RP:A Recap, Really
Part of the Time Heals All Wounds Arc
Synopsis: While walking in the desert back home to Kelay, Penelope reflects on her life. A true author's personal recap. Also, uh, Nel is about to realize Lionel is gone. Yikes.
The Nameless Desert
The voyage home from the desert had been one that felt slow. Not as much as time going by, but as much of the exaggeration of wanting to get home to accomplish finding the cure for young Leon Lovik. Though, in the midst of trudging through the dry sands with the blue haired druid and the apprentice, the woman was able to piece together the next moves.
In the depths of Penelope Halifax’s mind was a recap. It all started with growing up within the roots of Ardelia. In summary, the girl was born within a druidic witch, twin lineage. Penelope and Pakellin Halifax were the only druidic witches within the tribe besides their father and their uncle. The town healers. A part of a tribal monarchy. Unfortunately, her father and mother turned out to be criminals and were exiled from Ardelia.
Cue the recent years. A girl without any touch in her druidic culture. A girl who now only yearned for a simpler life and became a lead baker for Mrs. Mallard in Cenril. A girl who yearned for a home of her own. One of picket fences while carrying a heavy naïve head. The Ardelian, however, never received the hand that she wanted. Instead a toxic curse was given to her from a tainted, demonically possessed ex. Scars were given. Family taken from her due to her mistakes only to be left with a void of her own without her twin brother Pakellin.
The last Ardelian, or so she thought, but she would think about that in a minute through the hot sands. Wow, those sands were getting to her noggin. Did Kailani notice? Ruari? No. They all trailed in comfortable silence. Right? Right? Whatever. Either way, there were many paths to take after the death of Pakellin Halifax. Keep trudging in the “innocence” that was baking. Pretending that life with the metallic-armed elf was worth continuing forward without her ill brother, or… learn that life was not always easy. Life was never easy.
With the darkness that crept within her back, came a desire to fix others. Help others in great need. The need to atone from her mistakes. Start again? No. Push forward. Forward into the medical field. The Healer’s Guild where she met Sabrina. The basics were somehow a breeze since being a baker she was patient and able to work with her hands gently anyway. The girl had found her calling, or so she thought.
Sir Lionel O’Connor. A smile spread across Nel’s face. Lionel hated that phrase “Sir O’Connor”, but she loved that he hated it. Did the apprentice in the heat see the weird, knowing smirk that she had while they walked? There was a jump in heartbeat whenever she thought of Lionel. Or maybe she was thirsty. Time to hydrate, yes. Anyway, Lionel was the only person she felt like she had the hardest time talking to, but somehow knew that he understood her thought process. Somehow, someway, a friend always knew, right? Friend? Were they? They kissed. That was an obnoxious thought. He had not talked to her since their "date" that she was reluctant to go on anyway. Did it really go bad? Why did she care? Kyori kissed her... Honestly, what was with the dude drama? Okay, this was becoming a teenage diary. Time to cut out the weirdness of the dating game.
Anyway, back to the professionalism of Lionel and her relationship. Ahem. Penelope knew that there was one person that she would never want to disappoint and that would be Lionel. The first time they met, she knew he would be impactful. Impactful from that distance. He trusted her the moment he met her with the war of the Saurians. They were hopeful for the war. That Nel would be able to push through and think on her feet. The Ardelian failed. She failed the warriors. Failed the healers. Most of all, failed herself.
She disappeared to find… home. Only to come right back to Lithrydel to work under a strange, elderly elf named Yerrel who worked in a dump of a hut in the roots of Kelay-Sage. So there she stayed for a couple years, learned, and kept going even though she disappointed herself again and the others around her. The girl, like a flower, bloomed and began to blossom into an aspiring physician in Kelay where she still remains to this very day.
Then, when life was piecing itself together again, an unexpected shatter came crashing through. Linken returned. Lionel came washed up from the seas. Kyori awoke. Lanara vanished. The cursed chief’s son from Ardelia barreled through her medical doors with only a list of ingredients and a mysterious gadget that held the answer to lift the illness that corrupted the boy.
How Penelope came this far in the span of several months was a game of luck, she thought. Or was it luck? How did she walk into the darkness to help defeat Kahran for Lionel? How did she manage to survive after being stabbed in the gut by a sword by Linken and almost left to die? How did she manage to communicate to the dead with Kyori and then somehow revive Pakellin, yet again? How did she learn the secrets of her twisted uncle placing a curse on a poor child? How had she sailed seas to walk into the blinding lights and an unstopping magnetic pull with utter strangers on the Maighdean Mhara only to find the single herb she needed by the moonlight? Not to mention, how was she just walking away from undead terramancers for finding another root? The list of questions could go on. Even learning the balance of elements and control by Kailani, Edith, Magik, and Pakellin. Every day had been as if she was living like she was… going to die.
Now she was here walking into Gualon in one piece. Only to be successful yet again… Ready to study the pyramid to find the last clue, and create a cure for Leon Lovik, and then focus on Xioctl. Easy, right?
Kelay Healer
Returning to the hut had been one of relief. Penelope’s mind had stopped spiraling, well, at least on the past. Time to flush the past and focus on the now. In the corner by the stove had been the other half of her. There was beginning to be a sense of relief when moss eyes rested on his olive, freckled face. “Hi,” she breathed out towards the brother in the corner of the room. On the other hand, Sofia Ulberg had already been up to help Penelope carry her light luggage. Yerrel, on the other hand, was tending to a woman with a broken arm behind a curtain.
“You made it back!” The foreigner chimes in that thick accent. “You got it, didn’t you? You’re back!” Well, that may have been a little forward and full of pressure, but Nel is straight to brush Sofia’s comments off her shoulders.
“I got it, yes,” there is a long, tired sigh, but beneath the drowse was… a smile. Faint, but there. The woman did not sleep a lick. Sleep had been hard to come by lately. The petite woman shrugs off her satchel before unclipping the bag for the cloth that held the buds and roots of the mallow. However, without having time to open the cloth, the woman is swept in an embrace. This time, by a much taller, masculine version of herself.
“Thank the gods. You should’ve taken me with you, Nel. I’m still pissed, but… you’re back. So…” He lets go before taking the herbs from her. “Also, thank gods your back because… this kid…. We need to look at the pyramid. We need to get it open, Penelope. As soon as possible. Not tonight, but hopefully in the next week or so.”
Sofia then chimes in, “I’ve even been researching how to make elixirs, since I know we don’t have much time for another study session.”
Yerrel then pops out from behind the curtain. “You don’t need to research nothing, Ulberg. Young Penelope knows how to at least do that, but at least you can be some sort of helping hand. As in, just hold the boy’s hand,” there is one of those elderly chuckles. Then, his wrinkled features fall flat, “Where is Mr. Erickson?”
Penelope nodded slowly to all of them. Although with heavy tired eyes from the sun that kissed her skin, she manages to tilt her chin in command of the mini group of people around her. “Mr. Erickson went home. He’s exhausted. I don’t blame him,” she waves off Yerrel. Her eyes then trail to Sofia Ulberg and Kel. “I know. We will look at it tomorrow. I just need… tonight, please.” The frizzy haired healer then casts her gaze to Sofia Ulberg. Sofia was always so nosy and bossy in Nel’s eyes. “I’m glad you want to help, but really… you can really just stick to, uh, patient care. Like Yerrel said,” and the Ardelian ignores the upcoming scoff from Sofia. Ardelians were stubborn. The healer knew.
The hand of the brother rests on the sister’s arm. “And thankfully you –are- looking out for your own health for once. Proud bro, I am.” He then gives the girl a small shove before walking back over to the stove. “I’m gonna stay here tonight. I don’t think I can leave this li’l guy’s side. In the meantime, I’ll also look over these herbs for you. Cut you some slack, at least. You need rest, so go home. Seriously, Nel.”
“Oh yeah, give her a break why don’t you? We are –so- close. Are you kidding?” Sofia’s nagging was now becoming a hum throughout the hut.
“Kellin is right. Penelope, go home. We will talk in the morning,” Yerrel agrees with ease.
The druidic witch looks at the three of them before eyes land on Leon behind the curtain. There is a sharp inhale. For her mental and physical health, it was best to rest for a clear mindset. “You’re right. I’ll go.” The disoriented girl shakes her head to get herself together before reaching the doorknob again. “Uh, er… night everyone. I’ll, uh, see you in the morning.” Then, she is gone.
The only thing Penelope Halifax does not realize is that she is about to get, yet another, wake up call, for Lionel O’Connor is missing.