The discovery
Fall had hit Amies. The greenery melding into reds, oranges, and yellows marked the end of Eloise’s first season in her new home and with it came a new list of chores to be done around the estate. Warmer meals needed to be prepared, wood needed to be collected to heat the rooms, and windows needed to be re-sealed to keep out the biting cold the winter winds would bring.
By far and wide, however, the most numerous of chores involved prepping the garden for the oncoming season. Gutters needed to be cleaned out, and new fertilizer needed to be laid down to combat winter diseases the land might pick up from fungus that grew when there was only grass left to feed on. The garden needed to be weeded and be rid of other debris before pests could burrow into them for the winter.
Sara-Ann had suggested getting a professional gardener to take care of the dirty work, proclaiming a lady shouldn’t spend time rolling around in the dirt. And while Eloise was not, by any means, a ‘Lady’, she would do well to keep from such activities. Eloise had insisted that she did garden work all the time for the temples and that it would be a waste of money to hire a gardener.
In the end, her mistress had given up, allowing her to ‘play in the muck’ as she called it. Which was exactly why the young maid was currently nursing a blindingly painful headache stemming from a rather large goose egg on her forehead; an emerald bottle her consolation prize.
Things had been going fine. It was a bright and rather sunny day, pleasantly warm, when she trekked out to their growing wood collection. With her she carried two burlap bags which she had promptly filled with woodchips and whole bark nuggets. The collection process was tedious but nothing she couldn’t handle. Rather, the mindless motions allowed her mind to wander and before she knew it, her bags were full.
Lugging the full bags, however, was another story all together. It didn’t take the girl very long to realize she had filled the bags too full and had made them immobile in the face of her meager strength. Stubborn and unwilling to dump out any of her work, she tried tugging, pushing, pulling, and eventually even begging the bags in an attempt to move even an inch. When even bribery failed (‘I promise, next time I’ll fill you with trinkets for Idia. What an honor! You just need to move’) she conceded to the fact she needed to spill some of her spoils out.
When her bags had met a reasonable weight, she finally began the task of mulching the trees. It was an important process before winter, ensuring that the soil retained its moisture and discouraged weeds from growing in the area. Her work, she reminded herself as she worked, would keep the trees alive throughout the winter. The idea that the fruits of her labor could produce such a result had a smile coming to the brunette’s face, ridding her of any residual anger that lingered from having to cut her findings short.
By the time she had protected the fourth tree, the sun was high in the sky. She estimated herself to have been at work for more than a few hours and promised herself to cover just one more tree before calling it a morning and washing up to make lunch inside the manor.
Dragging one of her bags to her intended tree, she uplifted the remaining contents of the bag with a ‘humph!’ and smirked to herself as she watched the mulch fall to the ground in a satisfying manner. Tossing the bag to the side she knelt on the ground and began spreading the organic compost with her hands, patting it firm around the tree.
Sweat rolled down her brow, trickling down her temple as she worked and she found herself infinitely grateful when a gentle breeze blew over the area. She paused in her work to relish in the cooling feeling, to listen to the gentle rustle of the leaves of the tree she worked under. When the wind passed, she went back to work, only to feel the coaxing breeze once more a few minutes later.
Eloise continued to work and the breeze continued to come at random intervals, each time seemingly getting just a little stronger. The last blow had branches even swaying with it and the tree above her let out an odd tinkling sound. Glancing upward in curiosity, Eloise had no time to throw her hands up to protect her face before the butt of a glass bottle was knocking her in the forehead with enough force to drop her.
She’d woken up not too long after and carried the wretched object back to the manor with her. Chilled meat on her forehead, and a dull throbbing behind her eye balls, Eloise glared at the object sitting on the table in front of her. Who’d put such a thing in a tree anyways? And why did the wind deem her a perfect target to be conked in the head with it? The gods were clearly in a playful mood today, and she was the butt of the joke.
Placing the meat down on the table, she picked up the bottle and brought it close to her face, peering inside of it. The bottle was cool to the touch and comforting, much like the breeze had been earlier. There was also obvious activity going on in the bottle, but what exactly it was, she couldn’t put her finger on. It was like an invisible force was swirling around in it and she was tempted to open the bottle just to see if she could find out what.
But that might ruin it.
And it wasn’t hers to ruin. Some poor sap had lost the object in a tree.
…but aforementioned sap never did come back for it. …And the bottle had hit her noggin. ...which kind of made it hers in a sense, right?
Pursing her lips, Eloise decided to ask Sara-Anne if the bottle was hers. If it wasn’t, the Morrow maid had just found herself a new object to play with.
