Enter the Witchwood

(( Mmf... Garlic. <3 ))

Ellith smiled. "It would be helpful, and I can always help you with improving your writing." Her eyes were lit with excitement. She leaned over the table and kissed his cheek. "I'll find an empty book for you to use." With that, she stood and swept past him, nearly dancing in the narrow space between table and counter before she emerged into the wider main room, and headed to the shelf.

As she searched, she spoke. "I take it you don't write often back home?" Her hands rifled among her books, and she flipped several open to check their pages as she waited absently for an answer. "I taught Belly early, and I almost regret it." The comment was absent-minded, made as she noticed his scribbles in the margins of one book, slowly improving as the pages went on.
 
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It was hard to not to smile when the warmth of her iOS pressed into his stubble covered cheek. "It'd be appreciated." Words came like a sound of contentment as his eyes followed her out of the room. To write again without any strain would help greatly, making him feel that much quicker with his mind. Sometimes the lack of mental stimulation made him feel like a fool.

"Wasn't much to write about to be honest." In the chair he swiveled with one arm over the back and the other upon the table. "Maybe a note here and there.. Never anything more." Over he leaned, trying to catch a glimpse of what the woman was seeking.

"It's good he learned though. I think he'd make quite the scholar if he could sit still." Sam wasn't he boy's father and felt out of place making the comment, even if it had been positive.

"Are those things safe though? What if I forget something when I learn something new..?"
 
Ellith smiled as she listened to his questions and comments. Beliam would be a wonderful scholar, yes, if he ever settled down, though even without being able to sit still, he was quick-witted and studious, often taking time to sit and re-read books and ask her about things in them. He rarely asked about the content anymore, instead asking why a word was chosen, or why the writer chose a certain aspect. Deeper questions that she knew how to answer, sometimes.

She let the man finish while she finally found an empty book. "Perfectly safe. I've yet to forget anything, at least, though I do get forgetful short-term, I've always been like that since I was little." She laughed, then placed the empty book in front of him. it was hand-bound in rigid leather, with pages made from some kind of rigid fiber. "I should get you something to write with, shouldn't I?" She thought a moment. "Ink is easiest for me, and it won't wipe away like charcoal." She nodded, then walked to the shelf again to fetch ink and a pen.

The ink was smooth, and a good shake with the cork in made it nice and evenly-pigmented. The pen she handed him was made of wood. It fit nicely in his hand, and the tip was fashioned similarly to a metal nib might be-- with a line that went up from the tip to a small dip. "Take the last page to doodle in a bit to get used to it. People always call my pens troublesome." She grinned. "I have no problem with them, though."
 
Her words brought comfort to his soul and peace to his mind. How could a woman as sweet as she take such things and be fine where he worried like a paranoid old priest. The mirthful laughter he let slip to match hers was honest in his show of relief.

"Don't see that many books around my old town." He mused as the offered book was lifted for examination. No man of the times sat at the table but it felt good all the while to feel the weight of flat pages and firm bindings. Maybe Beliam would lead on where Sam had shirked and become a great writer? Ellith sure made it seem with how firmly he grasped it.

At her mention he slid his finger into the rear of the book and flipped it to the back. "Only the back?" Before any more words formed and left his lips the pen was already gliding across the paper in smooth and angled slopes.

Even he was surprised when it stopped and he lifted it away. A leaf lay on the page, shadowed by thick lines where thin ones accentuated its veins. It was one he didn't recognize that made him reach out for the woman with an open hand before words found him.

"Where is this from?" The pen went flat upon the table. There was a hint of fear to the solid man's voice, as if he feared what he may write or create next.
 
The woman looked down at it. "Just the back to get used to the pen and paper is what I meant. You can use the whole book, but the back can easily be discarded if it's just got a bunch of notes." She paused as he began to draw something. "Oh. That's a nightshade leaf." She smiled. "Good to know what poison plants look like." She watched him a few moments.

Never before had she seen anyone who'd tried the berries act so... possessed by them. "Here, hold off a moment." She smiled at him, then bent to get something from a low cupboard. She pulled out a dark brown bottle, then grabbed a tin cup and poured some red wine in before she handed it to him. "This should help calm your nerves. The berries really are nothing to fear, you know. You're still you-- you just have a few new memories."

(( XD;; This is getting a bit much. They're not supposed to be quite THAT intensive. lol ))
 
((Buh. Thought I had a reply sent for this so long ago. Sorry for this delay.))

"Never seen it before.." Maybe he had and forgotten? Doubtful, to him it felt like. Perhaps somewhere beneath a memory that wasn't his there sat leaves just like this. Poisonous though they were.

For the wine he was grateful to have it warm it's way down his throat. The view she'd offered when gathering it wasn't bad either as he traced words from memory. These were easier as he wrote his own name and other common words used back home.

Drunken disorderly. Was the number one thing, it made him grin at the thoughts for sure his own. "It's still so strange." To her he looked with a smile, lifting the glass in a half-toast of gratitude. "To eat something and learn something. Usually it just makes you full, content.. Maybe sick if you ate too much of the wrong thing."

"Is that why you live here? To keep those so close?"
 
(( S'alright. You gave my brain time to get some more juices goin'. <3 ))

She shook her head. "No, I came to live here because I was a menace as a child, and my parents thought I would be safer out here." She laughed. "They didn't know how wrong they were until I was settled in!" Ellith smiled as she poured herself a small amount of wine and sat across from him again. "My parents had no idea the forest was like this until they couldn't afford to back out of their plans, so they did what they could to make sure I was safe."

An absent smile played at the corners of her lips as she looked down into her tin cup as she swirled the red liquid around.

The almost-purple wine smelled strong, and it wouldn't take much to, if she drank it, feel its effects. Best to use moderation—she wasn't accostomed to drinking. "The berries are just a pleasant treat."
 
((Silver linings!))

"That bad?" Sam mused with a coy smile as he nursed the remains of his given drink. The writing utensil still in his hand tapped once upon the page before writing his name once more with a little flourish at the end, just a quick swirl that added a few lines below it as if to accentuate his mundane name.

While he listened the cup rose once more to his lips. The drink was aromatic, a word he'd never imagined himself using. It smelled good seemed more simple and fitting without the pomp and prim he'd expect.

"No regrets then?" Drink and idle banter did wonders for recently frayed nerves. Quickly calmed by Ellith's general demeanor and constantly pleasant attitude. "How could you be.." For a long moment his eyes sat upon the woman with that distant look of forlorn envy. His time here surely couldn't last much longer given the state of health he was in.
 
(( Yep! ))

She shook her head. "No, despite the danger, I have no regrets about their choice in my home. We're never hungry, we can do what we like when chores are done, we don't rely on money for much anything—really, the only reason to ever go to town is for metalwork, new books, or non-woolen cloth anymore. Beliam and me, we both know how to do anything that our house needs t okeep in repair, and we have time for other things as well." She swirled her drink in her cup and watched it a few moments more before she took a sip. It clung to her tongue and burned, but that was why she liked it sometimes.

"Sorry if the wine isn't very good. I don't make a lot, so I don't always make it well, and I don't have much of a taste for it." She laughed quietly and closed her eyes, enjoying a moment between adults that felt so very rare.
 
"You're living a lot of folks dreams, that's for sure.." Even he was jealous, relying on other's was a fact of town life. Through necessity or simple co-habitation, it kept the individual work load light while the community as a whole kept things in line. "Would be a liar if I wasn't jealous." The laughter was infectious and any attempt to stave off his smile would have been pointless.

"Nonsense. Never tasted anything better." Though the cup remained empty, to avoid overdoing it, it was raised to her. "Except your cooking!" It was a quick line to save face as if he needed to with a contented sigh. The shock of the fruit before had quickly been smoothed over and replaced with the pleasant warmth of alcohol in his system. Even the new knowledge seemed a little distant to which he had no qualms.

It felt like ages had passed since he'd enjoyed such a simple moment with someone else, let alone a woman. As the cup sat between his hands it was given a gentle squeeze as if to test it's strength against his own, there was no give and so he relaxed.

"I need to thank you again for all that ya' did for me. Aren't a whole lot of folks that would share what little they have for a stranger." Sam had always run into problems expressing his gratitude. A stony face made it difficult even at the best of times to show he was sincere in the feeling. Still he sat there smiling at the woman as honestly as he could.
 
Ellith's eyes narrowed, and the beginnings of crows feet emerged. "Please, it's nothing more than anyone else would do." She rested a calloused hand gently on his arm. "Besides, I do what I do for purely selfish reasons. I do enjoy the company of another adult." She laughed. "It can get lonely for a woman, to live without a man in the house."

A sound caught her attention, and she looked toward the door in time to see Beliam enter with a leafy pouch. "Mama, I brought you berries!" The boy chirped as he handed them to her.

"Thank you, dear. Go play now, we're having an adult time." She winked at the boy, and he giggled as he darted off, shouting 'ew' just a bit too loudly.

Ellith laughed and shook her head. She looked toward Sam. "Sorry about him. Belly is Belly."
 
There was comfort in her words, that much he'd never deny. Though the mischievous twinkle in her eyes revealed that much more to go with the playful tones. "Purely selfish." How could a man not smile to pleasant company?

With her son's entrance and subsequent exit Samson sat with a smile. Too long had he thought of children as rowdy and violent little savages. Beliam brought a welcome change that smoothed his attitude of kids as a whole.

"No need to apologize. He's a great boy. Any parent would be jealous to have someone like him.." The 'ews' lingered, recalling memories of seeing adults kissing or gossiping about things he was neither interested in not had any stakes in.

"Did he at least bring you anything good?" Sam quipped with a palm atop her hand. She'd barely had him beat with how rough their hands were, like hewn from an oak tree the both of them.
 
She nodded and unfolded the leaves to show more of those mysterious berries. "Belly likes to bring me berries because he knows I enjoy them. It's become a bit of an addiction for me, but not as bad as some other things get." She reached for a smaller one and popped it into her mouth. She bit into it and chewed, then swallowed without any sort of visible reaction like he'd experienced. "See, though? The effects lessen." She took another sip of her wine.

"But yes, he is a great boy. He's loving, smart, and strong. I couldn't ask for a better son, and if one exists, I couldn't even dream of trading my Belly for him." Her pride made her face seem to glow.
 
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