northclifflogs | Open | Some used your name for glory

Kadi looks at his hand warily. City folk, she has heard, will take any chance to rob you. That would be easier to do if she kept her money on her person. She shakes his hand.

"Kadi. I've got some herbs that could help your animals, if you're buying."

"It's good to meet you, Kadi, and what do you have?" He doesn't use a lot of herbs. Mostly he uses him... but he can't exactly say that and he needs to put up a show of using the herbs. Sometimes they help. Sometimes he just makes tea. And then sometimes he sees what makes interesting, light-headed-inducing smoke when tossed in the fireplace.

Her wariness is noted as something to work on; Detlef is nothing if not persistent in making friends.

"Witch hazel," Kadi tells him happily. "Feverfew, skullcap, elderflower, echinacea. I'm not putting the apothecary out of business, but it's what I have left after selling to him."

"Feverfew," he echoes with interest. "I'll take some of that, thank you; I'm running low." He gets headaches sometimes, and perhaps unsurprisingly they've increased now that people know his secret and he's spoken up publicly. One day his stress level will go down, but it's not there yet.

"How much?" Detlef has to very gently reach past the kitten to get his coins out, and there's a little mew of protest before a fuzzy head pops out of his pocket. Moose tries to attach herself to his sleeve and he winds up gently (and fondly) moving her to the crook of an arm. "Sorry. She's the runt of the litter and she's being bullied by her siblings so I thought I'd remove her from them for a time and see what that changes."

Kadi grins wide and measures out the feverfew, naming the price the apothecary gave her for it. "You have a gentle heart."

The baby stirs a little and rubs an eye before settling back into sleep.

"So you take care of all the animals here?" she asks in some awe. "We didn't even have a healer for people, where I came from."

"I do what I can," he answers as he hands over the appropriate amount. "I know horses, cows, and cats. The rest I do my best with. I don't think I'll ever know every animal, but I'm starting to get to know sheep."

The baby gets another glance; he thought it had wiggled but it's gone still again. Sleeping? He's heard they have to sleep a lot. "And we've got a doctor, some of the time. He's a little creepy."

The baby's arms and legs stretch out before her eyes are even open. She goes through a range of motions, wiggling her way out of her sleep. Then her forehead bunches a little and those blue eyes open. She hasn't been asleep long enough to be hungry yet, but Kadi spots her during her waking-up process and smiles.

"Do you want to hold my baby? I'd like to hold yours." She bends and picks up the newborn, beaming down at her proudly and touching her little nose before offering her to her new friend.

"Do I..." He's never held a tiny person before. His eyes go a little wide as he sets the kitten down on Kadi's counter before reaching for the baby. The kitten mews and he whispers a quiet 'it's okay, little one,' probably to kitten, baby, and himself all at once. Cats can go on counters. Babies probably can't. And he's sure Kadi will pick her up quickly, but it's taking a lot of his attention as he carefully, gingerly brings the baby close.

"Like, um, this? And Moose would like to be picked up sooner rather than later." She's mewing again, emphasizing this.

Kadi picks up Moose, who is so much softer than she ever anticipated. Oh, what a darling little creature.

"Like that," she tells him. "Support her bottom and head." Now she is free to be entranced with the tiny kitten, who is already purring. "She is so--oh."

The 'oh' comes from being gently headbutted in the face by a kitten. This is paradise, isn't it? Having a community that isn't holding her feet to the fire, and holding a kitten.

He makes sure he's supporting the baby, who is gurgling at him now.

"What's her name?" She, Kadi had said. He's barely gotten her mother's name and he's already holding her and looking into her tiny pudgy baby face. There isn't a chance Detlef could pick her out of a lineup of ten babies, or even five, but he'll definitely confirm she's cute. A glance also confirms that Moose is okay over there, already purring and glad to be held by someone paying attention to just her. This is... nice. A little scary, but nice.

"Silfa." Kadi beams at the kitten as she scratches under her chin. "It means 'forest.' Named after my best friend."

"Silfa," he echoes. Does his name have a meaning? He'd never actually thought to ask, and now he's long gone from where he came from so it's likely he'll never know. Oh well. It's not like it had ever mattered to him before.

"I could start giving my cats dignified names, but then they might get airs and you don't want cats thinking more of themselves than they already do." The baby sticks out her tongue and he sticks his our right back at her, because he is a fully grown adult and it is absolutely what fully grown adults do. "Lady Moose, for instance. She might become the bully instead, and that wouldn't do."

This is what she wanted. A community, rather than a commune, where people aren’t waiting to catch her in a mistake. The kitten purrs loudly, eyes sliding closed.

“Have you lived here all your life?” she asks him.

"I haven't," he says. Tentatively, Detlef tries rocking the baby and she doesn't seem to mind. He doesn't know if she likes it, which is really what he'd been hoping to figure out, but she seems unbothered at least.

"I moved here about four years ago and apprenticed to the former stablemaster. I'd some experience beforehand, and it meant that when he wanted to retire he had a replacement." He gives her a smile. "Do you have anywhere you call home?"

“Right here.” A smile blooms over her face. “This is my home now. Here, and the woods out there. I’ve never known people could be so kind as they are here. The very first person I met gave me all of Silfa’s clothes and clouts, and the second gave me his own meal at the inn. Where else would I go?”

"That's a, it's a good introduction," he says a little slowly. "Our village is nice, but it's not all like that, just so you're warned." There are many who would give here, and there are some who can't, or won't. And then there's the visits from the Shepherds. He likes this village.

But it's not perfect.

"Some days might be a little more difficult than others."

Kadi’s eyes roll at him.

“I know not everyone is like that. But where I’m from, no one is like that. Strangers aren’t welcome there.”

Open | Some used your name for glory

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