Apothecary Training

[pinkroses]

Liam’s dark eyes stayed fixed intently on Arjan as he spoke and a small smile played on his lips at one of the comments. From what he’d seen of Arjan so far the man would probably wouldn’t have been too keen to sell a poison so might have given a weaker one on purpose. Still, he shouldn’t leap to assumptions, Arjan seemed honest enough so maybe he wouldn’t question what people wanted things for and simply sell them what they wished for.

“I guess it‘s harder t‘find all t‘stuff y‘need in winter,” he said, standing upright again and brushing his muddy hands on his trousers again. “What d’y’do then? What d’y’do when the plants die?”

[Mayquiri]

Oh, Arjan had no problems with poisons.  After all, he was only a part of Talon\'s judgement as far as he cared.  If he was able to save a person he was asked to save, then Talen didn\'t wish for them to die.  If he was asked to sell a poison to kill someone or something with, then Arjan assumed that Talon wanted them dead.  It was that simple for Arjan.

"I stockpile.  Keep gatherin more\'n I usually need fer the summer.  Thing\'s git tough an\' expensive in early spring mostly.  That\'s when I \'ave the least ammount o\'herbs t\'sell." He explained, smiling faintly.  "Some times I run out though.  Dunt even \'ave enough tea, or other thins fer mesself.  S\'bad iffen I git a bad cold in that time."

[pinkroses]

Liam pursed his lips slightly and glanced down at the plants around their feet. If he’d ever got a cold all he’d got for it was a smack round the head for sniffing or coughing too loudly, he’d never been given special teas or had any treatment for his cuts until the night before. All the man who was supposed to be in loco perentis had done was cause him pain, some of it lasting. His voice would never be the same since he was punched in the throat, changing his voice forever.

“So, lotsa folks buy this stuff? For lil’ thin’s? I’ve ne’er knew there was stuff that did all this; is it expensive?” Even if it wasn’t he doubted his uncle would have bothered buying any to look after his nephew and neice, he would rather they had just disappeared from his life, although they had made handy slaves.

[Mayquiri]

Whereas Arjan\'s childhood had been different.  Always being the small child, and the sickly one, he often got cold, and was often fed warm drinks, if for no other reason then to soothe him.  After his family died, and Arjan learned to make the dirnks on his own, he continued doing so, adding certain herbs that he thought might help him feel better.  After all, his health hadn\'t improved very much with age.
 
Listening to the question, Arjan shook his head.  "No.  no\'really.  Sometimes workin class folks\'ll stop by, buy a few herbs fer a long cough.  Usually it\'s the richer folks who stop in.  They cin afford t\'throw away moneys on thin\'s like herbs.  Lots\'o people who live outside o\'the city, farmers an\' such, grow their own, so they dun\'t need me unless sumthin really bad\'s goin on."

[pinkroses]

"What sorta stuff? What else d\'y\'know how t\'do? More \'an jus\' herbs an\' stuff?" Liam asked with interest, shoving his hands in his pockets as he watched Arjan. Some healers knew how to do all sorts of things, like healing bones and helping women give birth, or so Liam had heard. He couldn\'t help wondering how much Arjan knew and how much he would be taught.

[Mayquiri]

Chuckling anf grinning, Arjan looked at Liam.  the kid certainly was curious, he had to hand him that.  Arjan rather liked it to be honest, it showed that Lim had an interest in what Arjan had to teach.  "Well, iffen a little one\'s got a high fever, an\'s been sick fer a while.  Or sometimes they come t\'me wih bad cuts, and I patch them up.  I can\'t fix some people though.  If they got a broken bone fer example, All I cin tell \'em t\'do is bind it up so they can\'t move it, or they\'ll go cripple.  Sometimes I cin give \'em sumfin fer the pain, but it\'s more expensive then jus\' mint." He explained as he absently continued plucking mint leaves.  Arjan always gathered as many as he felt safe whenever he could, so he wouldn\'t run out.

[pinkroses]

Liam carefully began to pick leaves again, holding them carefully in his hand until he had enough to hand to Arjan to put into his pouch. He glanced up every now and again to check that he wasn’t doing anything wrong, but this part of it seemed easy enough… when there was just one plant to concentrate on. He wasn\'t sure if he liked the way Arjan was laughing, but it didn\'t sound malicious at all just... happy. It was a strange sound to the boy\'s ears.

“What’d’y do if som’un’s got a fever? An’ what kinda stuff gets rid o’ pain?” he asked after a pause so that he could concentrate on what he was doing.

[Mayquiri]

It wasn\'t strange to Arjan.  One of the things he learned when he started selling things, and when he watched merchants sell their wares was that a happy merchanct seemed to get better deals.  He was generally well liked, and because of that, often got more business.  Having trained himself to always be a rather happy young man, Arjan found it dificult to not act, or even be happy very often.

Thinking on what Liam asked for a few moments, Arjan paused in his own picking to sit back in the moist earth, one somehwat mudded hand pushing his hair back.  "Wel, fer pain, there\'s chammiole, cranberry bark, angelica, willow bark and willow bark.  Fer fever, I\'d use birch bark mostly, but a mix o\'dogwood and cheerybark works too.  Iffen y\'got anythin hot an\' spicy, it make\'s y;sweat, which makes yer fever go down to.  That if, a wet cloth won\'t he\'p none.  Act\'ally, come think o\'it, I needs t\'git some more angelica an willowbark.  There\'s this sweet Lady who dun\'t look good.  She\'s dyinh, but she\'s rich enough t\'afford the painkillers."

[pinkroses]

“What’s t’matter w’er?” Liam asked with interest, poking a finger into the dirt as he had listened to Arjan speaking. The things he was saying was making sense, about helping to make a fever go down, but he had no idea how he was going to be able to learn all of these names.

“An’ what d’ angel-ca an’ willow bark look like?” the young boy added, mis-pronouncing one word and glancing around as though a sign would suddenly appear pointing to he things he was looking for. Willow bark, that had to be a tree, trees had bark, plants like the mint didn’t. But that didn’t help at all, a tree was a tree… he had no idea what the different shaped leaves and the colors meant.

[Mayquiri]

"Truth?  I dun\'t know.  There\'s sumthin wrong wi\' \'er lungs I\'m thinkin.  Coughin up blood an\' th\' likes.  I\'m guessin there\'s sumthin growin in there that dunt belong, but there\'s nothin I can do fer it." He explained quietly as he continued gathering mint.

Considering the next questions, Arjan sat back in the grass and looked up at the sky.  "Well, Angelica\'s like a weed in look.  It\'s all thin an\' reedy.  An it\'s got little off-shoots wi\' tiny clumps o\'white flowers on th\' ends." He tried to explained, uncertain exactly how Angelica should be explained.  "Ye\'d have t\'see it better t\'understand it.  an\' willow bark?  It\'s jus\' th\'bark off of a willow tree."

[pinkroses]

Liam stayed silent for a few moments after Arjan described how the woman was ill and how she would probably die. It suddenly seemed so real. He knew both of his parents were dead, but he had no idea how it had happened, or when exactly. All he knew was that he couldn\'t remember them at all and he wondered if this woman was leaving behind children who would never know her.

The boy quickly blinked and tried to focus once more on Arjan\'s words as the older man began to describe more plants to him, but frowned slightly when all he got about the willow bark was that came from a willow tree.

"An\'... what does a willow tree look like?" he asked with a small scowl on his face, hating that he had to ask something that Arjan obviously thought he should already know. But really Liam didn\'t have a clue what any off these plants looked like and couldn\'t tell one tree from another. He could tell you which ones around the city were good for climbing up or hiding in, but none of them had names in his mind and he hated his lack of knowledge and education for the first time in his life.

[Mayquiri]

When asked about the tree, Arjan gave Liam a look.  Having grown up around trees and wildlife, Arjan took for granted what different trees and plants looked like.  He forgot that Liam was a city kid with no prior training in plants.  "They start out like normal enough trees." Arjan started slowly, wanting to explain the tree properly as he drew a very crude picture in the ground, "But it\'s branches, they split.  an\' they git thin and vine-y.  Willow trees look kinda like they gots shaggy, light green hair instrad o\'leaves from a ways.  Does that make any sense?"  He asked, not sensing Liam\'s sudden realization.

Of course it was real.  It had always been real.  People die.  Talon chooses when it happens, and Arjan, being only human, had no place in holding Talon back.  If it was possible, Arjan merely preserved people for a later fate.  Arjan was still reeling from seeing Alia though.  She was such a fragile creature, so weak and sickly.  It made Arjan humble, and surprised him to see that Talon wuld allow someone to live in such agony for so long.

[pinkroses]

"Like... hair?" Liam repeated, lightly touching the drawing in the mud and tracing the lines. It was a confusing description, but Liam guessed that it might make more sense if he actually saw it.

"Is there, like, any \'round \'ere that y\' could show m\'? Since y\' need some anyhow?" he asked, keen to see this strange sounded plant. It was possible he might already have seen one, but he simply wouldn\'t have noticed. After all, wasn\'t every tree like another? At least that was what he had thought twenty-four hours again.

[Mayquiri]

"I\'m not good at drawin." Arjan confessed, with a guilty little smile.  "Ye\'d know th tree iffen y\'saw it.  Err...it\'s kinda like there\'re lots o\'heavy bits on th\'ends o\'the branches.  They end up saggin and pointin t\'the ground.  S\'a very funny lookin tree." He then commented, stading up.

"C\'mon, there\'s a willow tree a small ways offa here.  Near th\'woods." Arjan then said with a heavy sigh as he picked up his small bag of herbs.  He wasn\'t used to showing anybody what he did and how he did it.  It was a new, and rather challenging thing for Arjan to wrap his head around.  He hoped he was doing a decent enough of a job, and lucky for him, Liam at least looked like he was both intelligent and eager to learn.

[pinkroses]

“I dunno, it sounds like it’d b’ hard for anyone t’ describe or draw,” Liam said, straightening up as Arjan did and brushing off his hands on his trousers. “So it’s like, all the branches jus’ go down insteada headin’ up like normal?” he added, not really expecting an answer, just trying to straighten it out in his mind so that he would know what to look for whilst Arjan was leading him. He followed after the apothecary with a spring in his step as he moved more carefully through the woods, looking a little more in place than before and eagerly looking around in an attempt to see the willow tree. Not that he’d begun to concentrate on his surroundings and the sleepy feeling of the early morning had drifted from his mind, letting him notice more of the area around them, including the birds in the trees and the feel of the ground underfoot.

“It tha’ it?” he asked suddenly, lifting a hand to point at a tree which was the only one he had seen which could fit Arjan’s description. The willow tree drooped downwards, the tips of the branches brushing against the leaf covered floor. He moved closer to the tree, lightly touching the thin leaves, trying to look through them, but unwilling to disturb the peaceful feeling of the tree. “It looks a lot like y’re picture I think,” he said with a nod.