Mutante: Chapter 14
Copyright 2023 Elizabeth Frerichs
When morning came, Rosie felt a thousand times better. She stretched, luxuriating in the feel of the air against her skin. Robert wasn’t on the blanket with her—probably checking on Waterdancer and Thomas. She put on her tail and slipped back down the tunnel below the cave.
“Good morning!” she called to the three males as soon as she caught sight of them.
Robert and Thomas returned her greeting, and even Waterdancer whinnied at her.
Robert looked her over and then smiled. “You look much better than you did yesterday.”
“I feel much better.”
He rubbed the back of his neck. “I was getting worried. You’ve been asleep for 13 hours.”
Rosie blinked at him. “Good heavens, has it really been that long?”
He nodded solemnly.
“Miss Rose needed to replenish her energies,” Thomas put in.
Robert jerked a thumb at the mirror. “He wouldn’t let me wake you up.”
“As I said, Miss Rose needed to replenish her energies,” Thomas said primly.
Robert glared at him and then turned his attention to Rosie. “Well, you don’t look as pale as you did yesterday, so I think it worked. Did you want to eat breakfast first or collect the fairy’s breath now?”
“I feel as though I could eat a whale right now,” Rosie said, her stomach immediately making its complaints known now that she was awake and thinking about food.
Robert grinned. “Breakfast it is then.”
“Miss Rose, how are you intending to collect your blood?” Thomas asked.
“Well, I—er, I hadn’t thought about that. Do you—do you have a suggestion?”
“I do. After breakfast, perhaps you ought to do the collection in the cave. There’s a spell to collect liquid ingredients underwater, but it might be easier to simply collect it while in air.”
“Ah. Yes, I suppose that makes sense. Since neither Robert nor I can do magic.” Rosie removed her grandmother’s basket from where it was tied to Waterdancer’s saddle. “What tools will I need?” She began rifling through the basket.
“There ought to be a vial with a thin funnel on it. The funnel is spelled to collect whatever you put near it. If you simply place it against a small cut, it will fill the vial. Likewise, if you uncork one of the funnels while in the air.”
Rosie nodded somewhat less than enthusiastically. The thought of collecting her own blood sent a shiver down her middle—she didn’t like blood.
“I’ll help you,” Robert said, putting a hand on her shoulder.
She nodded, found the appropriate vials, and then returned the basket to the saddle.
“I’m really glad you’re all right,” Robert said as they re-entered the cave and walked to the picnic blanket. “Watching you lay there, all pale—” He shuddered. “I’m glad all you needed was sleep.”
Rosie studied him. “I’m sorry it was so stressful. I didn’t really mean to sleep for 13 hours.”
“No—it’s not your fault. I just—well—” He took a deep breath. “My father was injured about a year and a half ago and has been in a coma since then. The healers don’t know why he isn’t waking up, but . . . it’s terrible waiting.”
“Oh, I—I didn’t know—”
He gave a bitter chuckle. “Of course you didn’t. I don’t tell many people. The villagers all know what happened, and it’s not the sort of thing I spread about with people I don’t know.”
She put a hand on his arm. “Thank you for telling me. That sounds awful.” No wonder he cared so much about profit, if he was the only one supporting his family.
“It is,” he said, his voice hoarse. “My mother and sisters—I try to keep everyone’s spirits up, but it’s hard when no one knows exactly why he’s sick in the first place. The magical kelp is keeping his body from deteriorating, but he’s still asleep, y’know?” He cleared his throat. “Sometimes I—there are lots of things I wish I could tell him. I wonder what he would think of me harvesting kelp—but really, if I didn’t do it, well, we can’t exactly afford to buy all the kelp he needs right now, and I couldn’t leave my mother to do everything,” he said fiercely. “I just couldn’t.”
Rosie squeezed his arm. “It sounds like you’re just trying to care for the people you love—I’m sure your father would be proud of you.”
Robert held her gaze for a long moment before finally giving her a small smile and clapping his hands together. “Well, shall we eat?”
“Are you always hungry?” Rosie said lightly, then froze. Maybe he was always hungry! If they couldn’t afford food—argh! Why had she said that!
Robert’s smile faltered, but then he turned up the wattage. “I would never dare presume to rifle through a lady’s purse, and since you’re the one with extra food supplies right now . . . .”
“Ah. Well, thank you for your discretion. I apologize for making you wait for such an excessively long time.”
He tried to bow, and then nearly overbalanced. “It is of no moment, my lady.”
She rolled her eyes and unpacked supplies from the enchanted bag. A part of her felt bad for eating her grandmother’s food, but on the other hand, she was out here for her grandmother’s sake. If Grandma Essie complained, Rosie could just point out that she wasn’t the one who had been swallowed by a giant whatever it was.
Robert’s stomach growled and he turned red.
Before she could say anything, though, her stomach growled in answer and they both laughed. “It’s definitely past time for food!” she said.
The meal was far more relaxed than any they had ever eaten. Being in a safe location, knowing that there was no reason to worry that the path might fail, and not being half-dead with fatigue lent an air of cheer to their meal and they chatted about their experiences in school.
The longer they prolonged the meal, though, the more Rosie’s stomach began to twist. What if the vials stopped working? What if the spell had worn off or something?
“Rosie!” Robert called.
She looked at him in inquiry.
“Are you all right? You looked pretty distracted there.”
“Fine. Just—”
He reached across the blanket and took her hand. “Your grandmother will be fine.”
“Oh, I wasn’t worried about her.” Then, realizing what she had said, her cheeks grew warm. “I mean—I am worried about her, but . . . .”
“But what?” Robert asked, his green eyes boring into hers.
“But what if we can’t collect the rest of the ingredients?” She bit her lip. “What if the vials are broken or we can’t find the fireworm hair?”
“Then we will deal with things as they come up,” he said firmly. “Hey, we made it this far—we can definitely figure something out. After making it through the forest to your grandmother’s house and then collecting two varieties of magical kelp and a blue siren-plant seed, I’d say we were experts at managing the impossible.”
Rosie gave a forced chuckle. “The impossible? If we did it, I’d say it was very possible.”
He smirked. “Impossible for normal people who lack the definite flair for adventure we possess.”
“A flair for adventure?” Rosie said, blinking at him. “Well, that’s one way to put it. My mother says I’m a hurricane, always stirring everything up and leaving a mess behind me.”
A slight crease marred Robert’s forehead before he smiled at her, his eyes lighting up. “I’m partial to excitement myself. A girl who stirs things up sounds perfect to me. Too many people are content living in mediocrity—they need a little shaking up.”
Rosie studied him, looking for any sign of insincerity, but couldn’t find any. She blushed, just registering that he’d called her “perfect.” “Thank you,” she murmured.
He squeezed her shoulder. “We’re an excellent team—we’ll get through this.” He gestured to her remaining seaweed wrap. “Are you going to eat that now, or shall we test out the vials to ensure they work first?”
Rosie’s stomach dropped at the thought of blood. She set down her seaweed wrap, no longer even the tiniest bit hungry. Perhaps it would be best to just get the whole thing over. Hopefully she could conceal just how uncomfortable she was or, if not, Robert wouldn’t tease her too much.
“Blood first, and then maybe eat,” Rosie told him.
Robert nodded. “Ok. How do you want to do this?”
Rosie winced, considering all the places and ways she could slice herself open. “I have no idea. Maybe I should just slice my finger on some knife coral. There’s some at the back of the cave.”
“I have a knife you can use—probably leave a cleaner cut than knife coral. But—” He hesitated. “I’m not sure you should cut your finger. You might need your hands. What about a spot on your arm?”
“You don’t think I’ll need my arm?” she said dryly.
He laughed. “Nope. I’ll be your arm for now, m’lady.”
“Ok. Well—I guess—where’s your knife?”
Robert pulled it out of a belt sheath while she carefully found and unwrapped a small vial from her grandmother’s basket.
He held the knife out to her. Rosie looked at it, and steeling herself, she took the knife. Her lips were suddenly dry, and she licked them. “Will you—will you manage the vial?”
“Of course, if you want me to.”
She nodded. Her hands shaking, she raised the knife, trying to decide which would be the best location for the cut.
“Do you want me to do it, Rosie?” Robert asked, eyeing the shaking knife.
“Huh?”
He gestured to the now tremoring knife. “I just—I wouldn’t want you to accidentally injure yourself.”
“I thought I was trying to injure myself.”
“A small injury, yes. Something requiring a bandage and significant time to heal, no.”
“Well, I—”
He held her gaze. “I promise I’ll do my best to make the smallest cut possible.”
She studied him, trying to decide whether she trusted him near her with a knife. Surprisingly, she did. It was strange: they had only known each other for three days, and even yesterday morning, he had been no more than the annoying stranger who insisted on accompanying her. Somehow, between then and now, he had become a friend. “Ok.”
“All right. You hold the vial and then I’ll take it from you.”
She exhaled shakily. “Ok.”
He gave her a reassuring smile. “It’ll be fine.”
“Right.”
Gently, so gently that she almost didn’t feel it, he pricked her arm and then exchanged the knife for a vial. A faint rush of her blood to that spot was all she could discern of the magic. Or maybe it was the rush of the magic gathering up her blood? Either way, the collection was nearly painless.
“All done now,” he said cheerfully, holding up a ruby-filled vial.
Rosie sagged. The vial had worked! And collecting the blood hadn’t been nearly as wretched as she had expected. Thank goodness the potion only required a small vial’s worth!
Robert immediately scooted closer. “You ok?”
She nodded. “Yeah. Yeah. I am. I guess we should open the other two vials to collect some fairy’s breath.”
“We have a minute. You look awfully pale.” He studied her anxiously. “Was it the blood?”
She shook her head and then nodded. “Sort of. Just—I’m glad everything went as well as it did.”
“Me too. How about we bandage up that cut and then we’ll worry about the fairy’s breath?”
“Ok.” She started to lever herself up.
Robert put a hand on her shoulder, holding her down. “Just stay there. I’ll get the supplies.”
With surprising gentleness (or maybe it wasn’t so surprising given his kind manner with collecting the blood), he wrapped magical kelp on her tiny cut, ensuring it would heal by the time the day was out.
A/N: Another ingredient down! I love that Robert sees Rosie’s penchant for changing things as a plus 🙂 Thanks for reading 🙂
If you’d like to beta, please PM me. Again, we’re on short-ish chapters because I’m still really hoping someone will eventually have time/interest 😉 And, if you notice something amiss, pass it along!
See you on Saturday!
