The Royal Wolf

Chamomile for Calming

***This story and all its characters are my own. Any and all elements are under copyright and are not to be shared, copied or used in any way without expressed, proven consent***

Crackling fills the air, mighty trees tremble as fire runs rampant through the forest. She is running, dodging between licking flames, and falling trees as smoke fills her lungs and tears burn the corners of her eyes. Frightened and tired she tries her hardest to move faster her heart exploding from her chest screaming for oxygen. Just as she is about to give up hope she sees a clearing where the flames have not reached yet, the night sky clearly visible through the trees.

Willing her feet to move towards the clearing, a safe place for now, she narrowly misses a branch that hurtles to the ground. Just as she nears the edge of the burning forest her foot catches in a vine and she falls with a hard thud. Stunned and vision blurred she fumbles with the vine trying to untangle herself. A loud crack above her causes her eyes to shoot up as a fiery branch falls, aiming straight for her and she screams.

Arianna awakes abruptly from her night terror screaming and sweating, eyes wide she gasps for air as she wills her heart to calm down. The nightgown she has on clings to her like a second skin and she tries to peel it away, her black hair matted from the tossing and turning in her own sweat. She tries to swallow but her dry throat declines the action causing her to retch at the taste of ash in her mouth.

The terrors started the night of her thirteenth birthday and are becoming worse, with each episode longer than the last however she never seems to make it to the clearing, something always stops her.

She gets up from her straw mattress, careful not to wake her grandmother and makes her way to the shutters, opening them slightly to let the cool air in. She inhales deeply and closes her eyes, feeling comforted by the breeze, the smell of fresh rain and pine trees lingering in the air.

Arianna lives with her grandmother in a modest cottage on the edge of a thicket and they were just two of the servants to work for the King and Queen of Hemlock. They would rise before dawn each day and carry out their duties of cleaning and cooking for the royal household and tend to the gardens outside the palace.

The sound of bell chimes in the distance brings her out of her reverie, Arianna scowled at herself for wasting the first rays of sun and closed the shutters returning to her mattress to fold the blanket and dress for the busy day ahead.

The palace was holding a royal banquet, she heard the palace maids purring about it before sunset the day before and that there were going to be several handsome men attending. Arianna would pay no heed to the gossip of the palace; she knew it would get her into trouble and that was the last thing her or her grandmother needed.

Readying the hearth to warm some water, she gathered some more wood from beside the door and started a small fire. The strewing herbs at her feet were ready to be replaced so she gathered what she could into a pile and swept the remnants to the door. As Arianna did this, she heard her grandmother stir, she smiled and returned to the hearth, the fire now at full blast. The water boiled over making hissing sounds, Arianna gathered her smock in her hands and lifted the kettle off the fire.

"I was starting to wonder when you would rise grandmother' Arianna said with a smile. Her grandmother was slow to get up in the mornings now that she was older. When she was younger Arianna would recall her grandmother up before even the rooster. This made her giggle. Her grandmother smiled as she too folded her blanket and dressed.

She poured the hot water into a bucket, leaving some aside for her grandmothers' herb tea they shared every morning. They both retrieved their cloth from above the fireplace and had their morning wash.

"Did you sleep well Aria?" her grandmother asked using her nickname and dipping the cloth into the bucket of water to wash her face.

"As well as any" Arianna said with a smile, she too dipped her cloth and rung it out before washing her face. Her grandmother looked at her with a furrowed brow.

"By the sound of your screaming it sounded like you didn't sleep at all" she looked over at her with a raised brow and returned her cloth to the wire that hung above the hearth to dry.

Arianna froze and turned to her grandmother looking guilty "My night terrors are getting worse grandmother" she said her lip trembling "it's the same one over and over every night, and I never seem to make it out of the forest" she returned her cloth to the same wire and sat down next to the hearth.

Her grandmother had brewed the tea and handed her a small steaming bowl, Arianna smiled and inhaled the sweet aromas. "Anise and" she broke off reveling in the smell again "chamomile, my favorite!" Arianna sipped the tea slowly, letting the hot liquid warm her body.

"Well done" her grandmother said smiling. "I'll see how well you do tomorrow" she looked over her bowl while taking a sip.

"We need new strewing and I'll pick some berries and nuts in the forest before we go to the palace" Arianna said looking for her basket to take with her.

Her grandmother smiled sweetly "thank you dear" she got up from her stool and washed her bowl in the bucket of water and returned it to its shelf along the back wall of the cottage.

"When you are done meet me in the palace garden, you have more training and we need to pick some vegetables for the banquet" Arianna nods and washes her bowl, returning it to its shelf.

Her grandmother gathers up her basket and puts on her hat "I'll see you soon" she said hugging Arianna before leaving to make her way to the palace gardens.