The Tiny Witch from the Deep Woods: Volume 2, page 25
When her daughter managed to scrounge up enough money for a bit of fever medicine, it had improved her condition for a short time, but it wasn’t long before the fever returned. In her brief moments of free time, her daughter worked hard catching some karas for her, but it was hard to say whether eating them had helped.
Feeling another coughing fit coming on, the old woman doubled over, suppressing it as best she could. Violent coughing, so brutal it would pain anyone who heard it, filled the dimly lit room. The pain brought tears to her eyes, and her vision started to blur red.
Finally calming down from her coughing fit, the old woman stared dumbly down at her hands, now dripping that same vivid color. Her wrinkled hands were covered in red fluid. That unmistakable color, that unmistakable viscosity—both made her tremble. She had been born in the capital, lived here her whole life. She had survived that horrible year of plague, and so she knew full well what kind of future these symptoms indicated for her.
Instinctively she wanted to scream, but her body didn’t have the energy left for it. All she got for her efforts was another coughing fit.
As her consciousness started to waver, she thought of her daughter coming home from work. She had seemed so tired lately. The old woman hadn’t been paying that much attention, caught up as she was in bearing with her own sickness, but she seemed to remember her daughter coughing as well. That was exactly how it had started for her too, wasn’t it?
Please, God...
In her last moments, the old woman thought of her aging daughter, folding her blood-soaked hands in prayer.
“Mom, I’m home! I got some more medicine, so try to eat something even if you’re not hungry. Mr. Bean shared some of his karas with us too. He said they had a huge catch this year...”
The daughter pushed through the flimsy wooden door, a spring in her step. As usual, she had been out selling sweets for the festival. The festive atmosphere had done wonders to loosen the purse strings of those visiting the capital, so she had managed to rake in a tidy profit. The guy from across the street seemed to have been caught up in the excitement as well, as he had given her some karas and small fish he’d caught himself. Small as these victories were, they had all added up to lift her spirits for the first time in a while.
Caught up in her own buzz, she didn’t notice for a while how unnaturally quiet the room was. Something seemed to be wrong with her mother’s lungs, as she was always either coughing or wheezing painfully, but now the house was silent.
“Mom...?” Starting to feel uneasy, the daughter lit a lamp to illuminate the room. The sight that was waiting for her made her gulp.
Sure enough, her mother was still on the bed lying by the window. Doubled over on her side, half of her was drenched in red. It looked gruesome—her clothes and the bed were in total chaos. Her hands, nothing more than skin and bones, were clasped in a praying gesture, something that would stand out in her daughter’s mind.
“Oh...mom...”
The daughter tottered over to her mother, who had long since stopped breathing. With the lamp in hand, she reached out to touch her...and stopped. It was hard to tell through the thin layer of blood, but on closer inspection, she could see lines like little red worms running across the skin of her mother’s clasped hands.
The daughter shrieked, jumping backward the instant she recognized the signs: incessant cough, high fever, and the distinctive red lines that appeared after death. It was exactly the same symptoms as those of the plague that had nearly destroyed the capital years ago. She knew if she opened her mother’s eyes, they would be bloodred.
The terror at what that implied threatened to draw a scream out of her, but when she opened her mouth, the deep breath caught in her throat, sending her into a coughing fit. A brutal coughing fit, intense enough to stop her breathing altogether. Bending over in pain, she was panting for air when the coughing finally subsided.
Air finally rushing back into her lungs caused the part of her brain dominated by fear to cool. The two of them were poor enough that they practically lived shoulder to shoulder with their neighbors in this tiny house. Although this was technically a detached building, there wasn’t even enough room for a person to walk between their house and their neighbor’s. If her mother had died of a contagious disease in a place like this...
A whole new fear ran through the daughter. With trembling hands, she laid a light blanket over her mother’s body, then managed to lower herself into a nearby chair.
She knew what she had to do. It was well-known that anyone who caught an unfamiliar disease needed to report it to the royal infirmary. After the horrors of the last plague, the capital was not willing to risk anything when it came to disease. Even those living in the poor parts of town like this were well aware of the procedures set in place.
But what would happen to her if she complied? She and her mother had managed to survive in this neighborhood thanks to having lived there for so many years. For better or for worse, close proximity to all their neighbors meant they had a large network of support around them. Now that this had happened, there was little chance she’d be able to stay. No doubt they would drive her out. She was almost fifty years old now. How would she survive in unfamiliar land on her own?
Despite it not being cold in the least, the daughter began to tremble. The fear of being driven out struck her harder than the fear of dying.
Just a little longer. I’ll stay just a little longer...
So even as foolish as she knew it was, she decided to stay where she was for now. She would wait until she calmed down, and once she saw a path for herself, she would start moving.
Certainly waiting a day or two won’t hurt anyone, right?
Squeezing trembling hands together, she repeated excuses to herself over and over, failing to notice her hands had taken that same praying posture her mother had died in.
That was how, beneath the notice of the capital, the old plague rose again and claimed its first victim. And ever so quietly, it began to turn its fangs on those nearby.
Side Story: Kyne
Huh? You wanna hear my story? You’re pretty weird for a human. But fine, sure.
The name’s Kyne. Apparently, I’m what’s called a mail bird. My job is to carry letters tied to my feet. Mommy Ley gave me this name. She said it was taken from her big brother Ryne, that it would help me grow up strong and free. Later, when I grew up and she realized I was female, she apologized a lot for giving me a boy’s name. But it’s hard to tell whether birds like us are male or female when we’re real little, so I can’t really blame her. I like the name anyway, so it’s fine. It’s pretty cool, don’t you think? It makes me sound like a woman capable of anything!
My first memory is being in a warm, tight space, listening to a gentle sound. In hindsight, I can tell it was the sound of Mommy Ley’s and Misha’s voices as they were trying to talk to me, but back then, I thought I was hearing beautiful, comforting music. And then one day I thought, Wait, I gotta get out of here! So I broke the tight, hard walls around me, and a bright light suddenly blinded me. When I finally adjusted to the light and was able to see what was going on, I saw Mommy Ley and Misha.
Honestly, my memories of that time are a bit hazy. I was probably too young to remember it. You don’t remember when you were a baby either, do you? But after a while, I remember Ryne showed up, and then everything seemed to be in color.
The water Ryne gave me was so sweet. Every time I drank it, I felt like a fog was lifting from my eyes. It made me realize that the sounds I was hearing had meaning behind them. Ryne said that it was a kind of medicine his friends made. He said it was supposed to stimulate my brain. I don’t really get what he meant, but every time I drank it, their voices started to make more sense. It was clear that their cries actually meant something.
There were a lot of other things too. I learned what it meant to think and how to guess. And I learned that the world was huge, complex, and amazing. I was really grateful to Ryne; he helped me understand all that. Even though it was some experimental medicine that might have killed me, I didn’t die, so all’s well that ends well, right? Also, I heard the research into that medicine didn’t go so well. I might actually be really special now.
Flying is the best feeling in the world.
My kind have a strong homing instinct and a really good sense of direction. People use those traits to make us travel between a few set places, but I’m special. I don’t know if it’s because of that medicine Ryne gave me, but whenever I really want to go somewhere, I somehow always know the right way to get there. I used that ability to find Daddy Deeno when he was out doing inspections.
I learned I had that ability when one day I decided I wanted to see Ryne. I immediately knew where he was, as if I could hear him calling out to me. Maybe it was easier because he was on his way to visit Misha and Mommy Ley, so he was pretty close by. It’s not all-powerful, after all. It only works up to a certain distance. But the more I practiced, the bigger the range became, so when I had free time, I’d go looking for all sorts of places.
Sometimes I ended up in the territory of other birds, and that got pretty dangerous, but hey—experience is experience, am I right? Besides, anyone who was dumb enough to attack me out of instinct was no match for me in the first place. Never mind in my own forest, now there was no one who would pick a fight with me anywhere in the world. The sky is a big place, but information travels quickly, y’know? Unlike humans, we don’t have borders.
In that way, Ryne is kind of like us, isn’t he? Whenever he wants to go someplace, he just goes. Maybe that’s why I like him so much.
Of course, I also love Misha. She had been with me ever since I was born, so she was like a sister to me. She liked to run around the forest too, so we played together a lot. And mysterious things always seemed to happen when she was around, so spending time with her was never boring. Sometimes she’d be lured out by the mysteries of the forest and get lost, and I’d have to go save her. Sometimes we’d leave together on an adventure to find medicine to help Mommy Ley’s pain from her injury. And every once in a while, I’d go deliver a letter to Daddy Deeno. But normally I would spend my time patrolling the forest. It was a peaceful, if a bit boring, life.
But one day, Daddy Deeno got injured, and Mommy Ley went up to heaven. Misha left the country, like she was running away from her sadness. In the blink of an eye, my happy life had disappeared. My family scattered across the world. Misha’s sadness must have closed her eyes and ears. She never called out to me, and she didn’t hear me calling out to her. It made me really sad, but I understood how she felt after losing Mommy Ley, so I couldn’t blame her. People can only see what’s visible to them.
I considered going with Misha when she left on her journey, but it looked like she already had a lot of friends with her, so I decided to wait for Ryne instead. I had a hunch he was close by, and I figured I could help him out. Besides, it would take time for me to make the preparations to leave my territory.
One day, he came to get me, and the two of us left to go find Misha together.
Anyway, the whole world sits under one big sky. If I ever get lonely, home is just a short flight away. I’ll probably be back to deliver letters to Daddy Deeno anyway.
Hey, Misha. I know it’s not your fault that your sadness made you close your eyes. Still, you can’t be sad forever. The world is a huge place, and the sky stretches on forever. After all the time we spent flying around the forest together, you should know what you need to keep moving forward. If you’ve forgotten, don’t worry. I’ll remind you. So just wait a bit longer, okay?
Side Story: No Shoes!
Being so used to doing everything for herself, Misha found her new life with the maids tending to her every need exhausting. It wasn’t that she disliked them. Tia and Isabella were trying their best to make life comfortable for her. Even though it was most definitely forbidden, they still sat with Misha and drank tea like they were close friends out of respect for Misha’s distaste for strict formality.
But Misha was used to living alone in the forest with her mother. This new environment, where she was perpetually surrounded by strangers, was quickly and subtly stressing her out more and more. As a result, she was having trouble sleeping properly, and now she was always tired.
What should I do...?
It wasn’t bad enough to say she wasn’t feeling well, but at this rate, she could tell things were only going to get worse. It would be unforgivable for an apothecary, someone who was supposed to be healing people, to get sick herself. Above all, it would sow distrust in her among the people of the castle if she were to get sick so soon after being entrusted with Lalaya’s care.
But I don’t really want to rely on medicine for this.
She knew some recipes for medicine that would help her sleep, but her instincts as an apothecary told her relying on something like that was a bit premature.
While taking a walk around the castle, Misha found a small house hidden in the corner of the castle’s gardens. Concealed among the trees, it looked to be well cared for from the outside, but there were no signs it was currently in use. Peering through the windows, she saw furniture all covered in blankets.
“Is this house not being used?” she asked Ren, who trotted beside her. The little wolf started sniffing around the building curiously, but of course he couldn’t give her an answer. The two shared a look before Misha turned back to the window.
Judging by its position in the house, it appeared she was looking into the living room. Deeper in there was a place that looked to be for cooking. Besides that, the room had two doors.
“Looks kind of comfy, doesn’t it?”
Taking a few steps back from the window, she examined the whole building up and down. The walls were white and appeared to be made from earth, and the roof was a dull red. It didn’t seem to be painted, just fading caused by long years of weather. It had a small chimney, and close by it sat a weather vane, which spun in the wind. The whole place reminded her of a little cottage out of a children’s picture book.
Absorbed in her inspection of the house, Misha was brought back to her senses by the feeling of something rubbing up against her foot. She saw Ren staring back up at her, having returned from scurrying about the exterior of the house to try and figure out what Misha was doing.
“Hey, Ren, don’t you think it would be great if we could live here?”
It didn’t take long before she put that thought into action. Immediately after returning to her room in the castle, she asked Kino about the house and for permission to borrow it if it wasn’t already in use. Kino was a bit taken aback by the sudden request but quickly agreed to discuss it with “the higher-ups.”
However he managed to do it, when he returned, it was with permission for Misha to use the building.
“The house hasn’t been used for quite some time, so you cannot move in right away. You will need to wait for some maintenance on it to be completed. You have our apologies, but while that work is being done, they may as well modify it to suit your interests. Is there anything you would like done?” Kino relayed with a crisp bow, getting a thoughtful hum out of Misha.
“Hmm... Anything?”
“As long as the structure of the building allows it.”
Misha’s eyes sparkled. “In that case, there is one thing...”
When Geord heard that Misha was moving into the house vacated by the castle’s gardener some number of years ago, he couldn’t help but laugh. Nor could he help visiting right away. The house was quite far from all the pretty flowers that the people of the castle actually liked, hidden so far in the trees it almost felt like it was in a different yard altogether. The house was nestled so deep in the trees, it looked like it was trying to become a part of the forest.
I’m impressed she found this thing. She wasn’t out scrounging for herbs in the castle gardens, was she? He was half impressed, half exasperated.
With those conflicted feelings, he knocked on the door. It was just about dinnertime, so he had already confirmed Misha was home before visiting.
“Coming!” The sound of Misha’s voice from within was accompanied by a soft pattering of footsteps.
“Yo, I’m here to congratulate you on your new house.”
“Mr. Geord?” Misha looked back in surprise as she found a familiar face waiting outside for her. A soft light and pleasant smell wafted out from the interior of the house. It seemed she was in the middle of preparing dinner.
“I heard you went off to live on your lonesome, so I came to see how you were doing. I brought you a housewarming gift too. Mind letting me in?” He smiled, showing off the bag in his hands.
With a peek into the bag, Misha grinned wide. Inside was a large array of all her favorite fruit.
“I’m making a soup from root vegetables and chicken. Do you think you’d like it?” Misha asked.
She had already been making extra, thinking of saving some leftovers for the next day. Geord took a deep breath, savoring the enticing aroma coming from the kitchen with a smile. Every dish Misha had put her hands to while they had traveled had been delicious.
“I’ve been out running around since noon, so I’m actually starving. You sure it’s not any trouble?” Despite asking that, he could never imagine her turning him down, and that showed quite clearly in his expression. Misha laughed as she invited him in.
“Mr. Geord, freeze!”
But as he moved to step inside, Misha shouted at him, and he froze with one foot still in the air, hovering above the floor.
“Sorry, Mr. Geord, but this is a shoe-free zone!”
“What? Shoe-free?” Geord tilted his head at the unfamiliar term.
