"Emma told me you were the one who healed everyone and why there was a wall that protected us," said the girl, her shivering now almost done.
"Was Emma the other girl with you yesterday?" asked Mira as she finished spreading the girl's clothing out on the hearth.
"Oh! We never told you our names!" gasped the girl in horror, pulling the towel up to cover half her face and almost trailing the edge in the embers.
Mira chuckled softly, settling back into her chair. "Child, I've had so many young ones visit me over the years and most never return."
"Emma won't come with the storm, but I couldn't stay at home," said the girl, her head all but disappearing as she huddled in on herself. "My name's Ava, by the way."
"Very nice to meet you, Ava," Mira said with a gentle smile.
"Do you mind continuing your story?"
"Of course… now where was I?"
***
The woman leaning over Mira had such a pained expression, Mira couldn't tell her no when she asked her to help with her daughter. The house where the woman lived wasn't much better than the one her aunt had lived in.
Withered flowers were clustered under the windows, barely surviving in the heat, and bare patches in the grass attested to the many feet that traveled over it. Wood boards strained to stay in place near the outside corners, begging someone to secure them with a couple more nails. And yet despite all the repairs that the place needed, it felt like a home and made Mira long to return to the cottage in the forest. Vraela's cottage felt more like a home than her aunt's house ever had.
"She's just inside," said the woman, holding the door open for her.
Mira stepped inside reverently, not sure what to expect, but the minimal furnishings weren't it. Against one wall was a small cot, obviously transformed from a bench, where a small figure lay motionless under a thin blanket. If it wasn't for the faintest of movements as the child breathed, Mira would have thought she was already dead.
"She won't eat or drink and hasn't woken since yesterday," whispered the woman, sitting on a stool next to the girl.
Mira looked over her pale face, wondering what she could possibly do to help. Some of her herbs, if boiled into a tea, could help but the few things Vraela had taught her had nothing to do with something like this.
"I know it's probably too late to save her, but I can't help but try anything," begged the woman, her voice barely loud enough to be heard.
Mira took a calming breath and set her basket on the table next to the woman.
"I need hot water for tea, boil it for several minutes," she said, starting to pull some of the herbs out and running through what little she had learned so far.
The mother nodded and jumped up, glad to have anything to do that might help.
"She's already so weak," Mira murmured, touching her forehead softly and feeling the coolness, as if her body had already given up fighting and was just waiting for her to die.
Using the tools the woman had available, Mira made a strong tea and gently cooled each spoonful before dribbling it gently into the girl's mouth. It took a couple tries before she finally swallowed. By the time half the cup had been spooned into her mouth, the girl's eyes fluttered open as if she was annoyed to be woken from her sleep.
"Agatha, please, just drink the tea and you can rest some more," coaxed her mother, helping the girl sit up enough to drink the tea properly.
Coughing as the last of the dregs hit her throat, Mira sat back and thought about what else she could do. None of the rest of her herbs really had a purpose suitable for what the girl needed. The ones she had used for the tea should give the girl strength to fight whatever was hurting her.
"Did you learn that from the Forest Witch?" asked the mother, brushing the girl's hair away from her face.
"Forest Witch?" asked Mira in shock. Her heart suddenly started racing and her eyes darted to the door as if judging if she could escape.
"Everyone thought you had died in the fire with your aunt. That storm hit so hard, the few of us who attempted to get there to help were driven back into our homes. We could only hope the rain would put out the fire, but by the time it blew over, there was nothing left."
Mira's legs wobbled as she struggled to stay standing.
"You recognized me," she whispered.
"I knew when I saw the herbs you had gotten them from the forest. I used to collect a lot of them for my son, Cael. He struggles to breath sometimes."
Mira heard a noise from behind her, but there was no one there when she whipped her head around. Could it have been Cael?
"I met the Forest Witch once and she told me which herbs to use but I never saw her again, no matter how hard I looked. The other people in the village fear her but I don't."
"Why?" asked Mira, meaning to ask why people feared Vraela, but the words stuck in her throat.
"There's lots of stories about her, and not all of them are good. I don't know that any of them are true… I only know that she helped me the one time I met her. I'm glad she's helping you…"
"I don't know that she will make it," whispered Mira, turning her attention back to the girl as she sighed in her sleep.
"I know. She's grown so weak, but I will feel better even if she does die, because you tried."
Mira wasn't sure how to feel about that, rubbing her arms and looking back at the door.
"There are other people who are sick, who would appreciate it if you would make them tea… people not as sick as my Agatha."
"I still have some herbs left so I guess I could make them tea," said Mira glancing at her basket. What she really wanted to say was no, and to run back to the forest never to return. If this woman had recognized her, would the others? What about those people she had seen in the main square?
But the thought of Vraela's frown should she return without even trying made her stay. The rest of the day became a blur as she was herded from one house to another, making teas for the people who were too weak to leave their beds. Every one of them knew who she was and thanked her for her help, even when not all of them seemed happy about it. Her feet were dragging as she finally left the last house and stood exhausted in the street. The sun had long set and the night stars blinked down at her.
"Do you need a lantern to find your way home?" asked the old man who had shown her out of his house after she brewed his wife some tea.
Mira wanted nothing more than to ask him if she could rest by his fire and sleep on his floor, but she knew from the gruff way he had treated her that he was not happy with her presence.
"No, I can find my way in the dark. I know the forest well," she responded, turning towards the darker blob that had to be the forest. The lights from the village windows guided her feet to the edge of the forest and the adrenaline of passing the burnt spot that had once been her aunts house pushed her far enough into the forest that there was no turning back until the warm glow of the cottage greeted her.
Her heart didn't stop pounding until the warm scents of drying herbs hit her nose. Vraela was there, stirring a pot of soup.
***
"So, you did cure everyone!" exclaimed Ava in excitement.
"I only made the tea," insisted Mira, shaking her head. "I didn't find out until later that everyone who drank my tea made a full recovery. I was too scared to return to the village for almost a week despite Vraela trying to get me to go."
The rabbit hopped up into her lap and nuzzled her hand before flopping onto her side for pats.
"And because I took so long, word had time to travel."
"The Yegg," whispered Ava as if it were a bad word.
"Word spread outside the village because the sickness came from outside the village," mused Mira. "I just happened to be back in town when they first showed up, asking questions. It made it very convenient for the villagers to point to me as the one who had saved them."