Forest Of Destiny

Chapter 2-Strangers

Minty's POV

"Who the hell are you?!"

What a lovely way to be woken up. Minty rubbed the sleep out of her eyes and blearily glanced towards the location of the noise. It was Birdy, the injured girl from yesterday. She looked terrified and angry, which sent a chill down Minty's tail, puffing it up like a plume of smoke.

"Hey, I'm not gonna hurt you. Calm down."

"Calm down? CALM DOWN? I HAVE BEEN EXILED, STABBED, AND KIDNAPPED IN THE SAME DAY! WHY THE HELL SHOULD I CALM DOWN?!" She shrieked. "FOR ALL I KNOW YOU COULD BE AN EVIL WITCH OR A FREAKING SUCCUBUS OR—"

"Listen, I didn't kidnap you. You were bleeding out in the middle of the woods. If it weren't for me finding you, you'd be dead and vultures would be eating you right now! Now stop moving, you'll open the wound again." Minty replied. She smoothed her long gray tail down tiredly. After all, she was used to patients overreacting like this.

"Ugh, fine. But tell me what's going on right now, or I will take my sword and—" She grasped at the air at her waist only to be met with nothing. Her face reddened with rage. "What the HELL did you do with my sword?!" She growled. Her dark wings spread menacingly, as if she was saying, "I am STRONG AND UNAFRAID TO FIGHT YOU IF YOU DON'T GIVE ME MY SWORD!"

"Hey, hey. Calm down. It's right over there at the foot of your bed. And... Please don't stab me with it. After all, I doubt you know how to heal wounds nearly as well as I do, Ms. Bleeding-out-on-the-forest-floor." She calmly said. "Anyway Birdy, sit still so I can change the bandages." 

"What? My name's not Birdy, it's Cruxian."

"Oh, sorry. I didn't know what your name was earlier so I just called you Birdy. Cruxian suits you though! Now hold still." She stood up and grabbed her medical bag and walked over to Cruxian's bed. She quickly switched out the bloody bandages for clean ones and performed a minor healing spell on the wound.

"Owowow! That stings!" 

"Get used to it, because you'll be feeling it every day until you're healed."

"Meanie."

"Whatever. Alright, that should be the last of it for today!"

"Jeez, you are good at this. Yesterday I felt like I was dying, but today there's barely any damage!" Cruxian remarked, awestruck at the other girl's healing skill. Minty grinned, extremely proud of her work considering she had been a mere apprentice a week ago. 

"Thanks. After all, the Glacier kingdom does have the best healers in the country!"

"Wait, YOU'RE THE HEALER FROM GLACIER?"

"Uh... yeah?"

"Dammit... you should have been at the palace to meet Queen Hope by now! She'll take your absence as a declaration of war!"

"Oh yeah. Well on the bright side, my former mentor Eris is also traveling there. I just went a day early because she had some last minute work to do." 

"Oh. Well thank god. Also, what's your name? I had no idea that there were two Healers in Glacier. I've only met Eris at the meetings."

"Mint Rose, but just call me Minty. Mint Rose sounds like some fancy tea brand. You haven't seen me because I just finished my apprenticeship and this would have been my first meeting! Usually I just hang out in the library while Eris goes to meetings."

"I just wish it had been sooner."

"Why is that? What would you know about the secret royal meetings?"

"Well..."

"Cruxian... what did you do?"

"It's not important. The only thing I can tell you is that the Royal Guards are after me, and if they find me they won't be merciful to me or anyone I'm traveling with." 

"Well then I guess you'll have to teach me how to protect myself!"

"What?! That's ridiculous! As if I'd share North Star's fighting techniques with some random healer from another kingdom. You could be the queen and I'd still say no."

"Well how would you know their fighting techniques if you weren't on the Guard? After all, it's not like they'd share their fighting techniques with some random townsperson. You could be the queen and they'd still say no!" Minty grinned, proud of using Cruxian's argument against her. Taken aback by her statement, Cruxian reluctantly gave in to the other girl's pleading.

"You really wanna know? Okay, fine. I was a member of their guard once. I was actually the leader, in fact. But then there was... the incident."

"What kind of incident?"

"..."

"Cruxian..."

"I kinda... sorta... killedtheQueen'ssonApolloandtriedtokilltheQueendon'thateme!"

"Wait, really? No way, that's awesome!"

"No it—what?"

"That kid was the biggest PERV. He didn't respect women and saw them as only objects for his pleasure. One time I fell down the stairs and instead of helping me, all he did was stare at my-"

"OKAY. I GET IT. YOU'RE HAPPY."

"Yeah, it's pretty great!" She grinned. "But now, since I know, I guess you'll have to teach me how to fight like the guards!"

"What?? Why??"

"Well, when I go with you to finish the job and get Princess Corinne on the throne instead of Queen Hope, I may need to fight my way out of a jam." She grinned. After all, she was right. She may be the best healer in the country, but she couldn't fight her way out of an empty paper bag.

"You-what?? That's ridiculous!"

"You know you wanna."

"Yeah... I kinda do..."

"Great!"

"Only on one condition though."

"Sure, what is it?"

"You teach me how to heal. Nothing fancy, just simple stabs and stuff."

"Okay!"

"Wait, really? I thought it would take more convincing."

"Nope! After all, you do seem really, really bad at healing. Who knows, I could be unconscious in a hallway somewhere during a fight and you could be bleeding from like, seven different stabs and die because you can't heal so much as a paper cut."

"...That's true. Anyway, let's get ready. Tomorrow, we train!"