Chương 73: 71 - The Apothecary's Shop

The next morning, Jonny and Igrette found themselves in a wagon, accompanied by the entire Smith family. What had started as just a regular errand run had turned into a full family excursion, and the only one missing was Oliver. That was probably for the best, though. There were a number of other things in the wagon too, like milk and butter and leather, which made the whole ride fairly cramped even without the giant man taking up an extra seat. There were three conversations going on at once at the moment.

The first was between Haley and Alden, who were talking about business or something that Jonny couldn't hear well. The second was between the twins and Igrette. They were bouncing ideas off her to enhance their pit. They wanted to take the boulder Jonny had moved, along with a few others that they had unearthed, cut them up, and use them to make a more solid ground and wall, but they were struggling to make the cuts clean.

And while Igrette wasn't really the best at ordinary elemental magic, she was old and experienced, and she was good at cutting things, so she proved to be a surprisingly valuable resource to them. The final conversation was between Emily and Olivia, who had fully patched things up since the tea party, apparently. Olivia was busy teaching Emily about different teas, and under what occasions they would be served.

It was an unexpectedly interesting topic, and Jonny found himself eavesdropping on that one more than the others. He wasn't even a tea person, but when Olivia started telling Emily about how certain teas worked as death threats, he couldn't help but listen closer. Then, all the conversations stopped at once, and Emily let out a small shriek of terror as a shadow fell over the wagon.

Jonny balled his fists, worried about danger, then cursed under his breath as he saw a familiar blue-gray form settle down on top of a barrel in the middle of the wagon.

"Chuck!" he exclaimed.

"You can't just do that!" Chuck landed right in the middle of the wagon, and turned to Jonny, holding something in his mouth.

"Chuck?" said Emily, opening her eyes. She then screamed again when she saw what was in his mouth. Jonny wasn't particularly happy about it either, especially not when Chuck dropped it in his lap.

"What the–?" he said, grabbing it.

"Chuck, what am I supposed to do with a live rat?" He grabbed the wriggling furball by the tail, and after a moment of indecision, tossed it over his shoulder. He turned to watch it land on the edge of the road, immediately bouncing to its feet and turning to watch them. It did not move after that, continuing to watch them as it shrank into nothing but a dark speck on the side of the road.

"Chuck, what the heck was that?" Jonny asked, turning back to the cloud hawk. Chuck screeched in response, seeming annoyed.

"What?" asked Jonny.

"What did you want me to do with that?" Chuck screeched again, then turned to face Emily, who was now interested again now that there was no rat. She reached out to scratch under his chin, which he really enjoyed.

"Everything okay back there?" called Alden from the front.

"We're fine," replied Olivia.

"Chuck, you can't be here," said Jonny.

"We're gonna be in the village soon."

"No, stay here, Chuck," said Jacob, reaching out to scratch the top of the bird's head.

"Yes, it will be funny," said Joshua.

"I bet Mr. Turner would like you," said Emily.

"We're not bringing the bird into the village," said Haley.

"Chuck, you're going to have to leave."

"Awww," said Emily and the twins. If Chuck understood that statement, he did not show it. He just stayed where he was, enjoying the attention of the Smith family, and leaning in to some of the better scratches. Jonny sighed and reached out to give him a quick scratch under his ear, then leaned back and turned to look behind them. It was hard to tell from this far out, but he swore he could still see the rat standing on the side of the road and staring at them.

"A rat again…?" mused Igrette.

"Apparently. That's the third time now. I think you might be right about that disease thing."

"Maybe," said Igrette, reaching out to scratch Chuck's head.

"Don't worry, Charles. I'll look into it." The hawk did not acknowledge that either, enjoying the attention from all around. Olivia did not touch him, and Jonny refuse to reward him for bringing them another rat, but everyone else had a hand or two on him, and he was loving it. He had to be shooed by Igrette, but Chuck did leave before they got into the village. Emily whined, and the twins tried goading her into whining more and letting Chuck stay, but the Smith parents were firm.

They would not be bringing in the four-foot-tall magical bird of prey into the village with them. The first stop was the local blacksmith, whose last name was Tanner. The cattle farmers being named Smith and the smith being named Tanner was apparently a constant source of amusement for the villagers. The carpenter's son was present when they arrived, and commented about "the real Smiths" showing up.

Alden Smith left a bundle of worn or damaged tools behind, and picked up a few replacements, giving the blacksmiths a few coins in the process. After that, it was on to the tailor and cobbler. The two had a strange sort of artisanal rivalry, and their workshops were across the street from each other. When the Smiths arrived, they both came out and got into a small bidding war over the leather, with the loser—the cobbler—calling the winner an idiot for paying so much.

The tailor was smug in his victory, and purchased a majority of the leather, leaving only some of the scraps for his rival.

"Dumbasses," said the twins, shaking their heads in disappointment as they drove away. The second to last stop was the tavern, where Jonny helped unload a couple crates full of cheese, and some salted meats. The tavern keeper offered them meat pies for their troubles, which Jonny gladly accepted two of. He devoured both before the rest of the Smiths had finished one, and well before they reached their final stop, the apothecary. Before the wagon even stopped, Emily was already leaping out and running for the door.

Her parents both called for her to stop, but she ignored them, pulling the unlocked door open, and running inside. There was nothing to unload from the wagon at this stop, so it was only a few seconds before the rest followed behind. The shop smelled so strongly of herbs that opening the door hit Jonny with a wave of fumes so strong he couldn't help but make a face. It wasn't bad, but it was a lot, and he wasn't expecting it. The interior was relatively small, at least in this part.

It looked like only the front half of the bottom floor was used as the shop. There was a standing shelf in the center, and shelves all along every wall with herbs of all kinds, both fresh and preserved. Jonny recognized maybe one of them that Igrette had taught him about during their stay in the mountains, but everything else was unfamiliar. He looked around, trying to find where Emily had gone.

She was not in the front half of the shop, so he walked around the central shelf and found her standing on her toes in front of a small counter in the back, reaching for something in a basket sitting atop it.

"Emily!" snapped Haley. Emily whipped her hand back, something small clenched in her hand.

"Put that back!"

"Put what back?" Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

"Don't play dumb with me! I saw that. Put. It. Back." Emily glanced at her mother, then back at the basket above her, then down at her arm. Jonny could practically see the gears turning in her mind as she plotted her next move. Then, exactly as Jonny predicted, she suddenly pulled the wrapped candy out from behind her and tried to open it and shove it in her mouth. She failed. Jonny felt a small surge of mana, and before Emily could get the paper wrapper off, the candy had been blown up and out of her hand.

Emily leapt for it, but it flew out of her reach, flying in a neat arc before landing back in the basket.

"No!" she shouted.

"If you want a candy, you need to ask," said Haley.

"But Mr. Turner always lets me have some," Emily whined.

"Then wait until he lets you. Don't just take."

"But–!"" Wait." Emily opened her mouth to argue back, but a glare from her mother made her think twice, and she settled for crossing her arms and glaring back. Jonny had to turn away to hide a small smirk. While he did, he took another look around the shop. Alden was stroking his beard as he looked at a jar of some kind of flower, and Olivia was on the opposite side of the shop, running her fingers along a basket of a dried purple something or other and leaning in for a sniff.

The twins were looking at another herb and whispering to each other in a way that made Jonny certain they were planning something their parents would not approve of. He continued looking around the room until his gaze was suddenly drawn to the front left corner of the shop, where another pair of eyes was looking back at him. The eyes belonged to a long-furred cat that looked like some variety of Maine coon.

It was sitting on the top shelf next to a row of jars of green herbs, and it was perfectly still as it watched the shop. Ordinarily, Jonny would not have paid much mind to a cat sitting in a very cat place and watching interesting newcomers in the shop, but he felt a strange unease as it looked at him. After seeing the rat on the way in, and hearing Igrette's theory about what was going on, something seemed off about the way it was staring..

He wasn't sure if it was just him, or if there was actually something strange going on, but now that the thought had crossed his mind, he was feeling paranoid. Blink, motherfucker, he thought as he stared at the cat.

"Sir Harrington!" said a voice beside his ear. The cat finally moved, standing up and seemingly liquifying its body as it climbed down the shelves to the ground. Emily held her hands out, the cat ran up to her, pushing its back into her hands as she scratched it. It didn't look diseased at all. Maybe I was just imagining things. He still didn't take his eyes off the cat, but it was behaving normally now, as far as he could tell. And sitting on a shelf and staring wasn't necessarily weird.

There was just something unsettling about its gaze.

"Ma-ax!" called Haley. He turned to see her cupping her hands around her mouth, and calling in the general direction of the door to the back of the building. There was no response at first, nor when she called two more times, so she put her hands on her hips with a sigh.

"He must be out," said Alden.

"Oh, ya think?"

"Let's give him a few minutes. He usually doesn't go out for long. Not at this time of day."

"Kids, don't touch anything if you don't know what it is! And you'd better not break anything, or else– Hey!" The two adults rushed over toward where the twins were trying to open a jar filled with something labeled as dangerous. Jonny watched in amusement for a moment before turning his attention back to the cat. It was now on its back, twisting around as Emily rubbed its stomach. It looked perfectly normal, to the point that Jonny almost believed that he had hallucinated the unease earlier.

Then, he knelt down to pet it himself, and it paused for just a second, looking at him with that same glassy-eyed stare for just a moment before returning to normal. Fuck, he thought. Am I going insane? Haley scolded the twins for whatever they had been trying to do, and Olivia grabbed a small cloth bag from beside the purple flower basket and started filling it up. Meanwhile, Jonny just uneasily pet the cat while Emily crooned over how adorable it was. Mr.

Turner arrived not long after, only seconds after Haley finished yelling at the twins. If he wasn't out of breath, Jonny would have thought that he had been waiting outside the door for her to finish.

"Oh, I am so sorry!" he exclaimed. He squeezed past the twins, hugging a small leather sack close to his chest as he hurried toward the counter with the candy. Jonny noticed that he looked just as gaunt and exhausted then as he had the day before. Was that just his usual state, or had something happened?

"I didn't expect you to come in right now."

"It's quite alright," said Haley, smiling sweetly as if she hadn't been threatening the twins.

"We didn't tell you beforehand."

"I was out buying soda ash," said Mr. Turner, holding up his bag.

"To get rid of smells. Sir Harrington knocked over a bottle of milk. Cats, you know? I cleaned it as best I could, but it's starting to smell. And Alan just happened to have some soda ash on hand. Lucky me!" He gave a nervous chuckle, glancing rapidly between the Smith parents and the cat in question. Sir Harrington did not react in the slightest to his name being said aloud.

"So, what can I get for you?" asked Mr. Turner after a moment of awkward silence.

"The usual?"

"Yes, and we were hoping to get a few other things," said Alden.

"One of the new calves is having some skin issues…" Alden started talking about what he needed, and Mr. Turner lost some of his nervous energy as he led the cattle farmer around the shop, showing him a few herbs that could be useful. As he did, their footsteps apparently started the cat, because he rolled over, gave Jonny one last odd stare, then ran away, jumping up onto the counter and having a seat as it watched the proceedings of the shop. Jonny watched it back, but it seemed to be behaving normally now.

Its tail twitched randomly, and its gaze was constantly moving, never staying on one place for too long.

"Psst!" said a voice in his ear. Jonny turned to see Emily leaning forward to whisper to him.

"What?" Jonny whispered back.

"Let's grab some candies," she said. Jonny looked up at Haley who was very much still in line of sight, though she did look a little distracted with both watching the apothecary show her husband around, and keeping an eye on the twins to make sure they didn't get up to anything. He had no doubt she would notice if they took some candy, though.

"Let's ask Mr. Turner," he whispered back.

"But–" Emily started, but Jonny was already moving. He walked up to stand beside the apothecary and rancher, waiting for them to finish the segment of their conversation. He did not wait long, because both men stopped talking very soon after Jonny arrived and turned to look at him.

"Can we have some candies?" he asked.

"Candies?" asked Mr. Turner.

"Oh, yes, yes, of course. You can have…"

"Two," said Haley.

"Yes, two. Two apiece. Help yourselves." The apothecary made to return to his conversation, but Jonny stopped him.

"Also, have you noticed anything weird about Sir Harrington lately?"

"S– Sir Harrington?" Mr. Turner "Weird? Weird how?" Mr. Turner scratched his neck just under his collar, and seemed to get a little more nervous than he already was.

"Yeah," said Jonny.

"Like, sitting still and staring for a long time instead of moving around."

"Oh, that? That's just how he is. Sir Harrington has always been very– very observant. He likes to sit in the corner and watch the customers come in whenever he can. Perfectly normal."

"Are you sure?"

"Oh, yes, yes, completely. This is just how he normally is."

"Oh… Well, there might be a disease going around in the rats, so make sure you keep an eye on him."

"A disease?" said Mr. Turner.

"Oh no, how horrible. I'll definitely keep an eye on him. We don't have any rats in here, but he sometimes gets out. I'll make sure to keep a closer eye on him, though. Thank you." He smiled and ruffled Jonny's hair. Jonny felt like he somehow wasn't being taken very seriously, but after a second, he decided he didn't care enough. The cat was a little weird, but it definitely didn't look sick now, and if anyone knew how to help a sick cat, it was the apothecary.

If something happened to Sir Harrington, it was now all on Mr. Turner. Jonny had done his part. Mr. Turner turned back to the adults as well as Igrette, and they had a long chat. Long enough that all the kids except Olivia got bored. There wasn't much to do in a shop full of herbs they weren't allowed to touch.

"Mom, can we go to the market early?" asked Jacob.

"Sure," she replied.

"Be safe."

"Can we have some money?" asked Joshua.

"No. If you see something you want, ask me when we get there."

"But–""No. Last time I gave you money, you blew it on those fire poppers and almost set the couch on fire."

"We promise not to get anything explosive."

"Strangely enough, that's not very reassuring."

"But–""No is no."

"Awww…"

"Mom–" started Emily.

"And take your sister," said Haley.

"And Jonny." Emily beamed and turned away, running to join the twins, who were already at the door. The twins looked mildly annoyed, but waited just long enough for Jonny and Emily to catch up before dashing out the door.