Violent Changes (Chapter 1)

Graduation Night, 2004.

Cheers filled the air as a toast was raised. "To the class of 2004!" they all cried. Jamie Reynolds glanced around the room, taking in the faces of her friends. She wanted to remember them as they were now, all of them together, having the time of their lives. My friends, she thought to herself, who I might not see for years.

It was the annual After-Graduation Party put on by the administration, as a final gift to the outgoing seniors. Everyone appreciated it because they got to see their friends one last time. A few kids chose not to go, but they weren't missed.
She looked up on the wall. A banner, brightly decorated, read "Congratulations to Jamie Reynolds, Valedictorian, and Ian MacDavid, Salutatorian." A teacher walking by gave her a clout on the shoulder and said, "Excellent job Jamie."

The words on that banner still filled her with pride. Jamie had always been one of the smartest people in her class, but valedictorian was just out of reach. Or so she thought. It was something she'd worked so hard for all her years in school. Outcast, with few friends, she dove into books and studied like mad. Luckily the friends she'd made over the past few years taught her how to loosen up a little. Joining the crew team had only bolstered her confidence more. Now everyone seemed to be her friend, telling her how great it was that she was valedictorian.
Jamie's parents were utterly thrilled with her "accomplishment", prodding her sister Alex to be just like her. She felt sorry for her sister, but Alex had weathered this in the past. She knew how to handle their parents better than Jamie did.

Jamie could safely say that she had a bright future ahead of her. She'd been accepted at the University of Connecticut to study medicine. It had always been a dream of hers to be a doctor. She just wanted to relax and enjoy her last night as a high schooler. Starting tomorrow, she was college-bound.

The crack of the door at the top of the gymnasium caused most to turn their heads to see a person coming in, then go back to what they were doing. However, Jamie took a good look at the newcomer. He was an old man in shabby black robes, with a long, curly beard. He was leaning on a staff. He said something. Jamie could see his lips move, but she didn't hear the words. He raised his staff and swept it over and across everyone in the gym. Jamie was suddenly filled with a tingling sensation, and a sense of foreboding. Then she was jerked by the back of her neck into a world of
blackness.

----

Her hearing was the first to return. She heard a breeze whistling through the trees, and a bird singing.

Wait a minute, she thought to herself. That's not right. I'm inside, at the graduation party, not outside, lying on my back.

She opened her eyes. Yet there she was. Jamie was lying in grass, and looking up at trees.

Something was definetly not right.

Jamie sat up. Strangely, she felt none of the fatigue she'd felt at the graduation party. And it was daytime. The sun shone brightly through the trees.

Weirder still, she didn't know where she was. These trees did not look familiar. And the birds looked far odder than the ones at home.
Where am I? How did I get here? Where's everyone else? Jamie thought to herself. She pondered these questions, trying to find the answers without success. She remembered the man with the staff, but that didn't explain how she'd arrived here.

Lying here will do me no good, she realized. She needed to get up and figure out what happened. Jamie stood up and straightened her dress out. Unfortunately, what she was wearing wasn't good for walking. For once she wished she was wearing the clothes that she wore to crew practice.

Looking to her right, Jamie discovered a dirt path. May as well follow it, she decided. Better than staying here and wondering. Maybe somewhere along the path I'll get some answers.

She walked over and onto the path, and traveled for a while. It seemed that she was indeed alone. She saw no other signs of human habitation besides this path.

Jamie must have walked for fifteen minutes before she saw the hut off to the side of the path. It had a patched roof and a cracked door. It didn't look like anyone lived there at first glance. Yet there were plants growing that looked as if someone tended to them. She hesitated, then walked up to the door and knocked on it.

An old woman opened the door. Her back was slightly bent, and her hair was grizzled and white. She wore a green patched dress that reminded Jamie of the roof. Her face was covered with wrinkles, and her hands looked withered. She clearly had many years on her, yet the twinkle in her eyes reminded Jamie of some of her friends. She smiled kindly at Jamie.

"Come in, child. What ails you?"

Too bewildered to reply, Jamie let herself be ushered in.

----

The old woman seated Jamie at a table with three old chairs. Jamie looked around the room. There were shelves cluttered with various jars of different sizes on all the walls. Plants in boxes stretched from floor to ceiling. The windows revealed more plants, and a well. There was a doorway leading to another room towards the back. What Jamie found fascinating was the lack of modern appliances and tools. No sink, no refrigerator -- not even any light except for the window, and a candle sitting on the table.

The woman spoke again. "Have you the need for some alsenroot? Or some crushed Poite berries?"

"No, neither," Jamie managed to say. "I guess I'm looking for some information."

"Ah," the old woman said, smiling. "What kind of information do you need?"

Jamie was beginning to get a bad feeling about this. "Where am I?" she asked.

The smile on the old woman's face grew. "The kingdom of Traniania, province of Merkel, outside River Towne, and of course in the world of Tarrae."

"River Towne?" Jamie echoed dumbly.

"Aye, 'tis better than Towne-by-the-River, eh?" the old woman asked with a twinkle in her eyes.

Jamie had to laugh. "I don't recognize any of the places you mentioned."

"Ah, you must be from very far away not to have heard of Traniania," the old woman said.

Jamie confessed that it was so, and asked, "Have you ever heard of the United States of America?"

The old woman blinked rapidly, puzzled. "I can't say that I have," she remarked. "Is that where you are from?"

"Yes it is," Jamie said, "and I think I'm farther from home than I ever dreamed of."

Everything was beginning to add up in her head. Somehow she'd been blown into an alternate realm. A place where the rules were different. She might never get back.

Tears threatened to pour down Jamie's face. Somehow the old woman noticed. "Come, let it all out," she told me. "We can trade tales." Jamie heaved a sigh and started talking about her life. Her parents, her friends, her sister, her dogs, and how she had come to be here. The old woman listened intently, nodding at the appropriate places. "You have a most interesting story to tell," she said when Jamie had finished. "Mine is less exciting."

Raina, as she told Jamie her name was, had grown up poor, the youngest of three children. Early in her life she was discovered to have a gift for herblore and Healing, and was apprenticed to Healer Aira. Then she devoted her life to healing the people of River Towne.

"I'm getting old, I fear," she said, "and I have no apprentice."

Jamie had been quite caught up in Raina's tale, and just shook her head sadly and said "That's terrible."

Raina looked her straight in the eye. "You said you were smart," she said mock-chidingly.

"Oh!" Jamie said, feeling embarrassed.

Raina nodded. "You are putting that brain to use, I see."

Jamie smiled despite herself. "I may not stay long," she said. A little voice in her head told her she was lying. From the look on Raina's face, she heard that little voice.

Jamie shrugged it off. She couldn't stay here the rest of her life, she was going to be a doctor, she was going to cure AIDS, she -

"Is there anyone who might know the way back? Or a way to find people who might have come with me?" Jamie wasn't quite ready to believe that there was no one here from her class. Or that there was no way of going home.

Raina considered the question. "We can search, and you are welcome to stay here while we search."

Jamie let out a breath she didn't know she'd been holding in. "Thank you, I will. Gladly."

"And in the meantime," Raina said, continuing as if Jamie hadn't spoken, "I will teach you some herblore."

Jamie could see the old woman wasn't that easily deterred. "It will help pass the time," she admitted.

"Good, let's get you settled," Raina said with a smile, and led her into the next room.

----

Jamie was shown into a small room with a single bed and a small table beside the bed. A rocking chair sat by the window, old and worn. A huge bookshelf took up an entire wall, and there was another door leading out to the back of the hut. This room, too, was cluttered with plants of all shapes and sizes, in boxes and pots. When Jamie had first approached the hut, she had thought it small, and it still was. But it was amazing how much could be contained in a small space.
Raina walked outside, and came back dragging a long bed. "This will be yours, once we clean it," she said. "I used it for patients that couldn't leave after I treated them. But there have been few of those these past few years, thank the gods." Jamie moved to help Raina, picking up one end of the bed. "Over there... to the left... Perfect," Raina said in a satisfied tone as Jamie dropped the bed. "As if it had always been there." She gave Jamie another of those warm smiles. "You are just in time to help me fix lunch..."

----

After lunch was finished, Jamie saw first-hand what Raina did. A young child was dragged, kicking and screaming, by his mother to Raina's hut. "He won't listen to me," the mother said angrily, tight-lipped with anger over the disobedient child. "I told him a thousand times, don't eat everything you find in the woods! But this young scamp thinks that all plants are good. And whenever he's hungry, he eats what he wants. Well this time you got what was coming to you," she said angrily to her son. "You're sick as a dog, and it would serve you right if I didn't bring you to Healer Raina. But it'll just add to your punishment if she makes you take some wretched-tasting medicine." The woman seemed to remember Raina was there, and fixed her gaze on the Healer. "He ate Talab berries."

"I have just the thing for upset stomachs caused by eating Talab berries," Raina said, moving to a box with plants in it and selecting a handful of leaves. She took them over to a board with a smooth rock, and ground them up. Then she took a jar and sprinkled some other crushed plants into the mix. Finally, she placed it in another jar. "Mix this with hot water," she instructed the mother, "and make sure he drinks it. All of it. One dose will do it."

The boy protested by kicking wildly and doing his best to get out of his mother's grasp. "Any chance I could get your help in making him drink it now?" his mother asked determinedly.

"Naturally," Raina said, taking a pot of water off the fire. She selected a tall glass and poured the mix of plants and water into it, stirred it, and held it out to the boy. He scrunched his mouth up tight, placing his hands over it.

"Jamie, give her a hand," Raina said, moving forward with the glass. Jamie took his hands away from his mouth and held them behind his back. His mother pinched his nose, forcing him to open his mouth to breathe. Raina poured the tea down his throat. The boy gulped, swallowed, then wrestled free and ran outside. He went to the pump and opened his mouth wide, letting the cool water flow into it. His mother chuckled. "As I said before, nothing more than he deserves. Thank you, Healer." She turned to face Jamie. "It's about time you got yourself an apprentice," she said, as if Jamie was stone and couldn't reply. "What will we do without you? Best to have a replacement."
Jamie had already decided she didn't like this woman, and this only confirmed it. She held her tongue and waited for Raina's reply.

"Not my apprentice, just a girl who is very far from home and needs my help to get back," Raina said. "She lives with me."

The woman nodded skeptically. "Yes, I'm sure, and maybe we'll fly to the moons." Jamie bit back a retort. "Strong, healthy girl. She'll do fine." The woman said this as if her opinion was the only criteria for selecting an apprentice. "My thanks again, Healer. Maybe this will teach him to watch what he eats. What do I owe you?"

"Some extra food," Raina replied. "This one eats a lot." Jamie almost commented that she had just arrived, but realized that it added to the story Raina had fabricated.

The woman nodded her head curtly. "Got three older than this one, about her age, and they eat a lot. However, we have surplus corn this ear. But you knew that, didn't you?" She fixed Raina with a knowing gaze. "Thought so. I'll send Toaled over later. Good day." The woman walked out the door and grabbed her son by the ear, starting to drag him back to their house. Raina shook her head as she watched him go. "Strong-willed, short-tempered woman," she said, shaking her head. "It's a wonder her children live to come to me." Jamie let out a short laugh, then stopped herself. Raina gave her an amused look. "It's alright, child. You'll need to know this when dealing with her. And it's perfectly acceptable to laugh. I do."

Jamie gave a small smile. "She's a typical client, then?" she asked, trying to get a feel for how Raina worked.

"Yes, and that was a typical fee," Raina said. "Coins are rarely used for payment, rather, we exchange goods or services. I have one of the most visited huts in the area, and I ask for everything from food to supplies in exchange for my services. Now, what I gave the child will make him throw everything up in about half an hour. It will expel the poison from the Talab berries and ease the pain. It tasted awful, though. The last herb I put in, Waitel, adds the awful taste and the painkiller." Raina then took Jamie around the entire hut, talking about each individual plant and what it did. Yellow Summer flowers eased a fever, while Blue Summer flowers warmed the body. Poite berries, another ingredient in the boy's tea, were what would make him throw up. And so on and so forth. Raina explained everything about her hut, the books, the plants, the dishes, everything. When the sun had finally set and dinner demolished, Jamie told Raina more of her home, and some adventures she'd had. The two talked late into the night, until Raina finally insisted she go to bed. "It has been a long day for you," she said, "in more than one way."

"You're not going to mother me, are you?" Jamie asked teasingly. She had come to really like the old healer.

"Well your mother isn't around to do it! Now get to bed!" Raina said, laughing. Jamie smiled and went into the bed, now clean and with sheets.

((Continued in "On her own (Chapter 2)" ))