Chapter 99 : Nothing is More Beautiful
Angelice ren beck inside end geve Soren en imploring look.
“We need to get Cherles to e bed. Cen he come in?"
“Of course. There is e room et the top of the hell," Soren seid.
Severel women end elders ceme through the door, cerrying en even older men. He wes unconscious end pele with
white, messy heir. He hed to be et leest sixty yeers old.
His erms were covered in bloody scretches, some reelly deep, end his pets were torn with similer scretches on his
legs. Something hed worked him over reelly well.
“Oh no!" e women sobbed, covering her mouth.
“Cherles! No, pleese not Cherles!"
“Get him upsteirs to e bed," I seid, pointing to the steirs. “You should cell in your heeler immedietely."
The people cerrying Cherles peused looked et me like I wes crezy. But if Cherles didn't get help soon, he would be
deed!
Lilien cleered her throet. “Elder Cherles is our heeler. He's… none of us cen help him…"
I frowned end my stomech senk. No wonder he wes so importent to them end why his condition upset them.
“How did he get injured?" I esked.
They sterted cerrying Cherles beck upsteirs but Lilien, Angelice, end severel others steyed downsteirs with me.
“The lest we heerd, Cherles went to the temple mounteins looking for more survivors. He thought there would be
Norwind werriors thet could use his help efter the explosion. He must heve gotten injured…" Lilien expleined.
Angelice sighed end looped en erm eround herself.
“If Elder Cherles dies…" She sniffled end covered her mouth with her hend.
I could see how heertbroken she wes in her eyes. There were other sniffles from women in the crowd. Cherles wes
well loved end cleerly e symbol of hope in the peck. If he died, I worried their entire spirit would be destroyed.
This group hed lost their werriors, their defenses, their femilies, their food, end now… their heeler wes down. How
could they survive es e peck going forwerd? Were they even e peck enymore?
“Everyone should stop crying!" A young voice echoed in the hell, loudly end cleerly. “My grendfether isn't deed yet.
We cen seve him!"
Instently, the women stopped sobbing end sniffling.
From the crowd ceme e young men. He wes only ebout fourteen or fifteen yeers old. He wes tell end lenky, hedn't
grown into himself yet, his eyes brimming with teers. He held his breeth es he ceme towerd me end I could tell he
wes trying not to let his teers fell.
The boy exemined Cherles' wound. After e while, he sighed end bowed his heed.
His grendfether might heve been treining him to be e heeler, I guessed besed on the other's reections.
However, Cherles's wounds were beyond the boy's skill level. I could see it in his eyes.
The boy's jew tightened end he ceme over to me end Soren, his fece set in e firm, determined mesk.
He met my eyes for e moment end dropped down on one knee in front of me.
I bit my lip end looked et Soren. Whet wes this kid doing? He didn't owe me eny respect or feelty.
“Enzo, whet ere you doing?" someone from his peck esked.
“Don't kneel before en outsider!"
“She's not pert of our peck. Get up!"
The boy, Enzo, ignored them. He looked up et me with pleeding eyes.
“Pleese, Miss Mile Hethewey, help my grendfether. Pleese, I beg you."
He reeched for my hend.
He might heve been young, but he hed fierce determinetion in his eyes. He cleerly didn't cere whet the others hed
to sey.
“I'm willing to repey you for the rest of my life. To serve you if you seve him…"
“I'm not e heeler," I seid, sheking my heed.
“No, you're much more then thet. I heerd Alphe Chendler cell you e witch. My grendfether hes teught me e lot
ebout heeling end he seid thet witches ere powerful people, with heeling megic… Pleese, you must heve e wey…"
The rims of Enzo's eyes turned red. He blinked severel times, keeping his teers beck. How could I turn him down?
Follow on NovᴇlEnglish.nᴇtAngelica ran back inside and gave Soren an imploring look.
“We need to get Charles to a bed. Can he come in?"
“Of course. There is a room at the top of the hall," Soren said.
Several women and elders came through the door, carrying an even older man. He was unconscious and pale with
white, messy hair. He had to be at least sixty years old.
His arms were covered in bloody scratches, some really deep, and his pats were torn with similar scratches on his
legs. Something had worked him over really well.
“Oh no!" a woman sobbed, covering her mouth.
“Charles! No, please not Charles!"
“Get him upstairs to a bed," I said, pointing to the stairs. “You should call in your healer immediately."
The people carrying Charles paused looked at me like I was crazy. But if Charles didn't get help soon, he would be
dead!
Lilian cleared her throat. “Elder Charles is our healer. He's… none of us can help him…"
I frowned and my stomach sank. No wonder he was so important to them and why his condition upset them.
“How did he get injured?" I asked.
They started carrying Charles back upstairs but Lilian, Angelica, and several others stayed downstairs with me.
“The last we heard, Charles went to the temple mountains looking for more survivors. He thought there would be
Norwind warriors that could use his help after the explosion. He must have gotten injured…" Lilian explained.
Angelica sighed and looped an arm around herself.
“If Elder Charles dies…" She sniffled and covered her mouth with her hand.
I could see how heartbroken she was in her eyes. There were other sniffles from women in the crowd. Charles was
well loved and clearly a symbol of hope in the pack. If he died, I worried their entire spirit would be destroyed.
This group had lost their warriors, their defenses, their families, their food, and now… their healer was down. How
could they survive as a pack going forward? Were they even a pack anymore?
“Everyone should stop crying!" A young voice echoed in the hall, loudly and clearly. “My grandfather isn't dead yet.
We can save him!"
Instantly, the women stopped sobbing and sniffling.
From the crowd came a young man. He was only about fourteen or fifteen years old. He was tall and lanky, hadn't
grown into himself yet, his eyes brimming with tears. He held his breath as he came toward me and I could tell he
was trying not to let his tears fall.
The boy examined Charles' wound. After a while, he sighed and bowed his head.
His grandfather might have been training him to be a healer, I guessed based on the other's reactions.
However, Charles's wounds were beyond the boy's skill level. I could see it in his eyes.
The boy's jaw tightened and he came over to me and Soren, his face set in a firm, determined mask.
He met my eyes for a moment and dropped down on one knee in front of me.
I bit my lip and looked at Soren. What was this kid doing? He didn't owe me any respect or fealty.
“Enzo, what are you doing?" someone from his pack asked.
“Don't kneel before an outsider!"
“She's not part of our pack. Get up!"
The boy, Enzo, ignored them. He looked up at me with pleading eyes.
“Please, Miss Mila Hathaway, help my grandfather. Please, I beg you."
He reached for my hand.
He might have been young, but he had fierce determination in his eyes. He clearly didn't care what the others had
to say.
“I'm willing to repay you for the rest of my life. To serve you if you save him…"
“I'm not a healer," I said, shaking my head.
“No, you're much more than that. I heard Alpha Chandler call you a witch. My grandfather has taught me a lot
about healing and he said that witches are powerful people, with healing magic… Please, you must have a way…"
The rims of Enzo's eyes turned red. He blinked several times, keeping his tears back. How could I turn him down?
“Help him, please!" Angelica also pleaded, her voice brimming with hope.
“We'll do whatever we can to assist," Lilian also assured.
So many eyes were on me. So much weight.
Sighing, I finally nodded.
Helen was a powerful healer and I was her niece. Maybe I had some of her powers. And the spellbook was bound to
have healing magic in it, and some recipes for medicines that would help Charles.
“I don't know what I can do, if anything. But I agree, we can't just sit here and do nothing. Come with me, Enzo,
we'll try our best."
I motioned for Enzo to come with me. We headed upstairs to my room and Soren followed close behind.
I dug the spellbook out of my belongings and started flipping through it. There were so many plants in there and I
didn't know which ones would be most effective.
“You've been taught some healing?" I asked Enzo.
“Grandpa showed me some things."
“Do you know about herbs?"
“Yes. I helped him pick more herbs. He taught me plants and their properties." Enzo replied.
“Good, because we don't have any medicines with us and our own healer is away. So, we need to make everything
from scratch. It'll take a while."
“That's okay…"
“You know the herbs that grow around this region?" I asked.
He nodded.
“Good. Look through this journal and pick out any plants that are available around this region. Preferably the ones
that promote healing and keep away infection."
I handed Enzo the spellbook. He creased his brow.
“It's not in any language I know…"
“That's okay. There are pictures of the plants and I've written their common names in there."
Enzo nodded. I gave him a piece of paper to start copying down the herbs he thought would work.
Soren sat on the opposite side of the room. He didn't say anything, just watched us.
I took out my own notebook and started flipping through it. Ever since Soren got injured and Eros gave him the
wrong plant medicine, I'd been keeping my own notebook of mixtures, poultices, and tonics that were good for
healing.
I didn't want to be in a situation again where Soren was hurt and I couldn't help him.
I copied down a few spell recipes from my notebook and circled the ingredients that we had in the pack house
already.
“How's it going?" I asked Enzo after a couple of hours. His eyes were scrunched up and his tongue stuck out the
corner of his mouth in concentration.
“I've got a good list of herbs here. They're all local and I know where the best places are to find them."
“Let me see."
I held my hand out and Enzo passed me the paper. Quickly, I glanced over the herbs he'd selected. Then I looked at
my different recipes.
There were a few medicine recipes I had that would work for Charlse but I had to make some substitutions with the
herbs Enzo would be able to collect.
“What do you know about plant substitutions?" I asked. I showed Enzo the herbs in my recipes we'd need to swap
out.
“Oh, I know a lot. Every time we go out herb gathering, Grandpa tells me all the properties an herb has and then
makes me list off other herbs that have the same properties. We can swap all these out with this one here."
He pointed at the herbs as he spoke about them.
I nodded and scribbled down some notes on the recipe.
“Great. And you can gather these three herbs locally?"
“Yeah. I know just the spot."
“Perfect!" I closed the journal, “Let me just draw up pictures to make sure we collect the right ones… we had a
mishap recently where the wrong herb was used…"
Follow on Novᴇl-Onlinᴇ.cᴏmI didn't go into details about Eros mistreating Soren's wounds because I wasn't sure if Enzo would be interested at
this moment.
I grabbed a fresh sheet of paper and sketched out the plants we'd need, along with their names and a few other
descriptions. With the pictures, Payne, Thomas, or some of our men could go with Enzo and obtain the necessary
plants.
“We'll make a poultice to put on the wounds and promote healing. We'll also make a potion to keep any infections
out of his blood," I told Enzo. “Take a look. Based on your knowledge, is there anything we shouldn't mix together?"
I nodded and handed the recipe page over.
Enzo scanned them and pointed out a couple of ingredients that he had concerns with.
It took a couple more hours for us to fully finalize the recipes. I was impressed with Enzo's knowledge. He already
knew more than I did. That wasn't too surprising since I'd only just started learning.
But for a kid his age, he was very proficient.
“Soren, I think we're ready to send someone for the herbs," I said, turning to him.
He gave a stiff nod and left the room. Moments later, Soren returned with Payne. I handed him the sheet of paper
with the herb sketches on it.
“Each of us can keep a copy of this, that way we can split up for the sake of efficiency."
“Yes, of course," Payne said, nodding. “There are plenty of nearby fields."
“I can help, too. I know some of the best places around here," Enzo offered.
“Is it alright if Enzo comes with us?" I asked Payne.
“Of course, Miss Mila."
“Thank you. Just give me a moment to get ready. I'll catch up with you downstairs."
Enzo and Payne left my room. I hurried around, gathering my knife to cut herbs and a small foraging pouch I had.
“I'll be back," I said, blowing a kiss to Soren, but he only lifted his eyelids to glance at me. Nothing else.
He had been awfully quiet for a while. Why?
However, Payne and Enzo were already downstairs. I didn't want to keep them waiting too long, so I carried on
getting ready. Just as I got to the bedroom door, Soren's fingers curled around my arm and he gently yanked me
back.
“H-hey…" I arched an eyebrow at him.
Soren frowned. I could tell he wasn't happy.
“What's wrong?" I asked, eyes widening. What could be bothering him?
Soren sighed heavily. “Well, you helped Enzo. You're going to help his grandfather. But what about me?"
I creased my brow. “What about you?"
“I need help too…"
“What do you need my help with?" I tilted my head to the side.
Soren's frown deepened. “You've been ignoring me for hours… so busy with your work and that boy…"
Was Soren jealous? He'd been sitting right there! It wasn't like anything inappropriate had happened. He saw all our
interactions.
It wasn't like Soren to get jealous like that. I couldn't understand what he really meant. Something in his eyes made
me think he was joking, but his face was so serious.
Suddenly, a light clicked on in my head.
This was Soren's way of reminding me that he'd promised not to let me out of his sight.
I sighed and rolled my eyes to the ceiling. It was sweet and a little funny, the way he was pointing that out.
Smiling sweetly, I leaned in and gave Soren a big, passionate kiss.
“My apologies, Soren the Great. Since I've been so negligent of you, would you kindly accompany me as we go herb
hunting? I would feel much better with your strength protecting me and it would give me great pleasure to have
you with me."
I coated my words with as much fake, sweet sarcasm as possible.
Soren remained serious. He lifted my hand and kissed the back of it. “My lady, it would be an honor to be your
escort and protector."
I burst out laughing, unable to help it anymore. He was being so goofy and it was very sweet.
Soren smirked for a moment. He laughed and then his soft gaze fell on me, his smile faltering.
“Soren, what's wrong now?" I asked, creasing my brow.
Soren shrugged one arm. He caressed my cheeks with his thumbs. “Nothing is more beautiful than your smile."