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The last thing Athena remembered before waking up was falling off Ponco. She wasn’t entirely sure what had caused this, she’d probably overestimated her ability to keep up with her master while training again. Since he was half orc, he always had the advantage in their combat training sessions, but that never stopped Athena from trying to outpace him.
When she opened her eyes, Athena found herself lying on a cot in an unknown cottage. Maybe Simon had taken her to an inn? She looked to her left, and saw her arm bent in an unnatural angle. At least I didn’t injure my spear holding arm, she thought to herself. The room she was in reminded her of Stillcoast, the village where she grew up, but with more strange potted plants.
Suddenly, a door opened, and a voice that definitely wasn’t Simon’s said, “Oh, you’re awake.” Athena tried to sit up to see who it was, but then she felt herself get dizzy and the voice said, “No, no, no, don’t get up!”
“Lay back down, you need to rest,” the voice said, and then a hand was pushing her back onto the pillows laid on top of the cot. Athena looked over at whoever was pushing her, and came face to face with a young elven girl. A few elves and half elves lived in Stillcoast before it was destroyed, but none of them looked quite like this one. Her complexion looked pretty human, but her hair was a warm auburn, with streaks of orange like autumn leaves. And her eyes had a faint magical glow. Perhaps she was from another realm?
The girl muttered something to herself in Sylvan as she touched Athena’s broken arm. Almost immediately, she could feel the bones realigning themselves and fusing back together.
“There, I fixed your arm,” the girl said, “but your master told me that you hit your head a little, so you’ll need to rest for a bit longer. I’ll go make you some tea.”
And with that, the girl was gone. Athena shifted to her side so she could look at the room she was in more. Luckily, there was a large window right in her line of vision, revealing a dense forest outside. Simon and her were doing mounted combat training in a large meadow, so he must’ve had to ride a long distance to find someone to heal her. Where was he right now, anyways? Knowing him, he was probably in a nearby village, trying to convince an innkeeper to lend them a room for the night.
Athena heard a small whinny from outside, which meant that Simon had left Ponco tied up somewhere outside, instead of taking her with him. Did this girl even have something to serve as a makeshift stable?
Said girl returned a minute later with two steaming cups of sweet-smelling tea. She set the cups down at a nearby table before rearranging the pillows on the cot so Athena could sit up, then handed her a cup. When she took a sip, it tasted like the strawberry pie Stillcoast’s bakery used to make for her birthdays as a child.
“Do you like it?” the girl said, “It’s a rare kind of Elvish tea, but I grow the leaves here, myself.”
Athena nodded, letting the cup warm up her hands. “I’ve never had anything like it,” she said, “Is it supposed to taste like strawberry pie?”
The girl took a sip of her own cup of tea before responding. “It tastes like whatever reminds the drinker most of home. The Elvish name for it translates to ‘homesick tea’ in Common, I believe.”
A tear rolled down Athena’s face when the girl mentioned home. She seemed to have picked up on this, because a moment later she was saying, “I can get you another kind of tea if this kind brings back hard memories—”
“No, it’s alright,” Athena said, then took a long sip of her tea. Now, she could practically taste the crisp, buttery crust of the pie on top of the ripe strawberries. She could even taste a hint of char left over from the baking process.
The girl looked at her inquisitively. “Your master didn’t give me a name when he dropped you off here, do you mind telling it to me?”
“My name’s Athena.”
“Juniper. If you don’t mind me asking, where’s your home?”
Another tear slipped out of Athena’s eye before she could stop it. “I grew up in a village called Stillcoast. It was right by the sea, so it attracted people from all over the world and of all different races. There was even a small orc tribe nearby that protected it. But it was destroyed by a demon-worshipping cult several years ago. Since then, Simon and I have been traveling together, going wherever we please.”
Juniper nodded, taking another sip of tea. “I grew up in the Feywilds, but I left there by choice a long time ago, and I’ve lived in this forest ever since.”
Athena looked out the large window behind where Juniper sat. As far as she could tell, there weren’t any other cottages nearby, just an endless expanse of trees.
“Does it ever get lonely out here?” she asked.
“Not exactly,” Juniper said, “a few adventuring parties stop by every once in a while. They’re usually quite interesting folk.” She paused for a moment, looking into her cup of tea. “But not as interesting as a half orc named Simon and his human apprentice.”
“Oh,” Athena said. She’d never thought about how odd their relationship might look to others. Sure, there was the occasional look of concern from a well-meaning peasant who saw a young girl traveling with a half orc nearly twice her size, but it wasn’t anything she couldn’t just ignore. But she’d never encountered someone who seemed genuinely interested before. “He grew up with the humans in the same village I did,” she continued, “so he got a human name.”
Juniper nodded. “How’s your head feeling? Are you faint or nauseous at all?”
“No, no, I’m fine,” Athena said, “this tea is actually helping me a lot. Didn’t you say that you grow the leaves yourself?”
“Oh yes,” she said, “I’ve always had an affinity for plants. I keep a whole collection of them in my back garden.”
“Do you have any more teas I could try whenever I stop by here next?”
To her surprise, Juniper started to blush. “I’m sure I can find… something you’d like.”
Just then, the door to the cottage swung wide open, and Simon stepped in, ducking slightly to get through the door.
“Are you feeling well, Athena?” he said, walking over to the cot.
“I’m fine,” she said, “Juniper fixed my arm.”
Simon nodded, then said, “We’re not doing any more training today. I found a room for us at an inn nearby.”
Athena set her cup of tea down on the table and slid out of the cot. After a few seconds of remembering how to stand properly, she gave Simon a thumbs-up, indicating that she was ready to go. Once he walked out of the cottage, Athena rummaged through the small pack at her waist until she found a gold coin with the scales of justice and a hammer engraved on it.
“Use this if you ever want to contact me,” she said, handing the coin to Juniper, “all you have to do is tap the scales once, then the hammer, and then the scales again.”
Juniper nodded, slipping the coin into one of her dress pockets. They waved goodbye to each other as Athena walked out of the cottage. When Athena and Simon got to the inn, she took out her own coin with the symbol of Tyr on it. It was enchanted so it would start flashing whenever someone activated it and create a glowing path to the activated copy of itself. This was the first time Athena gave out one of the copies, and to top it all off, it was to a person she’d just met. But there was something fascinating and comforting about Juniper, and Athena wanted to know what it was.
Besides, who knew if the cult that burned down Athena’s village would target her forest one day?