Pond of Words - Without You, Today Pt. 2

Awkward silence fills the room for a brief minute. The air is thick with all the herbs and plants making it harder to breathe. Only sound that can be heard is Stella's deep beating heart. Light falls on the floor, covering the wooden boards in golden rays of sunlight. Stella keeps her eyes locked on Chara's, observing every detail on her face. Chara blinks slowly, in slight disbelief at the sight in front of her. She feels a slight pain in her chest, like something is blocking the air reaching into her lungs.

The moment is cut abruptly by Austin's movement. Chara and Stella both blink quickly as they notice him take a step towards the counter. He puts his left arm over the counter, holding his chin in his hand and hunching forward. He speaks to the peasant in front of him:

"Salutations, dear miss. I hope we didn't come in at a bad time. Don't be alarmed, I understand the rare sight of royalty."

Chara is taken aback by his sudden attempt at conversation, and quickly musters up a formal greeting for her unique customers, while trying not to stare at Stella:

"Y-your Highness, welcome to our apothecary. Usually my mother works here at the counter, but today she had some business outside. Is there anything I can do to help you, t-two?"

"Worry not, commoner. You can drop the formalities, we came here in dire times and the last thing we need is to pretend we are superior. My little sister...she is ill. She needs medicine quickly."

Chara is again taken aback by his response, this time slightly worried while looking at Stella's face, noticing she is indeed a little pale. Before she manages to say anything, Stella runs and pulls Austin backwards by his right arm, and speaks angrily:

"Austin, stop it. And don't call me your little sister anymore, you're only a year older than me," her voice calms down, and she looks at Chara, "Greetings, p-peasant. We have only come here for the yearly goods inspection. Our teacher is downstairs, and she assigned us to grade your s-store. We aren't here to purchase any...medicine."

Chara now understands their sudden visit, and fixes her apron as she crouches underneath the counter, searching for all documents for the registration of the apothecary. As she is searching, Austin moves away from the counter and gets closer to all the cupboards with various remedies, whispering all the labelled names to himself. Stella waits at the counter.

Chara comes back up, giving Stella all the documents. Stella notices her hands were slightly shaking as she gave her the papers, but didn't comment on it. She begins reading all the documents, making sure to follow Audrey's instructions on what to be on the lookout for. Chara stands still, trying to remain calm while Stella is reading the documents in front of her. She notices Austin crouching, hunching and standing on his toes just to read all sorts of names for the different herbs and remedies inside the apothecary.

"Everything seems to be in order. If only my brother wanted to double-check for me... Thank y-y-you, Chara. We will now proceed to check the plants you have on display here, if you don't mind."

After realizing Stella remembered her name, Chara blushes slightly and lowers her head, trying to cover her eyes. She replies with a slightly nervous tone, "A-Absolutely not. You are free to do as you please. If there is anything you need my assistance on, let me know, Your H-Highness."

Stella didn't notice she used Chara's name in her sentence, and proceeded to go to Austin in the corner. As the cousins begin exploring the rest of the apothecary, they stumble on all sorts of colorful and smelly flowers. Austin taps on some with his fingers, when Stella slaps his hand out of the way and quietly murmurs something to him. In the meantime, an older man enters the apothecary and greets Chara at the counter:

"Hello, young lady. My wife at home is sick. She has been struggling to eat, even getting a little bit nauseous at times. She constantly keeps getting too hot, or too cold. She is shivering despite telling me she is fine. The only thing she keeps mentioning is pain in her head."

"Mhm, I see. I will be with you in a second. Please just sign here..." she brings a paper on the counter. Stella can't quite read what it says, but she assumes it's some kind of document for tracking order history. Despite her presence, Chara appeared calmer now that she has something to occupy her mind with. After Chara returns from the room in the back, Stella tries to listen to their conversation a little bit more.

Chara comes back with a small cloth pouch and a bunch of remedies. She starts placing them on the counter, "Coriander, you can use its leaves to lower her body temperature, this will help her with feeling too hot or cold. Here's mint as well. We give this to all our patients with similar symptoms you described, it should generally help," she moves away from the counter and comes to a wooden cupboard. She swiftly grabs a few green and purple remedies from this strangely organized system and returns to the gentleman, "Lavender and sage. This should help with the headache."

The man leaves a few silver and gold coins at the counter before picking up the pouch, thanking Chara, before leaving. Chara lets him know that if anything were to happen, he should come back quickly. Chara cleans the counter after he leaves, and begins organizing some bottles behind the counter.

Stella grabs Austin by his arm and starts pulling him towards the counter, interrupting his gazing into the plant in the center of the room. She clears her throat, to alert Chara to turn around, "We will be leaving now. Everything seems to be in perfect order, despite the odd organization of remedies you have. However, I'm sure you know the best in your world. Thank y-you for your cooperation." Chara nods, bidding farewell to her unique customers, and wishing them well on their journey back. Despite not fully meaning these words, there was a lot that happened today, and her head is full of thoughts after seeing Stella again. She will need to think over today for a bit.

As the two leave, they greet a tall middle-aged woman on the stairway, who was heading up. Stella notices how Chara resembles her a bit, but doesn't look at her for long enough to verify if she wasn't just seeing things. She was wearing a silver-gray gown, with a brown coat over it. Her hair was brown, but turning pale-gray. She did not appear in the greatest mood, maybe even a little sickly. The two enter Sir Drake's abode on the ground floor. The middle-aged woman enters the apothecary.

"Chara, who were those two just now? Did they enter the apothecary? They were wearing rather elegant clothing," she coughs a few times, while putting her big linen bag of herbs on the ground next to the counter, "Was that boy wearing a pair of tinted eyewear inside? Is everything alright with him?"

"Those were the royals, mom. They came for the yearly inspection," Chara shrugged, picking up the bag that her mother, Bethany, put down. She proceeded to carry it into the backroom, "They said we passed. They found nothing wrong with the store."

"Great. They didn't ask where we lived?"

"No, thankfully no. They must've forgotten. It's fine. Carly was upstairs anyway."

They both enter the backroom, putting the freshly picked herbs away in the storage room, and preparing to spend the next few hours making remedies in bottles, presumably to be sold in the apothecary.

Audrey, Austin and Stella prepare to return to the Palace. They say their goodbye to Drake, and thank him for his hospitality. They leave outside, and head home. Audrey asks them a few questions and teases them, telling them how easy it must have been and how next time she doesn't have to be there to help them with the yearly goods inspection. They all laugh it off, and continue talking. At one point, Austin signals to Stella to slow down.

"What do you want now?"

"She seemed nice. A master of her craft. Did you see how she knew what to do?"

"She works there, Austin. Of course she knows what to do."

"Stella."

"What?"

"You called her by her name, didn't you? Chara, was it?"

"I didn't hear her tell us her name. Surely her name wasn't on the registration documents..."

Stella struggles to reply. She suddenly froze and didn't know what to say. A single drop of sweat falls from her forehead, as her heart accelerates again.

"Of course you d-didn't hear! You were obsessed with those plants all day. S-she told me her name when we entered." Austin laughs and pats her on her back, before pulling her along to catch up with Audrey.

To be continued.