Speronör #Wattys2016

Chapter 5: Treasure Hunt

[Ashlynn's POV]

We expected Phillip to lead us back into the main building of the school, however, instead of going where we expected, Phillip led us around the campus to the forest where we had emerged from hours earlier. Just a little way in, there was a single wooden bench set up with an odd looking little creature sitting amidst an array of leaves, berries and roots. But when we got closer we got a better look at the creature sitting on the table and it turned out to be a ferret who was wearing a pair of circular glasses.

"Phillip, why is that weasel wearing glasses?" Leo asked. Suddenly, the ferret's eyes snapped up from the items he was sorting and it sat up on its hind legs and stared Leo in the eye, "Excuse me boy, I am a ferret, not a weasel. Please do not confuse me with those horrid thieves" the ferret said with its little nose twitching in the cutest way.

"OMG!!! A talking ferret!" Liash squealed and rushed forward, grabbing the ferret and roughly hugging it.

"Gah!" the ferret sqeaked and squirmed out of Liash's arms, "Stop, I will not tolerate being treated like some pet!" he hissed. "You may respectfully refer to me as Cornelius, if not I will do more than hiss at you." It- Cornelius, turned to Phillip and asked, 'Phillip, please do not tell me these are the new children?"

"Sorry my old friend, they are. This is Ashlynn, Liash, Leo and Jillian. Children, meet Cornelius, he is my familiar and he helps me care for any patients that we have. Now that we have introductions out of the way I'll let Cornelius explain to you the test."

Cornelius nodded and motioned for us to move closer to the table, "Alright children, here you see five different types of herbs with medicinal properties. Your task is to find these five herbs in the forest and you have ten minutes to familiarise yourself with the herbs. Feel free to taste and smell the herbs."

'hmm this should be easy' I thought to myself, I mean not to brag but I do have a knack for differentiating smells and tastes. And so the four of us started to memorise the characteristics of the herbs we were supposed to find.

"Alright, time's up! You have until sundown to find the five items. Goodluck"

As we ventured into the forest, the evening light painted everything in a warm gold glow and the air was alive with the slow buzzing of drowsy insects. Although we only had a few minutes before the light was gone, we couldn't help but slow down and marvel at the beauty of this world.

"Guys," Jillian said, "is it me or does everything look alike?" it was true, all the leaves, roots and berries I could see were so similar to each other. Liash's face fell, "how are we going to find all the things in time? Look," she pointed to where the sun was, "It's almost touching the horizon"

"Well, did Cornelius say anything about us finding the items on our own?"

"Uh, no don't think so"

"Then let's choose what we want to find then split up and meet back here" I said. "But there's four of us and five things to find..." Leo pointed out. Right. "I'll find two items then" I smiled, confident that I would be able to do so before time ran out.

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"Ok travellers let's see what you've managed to find" Cornelius said. Vaguely I wondered at the back of my mind why is it that although this was Phillip's test, Cornelius was the one doing everything. Each of us laid down the items we collected. Displayed in front of me was a couple of blue coloured berries and a bright yellow flower that looked kinda stringy. Taking a look at what we collected, Cornelius gave us a strange look, "I didn't ask all of you to go and find the items together..."

"Well," I said nervously, "You didn't tell us wecouldn't..." The ferret's ears gave a little twitch and then he flashed us asmile, "Not bad. Pretty creative thinking for a bunch of city dwellers. Anyway,all of you got the items correct except for Ashlynn's berries" the ferretturned to me and continued, "You've managed to find blue berries! And although they are delicious, they do not posses the medicinal properties of the blue cohosh."  My heart sank... I was so sure that I got both items correct.

"Now for the second part of the test" Phillip said as he held up a small, slightly translucent white berry, "This is a mistletoe berry which poor Cornelius has been snacking on to let you have this second part of the test - and they are poisonous. Symptoms include convulsions, blurred vision, stomach cramps, and diarrhea. Your job is to cure his symptoms with the ingredients you have found. Good luck." And with that Phillip just sat down leaving us with an increasingly sick looking ferret.

"Well children, don't just stand there, get mixing a paste for me to eat" Cornelius snapped. "Wait! Aren't you going to give us instructions??" Liash asked frantically. But both human and ferret simply shook their heads.

"Ok then, what now?"

"Cornelius said we have to make a paste, so I guess we start with water and maybe mix in the crushed stuff we found." Leo said. Leo seemed to know what to do so we just hovered around trying to follow his instructions as best as we could and all the while we could see Cornelius getting sicker and sicker.

"Ok I think that this might make you feel better," Leo said as he handed the wooden bowl of stuff to the ferret. Cornelius took one look at the clumpy paste and said, "not bad...although you added too little water which would be appropriate for a lotion but for consumption, this would be a little hard to swallow," he gave a smirk, "Good thing I was just faking my bad stomach"

I stood there dumbfounded because one: that was the test and two: that ferret sure has some serious acting skills.

Phillip stood and stretched, "Good job in completing your tests by sundown travellers. Let us be off and then I will inform you of your results tomorrow." After walking back to the academy, we saw the figure of a boy waiting for us by the gate. He was slouched against the stonework of the gates with a scowl on his face. 'This guy is going to show us to our rooms...?' I wondered to myself. He swept a bored gaze over us as we were approaching but at the sight of Phillip he straightened up and cracked out bright smile. However in the disappearing light with the boy's dark shaggy hair and impossibly green eyes, the friendly gesture came across as eerily as a Cheshire cat's smile.

"Leo, Ashlynn, Jillian and Liash," Phillip said, "I would like you to meet Christopher, he will be showing you to the temporary room that you will be staying in tonight while I gather the results of the tests." Seeing our apprehensive faces Phillip added, "oh don't worry, I made it clear to Christopher here that if he does anything unkind to you this punishment of his will continue for much, much longer" And with that, Phillip left us in the sole company Christopher.

"Keep up." He grunted and walked swiftly towards a steep spiral staircase and he led us to the fifth floor and towards a room at the end of the hallway, "Double room connected by a single door. Make yourselves comfortable and... bye" with that awkward ending Christopher left.

"Total ray of sunshine that one" I commented sarcastically as I walked into the room behind Jillian. The first room we walked into was spacious and clean and had a window directly opposite the door. On either side of the room were beds (three in total) and the toilet was situated on the left. Walking into the toilet we discovered a door that led to the other part of the room (that was equally spacious and clean) with only one bed.

With all of us feeling tired and more than a little overwhelmed by the day's events, we each took turns to clean up before chatting and going to sleep, each looking forward to tomorrow with a cautiously optimistic attitude.