Scout Stories: Bruised Beginnings

Mist

Miach sat on the ground and opened the book that the Aed had tried to take. The first few pages were different from the page she had opened to at the clearing. These pages described the Aed that attacked the village. Complete with detailed drawings and a few names.

Grandmother had found things that they liked. Things that were more likely to attract them and things that worked as wards. This was dangerous. No wonder Grandmother hadn't wanted anyone else to have this book.

If the Council knew. They could dismantle the village or worse. Miach skimmed through these pages, a little too afraid to read them.

Then, after about ten pages, Miach found one unlike any that had come before it. It explained to Miach why Grandmother hadn't just burned the book. It was a child's drawing of a bird, and underneath it Grandmother had written 'Allana'.

Miach's mother had drawn this.

She had died away from the village when Miach was a baby. Along with her father in some kind of accident. Miach didn't know the details. Grandmother would never explain.

All Miach knew was that what had happened was horrible. So horrible they didn't even have a body to bury.

Instead of a grave to visit, Grandmother had planted an acorn every year on the day they died. Miach stared at the picture. There was little she had of her mother's. Then she shook her head and turned the page. She could look at it later. Now she had something to do.
After the drawing, the tone of the writing changed. It was no longer about the Aed, but about medicine and detailing treatments. It became a journal, indicating who Grandmother had helped and how. From there on, most of the pages were like the one Miach had read in the clearing.

Grandmother hadn't written everything into it. Some entries were just a line on who came to her and what was wrong with them. She started using initials to describe the common ailments. Miach's heart skipped every time she saw her mother's name. Miach could see Allana grow in this journal.

Allana started out by being in the way or being sick. Then she learned how to help Grandmother care for people until finally she started working on her own. She had surprised Grandmother on occasion by suggesting a treatment grandmother hadn't thought of. Unlike Miach, Allana had a natural ability for healing.

As she read, Miach swore that Tegid would never get these books.

He would rip out any page that hadn't to do with what he wanted. He would burn her mother's drawing. These belonged to her family. They had important medical knowledge. Miach cared more about the intimate glance they gave her into the past.

Grandmother wrote about her mother. They belonged to her.

Miach kept skimming, resisting the urge to read in any detail. She skipped pages after the quickest glance. Then she found, with the majority of a page to themselves, two words blotched by long-shed tears. The ink was so diluted and spread so that Miach could hardly read them.

Allana left.

Miach didn't like to think of Grandmother being sad, so she was quick to turn to the next page. This was not a clean book. Dripped ink, brown spots, green smudges and little drops of blood all appeared throughout it.

Although wounds and patients needed to be kept clean, healing was a messy business. Miach had been so surrounded by it for her entire life that she didn't even blink at the blood on the book. Not until she reached a page that was almost soaked in it.

It started, normally enough, with an ingrown toenail treatment.

Then:

Allana's hurt. Something on the road. Tried almost everything. She's begged me to save the baby.

Miach read it again.
This was how her mother died. 

She turned the page.

Miach's sleeping. It's been weeks now. I haven't cried at all today. People have come to see the baby. They bring gifts. They want me to give her as a milk child to another clan. Maybe trade her for an older child that would be less hassle to take care of. Rí thinks I'm too old for a baby.
Like I was too old for the ritual. My old bones can't even buy my child's life. Allana shouldn't have known about the ritual. I burned the book she read it in. I shouldn't have been so stupid to write it down in the first place.
I have no choice but to keep the bargain. I have it hidden under the plant. Foxgloves always were her favourite flowers. My poor girl.
But none of that! No tears. I have to take care of her girl now. And I will. I don't give a damn what the Rí says.
What does a man know about babies anyway?

Miach closed the book and tried to understand what she had just read. She'd always been told that her parents had died away from town. She put the books back into her bag.
She had found something, just as Mac Tíre had asked. She wasn't sure what it meant but she had found something. The Aed had wanted something from Grandmother. Grandmother had hidden something under the foxglove flower in her bedroom.

Miach could find it. She could give it to the Aed. Then everything should be alright again.

Miach ran to the gap in the wall and looked at the mist inside. Mac Tíre hadn't even hesitated before jumping into it. Miach squinted in through the gap to see if she could make anything out. She put a hand into it, and couldn't even see the tops of her fingers.

Brianna was inside this.

She closed her eyes and stepped into it.

Note: Hi! I'm back to bug you again. I hope you're enjoying the story so far. Are you?????

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