Warcraft 3: Broken Blessings

Chapter 1

I need more berries. It was the only thought on her mind when she checked her pantry. She had plenty of dried meat on hand, and she busied herself on washing the dish she used with her supper the night prior. She moved to the opened diary book she was writing in and frowned at the nearly dried inkwell. No ink was not a good sign. It was why she needed the black berries. Ink was hard to make at times if the berries weren't ripe enough. Luckily, she could harvest them now. A few of the berry patches she needed were bearing the bitter, black fruits.

She grabbed a clay pot to hold the berries in and walked outside. She went down to the stream alongside her house where the berry patches flourished. Getting the cutters out from the pouch at her side, she started to harvest what she needed. She never took too much, but she noticed the weather was getting oddly colder. She sighed and smiled softly.

"I do apologize, but I may need a little more than normal. The weather is changing. May I harvest a few more for surplus?" she asked softly in her whispery tone. Her voice was damaged by a fire in her childhood. She was supposed to have died that night, but she didn't. Her parents were, luckily, out of the house when it happened. If it wasn't for her father rushing in to steal her barely breathing form from the smoldering cradle, and reviving her with a few gentle taps to her chest, she likely wouldn't be here today. As a repercussion, her vocal cords were permanently damaged. The local healers could do nothing.

She did have a natural affinity for plants, though. Even the wildlife around her. As her throat was healing as much as it could, this odd effect seemed to take root. She was mistaken as a Druid on more than one occasion, but she would simply shake her head and walk away. It never happened before the fire. None could explain it, either. But, as she asked the question, a few branches she missed that were ripe with berries seemed to reveal themselves to her. These were harvested, and she moved to the next thing on her list to make the ink. River water was now collected and stored in the jar to help start the process for the ink. As the berries softened, the juice would be easier to extract.

When she walked back into the small hut, she set down the jar and poured a small bit of the berry and water mix into a mortar. After grinding it up and filtering out the seeds and plant matter, she poured the resulting black liquid into her inkwell. The rest of it was placed back in her pantry to let it ferment to make it easier to work with. Grabbing a small carrot to snack on, she moved to sit and write in her diary. Dipping the quill into the inkwell, she sighed and began to write.

As she wrote, she found herself lighting a candle and getting up to cover various windows. Why is it getting colder near the end of summer?! With her teeth chattering, she finally had to get up and light a fire. In the new firelight, she sighed and picked up a dull shovel to separate out the logs for even burning. After the fire appeared to be strong enough to be left alone, she moved to where a cracked mirror was along the wall.

Her hair was a dark red in color and only seemed to grow to her shoulders. Jade green eyes looked back at her amidst a pale face that was sprinkled with light freckles. She wasn't much to look at with a roundish nose and thin lips, but it suited her face completely. She had no external scars from her old ordeal, but it was internal where it lingered.

She pulled a wool cloak dyed a pretty blue color over her already modestly dressed form. The usual, white pantaloons stockings were on under the lighter dress of tan shading. The top of the dress appeared to be corset-style and laced up professionally with years of practice. The shoulders weren't the puffy type, as she never needed something so fancy, and a simple belt buckle held it all together. Sturdy boots graced her feet to show she was ready to travel at a moment's notice.

She had just started to heat up a kettle of water to make some tea when she heard something outside her small hut. It sounded like someone coughing a short distance away. Frowning to herself, she grabbed a walking staff of carved wood, a flask of water in case it was needed, and moved to find the sound. She wasn't one to simply walk away from something unknown. She needed to find out everything around her. It was mainly for safety.