Searching herbs for Charlotte's project but finding a lot more than that.
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Many thanks to Linda62953 to help me to present this story better.
Chapter 4: Forest meet
Around noon, Charlotte arrived at her house, meeting Dan again who was tidying up his gear preparing to leave. He ran to fetch the heavy sack from her shoulder.
"Hi Dan, worried that I would run out of breath?" she teased him.
"That farmer should have sent someone to help you carry it."
"He tried, but I declined, I want to remain independent. There are not a lot people to help me deeper in the mountains. I might want to return there someday, but I would be spoiled."
Against this reasoning, Dan had no reply, but he still carried the sack inside.
"I was about to return home, you already took Bryan's shoes to town it seems."
"Yes, I visited Louise and left them there." She took off the loops of rope from her shoulder displaying her purchase. "I got this nice rope and a few extra goods from her."
"Ah yes, Louise, she really grew into a nice, hard working woman. She tends to the shop that Ilsa previously managed." With that bit of knowledge, Dan's spirit faltered somewhat. "You visited Ilsa too, I suppose?"
"Ilsa has welcomed me too, yes. As you can guess, I noticed her troubles quite clearly. I would love to help you and her to pick-up her life better than this, but right now, I am at a loss as to how. Her love for her children is so profound but it's also torturing her."
Dan sighed, "I am coping with it. At least we are healthy and well off." His shoulders slumped down.
"Please, eat a cup of soup with me," said Charlotte while already prodding around to make fire. "I would like you to leave here in better spirits."
Without further talking, Dan waited, grateful to be with someone understanding.
After a few sips from the soup, Charlotte asked, "You and Ilsa probably do not relieve stress by mating right now."
Dan turned quite red by that bold remark but agreed, "We do not have sex; Ilsa could not take the extra burden of carrying another child."
Charlotte's mind was plotting on that. "There are options though, sex is possible without mating, and mating could be possible with halted fertility."
Dan clearly was not used to discussing such topics, and looked lost. "I do not understand what you imply here."
Once again, Charlotte hugged the big man. "Ignore my rather rude scheming, Dan. In time, I hope to think up some good advice. Right now, just know I care about you and Ilsa."
Then the big man turned and hugged her back. "Take care of yourself, my child; come to me if you need anything." Then, he returned to the village.
After he left her, Charlotte started with the much needed remodeling of her home. She fastened long loops of rope to her walls to allow items to be fastened to it. The first herbs and flowers were hung up there to dry. Another string was used to support often-used tools like her pot. After that change, the house looked better suited to a witch.
Now it was time to find out why her mother Bianca had bothered to live here before. There should have been a very good reason for her to be this entangled into society. It certainly had something to do with being a unique spot for herbs. Charlotte only needed to do some walking around to find it. It wouldn't be far away.
She followed the valley north guessing that the slopes there would get the most sun and soon was rewarded. She could spot a gentler slope ahead that had grass on it but was surrounded by forest. It was sheltered from the wind but got a lot of sun. A couple of plants would grow there that had no chance in other places in the mountains. Charlotte quickened her pace eager to explore the place.
Soon, she arrived, walking out from the trees. It had been a climb to get there. On her way back, she would search for an easier route but had not bothered about it now. She took her time to smell the variety of odors hanging in the warmer air. This truly was a remarkable place.
Now her attention turned to the forms and colors of all the flowers and herbs around her. Knowing that she would come here often in the future, she directly started looking for something to aid her with her most pressing need. What could help her to prevent getting pregnant, the men around were too common and too lustful that she wanted to interact with them more on equal grounds. They could run around ignoring the effects of their actions where women had to bear the results.
More on smell than any other indication, her attention was pulled to a small purple flower in the grass. She had seen it before; it had quite some potential but was shunned by witches. The reason was that its sap was what she was after. But exposing the sap to air, quickly reduced it to nothing special. She had to come up with a plan for it. That oil still in her pocket could possibly do the trick, if she could enclose the sap in it before it was wasted.
Her bag was opened, and some drops of oil were put on a small wooden plank. She cut the flower loose, pushed a drop of sap from its stem and let it emerge in the oil. It worked well enough, but not more than an extra small drop could be squeezed from the flower. For her potion, she would need more than that. She started looking around for more of these flowers. There had to be more than one, but there wasn't another one in sight.
"Stop with that you lump!" said a voice from near her feet. "Don't you cut that flower and just throw it carelessly away. Take better care of these things that are dear to me."
Searching for the source of the sound Charlotte's gaze fell on a small figure flying close to her leg. "Pardon me, I really need their sap," was her response, could she argue with the thing? Isabel had warned her quite sternly about interacting with fairies, but she had not encountered them before. Was that from the same book as her dislike of masturbation?
"There are better ways to get to it than that. You could pull the sap and still allow for them to live. It's not that hard when knowing how to do the trick."
Charlotte pondered on that. "It would surely involve being little like you." After that statement, her perspective on the world suddenly started shifting down. She lost hold of her plank, but it did not tumble or fell very far. Then, everything went dark.
She was struggling to get out from under the heavy black sheets that were pushing her down. It was not difficult, but the sheets were big. After a while, she climbed into the sunlight again. The big stems of plants first puzzled her, but she soon could tell that she saw grass and flowers growing high above her head. Naked, she walked around looking for the fairy that had shrunk her a moment ago. The flapping of big butterfly wings warned her of her near landing.
Standing before her was a roughly girl shaped figure. It had small flat breasts and a somewhat alien looking face with pointy ears. There were hardly any round forms on the fairy in stark contrast to Charlotte's own body. Though she was naked, it looked totally normal, just like with the animals. There were relatively huge butterfly wings attached to her back extending way above her head. Even being small, she had to use wings that were relatively much larger than a bird needed. But the wings looked gorgeous from up close, in stark contrast to the rather plain figure attached to it.
"Hello, my name is Charlotte, thank you to allow me to still gather the sap after wasting such a nice flower." There were hurt feelings here that needed addressing.
"You may call me Lilah as my siblings do," was the answer she got. Charlotte had trouble reading any emotion from the fairy. "Can you climb onto the plank, so that we can move on," was the strange advice that the fairy had for her.
She saw her wooden board lying nearby and walked towards it. She needed to lift herself up onto it by her arms and managed to scramble up on top of it. The moment she wanted to stand up the wood quivered and started to rise from the grass like an invisible hand had scooped it up. The fairly flew before her to a different part of the meadow. A few more of these mysterious flowers grew here. After landing, Charlotte let herself slide from her plank and walked to the stem of one of them.
"Put both hands flat on it, move them up and down. Pull your hands towards you breathing in real sharp, a drop will then emerge." Charlotte followed the instructions and soon had a big bowl of liquid hanging between her hands. She was almost blown away by the power that emitted from it. The whole surface of the drop was brimming from a reaction with the air around her. She hurried back to the plank and was suddenly lifted by her arms with fairy hands. With a swoop, she landed on the wood. She quickly let the liquid fall in the oil that was on it.