Gisela broke their staring contest and gave her a smile. “My best guess is a frog.”
Otto’s heart stopped in his chest.
Liesel rolled her eyes and swatted her. “Silly girl. Your brother is serious. It may be for a patient.”
“Y-yes,” he choked. “I need it for a treatment.”
“The only bath in town is in the tavern, as you know.”
Otto nodded. “It can’t be moved, which is why I need something more portable.”
She squinted as she thought. “I think Old Henry might have something at the farm. I’ve seen all manner of barrels and containers. Empty now, of course.”
The farm! Of course. Otto smiled, a burst of energy moving his feet again.
“Otto!” Gisela called at his back.
He turned.
“Do you know what you’re doing?” she asked.
“Not really,” he called back. “But it feels right.”
She pursed her lips but nodded at him, allowing him to escape into the darkness.
His stop at Henry’s took longer than anticipated. As soon as the family saw him they invited him in, asking him to look at this or that ailment because Henne hadn’t been by like he’d promised them.
Otto could do nothing but agree, gently and carefully attending to each member of the large family and listening to every concern, frowning over discrepant prescriptions and symptoms. Did Henne truly not care?
It broke his heart to see a little girl shivering and coughing instead of rough and tumbling with her brother.
It only deepened his determination.
With promises to deliver the barrel to his house and money left on the table, he finally made his way to Henne’s.
Alwin was right—he did want to start on the medicines right away, and Henne had all the reference books and supplies he’d need to even start uncovering what the herbs he had collected could do.
He let himself in, lighting a few candles before carefully placing his bag on the work desk.
He reached inside, fingers brushing over the small pouch of Blue Moons as he went to take out the rest of the herbs he had collected. Each bloom brought on a different memory. Of Alwin patiently taking him around the forest. Of him asking his frogs for advice on where to find interesting plants. Of him reaching into difficult to manage spaces to get something Otto had decided he needed even if he didn’t know why. Of his endless patience as he just did what Otto wanted to do. As if he was getting anything out of it. As if it benefited him in any way.
He’d gathered so many amazing things—things from fairy tales, and others that had long since been presumed extinct or too dangerous to risk looking for.
He was so excited to start working on the tinctures and salves they’d need, but most of all he was excited to see if the Blue Moons could help the town. If he could understand their properties, perhaps he could prove that the myths were right.
A fire had been lit within him again after so long struggling, a beacon that Alwin had laid the kindling for.
He bit his lip as his mind filled with brilliant green and shuffled through a pile of books in front of him to see if any of them had information he might need. He vaguely remembered a page where the Blue Moons were mentioned in passing, so he flipped through them one by one, finally stumbling upon the tiniest little paragraph.
There was a fairly inaccurate drawing of the Blue Moons, depicting them as large, rounded blooms instead of fragile things Otto had found. The text underneath it just said,virtually omnipotent herb if used as instructed.
And yet the instructions were nowhere to be found.
“Ah…finally back at work,” Henne said from the door. Otto startled and turned around to see the older man limping slowly toward him, the cane he used to walk clicking on the wooden floors. “I assume you have something to show for it?”
Otto hadn’t expected Henne to be up so late, but he was prepared for the questioning. “I went to the forest today to gather some more herbs. I don’t have any of the equipment at home to begin testing.”
“Yes…I stopped by the house to check in on your progress and it was quite empty. Not even your sister was home. News in the village says that she’s still staying with Liesel. I wonder why that could be, given her health’s improvement.”
