The Wolf, the Butterfly, and the Kraken

Chapter 31

Joann
He had grown it seemed. I hadn’t been gone more than two weeks, but I could see more strength and balance. His little legs moved steadier, and faster. Dad had taken him fishing. And was it my imagination, or did he have a thing for the cook next door to me?
I wasn’t sure how I felt about that. I had never pictured my dad with another woman in his life. However, the more I thought about it the more I thought he should have someone in his life. After all, look what he’d become without me for just a couple of years. Yeah, he needed someone to stabilize him.
I found returning to the manor nice, but it was far from home. It was just a place to rest my head until I found a place to call mine.
First an income. A good, steady income. A job I could leave at a moments notice, and come back to. I tried at three healing centers before one person, who was in charge of hiring said, “It sounds like you have some experience as a healer, and I would take you on, but I fear the patients wouldn’t trust you to heal them when you are so scarred. I’m willing to give you a part time position, if you cover your scars.”
I smiled, “I will cover them. Thank you!”
“Would you like someone to take a look at your arms before you leave?” she asked, eyeing my bandages.
I shook my head no, “I have to keep them for the services I am performing in the South.”
The matron was dubious, “And what would that be?”
“I am a liason between the Host and the Lycants.”
She clearly thought I was crazy, but let me know my schedule and duties. I would work from an hour before lunch to mid afternoon. I was to give others lunch breaks, and clean areas. I would start with 3 days a week. It wouldn’t be enough to even feed the family, let alone house us, or get Oshie through the Academy. However, it was a start.
I sat in the paddock by the manor, mulling over my lack of income. when I spotted a mint plant amidst the grass. I laughed aloud. I couldn’t afford mint tea on the farm because it was so rare, and expensive, and here it was a weed. I plucked a leaf and smelled the fresh scent. A weed. Wheels began to turn in my mind, and I went to Rey. “May I ask if you are doing anything with the mint on the grounds?”
He looked at me like I was crazy. “We pull it. It gives our milk a bad flavor, and sometimes upsets the tummies of animals.”
“Can I collect the leaves off the mint?”
He nodded, “Sure. Making tea?”
I smiled. “I am. As much as I can.”
Rey shrugged, “Take all you want.”
And so I plucked every single ounce of mint I could find out of the paddock and grounds, drying the leaves. I knew all the staff and groundsmen thought I was crazy. Father watched me with growing anxiety as I had a collection growing in my room.
On my first payday I purchased waterproof tins, sealing wax, and then beans and rice for our family. 
Father caught me in the paddock, alone, and asked, “Joann, what are you doing with all of this mint?”
“Hopefully, I am making a lot of money.” I could tell he was lost. “Do you remember when I told you there are some things in Venera that are extremely rare and hard to get in Lyngara?”
“Yes. So?”
I smiled, eyeing the mint I had plucked. “So, 8 ounces of mint costs as much as 10 pounds of pure Canida steel.”
He blinked in shock. Canida steel was extremely rare, and highly valued for being strong, lightweight, and keeping a sharp point without breaking under pressure. One pound of Canida steel was worth 10 pounds of gold. And 8 ounces of mint was ten times that. He looked down at the 32 ounce can that was half full of mint leaves and started doing the math. “That’s a lot of gold.”
I nodded, “400 gold for this tin can full of mint. Of course the leaves need to be dried first, but yeah. Mint.”
After that he let me pick my mint, and even made arrangements for me to visit the gardens of some people he worked with to pick their mint. They even paid me a small sum to pluck the mint. I set this money aside for a home. It wasn’t much, but it was something.

Vam
I hated flying. It was not natural. Nor was it comfortable. All it was is fast. That was good. In some ways I was sad to be leaving my comrades. I had made many friends, and accomplished much. The battle continued once the Lycants had been transported to Finton. But after that there was this cautious sense that either side could show honor. Before that neither side had trust for the other. It was a step.
I had taught the Raider Hunters some very basic phrases in lycant, which they might need. I had also taught some simple heiroglyphics, in case a message came through, and I wasn’t there to read it. We had done much good, made many strides, but I missed my family.
I also missed being paid for my work. I knew this liason work was part of how we would be able to get Oshie educated. However, those labors did not afford food or housing. I could only hope that Joann had found some form of steady work.
I hoped to find a job to support us. Maybe at a growing place, or a place that animals needed tending. Maybe a place that required muscles. I had plenty of those, more than some of their horses. Maybe this time I would have time to find and start work.
So much uncertainty had not haunted my mind in a long time, at least not about finances. I recalled the worry of my youth, once I understood that I was too small for warrior training, and hoping and praying that I would be good enough to be accepted into an honorable trade like a fisherman, or something.
I had quietly confessed these thoughts to my favorite uncle one Midwinter Festival. He had lost my aunt, and all his offspring, except Oyarg, to blight. The blight had left my uncle weakened. It wasn’t long after this that Oyarg was accepted into warrior training, and I went to help my uncle on the farm. I loved the farm, and took right to it. My uncle lived long enough to see Oyarg into a battlepack, and gift me the farm.
Would Oshie have time for, or even want the farm when he was old enough to take it? He had so much to accomplish between casting, warrior training, and priest training.
Thoughts of the last still gave me a shiver. I hated that he would have to deal with those dishonorable ones. They were never to be trusted. All deals made with them always had to be in their favor. If they felt slighted by someone they would curse them. I did not want Oceanus to be someone like like that.
Maybe the light of his honor is what will bring change to the priesthood. Joann and I had just made a difference in a war. We hadn’t ended it, but we had made strides. Maybe he would do similar things. Possibly even better things.
It was raining when the lift landed on the platform. A guard was ready to escort me all the way to the manor, but I stopped them. “No thank you, friends. I am decided to face my wife and son once I have a job. I have worked so hard, but I am shamed to not be able to place even a handful of beans on the table. I must work.”
The guards nodded, and backed away, letting me go my way. Though it was raining there was still light, and when people saw me they backed up and hid. This was not good. I did not want to scare anyone. I continued down past the clifftop, walking towards the river, and boats, and hopefully work. After a bit I heard the sound of boots pounding the cobblestones, headed my way. I stopped and faced the men calmly.
One young man uncertainly yelled, “H-halt!”
I blinked curiously, “I already have. Do you bear a message for me? If Lord Eureces wants me again so soon he will have to wait a few hours more.”
They all looked very confused, until another man strolled up to me, and extended his hand. “Hello. My name is Yoseph. I work as a sentry, and report to the same centurion as Kane. Your son is amazing! Everyone loves little Oshie.”
I rumbled in pleasure, “It is nice to meet you Yoseph, and thank you for the compliment of my son.”
“Where are you headed?” he asked.
“I was thinking the docks would be a good place to try for employment. I have been told that they are always looking for a strong man. I need a job.”
Yoseph’s brow drew together in confusion, “But you just came up from serving in the South. Didn’t you get paid?”
I snuffed in frustration. “My wife and I are at the Host’s beck and call, but our earnings for that pay for Oshie to be able to attend Centris Academy. It does not afford us food, or shelter of our own. I would rather face a howling battlepack alone than to face Joann and Oshie without a job, or at least a days earnings.” I hung my head, “At least with my farm we always had poor hunters stew.”
Yoseph was silent a moment. “We can’t have that. You are doing good work in the South. I don’t know all the details, but we all know your family is making sacrifices just like ours. Come with us to the docks.”
I stood straighter, “I would be honored to have your company today Yoseph. How well do you know Kane and Oshie?”
He spoke as we walked through the rainy streets to the river. He told me how, when we were both away, Oshie slept in the barracks with his grandfather and trained in the yard with the men. I was delighted. He had joined a battlepack, in a way, even before I had.
Then I saw it. A busy area lined with boats. Barrels were being unloaded and men were cussing. Fish were being unloaded into a cart from a large net. Yoseph approached a man watching and organizing several men. Everyone was carefully eyeballing me, and the 6 guards that had followed Yoseph and I.
No one saw the small boy fall into the rushing river. His mother was speaking to a man, holding a sandwich. The boy was getting sucked away from the edge, splashing and coughing. I jumped in. He was about 20 feet from me when he went under.
All I could do is pray I would find him in the dark, murky waters. I dove down, kicking furiously to where he’d been before. I reached out, and touched a toe. I grabbed it, then a leg, and body, and pushed us to the surface. It was not easy, the current was strong, and the water cold.
Once we broke the surface the river kept taking us downstream and out, away from the shore. I kicked furiously, knowing we would both perish if I didn’t reach the shore. Then I heard someone shout, “The net! Get the net!”
Seconds later I saw woven cords just under the surface of the water. I gripped them, and got tangled in the cords. I heard men swearing as they hauled us in. Then we were out of the water, and laying on the dock. I coughed up water I didn’t realize I had swallowed. “Is he alive?”
Just then the boy threw up water, coughed, and then cried. I watched him happily as dockworkers swaddled him in fishy smelling towels that were hardly drier than we were. I laughed. Men looked at me like I was crazy. “I haven’t swam like that since I was nearly his age, and the one drowning. It all comes back.”
Then I had been about Syls age, maybe younger, and the boys our age were all at a party of some sort. One had dared me to swing out, on a rope, and jump into a lake. I did it, not knowing how to swim. A passing stranger had saved me. The other boys were disappointed that ‘the runtling didn’t die’. After that mother didn’t allow me to go to parties alone.
I slowly sat up and wrung as much river water out of my clothing, and fur, as possible. Shaking would do a better job of it, but I had found that Joann did not like me shaking water all over her. I doubted that these people would want that either. People were running our way.
A tear stained mother was running as fast as she could towards us, followed by the man she had been bringing lunch. Many others were behind them. I patted the boys back, “Look! Your mother comes. It is all going to be fine.”
She snatched him up, nasty smelling towels and all. She checked him over for injury, then came and hugged me. “Thank you! There aren’t words-”
I smiled, “It is fine.”
The boys father was in awe, “I don’t know how to possibly repay you. You saved my son.”
I shrugged. “You do not need to repay me. I have a son as well. I just came down here to find work to support my family.”
A man who had been carefully untangling me from the net said, “You’re hired.”
My eyes widened. “Truly?! I-I must warn you that I am contracted to the Southern Host, and sometimes they call me away suddenly.”
The man nodded. “I can work with that. What’s your name?”