Armaran chapter 13

Amina got to know Tessa and her family better in secret. She wasn't missed at the Streckke house that often, no one wondered where she went during the afternoons, and she was rarely asked about her day. The son was recovering slowly and he kept complaining how he would get fat if he had to eat as much as Mr. Augustin had instructed. Under the watchful eyes of his parents he had no choice but to eat the small portions cooked especially for him.

Amina would make an extra sandwich at breakfast and pack it with her usual school lunch, because she didn't want Tessa to have to go through the whole day hungry. She agreed with Tessa that she'd leave the sandwich on a corner of the table in the classroom and she could take it without anyone noticing.

At the beginning of the next week Tessa didn't show up at school. Amina was vexed but she knew Tessa's family couldn't afford to send her there every week. After school Amina returned to the Streckke house and packed some more sandwiches. She went to Tessa's home where she had visited a couple of times during the previous week.

The children weren't at the house according to their mother. They had gone to gather the first sprouting plants of spring from the forest nearby.

Amina left the sandwiches with the mother and went to find her friend. It was easy to walk in the woods and the day was warm. Amina enjoyed her walk among the trees. She felt someone watching her. It was the same Gahim that had been watching her before. It still wasn't revealing itself to her.

It took Amina about half an hour to find the children and they studied the sprouts together. Amina had much fun even though the feeling of being watched didn't go away. She didn't let it bother her too much. There could easily be more Gahim in the woods.

They spent several hours in the forest and Amina realized she'd be late for dinner. She bid the children hasty farewells and hurried back. No one had missed her and she got some warm food from the kitchen.

***

As Amina came back from school on the next day, she was surprised by Mr. Streckke who asked to talk to her. She stepped into his study and saw a man whom she didn't know and one of the boys that had bullied her.

”Mr. Sten stopped by today to inform me that his son Ben had seen you yesterday... in some questionable company,” Mr. Streckke began.

Amina smiled. ”That is possible, but I had a good reason for it.”

Mr. Streckke returned her smile. ”That is what I told Mr. Sten, though I do appriciate his concern on my family's reputation. Please, tell me.”

Amina had been sure that she'd get caught at some point even though she hadn't expected it to be so soon. She looked the boy, Ben, in the eyes and said: ”I've met the children of a poor family a few times after I heard that Mr. Augustin buys some medicinal herbs and other plants they have gathered for him. I don't want to bother Mr. Augustin over nothing and I thought that I can learn some things about the plants from these children as he has already shared his knowledge with them. I thought it would save the time and effort of a busy man, who in my opinion should have as much time as possible to focus on his work. I am interested in gathering and preserving plants for him, if he ever needs the help and I am good enough.”

Ben made a face.

Mr. Sten was nodding his acceptance to Amina's explanation.

Mr. Streckke's face was somewhat unfathomable. After a moment the smile returned to his face. ”There we have it then. I knew I could trust you, Amina. Now, off you go, dear,” he said and waved his hand towards the door.

Amina left, feeling delighted. She was sure that if she was in any trouble now, it wasn't anything serious, though she decided not to see Tessa for a few days. Ben's revenge had failed miserably.

***

The next common good day was spent at the various shops in town where the students helped the merchants and craftsmen go through their inventories. Amina was ready to head off to the smithy when Ms. Slava directed her to the dressmaker's. After a moment she came back for her and directed her to the apothecary. ”Mr. Augustin asked specifically for you,” was Ms. Slava's sole and slightly puzzled explanation.

Amina stepped in timidly. Two students were already there, listening to Mr. Augustin's instructions. He didn't interrupt his explanation despite Amina's arrival and made sure the other two were well enough instructed to begin with their work. Only then did he acknowledge Amina. ”I have heard you have been gathering some plants for me.”

Amina nodded. ”When Tessa told me what she's doing with her siblings for you, I was very eager to learn about the plants and their uses... I don't really have any experience so far,” she replied.

Mr. Augustin thought for a while. ”Come here. You can start by counting all the ingredients in these jars,” he said and directed Amina behind the counter. The shelves were full of rows of big glass jars that held plants, insects, and their parts inside.

Amina stared at the jars with her eyes wide but without further delay grabbed the first one and placed it carefully on the table. She took a piece of paper from the counter and marked down carefully the words written on the label of the jar and began to count the huge grasshoppers.

Amina had gone through three jars when Ms. Slava came over and announced the children had done enough for the day. Amina asked Mr. Augustin if it was okay for her to finish the fourth jar before leaving.

In the end, Mr. Augustin expressed his wish that Amina would come back any time to count the contents of the rest of the jars. There was no hurry, but he would appreciate it very much if Amina would be willing to use her spare time to finish the job.

Amina promised to return some day and was sorry it would still take her several days to go through the rest of the jars.

Mr. Augustin assured her he didn't mind.

***

A couple of days later on her day off Amina received an excess of attention at the Streckke house as their son was commenting on the amount of food she was eating. The conversation moved on to other things fairly quickly but eventually turned to the professional talent of the apothecary. Mrs. Streckke praised him above all and complimented Amina how it had been her pleasure to introduce her enthusiasm towards herbalism to Mr. Augustin. Amina had to answer several questions but she managed to keep the conversation on herself and the apothecary instead of Tessa and her family. She hadn't had the courage to go see the kids yet.

It turned out that Mrs. Streckke had gone straight to Mr. Augustin after hearing from her husband about Amina's interests, to praise her will and motivation to help at the house and likewise elsewhere.

Amina was a little baffled and wondered if she had taken up a task far too great for her. As the whole family seemed to be in a good mood, Amina took the opportunity to ask what they would think about her performing at the town fair. She had heard at school that one was coming up in a couple of weeks. However, Amina wanted to be sure that the family had no objections to it before she asked Ms. Slava and last the chargé d'affaires.

Mr. Streckke thought about it for a while and came to the conclusion that, though he had personally had no interest in the Fatil legacy of the family and its continuation, he had no objections to Amina holding on to the legacy if it was acceptable to the other parties.

Amina thanked him and promised to ask Ms. Slava about it the very next day.

***

Ms. Slava had no reason to stop Amina from performing as she had already received the permission of the Streckke family but she doubted whether the chargé d'affaires would permit it.

Amina promised she would find it out as soon as possible. She had never met the chargé d'affaires of Tenera before, and she was anxious. However, she got help from an unexpected source.

Eric came to talk to her after the second day of school that week and first apologiced that he had paid heed to rumours, but he wanted to be sure if Amina was really intending to tell stories of the Fatil at the fair. As Amina admitted it to be so, he promised to accompany her to see the chargé d'affaires if they could go straight away.

Amina was grateful and relieved. Apparently Eric's family was well acquinted with the chargé d'affaires.

They walked over to the town hall where the office of the chargé d'affaires was.

Eric introduced Amina to him and let her take care of her own business. Amina asked as politely as she could for a permission to perform at the fair even though she admitted that she was rather young to do so and lacked in experience. She assured him that she knew her family's stories well. And she would not demand all the time that would be reserved for the stories and would be very willing to share the stage with other storytellers.

The chargé d'affaires of Tenera thought about it, with some creases appearing on his forehead as he frowned slightly. He asked Amina about her family in detail and came to the conclusion that they had at some point performed in his town. Eventually he found no reason to deny Amina the pleasure of performing, though he asked her to let the older and more experienced people share their stories first.

Amina thanked him kindly and repeated his thanks to Eric after they left the building.

Eric replied modestly that he had hardly done anything but helped her a little.

Amina shared the news with the Streckke family that night. In the evening, she wrote to both Kros and Jared because she wanted to share her happiness. The next day she gathered enough courage to go see Tessa and told her aswell.

***

A few days later, Amina received a letter from Kros. It was a reply to the letter she had sent earlier and she spent hours after hours reading it over and over again. Kros wrote how Kragu had grown and developed much, and how they all missed her even though they were happy that all was well with her. Nothing particular had happened in Groshna since she left but Kros told how some of the families whom they knew well were doing.

Amina had no time to feel homesick, as her days were full of activities. She tried to have time to see Tessa at least on two days each week but otherwise she spent all her afternoons arranging Mr. Augustin's jars. Amina thought it must be just her imagination that Ms. Slava was giving her less homework. However, the tasks she were to do on the common good days were definitely lighter, out of which the next two were dedicated to the preparations for the town fair.

On the last day before the fair Ms. Slava sent her students home at lunch time and told them to get ready for the fair, which would otherwise have been another common good day, but was now an extra day off.

Tessa was at school that week, and Amina had a chance to speak with her after school. Tessa and her siblings were headed to the woods again to gather some herbs, and Amina asked to join them.

They stopped by at the Streckke house so Amina could leave her school bag there as Tessa was waiting far enough from the house not to raise any trouble. Amina told the housemaid she'd be gone at least till dinner.

The children walked all over the woods surrounding the town and gathered many plants into a sack. Occasionally, the siblings would argue how some of the plants should be cut so they would be exactly how Mr. Augustin wanted them.

Amina listened carefully but didn't comment anything. She had not received any direct instructions or teaching from Mr. Augustin but she had listened to to his conversations with his customers and assistant about the proper use and storage of many of the ingredients. She had learned a lot while counting the insects and plants, though she still understood very little about the markings on the jars. Mr. Augustin had spent only a few moments to tell her about singular ingredients.

The afternoon went by fast and the children returned to town. Mr. Augustin went through their findings and frowned at some of the wilted plants. ”I would prefer these were cut closer to the root,” he commented on one of the plants.

Tessa's younger sister gave her sister a poisonous glare.

”Amina, take a look at this,” Mr. Augustin said as he picked up one of the plants that had a small bud on it. ”Here is a perfect young specimen. Even the roots seem to be in good condition...” and he explained in detail the use and preservation of the plant in question and asked Amina to preserve it as he had just described. The entire time he ignored the other children.

Amina took the plant from him with care and went to the back of the shop to prepare it. She had been to the back only a few times as she had very little business there but she knew where to find all the supplies she needed for the preservation. She worked fast but with great care and returned to the front of the shop.

Mr. Augustin was just counting coins on the counter and nodded at the children, who were watching with glee as Tessa collected the money into a small leather pouch. They thanked Mr. Augustin politely and waved at Amina as they left.

”Excellent. Quite a good catch for today, I'd say. Would you now tell me, my dear, what you have learned today?” Mr. Augustin asked.

Amina turned to the counter and told him what she could remember about the plants. She admitted her uncertanty at those points where the children had argued about the proper preparation of the plants.

Mr. Augustin listened to her with great patience and corrected all the errors. He thanked Amina for her great care and expressed his hopes of her returning to his aid after the fair.

Amina promised and courtesied as she left. She walked back to the Streckke house, exhausted. The sunny weather and long hours in the woods had almost drained her. Praie pointed out that she was just thirsty and hungry.

Amina smiled. Next time she'd make sure to take something to eat and drink with her. The day had been beautiful and useful in many ways. She had learned a lot. The Gahim was following her again amidst the trees but it still wouldn't show itself.

***

Amina spent most of the fair day with the Streckke family. Many merchants and craftsmen from afar had arrived on the previous day to get their stalls up on time along the streets. The Streckke family would visit only the finest of them. Amina looked around, curious, because she had a feeling she had met some of the merchants before. Her family had travelled a lot, so it was very possible, but she knew none of them well enough to dare greet them.

In the afternoon, the family stopped at the inn for some lunch as it felt futile to walk to the house and back again. Mr. Streckke had also given the servants the day off from after breakfast to late night. Amina hadn't been to the inn of Tenera before, and she compared it in her mind with the one in Groshna.

The afternoon in the whole was far more boring for Amina, as Mr. Streckke spent his time talking to his acquintances and they didn't visit any more stalls. Many people went home to get something to eat or to rest before the evening program began. Amina had heard there would be puppeteers, stories, and a dance show, and she was eagerly waiting for them all. She had no idea how many storytellers there would be or how many stories they would tell, but she was determined to stay at the fair as long as it took to get to tell at least one story of her own.

All of a sudden Mrs. Streckke expressed her weakness and asked that they would return to the house. Mr. Streckke was a little surprised but willing to return with his wife. He asked his son if he would stay with Amina, but he had absolutely no interest to mingle with the common folks any longer.

Amina was disappointed. She was about to ask Mr. Streckke if she could stay in town by herself, when he said over his shoulder that she was free to return to town a little later. Perhaps Mrs. Streckke would be feeling a little better then as well.

Amina sighed in relief in her mind.

***

The sun was closing in on the horizon, when Amina managed to gather enough courage to ask Mr. Streckke if she could already go back to town.

Mrs. Streckke was still feeling a little under the weather but she didn't want to keep everyone else in the house.

The whole family left for town again. Amina was walking in front and a little faster than the others, and she reached the town before dusk. She said hi to her friends from school, who told her that the storytellers had come and gone, and the set for the dance number was just being worked on the stage.

Amina smiled and pretended to be excited, even though disappointment filled her gut again.

The school children gathered closer to the stage to wait, as did many other villagers. Amina saw the Streckke family arrive a little after the show had begun, but they remained at a distance from the stage. The dance was a traditional Armaranian folk dance, which had a simpler version for casual dancing. It reminded in many ways the dances Amina had learned from the Gahim. She didn't even notice she was humming to the music and clapping her hands along with other people.

After the show, people moved further away from the stage and chatter filled the air. Amina couldn't see the Streckke family through the masses so she walked with her friends instead. She saw Tessa and her family a little further away and waved at them, but she didn't dare to go closer to greet them as she knew Mr. Streckke was nearby. Night had fallen during the dance show and lanterns were hung on the walls all over the town. Amina had fun talking to her friends and their families until there was some commotion near the stage. People were already gathering close to the stage, but Amina could see flying balls of fire above their heads. Amina asked her friends to come with her to see what was going on. They pressed past the taller adults right to the front of the stage.

The blacksmith was sitting on the edge of the stage, holding a few lit torches. In the middle of the stage was standing a man who was juggling skillfully with three lit torches. The flames of the torches created jumping shadows and patterns on his bare, muscular arms and focused but smiling face. The light was also playing on the gold of his multiple earrings.

Amina smiled wider than she had done in many weeks. She had not expected Jared to show up in the fair as he had told her nothing about it.