She makes her way to the garden. It’s late morning, but she’s had a few trips to make, gathering some of the herbs that can be found growing naturally around the Edge. If she was going to teach the foals about healing, she wanted to do so with what they had readily available. But of course, she brings it all to the gardens, to show them what the healers grow there as well.

It’s later than she’d hope when she finally calls out to the Edge, inviting any of the foals interested in learning about healing to come join it. Thankfully, most of the day is still ahead of her, and hopefully it’s early enough no one interested will have set off for the day. Though there would be more lessons in the future, including a lesson for all of the Edge. Though she wouldn’t find if adults showed up as well. Likely, she’d end up teaching them a nearly similar lesson.

As she waits, butterflies begin to dance in her stomach. She’s nervous, she realizes, afraid to do a bad job teaching the children of the Edge about healing. It’s strange to feel nervous. She’s grown up her whole life in front of others, eyes drawn to her. This isn’t new, but somehow, it seems more important. Healing is rarely life or death, but it can be. There are herbs in this garden that can thin blood when someone’s heart isn’t working right. There are no poisons here, simply because they do not grow them, but there are poisons growing in the wild.

She shakes her head, clearing away the worries. They were going to start with some basic first aid anyway. What to do for stuffy noses or small cuts. There would be more lessons as the seasons progressed, leading up to what to do in those life or death situations. But for now, she figures she will start with the things they are most likely to use. And so, reassuring herself that it will be fine, she settles in to wait.

yael

The first to arrive is Yael, and Lyanna gives the small golden mare a warm smile. “Of course I don’t mind,” she says. Because really, the more the merrier. And besides, Yael was part of the healer’s ranks anyway. There is not reason she shouldn’t be there, or anyone else. Lyanna still needed to organize adult lessons as well, though she planned to go over slightly more dangerous herbs and their antidotes as a topic for that meeting. Largely how to administer antidotes, because she did not trust Kaos and whatever he might be up to.

Maude is the next to arrive, and to Lyanna’s slight disappointment, the only one. In fact, Lyanna hadn’t seen Gawen or any of their nurses around lately. She knew their ranks were sorely lacking, but still, she hadn’t expected quite such a poor turnout. Perhaps she needed to frequent the Threshold more, and spend less time tending the garden. “It seems Maude that you are our star pupil.”

She gestures then to a few different herbs fanned out on the ground. “I thought we could go over the uses for our more common plants in the Edge. That way, if anyone in the Edge needs help, you will be able to identify and use some readily available items.” She gestures first to a small pile of items clearly pulled from a cedar tree. “Each piece of the cedar tree can be used for different things. If you have the time, or access to the garden, the oil of the cedar tree can be used topically as antiseptic and a sedative. For quicker uses, the tips of the leaves can be soaked in water and drunk to treat coughs. The leaves can also be broken down into a topical infusion and used to treat most skin conditions.”

She pauses for a moment before gesturing to the next pile, which is very clearly a pile of moss. “Sphagnum moss,” she says, pointing to a green almost fuzzy-tree like piece of moss, “retains water and can be used for drinking water in times of need. Many other mosses can as well, but sphagnum can literally be wrung out, so it also serves as a rather useful sponge for cleaning wounds. All the mosses in the Edge can be used for dressing wounds as well, as they are naturally sterile.”

Lastly, she nods to the final pile of ferns. The first one she points to is a coarse-textured, medium to large-sized leafy green piece. “Sensitive fern can be eaten to treat infections and to help restore a mother’s body after giving birth. It can be used topically to treat sores as well. Bracken fern, though it looks similar, has larger leaves and can be eaten to help with weakness and ease headaches.”

It was quite a lot all at once. So she waits for a moment before adding, “Questions? Or things in particular you want to know about? If not, I was thinking a little quiz perhaps?”

yael

She laughs slightly at Yael’s hesitation to ask the question, but not at Yael. “That is a really great question,” she says, meaning it. She still hasn’t found a great way to do this without an actual distiller, something she’s only heard of in rumors. She’s not entirely sure such an apparatus actually exists, though it sounds like something a combination of the Edge and Throat healers could make. “I haven’t found a great way to do this with what we have, but you can distill the leaves and bark down to produce the oils. The glass jars work as a receiving vehicle, and you just have to boil the cedar with some water and collect the condensation. Ice works to help cool everything, so a nice trip to the north or waiting till winter makes it easier. They really should just make a distiller, it would be easier.

Then she turns to Maude’s question with another friendly smile. “Also a good question. I stared at those ferns for way too long when I first moved here, that’s how.” She says it with a light laugh, making something of a joke. Though it’s not exactly untrue. “Take a look at the bracken fern,” she says, gesturing to one of the ferns on the ground before her. “The leaves on this one are spread out, and the actual leaves themselves are often more oval shaped than divided. If you look at the sensitive fern,” and now she nods to that one. “The leaves are much more like daggers with spikes. The differences between most ferns are pretty small, I admit, but usually studying the leaves and their patterns will show you which is which.”

She pauses for a moment before adding, “Does that help answer your questions?” she asks. “We can always go find some more species of ferns to differentiate.” She says, her grin playful, but of course, she actually would be happy to spend the rest of the day teaching them the difference between ferns.