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Old 03-15-2011, 08:08 PM   #49
Envinyatar
Quill Revenant
 
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Join Date: Jan 2003
Location: Wandering through the Downs.....
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A barrow wight! A wizard! Willem’s dark eyes glinted with amusement. He bit back a laugh, but unsuccessfully. ‘What wondrous imaginings, little mistress!’ He chuckled again and shook his head. ‘And the best that in the last you thought me a wizard and no wight.’

‘Nay, Jessamy, I’m no wizard,’ he went on, holding out his hands before him as if to inspect them front and back. ‘Just ordinary workings is what these do. I mend things; take care of what needs taking care of.’ He raised his brows a bit and looked as if into the distance. ‘Keep things safe as needed.’

‘As to the Fair Folk, I have had some dealings with them. Ones that worked out to both our benefit, I think. They keep their own counsel about things and it’s hard to say how well a person can ever know them.’

Willem crouched down in front of her, his gaze catching hers. ‘Sorry to disappoint you if I’ve done so by my words.’ He coaxed her injured foot out from his cloak gently removed her shoe and sock. ‘Ah, poor thing,’ he murmured, manipulating the ankle with a light touch. From a drawer beneath the cot he fetched out another little chest. This one holding a number of small, red clay pots, each sealed with a cork. Each cork had a small line drawing in black on its top. ‘Ah, this one will do.’ He pulled one out with some sort of leaf drawn on it.

‘It’s soothing ointment made of poplar buds,’ Willem explained as he spread it round her ankle. ‘Helps to take down the swelling and helps the pain.’ Once the area was covered to his satisfaction, he wrapped the foot with a long cloth strip to give the ankle support. ‘That’ll help, Jess,’ he said smiling up at her. ‘Though as with most things it will be old Time that brings the full healing.’ He helped her on with her sock and shoe. ‘No more adventuring ‘til it’s all right again, promise?’ He propped her feet up on a little stool, a pillow to cushion them, and drew the length of his cloak back over her legs.

Willem glanced toward Edwin, checking to see how he was doing. ‘Ah, look! There’s a little color coming back into his face.’ He smiled and nodded as he noted the retreating pallor on Edwin’s face.

‘I think I’ll go outside for a little while. Got to check on Catkin, and such. Want to make sure everything is alright. Karl, why don’t you and Jess stay snug in here. There’s more tea in the pot there. And here’s a little basket of nut cookies a kind lady gave me for mending a spoon or two for her.’

-o-o-o-

Willem unhitched Catkin and threw a warm blanket over her back. ‘Here, girl, have a nosebag of oats,’ he went on, fitting the straps to the bag behind her ears. ‘Not sure we’ll be staying here the night or going on….but nonetheless there’s no need for the waiting or going on an empty stomach.’ He gave her neck a pat. ‘Be back in two winks of the stone King’s eye,’ he whispered.

For the moment the snow had stopped. The moon had risen, high and bright above the shifting trees. Willem slipped in among the branches, his nose sorting out the night’s scents.

Last edited by Envinyatar; 03-15-2011 at 08:27 PM.
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