Last of Her Kind

Chapter 3 CATHRYN

The next morning, when Cathryn awoke, her father had left for the day. Now that his daughter was marrying the general, he had been given a job as the healer to the troops which meant he worked in the city center. Cathryn rolled out of bed and slowly made her way to the kitchen for some breakfast. She was exhausted from going out the night before, so she made sure to brew some of the beans her brother had brought back from Port when he was there last. Once she was finished eating, Cathryn washed her plate, grabbed her harvest, and went out into the alley.

The apothecary Cathryn ran was located right in front of the house, so she didn’t have far to go, but the smells and sounds of the early morning were still enough to make her head spin. She sipped on her brew as she unlocked the shop doors. A part of her was glad she wouldn’t be harvesting on full moons any longer. It would take her days to catch back up on sleep.

Inside, the store was dark and slightly crowded. Cathryn had inherited the shop from her mother, and had left it the same for memory’s sake. She didn’t mind the dark. She enjoyed it even. A part of her felt there was a magic in what she did as a healer, and that feeling intensified in the dark candlelight of the store.

Cathryn crossed the store and went behind a curtain in the back room that was set up with numerous shelves and cabinets, all filled with herbs and tinctures, and a large prep station in the center. Cathryn set her bag on the table and went back out front to make sure the store was ready for open. She quickly returned and got to work.

Full moons have enticed wonder in all creatures since the dawn of time. Stories speak that only certain creatures come out during this bright nights, creatures with large claws and sharp teeth that feel off anything that comes it’s way. These are stories that are told to children so that they don’t crawl out of bed at night, Cathryn had no knowledge of any real creature that was only out in the full moon. What she did know, was that there were certain plants that would only bloom during those days, and that those plants held rare properties that she was only just breaking the surface of.

For two years, Cathryn had been going out once a month to harvest as many moon flowers and night caps she could find. She was fascinated by the strange flowers and mushrooms. Not only did they bloom just once a month, but outside of the full moon, day or night, Cathryn had never found a single trace of them, even in spots she had harvested just hours before. She truly believed them to have some sort of magical property she had yet to discover.

Cathryn emptied her bag. The moon flowers and night caps had been difficult to find last night and her count was meek. It didn’t help that the general wanted her to make his paste out of evening ivy. Honestly, she could harvest the ivy any night of the week, but the general didn’t know the difference between ivy and trees. She had used the ivy as an excuse one night a year back, right after the general had been promoted. He had caught her in the streets coming home and questioned why she was out alone late at night. She had lied and told him about the ivy and it’s unique properties mentioning that it needed to be harvested during full moons. The general let her go that night, but the next day he showed up at the shop, alone, and spoke with her father. Since then, Cathryn has had to harvest large quantities of the ivy to be used in a secret paste for the general.

She hid away the Moon Flowers and Night Caps and got to work on taking the leaves off the ivy. She was in the process of mincing when the bells that hung above the store door rang.

A voice cried out from the front, “Help me! Please somebody help!”

Cathryn put her knife down and rushed to the front of the store in a panic only to be stopped dead in her tracks by the laughter of a tall, well-groomed man wearing a hunters uniform.

“Eli! Seriously, that wasn’t funny. People come in here really hurt, some are dying, and you choose to scare me like that as a joke. You’re awful. Truly awful.”

The man, Eli, wiped away a tear that had formed in his eye as he calmed down from his laughing. “Alright, sis, I get it. A bad joke. But still, a funny one. You have to admit it.”

“I won’t.” Cathryn returned to her task of mincing in the back room of the shop while Eli followed her. “What are you doing down here anyway?” She looked him up and down. “Are you guys going back out today?”

“We are.” Eli picked began playing with a paring knife that had been sitting on one of the counters. “That’s why I’m here actually. The general wants to get whatever paste you have. And he wants to know how much you’ll be able to get from your last harvest.”

“The general? Eli he’s going to be your brother-in-law. You don’t have to call him the general.”

“I do. If the other’s hear me treating him as a familiar, they’ll do the same and he’ll lose their respect. I refuse to do that to my general.”

“Alright then, do whatever you want. You can take the two barrels I have sitting in the back corner. And tell the general that I’ll only be able to get him one more barrel out of what I harvested last night.”

“Three barrels! That’s not enough!”

“Well it’ll have to be. It’s what I’ve got. What does he need this much for anyway?”

“If I tell you, you can’t tell anyone, okay?”

Cathryn nodded her head and shrugged her shoulders, “Okay.”

Eli leaned in to whisper, even though they were the only ones in the shop. “We shot a dragon yesterday.”

“No you didn’t.” Cathryn scoffed at the idea, “They’re extinct.”

“But they aren’t. We saw three.”

“Three? Where?”

“From the north woods tower. The general hit one with a spear dipped in the paste, but it got away.” He stabbed the knife into the wood of the prep table. “We’re going out to try to find them again. We saw them fly off towards the mountains.”

Cathryn sighed, annoyed, and pulled the knife out. “Well, be careful, I guess. I don’t know what one says before a dragon hunt.”

“Thanks sis.” Eli leaned over and kissed his sister on the top of the head. Then he scooped up the barrels and headed for the door.

“You’re going to sharpen my knives when you get back,” Cathryn pointed the paring knife at her brother who laughed and disappeared into the front of the store.

 Cathryn returned to her mincing. She could hear the bells of her brother’s exit as she shook her head and smiled, “Dragons.”