The Unicorn's Forest

"See you when we get down," Beth called after Ralph.

Ralph acknowledged Beth's statement with a wave as he followed the healer back down. Although, he was surprised that they weren't taking the same path that they'd used to get up here.

At first he was confused, as he'd thought that they way they'd gone was the only way up there, which he knew Tim was under that impression as well. However, as he followed the healer, he wondered how well the bear-kin knew this area. Was it possible that they'd already learned about the gate? Or did they not come up there that often?

It was possible that they didn't know about it, given the gate faced over the cliff, but he couldn't be sure with just knowing that much. Though, he had to stop thinking about that as the path suddenly became really steep and he needed all his attention to keep from falling as the healer led him down a path that felt like he was traveling down at a sixty degree angle. The only consolation for him was the fact that there weren't loose pebbles and small rocks on the ground to make footing rather slippery.

Then before he knew it, both of them came out where the healers were still gathering herbs and roots, which Ralph had only noticed one of each, but he wasn't going to argue with the bear-kin about what they were doing.

Though, he was surprised to see Charlie really involved as well. While he knew Charlie liked to garden, he didn't peg her as someone who would be interested in this. Though, on the other hand, he knew that he didn't know Charlie as well as the others, so he couldn't say that this would be out of character for her.

"Alright, I'm here," he announced, wanting to get this over with as quickly as possible. "What do you need me for?"

He almost winced when he saw Sishk stand up. For some reason, he felt like the woman didn't like him. Not that he would blame her if she didn't, though usually when people started to not like him it was after he'd pulled a prank or something.

"We need you to tell your friend exactly what we say. Then we need you to tell us exactly what her response is," Sishk told Ralph.

"Why not have Charlie do that?" Ralph asked, part of him suspecting that Amelia was refusing to believe what Charlie had translated for her.

"Because she didn't believe her friend. We suspect that's because she was taking too much enjoyment in her friend's discomfort," Sishk answered.

Ralph sighed. Not quite what he suspected, but it still fit the bill. "Alright, I'll let Amelia know," Raph agreed, using Amelia's name more to get Amelia's attention than anything else.

"First, tell her that she needs to treat any of her patients better than she was treating her friend," Sishk said.

Ralph translated for Sishk, hoping this wouldn't take long.

Amelia rolled her eyes. "You're on that too?" Amelia asked. "What'd she really say?"

Sishk sighed as Ralph translated Amelia's response. "Tell her that if she doesn't change her attitude, we will be forced to stop showing her what we do. She will not be welcome at any point in the future to even assist us in treating the smallest scrape or illness," Sishk said, her eyes looking like they were trying to bore holes in Amelia.

Ralph translated that, feeling uneasy at not just the words, but from the emotion contained in them. He wasn't sure what Sishk was feeling, but it was clear to him that she was close to being pissed at Amelia, if she wasn't already there.

Amelia looked shocked at what Ralph said. "What'd I do that was wrong?" she complained, Ralph translating as she spoke.

"You were enjoying your friend's discomfort when we changed the dressing on her wound. That sort of behavior, especially on a difficult patient, is exactly what will make our jobs harder in the future," Sishk said with Ralph continuing his job. "If you can't get your patients to trust you'll treat them with respect, how will you expect your patients to respect you?"

Amelia looked like she was just backhanded. Hard. Ralph was merely glad that Sishk wasn't directing this at him. He thought she was intimidating before, but now she was downright scary to him.

"What was wrong with how I was around Charlie?" Amelia asked. "We're friends. We've done stuff like this before."

Sishk sighed. "Then maybe I was wrong to allow you to have assisted then. Maybe I should treat you as a cub rather than a fellow healer if you insist on acting like a cub. No matter who she is, she was your patient then. If you can't see that, then perhaps you're not ready to learn to be a healer," Sishk said, her tone calming down, but Ralph had a feeling that this was worse than when Sishk had been crewing Amelia out.

Amelia herself looked like she was hit by a freight train. Completely stunned and unsure how to respond, while her eyes showed fear bordering on panic. Ralph could see how much she wanted this and it looked like it might get taken away from her.

"Now," Sishk continued when Amelia was silent for a few minutes, "if I hear about you telling your other friends about what happened in that tent, I will have no choice but to consider you no more than a cub that isn't really interested in healing others."

Amelia gulped as Ralph translated. She didn't respond other than to nod. Ralph couldn't help but wonder what kind of prank he'd have to pull to have stepped in it as badly as Amelia seems to have done. He wasn't sure he wanted to find out either.

Although, part of Ralph wondered if what Sishk had said wasn't exactly what she said. After all, he'd known some languages that had some words that didn't have any translation into other languages. His magic did the translation, so he knew it was at least the gist of what was said, but that didn't mean that the connotations remained the same.

Pushing that thought aside, Ralph turned and started to walk away. If that's all that they needed him for, then he was sure he was cleared from having to stay here, so he started to head to where he knew that the others would arrive when the got back from the gate.

"Thank you," Ralph heard Sishk say to him as he started walking away.

Ralph didn't reply or turn to look at her, he merely waved in response. He wasn't going to hang around and wait to see if they needed him for anything else. While he was curious as to what happened that got Amelia in hot water, but he knew he wouldn't be able to get Amelia to say anything to him, regardless of what she was going to say as long as Sishk was present. Though, Amelia might still let them know, but Ralph had a hunch that Amelia wasn't going to say anything while they were on this world at least.

Primarily because he knew how much she really wanted to learn all she could from Sishk. Though, he was confident she hadn't expected to have it hang by a thread like that. He hadn't expected that either. Especially since Amelia was one of the most rule abiding people Ralph knew. She merely tended to get mischievous when it came to her friends.

When Ralph got back to the hut with his stuff, he lay down on his sleeping bag and closed his eyes. While he wasn't that tired, a nap was starting to sound good to him. If he didn't fall asleep by the time his friends got back, then he'd get up. Part of it was because he didn't have anything else to do at the moment.

He couldn't say how long he lay there before he was asleep, only that when he opened his eyes when he woke up, even Charlie and Amelia were back. Although, he hardly felt like any real amount of time had passed. It felt more like they appeared out of thin air and when Ralph heard them, he felt more than a little disoriented for a minute.

_

Beth yawned. When they'd gotten back, Ralph had been sleeping peacefully. While she didn't begrudge Ralph taking a nap, she wished she could take one too, but every time she'd done that in the past, she would toss and turn for hours when she wanted to go to sleep later that night.

"So, what do you think they wanted Ralph for?" Hannah asked.

"Hard to say," Wes answered. "All I can say is it couldn't have lasted long. I mean, they weren't that far ahead of us and he was already asleep when we got back."

"Maybe, but who knows how long it took them?" Tim asked. "We only took the path that was easiest for us to see. The bear-kin might know of paths that we don't even notice."

"I still don't think it took him that long to deal with what they wanted him for," Wes said stubbornly.

"Regardless of how long it took Ralph, both to deal with what the bear-kin needed him for and with how long it took him to get down the mountain, we still need to think of a way to get through that gate without any real trouble," Beth interjected.

"What if we tie a rope or something around each of us and then as we go through one by one, if any of us slip and fall, the rope should help keep us from falling through?" Hannah suggested.

"Not a bad idea, but where would we get the rope?" Tim asked.

"Well, if we have the arachnoids around us, we could ask one of them to get a rope from them," Hannah replied.

"I've never seen them with a rope," Tim said, looking confused.

"I'm not quite sure how to put this, but what do you think their silk comes out as?" Hannah asked, grinning at Tim.

"A thread," Tim replies simply.

"Maybe like a couple hundred," Hannah retorted. "I mean, have you seen how thick their silk is when it comes out? Even with their giant spiders, it's at least as thick as a quarter is big."

"You know, I've never thought about it, but their silk might be better than anything else we would likely have brought for rope," Beth commented. "After all, silk is one of the strongest threads we know of, if not the strongest."

"Fine, we can have Charlie ask them when she gets back," Tim said shortly.

"Have me ask what?" Charlie asked, making Beth jump from surprise. None of them had heard Charlie come up, so it caught all of them off guard.

"We wanted you to ask the arachnoids if they could get you a rope of their silk," Hannah answered, being the first of them to recover.

"Why? Shouldn't we just spend the time reading instead?" Amelia asked, coming up behind Charlie.

"Well, the thing is, the gate is nearby, but it faces a cliff with a long drop," Tim answered. "So, we were thinking of how we could go through it while reducing the chance of any of us from falling."

Charlie and Amelia nodded, thinking about it. "I guess that makes sense," Charlie mused.

"So, what'd they want Ralph for?" Wes asked.

"Why didn't you ask Ralph?" Amelia inquired.

"He's sleeping," Tim answered. "Otherwise we would have."

"Sleeping? When does Ralph sleep?" Amelia asked.

"I guess it's a new trick he learned on this expedition," Wes remarked.

"Oh, by the way, Charlie," Beth said. "Aina and Bith were looking for you this morning. I'm not sure what they wanted, but Ralph spoke to them and told them that you'd gone. Just thought you might like to know."

"Better go find them then," Ralph said, from the doorway to the hut he'd been napping in.

"When'd you wake up?" Tim asked.

"Just a minute ago," Ralph answered. "But seriously, how is anyone supposed to get any sleep with all the noise you guys were making."

"Clearly you were," Hannah retorted, laughing. "After all, you were sleeping like a baby since we got back a while ago."

"Well, I better go see what they wanted to talk to me about," Charlie said, walking away from them.

"Have fun," Beth called after her.

Charlie didn't respond, which she wasn't upset about. After all, that was just Charlie. Though, she had been responding more lately, but Beth wasn't sure if it was because of a change in her or if it was because she felt it was more polite.

Pushing those thoughts out of her mind, she turned back to the others. "So, Amelia, what can you tell us about why Ralph got pulled to translate something even after Charlie got back?" Beth asked.

Amelia glanced in the direction Charlie had left in and looked a lot more uncomfortable than she'd expected. "Uh, well, uh, it's that, uh, I wasn't accepting what Charlie was translating, so I think they sent for Ralph to translate. Maybe they thought that I'd listen to him more than Charlie."

"Well, what was it about?" Hannah asked. "You gotta at least tell us that."

Beth was surprised at how much more uncomfortable Amelia seemed to be getting. It was almost like they were touching on a subject that Amelia wished they'd just drop.

"It was about how I guess I treated Charlie when her dressing was being changed," Amelia muttered, starting to really look miserable.

"How were you treating her?" Wes asked, his eyes eager and Beth had to admit, even though it was about her best friend, she wouldn't mind getting a bit of juicy gossip.

"Uh…" Amelia hesitated. Beth knew she had to have seen this question coming, but it looked like she was having trouble deciding if she would answer or not. However, after about a minute, she seemed to decide to answer. "I guess it was that I wasn't treating her like a patient, but rather my friend."

Beth was speechless. Since when did Amelia give answers like that? Her other friends there groaned at the response, except maybe Ralph. He looked like he expected her to response like this.

"Com on, Amelia!" Hannah protested. "You gotta give us something more than that. How much did she squirm?"

"Actually, I think she's scared of what will happen if she does tell you," Ralph interrupted.

"What're you talking about?" Wes asked. "Since when did Amelia get too scared to tell us something this juicy?"

"When she was threatened to not be allowed to learn from the healers if she talked about what went on when Charlie's dressing was changed," Ralph answered.

Beth glanced at Amelia and was surprised to see how miserable she looked. She hadn't expected her to be like that. After all, Amelia tended to be more of a force of nature herself. If she wanted to say something she would, even if it got her in trouble, but at the same time, Beth knew how important becoming a doctor was to her. Beth just never imagined that she'd see Amelia forced to make such a decision like this at any point. Especially while they were on the expedition to find that griffin canyon.

"So, what can you tell us about what happened?" Beth asked carefully. "I mean, without risking getting banned from the healers here."

Amelia thought about it for a minute before nodding. "Well, they set up a tent so we could get to the bandaged wound while allowing Charlie was much privacy was we could provide," Amelia started.

"Why worry about that?" Wes snorted.

"Because they viewed Charlie as a 'difficult patient' and so, had to escort her inside the tent. All I can say about what happened in the tent is that we changed the dressing on her wound, then I demonstrated healing with my magic," Amelia answered.

"Why not let it heal naturally?" Hannah asked. "I mean, you did tell me that it works better when something like a cut heals on its own rather than with magic."

"Because otherwise we'd have to stay her for at least a few weeks," Amelia answered.

"Wait, weeks?" Beth asked. "I thought Charlie's wound was healing."

Amelia nodded. "Yeah, it was, but that doesn't mean it was healing quickly. Sishk said that it would take a few weeks and we'd have to change the dressing on it every day. I also thought Charlie wouldn't care so much to deal with that," Amelia replied.

"So, was there anything else that happened that you can tell us?" Wes asked.

"Not really," Amelia said. "Mostly once they explained to me what herbs and leaves they were looking for today, that's all we did. Well, aside from when Charlie got back."

"What kind of herbs and roots were you looking for?" Tim asked.

"I'm not really sure what they're called, but there were three herbs, two of which were just the leaves of the plant, and two roots. This is the season were one of the herbs and roots is plentiful, but the other ones we didn't really find any," Amelia answered, but then paused, her expression giving Beth the sense that she just remembered something. "Oh, yeah, I think I came across one of the other kind of root. I guess it mostly grows in winter, I think. Ralph was translating for me when they explained all that and I found it towards the end of the day, so I'm not really sure I fully remember what Ralph translated for me."

"Sure, blame the translator," Ralph drawled, a wide smile on his face.

"Well, what else did you do?" Hannah asked.

"I guess I'd have to say that I listened to what they said to me, you know, through Charlie and Ralph," Amelia answered.

"So, you spend most of the day just gardening, huh?" Beth asked, patting Amelia's shoulder in sympathy.

"Gardening?" Amelia asked, sounding rather smug, which made Beth roll her eyes. "All I did was harvest. Gardening would involve watering, weeding, and all that. I only had to worry about just gathering it."

"Well, once Charlie gets back, I think you said you wanted to read Wizard's First Rule, right?" Beth asked.

"You mean the Sword of Truth Series?" Tim asked, sounding more surprised than Beth would have expected.

"Yeah, the one by Terry Goodkind," Amelia confirmed. "I like the wizard's rules. I think Charlie might benefit from them too."

Beth couldn't help but join the others in their laughter at Amelia's comment. "Are you sure she'll be receptive to them?" Wes asked.

"Hard to say," Hannah said, wiping tears from her eyes. "Do you think she'd pick up on the Zen philosophy in that series?"

"Only one way to find out, right?" Amelia asked, her smile splitting her face in two. "Besides, with how much time we have, we should be able to get through the series in prolly a couple months."

Beth shook her head at that timeline. She wasn't sure she'd be up to do that much reading in that time period. "Are you including the Richard and Kahlan series as well?" Beth asked.

Amelia shook her head. "No, just the Sword of Truth series. The Richard and Kahlan series doesn't have any new wizard's rules in them."

"Well, I guess that's a little better, though not by much," Wes commented. "I mean, I'm good with reading, but we can't be sure we'll be able to read all that much."

"Hey, I can hope we can get that far," Amelia snapped heatedly.

"Well, who knows," Tim said. "We might end up in a world that we'll have plenty of time to get through it."

"Well, I'd be just as fine to not get through that much that quickly. I mean, who knows how long it'll take for us to find the world with the griffin canyon?" Beth said, wondering what might come when they went through the gate.