Skye couldn't believe her eyes - it was Caleb, her friend from not so long ago. They had bonded over a shared love of books and good literature - two very different things - and now Skye drank in the changes two years had wrought. He was taller now, and of course filthy from being a tree for two years. However, his eyes still sparkled with the same brown glitter she remembered, and his hook nose and floppy brown hair - similar to her own in colour - still reminded her of a raven with the colouring of a cygnet. She told him her tale of woe, finishing up with the fact that her mother was dying and she would probably need some help on the road. Skye asked him to join her, if he so pleased. Caleb gladly accepted, and they continued on their way to the market town of Ghardium. They quickly found an inn for the night, and once they left their bags, decided to have a look around Ghardium, to see if a helpful librarian or healer could point the next step in their journey.
Looking out at her home town, Skye couldn't help but identify with the populace. Ghardium was composed of brown and yellow - brown woodworked houses with yellow roofs and shutters, brown pavements and yellow roads, and, of course, the main source of Ghardium's trade - yellow pages and brown text. In all the kingdoms, Ghardium was referred to most often as the healing city, but it also produced many works of literary art. Around every corner there were guarranteed to be a few street peddlers with ancient tomes of dusty books, hiding in the shadows of doorways lurked old crones with potions to heal all, awaiting their prey. Skye had generally found that near the Library were the best books - however, these were easily the most expensive. Sometimes she would be pleasantly surprised by the findings of doing a little digging. But today she had a specific mission.
Leading Caleb on swiftly, Skye entered the rabbit warren of houses that lay opposite the Healers Den. The best medical books were there, and she could only browse them quickly before being chased away by the stall owners. Skye couldn't even go to the Library - she had been caught stealing twice now, and she doubted they would be sympathetic even if she pleaded with them. So, working as a team, she and Caleb searched all through the day and most of the peddler's stalls to find any book that could so much as mention the ailment her mother suffered from. But there was nothing. Finally, with some reluctance, Skye agreed to ask the healers for help. In her heart Skye knew it was useless, as her mother had told her repeatedly that what she had was incurable, but Skye never gave up hope.
She stared up at the tall building looming in front of her. Skye could smell the classic healer scent - a scent both far too clean and filled with the stench of death and other horrible things. She longed to reach out her hand and entertwine it with Caleb's, but instinct told her not to push him too much. It wasn't so much the appearnce of two boys holding hands - in front of the Healers Den, you would grab the hand of the Devil himself if he offered it to you. No, it was more to do with that she knew he had been in love with someone before he left, and they had died suddenly. She doubted he was ready or even willing to enter a relationship with her just now, and so she refrained from the hand-on-hand physical contact she craved. Glancing over at him, she noticed that he clenched his jaw tightly. Skye realised she would have to take the first step towards the Healers Den. So she did. Then she took another, and another, until finally she was about to go in, with Caleb still standing stock-still outside, his eyes trained on some now unseen spot, his jaw clenched in fear and his fingers ever so slightly away from his palm, as if he, too, had wanted to hold her hand. Only then did Skye recognise what had happened. He had been Cast on.
