Herbs and Alchemy

The next morning she was anxious, now knowing WHY the orc made her feel strange and no idea what to do about it. She got through class and readied the next lesson, trying to keep the orc from her mind.

"Hey." Tharo still made a point of standing several feet away when communicating so as not to startle people.

"Yeah. I was going to go dig your roots tomorrow afternoon." She kept her eyes on her clay tablet.

"No, it's not... no hurry." She heard him approach. His hand landed gently on her shoulder and she stiffened, he removed it quickly. "I didn't mean to upset you last night." His voice was soft.

Not helping, big guy

. "Not on you, Tharo. I..." She looked up at him, running her hand through her hair. "I'm bad at dealing with some things." He was so close, the urge to touch him was strong.

NO Nonono, do NOT

.

"Can... I don't have any friends here." He looked so sad, lost. Somehow this massive tusked, yellow-eyed orc was giving her the most heart-rending cow eyes she'd ever seen.

She scowled so as not to cry. Realized her hand was on his wrist. "People like you more than you think, Tharo." Next thing she knew her traitorous thumb was on the pulse in his neck, it WAS soft. She stroked it and ran her fingers along his jaw. "Stop assuming everyone hates you."

"And when I'm wrong?" He said hoarsely.

She shrugged, "This is a school, not a battlefield. Let your integrity and reputation do your fighting for you."

"Those are not as strong..." He whispered. His mouth descended on hers.

Kissing him was both familiar and strange. He tasted of smoke and copper, the tusks were there, unignorable, but his lips stroked hers gently. Their tongues touched. She felt his upper fangs, two on each side, smooth, her tongue flicked over the points, not too sharp. She had her hand on the back of his neck and was up against him. His massive hands cupped and squeezed her butt, pulling her into him.

They heard the door and immediately broke away from each other. Jayla began rigorously cleaning out her pestle, suppressing the urge to scream with frustration and perhaps murder whoever had just interrupted them. Tharo was too far on her side of the room to pretend to be doing much else, instead he spoke loudly. "So yeah, goldroot. I'll wash it and everything."

"Anything else you want me to look for?" She asked, grinding her scouring rag into the marble bowl.

"Mint if you see it. But that's just for my noon tea."

"Working on the berserker recipe?" It was Master Gillard.

"COURAGE recipe, please. It should not inspire rage." Corrected Tharo. He looked back at Jayla. "You sure you don't want my help?"

"Build me that fireplace so I don't have to keep going through your stinky work to get my kettle." She snapped.

"Fair trade." He said.

Gillard snorted, "Hardly. You're offering up a lot, Stonehammer."

"Carrying rocks and laying mortar is easy for me, Gillard. Finding and digging an entire pound of goldroot will take most of a day, more if you do it properly and leave some for next year. I'm not even sure what it looks like, do you?"

He was right. Goldroot was thin, not terribly common, and even Jayla knew nothing about cultivating it.

"I am NOT a herbalist." Gillard said haughtily.

"Would that I, too could involve myself with less wholesome pursuits without the town threatening to burn me." Jayla mumbled bitterly.

Tharo leaned close, "Well, if you weren't such a bitch..."

She smacked him with the rag. "Go make farty smells with Gillard, you beast. And open the door, I sleep here you know."

He chuckled and did as he was told, making a point of pulling out the beaker of sulphur and waving it at her.

It looked like the two alchemists would be doing whatever it was for awhile, she wouldn't get him alone again tonight. Jayla took a cold bath upstairs and headed toward the other side of town for a drink.

"Jayla!" the cry came as soon as she walked in the door. "Long time! Come sit!" Jayla felt a little suspicious. She was passing acquaintances with the captain of the local soldiers, Tara Weston, but mostly because the Captain kept bringing her injured or sick recruits when the doctors were all too busy. Though Tara was a former spy, refreshingly salty and well-traveled, basically as far as one could get from the academic demeanor and still be tolerable. A glass of mead appeared in front of the herbalist.

"So how are things? Borders quiet?" Jayla asked, raising the glass in thanks.

"Almost suspiciously so. There hasn't even been much trade. I know harvest isn't for another two months, but I expect at least wool or cloth or something." The Captain tapped her chin.

"Trouble on the other sides?"

Tara shrugged, "Not that we've heard."

Jayla smirked "Maybe they killed each other off."

Tara laughed, "That we'd be so lucky." She leaned forward, "So TELL ME. How is Stonehammer?"

"You know him?" All sorts of questions came to mind.

"Yeah, we were in the battle at Slackwater. Well, I was waaay back, he was on the front lines. Took a nasty hit to the leg and side, we thought he was a goner. He was up and around within two weeks, grumpy as hell and asked to be transferred. He has a place next to the arena."

"I shouldn't tell you, but he's pretty lonely and not treated well except by Gillard and Corish."

"I hear YOU're treating him pretty well." Tara smirked.

"OH REALLY." Jayla glowered. "What's the gossip today? Last month I was naked in the woods cavorting with Eastern Witches, now I'm..." She choked a little, waving her hand "... With orcs." She let most of the rumors about her perpetuate, no one had the nerve to ask if any of it was true, and it never had been. She realized they really weren't funny when they did get close to the truth. Which brought her to thinking if she tried to nip this one in the bud it would draw attention, better to come up with something worse and deflect. "We went for an ale last night and I testified on his behalf to the schoolmaster. I'm surprised no one thought Corish and I were a thing."

Tara raised an eyebrow "You ...and Corish? He's married."

Jayla shrugged, "Like that's stopped anyone. Ever SEEN his wife? I think he says it just so people don't think he's into men. He's not. He's just too socially awkward to attract women." Alchemist Corish was devastatingly handsome considering he didn't pay much attention to his appearance. He knew it, too. He was also rude, clumsy, and absolutely terrified of Jayla.

"So you're not seeing Stonehammer?"

"What? I haven't been seeing anyone the entire time you've known me. I had a fling with that farmer down the road, but... eesh." She downed half her drink and wiped her mouth. "What gave anyone that idea?"

So much for deflecting.

Tara shrugged, "I think you'd make a great couple."

Jayla felt like she'd just fallen about 30 feet. "Wh-wha... TARA. What, exactly, makes you say that?"

She grinned, "You're both freaks with zero diplomacy. Anyway... " Tara leaned forward and whispered "Can you imagine?" She held her hands a foot apart.

"I don't have to, I treated an orc four years ago at the border. That guy was..." She put her hand around her forearm. "Weird looking thing. Big veiny shaft with like a hook on the end."

"A HOOK?" Tara hissed.

"Well, more like a ... I dunno..." She traced an outline on the table, describing the serif on a 1. "Anyway, I think Tharo is available if you're interested." Jayla regretted saying it.

"Oh no, I've got one."

"An orc?"

Tara laughed, "Just about. I've been seeing the bladesmith on West Road."

"Nice!"

Tara went on to talk about her new beau at length, her dog, the garden. They parted ways an hour later and Jayla was grateful for the distraction. The walk home not so much. She tried to put Tharo out of her mind, it was going to drive her around the bend. She instead tried to focus on where she'd last seen goldroot.

____

There were no classes the next day, so Jayla grabbed some dried meat and a satchel and headed east of town to forage. She found plenty of mint. The goldroot was much more difficult: The leaves were tiny, and each plant yielded perhaps a thumb's worth of what she needed. After two hours of searching and finding five plants she finally came upon a big patch of it in a damp hollow near a creek. She was able to get as much as requested and still left some to propagate, though digging it was tedious, it was near dark by the time she had enough.

Back aching, knees and hands dirty, she stood up to get her bearings and head back.

"Is that a lady alone out here?" She saw two younger men, one held a crossbow.

"No boys, it's Herbalist Thorntrail. 'Lady' is generally not the first word used to describe me." She glared at them. "State your business or bugger off."

"We're just hunting."

"You're too close to town, you're going to kill someone with that." She gestured at the crossbow, which thankfully wasn't loaded.

"And she's not alone." Tharo stepped out of the trees. One of the boys let out a decidedly feminine scream, the other threw a rock and hit him on the side of his forehead.

"Ow."

"NO! WHAT IN GOD'S BLOOD DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING?" Jayla bellowed, she stormed toward the boys, one was getting ready to throw a knife at the orc. She got between them. It hit her in the side and fell to the ground. This just made her really mad. "Shit! Are you ... You touch that orc again and I'll fucking rip your eyes out and eat them myself! Get out of here!" Jayla was all teeth, like an angry wolf, hands claws ready to lunge. The boys ran.

Still brimming with fury, Jayla turned to Tharo, "I told you not to come! You could've got killed!" She was about to loose another tirade when she saw he was bleeding. "Gods, are you OK?" Jayla ran up to him and grabbed his head, looking at where he'd been hit. She let go and looked around frantically for something to staunch the cut. "Come here, Kneel!" He did, tilting his head so she had access to it. Jayla was all business, she rinsed his head with her water skin, dabbing it with her sleeve. It wasn't bad, there would be a bruise and there was a little bit of a cut. She hugged his head "Gods."

He was unnaturally still and let her hold him. Eventually he swallowed, "You're injured worse than I am." His hand lifted her blood soaked shirt. The knife had gone clear through the skin and left a four inch gash in her side. He took the water skin from her. "Turn toward the light." His hands gripped her hips and moved her so the evening sun hit the wound. He cupped his hand below the cut and poured water down it. "I need something to staunch it."

"Plantain, by your foot. Other foot. The vertical veined leaves." His hand drifted "No. Left, other left, that one."

"That won't clean off the blood."

"Use moss for that, then that, it'll keep it from going green..." She stopped, noting the natural color of his skin. "Um, I mean... Bad, um sour. Sorry."

He looked up at her and smiled. "Human. I'll tell the Schoolmaster. Deriding my color. I'm only trying to help."

She recovered, "Stop it Stonehammer. Get to work before you have to put my intestines back in." Jayla was a little concerned it might have hit something important, but she didn't think it was that deep.

Tharo, still kneeling, put his hands on either side of the wound, his face unnervingly close and sniffed. "It doesn't seemed to have hit anything. Actually," he spread it a little and she hissed. "It didn't even go all the way through the muscle."

"Should still stitch it."

"No need, want to see a neat trick? Hold still." Tharo reached into his pouch and removed two tiny wood boxes with oricsh writing on the lids. He handed her a plantain leaf. "Hold this in your palm like a cup." He dumped white powder and some coarser translucent crystals onto the leaf, capped the containers and put them away. He took her water skin again and delicately poured a tiny bit into the mixture. He used his eating knife with amazing precision stirred the mixture on the leaf without puncturing or scraping it. "OK. This will probably hurt. Sorry." He took the leaf from her hand, put his fingers wide on either side of the wound and pinched it so the edges met. He used the end of the leaf to funnel the mixture to the edges and applied it perfectly. "I'm going to have to hold it like this for a bit. Be patient."

Jayla felt cold and tried not to shiver. "And they say orcs are clumsy. I'm impressed."

"Miss Thorntrail, did you just compliment me?"

"It's not against my religion. It does sting like crazy, though, I'm wondering if it would hurt less to cauterize it."

His yellow eyes met hers and his look was deadly serious. He lifted his shirt to show an old scar in the same place her wound was, scar tissue crisscrossed like cobwebs. "It would hurt a lot more, I can assure you."

"Whoever did that didn't like you very much."

He smiled ruefully; "Probably not, but they saved my life."

He let go the wound and it stayed closed. Jayla brushed her fingers along the seam, it was hard, like dried sap. "Sorcery!"

"Alchemy. You ready to go back?"

Jayla put her hand on his shoulder to deter him from standing up. "No."

"Are you ... did he hurt you elsewhere?"

"We have... unfinished business." She leaned down and took his lips in hers, fingers resting behind his ear, taking little sips from his mouth.

He moaned in despair, returning her affections a little more aggressively, one massive hand spanning her lower back, the other in her hair. "Gods, Jayla." He said between kisses "Gods I..." He stopped and put his forehead to hers, smiling, "I have a headache."

She snorted. "Damnit." She stepped back and he stood up. "Aaand it's dark. Woops."

"Something else you might not know about me."

"I know very little about you. Do tell."

"Orcs have excellent night vision compared to yours." He put one arm under her knees and picked her up, mindful not to stretch her wound, and started to carry her toward town.

"This is humiliating and I'm too heavy." She liked the feel of his body against hers, the back of his neck was warm under her arm.

"Not too heavy. It's not humiliating, it's too dark to see and you're injured."

"So are you." His foot caught on a root and he stumbled. "This is a bad idea."

"You worried someone will see us?" He was serious.

She snorted. "What do you think will happen if they do?"

"I will have to defend your virtue, thereby likely convincing everyone of the opposite." Not so serious.

She laughed, and stopped abruptly when it disturbed her wound. "What about YOUR virtue? Maybe I should be the one to take up arms."

"In all seriousness we'll likely have all hellfire raining down on us. Gossipy damn small towns."

"Shagging an orc is probably one of the more banal rumors floating around about my pastimes. Anyway, Captain Weston said we'd make a great couple."

"Did she now? I'm sure we'd look lovely tied to a post burning in the town square, you mean." He sounded like he was struggling. After a few more steps Tharo set her down gently, his hands hovering on either side of her in case she fell. Jayla realized they were on the edge of town already.

"It IS a University town. Anyway, I'm about to walk to my room with a very bloody shirt, and someone probably saw you follow me into the woods..."

"Believe it or not, I JUST got there when those kids showed up. Walking you back to the apothecary was my intent anyway." He gestured for her to lead the way.

He was even more imposing in the dark, and it made the herbalist want to climb all over him. "How did you find me?"

"Orcs are all taught tracking as soon as we can walk, and you're easier than most, leaving dug up plants and harvested shrubs everywhere." He staggered a little.

"All right, come on, let's get some tea and food in you and I'll get some salve for your head."

She straightened, put her hand to her side and headed toward home, Tharo following behind.

She unlocked the apothecary door, the hearth the only light. Tharo rummaged in his belt pouch, murmured something and the room lit up with an unnerving blue glow. He said a few more words and the light went a more familiar orange. Jayla pulled his arm down to look at it. It was a glass sphere with a cork in it, mostly full of liquid that was the source of the light. "Wow. How long is that good for?"

"Until I go to sleep." She touched it, it was warm but not hot. "That's not what I wanted to show you." He held the light up and pointed to the opposite wall on her side of the room.

There was a fresh stone fireplace. She could smell the mortar. "In ONE DAY?" She tried to hurry over to it and hissed when it stretched her side. "CHIMNEY TOO?! Gods you missed your calling."

"It'll take four days to set before I'd use it. The best part..." He stopped and laughed "The best part was when I knocked the wall out to put the chimney in. The whole thing came crashing down outside near a bunch of students, there I was as the dust settled, Oh!" He wiped his eyes and shook with silent laughter. "The boys sounded like little girls! They ran and got the constable, and HE was terrified. So tonight was the second time I almost got shot by a crossbow today. Doesn't help I had a two foot rock in my hands when he showed up." He paused and looked up, picking at a piece of fresh mortar "One advantage of a small town, I suppose. He knew OF me, probably kept me from getting shot. Oh, and I broke the ladder out back, sorry." He staggered a little again.

"Tharo Stonehammer SIT DOWN NOW." Jayla grabbed a chair and swung it next to him. He did as told. "STAY. Don't you DARE get up."

"Yes Master Throntrail." He said sullenly, mocking.

"I'm still just a teacher." Then felt stupid when she realized what he meant by the title. She washed her hands, grabbed the kettle from the other hearth, filled mugs, took the light from Tharo and it went out. She handed it back to him and it lit up again. "Well damn." She picked up a candle, lit it from the fire and used it to light the lamps. She dropped her satchel on the table and filled two bags with different herbs, put them in the mugs, adding brandy and honey, she brought him his and moved two more chairs over. "I'm sorry there's not much ready to eat. It's late for us to go to the inn." She grabbed some old apples, dried fruit, the last of the jerky and a big wedge of cheese. She put the plate on the chair closest to him. He immediately reached for the cheese and sliced off a big chunk. "Hold still." She dabbed his head with a damp cloth, dried it with the other end and gently put some salve on. He chewed the whole time.

"That feels better." He took a drink. His eyes looked like they were watering.

"Are you OK?"

"I... " He sniffed. Put his mug down and reached for her. She approached and he gathered her into his lap, squeezing her arms to her sides, crushing her to him and putting his face in her hair. Jayla couldn't move, not that she wanted to. He sobbed a few times, long pauses in between. His embrace tightened and he rocked back and forth a little. Jayla gave in trying to figure out what to do and relaxed into him, her cheek on his collarbone, she felt like she might fall asleep right there.

"You have got to be exhausted. You're welcome to sleep upstairs but I don't think my bed would fit you."

"How many blankets you got?" he mumbled into her hair.

"More than I need. And a couple of cloaks."

He loosened his grip. "I'll sleep on the floor then." They finished the food in silence.

Despite digging roots all day and the brandy, Jayla found she couldn't sleep on her bed with him on the floor. She just stared at the big lump of orc under the blankets and watched him breathe in the dim moonlight.

We'll burn just as hot if I do than if I don't

. She took the blanket with her and wormed her way in next to him. Even in his sleep he accommodated her, hand on her hip, his arm her pillow, warmed and soothed by the rise and fall of his massive chest. She barely had time to enjoy how cozy it all was and drifted off.