Wandering lost - OTA

[primeverdeen]

Prim promised her friends she'd make the effort, and she was trying. Trying to have reasons other than feeding her animals to live, to keep moving. But it was hard, so hard. Her limbs felt leaden and her head ached and all she wanted to do was sleep. But she promised. So she was trying to find Killian and Fatima. Show them she was alive, so she could go back to her quarters again. With the ghost roommate who couldn't tell her if the lack of Katniss' ghost was a good thing or a bad one.

The lack of Katniss. Tears welled in hollow eyes. Would this feeling of being scraped out and empty ever go away? No Katniss. No Mom. No district who needed her. No Panem who saw her as the sister of the Girl on Fire. Without Katniss, without her mom, in a place where they don't need medical help from a kid like her... Who was she? What was the point of her?

Comments

[ethnobotany]

"Plants right now," Beverly admits. "But if you're more interested in something else, I'm sure we could come up with something." Perhaps teaching her the properties of medicinal plants and the like. "I happen to believe medicine and botany can be closely related. I think we have a few medicinal plants in here if you'd like to start with that."

She glances at Fatima, her lips tilting upwards for her friend as well. The compliment is true, though she does appreciate it all the same.

[primeverdeen]

She nodded a bit. "My sister and my father used to collect plants for mother and I to use," she said softly. "I... never had much to do with the plants while they were growing, but I know how to make basic medicines and poultices. Medicine was hard to come by, back home, so whatever we needed, to help people, we made ourselves. I... I have a book... lots of plants, and their uses..." She was afraid to say that much but...

But she wasn't stupid, and while her education was different from Philip's, she still had one. That... still mattered... right? Not that there was anything she could teach this woman, but if this woman knew she had the basics down... maybe she'd teach her more? Enough to let her help sometimes?

[dust_of_life]

"We could have used someone like you in Zelien," Fatima mused.

It was getting easier to talk about Zelien. Especially now that the funeral party was likely. But joking about it was still hard. Fatima forced herself to, if only to stay sane. But she immediately felt guilty about doing it in front of Beverly.

Well. Spilled milk.

[ethnobotany]

"It sounds like you've got a great start," Beverly tells Prim, her expression only barely flickering at the mention of Zelien from Fatima. It isn't as bad as it might be from someone who hadn't been there with her, but with Fatima, Beverly can handle it.

Or so she keeps telling herself.

"She's right. We could have used someone else well-versed in medicinal plants there," she continues, moving around until she finds a patch of plants she thinks will be good to start with. "Why don't we start with what we have here? You can tell me what you already know and we can work on from there. How does that sound?"

If you want to tell me what plants there are/let me choose, her posts can be more detailed. :D

[primeverdeen]

She nodded a bit, allowing herself to hope, at what the woman was saying. She didn't really know where that place was, but... but it sounds like they would have valued her there, she would have been able to help. And because of that... maybe they'd teach her how to help here.

She followed Beverly to the patch of plants and leaned over one carefully. She touched the leaf and moved her fingers across it, trying not to harm the plant, but trying to get a scent and feel of the resin like she would if the plant were cut, the way she was used to seeing most of them. She took a deep breath in through her nose, and timidly smiled, as she realized exactly what the plant was.

As if reciting a lesson for school, though with a touch more pride and confidence, she began to explain the plant, using it's common name in the districts, along with the properties of the plant, where it grew, what it could be used in aid of, and how. They had been very creative, her mother and her, in figuring out ways to get the most out of a plant, given how few options they had, and she was pretty sure that some of their ideas hadn't really been tried outside of 12. Then again, she was pretty sure that Capitol hovercrafts were the closest they'd ever get to space flight. So she could just be showing her district dis-education again.

[dust_of_life]

Fatima followed behind them, watching with her head tilted to one side.

Suddenly, she was nine years old again, out in the garden with her mother, reciting her own lessons.

And what's this one, Tima?

Mint.

What does it do?

Settles the stomach.

And this one, Tima?

Cumin.

Very good.

She lived through it all again, the good and the bad. She remembered how safe and secure she felt against her mother's side. And how she would resentfully look to the road and see other people going out to do fun and exciting things, while she was stuck in a garden all day. Childhood was complicated enough, without the multiverse.

Poor Prim.

[ethnobotany]

Beverly nods encouragingly at Prim's explanation, guiding her as they go and letting Prim tell her everything she can about the plants they're working with. Glancing upwards just slightly, Beverly's smile lifts for Fatima, gratitude for bringing the child to her to help. That was a good move and maybe they all can bond over plants a little.

"Very good," she says once Prim is finished. "Let's see. There's another good one around over here."

She steps off to the side. With luck going over plants can help keep all three of them occupied and relatively happy for a few hours at least.

[primeverdeen]

She goes with her, looking over the plants, answering the ones she could. As they went she became more animated, and more herself. She wasn't being told she's too stupid or too primitive to be of use, she was actually proving that maybe she could be helpful, and she was learning, and she liked learning and liked helping.

She liked the scents, the feel of her plants. It reminded her of being home, but in a good way, sorting through what Katniss brought, consulting the big book, trying to rouse her mother, and sometimes succeeding, and then working with her. Knowing that what she was doing would help make someone feel better.

She was being more herself, the more she got lost in the plants, and spending time with these two women. She could almost believe Katniss was just taking a nap, or out with Gale in the woods for a second round, or trading. It felt like all the best parts of being home.

Her stomach growled softly as she worked. For the first time in a while, her appetite was waking back up, she was waking back up. And being so close to plants that could be used for cooking, as well as for medicine, was only making her more aware. But she didn't want to stop, and she'd worked through hunger before.