Josla (Part 3)

"Greetings," she said with an odd sort of accent. I must have calmed down by that point, because Hedy removed her hand.

"Uh. . .hi?" Seriously, what would you have said? Well, nevermind. I know what you would have said.

"I am here to help your leetle brother." Again with the accent. It took at least a full ten seconds for me to register that she was here for Benjamin.

"Oh. Oh! OOOHH! Come here, come here!" Ok, I was a little excited. But in my defense, I was really worried about him. He'd been getting worse in the last few days, and I'd begun feeling more than a little guilty for taking part in Hedy's taunting of our Friar.

"Her name is Ryatka," Hedy reminded me in a whisper as I guided them back to my brother's room.

I wasn't really listening, but somehow I managed to mechanically say, "Nice to meet you, Ryatka."

"Eet is very nice to meet you too." My mind was busy trying to keep up with events, and it completely failed to find any sort of appropriate small talk to set our guest at ease. It's very embarrassing to look back on now. I'm sure many Draenei have had similar experiences since joining the Alliance, but I used to think I was better than all the other folk in the village.

"Here he is," I said as I gestured at the poor little guy on his pallet. He was pale and sweating and I found myself desperately hoping that Ryatka could work some kind of miracle on him, he looked even worse than when I'd gone to bed the night before.

"I see." That was all she said as she knelt down next to him and put a hand on his forehead. She began to pull a few items from her travel pack, and I turned to look at Hedy only to notice that she wasn't in the room. I wasn't sure what I could to do to help Ryatka so I went to find Hedy instead.

I stepped out of the room and heard her saying, ". . .doesn't look necessarily like you'd expect a priest to, but she's here to help Benjamin. Please try not to overreact when you see her. She's a little sensitive and she's been screamed at twice already this morning." Apparently, Hedy had the foresight to warn Mother before she met Ryatka. They walked out of Mother's room together and I gestured at them to join me in Benjamin's room.

They followed me in and Mother gasped softly before covering her mouth. Then she walked over to the bed and said, "I understand that you're Ryatka and you're here to help Benjamin. Is there anything I can do to help you? Is there anything you need?"

Ryatka gracefully rose to her feet and curtsied. "I am grateful for this chance to help your son. I will require only that I be allowed to work with him for a few hours uninterrupted. I think I recognize the source of his illness, but eet will require some time and concentration to remove."

Mother inclined her head. "Of course. Just let us know if there's anything else you need." She ushered Hedy and me out of the room to the kitchen where we sat down to wait.

We sat there for a while in silence, contemplating the events of the morning so far. Finally, Mother asked, "So, how did you come to meet Ryatka again, Hedy?"

Hedy cleared her throat. "Well, you see, I, well, I felt kind of guilty when Benjamin became ill. I know that Friar Lynn was a poorly educated man who was unreasonable and unwilling to accept other points of view, but he did have a knack for taking care of these illnesses that come through the village from time to time, and I'm sure he'd still be here if I hadn't been so hard on him."

Mother just nodded and I really wasn't sure what to say to that. It was the first time I'd heard Hedy admit that she felt badly about chasing him out of town.

Seeing that neither of us had a reply, she continued, "So I wrote a letter to Harika explaining the whole thing and asking for her help and advice. She wrote back and said she'd do what she could. So I put my trust in her and early this morning Ryatka came knocking. I was still kind of groggy but I got up to see who it was. I heard a voice saying something about a letter for me, so I opened the door and let her in. She was carrying a scroll and I recognized Harika's hand so I didn't inspect the messenger too closely. I unrolled the message and began to read when Mother came in. She got a good look at Ryatka and started screaming about the Argent Dawn doing their job and I looked up. Realization slowly dawned on me, so I ran over to stop the screaming and tried to explain that Allyriel and Harika had sent Ryatka to help. After I gestured at the letter a few times, she calmed down enough for Ryatka to tell us how she came to be in our home. As soon as she was done, we decided the best thing would be to get her over here before the village woke up, because we were fairly certain they would react even more strongly to her appearance. And that's how we ended up here at your door."

Mother just said, "Well, you'll have to write back to Harika and thank her on our behalf. If Ryatka can help our little Benjamin, I'll be eternally indebted to her."

Seeing that there wasn't much else to say while Ryatka was still at work in the other room, we resumed our quiet contemplation.

A few hours later, Ryatka sort of staggered out of Benjamin's room. "I am thinking that your son will be much better now. I need a place to rest for a while."

Mother jumped out of her chair and helped Ryatka into her bedroom. "Yes, thank you. Thank you. Please, rest here on my bed until you're feeling refreshed."

Ryatka softly replied, "I thank you," and laid down on the bed. She was quickly asleep and the three of us went into Benjamin's room to look at him. His color was much improved and he seemed to be quietly sleeping. We decided not to disturb him and walked back out. A knock came at the door.

We all looked at each other wondering who that could be, then realized it was nearly midday. We'd been inside all morning. Mother went to answer the door. It was just our neighbor, Mr. Hillman.

He bowed and said, "I was just wondering if everything was ok. I hadn't seen any movement outside the house all day and thought perhaps little Benjamin had taken a turn for the worse."

Mother nodded. "Yes we're all doing just fine. It looks as if Benjamin will be doing much better. We had a visit from a friendly priest and I believe she has cured him."

Mr. Hillman's face lit up. "Is that so? Well that's just wonderful! I'll go tell the Mayor we have a new priest in town. My wife will just be delighted to know that classes are starting back up."

Hedy and I looked at each other in alarm. Mr. Hillman started to turn away, but Mother grabbed his arm. "Oh don't go do that just now. She's exhausted and is still resting. Besides I'm not entirely sure she'll be staying here in our village. She is a friend of Harika's. You remember Marlee's girl, right?"

His face darkened at the mention of Hedy's family. "Yeah I remember. So what's going on here? You get special priests visiting you just because your girl is tight with ol' John's clan?"

Mother's back stiffened right up at that. I could tell she didn't appreciate his tone. "Now listen here. There'll be none of that. Hedy has told me she's sorry for giving lip to Friar Lynn, but he's in charge of sending his own replacement. Besides, I don't believe that Miss Ryatka would be appreciated here in our town."

Ouch. She meant well, but I could tell that was the wrong thing to say. Mr. Hillman took a step back and muttered, "I see how it is." Then he looked down and said in a louder voice, "I'm glad to hear Benjamin is doing better. He's a fine boy." He turned and walked away.

I should have grabbed Hedy, but she was too fast. She darted out the door and yelled, "It's not like that at all Mr. Hillman! She's from the Exodar. Her people are the new allies the Night Elves have brought us."

He just waved her off and walked back to his house.

Well, there wasn't much we could do. There'd be trouble, of that there was no doubt. We didn't want to wake Ryatka up and we couldn't have bundled her off during the middle of the day anyway, because she'd be seen so easily. We talked about it and decided that Hedy would run to see if her mother had any ideas and I would try to find ol' Ragefur. Surely, I thought, a Night Elf could convince folk there was nothing to be afraid of.