Healer's Beginning

Chapter One~I fight chickens and make a fox friend

     I couldn't undertand it. All animals liked me. Cows, sheep, goats, dogs, even little lizards would approach to bask on my knees if I sat outside long enough.

     But apparently Mrs. Lindall's chickens are the exception. The kind lady had paid me to retrieve eggs from the chicken coup as well as complete any maintnence work that needed to be done. The hens, though normally a non-aggressive breed of chicken, had driven off anyone who had tried to care for them.

     Currently, I was in a heep near the entrance to the coup. My hair was a mess of tangles and feathers. My dress had been mussed and scratched with the aide of flapping wings and sharp talons.

     I huffed irritably and got to my feet, one hand  on the side of the coup. Ignoring the rumbles of territorial hens, I ducked my head and crawled inside. Stupid chickens, they couldn't get the best of me that easily.

     It took nearly two hours until I could return to Mrs. Lindall to tell her of my job well done. I had cleaned the floor of the coup, collected the eggs, laid down fresh straw,, and out of spite I trimmed that talons on the hen's feet.  I giggled quietly to myself.  No, they did not like that one bit.

     Carefully, I shifted the overly full basked of eggs to my hip and knocked. Poor Mrs. Lindall, she started almost violently when she opened the door.

     "Aerlys?!? What happened? You look frightful, my girl!" I meerly grinned at her, not at all offended. Besides, she was right. In between clearing the nests and cleaning the floor, the chickens had punched holes in  my dress and tapdanced on my spine. I was sure that my hair had recieved similar treatment.

     "The  chickens were particularly uncooperative." The kind woman tutted, anxious about the state of my hair and dress. I smiled and assured her that I was in no way harmed, and that I would go home immediatly and freshen up.

     "Well, I hope so my girl." Mrs. Lindall's gaze was critical as she looked me over. "I wouldn't want one of your suitors to be frightened off because of me."

     Ha! I barely restrained my snort. Instead I made some sort of half-strangled sneezing noise that made Mrs. Lindall look at me in alarm. I don't have any suitors, not that I could actually pursue one anyways.

     "Ahem," I felt my face heat up. "Forgive me, allergies." I winced as my neighbor began asking about anyone who had caught my eye. Though she seems like a gossip, she is actually a very genlte mannered woman. But this time her intentions were more self serving. Her youngest son, Carson, is only a couple years older than I am and single. While I do love Mrs. Lindall, her son was not of the same temperment and didn't seem to understand what the word no actually ment. Of course he was very polite in his parents' presence, but he was pushy and abrasive everywhere else.

     "I'm so sorry, Mrs. Lindall," I interupted before she could really get going. "But I have to get home. Mrs. Herald and Dahlia need my help with the shop." My neighbor seemed to deflate for a second, and I was starting to feel bad, before she made me promise to come back and help her again with her animals. It still took several minutes before I was able to break away.

     Technically, I wasn't lying. My best friend Dahlia and her mother, a Mrs. Nyla Herald, ran a small tailoring and embroidery shop and they did need my help. What I didn't say, is that they didn't need my particular skillset today.

     I have been living with Dahlia and her family since my mother's disapearance when I was thirteen years old. Ryu and Nyla Herald have taken me in and treated me as another one of their children ever since. I worked in Nyla's shop with Dahlia doing embroidery and other variations of that work, while Dahlia helped her mother with design and tailoring for the customers that came in. When I wasn't needed in the shop, I was normally with Ryu and the other children helping around the small farm that the family maintained, or I was watching little Sam, who was barely four.