Humanity at Stake (Completed)

Chapter 39

"Send me off on the morning breeze so far away from here
Fill your eyes in the strains of thought
Outside the warm embracing air" -"Worth Dying For" by Rise Against

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"I need your help!" Nova panted out after bursting through the door of the building. The alchemist blinked owlishly. She was a small girl. Her long hair was braided and twisted into a bun. Her large glasses slipped down her nose, which she promptly pushed back up quickly.

"My help with what?" she asked dumbly, causing Nova to sag in exasperation.

"My friend was poisoned by a vampire. We need your help fixing him." She stepped away from the pestle and mortar, brushing her hands on her smock.

"Explain what his condition is," she responded, looking at the shelves around her and humming to herself. Nova was quick to ramble off his symptoms, the herbalist moving around as she explained.

"Sugar, sugar definitely for sure," the girl murmured, grabbing a small jar containing a white substance. "Do I have the potion to resist poisoning? I thought I made some last... Yeah, I have one left." Nova watched the girl talk to herself, her mouth slowly closing as she stood awkwardly in the door.

"I have disease curer, blessed be! I ran out of grilled cat tails two days ago. Okay, okay I need to grab the ground antlers and the Longtail... I don't think I have any premade RH, so I'll need the Sea Spinner..." The alchemist grabbed another jar, this one looks like a light brown with black and white specks littered here and there. 

She then reached up and grabbed a vial filled with a purple liquid. She popped open the cork on top, taking a sniff of the contents as purple haze rose from the open top. She nodded happily, setting it down next to the first potion bottle. The girl disappeared into the back, coming back with a small squirming fish in each hand. Heating two small cauldrons resting on a wrought iron table, she threw a fish in each.

"Do you honestly think we have time for this?" Nova asked worriedly as she opened the sugar jar and what she could assume was the ground antlers and a sprinkled both in the different cauldrons. The girl held a finger up, as she looked around again.

"I don't have hoof shavings for the health fortification... Cave moss! Cave moss, cave moss... where did I put the darn cave moss?" The girl scuttled around, searching high and low.

Nova could understand why the small female was having a hard time finding ingredients. It was a small rectangular shop with towering shelves on every wall aside from the front. The small window that was next to the door was covered by curtains and casted the room into darkness. The dark gray furniture didn't help brighten things up.

Jars, vials, glasses, and aired ingredients rested in every space. In the middle was a high table with a few pestle and mortars. Off to the side, nestled in between two shelves were two small cauldrons that were beginning to bubble. One had turned a sickly yellow color while the other was a light blue. A larger cauldron rested on a small stand in front of the window.

"Aha!" she hollered, scaling a ladder that was on the side of a shelving unit, leaning towards the center to grab the hanging cave moss. Nova flinched as the girl jumped from the ladder, landing on her feet as she busied around looking for other things.

"Wheat, wheat, wheat. Aha!" She grabbed a golden stick, the end fraying.

"Are the potions in the cauldrons done...?" Nova asked hesitantly. The girl snapped her head over to the cauldrons, pushing her glasses up her nose.

"Oh, shoot!" she swore, putting the two plants down on the center table before rushing into the back. There was a crashing noise followed by a "shoot, shoot, shoot! Oh, well!" Coming back out with four bell-shaped vials. Three of them dipped into the blue vat, filling up to the top before having corks shoved onto the top while one went into the yellow one.

"Slowly, slowly we'll stop the poison," she muttered to herself. She grabbed some thick material squares next to the pots, picking the cauldrons up with the material covering her hands as she rushed them one at a time to the back room, coming back out with two empty pots.

She paused, staring at the pots before lighting up with a quiet "oh!" She rushed back to the back room. She came back in, carrying one large spindly mushroom. The top was a light cream, the bottom edge a blood red.

"Now before we mash that, I need some wringle berries... some, some, uh... vampire ash... do I have vampire ash? Oh shoot, uhm, we'll grab garlic instead." She rushed up to a hanging bundle of garlic, ripping off a clove. She set that one center table rushing back into the back room. "Berries, berries, berries!" the girl chirped happily, coming back out with a handful of bright pink, round berries. She hummed, grabbing a jar of pale mush swirling in a liquid.

"Might as well add the clam meat to keep it nice! Probably prefer it over moth wings," she spoke teasingly to Nova, sending her a wink as she looked at the ingredients.

"Wheat, cave moss, and red bottom mushrooms," she hummed, throwing said ingredients into one mortar. Throwing the other three ingredients into the other.

"How long is this going to be? My friend wasn't doing too well when I left," Nova announced, watching the alchemist furiously beat at the items in the bowls. "How old are you?"

"180 full moons," she answered, glancing up at the red head before looking back down at her work. Nova stared at her blankly, not knowing how old that was. "And it won't be much longer, your friend should be fine." The alchemist stopped, running into the back again and coming out with more bell-shaped vials, these filled with water.

She took the crunched up powder from one mortar, dumping the contents into three of the six vials, and then repeated the action with the other. The sediments settled to the bottom, staining the water pink and brown. She shook one in each hand as she head back into the back room, coming back with a brown satchel. She started piling in the other vials, shaking up the last four as she did so.

"Okay, we should be good! Take me to your friend now," the girl ordered. Nova was quick to nod her head, grabbing her horse that she had left at the front of the store. The two got on, the alchemist needing a hand from Nova to get up before Nova jolted the horse forward, and they rocketed off.