𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝟒𝟑 — 𝐲𝐨𝐮'𝐯𝐞 𝐠𝐨𝐭 𝐮𝐬 𝐧𝐨𝐰
Did all that really happen or was my mind playing a well-planned trick on me? I'm not sure which one it was, but one thing was all that I can think of at this moment. I have to check on him.
I approached the cell, telling the guards to uncuff him, which they were a bit hesitant in doing until Hilda ordered them to do it too. I can understand their wariness. A part of me knew that they had the right to doubt me asking them to let Nicholas go, for it could always be a witchcraft trick. In fact, everything could be it. I have experience. I was fooled by it – in my own living area. Shows how bad it could get if you let your guard down.
"Nicholas." I kneeled down beside him, studying his worn-down features. There were tear stains on his cheek, his lips were chapped and dry, and his demeanour was that of a frightened child. I rested my finger lightly on his chin and lifted it up to make him look at me. His eyes began to be filled with tears again as I met his grey orbs.
All of a sudden, his arms wrapped themselves around my figure, bringing me close to the point that I fell down sitting slumped in front of him. His breath was so close to my skin that it gave me shudders. "A-are you okay, Nicholas? Were you hurt?"
He shook his head slowly, still in tears as he rested his head on my upper chest, sniffing in my scent. After a few moments, he rubs his nose with the back of his sleeve, and sniffles, before pulling himself from me to take a better look at me. "Are-...are you okay, Petal? Were you hurt?"
If Martha weren't just scaring me, and she was in fact telling me the truth, I may have had poison spreading inside me right this moment. I don't believe my condition would be considered "okay" in any way possible.
"Yes," I told him, smiling the most genuine smile I could muster to show him.
After making sure that he wasn't harmed in any way, I asked Hilda to take Nicholas back to our shared room and help him get comfortable. Pierre and Bernard insisted that I get myself healed up before I go about doing something else. They didn't even let me take Nicholas back to our room, saying that the more time we wasted, my condition might worsen if Martha did in fact, truly poisoned me.
I turned to look at Elrond and thought of Odell who was waiting for me for hours already. I sighed at the situation, telling the two that I must see Odell at least, if I can't go and send Nicholas back, fearing that she may need my urgent attention. The two began to argue again and this time Elrond nodded and agreed to them, telling me that he can tell Odell what has happened and she'll surely understand and asked to meet up some other day instead, doesn't matter how urgent it is.
"Don't push yourself, Adeline. You have to get yourself treated. It could be way worse if you don't listen," he persuades.
Knowing that I couldn't tell any of them "no" after they had formed a pact against me, I lowered my inner voice and nodded, telling them to lead the way and hurry along. Bernard and Pierre were relieved, and so was Elrond.
The red-haired male smiled when we left the dungeon, he turned to us and told us that he had to go now because he had overstayed his visit and there are matters for him to attend back in the village.
"I have to go back. Odell is waiting for me and there's so much to do if we were really going to be attacked soon. May you be well the next time we meet, Adeline." he said, smiling.
I nodded and watched his back leave soon after. Then we walked down the hall and into Pierre's uncle's room. He was overjoyed to see me, he immediately dropped all his doing and came up to me to give me a brief hug.
When he heard that I may have been poisoned, he quickly ransacked through his belongings to find the cure whilst asking the two what I'd been poisoned with. A question neither of us can answer, for we have no slight idea of what it may be.
"How were we supposed to heal her if we have no idea what poison is in her?" the old man complained.
"Can't you two do anything about it?" I asked the two beside me, thinking that they may have ideas to heal me.
Pierre raked his finger through his hair, sighing before he walked ahead towards his pouch, pulling Martha's book from it. "I'm sure I've seen many pages in poison and healing step by step in here," he said, flipping from page to page.
"There's a flower that the witch would use to heal poison, and it could heal every poison, no matter how lethal it is," Bernard suddenly spoke, capturing everyone's attention. "She's taken me under her teaching and I've learned how to do witchcraft too, in some way - healing is one of those ways."
"What is the flower that she used then?" asked the old man who was growing very impatient by the minute.
"It's a very rare flower. Grown only a few per month on the most dangerous side of the wood where the moonlight would shine," he carries on. "She calls it 'Wolfbane'. She tells me that it helps me stay in my human form, too, so I regularly have to go and find it for myself. But we may only find them at night. It's easier under the moonlight."
"Well, she needs a way to fight the poison long enough to give us the time," Pierre sighed, eyes falling back on the pages as he continuously flipped through them. "What do we have to do before then?"
"Bernard. I'm not sure if it's wise for you to be out tonight. Under the moonlight... won't you transform under it? You still don't have your amulet yet."
"A pre-antidote - that's what we'll do," he replied, completely ignoring me while walking towards Pierre and flipping through the pages with him. "I'm sure there's some kind of potion she made before to give the consumer a bit more time and the ability to fight the pain."
"Some kind of a painkiller?"
"What's a painkiller?" Pierre asked, his head lifted up to look my way.
"A medicine to help patients numb their pain."
"In some way, it works a bit like that," Bernard nodded, eyes fixed on the pages. Then all of a sudden he stopped flipping. His eyes focused and Pierre noticed it and looked down on the pages to find what it was that he saw. A frown suddenly etched on Pierre's face as his expression completely dropped.
"Oh...you weren't lying, Addie," he spoke in a low voice.
I stared at them in pure confusion. Walking closer and letting my eyes fall on the white tampered-by-age sheet, I gasped at one sight of it.
'Wolf summoning' the title reads. And a little after the step to step of the summoning was the entry of a wolf boy taming. It was pages of some sort of her diary on the progress of taming the very victim she turned into a beast herself.
"She– is this true? Did she really– was she really the reason I turned?" Bernard stuttered as he tried to wrap his head over the matter.
"Bern–"
"And all this time! She's fooled me into thinking I was indebted to her," the blonde huffed frustratingly. His voice was shaky as well as his breathing. His body began to tremble as he looked down, away from meeting everyone's eyes.
The poor boy...
"Bern," I tried calling him to get his attention but he didn't even dare meet my eyes. Sighing, I pulled him into a side embrace. "Don't let this get to you, Bern. You got me now. You got Pierre and Hilda. I truly care for you. How could I not?" I paused, patting his back lightly. "We're friends, are we not?"
He stayed silent. Pierre huffed before coming to us and he awkwardly pats Bernard's back too, telling him to be patient on his downfall. Pierre spoke a few sweet yet awkward words to ease Bernard's pain.
Pierre kept trying his best to butter Bernard up to lighten his mood, making Bernard laugh lightly, as he pushed me gently away and smiled at us, genuinely. "Oh stop it. I'm not upset anymore. I'd never be upset anymore if it means I don't need to hear all those things again," he laughed to which Pierre replied with an 'I'm so done with you' expression.
It was a cute sight to see. I can't help myself but laugh at the sight of it.
"Oh come on. Not you too, Addie."
"I'm sorry but you should have heard yourself, Pierre," I laughed.
Night came soon after. The two wanted to leave me behind with Godric after they gave me my pre-antidote, to make sure that I was safe but I insisted on following, so in the end, they ended up taking me along.
We ventured into the forest of dim brown and green as the night continues to hug the sky in a tight embrace, eloping its angel wings over the horizon. The snow under our feet was wet and cold - some kind of a comforting fluffy featherbed.
"To the east side and far to the back of it," Bernard stated. "I'm warning you, there's so much dangerous being over there. Are you sure you want to follow, Adeline?"
I turned to him and frowned. "Yes. I want to follow you both. Haven't you two agreed upon it already?"
"Or you can go back and check on Nicholas," Pierre suggested to which Bernard nodded his head, agreeing to him completely.
"The poor boy probably would feel better if he can see you after the day we all had," Bernard spoke, in a convincing tone.
I was considering it for a moment. I do feel a tad horrible for letting him be and not stopping by once even after getting the pre-antidote. Frowning, my steps didn't find themselves halting no matter how much I wished to go back to check on him. "I really do want to see him. It's horrible that you're using him to change my mind, Pierre."
"Trust me, Addie. It's better you're somewhere we know you would be safe." Pierre sighed when he saw I made no effort to back down.
"Let's just hurry and find it and leave. She's too stubborn right now," Bernard sighed, mirroring Pierre's sound of disappointment.
"Adeline?" a familiar voice called out from our side. I turned to look upon the source and only then did I realise that from all the bickering, we didn't even notice that we have reached the east side of the forest.
The red-haired girl with antlers on her hair stared at us with her round eyes, her weapons dropped to her side as she started walking closer to us.
"What are you guys doing here?" she asked.