15th Day of Fall of the year 510 AV |
Four small pots of plants sat on the desk in front of the herbalist, two of each kind, along with a very small bowl of what appeared to be cinnamon and another full of a clear yellowish liquid. Two wooden cups, a pitcher of water, two small knives and wooden spoons, and a pot lay on the desk beside them. "Miss?" Kiska said questioningly as she approached. "Are we cooking something today?" she said, eyeing the cups and cinnamon. Drae smiled and looked up at her student. "In a way. We're making tea today! Such a tasty thing to make, and what better to spend class doing than having tea?" She pulled her mortar and pestle out of the desk, followed by the one Kiska was to use, which she pushed across the desk. "Come closer girl, we're going to learn how to harvest Chicory and Ginseng root first," she said as she picked up a knife and a spoon and slid them across the desk to Kiska's usual spot. She separated two of the potted plants from the others and slid them across the desk as well. "It's a fairly simple process," she stated as Kiska took her seat, "we'll harvest them like any other root plant really, careful not to cut any part off or leave it in the dirt. The leaves can be useful too, but we won't be using them today, so you can just set those aside so I can use them elsewhere." "Yes miss, shall I begin then?" Kiska said, already readying her small knife for the roots. "It's like the other's we've done right? Just loosen the soil around the plant until I can get it up in one piece, no stabbing or cutting?" She was already working on the soil surrounding the root, churning her knife this way and that to avoid cutting the root. "Very good, you're getting good at this. Be careful though, don't want to harm the root, or the leaves," Drae said to her student, doing the same, if only more profficiently, with her root. They were working on the ginseng first, though it wouldn't have mattered either way. Drae hummed a tune as she worked. "Oh, before I forget. These herbs are useful too you know. Ginseng is a very nice herb. It helps with stress, and overall health. And it also helps with other things," she said, giggling. "It's very good for relationships, is all I have to say. Chicory is good for what goes on inside. It helps your heart and digestive processes." Kiska was beginning to see a pattern in the effects of herbs, but didn't say anything. It took about one minute before Kiska managed to pull her ginseng root from the pot, it was a small brownish lumpy mass with hair-like structures sprouting from various places on the root. Drae had gotten hers out a bit before Kiska, and had pulled the pitcher of water over. "We'll need to rinse it off before using them. Just do it over the pot you got it from, don't use too much water though, we'll need that for the tea." She rinsed hers off and handed the pitcher to Kiska, who did the same. Kiska immediately began to collect the root of the blue flower called Chicory from the other pot. The Chicory came up quite a bit easier than the ginseng had, taking about half a minute to get it all out. "You're a natural, Kiska. Soon you may even be better than me," said her teacher with praise. Kiska knew it wouldn't be true, but she liked the compliments. Kiska blushed, "Thank you miss, it's a very interesting subject to me, being able to use what you have available to you in nature. It seems like a very useful skill to me." She rinsed her Chicory root after setting the leaves aside where she had put those of the Ginseng and handed the pitcher back to Drae. Drae rinsed hers and sat it down next to her Ginseng root. Drae stood up and walked over to the small heating station near the wall, carrying the pitcher of water and the small pot with her. "Here child," she said, calling to Kiska. "Put some water on to boil, about half a pot of it should do." She was already lighting the small pile of wood in the miniature pit. Kiska hurried over, taking the pot and the pitcher from her teacher. She hung the pot over the fire and began to pour the water in. The water rushed out of the pitcher, a bit too fast, and splashed back up at Kiska, leaving her hand wet. Kiska frowned and finished pouring the water in the pot before wiping her hand dry on her dress. "That should do," said Drae, watching Kiska dry herself. "Try to be a bit more cautious when pouring water, especially over flames. Only so much time a bunch of wet wood can burn." She was walking back over to the desk. Kiska followed. "What do you suppose we do now, Kiska?" Drae asked. She often preferred to teach by self-example. She thought the student learned better by figuring out what to do for themselves, and for Kiska at least, it seemed to work. "I suppose we should probably grind the roots up?" She said, remembering back to all of her other lessons. They had always ground roots up. She placed a root in her mortar and looked back to her teacher, unsure of whether or not she should put both in at once. "Just one, you're right. We'll add the other when we get done with this one." she was putting her own root in her mortar now as Kiska ground hers up. The root was somewhat tough, but after a little working, it easily ground up. The two added the other root to the mortar when they had finished, mixing the two roots together. "Put them in the cup now, along with a spoon full of cinnamon," Drae said, scraping her ground up root from the mortar with a spoon. The other spoon she had put in the cinammon. Kiska took the spoon from the cinammon and measured a full spoon out and dumped it into one of the wooden cups. She took the other spoon as Drae offered it to her and scraped her root material out into the cup. She assumed the water would be ready by now, and stood up to check on it. It was boiling now, and probably had been for a few minutes. "Should I bring it back here?" She asked. "Yup, careful though, it's hot." She said, remembering a time Kiska had nearly burned herself. She was measuring out a spoonful of cinammon now, sniffing the contents of the cup. It was evident that this lady was a nut when it came to plants. Kiska picked up a small piece of cloth and used it to carry the hot pot over to the desk. She set it down and stood, waiting for Drae to make a move. Kiska sometimes worried about this woman, she was a bit strange compared to anyone Kiska had ever met, but Kiska liked her. It made her sad to think that she wouldn't be here for very long. "Now fill the glass full of water, don't spill it please," she said, eyes full of laughter. Kiska was clumsy sometimes, but in a graceful way. The girl was often too serious to not be funny. Kiska poured the water into her glass, filling it all the way, then did the same for Drae's before setting the empty pot down. The water in her cup was already beginning to turn a swirling, dull brown color. Drae offered her a spoon, which Kiska took and began to stir the tea with it. "We'll need to let it sit for a few moments before it's good to drink, then we can add honey to it for sweetness." Drae had set her spoon down on the desk and pulled out a book on herbalism to read. Kiska would pass the time thinking, mostly about herbs and herbalism, but some about her new friend Ero. She wondered if Ero may like for her to make some tea sometime. Ten minutes or so had passed before Kiska looked up from her daydreaming. Drae was looking at her, and had obviously been trying to get her attention for a while now. "Oh, sorry miss, I must have dozed off while we were waiting," she said, sitting up straight. She took her spoon from the desk. "Do we need to drain these out of here before we can drink it?" The herbs were small crushed up particles a the bottom of the cup, but she was sure once she stirred the honey in they would be floating all around the liquid. "If you want, dear. There's another cup over there if you'd like. I prefer to keep mine as is though, it's better for you." She was adding and stirring the honey into her tea now, intently watching the steaming cup as it swirled around in the cup. "I think I'll drain mine," Kiska said, walking over to grab the other cup. She brought it back to the desk and set it down, picking up her own glass and the spoon. She poured the brown liquid into the other cup, using the spoon to keep the plant particles in the first cup. Little bits got into the new cup, but it didn't bother her. She left a small bit of the liquid in the other cup and set it aside. She was sure Drae would use it for something. Sure enough, Drae picked up the cup and poured it into hers. Kiska shivered, that couldn't have been the most tasteful thing to drink, or at least not one of a pleasant feeling. Kiska poured some honey into her cup and stirred it in before setting the spoon aside again. She took a sip from the cup and smiled. It was delicious. "This is probably my favorite of our lessons so far, miss Drae. We should make tea more often," Kiska said, and drank more of her tea. Another fulfilling lesson in herbalism. |