Lunation of Fate

Juste, Chastine, and Maxill couldn’t be prouder of themselves for getting the first ingredient of the Remedium.

No doubt, the root was crimson colored, from the tips to the base. Even its insides were bloody red.

They went to a nearby small village where the three species are welcomed: freedom to eat, sleep, and trade.

Juste, Chastine, and Maxill quickly headed to that small town’s apothecary. The hospitable assistant lent them the things that they needed to prepare the root for storing and keep it from getting moldy.

Juste prepared the root by drying them out in a dry oven, then after drying, patiently grinding it with mortar and pestle.

Just as the fellhound meticulously processed the red root of the rabid eater plant, Chastine and Maxill were trying to figure out their next target plant for the ingredient in the Remedium serum for Juste.

“It says crown of thorns…” Maxill was rubbing his chin, pondering what specific thorny plant was the poem referring to.

“Ugh, there are so many thorny plants here in the codex!” Chastine was beginning to feel frustrated.

“And what is this pyre about?” Maxill’s intellect was getting more and more challenged as he mused about the hardest line in the poem yet.

“Pyre is for dead people.” Chastine was trying to help Maxill get his wits going.

“But buried on pyre? What does that mean, Chas?”

Chastine was clearly the thinker of the group. She had saved them from dangers using her reliable wits. After all, her species is termed a witborn.

“Fire is used on pyres. Maybe we need to burn it deep in an open flame?” She raised one eyebrow from being unsure of her answer.

“Hmp,” Maxill muttered, “it would seem quite impossible as it is a plant and it would literally burn to ashes if we burn it in an open flame.”

Chastine wasn’t really adept in laboratory science. But her wits were working; she thought that they needed another brain to get them thinking, one knowledgeable about such scientific technique.

The female witborn then called forth for the apothecary assistant.

He was a bit shy, and he probably was also crushing on Chastine as seen on his face every time he catches a glimpse of the beautiful witborn.

“W-what c-can I d-do for you, ma-am?” He was stuttering as Chastine was staring at him.Text property © Nôvel(D)ra/ma.Org.

“Relax, young sir. I only need some help with something.” Chastine let out a gentle smile to calm his nerves.

“I-I’ll t-try my b-best…” He tried to calm himself down but his nervousness wouldn’t go away.

“What are some ways to heat a delicate material without it getting burned to bits?”

By this time, the assistant’s confidence outshine his timidity. “Well, you can do a water bath, an oil bath, a sand bath, or a dry bath.”

Chastine took careful interest when the assistant mentioned the word ‘sand bath’.

“Sand bath? Could you tell me more about it?”

“There’s a heating plate and a metal pan filled with sand. You get to submerge the material deep in the sand and set the temperature for it to heat up. The heat’s higher than the water bath and the oil bath.”

“For real?!” Chastine was feeling that she was on the right track.

“Yup.” The assistant put out a confident smile at Chastine.

“Do you have a heating plate around here that we can use?”

“Yeah, as a matter of fact we do.”

“Great. Thanks a lot, young sir!” And she threw her arms around the young man in a friendly way.

Juste’s twitched a little while glaring at the assistant. He got a little bit wary of the young man.

The assistant noticed his stare and began to feel nervous again, much more than before.

—

“So, we need to bury the thorny stem in a sand bath, is that what you’re saying?”

Chastine nodded, “Uh-huh. But first we need to find out what actual plant is the poem referring to.”

“Funny, upon reading the entire codex, there’s not a single thorny brown stem in the whole land of Dianium. All of them are green, some black, some even red, but not brown.”

“So we really need the use a sand bath to reveal what the actual plant the poem’s talking about.”

“Got any leads for the next one?” Juste just finished preparing the red root. He put it inside a thick envelope, in the size of what apothecaries use for their medicines.

“So far we know what method to use to the plant. What we don’t understand yet is what the actual plant is.”

“You might want to check it out, Juste. After all, it’s your mom that had wrote it. She might have given you clues that only you can figure out.” This was Maxill’s brilliant point as he handed over the diary to Juste.

The fellhound thought long and hard as he read the second line in the poetry. The phrase crown of thorns resonated within him.

“Crown of thorns…” murmured Juste, as he spaced out while remembering what his mother often used to tell him.

“You have to be careful with these, Juste.” Saraise Isaacs was holding a thorny brown dried up stem with her gloved hands.

The 4-year old fellhound child tilted his head. “What is it, mother?”

“This is quite poisonous for you, Juste. Now, even for me.” She put the crown-like roll of stem inside a thick burlap bag. “This is the bane of our existence.”

“Juste? Juste?” Chastine was waving her hand with splayed fingers in front of his face.

“Sorry, I got quite absorbed. My Mom said it’s the bane of our existence.”

“Bane…? Wolfbane!” Maxill and Chastine shouted in unison and pointed fingers at each other.

The tall bloodhunt flipped through the index of the codex and was surprised at what he saw.

“D*mn, there are three wolfbanes in here.”

Chastine took a peek at the index. “Oh look, two species say thorny wolfbanes. That leads us down to two: the southern thorny wolfbane, and the northern thorny wolfbane.”

“Juste,” Maxill asked, “do you happen to remember if it’s from the north or from the south?”

Juste closed his eyes and recalled his memories harder. “Argh, I’m afraid not. I really can’t remember this one.”

Maxill then decided, “then this leaves us no choice. We need to get the two kinds of wolfbane. Your mom might have done it so intentionally.”

“The question is why?” Chastine began to be perplexed.

“I do not know exactly. But I think it must be for added confusion. His mom’s quite secretive of things.”

“Maybe that’s one reason…”

“Well, there’s no time to lose. Juste, what do you think we should do?” Maxill was giving the final word to Juste as it was greatly his concern. After all, their quest was wholly about Juste’s need to turn into a human.

Juste looked at Chastine and Maxill, and said, “OK, then let’s split up.”