Howl's Twisted Castle

11: The Apprentices Apothecary

I gathered the messy wet tangles of my hair and pulled them into a bun, wiping my hands on my smock. My body hadn't improved overnight, but my outlook this morning seemed decidedly brighter. Howl wasn't home, I hadn't heard him come in last night, so I would just have to settle with doing as was requested of me in the meantime.

Markel, however, had an early start this morning. I knew this because the constant banging of his mallet against the kitchen counter woke me out of a dead sleep.

At first, I thought something had exploded on the main floor, but after racing down the stairs only to find the culprit was Markel hammering something to death, I was more or less tempted to take the mallet and chuck it out the window.

"Good morning, Allison!" Markel said cheerfully, adjusting the knobs on a funny looking apparatus he'd set up in the kitchen.

I reached for an orange in a bowl on the kitchen counter. Letting my curiosity get the best of me, I nodded to the little torture device he continued to twist.

"What exactly is that thing?" I asked, peeling the orange.

"This is a press," he said proudly. "It's used to extract juices from plants that are used in the ointments and tinctures in my shop."

I inhaled the dense floral scent emanating from the press. Hints of purple and pink stuck out from the sides of the apparatus, confirming my guess.

"It smells a lot like lavender," I remarked.

Markel wiped his hands on the front of his apron and chuckled. "That would be because it is lavender, silly."

I picked up one of the bottles he had set out that already contained the fragrance of the press. The bottle was a darkish brown, making it difficult to see the liquid.

"That's odd, I thought lavender was very hard to come by in Ingary? How are you able to acquire so much of it?"

He laughed once, grabbing the oil from my hands to cork it. "Didn't you learn anything yesterday? I can go elsewhere to get my ingredients." He nodded in the direction of the entrance.

I looked over my shoulder at the ruby red door. "Oh, right. Pretend I didn't just ask that." I popped an orange slice into my mouth.

"Save the peels for me," he stopped my hand before I could discard the peel in the waste basket.

"Why? There are more oranges on the counter if you want one."

"No that's quite alright," he smiled.

I pulled a face. "Do you like eating the rinds or something?"

Markel rolled his eyes. "No, I make oils from the rinds, hence why I put them there."

I held my hands up for a truce. "Alright, if you say so."

I walked over to the massive vase of flowers in the center of the dining room table and leaned in to get a better look. Calla lilies, babies breath, crocuses and a few other colourful flowers poured over the edge of the vase.

"Are these for the press as well?" I asked, inhaling the delicate fragrance of the arrangement.

Markel frowned at me. "No, of course not. Those are for Lettie, I'm seeing her tonight."

"She would hate these," I said under my breath.

"No she wouldn't," he replied, startling me by leaning in as well.

I crossed my arms and leaned against the table. "Trust me when I say this, Lettie doesn't like over the top gestures. If she did she would have accepted the first rich man that walked into the hat shop."