1

A gentle breeze rustled through the trees, and lightly ruffled Fiona Ferwell's ginger bangs as it blew by. She enjoyed its coolness, as the weather today was otherwise a bit warmer than usual.

She stretched and relished the calm for a few moments longer before returning to her work, the pair of feline ears on top of her head occasionally changing angles to listen to the sounds around her.

Currently, as she was often tasked to do, she was searching through the underbrush of the forest at the outskirts of her village for medicinal herbs. It certainly was a wonderful day for it, only a few fluffy clouds drifted through the sky, and plenty of sunlight shone through the boughs of the canopy overhead.

Not having found anything of use in the patch she had been rooting through, Fiona moved on to another. This was a bit of a tedious job, but the promise of her sister's warm welcome home each time, not to mention the home-cooked meal that followed, made it all worth it.

Fiona’s sister Natalie Ferwell ran a small pharmacy in the village of Prola, the only one, in fact. She also acted as the local doctor, making use of her skill and knowledge in remedies made with local herbs, as well as her talents in healing magic. Her treatment was always concise and affordable.

Naturally, she would be too busy managing the storefront—or being available to respond to medical emergencies on short notice—to gather herbs in the woods, so it was Fiona's job to do so for her.

It was a humble way of life, and a relatively peaceful one. However, even though it was a small village, Prola wasn't as tight-knit of a community as one might expect. Fiona noticed that at times it could feel like the patients Natalie treated only responded with the minimum of thankfulness and respect, as if it was only because they couldn't afford to be on bad terms with the village's only healer.

Fiona interrupted her search through the underbrush with a scoff and a shake of her head. They got such high quality treatment for a tenth of the price of a healer in another, bigger city, but still had the nerve to act so ungrateful!

Suddenly, Fiona's moment of derision wasn't the only thing interrupting her search. A short, wooden stalk poking out of the ground—partially hidden by the surrounding plants—had begun to shake, and the sounds of rustling all around implied that something similar was happening among other bushes as well.

Fiona clicked her tongue in irritation and jumped back; she should've been keeping a better eye on her surroundings! With a series of dreadful squeals, each of the wooden stalks burst out of the ground accompanied by small showers of dirt and uprooted plants. Mindrakes!

They resembled small, gnarled wooden infants, just about tall enough to reach up to someone's knee. Their faces, made up of a few holes in the shape of an impish grin, glowed from within with a faint, yellow light.

These creatures were rarely a threat and usually preferred pulling pranks over causing any real harm, but when they banded together they could get rough... Not to mention, their voices were extremely loud and irritating.

Any hunter that accidentally stumbled into one of these could be sure that any prey within a mile or more would be immediately alerted to their location.

Fiona quickly pulled out her dagger and readied it in front of her. Judging by the way this group of Mindrakes were frantically chattering and restlessly dancing about, it seemed they had a lot of pent-up energy. They probably weren’t going to stop at harmless mischief this time.

Immediately confirming her worries, the first Mindrake Fiona had disturbed quickly hopped towards her, crouched down like a little wooden spring, and launched its whole body upwards at her chin.

She had been prepared, but not that prepared, and the force of the impact had her stumbling backwards and seeing stars. These little jerks sure could pack a punch if they tried, couldn't they?

As if following a premeditated plan, the other Mindrakes that had been surrounding Fiona from behind leapt towards her as she stumbled into them, crying gleefully and trying to kick at her with their little legs.

This time though, the feeling of their assault was more like if she tried to run through a large bush. Unpleasant, but probably wouldn't even leave a bruise.

Fiona took her chance during this meager onslaught to regain her composure, then quickly struck out at one of the leafy creatures, mid-leap, with her knife. It was sent flying, and crashed into a nearby tree, the light in its face dimming as it lay still.

The rest of the group stopped and fell silent for a moment, then redoubled their efforts... as well as the volume of their shrieking.

* * *

The scuffle didn't last much longer after this. The survivors of the troupe of woodland miscreants left their wounded members behind as they scurried away, wailing just as loudly as ever.

Fiona knew from experience that this terrible sound was enough to discourage any other enterprising gangs of Mindrakes from coming out of their safe hiding places... at least for today. Fiona sighed as she checked herself over for any scratches, but thankfully found none.

It wasn't hard to fight off a group of Mindrakes once you knew they were coming, even for a young woman like her with only enough knowledge in self-defense techniques to get by. The way they approached was predictable, and they were weak enough to be swatted away without much effort, even without a proper weapon.

Returning to her task, Fiona continued to search for usable herbs, this time without any more interruptions.

* * *

Judging by the position of the sun, it was now several hours past midday. Fiona listlessly swung her small pouch of gathered herbs from side to side as she followed the path leading back to Prola.

Today’s haul wasn’t the best, but it was better than nothing. The rest of the trip was uneventful; it seemed that the cries of the defeated Mindrakes really did scare off any other troublesome creatures.

The village of Prola and the forests that surrounded it were located on the foothills of a nearby mountain range, so the path was high enough up to give Fiona a scenic view of much of the surrounding land. Of course, after passing by this way so many times, the wonder of the sight had long since worn off, but the wide open air was always refreshing.

The walk back to town was short and Fiona was nearly home, but she had to stop by the general store to pick up a few other things Natalie needed first. She mentally prepared herself for whatever might be coming next, and stepped inside.

The store was run by a middle-aged couple, who both worked together during the day, not that there was usually any more work than one of them could handle alone. Right now, the husband was currently sorting a few items on the shelves—he glanced in Fiona's direction but didn't acknowledge her further—while the wife was loudly chatting with a customer at the counter.

Upon hearing the chime of the entryway bell and seeing who had entered, however, her enthusiasm dropped quite a bit. Same as always, thought Fiona. This lady would always act all friendly and cheerful around her more profitable customers, but never around people like her without as much to offer. Well, whatever.

Luckily, it was a quick transaction. Fiona only needed to buy a few dried herbs—the kind that didn't grow locally and had to be imported every few weeks—and some ingredients that Natalie was running low on. The smell reminded her of her sister's cooking, making her mouth water at the mere thought.

* * *

The reception Fiona received when she stepped into the pharmacy built into their home was much warmer than the one she'd had from the general store. Natalie had been sitting at the counter and reading what looked like a letter, but she looked up from it and smiled when she saw who had entered.

Despite being sisters, Natalie and Fiona looked very different. In fact, they were nearly complete opposites. Fiona was short but athletic, with her tousled, bright orange hair in a bob cut, while Natalie was tall and gentle, and her silky black hair reached all the way down to her waist.

But the most notable difference of all, which would always alert others to the fact that they weren't related by blood, were their ears.

Natalie's were the usual common, small, and round ears of a human. Fiona's were the ears of a cat at the top of her head, covered in brown fur. If it weren’t for those ears—and the short bobbed tail which she was usually able to hide under her clothes—she would have been able to pass off as a normal human woman.

Naturally, these differences didn't bother either of them. They had spent most of their lives growing up together, so they were family as far as the two of them were concerned. Although, because she was almost ten years older than Fiona, Natalie sometimes acted more like a mother than a sister.

Natalie set down the piece of paper and got up to greet Fiona at the door, taking today's pouch of herbs from her. "Find any mellowleaf? There have been several farmers asking for something to help with the cramps they get while working the fields lately, so I've been running short on balm," Natalie asked as she sorted through the various roots, leaves, and plants in the pouch.

"Well, not a whole lot," Fiona replied, shrugging, "A group of Mindrakes showed up to give me some trouble though, so I was able to get some materials from them."

Natalie nodded a few times as she turned and walked back to set the bag down on the counter, calling over her shoulder, "Go ahead and start helping me close the shop. Dinner should be just about done, so we'll eat in a bit."

Now that's what Fiona liked to hear! She quickly flipped around the sign hanging on the door so that the side with the word "Closed" on it was facing outwards, and started closing the shutters on the front windows.

* * *

Most days pretty much just passed by like this. A few moments of excitement, but otherwise not much of note. Such was Fiona and Natalie's humble way of life. But, today, things were going to change.

Natalie set down her spoon halfway through her bowl of the stew she had prepared for them both, and spoke seriously to the younger woman across the table, "Fiona, earlier today I received a letter from Spira City, a delivery order for local herbs, and a checkup in person."

Fiona stopped with her own spoon in her mouth, her ears perking up in mild confusion. Where was Natalie going with this?

"I was surprised they thought to contact a healer like me living so far away, but it seems urgent. Plus, it's a high-paying job, and could really help us out," Natalie continued.

Before Fiona could take the spoon out of her mouth and protest, Natalie got to the point: "Do you want to come with me? Or rather, I would prefer to have you along, but it's up to you. You know I can take care of myself with my magic, but it would be safer with the two of us."

What reason was there for Fiona to refuse? It's not like there was anything in Prola that she would particularly miss while they were gone. She spoke her affirmation to Natalie, who nodded and smiled, and then quietly returned to her stew. Apparently, this was all that needed saying.

And so, the humble lives of the two sisters were about to start getting a lot more interesting, perhaps even more than the two of them could have ever expected.