CHAPTER 4.

Loch looked into the old woman's eyes with surprise at her sudden, serious tone. The last part of her sentence sounded like a joke, even though after spending time with the old lady over the last couple of years, he had learned to know when she was serious. Loch sensed a hidden depth to the seemingly frail old woman, whose gaze seemed to warp reality itself. He always felt the compunction to tell the truth, with his heart feeling tight at just the thought of lying to her face, especially when her turbid eyes held him in place. 

Loch replied with a shaky voice, "I swear, Granny, I didn't go outside the wall. How could I? Mother Leanne had me trapped in the shed last week. Take a closer look at the berries; they have clearly been picked today." Loch finished as he brought the berries closer to the old woman's eyes, who looked back down to the fruits after hearing what he said, letting the young boy's tightened heart calm down. 

"Hmmm. Yes. They were just picked but by an amateurish hand, as most of them have the stems missing. I taught you better than that." The old lady mumbled to herself as she took the proffered fruits of Loch's hand and investigated them with a keen eye. The old lady looked up at Loch, and the darkened room seemed to bathe in morning light again as she gave him her signature gap-toothed smile. "So, explain how you received these treasures, boy?" 

Retaking his seat, Loch took the Raven from his left shoulder and placed him on the table, pointing to the now-preening bird. Loch began to explain how Jack had delivered a meal to him and Randall, a task Jack performed whenever the boys were imprisoned for more than a couple of days—which was often—and that they'd found the berries in the dead squirrel's pouch on the table. Even though the old woman seemed to believe Loch's quite luck-filled story, parts of her previous occupation still showed through as she needed verification; grabbing the dead squirrel, she inspected the pouch, saw the purple stains within, and gave herself a slight nod. 

After she inspected the animal, the old woman looked at the Raven standing on the table with a puffed-up chest and beckoned him towards her. The Raven scurried across the table without hesitation and jumped onto the old woman's outstretched hand. "Aren't you always full of surprises?" The old woman muttered as she smiled at Jack, while one of her hands went to a pouch, that sat next to several other small pouches attached to a corded rope around the old woman's waist. As if performing a magic trick, the old woman made a "ta-da" sound, revealing a piece of dried meat that she had pulled out of her pouch and offering it to the Raven with an open palm. Jack the Raven gave an eager squawk and flap of his midnight-colored wings in excitement at the proffered treat before snapping the jerky up in its beak in a flash and devouring it with apparent glee. The smell of the dried meat even made Loch salivate a little as he muttered to himself, "Could have at least shared some with your big brother." 

Jack outstretched his two wings around the partially eaten jerky to shield it from potential assailants as if in retaliation to Loch's comment. Loch looked at the action of the Raven and couldn't help but roll his eyes. The old woman just cackled at the two boys before putting Jack back on the table along with his treat and standing up from her seat with a heavy sigh. Picking up the withered berries she had placed in her now empty breakfast bowl, the old woman gestured to Loch with her eyes while she said, "Seeing how the soil has seemed to bless you, the great little troublemaker, for once, I'll guess you'll be wanting to make a tincture for your little friend as soon as you can." Hearing the old woman's words, Loch sprung to his feet while nodding with a bright smile as he left the still-defensive Raven and followed the old lady toward her cot. 

Trying not to rush the old woman but unable to slow his pace, Loch beat her toward the side of her bed and waited. The old woman, clearly seeing Loch's anxious excitement written all over his gaunt face, suddenly slowed down her already slow pace, and the hand-holding her cane even trembled as if she was struggling to hold her weight and would topple at the slightest breeze. Loch saw the old woman taking a snail's pace towards him and couldn't help but sigh and whine, "Come on granny, stop pretending. I've seen you throw your table across the room with one hand before." The old woman's trembling, slow, motioned walk went back to her usual hunched back pace while she retorted to Loch with a sniff in displeasure, "I don't know what you are talking about, it must have been that some little hooligan had left the door open and a gust of wind came in and knocked the table over." Loch gave the old woman a speechless expression at her shamelessness, which she directly ignored as she arrived a few feet from her single bed. 

Loch, standing a few feet to her right, came around to stand right next to the old woman as both stared in the direction of her bed; they both stood there for several seconds before the boy looked at the woman with pointed eyes as if waiting for her to do something. The old woman just stood on the spot, as if an old oak tree, and gazed out of her window with a peaceful smile, as if standing in this spot was all she planned on doing. Loch sighed dramatically and hung his head in defeat at the old woman while saying, "You're right. I left the door open, and the wind knocked the table over." 

"Ah, I thought so, too." The old woman agreed with a sage-like expression in her eyes that didn't match her shit-eating grin; she punctuated her sentence with a hard stamp of her cane. Unnoticeable unless one was paying attention, the old woman's gnarled club/cane's bottom end landed inside a similar shaped hole in the wooden floorboards between her feet. The sound of the cane entering the hole didn't make a typical wood-on-wood sound; instead, it sounded more like a click from a key opening a lock. After pulling her cane back out of the hole, both she and the boy next to her shrank, as if the ground was swallowing them up. Before Loch's head disappeared into the floor, he turned to Jack, who had just finished his treat, and called out, "Jack, you know what to do? Just give a squawk if someone's at the door." Jack flapped his wings in what could be considered an agreement as Loch and the Old woman completely disappeared from view, leaving a square-shaped hole in the floorboards that was soon covered by a perfectly cut piece of wood that slid out from underneath and slotted itself into the gap. Leaving a complete set of floorboards behind and a Raven that had flown over towards the cot and got comfortable upon the old woman's pillow. 

On Loch and the Old woman's side, they were still standing on the floorboards above that had miraculously turned into a lift that lowered them into a chamber built over fifteen feet below the Hut above. The chamber they entered looked like a natural cavern with rocky walls surrounding them and was at least twice the size of the home above. The room was brightly lit by hanging lanterns from the ceiling. Inside the lanterns were not typical lit wicks but instead appeared to have moving balls of light. Each lantern contained a fist-sized firefly. If one looked closer, one would see that in each lantern was not just a regular firefly but something that looked like a tiny transparent butterfly the size of a fist that was flapping around inside the glass cage. 

Looking at the lanterns surrounding them and lighting the entire cavern, Loch said with shining eyes, "Wow, the bright butterfly lives up to their name. Granny, I thought you said they wouldn't be born for another couple of weeks?" Just as the floorboards turned lift touched the rocky but smooth ground, the old woman replied with a tut, "Who the soil knows? The little things are so fickle and a pain in the behind to feed. I don't know if it's even worth it to raise them, just for their light." With a steady step off the lift, the old woman made a beeline toward the cavern right in front of her, her cane taps echoing through the area. Hearing her complaint, Loch didn't comment and just followed behind her. 

The two were heading towards what could only be called a mad scientist's laboratory. Complete with odd, dog-sized test tubes with weird-looking creatures floating in some yellow sludge-like liquid to the left-hand side. In front was a large table with all manner of glass beakers and metal instruments. A small, bubbling freshwater pond occupied the right side; its center suggested a subterranean source. A small dug-out trench allowed the water to not overfill; instead, the overflow followed the trench and went towards the right side and further back into the cavern, where one could see a dug-out flower bed filled with mud-like mulch and twisted dark-looking plants of different varieties sprouting in uniform lines. 

Loch and the old woman he called Granny arrived at the table filled with instruments that looked like a mix of an apothecary, a butcher, and a doctor's standard tools. Several books lay open across the bench, including one with freshly dried ink, suggesting recent use. As the two arrived in front of the table, the old woman placed the bowl of withered berries on the table and moved two books to the side to leave a cleared space. Grabbing the book that looked like a handwritten journal, the old woman moved to the left side of the bench, pulled out a wooden stool from under the table, and sat down. Loch looked over to the old woman with pleading eyes, which she responded to with a waggle of her cane in his direction while she said, "What? Do you think I'm going to make the tincture myself? You do it." 

Loch gave the woman a piteous look that appeared super ineffective before he responded in a slight whine, "Please help me, Granny. It's too important; I don't want to stuff it up." The Old woman appeared to not give a damn about the boy's plight and instead opened her journal on the table while retrieving a pen from one of her pouches, with a wave of her other hand at the now sweaty-looking boy as she said, "Remember the rule boy. Equivalent exchange. Plus, you don't need my help for something so simple. Just get on with it already." 

Seeing the Old woman now focused on her previous written notes and hearing what she said about her rule, Loch took a silent gulp and tried to psych himself up, 'Granny's right. I've been reading about the tincture for Marshes Flu for almost a month now, I could recite it in my sleep. Still, I best be a hundred percent.' With that thought, Loch ran over to the back of the cavern, where a large bookcase was placed. Filled with books, without having to check over the books, Loch grabbed a purple-covered book and ran back over to the table. Placing the book down, he went through a couple of pages before coming to the page with the title, 'Marshes Tincture.' It had a step-by-step instruction on how to brew what looked like a pure herb-based potion. The right-hand page showed a large picture of a pair of dried-up-looking berries, matching the ones in the bowl, along with a description of their environments and the correct harvesting method. A handwritten line under the description had the words 'unreplaceable, must use,' written in bold and double underlined. Having reread what could only be described as a recipe, Loch took a deep breath and wiped his sweaty palm on his ratty pants. 

Looking over the other ingredients, Loch grabbed an empty plate off the table and went to the middle of the table near where the old woman was sitting. With neither of them communicating, Loch crouched down before tugging on a rope attached to a long wooden chest underneath the workbench. After he dragged the chest into the open, he lifted the lid, and inside was something that looked like it belonged to a post office, with small square walled pockets running up and down the chest. Each square compartment held a little tied-up pouch with a handwritten label denoting what was inside. Placing the plate on the ground, Loch then checked and double-checked the labels before grabbing a spoon with a deep indentation that was placed in one of the compartments and took out scoops of different colored dried-out herbs and place them onto the wooden plate. After grabbing five to six different herbs, Loch retied the pouches and closed the chest lid before pushing it back into its original position. 

Loch returned the plate of herbs to the table and placed them next to the bowl of berries while double-checking the ingredients against the recipe one more time. Loch then grabbed a thick iron pot and filled it with water from the pond to his right. With all the components ready, he ignited an oil-filled burner with a piece of flint next to it and then placed the pot over the small but strong flame. After taking a couple of deep breaths and unclenching his clenched hand, he felt more confident, with a firmer look in his eyes than he had and a now steady palm. Loch reached over to a mortar and pestle, saying aloud, 'You've got this. It's an easy one, Granny said so.'