Page 36 of Of Potions and Honey
Yoni shrugged. “I don’t know. I don’t think anybody knows. It just is. That’s why you have all those towns here. Emberglen, Greengrass, even Ferncombe still takes some water from it, especially during spring after the snow melt. It’s good for the crops.”
“If it’s so good for crops, why did so many farms close down?”
A shadow crossed Yoni’s face. “Because you can’t compete with price. We take pride in what we produce, but that doesn’t count for much in a corner store in Willow Harbour.”
Mira bit her lip. Sore subject. Right. “Sorry. I was just wondering… Never mind.”
They kept walking in a silence thick enough to cut. Even the birds seemed intimidated by it, judging by the way their song got just a little more distant as they made their way through the forest. There was plenty of other noise to fill the space between them, at least. Insects that Mira couldn’t see. Rustling near the ground where they scared off the forest’s smaller denizens. The occasional pointed call of a larger bird overhead.
“I wonder if there are books written about the area.” Mira looked up just in time to catch a large shadow flit across the canopy. “I’d like to learn a bit more about all of this.”
“What, like a science book?”
“Maybe. Or history. Or a travelogue. Anything, really. I doubt there are shelves full of literature about a town this small, so I’m not picky.”
“We have an exhibition in the town hall. Or we used to. I’m not sure it’s still being maintained.” Yoni seemed thoughtful. “I know there was someone staying here for a bit around… ten or so years ago, he said he was writing a book.” She blinked rapidly. “Or maybe he was writing the same stuff you do. Stories and all that.”
“If he was, I don’t think I’d learn much reading those.”
“Aren’t you supposed to do lots of research?”
Mira laughed, and a bush to their left trembled in response. “Are we? I suppose it depends. Personally, I prefer making things up as I go along. Takes less time and gets me paid more often, and readers sure don’t seem to mind, seeing as the same editors keep buying my stories.”
“If you’re selling stories, why even try the potion shop?” Yoni sounded genuinely surprised. “That seems like so much more work.”
“Would you believe it if I told you that it’slesswork?” Mira said dryly. She sighed deeply. “I thought I was going to be a famous writer. Rich, too. You know, before I started working as one. It doesn’t pay much. Besides, when I… After I inherited the house, it seemed like some sort of sign, you know? Maybe this was where I was supposed to be.”
Yoni looked sceptical. “Seems very esoteric.”
“Maybe. I like the idea that we’re not all alone in this world either way. It’s a big place to be crawling around all by ourselves, it would be nice if something was looking out for us.”
“We’re not alone,” Yoni pointed out. “The world is full of things that are not us.”
“Yes, but I doubt your cat, precious as she is, will grant me divine intervention if I ever need it,” Mira replied lightly, “so I like to keep that door open.”
“Who knows,” Yoni whispered slightly too loudly, too ominously to be serious, “maybe she will if she likes you enough. There used to be people who thought cats were the avatars of their gods.”
“Really.” Mira squinted at her. “Does that make your living room a temple?”
Yoni chuckled. “It makes my living room covered in fur, is what it does.”
“I’m sure Marigold is very sorry about that.”
“Sorry!” Yoni barked out a laugh. “That wretched creature doesn’t know the meaning of the word, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.”
The last part of the trail turned out to be the most difficult to find, and Mira was glad that she was with Yoni, who seemed to have little issue navigating the narrow dirt path nearly hidden between ferns, fallen leaves and undergrowth. Even if the Sweetwater Spring had been a popular tourist destination once upon a time, now it was a secluded, downright enchanted part of the forest with nothing to disturb their peace.
“Are you sure we’re not bothering anything out here?”
The trees had closed in now, and branches kept catching Mira’s skirt as she was walking next to Yoni. There was substantially more noise around now, and the rustling sounds were much closer than before.
“Oh, we definitely are bothering something, but there is plenty of forest to go around.” Yoni ducked under a low-hanging branch. Mira barely felt it graze her head. “And there is nothing large enough to bother us around, either. The wolves don’t come out of the foothills until winter, and even then they stay away from the town.”
“Wolves?” Right. She was livingveryrural now. “Never mind. How far…?”
“Listen.”
So Mira did, and after a moment of adjusting, she heard it – the gentle sound of water close by. And not ten steps after, there was a rather abrupt end to the dense foliage around them when they stepped off the trail and onto a clearing that lay bright and peaceful in the midday sun.
