White Rabbit

Chapter 34: Late Night Wanderings

CLATTONIA

I walk around the house late at night after staying up several hours working on filing information away. I sigh as I tip the glass of Cola to my lips, the golden-brown color almost resembling the color of Scotch as I shake the glass around slightly, my feet padding across the wooden floorboards as I go down the hallway in my overly large white t-shirt, which says "beauty" in lowercase, cursive, golden letters, that comes down almost entirely over my black cotton shorts. I raise a brow whenever I walk passed Juniper's room and see light radiating from underneath the door. I gently walk over to her room and push the door, which was originally open a crack, fully open.

"Uh?" I tilt my head to the side and watch as Juniper stands by a giant, potted tree whose branches stretch and curve out through the room near the ceiling across the rectangle, uncovered window and clear over towards her red, white, and green bed with an oak headboard and footing. Meanwhile, a white hanging basket filled with vibrant, magenta flowers hangs next to her bed and she has a wooden desk up against her bedside that has books, journals, and scrolls scattered on it and has a red, padded, oaken stool under the desk itself.

"Oh," Juniper says and turns her head to look over her shoulder as she keeps her hands pressed against the tree that has a golden glow around it and shimmering, golden flecks traveling up and down the tree in the form of energy, "hi. I hope I wasn't disturbing you."

"Uh," I shake my head, "no, you weren't, but...what're you doing?"

"I'm working on gathering medicinal materials from my Tree of Life," Juniper says as she tilts her head to the side and smiles warmly, "I tend to the tree every so often to make sure that it's healthy. I'm sorry if my room seems like a mess, it's just that I don't really have room with all of the working and moving around that I do in such a small space."

"Tree of Life?" I raise my eyebrows, "as in the tree that produces the very epitome and embodiment of life?"

"Yes," Juniper nods as if it's no big deal, "I didn't think it was necessary to tell anyone about it. It's normal to me, but if it's that extraordinary to you, I suppose that I could--"

"No, no, no," I wave a hand and shake my head as I hold my glass in my other hand, "I was just...is this where you get the ingredients for your healing elixirs?"

"Yes," Juniper nods, "well, mostly. I mix herbs for some of my other potions and use many different ingredients, but I primarily use the essence from this tree whenever drastic wounds were inflicted or dire healing is needed instantly. It's hard to come by and the tree only produces it at a rather slow pace. I tend to let it store up and then collect it when the collection in the tree starts to become full. I've just gathered two more bottles of essence from the tree tonight. I imagine that I'll only get to finish the third one I'm working on right now."

Juniper nods towards two small, lightly tinted blue, glass, crystal jars that are shaped like diamonds and have a circular cap that you can lift or pop off that are filled with a blue liquid up until just above where the points are in the sides of the bottles where the diamond edges meet.

"I see," I nod after glancing at the bottles for a few seconds, "Where did you get the tree from?"

"Oh, I made it," She says simply and I raise my eyebrows once more, "I formed it by using my Shift one day. I just summoned the seed in a glow of energy as if it were natural to me, and I decided that I should plant it. I wonder if it had to do with the fact that I wished I could prevent others from dying as Kaden did."

I knew that Juniper still had more to unlock from her Shift, despite mastering all that she could to the best of her abilities, but does this mean that she's been slowly unlocking more and more on her own? It certainly does match her Shift, after all.

"So, how's Katsuro doing?" I ask and Juniper seems to jolt in surprise and a blush rises to her face.

"Um," Juniper continues to blush and she now turns her attention away from the tree, "K--Katsuro is, um, fine...why do you ask?"

"Because he was poisoned?" I raise a brow and Juniper grins sheepishly.

"Erm, right, sorry, that was a stupid question," Juniper laughs weakly.

"Juniper, did something happen?" I ask carefully.

"W--Well," Juniper shifts around and raises a hand to her lips, "Katsuro, he um, Katsuro kissed me..."

"It's about time," I smile and Juniper stammers and glances off to the side, "So, are you two dating now?"

"Well," Juniper rubs her foot around in circles on the ground, "I'm not sure. I'd like to be though, but we haven't really talked about it. Although, I'm guessing that he'd like to."

"Good," I smile, "you and Katsuro go really well together. One could say that he's good for you, that's all."

"Very funny," Juniper pouts slightly whenever I tease her by quoting her previous words to me, "But thank you."

"Oh," I say as I turn to leave, "and don't worry about getting Reece's approval. Reece trusts Katsuro with you and besides, you know they're fairly close."

"Which is precisely why I was worried," Juniper sighs but seems to be relieved, "thank you for reassuring me, though."

"No problem," I wave it off, "and, a word to the wise, get some sleep, June."

"I will," She laughs, "goodnight, Clattonia."

And as I exit her room and shut the door behind me, my eyes flicker to Aeryn, who is currently dragging Lucian's unconscious body down the hallway.

"Um," I tilt my head to the side and arch a brow at the scene before me, "What're you doing?"

Huh, I feel like I've been asking that a lot recently. Strange.

"What?" Aeryn scoffs and stops dragging Lucian, dropping his body with a thump onto the floor as the back of his head hits the ground and I wince at the sound as she places a hand on her hip, "I found him asleep on the couch with his face buried in reports from past cases that his father had. I may be a royal bitch, but I wasn't going to just let him lay there slumped over with his face buried in papers, despite him being Mr. Know It All Blondie."

"Sooo," I drag the word out questioningly, "you're dragging him to his room, I presume?"

"Well, yeah," Aeryn hums, "where else would I be taking him?"

"Okay, so why didn't you just teleport him there?" I raise a brow at her and her expression falls flat.

Aeryn glances back and forth between me and Lucian as she realizes all the time that she wasted before turning on her heel and walking away, leaving him lying there in the middle of the hallway.

"I'm done with this shit," She says and goes to her room, mumbling, "this is what I get when I try to be nice..."

I sigh and walk over to Lucian, setting my glass down and picking him up and carefully before slowly walking down the hallway with his sleeping body cradled in my arms. And as I walk down the hallway, I begin to hear Simon shouting from his room and can faintly make out Valentina's yelling as what sounds like footsteps pounding against the floor comes from Simon's room.

"...get back here...give back...should hit you...should put hair dye in your shampoo bottle while you sleep!" I hear Valentina shout.

"You know what," I sigh, "I don't even want to know."