Image (above) taken from within the video game House Flipper during game play.
“Ouch!” Merida clumsily kicked the leg of the brown wooden chair. She hobbled for a few moments before sitting on the wooden culprit. The room smelt of spices and stagnate tea. Perhaps from week old tea still sitting in one of the teapots on her large wooden table. She had so many to choose from in her collection. And used the randomness of it all to brighten up her day.
Merida considered her room while rubbing her ankle. She wasn’t used to having her own little place. A small room at the local Inn for now, until she could find a pleasant cottage out in the woods. She had just finished her training at the University of Magical Beings. Studying potions and healing from plants, where she had been for the last 7 years. She was a little hesitate at first, moving into the Inn a few months ago. But she embraced the place and even spent some evenings downstairs in the main room, observing the locals. It made for pleasant conversation with Mr Goodman the Inn Keeper, an elderly man. Mr Goodman was an honest, kind man, letting her have all the old furniture he no longer needed. Merida, having the skills in magic and healing, used a little something to reinvigorate it all back into life. And a little cleaning also helped. A small smile of joy passed over Merida’s face. “Home is where you make it.”
The leaves from the hanging Ivy above the windowsills moved lightly in the early evening air. It brought with it smells of sweet Azaleas from her small pots on the dresser under the window, which gradually dissolved the smell of old tea. Merida stood and took a few steps over to the fire, warming her hands against the door of the iron fireplace. Her previous night’s experiment shimmered and swirled next to her. A turquoise twisted creation from combining different crystal stones and a potion together. She wasn’t sure what it was. But it had a warming, loving sensation from the pink quartz energy and the peacefulness from the turquoise stone. Merida took notes on it earlier in the day. The reaction from the potion seen to make it pulse and swirl around while glittering.
She took her royal blue cloak off and hung it in the cupboard next to the window. The potion bottles on top rattled as she shut the door. She straightened out her pink shirt and black long skirt. Then tied her long black hair back with a ribbon she found on the table. “Time to try out this new recipe.” Picking a small brown book from a pile on the table, she flipped it to the correct page, then rested it against a jar. She grabbed the stone bowl from the middle of the mess on the table and placed it closer to where she could reach it.
“Where is the essence of Yellow Frog?” Merida picked up random bottles on the table, searching for the correct one. “Ah! Here you are.” She popped open a fat black jar and poured in the yellow liquid into her stone bowl.
“A few petals from a Jasmine plant.” She walked over to the windowsill behind the small table that held her globe and picked a few petals from the Jasmine plant.
“Pieces of wood from a Forgotten Forest.” Merida turned around and leaned on her tippy toes to open the cupboards above her fireplace. She read out the labels in her head. “Ah, here you are!” She reached up and grabbed a large cream jar.
“A few more things…” Merida rustled through the top draw of the dresser for the last bits and bobs. Then continued onto the bottom draws to get a box of dried leaves. She smiled as she poured the last ingredient in. “I think that’s it.”
Merida followed the method. Stirring the contents of the bowl clockwise three times, then back another five times. She stopped as blue gas formed with a grey small cloud. It steamed up her thin, black, round glasses.
“Oh.” Merida moaned and wiped them clean on her shirt. She replaced her glasses just in time to see the last of the gas disappearing, along with the cloud. The contents that remained were a thick blue liquid. “Hmmm… I hope this works.” Merida reaches over the table, retrieving a small pot with a variety of plants in it. She slowly pours a small amount of liquid into the soil of the pot and holds her breath with anticipation.
“Yay!” Merida nearly drops the pot with excitement. The plants in the pot grew bigger and fuller. She anxiously places the pot on the table, watching the plants grow tall and strong. “It’s working!” She did a little clap of happiness to herself.
“Wait” Merinda’s joy halted. Leaves from the plants started to burn and fall off. Then the branches weakened and dry up. “Nooo.” The plants completely destroyed. “I’m sorry, little plants. I really am.”
Merinda sat on her chair in thought. “Hmmm… What went wrong?”
She started reading through one of her textbooks on the pile next to her, but something tiny caught her eye. Merida jumped up, throwing the book on the ground and watched in amazement. Little branches sprang out of the dirt in the pot, twirling up into the air. “What are you going to grow into too?” Merida watched on with excitement.
As if the plant could answer, frog shaped leaves unwound themselves from along the sides of the branches. “What?” Merida observed the leaves in astonishment. She held back her temptation to touch the frog shaped leaves for a moment.
The leaves shimmered in the candle light, calling her in.
Merida gave in and touched the tip of a leaf as tiny clusters of bright yellow blossomed and glowed. “Hello, little flower lanterns.” Childhood memories and chapters from her numerous textbooks and exam papers flooded into her mind. Hidden memories became known. Merida stumbled “Oh! That’s strong. Maybe too many pieces of wood from a Forgotten Forest.” She released the leaf from her fingers and took a few steps back to gather her thoughts.
The tree had outgrown its little pot, stopping its growth at the size of a small bush. Pieces of the old pot fell to the ground as the roots of the new tree grew out. “You need a new home.” Merida searched around her room for a larger pot. “I’ll have to go outside and get some more soil.” She closed the cupboard upon finding a larger pot.
Merida observed her new plant friend. The yellow flowers twinkled like tiny groups of fire flies resting on the frog shaped leaves. “Awww. What a sweet, unexpected result.”
Thank you for reading!
Zoe Bella-Aster 💜
