Only Chance

9.

"Adelphia!" Darwyn's voice called from the kitchen, reverberating off the walls of the cottage.

I brushed the loose twigs and leaves off the hem of my skirt. "Coming!" Then I slipped into my rough, but sensational wooden slippers, and dashed to the kitchen.

"Good morning," Ozanne beamed as I walked in. She was near the dusty kitchen counter, mashing some strawberries into jam and adding a few magical remedies inside.

"Good morning," I answered good-humoredly, as Darwyn handed me a bowl of jumbled nuts and berries. I grasped a nut with my fingers and picked off its shell, popping the softer insides into my mouth. A chestnut. I savored the taste for a while, before I clasped a handful of berries and chewed them thoughtfully.

"Ozanne, how's the potion going?" Darwyn asked, as Ozanne poured her finished jam into a glass jar, sealed the lid, and headed down to the breakfast table with bowls of mixed chestnuts and berries for her and her father.

"It's spectacular- I just need to find some leaves of the RedStar Oak," she exclaimed, and then ticked the ingredients off her fingers as she popped a chestnut into her mouth. "And mash them, mix them in, drizzle in a spoonful of sap, and mix it all up. If my logical calculations are correct, according to this book I read the other day called, Healing Potions, it can heal broken bones in about an hour!" She grinned.

"Good luck," I murmured half-heartedly, picking through my food.

After finishing my bowl, I picked it up and stood up. "I'll go and wash this in the stream," I murmured. "See you guys."

"Be back soon!" Ozanne called out, before she leaned towards her father excitedly, no doubt to continue rambling about her potions. Despite her obsession with making potions, she's a good friend. But, strangely, I caught the words, "Leave... wait... three years... growing up..."

Must be another...upcoming potion, I thought to myself nervously, as I was myself in the stream, glancing at my reflection in the crystal-clear waters.

How much I've changed, I thought, with an unexpected stab of nostalgia. I can barely remember the empress' face, or Klide's, or Nydia... poor Klide. I hadn't heard of her in quite a while.

Three years. I flashed a glance into the stream again, looking at my reflection; an old habit from the palace I never got rid of. My hair had grown to my waist, tangled with a shower of twigs and other bits of undergrowth. It hung in a messy braid twisted down my back, and I'd grown taller, too. Stronger. Tougher. I would say less, too, if I did say so myself.

A light brush of clothes touched my arm.

"I'd say you've grown quite a bit," Darwyn smiled as he strode up to me.

"Thanks Mr. Darwyn, I'd say to myself too," I beamed, pleased.

"Eh, okay, but you still have a lot to learn," he said firmly.

"Come on teacher, a praise doesn't hurt, right?" I said wistfully.

"Ha," Darwyn laughed. "I'll never praise you until you master everything, kid." He grinned, before growing serious. "Adelphia, listen closely. I've had you as a student for more than three years now, you've grown so much. So..." He took a big sigh.

I suddenly got a whisk of what he was trying to say and gasped quietly to myself, my hand freezing as I washed the bowl. Cold water seeped around me, wetting my wrist.

I felt so strange, knowing that he wanted me gone. Not sad, or even happy. Just strange.

"You think I'm ready?" I said glumly.