When I awoke, my body sore and tired, the donkey next to me had already gotten cold and lifeless. It was dead. My herbs had little to do with saving it, it was more to cover it's scent. I sense it was already late in the morning as I could feel the sharp rays of sunlight peeking through the hole in between the twigs so I got out of the hole and buried the donkey, it'll be up to the wolves if they ever dug it out of it's grave. At least it died with a full stomach. Now, I am left with my injuries and a rumbling stomach.
But as I walked further, I caught a glimpse of the town below this hillside. I live in the mountains after all so it's a bit pleasing to see town states in plain grounds, not that this is the first time I've seen one. I had lived to see places like this millions of times but with every life comes fresh recollection and striking cognition. Something like a deja vu of everything I've seen.
I braced myself for another journey. I am quite delighted about my unfortunate circumstances last night as it has made me closer to my destination than my original plan. With this I can reach the town by noon. I've checked my belongings before departing and luckily everything important to me remained intact thanks to me tying my books and scrapbook bounds so a page wouldn't fall off or rip. And the most important one of all is my father's old map. Wasting no time for another exciting adventure, I forged my own path to the city. Down this snowy hill, through frostbitten skin and a rising fever. For my meals, I stole and ate as many wild fruits that I could find.
Walking was a pain and I had to take breaks in between because of my frail body but alas, at estimated time, I had reached my destination without any other difficulties. The town, finally.
This fresh, familiar, and hateful environment with a lot of people. Oh, how I'd love to get rid of their noisy throats.
I don't have the specific location of the orphanage in the map so I had to look for it myself. Stopping along the way to eat the last bits of my food. And now have time to steal ingredients for my potion in the market and a shawl or rag.
I had the ingredients for Almos' little potion basically engraved in my head now seeing as how he made me struggle for it for 2 weeks and he described what they were supposed to look like so it was easy for me to find. We didn't have the ingredients back at that manor but he said it would all be here and he wasn't wrong.
It was easier for me to find the substances for my potion but it took me quite some time to find the darned orphanage, I had to ask around for directions because it was built on a farm house not near the town central like I had hoped. Since it was nearing sunset the weather is getting colder and colder, and since I lost my blanket, what I have on now wasn't really helping with the cold but it was useful for appearances. I checked if my valuable belongings were still safely tied under my ragged clothes since I won't have any other place to hide it in when I'm at the orphanage. Even if I'd lose food I'd still take it over losing my scrapbook. I safely tied it around my waist because it's the one I can never easily put away.
Once I got to the orphanage I safely hid my books away on a nearby tree. I left a mark on it of course, so it would be easier to find. I've already gotten (stolen) the ingredients for the eye potion the quack has taught me from the market and I've memorized the whole procedure so all that is left to do is to apply it and prove it's effectiveness. If this doesn't work, I'm gonna burn all of his books and curse him to death. I don't care if it's his dying wish.
It's a noble town so I got everything I need for the potion. Mixing the ingredients in some stolen bowl I found and crushing them with a sharp stone. The dry ingredients go in first while the liquids last. It was hard getting some of these from that potion stand because I almost got caught but it's all worth the risk if this does work. Most of the ingredients are easy to find around here but for it to actually process into an eye potion, it needs a rare special ingredient. Luckily the old quack had it and he gave it to me. Then in order for everything to take effect, I merely needed to chant a spell.
After I had finished stirring the potion with a clean stick, I braced myself before putting it on my eyes because it has a foul smell. Even if I wanted to throw up because of its disgusting smell. I forced myself to endure it but not only that, it also burned my eyes the moment the liquid settled in my eyeballs, I had my eyes closed for a minute and put snow over it to ease the pain. He said it would take an instant effect so when it got better I quickly took out my broken mirror and checked.
And to my shock…Holy shit, it did work. I could barely recognize myself. From an orchid pink, the color of my eyes had now turned to amber. It was uncomfortable to look at myself with different colored eyes but at least now I am not reminded of my mother, instead all I'm seeing is a stranger with my face but I couldn't be happier, now no one will recognize me and the probability of the Duchess choosing me has risen to 75%.
After I had concluded my experiment, I went back to the orphanage. It's already night time and I couldn't just barge inside so I am waiting outside of the orphanage to be noticed by the caretakers. While doing so I couldn't resist to take a short nap, huddling with the rag I stole. My body's exhausted even though I've only been walking around for a couple of hours.