corpse with ease. But she knew the true story would most likely be underwhelming compared to Johanne's imagination.

Haeli continued to expound upon her treasures. Johanne admitted to herself that she was impressed. For a girl that looked as if to be her age, or perhaps a little younger, Haeli was very knowledgeable about the wild and its treasures. She looked at the moss with renewed interest. She never saw anything so raw, so unmade. These things, Johanne simply saw in shops, ready to be sold. But here was a girl who could see the worth in raw and untamed nature. Without realising it, a smile spread across her face as she listened to Haeli, and the girl became even more endeared to her. "The moss! How do you take it to cure cramps? Raw, or do you brew it? Have you taken it? I'm sorry if that question is impertinent..." Johanne's excitement began to run away with her, and reached a peak when the ink was mentioned.

"An ink that never fades?" Johanne imagined her stories lasting forever, for years into the future, so long that eventually only Tanroa could read her stories. Her heart beat faster. "Can you make this ink?" She picked up the moss and looked at it wonderingly. Something Johanne would walk by without a second thought was so very valuable. "I'd like to buy it, or find someone who could make this ink... I am a writer, you see."

Johanne's heart went out to the girl. Haeli truly loved this shop, and nature, Johanne could see that. To work so hard on something but to have no one truly notice... Johanne knew what that was like. She reached out a hand, putting it gently on Haeli's, if the girl did not pull away. "The flowers are beautiful," she began, "but you have shown me that what is strange is even more so. I'd like to help, if I can, in any way. Perhaps we can decide what to put in the window together. I can help you, to show you what the people of Lhavit may like." She was not trying to be condescending. She was truly trying to help a girl she genuinely was beginning to like. She was different, yes, and strange: a wildling. But Johanne had a soft spot for the different ones.

But then she blushed, feeling once more slightly inadequate. "I must tell you, Haeli, that I do not know exactly what types of tea there are..." She trailed off, blushing, shrugging her shoulders. "I usually just have whatever they may serve at the Mhakula Tea House. But I'd dearly like to learn! Perhaps you can make your favourite tea, and show me how to make it?" Johanne walked over to Haeli, looking over the instruments, and the drawer filled with herbs. She was ready to learn what she could.

[Haeli]

NoteSorry this took so long! I wanted it to be perfect. Your post was so fantastic.

Haeli simply smiled at Johanne's words of thanks. She wasn't really being kind offering her a gift. She was trying to share a wealth of information with the other girl who seemed a little reserved or at least perhaps a bit shy. Flowers, Haeli had noted, tended to cheer anyone up anywhere. People here even sent them to others when someone died to warm the spirit of the survivors. It was an odd custom until Haeli had noticed just how much flowers meant to people. And she wondered why. People didn't eat them. They could sometimes use them for spices or seasonings, but they rarely did much else with them but stare.

"The flower in your has a structure inside. It's a stamen. When you remove it from the flower, you can put it in food and it makes it taste extremely good. It takes a lot of stamens though to make the spice. That's why I brought back the flowers." Haeli said, nodding to the girls hair. "I don't think most people know here how valuable to cooks flowers can be. They can infuse taste with food as much as they infuse the air with scent." The girl said.

"Something killed The Bubbler and ate it. All that was left was the claws and bones. Even the skull had been taken. I'm not sure what did it - a Velispar perhaps - but that's how I salvaged one claw. I am good at finding things like that. Bubblers are big and dangerous, but in the world there is usually something bigger and more dangerous than you are." She said thoughtfully and smiled at Johanne. "It's death was a gift. I imagine it fed something and now everyone in the vicinity of the pools it lived in is now safer." Haeli added.

Haeli laughed at Johanne's barrage of sudden questions. She laughed and held up her hands. "I can show you. It is so easy. So very easy. I make the moss into sweet candy for the cramps. You just cook it with sugar. I got sugar from traders and something called sweet beets I haven't seen here that sugar could be gotten from as well. We can just buy it here in the market. Isn't that amazing? Getting something anytime you want? We brew the moss into a tincture and then use the tincture to make the candy. So when you hurt you just have to get out the candy and suck on a piece and it makes things better. It is strong so just a bit in your mouth at a time is best. I can show you. You can make some and take some with you if you'd like." She added, setting the moss aside just for that reason.

"You can make the ink yourself. I'll show you that too. It's easy and you can take some home too." Haeli added, glad to have someone wanting to stay and spend time. And it was an excuse to interact with more people, a female this time. Haeli had only really met males in Lhavit so far. A writer though? What in the world was a writer? The witch made a note to work the subject into their conversation in a way that didn't make her ignorance seem so obvious. Perhaps she could ask Johanne what being a writer was like or what her day consisted of as a writer when there was a lull in the conversation. She knew one wrote things. But she had no idea that was a profession.

"Tell you what..." Haeli said, using the expression she'd only recently learned in Lhavit. "I need a lot of help. The windows yes, I would really like that. But I need more help than that, and you look like you might be able to help me. This is my only dress. I really need to find some clothing - new stuff - that is simple and functional but I have no idea where to go or how to talk to the other shopkeepers. Can you help me shop? And in exchange we can make cramp candy and green ink and I'll tell you all about tea because you didn't answer my question." Haeli added, looking thoughtful.

She gestured to the spices and herbs tucked in their little pocket drawers in front of them and then at the mesh bag. "When I asked you what you were feeling like... I needed to know for your tea. Look.. watch..." Haeli added, brandishing the tongs and the little mesh bag.

"I'm happy because there's a new person here... someone I want to be my friend." Haeli said. "So I'll take blackberry for newness..." She fished out a tiny bit of dried dark red berries from a bin and shook them into the tea bag. "Vanilla bean for friendship and pleasure.. because having new things and new friends are pleasurable. And a pinch of citrus for how bright that excitement makes me feel." Then she hesitated. "Balsam for excitement. A pinch of black tea for strength and energy because it scares me to go shopping and see new things." More material went into Haeli's tiny mesh bag.

Haeli held up the bag that was nearing being full. "This is my tea. It's special for me for today. It will never be the same tea again. And it has no name. So tell me your feelings and I'll make your tea too." Haeli said, setting her bag aside and grabbing another, prepared to dig out the herbs and spices according to Johanne's mood.

[Johanne]

NoteAbsolutely don't worry about it. Your post was beautiful. Haeli is adorable, I love her. And I'm sorry this is kind of long and rambling!

Johanne's hand floated up to the flower in her ear, while Haeli told her about the wonders within it. She had always known that flowers and plants had their uses within them, but she was always more preoccupied with the beauty, the superficial, the aesthetics. Here was a girl who, like Johanne, was concerned with the insides of things: while Johanne longed to know human nature, Haeli craved to know nature as intimately as she could. Johanne took the flower from her ear and looked at it with a fresh eye, wonderingly.

"Do you have any more of these ... stamens in the shop? Perhaps we could make the spice together. What sort of food does it go well with?" On the rare occasion that Johanne cooked at home, her food was bland and tasteless. She preferred to eat from the shops in the city: their food more tasty and more flavourful. To have a spice that she could use in her cooking would not only save time, but her quickly dissatisfied tastebuds.

Death, a gift? Johanne leaned against the counter, her elbow on the wood and her cheek resting softly in one hand, and pondered the claw and its implications. Johanne usually kept her thoughts tucked away, out of sight and hearing, where she could ponder stories in her own time and her own way. But this girl had shared so much with her already, and Johanne was learning so much. It seemed only fair that she should share the inner workings of her mind with Haeli.

"I must admit, I have never really thought of death as a gift. I suppose I am too used to our civilised world. Out there, life is quick and death is quicker." She picked up the claw again, looking at the muck and grime that covered the slightly yellow material. "The Bubbler sounds so terrifying, it's nerve-wracking to think that there's something bigger and more ravenous out there! You must be very brave, to go out into the swamp where such things can end your life so quickly. Myself, I have barely set foot outside the walls of Lhavit, barely ventured into the Misty Peaks. I suppose that is in itself a shame, but I have no real way of protecting myself." She shrugged. She knew there were wonders out there, but her life and continued breath seemed to Johanne to be worth missing out on them.

Haeli's laughter was fresh, light and true, and Johanne could not help but grin in response. She got on with Haeli well. She was open and honest, and Johanne appreciated such a genuine person. Someone so open was rare to find. She was easy to warm to. "I'd love to make some with you. Such a candy sounds really useful to have. Though I must warn you... I've never done anything like this before, and so I may be terrible at it!"

Johanne's eyes widened, and she stood up straight again. Although she towered over Haeli, she looked straight into her wild eyes. "I can make the ink myself? Even though I have no experience with such things?" Such a concept seemed ridiculous. The ink, to Johanne, sounded so very precious. An ink which would never fade! How was this not coveted more, and not something so very expensive? And here Haeli was telling her she could make it that very day, in her shop... Nature, she surmised, was truly untapped and unappreciated.

Johanne smiled at her request. "Yes, I would love to help you shop. It's easy. We can go to the Azure Markets, and I can show you how to bargain, even though I'm really rather terrible at it myself. We can get you some new dresses and scarves and things you will need for the Winter to keep you warm." In fact, Johanne would have been willing to show her around even without the candy and the ink and the tea, but it was nice that Haeli wanted to do something for her too. It was the beginning of a friendship, Johanne hoped. She did not have many, if any, friends in Lhavit.

She could feel a blush rise up her neck and onto her cheeks, staining her skins a light pink. That Haeli was happy to have her here, and wanted Johanne to be her friend just as much as Johanne wanted to befriend Haeli, was truly heartwarming. She watched in amazement as Haeli picked out herbs that looked as common and similar as anything to Johanne, and recognised emotions and feelings within them. This was truly an artform. "Well..." Johanne began, hesitating as she thought. "I'm excited to have met you, Haeli. I'm also content, because you wish to be my friend as I much as I wish to be yours. I'm in awe of this beautiful shop you have here, and I'm a little anxious about going shopping, because I am not all that good at negotiating." Johanne paused and thought, before nodding decisively and smiling at Haeli. "That is what I am feeling today."

[Haeli]

Haeli reached out, plucked the flower from behind Johanne's ear, and then pointed at the three stamens. She carefully plucked them out of the flower without damaging the petals and tucked the flower back behind Johanne's ear. Then she pulled a small round dish from beneath the counter, laid the stamens out on it, and handed Johanne a few more of the flowers so they could do the same. Together, the girls worked for a few moments until there was a pile of stamens on the plate and a pile of discarded flowers. Then Haeli turned, set the plate up on a shelf behind her, and smiled. "As soon as those are dry in a day or two, we have our saffron spice. It is easy as that. Some have red stamens like these and they will tint the food slightly red. Others have orange or yellow stamens and their tints correspond to their colors. Now we've made the spice together." She said, mentally checking that request of Johanne's off her list and offering Johanne a smile.

"Life outside the walls of a city is far more civilized than life inside city walls." Haeli commented absently, gently disagreeing with the other girl. "Out there, life is honest. In here, it is anything but." She added. Then Haeli chuckled slightly. "You might be right, but the swamp is all I know. It was my home for eighteen years. It is as familiar as this old dress. City life takes far more bravery than living in a swamp. You just have to have awareness and be cautious. The same is true for here. There is always a danger and someone stronger and more vicious." She said softly, glancing outside her windows. Haeli wasn't altogether comfortable in Lhavit. And she knew for a fact there were predators present.

"You should learn to protect yourself. Even here. Especially here." Haeli suggested. Lhavit was beautiful, but it could be just as deadly as it was spectacular.

"Yes we can make candy and ink. Which would you like to do first? We can do one, then go shopping and come back and make the other. Your choice though." Haeli said, leaning a hip against the counter and watching Johanne curiously. She seemed equally eager with both things, though there seemed to be something about the ink that really did make her even more excited. Haeli didn't know which she'd choose though. Both were equally easy so neither of them would have a hard time with the process.

So finally, after the length of time poised with the little mesh cloth, Haeli knew what kind of tea to make Johanne. "So more balsam for your excitement, and vanilla bean for friendship. We'll add jasmine for anxiety for it calms it like a dream, and then valerian for beauty and a pinch of cardamon and clove for the awe." With that she tied the little bag shut and handed it to Johanne. Then she fetched two cups, poured them full of hot water from the kettle over the downstairs hearth, and dropped her bag into it. Haeli's own tea lit up with a deep red color from the blackberry while Johanne's took on a warm loving golden hue.

"What do you think?" She asked, adding a tiny bowl of sugar cubes to the table so Johanne could sweeten to her own tastes.

[Johanne]

NoteMy gosh, it's so long. Apologies in advance.

Johanne watched Haeli work apprehensively, her eagerness dulling with nervousness. Haeli's nimble fingers, so used to the flowers and flora that adorned every corner of the expansive All Things Wild, moved quickly and lithely to remove the blood red stamens from inside the brightly colour flowers. To Johanne, who had never had an affinity to the raw and primal world outside city walls, such a task seemed daunting, strange. Nevertheless, she picked a flower up, gingerly, careful not to bruise the purple petals. Her notions of beauty and aesthetics overrode her every movement, as she ever so carefully reached into the flower, and pinching the base, pulled the stamen out. It came out easily, without tearing the flower as Johanne had feared. She smiled, relieved, and helped Haeli with the rest.

Johanne watched Haeli set the full plate up on a shelf behind the two girls, and with an easy grin, she spoke. "I must admit, I've never done anything like that before. I've seen spices in the markets before, but I've never thought where they come from, what plant they grow from. I've never needed to. Thank you for showing me that, Haeli." Her thanks were not insincere, and she truly hoped that the other girl would not think her condescending at all. She looked down at her fingers, and saw them stained slightly red, the pollen brushing off on her flesh. Johanne smiled: a physical reminder that she had learnt something strange and new today, and that she had met a girl who knew flowers as well as Johanne knew the scars on her wrists.

She did not expect a different opinion to escape the lips of Haeli, but never the less, Haeli spoke easily on her life before Lhavit. To Haeli, the cobblestone streets and skyglass buildings were as strange as the Bubbler's claw and moss to Johanne. "Lhavit is strange, and you do have to know how to read and understand people," Johanne conceded. It was something she herself was still wrestling with and trying to understand. She would never be a beautiful writer if she could not understand why people woke each day, and why they loved. "But to me, the outside world is stranger. I grew up in a town that is surrounded by rubble: nature is hard to explore, there. And here, I stay on the Peaks. Did you meet many people in the Swamp, Haeli?"

What she dearly wanted to ask was how she came to be there, and why she had left the home she had known. Though she felt an affinity with the girl, a thread between them forming that she wanted to pursue, she thought that to delve too deeply into dangerous and intimate waters too soon might be upsetting to both parties. And to protect herself? Johanne kept mum at Haeli's suggestion, but images flashed through her mind: her peers at the Academy, training in sword and fist, excelling while Johanne only scribbled in notebooks and stared at the sea. To attempt to learn defence, she felt, would only prove her inadequacy in her family's and her home's eyes.

But her thoughts were wrenched from the small home she had left behind by a simple question. "I honestly do not mind which we make first," Johanne said. "I don't wish to make demands, or do anything that you would not wish to do." Her fingers itched, knowing how dearly they wanted to make the ink. She breathed in, reigning in her excitement: so close to her now was a way to make her stories last through ages, and all brought on by a strange little girl, more comfortable with nakedness than decorum. "Perhaps," she began, her voice hesitant, and yet hopeful, "we may start with the ink?I am ever so curious to see how it is made." And that last sentence came out in a rush, betraying Johanne's excitement to the girl.

Johanne watched Haeli spend her time with the dried herbs, pondering, throwing out names that Johanne had heard but could not place a scent to, save perhaps Jasmine and vanilla. She smiled, thinking how many people would like to have their tea personalised, and made a note to mention it to Haeli, later. This was something that might entice the people of Lhavit into the shop, as Haeli so dearly wanted. Following suit, Johanne dropped the tea bag into the boiling water, and her heart felt warmed to see colour spread so fully. Picking up the cup, she blew on the hot water a few times, before sipping the tea, gingerly: excitedly.

"Oh, by Zintila, Haeli. This is delicious." Johanne smiled, her eyes bright with excitement, before taking a sip of the tea again. It was smooth, sweet and yet fulfilling, spreading warmth through her chest and her mouth. It was just the thing to warm her up on a cold Fall's day: a cup of tea with a girl she truly was beginning to like. "You should really think about doing this for more people, as a part of your work. I'm sure there are many Lhavitians who would love their own personalised tea."