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Aidan awoke to a voice outside his window shouting up at him.
“Hello? You awake?”
Aidan opened one eye to glare towards the window. He pulled his blanket over his head and closed his eyes again, waiting for the person to leave.
“I need you to give me something else, like, right now. That potion you gave me is making see stuff that ain't there!”
Aidan sighed and grumbled, crawling out of bed. He peered down at the scruffy man under his tree and rolled his eyes. He looked drunk and about to fall over, and the sun was barely up.
“Are you drunk?” Aidan yelled down, “I told you drinking wouldn't mix well with the medicine I gave you.”
The man squinted up at him, mumbling his words. “No, you....can't ya give me something else?”
“No. You'll have to stop drinking until you're healed.”
Looking rather frustrated, the man stared blankly before pointing a shaky hand at him. “....useless healer! Fraud! You better give me my gold back, or I'm gonna...go gather the townsfolk and have them burn your tree down!”
Aidan let his head droop back, groaning as he gripped the window ledge tightly. It was laughable, the thought that a drunk could convince anyone to help him, even more so that he thought he could burn Aidan's treehouse. The whole tree was well fireproofed with magic. Aidan was not just a healer, but a practitioner of fire magic. What kind of idiot would he be if a stray spark caused everything he owned to go up in flames? Of course the house was protected.
The man was still shouting threats and shaking his fists when Aidan glanced down again, grinning.
“Hah, I'd like to see you try,” He murmured to himself, and then added more loudly over the continued complaining. “Oh, piss off!”
As the man's angry mumbling faded into the distance down the road, Aidan turned to start some water boiling on the stove for his morning tea. Now that he was up earlier than usual, he might as well start his day. Setting a clean mug next to the kettle, he noticed some more movement outside his window.
“Better not still be there,” Aidan groaned as he went to the window again. Thankfully, the drunk was gone, and in his place stood a woman holding the reins of her horse. She was waiting patiently, looking timidly at the ground, probably worried that he'd yell at her, too. Even from up high, Aidan could tell the horse was in pain, shifting from foot to foot and lifting one hoof more than the others. The woman glanced up slowly, and then back down at the grass.
“Hey, I'll be right down, okay? Wait there!”
The woman gave him a small smile, and then Aidan turned away, rushing to put on some clothes. He started pulling herbs down off the shelves next to the stove, grinding them together with a mortar and pestle, healing energy flowing from his fingers as easily as breathing. He didn't need to get close to tell that the horse had an injured hoof, the favoured leg seeming to be swollen. Aidan scooped the paste into a small metal tin and tucked it in a pouch on his belt, as well as some tools to help inspect the injury.
Aidan barely remembered to put out the flame under the kettle, before he climbed down to the ground. His tea could wait, but this horse would not be standing much longer if the hoof wasn't taken care of. At the last second, he grabbed an apple off the table, taking it with him.
“Morning, Miss,” He called out, carrying a wooden stool over and setting it next to the horse. Aidan gave her his best welcoming smile he could muster at this time of day, before turning his attention to the horse. “What's her name?”
“Windsong, Sir. Windy for short.”
Aidan nodded, and held out the apple, placing it in her hands and gesturing to the beautiful mare. “No need to call me Sir. Just Aidan. Will you keep her calm while I take a look at her hoof?”
“I'm Genevieve, by the way,” She added, wrapping the reins around her hand tighter, while offering the apple to her horse. Windy gobbled it up quickly, and Aidan smiled, reaching out slowly to allow Windy to sniff his hand. Then he began to stroke her mane gently, before moving to pat her side. “She's gorgeous, but that hoof doesn't look good. Where do you keep her?”
While Genevieve took up the task of petting Windy and trying to keep her still, Aidan pulled the stool closer and sat upon it, leaning in and lifting Windy's injured foot. The hoof was cracked and the skin inflamed. Aidan scraped at the hoof with a small knife, exposing more infected tissue, causing the horse to whinny and shy away. He scooted back before she could kick him.
“We keep her in the stables mostly on rainy days. Been raining more this year, it seems. Raining so hard the other day, the roof has been starting to leak.”
'You don't say,' Aidan thought to himself, digging in his pouch for the tin. “Have to be careful to keep the stables dry. If the straw stays wet for too long, her hooves can get infected and rot, and this one looks pretty bad already. Horses spend a lot of time standing up, so need to take extra care that their hooves are in good shape.” Aidan popped the lid off the tin to show Genevieve. “Rub a little of this paste on the infected hoof every day and wrap it up in cloth for a few hours so she can't wipe it off before it soaks in. And make sure to keep those stables as dry as you can.”
He pulled Windsong's hoof closer again, and demonstrated the process, pulling a scrap of cloth from his pouch to tie around the hoof once the salve had been applied. His hand lingered for another moment, glowing faintly before he released Windy and held out the tin to Genevieve. “I've numbed the pain for now, to ease the walk home.”
Genevieve grinned widely, and tucked the tin away, digging in the folds of her dress to retrieve a pouch of jingling coins. She thrust a handful of gold at him, and Aidan's eyes widened as he counted the coins she'd dropped into his hands. “I know its not much, but...”
“No, no, this is way too much! It's no trouble.” Aidan returned half the coins as he looked over her patched dress and worn shoes. She looked like she needed the money more than he did. “Go buy something nice for dinner instead.”
Genevieve looked flustered as she hesitated, and then put the gold back in her pocket. “Thank you, I'll take better care of her!” She waved as she started back down the road, Windsong following along behind her.
Aidan waved back, and then turned to climb up into his treehouse again. He snickered as he saw Ryu perched in the branches near the window. Ryu meowed loudly and scrambled back inside as Aidan climbed up. He sighed as he started the water for his tea boiling again, before pulling down a jar of smoked fish from a container. “Hold on, Ryu. I didn't forget about you!” He scooped some into Ryu's bowl, where the cat was whining up at him, pacing impatiently. He had barely pulled the spoon back when Ryu began digging in, making enthusiastic noises of enjoyment. Aidan ruffled the cat's fur before returning the jar.
Aidan was barely pouring the boiling water into his tea and deciding on what to eat when he heard another voice outside. Busy days like this made him glad he lived up in a tree where people couldn't barge in if he ignored them.
If they didn't have an especially cute animal with them, they could rot in Hel while he drank his tea.