Chapter 3

Our village was centred around the Community Hall. The rest of the village proper consisted of housing, including the dormitories, the school, the trading post, the inn and all the establishments that enabled the village to function such as weavers and tanners and the smithy. The village proper was protected by stout fortifications, with gates that were closed and guarded at night.

Surrounding the village proper was where we maintained our livestock and food crops and livestock; pigs, chickens, cattle, sheep, fruit orchards, vegetable gardens and a system of arable fields allowing for crop rotation and fallow. Then there was a large outer ring of scrubland where the forest had been cleared away to provide plenty of opportunity to spot raiding parties and to provide a deterrent to some of the more ferocious forest animals that would readily have raided our livestock but for having to cross open ground.

I was quite relieved when I’d passed beyond the fields and into the scrubland without having been asked to carry out an odd job of one form or another, since I hated to let people down. The Northern Forest looked dark and oppressive as I approached, but as I penetrated the wall of trees, instead of feeling nervous, a strange peace came over me.

Since I couldn’t work out what Matra Glandira’s stipulation to ‘think like a healer’ actually meant, I carried on walking northwards. Although it was gloomy underneath the dense canopy, I could hear the sounds of life all around me; birds high in the canopy, small mammals rustling in the nearby undergrowth, the occasional growls and cries of larger animals some distance away.

The floor of the forest was permanently damp, capturing and preserving the tracks of animals. I toyed with the idea that should I fail the trial, as seemed likely, perhaps I might persuade the hunters to try me out as a tracker, tasked with leading them to their prey. Then, despite my best attempts to walk without making any sound, I stepped on a twig and it broke with a loud crack. Instantly there was nothing but silence all around me. I shook my head ruefully at how quickly my ambitious fancy had been brought crashing down.

As I continued on my path due North, walking as quietly as possible, the noises gradually returned. Meanwhile I continued to struggle with Matra Glandira’s puzzle. What do healers do? Heal people! Was I meant to find someone to heal? That seemed extremely unlikely, since Patra Albertrin was keeping other villagers out of the forests.