Page 96 of Tiger's Trek
“Good,” Danik said. “Now, Polden, I’m going to need you to gather every dark and evil flower you can find as quickly as you can. I’ll loan you the mirror if you need it.”
“No need. I can travel in much the same way as my brother, but by using the noonday paths. What do you intend to do with the flowers?”
“I’m hoping to give Yuga a surprise she didn’t count on.”
“But your young lady... she’s in pain.”
“I know. I’m not planning to use her hair. I’ll use my own. Hurry back. Some of them are already sprouting wool.”
The red knight looked at Danik thoughtfully. “I see. You know I’d stay and offer up my own hair, but... well, I don’t think they’d be interested in mine.”
“It’s fine,” Danik said. “You find the flowers. I’ll take care of this.”
“Very well. Good luck to you, hunter.”
“And to you.”
The knight lifted his helmet to his head, and with a crack of red-and-orange lightning, he disappeared.
Veru’s head throbbed. Danik had instructed her to keep the cloth pressed to her scalp, but she couldn’t find a place to lean against the tree without it hurting awfully. Finally, she turned her head enough to watch him work, and that at least distracted her. He began combing his hair, and it grew longer and longer. The sheep below began leaping into the air in an attempt to catch it in their mouths.
When it was sufficiently long, well below his feet, yet still above their reach, he’d use his knife to cut it off, hacking it off in great chunks and tossing his dirty-blond hair to the waiting beasts below, who leaped upon it like they were starving in winter and it was lifesaving hay. Over and over, he’d comb and cut, comb and cut. An hour passed, then two, and three.
He paused to check on her, and his hair was long, past his shoulders and covering his face. She brushed it behind his ear. “There. Now I can see your eyes.”
“How do you feel?” he asked.
“Sore. Painful.”
Danik helped her lean forward and tried to gently check her wounds, but the cloth was now stuck to her scalp. Instead, he took a bottle out of their bag. “Here, drink. Eat something and rest. What you need is medicine.” He froze. “Wait. We have the mirror. Why didn’t we think of this before? Why don’t we simply use it to travel home? Find your sister? Get all of us out of this place? Escape Yuga?”
“Do you think it could be that simple?” Veru asked.
“It couldn’t hurt to try.” Danik took the mirror from the bag and placed it on the tree limb. “Go ahead.”
Veru wet her lips. “Take me to the palace,” she said.
The mirror glimmered, then went black. After a moment, it cleared as if nothing had happened.
She tried again. “Take me to my sister,” Veru commanded.
Once again, it was the same result.
“That won’t work,” the red knight said as he approached the tree. “Until you are free of Yuga’s enchantment, you won’t be allowed to go anywhere she wouldn’t wish. Believe me—my brothers and I have tried.”
“Is there a way to get her medicine?”
“Yes, that much is possible. Take her to that young doctor friend of yours. He can help her, and you can return to help me shear the wool. Even now it grows.” He tossed a large bag at the base of the tree. Awful-smelling and ugly flowers of every type spilled out. “I brought the flowers you wanted: pitcher plant, cobra lily, ghost fungus, bleeding tooth, spider orchids, mask flowers, death root, fang ferns, Dracula vampiras, hooded skull dragons, Venus flytraps, witch hazel, octopus stinkhorn, corpse flowers, doll’s eyes, bat flowers, bladderwort, carrion flowers, spider mums, strangle tare, and devil’s walking stick.”
“That’s... that’s great,” Danik said, eyeballing the strange flowers, most of which he’d never heard of or seen before.
“You take her to the doctor, and I’ll feed them the flowers.” He put his hand on Danik’s shoulder. “But I also gathered a special batch, just for the two of you. I’m going to section off a small group of them and give them these.”
He opened a small bag filled with the most beautiful flowers Veru had ever seen. Her mother would have wept at such a sight. Veru recognized lilies, tulips, peonies, and roses, but never had she seen such colors or smelled such fragrance. Reaching into the bag, she stroked the delicate petals. “They’re amazing!” she said to the knight.
“As I said, they are for you. When we shear these, we will bag the wool separately. Now take her. There is much work to be done.”
Danik told the mirror where he wanted to go, and in an instant they were at a small creek next to a little cottage. He knocked on the door, and they were welcomed by the young family with the sickly daughter and their live-in physician. Veru was settled in, fed, and while she was tended to, Danik disappeared.
