“Where else would she have gone?” Kayla asked.
“I don’t know.”
“Would she have gone to her shop?”
There was an element of hope in her voice. Jason didn’t want to squash it, but at the same time, their mother hadn’t been to her shop since before their father died.
“We can check,” he said.
She started off and he followed, trailing after his sister, and they meandered toward the northern edge of the village. The shop was little more than a hut, a building that had been abandoned for the last year, and he expected to find no sign of anyone near it, but as he approached, he saw footprints in the snow.
That was unusual. Could someone have taken over the shop? The village certainly needed healers, and with his mother disappearing the way she had, there wasn’t anyone else, but he didn’t think anyone else had the necessary skill. His mother had trained for a long time in order to serve, and she had taken on that role, willingly working with anyone, and because of that, she had become a vital part of the village.
Smoke drifted from the chimney of the shop.
Jason paused, knocking.
When no answer came, he pushed the door open.
On the other side, he found his mother.
He froze, unable to do much of anything other than stare.
Her coat hung over a chair and she was dressed in a tattered dress. Her hair was pulled back, tied behind her head, and her cheeks were rosy. Sweat dripped down her forehead.
She was busy cleaning. She swept the floor, heat radiating from the small stove off to the side and filling the tiny hut. She’d already cleaned off the cot and prepared it for anyone who might need it.
“Oh, good. You’re both here. You can help me clean up.”
“Mother?” Jason asked.
“What is it? There’s quite a bit to do.”
“Are you feeling all right?”
Kayla stood near the door, letting the cold air in.
Jason shot her a look. She shuffled off to the side, pushing the door closed behind her.
“I’m feeling wonderful. We need to get everything cleaned up.”
“I just haven’t seen you out of bed in a while.”
His mother paused, glancing up at him. “I think it’s about time I change that, don’t you?”
Jason paused before nodding. “I guess I do.”
He nodded to Kayla, and the two of them began to join their mother, helping, neither of them saying anything.
3
Jason looked around the inside of the hut, marveling at how clean it was. It had taken them the better part of the day to get it back into order, but now that it was, there was a sense of calm hanging over everything. Some of it came from the work they’d done to get everything back into place, but some of it came from the fact that his mother had returned to them.
He still couldn’t believe it. He had no idea what had changed for her, or why she would have suddenly stepped out of whatever fugue she’d been in, but he was thankful that she was seemingly back to herself.
More than just back to herself. She had energy she hadn’t before. Her face remained gaunt, a reminder of what she’d gone through, and yet there was a spark to her he hadn’t seen since before his father died.
Kayla sat in a chair near the door, watching his mother, saying nothing. Neither of them really knew what to say.
“I’m going out for supplies,” their mother said, grabbing her coat off the chair and flipping it on. She nodded to Kayla before turning to Jason. “Will you two finish up?”
He nodded, unable to think of anything else to say.
When she stepped outside, pulling the door closed behind her, Kayla jumped to her feet, looking over at him. “What’s going on?”
“I don’t know.”
“I mean, she’s been basically unresponsive for the last year. I had to force-feed her so many times, I can’t even keep it straight.”
Kayla had borne the brunt of caring for their mother, and Jason had borne the brunt of trying to feed them both, but this was unexpected.
“Have you been giving her any different medicine?”
“Not that I can think of. Besides, she didn’t want me to give her any different medicine. She was aware of anything that I might give her.”
He thought about everything they had done, and other than feeding her regularly, he couldn’t think of what might have caused this shift.
The only other thing that had changed, other than an improvement in food, was the way he’d taken to heating water. Using the dragon pearl, Jason had begun heating it differently, using power rather than wasting dung for something so simple. Most of the time, Kayla wasn’t even aware that he had done so. That was the way he wanted it. It was better to keep that ability hidden.
Could it be that?
The dragon pearl had power. He’d seen that himself, and he’d used it often enough, but he wouldn’t have expected it to have healed his mother.
And there wasn’t really anything to have healed her of. It was a matter of moving past what happened, of finding strength within herself that she otherwise had neglected. The dragon pearl wouldn’t have been able to accomplish that, would it?
He and his sister continued to work, cleaning the hut. Neither said anything more, and as he worked, he couldn’t help but wonder if perhaps he might have been responsible for helping his mother.
When she returned, she nodded, looking around. “I think everything is back in order.” She set a stack of jars on the counter, and Jason frowned.
“Where did you get the money to pay for that?”
“I traded services,” she said.
“What services did you trade?”
His mother frowned. “Honestly, Jason. You should know there are various ways of bartering.”
When it came to his ability to barter, Jason was limited. He didn’t have much to offer anyone. He could hunt, but that depended on catching something. Otherwise he had to beg for help.
“When you and Tessa move off on your own—"
“Mother, Tessa and I aren’t going to move off on our own.”
“You can’t stay with us.”
“I don’t think that I can stay with Tessa, either.”
“You aren’t interested in her?”
Jason squeezed his eyes closed. There was a time when he would’ve said that he was, though at the same time, he would’ve felt as if that was beyond him. After having met Sarah, he’d started to wonder if perhaps…
Jason shook those thoughts out of his mind. “I’m more concerned about taking care of you and Kayla.”
“You don’t need to worry about us. Now. What are we eating tonight?” she asked him.
“Rabbit,” he said.
She nodded and waved for Kayla to get to her feet. “Good. Now why don’t you two run along, and I will continue my preparations. I need to get everything ready for us to reopen tomorrow.”
Jason nodded. If his mother was going to reopen her shop, then they would have another source of income. It seemed impossible to believe.
As they made their way back toward their home, Kayla didn’t say anything.
“You’ll stay with Mother tomorrow?” he asked her.
“I think I have to.”
“I don’t know what’s going on, but hopefully this is a permanent change.”
Kayla nodded.
When they reached the home, he hurried around back and dug through the snow for the rabbit but didn’t find it.
He moved over, trying a different section, but there was no sign of it there, either.