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FAERIELAND WAS A VERY strange place. Every aspect of it was hot for starters. To begin with, the warmth after the wet and cold of their journey was welcome, now Fluppit was starting to find it oppressive. Even the water here came hot from the pipes, with a strangely sulphurous smell. She could imagine how all the odd folk tales of the Faeries came about now. All the food was warm too, which was also massively welcome, but steaming mushroom soup with oddly spicy plants took a little while to get used to. The spiciness in the food was a hotness all of its own. She went to sleep most spans with a tingling on her tongue from something new she’d just eaten. Being someone who enjoyed an adventure was definitely a requirement of this quest and no mistake.
Her boisterous new friend Chick-chick was thoroughly enjoying being her tour guide. Fluppit would have enjoyed it much more, if she didn’t spend every waking minute worried sick about how Sari was. Luckily, they seemed to have their own healer here, a female not much older than Fluppit called Sha-cha. So at least if Fluppit was greeted by the unconscious form of Sari every wake-span, she had Sha-cha to pester as to whether there was any change, or what she thought the prognosis might be. The downside was each day she asked, Sha-cha said the same thing—that the venom from cave-spiders was as unpredictable as folk’s reaction to it and each case was different. Sometimes people were unaffected, sometimes they were deathly ill then recovered, some struck dead by one poisoned scratch.
The infirmary such as it was, a makeshift construction of boxes and screens, was in the least humid place in the home of the Fairy-folk. Which meant it was comfortable. At least it was close enough to the river pipe, though somehow above it, to attract a breeze. Fluppit checked Sari’s brow. It was clammy. Sari’s skin was probably the coolest thing in Faerieland right now, Fluppit thought darkly. She was breathing slowly and shallowly. Was that good? Fluppit had no idea and was unlikely ever to get one if her mentor died before she had time to teach her anything.
And that led neatly to Fluppit’s second pressing problem. Their list. Without the ingredients getting back to the Sanctuary, OneLove was in deep trouble and so was everyone who depended on the resources that the Vat cycled through the Dark. Like water. And air. She huffed out the hugest sigh she could manage. What would Sari tell her if she were awake?
“There’s no point brooding about it, child.” Probably. “Do something.” But what? Fluppit reached under Sari’s bed, some planks stretched over two boxes. It was where the Fire-folk who brought them in had put them, and they’d stayed there since. Fluppit was losing track of how long they’d been there, but it had been a worryingly long time. She dragged the pack out and sat cross-legged in front of it.
“Sorry Sari,” she said undoing the lace that held the pack shut at the top. There were all kinds of pots and potions and lotions in there, empty bottles and full, but she was looking for none of those. Where was the scroll? Not anywhere in the bottom of the pack, that was for sure. Fluppit rummaged again, but other than miscellaneous scraps of other paper, there was no scroll. Everything else but. She sat back from the pack for a second, “Where are you hiding it, little pack?” Maybe a stern talking to wouldn’t help, but it made Fluppit feel better. She went to search again and realised as she touched the pack, she’d missed the obvious, there was a long thin side pocket on one side of the bag, perfect for hiding a scroll in. Yes, there it was. And in the bottom of the pocket was a stylus. Okay. That was a start. She ran her fingers over the list again:
Bubblit
* Silkthorn
* Mothblossom
Darkstar
Iresine
Starsisters
* Fangfeltplant
* Fleabane
Sneezepea
The dots on the list indicated the items that teams other than Fluppit and Sari should find. “Huh.” Fluppit crossed out both Boneweb and Mothblossom. She sucked the end of the stylus and crossed out Silkthorn, Fangfelt and Fleabane. They’d gotten those too, at least if the trolley had made it up here in one piece. Looking at the amount of junk the Fire-folk seemed to hoard up here, them leaving it behind seemed unlikely. It still left a list of five plants outstanding, and no Sari to help get them with, or at least, no Sari to help them find the blasted things.
“Whatcha got there?”
“Hi, Chik-Chik, It’s my list.”
“Is it stuff we can eat?”
“Not exactly. More like a list of stuff to make medicine.”
“Ahh,” Chik-Chik said knowingly, “you should let my sister cast a hand over that. She knows everything about plants. She’s the one who makes the face medicine for us all.” Then when Fluppit didn’t respond. “Sha-cha silly, you’ve met her.”
Being scolded by a pup a couple of cycles younger and potentially taught by someone only a couple of cycles older, was something Fluppit was going to have to get used to.
“She’s asleep right now, but we can go get her when she does. Shall we play a game?”
With that as the clearest plan that Fluppit had had in spans, she had no real objections, though she felt much too old for play anymore. Then she thought, “Can we play find the trolley?”
“What’s a trolley?”
“It’s a wheely cart thing, full of bottles. Sari and I brought it with us when we came here.”
“Oh, I think I know where it is,” said Chik-chik. “Come on I’ll take you.” And with that, Chik-chik grabbed her hand and pulled her up. Maybe she had this after all.
