Vorden ignored her question.
She placed her hand on top of the pot. She closed her eyes and concentrated. Soon a plant began to grow and she placed the pot on the bed next to Vorden. "I'm still studying this, so I apologize up front."
She lifted his shirt and placed the plant against his skin and held it there, closing her eyes to concentrate again. She focused her energy on the plant, looking for the medicinal qualities she needed for the job at hand.
Vorden had some minor internal bleeding. Yes, his immune system had kicked in and it would have taken care of itself eventually, but she didn't want him suffering. He was too beautiful for that. Slowly, she could see the medicine and she pulled it from the plant and channeled it into her patient and allowed it to work. She heard footsteps and her concentration was broken. She looked up to see the doctor approaching with a strange look on her face.
Dr. Haley looked at Lana with a quizzical expression and Lana looked at her feet. "I'm stopping his internal bleeding…" And she shuffled her feet uncomfortably.
"You can do that?" Dr. Haley inquired.
Lana nodded, "I'm learning but my ability is difficult, and I have no teacher."
"Are you a healer?"
"Not in the sense you are. My ability is plants and I hate it quite often. The trees can be annoying…" she gives a soft smile, "But they are the only friends I had until I got here. As for this, I'm teaching myself to heal with plants. Part of this is a skill I learned through meditation, part is my ability. Like, I can see the injuries through my skill. I have learned to identify what a lot of these injures are. But fixing them is quite troublesome. It requires a LOT of time in the library studying. My agriculture teacher has a lot of books but I have not had a chance to look through them yet. The library has a lot of resources that I have already looked through which need my personal attention." Lana points to the spot she touched earlier, "Is this a …." She holds her thumb and forefinger out to show a distance and she appears to be searching for the words.
"A hairline fracture? Yes." Dr. Haley provided the words she was searching for.
Lana nodded, "thank you. I always thought so but wasn't positive. I can't fix that one. I know the plant but to use my ability, I have to remember what it looks like and I have not found a good enough image of it to use it yet."
Dr. Haley smiled, "I'm quite swamped here. Would you like to help him to the extent you can and I'll be back to finish it? Is that okay with you?" They both nodded, though Vorden did so reluctantly.
Dr. Haley went to leave then turned back around, "Things are busy here quite frequently. Do you think you could benefit from helping me once a week?"
Lana brightened up, "yes but I need more study time as well. I'm in the Agricultural Club which is great but also boring. The teacher is working with me so far."
Dr. Haley nods, "How about your club on Mondays, Library Tuesday through Thursday, here on Friday?"
Lana brightened up even more, "Can you do that?"
Haley smiled. "Let me make a call and tend these other patients." She turned to Vorden, "You appear to be in good hands," and the doctor returned to her other patients to leave Lana to gain experience.
"You know I don't feel any different. Are you even doing anything?" Vorden asked.
Lana nods, "I have not addressed any injury that would make you feel different. I'll get there. I want to stop this first. I know it hurts and I'm sorry but this is more serious."
Vorden sighed, "Why are you even doing this? You don't even know me."
She stopped what she was doing and looked him in the eyes. She then moved her pot and sat beside him, placing the pot by his neck and putting the plant on his neck to see if she could do this and talk at the same time. "I've seen you going after the bullies. I see you protecting that boy with the curly hair. He's special. We are both fighting the bullies to protect someone. I don't know if you actually care about that boy in some way but I do care about the one I'm protecting. He is my twin. I wonder if the boy you are protecting knows how broken you are just as my brother doesn't know how broken I am." She touched Vorden's forehead, "I've never seen this before but I've heard of it. I see two other complete auras in your mind. This one here is significantly broken." She gently stroked his head and cheek as though she were soothing her brother then realized what she was doing. She stood back up with tears in her eyes and tried to regain her focus. She could feel Vorden's eyes on her but tried to ignore it. She closed her eyes and took her slow, deep breaths like she would do if she was meditating. The tears fell from her eyes and she quickly wiped them away as she continued to focus on her breathing.
Raten: Sil, she can see us!
Sil: It's the same girl. From breakfast. She seems nice. Sil then returned to the back of Vorden's mind.
Raten: Hey Vorden, what ability is this?
Vorden: I don't know but it's strange. I can't copy it.
She finally regained her strength and focus and resumed her work on Vorden's injuries. She finally saw the bleeding come to an end. She touched the plant and said, "wither." Vorden saw the plant shrivel up as it died in front of his eyes and turned to dust. She then placed her hand on the pot again and a different plant grew. This time, Vorden watched as the surface wounds closed themselves as if they never existed. It took a while but it was still interesting for him to see. Once all the wounds she could see were gone, she withered the plant and grew one more. This time Vorden was feeling relief from the pain his body was going through. He kept watching her face for any sign of emotion like he had seen before but she was all business.
It took an hour for Lana to do all three forms of healing. When she looked around, the room was almost empty and Dr. Haley was on her way to them once more with a smile on her face. "I see our patient looks much better!" She then finished his healing ensuring the fracture was repaired.
Lana smiled at her, "thank you. And thanks to my unwilling patient for letting me practice," she winked at Vorden.
"Lana, I got permission for your schedule change. The system is already updated. You are expected to be here on Fridays during Club time and the library as discussed. Now, the general did say that if you do not master the task in Agricultural Club, you are to continue with that class during the week until you do and be in the library afterwards. Sound like a fair deal?"
Lana gave her a big hug, "thank you!"
Haley looked at Vorden, "why don't you escort a lady back to her room as a thank you for helping you?"
They walked back to the first-year building together but silently. As they approached her room, "My name is Lana, by the way. I don't know if you even want to know. Lana Plantwell. Do you know a student named Peter Chuck?"
Vorden nodded, "He's my roommate, why?"
"Keep an eye on him." She veered off to her room and he returned to his. Vorden lay down on his bed and tried to figure out what just happened.
He was angry with her for making him go to the doctor. Why did he even listen to her to begin with? It was infuriating and confusing. Then she touched him so gently. The look in her eyes. Even the little one came forward to see what was going on. Then she stopped and cried. Did I want her to continue? I can't if I let her... It's best to stay away from her. But the little one. Is he taking an interest in her? Can we stay away? Here I am trying to keep Layla and Quinn apart and then this girl… This very special girl. He didn't sleep well that night as he felt so conflicted. He could feel her energy as she used her ability but it was something he had never experienced before. This girl was different. And what was it with the warning about Peter?
Lana entered her room realizing she hadn't grown any food yet but not really wanting to go out, she decided to use the kitchen in her room and her pots. She quickly grew a whole bunch of things which did not require deep roots. That meant she could not have carrots tonight. She put together something in a pot, wishing she had at least some potatoes to make a potato soup. Tomorrow will be better. While the soup cooked, she grew a whole bunch of wheat and a few other things to make flour for bread.
Kattie came in the room to the smell of the wonderful aroma. "Darn! Had I known you were cooking in here, I would have avoided the canteen! Though, I wasn't so bad tonight"
Lana giggled. "How was class?"
Kattie gave her the brief description. "Is the soup done?"
Lana nodded again, "Yes. I'm working on growing what I need to make a decent bread flour. I have a question for you. Do you think Sven could steal a book if we asked him to?" She said as a devilish grin spread across her face.