“Ne, ne what’s your name good someone?” Seriously who did this old man think he was? Sorcha narrowed her eyes and stared at the man before she decided that he shouldn’t mean harm, else he wouldn’t have called her good someone. As he had done before when she had first come at the store, which was about two or three hours ago. She didn’t see a clock and she couldn’t look at the sun to see. She decided that it couldn’t harm much as she had a couple of questions for this man anyway, ”Sorcha.” She said calmly, her surname didn’t matter, it didn’t belong to the humans, it belonged to the elves, even though it was probably not a very strange name and apart from that it didn’t matter, her family was gone. Her uncle was there still but still in the elf town so it didn’t matter. She tried to give a short smile to this human because well it was polite to try and be nice, she worked on this mask at the moment. Magnolia wasn’t so positive anymore after the harm the town had done, why was she even surprised. She walked towards the counter where Khalash stood behind, time to ask him a few things, ”Ah Sorcha, a beautiful elven name.” She didn’t say anything and gave another polite smile, ”You haven’t come across any other elves have you?” The old man shook his head immediately than stopped and looked at the ceiling and she couldn’t help but follow his gaze albeit reluctant. He was just thinking, as she had suspected, ”Or did I?” She wasn’t sure but the rhetorical way of the question annoyed her a little. ”One with Auburn hair?” But the old man shook his head, ”You mean your hair colour because certainly not.” So none of her brothers.

It was a shame, she hoped he had more clues but this idle chat would continue as she could ask a few more things, he seemed like an old man, albeit a weird behaviour she was sure it was a facade for the show. To play dumb, she let that be but kept on asking her question, what happened to elves in this town, he didn’t know. If the rumour was true about a man that traded in elves and again he didn’t know. The answer seemed to be genuine and she let it be. Perhaps it was not this man, ”I have to go.” she muttered and she had to change her plan, she had no idea if she still felt up for it to go to the woods and meditate. Perhaps it was still for the best, especially because this had been futile, no answers. ”Sorcha, could you pick up some herbs for me while you go to the woods again?” She turned around to look at Khalash and shook her head with a smile, ”Sure.” He explained which herbs he needed and she nodded and left the shop to walk back to the forest again.

She longed for another season than winter, but before you know it, time would pass and it would be spring again. Winter was something that belonged to nature and that was necessary but it didn’t mean that Sorcha liked the cold. She longed for the warm home feeling that had been her home and even though she hadn’t liked her home, it was a shame that she basically had none at the moment. Travelling for a while, staying at her uncle most of the time wasn’t the same. Her uncle had treated her as an adult even when she was just sixteen by the time she came to stay with him and her aunt. Who had died by a strange illness only months later. She was afraid to get the blame but her uncle only kept her closer to make sure no harm would come to her and that’s the first time that she cried. She had missed that with her own father, with her own mother and even though her brothers had showed their brotherly love, it wasn’t the same as parent love. She took care of her uncle but as he heard rumours after four years that there was a trader for elves and that some auburn haired elves were spotted, he send her out on this mission. But this mission was going rather slow and she wasn’t sure but she was afraid she would disappoint her uncle.

She shook her head as she arrived at the edge of the forest, she would have to stop getting distracted and sentimental, it was a distraction. She would not need someone, even though that would be hopelessly romantic, she couldn’t afford to lose her goal by something so.. unnecessary. She grabbed the herbs that she found, thanking mother nature for creating it and put it in the pocket of her robe. She walked on into the forest, as if she was some sort of sleep walker. Watching but not per se registering what was going on until it was necessary. She walked on while meditating in a way that she learned herself. To calm down, get to the state of tranquillity and let go. She needed to find the second herb, she knew it only grew on rotten logs and she didn’t see any at the beginning of the forest and walked further in, to the more thick grown part to find a fallen tree and find the blue lichen. She put it in the other pocket of her robe very carefully and thanking the earth again before walking on to the deep part of the forest, her favourite part. As if she was dancing on the ground, she barely made a sound and grab the red leafed vine from the biggest tree in the middle. This she held in her left hand as she made her way back to Magnolia centre, back to Khalash his magic store. She had enough time to still wander and think about another approach to this. She could use some money and give it to people to buy information. She rethought this approach the whole way back and handed almost mindlessly the herbs to Khalash and watched what he did with them. He handed her not much later a vial and told her to taste it and she only frowned but took a sip and felt the same energy the root had given her from this afternoon but its flavour was very different. She shook her head, ”You and your friends might surprise me all the time.” Than he handed her the reward and told her to come back later for a couple of different jobs. She surely would.