The Green Witch

CHAPTER 4 - The Awakening

CHAPTER 4 - The Awakening

In the coming months, Flora and Reed will grow very close. They talk, flirt, and share secrets with each other that they never had with anyone else before. Flora had only ever spoken to her mother and Raul. Reed’s family was well-loved, respected, and admired in the village, so naturally, that meant he grew up with a great number of friends, none of them very close to him, except for his brother Thomas, who was his best friend. Reed was grateful for Flora’s ear and companionship. He grew to know her well and found that she was the best person he’d ever met. She was wise beyond her years but compassionate, and very kind. She cared about the land, and all creatures that inhabit that land. She would walk for miles to tend to a wounded nightingale, in the middle of the night.

Flora also grew very close to Reed, and found him to be very understanding, with logic, yet an open mind, which she came to value very much. What they also started to notice about each other was the awakening of their attraction to each other. They were both young, vibrant, and both equally good looking in their way. Flora was exotic, beautiful, small, and petite, with long black, wavy hair. Flora’s mother's family was from a faraway land, somewhere in the Mediterranean, making Flora olive-skinned. Reed was handsome, with a wholesome European look. He was dirty blonde, tall, lean, with dimples that would make anyone skip a heartbeat. On one of his visits to the cottage, he finds that she is very ill.

Reed walks in the cottage door, surprised that Flora is still in bed.

“Flora, what’s wrong, are you feeling ill?” he asks.

She turns toward him, and he can clearly see that she is pale, shivering, but hot to touch, with a high fever. She mumbles something about not feeling well and asks him to come back later. But he quickly goes to her bedside, and feels her forehead, she has had a fever. Raul is lying on his bed next to the fireplace, and nervously looks at Reed. Raul doesn’t like it when Flora is not feeling well, and is relieved that Reed is here to help. Luckily, Reed has been paying enough attention to Flora to know what herbs to use, and he also knows that she needs some water from the lake. He goes first to collect a bucket or two of water, and when returns he makes a composite that contains herbs to cure fever and help keep her symptoms at bay while she fights her illness. He gives her some water, she takes her medicine that he’s prepared, and that night he made her a clear broth. He checked her fever every hour, and inevitably stayed overnight.

Over the course of the week, he nurses her, they talk, he reads to her. He helps her with her daily chores. He spends his nights in the chair next to her bed. One morning after feeling better, she realizes that she cares for him, and how kind he really is. Flora starts to worry that she’s getting too close to him. As she sits up in bed, she stares at him sleeping in the chair next to her.

He wakes, “hey, you’re up!” He smiles and says, “How do you feel?”, Reed asks.

Flora looks at him, smiles, and says “Thank you for taking care of things….and me.”

Reed looks at her, checks her fever and says, “You’re welcome, Flora, I’ll make breakfast, why don’t you rest.”

They spend the day talking, and Reed does the chores around the house. They decide to skip their daily walk, since Flora is not up for walking. But they do manage to decide together that the buck is all cured, since it’s been up and walking around, so they take one last look at the buck’s gash together and set it free. The buck looks back at them, with a thankful look on its face, lowers its head in a little bow to them both, and runs off.

After they let the buck free, Reed helps Flora back into bed, and feeds Raul, and Tick, Flora’s pet squirrel. Tick is extremely good at swiping things, and Reed slowly begins to find things that he thought he lost in Tick’s sleeping area above the herb cabinet. He found his gold watch, as well as a couple of buttons, and his sack full of coins that he was delivering to the local farmers for produce that his family purchased for the castle. He was going out of his mind trying to find those items. Now he knows how to look in Tick’s area first. Part of him believes that Tick thinks it’s a fun game that Reed is actively participating in.

After feeding Tick and Raul their dinner in the cottage, Reed checks on the family of Robins that are nesting right outside the door on the apple tree in Flora’s front yard, to the left of her herb garden. They appear fine, and he gives them some seeds, and changes their water in the bird bath below. Afterwards he gets some dried hay and grass and feeds Gertrude and Gunther in the backyard by the garden.

Then he goes back in to prepare dinner.

Reed looks at Flora, “would you like more broth?” he asks.

Flora makes a face at him indicating that she can’t drink broth two days in a row, “Sure” she says.

He looks knowingly at her, decides to make her a vegetable stew with some vegetables that he harvested from her garden earlier that day. He throws in some squash, beans, carrots, and turnips and serves it to her with fresh bread.

When he brings her bowl to her, she’s grateful it’s not a clear broth, which was just hot water with some herbs and spices that he added. They talk into the evening, eating their soup, and she asks him to explain his fascination with her life in the forest. Flora looks up at Reed, with a curious look on her face,

“Why are you always here?” she asks.

Reed looks back at her, suspiciously, almost a little offended,

“What do you mean?” he asks.

Flora answers, “it’s just that, I’m not sure what my little life in the forest holds for you. Why do you find it so interesting?”

He looked back at her and said, “Flora, I just like being with you.” He was being as honest as he could, but he could sense that she was starting to shut him out again.

Flora looked back at him and said, “Thank you again for all your help, I think you can go home now, I’m feeling better.” She got up and walked to the corner of her worktable where she pretended to look at her herbs.

Reed stood up, and angrily yelled out, “AARGH! You’re impossible!”

Surprised, she turned toward him incredulously. “I beg your pardon!?” Flora shouted.

Reed was angry, he looked at her and said, “Flora, I don’t expect much from you, or from anyone for that matter, but the least you can do is ADMIT that we care for each other, and that dammit, you want me around! Why can’t you admit that? Why can’t you just trust that I care for you?”

Flora started to turn away from him, because if she continued to look at him, she would burst into tears. “She sat on her bed and said, “Reed, I think you’re mistaking our feelings for each other. Maybe you shouldn’t come around here anymore.”

He stormed out of the cottage, out of the fence, and she sat on the bed and cried.

It was a dark night, and with the moon shining down on the crystal lake, it looked like a large orb was sitting on the water. Reed walks to the clearing, where the lake is located, to get some air and create some space between them. All he can think about is how much he cares for her, but also about how stubborn she is. She trusts no one, and he doesn’t know if he can ever break through that. He’s starting to doubt her feelings for him. He understands the life she’s had, and the tragic events in her past. But he doesn’t know if he will ever be able to get her to trust him. So many thoughts are running through his mind right now, but he feels like he can’t breathe, he can’t think straight. He stands still. He takes in his surroundings. The night is beautiful. It’s warm, the forest floor is covered in flowers and the moonlight is shining so brightly, directly onto the water. Jasmine leaves a hint of aroma in the air. The owls call out in the night air. Animal sounds are everywhere, but oddly it’s quiet. The air is heavy.

He throws his head back to take it all in and tries to put together a plan of action to prove to Flora how much he cares. Yeah, that’s it, he just needs to show her.

As he’s putting together a plan, she approaches him from behind, an apology ready, and an explanation to him about why it’s not a good idea for them to see each other anymore. A twig breaks as she approaches, and he turns to see her. She is captivating. To Flora, Reed looks like an enchanted figure, in the moonlight, standing by the lake. Both of their breaths catch in their throat. No words can be spoken right now, as they just stare at each other. She’s standing there in her white nightgown, her long black, wavy, hair is down past her waist. They continue to stare at each other for what seems like an eternity. The energy is just building around her, and she can almost see it. Tensions are high, emotions are even higher.

All of a sudden, he walks up to her and grabs her face in his hands and starts to kiss her. Slowly at first, then faster, as if life depended on it. She kisses him back just as fiercely, and in this moment forgets everything she was about to tell him.

She pulls away and before she can start to speak, he kisses her again. Stubbornly, with his eyes closed and his forehead touching hers, Reed says “I know exactly what you’re going to say, and you can forget it, I’m not going anywhere.” Oddly enough, Flora is somehow grateful that he won’t let her send him away. Funny things, emotions.

They both go inside where they go to her bed - they spend the night, talking, kissing, and just holding each other. They fall asleep together, entangled in each other’s arms. They are discovering each other in this whole new way, new light, and it’s wonderful. She’s not ready for more just yet, and knowing that Flora is still feeling sick, Reed manages to control himself. He’s so patient, but this night was wonderful for him anyway, he can wait, he has a lifetime. He’s decided that she’s the one for him. He cannot picture his life without her, and life as he knew it is over. A new life is beginning, and he wants her to be by his side.