It was as much a clinic as a house.
Calista went to her work room and vented her frustration by attacking herbs in her mortar and pestle.
She worked alone for about an hour before Harou joined her. He silently helped her sort herbs and line them up on her workspace to make things easier for her. She sighed.
“You’re leaving, aren’t you? You always help me with whatever I’m working on right before you leave.”
“Well…”
“I knew it.”
“Tomorrow. I’m leaving tomorrow. I was only given a few day’s leave, and it will take me a day to travel back to my unit. So you still have me today!”
Calista gave him a weak smile.
“How long will you be gone this time?”
“Honestly, I’m not sure. It could be a few months, or it could be a year or so. The human king is worried about incursions at one of the borders, so we’ll be going there to bolster the number stationed there. If skirmishes, or full-fledged war breaks out, it could be a long while.”
“I don’t want you to get hurt,” Calista sniffed.
“I’ll be fine! I’m still lycan. My whole unit is, remember? We even have a healer in the unit. He trained in both lycan and human medicine. He’s quite talented. You’d probably like him,” Harou said, his tone tipping up suggestively.
“Yeah, maybe,” Calista said, narrowing her eyes at him, displeased that he was trying to set her up.
Harou chuckled and gave her a hug.
“You keep working, I’ll go make dinner. I’ll follow one of your recipes! I’m going to memorize a new one. All the guys in my unit make me do the cooking, because I’m the best at it. Thanks to you,” he said, elbowing her playfully. “I teach you to fight, you teach me to cook!”
“You’re just good at memorizing things and following directions. It doesn’t take much to teach you, honestly.”
“Ohhh, well thank you! I’m flattered!” he laughed, and left Calista to her work.
Harou returned to his duties, and Calista found herself with an unexpected companion. Orfilia followed Calista around as she worked. It eventually got on her nerves, and her hazel eyes snapped green fire as she glared at her sister. Orfilia was the closest to her in age, being only a year older. She was between Calista and Harou. She very much had problems being the forgotten middle child. She wasn’t as pretty as Calista or as outgoing as Ulva, and found herself struggling in social situations.
“What are you even doing?” Calista snapped. “If you’re going to shadow me, you could at least help, you know!” she said, shoving a broom at her sister.
The redhead accepted the broom with surprising passivity and began sweeping, but kept casting sidelong looks at her sister. Calista sighed.
“What? What do you actually want? You never help unless you want something,” Calista said tiredly.
“Hmph!” Orfilia pouted and lifted her chin defiantly. “That’s rude! You could just say thank you,” she sulked. Calista just fixed her with a flat stare.
“Fine… alright… you’re right, I want something. I need an allergy remedy!”
Calista blinked. She set down the duster in her hand on the counter and walked over to Orfilia. She grabbed her face and pried open one of her amber eyes and inspected how bloodshot it looked. She twisted her head and looked in her ear for wax buildup. She squeezed her face and said, “Say ‘Ah!’”
“Err, nuh, noh foh meh,” Orfilia said through her pinched lips.
“Oh? I was going to say you don’t look like you’re suffering from allergies. You’ve never had them before, so I was worried. Autumn is a bad time for people with mold allergies.”
Orfilia lightly slapped Calista’s hand away from her face.
“Yes, and he does,” she said, glaring at her sister.
“He? He who?”
“Well… it’s just a man…”
“That was implied, yes.”
“I might like him.”
“That was also implied,” Calista said impatiently.
“I don’t want to tell you who he is!”
“Why?”
“Well, because... he’s embarrassed that he has mold allergies. It’s hard for him to hunt properly when his nose is stopped up. But it’s embarrassing for a lycan to suffer from something like allergies! And also… I don’t want anyone in the family to know who I like until I know if he likes me back,” Orfilia finally confessed, wringing her hands.
Calista said nothing for a moment, staring at Orfilia, bemused.
“Why? It’s not like you’ve ever been teased for having a crush,” she finally said, puzzled.
“I know, but still. It’s been so hard to find anyone that would be a suitable mate. It’s not like this town is popular for other lycans to come to when they disperse.”
“So it’s a local,” Calista nodded. “So?”
Orfilia shrugged.
“I guess I just don’t want to risk him finding out I like him yet. If he doesn’t like me back, he’ll reject me immediately. But I want a chance to get to know him and make him like me,” she admitted. Calista sighed and shrugged broadly.
“Alright, alright. I think you’re being silly, but I’ll prepare a remedy for you to give him. But next time, he needs to come in for a physical. I can only give him a general remedy for his symptoms going through a third party like this. If he comes to see me, I can actually analyze what he’s allergic to and give him a much better treatment,” Calista groused.
Orfilia bounced with excitement and thanked her profusely. She ran around the house in a frenzy, cleaning everything top to bottom until it practically sparkled. In truth, that only made Calista more annoyed, because it showed Orfilia was perfectly capable of cleaning the house, and doing it well, and being efficient enough at it to not take all day. It made it all the more annoying that she didn’t help out more often of her own volition.
I’m being unfair, Calista thought. It’s not her fault. Not really. She just has different priorities and lacks a sense of responsibility. Papa should’ve instilled that in her when we were still kids. But he was always more into spoiling us. Mama was the taskmaster.
Calista got to work on an allergy cure for Orfilia’s crush. It didn’t take too long, but while she was in her workroom, she went ahead and worked on replenishing her stocks of other common medications.
When the time came to start on supper, she was surprised to see Ulva appear in the workroom.
“Um, hey, do you need me to make something for your fiance?” she asked uncertainly.
“No,” Ulva laughed, “I came to get you!”
“Get me? For what?” Calista gave her sister a suspicious look.
“Don’t look at me like that. I looked in your closet and realized you only have work dresses!”
“That’s… not true,” she looked offended.
“Yes it is,” Ulva laughed again. “You might have things nice enough to wear to a festival, but nothing for a society party, and certainly nothing for a wedding!”
Calista shifted awkwardly, not wanting to admit Ulva had a point.
“Your wedding is a year away,” she said finally.
“Yes, but that doesn’t mean we can’t go shopping now! Come on!” Ulva grabbed Calista’s arm and dragged her. Calista reluctantly went along with her oldest sister.
The two went to three different dress shops in town. Ulva insisted Calista get at least one or two dresses from each shop, on top of having her measured for several custom orders. Ulva insisted she hadn’t decided on a style or color for the wedding just yet, so got a variety.
A few days later, Calista got her first patients in almost a week. Three young males approached her, and she couldn’t stop her expression from turning down as a sour taste filled her mouth. Rannulf and Gunnolf both bore wounds from a recent fight. The two brothers often fought; sometimes they fought each other, but just as often fought other lycans.
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