Secrets of the Forest

1) I Get Mystery Herbs Shoved Down My Throat

CHAPTER ONE

I Get Mystery Herbs Shoved Down My Throat

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I think I'm dying. Yeah, I know. Worst thing ever.

The thing is, I haven't left the Healer's shelter in, like, years. I want to get back to hunting, but she won't let me. I have no talent in Magecraft, so she's not keeping me as her apprentice.

I don't know much about my life before my confinement. It's like my memory was erased or something. I don't even know the layout of the camp anymore.

But I do remember that I had no family except for my brother Tenik, who is two years younger than me and in his first year of confinement. Both my parents are dead, killed by an avalanche.

For the first year, I was allowed to go out into the camp during the day and I just slept in the Healer's shelter.

But the second year, I was completely confined. I have no clue why. One day I was practicing with my bow and Helina, the Healer, told me that I had to stay in her shelter all the time from now on. And everyone knows that the Healer can kill people just as well as heal them. But which one is she doing to me?

I lay on my bed of moss and dry grass, staring at the piles of herbs lined up wall made of sticks and branches and logs. I'm wondering wether they found all this stuff or if they cut it down when Helina ducks into the shelter with bundles of herbs in her hands. She seems surprised to see me, as always, like she thinks I'm going to try to escape. Hmm... that's a good idea.

"Hello, Tarna," she says in her raspy voice that makes it seem like she always has something bad to say.

"Helina," I say boredly. "Brought more mystery plants to shove down my throat?"

She casts me an irritated glare. "I don't 'shove them down your throat'. I ask you to eat them and if you don't I threaten you."

"Yeah, you threaten to shove them down my throat."

"No, I don't."

"Yeah, you do." It's weird having this argument with the Healer, who's supposed to be the wisest person in our Clan. But I sure can outsmart her in arguments.

"No, I don't!" she shrieks. I snicker. "Now eat your herbs or I'll shove them down your throat!"

"You just said it," I point out calmly, a smug smile on my face. I know I've won this round. That gives me the right to ask my question. "What are the herbs for, anyways? Why am I even here? I don't even feel sick. I've been here for three years and all you do is shove herbs down my throat," I say, completely ignoring what we had just talked about.

Helina immediately switched from a child having a temper tantrum to the Healer of the Mountain Clan. "I cannot tell you now. The bones say later, or maybe never. But you cannot discover why you are isolated." She pauses for a few moments, trying to think of what else to say. "The herbs protect you."

"Bones, shmones," I say. "Why do you care so much about bones?"

"Because they tell me the future," Helina says in fake mysterious voice. "Oooooooh!" She acts like a ghost. Seriously. We need a more serious Healer.

"Well I'm going to sleep." I roll over to face the wall. A branch is in my face. I ignore it.

"But you forgot to eat your herbs!"

"Don't care." And I drift off to sleep.