Sondermahgi A.K.A. Leafaria, Crayosia. 22 Years Ago.
Seather: G.C.M.S. (The Great City of Mass Strength.)
Far to the North and West of Enverdolmal.
*Continued from Leafaria!
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Ivy Lumaleza sat at the edge of her heavily padded bed, her hand to the forehead of the short, muscular dwarf.
The dwarf whom Hikari had said the two boys had referred to as Traggs.
Traggs Hammersmith.
The dwarf's face was nearly ruby red, for he was ablaze with a deep and unbreakable fever, and despite all of her Herbology knowledge, Ivy couldn't seem to find an antidote to what ailed him.
"Boh!"
She spat to herself.
"Damnable, dense, dwarven blood! What in all the Hellz could those ridiculous pixies have used to get him in such a way?"
She asked herself, her pale, slender hand leaving the damp cloth on his head and finding its way to the smooth, cool underside of her chin.
"Never was a fan of the little facks... I see why Hikari hates 'em just as well... And this one, should he make it, will have a healthy hate for the little shits as well... More than ever, mayhap..."
In all of her years, she had never been one for the overindulgence in magic, nor did many of its uses appeal to the old-fashioned Herbalist.
Lumaleza had lived in and about the sprawling and expansive forest of Leafaria for the better part of her life, and that had only changed just as soon as her sister and brother-in-law had passed away quite suddenly in the wake of the mysterious and widespread Shicato incursions.
With the new and looming responsibility of "God Mother" now lumped on her ever-growing plate, she thought it best to relocate to a more populated place.
A city like Seather, where she could safely raise a perpetually screaming, shaggy-haired, blue-eyed, snot-nosed, scabby- kneed, stubborn-as-all-Hellz Zellrune child...
"BOH!"
She mentally slapped herself.
Her mind was roaming...
She needed to focus.
Where the hell was Hikari with that food and the botanical ingredients she needed!?
She pulled several small chunks of dried willow bark from her coat pocket, alongside a small teabag filled with equally dried spearmint leaves.
She crushed the two together and dropped them into a small cup of hot water, which sat atop the small table next to the bed, its bottom filled with Purple Bee honey.
The tea-like concoction hissed and bubbled as she infused a bit of healing Aether into the side of the cup with her hands.
She picked up the cup and gently sloshed its contents about with a small, heavily enchanted silver spoon before slowly and carefully dripping small amounts into the sleeping dwarf's mouth with the same instrument.
Traggs grimaced and shivered as the concoction rolled over his pale tongue and down his throat. His entire body seemed to relax a bit more into the cushioned mattress. Ivy could tell that his face had also taken on a lighter shade of red.
A good sign of a step in a better direction.
"Hmm... A mild pain sedative and a coolant-themed plant biological structure... More effective than I had imagined it would be... The Bee's honey is heavily laced with Lilac pollen... Inflammatory? Hmm..."
She needed to figure out how to get this little guy's body temperature to drop a lot faster, or he would not last the night.
She was an Herbalist, among other things, not a Doctor, Shaman, or even a Witch. Her knowledge of Dwarven biology was limited to what she had seen and heard in her travels.
She placed the cup back on the end table, remoistened the drying cloth, and placed it back on the unconscious dwarf's forehead.
"Hikari had better be on her damned way..."
She cursed to herself aloud.
"This one's life depends on it."
Lumaleza reached into the folds of her garbs and pulled out a dense hunk of sentient sapphire that was threaded through with a silver chain.
The stone pulsed softly, a sign that Hikari was at the very least not in any danger that she couldn't handle.
She closed her eyes and focused a bit of her Aether into the stone, which began to warm slowly as it drank the offering.
"Hmmmmm"
It moaned softly.
"Whaaaaat wiiillll beeeeee seeeeeeen, wiiillll beeeeee seeeeeeen."
It whispered before the smoking whisp that decorated its interior began to clear swiftly.
It was a Seer's Stone.
The pale whisp began to swirl and shift before it coalesced into a solid form, with a weapon drawn.
Lumaleza let out the breath she had been holding.
"Still hunting..."
She thought to herself, but a bit too soon.
That very same breath caught in her throat a split-second later as a second figure solidified into view before the girl.
The form of a man whom she had feared would show up any day now.
A man whom she would rather not have Hikari facing alone, if not at all.
Who he was wasn't as important as what he was, and what he was was far more than Hikari could handle.
He was a ruthless killer.
A soulless assassin.
A man without honor or morality.
He was a Shinobi, and one of the last of his kind.
But how the Hellz had he found them?
Lumaleza glanced down at the dwarf, then over at the door that separated her from the two sleeping boys.
She couldn't let that man find them...
She also couldn't leave Hikari to face him alone...
Lumaleza stood and snatched the chain from around her neck, pumping Aether into the hungry stone as she did.
"HMMMMM! YESSSSSSS!"
It spoke, just louder than a shout.
"Hush, you damnable dolt! You'll wake the boys! Get me to Hikari, now!"
The stone begrudgingly obliged, its asking price having been paid in full.
Before the woman and the dwarf, a portal snapped open, the air itself wobbling at the edges of the oval passage as every conceivable color of Aether danced and clashed about the perimeter.
At the center was Hikari, and kneeling before her was the Shinobi, a shard of ice projecting from his abdomen.
"I'd better hurry..."
The wary Herbalist thought to herself as she reached for her battle staff and satchel.
The portal snapped shut just as her left foot left the realm, and just as the young Bastion began to turn the doorknob that led into the room.