Their days had become systematic as Rin would be focusing on her medicines. She hadn't had much opportunity to push herself when it came to this as previously in the forest plants that could your wounds and nourish the body was plentiful to the point even the water held a certain amount of rejuvenation.
Leon had begun to adapt to his job as a delivery boy. Whenever he created the hill back into the small town, Ernesto would be watching for the gates, the small cart filled with medicines was practically brimming with gold in Ernesto's eyes.
Not too long the town's people began to hear about Rin and her wonder medicine. It was easy to keep and not hard to drink compared to their usual bitter medicinal soups. As well the mother and son pair explained about visiting the mysterious new resident for seeing their I'll esses.
As such with Rin's unusual demands of labour or items, very soon a good portion of the people in the town would be quietly working away as her originally much smaller garden of herbs had stretched across the property. Leon could only shake his head at the change in scenery from the abandoned and yellowing lot.
Seeing a lot of the strange plants being grown, it had naturally become a place that the townsfolk would visit when going in and out of the town. Some buying medicine directly from Rin and for others hoping that by passing by would bless them to have a safe journey out in the wilderness.
Rin was lying on her medicine bench, her face showed the exhaustion of her body.
"Leon, how many more people do we have to go through?" Rin said, her tired voice was infectious as Leon had felt the strain from the rushing back and forth. Although his body was certainly not weak like Rin's it was still more than the pair could deal with.
"I'd say it's your fault. If your medicine wasn't so popular then we wouldn't have nearly half the people here" Leon complained, although he truly felt like he could tease Rin a little. Rin let out an exhausted sigh as she turned her head to look at Leon.
"It's not that I don't want to, it's just that if the medicine was less effective it would be close to useless. Medicine is one part healing and three parts poison after all" Rin said as she lectured Leon. Recently his behaviour had been way too good and could already tell he was itching to annoy her. She was surprised at how well he had suppressed himself over the past weeks and wasn't surprised he was trying to let off some steam.
"There has to be a way, I've seen some of the people that come by. Often they only a small bit of medicine and they're off again. Does it really need all your time spent on it?" Leon said. Truthfully the amount of people coming and going were more than he had ever expected to the point that Ernesto had come to him several times in a rush as his stock had all but disappeared overnight. Rin pondered on trying to solve they're new problen. Truly have money brings comfort, but too much brings about a calamity.
"I'll have to think about it. This is the last of the medicines that were requested." Rin said handing over several small clay vases that were stoppered. Leon held them in his hands and was about to leave to see to their customers however Rin had gotten up and started to walk away.
"Where are you going?" Leon asked quizzically. This woman had barely left the cottage in the last few weeks and now she wanted to go out?
"Just going for a walk, I need some time to think" Rin responded casually taking her walking staff with her. Leon could only shrug. In the time that he knew her, everything always seemed to be a mystery when it came to how she would behave.
Passing over the medicines the last group of people wandered away from the lot. Glancing back he could see Rin walking in the distance. Not wanting to disturb her Leon over the messy interior of the cottage. If you didn't have me, would anything have order anymore. Shaking his head he wasn't sure what kind of expectations he would have of a forest girl.
Rin followed along the dirt track as she kept rolling thoughts over in her mind. She wasn't the most adept at dealing with people. She had been inside the forest as her home for most of her life.
She could barely even remember what it was like before she had lived there, but Sylas had never told her. Just thinking about her caused Rin's heart to ache, the thought of returning home was quite a far distant thing.
The sounds of children playing however brought Rin out of her deep thinking. Following the source of the noises Rin ended leaning on a dilapidated wooden fence as she watched a bunch of children playing around in the fields.
Although their clothes looked ragged and beyond well washed Rin could see they were still very happy, waving around sticks and running around to catch each other. The scene caused Rin to smile at the joy and honesty the children had. A sharp voice caught the attention of the children as they froze as still as a statue.
"Children, foods ready" the voice rang out in a clear tone. The kids stopped playing and made a mad dash to to where the voice was coming from eliciting a short laugh from Rin as she followed the madly rushing group back to a plain white building and courtyard.
Curiously got the better of her as Rin walked over to see the children eating away with a simple meal of bread and soup. The arrival of this new visitor caught the attention of a few children and the lady who was handing the last of the food.
"Miss what are you here for?" The Lady responded in a guarded tone. The children noticed the change quickly and watched on in apprehension.
"Haha, I recently moved in down the road and the children caught my attention. Playing around this far out from the town made me a little worried but I didn't realise that there would be a place here" Rin said. From her appearance alone the lady relaxed as it didn't look like the young lady with a cane was going to cause trpuble.
"Apologies for my behaviour earlier miss. This here is the Luden orphanage. We look after the children abandoned by the town." The lady said with a bow.
"A pleasure to meet, I'm Rin. I live down the road with a friend of mine." Rin said with a smile. Feeling that the tension in the atmosphere had lifted the children went back to hungrily eating their food. Rin and the lady chatted for a while and discovered a few things about the orphanage.
"I used to live on this orphanage not long ago. But since the old caretaker had become old she needed someone to replace her" the lady lady explained. Rin could see how heavy the burden was as the lady sighed heavily.
"If you don't mind I'd be happy to help out around here sometimes." Rin said. The lady felt overwhelmed as her eyes moistened.
"I'd hate to trouble Miss Rin for this." The caretaker said. However she still moved her hand to direct taking the bowls back and they carried it to a basin filled with water. The two of them kept talking as they washed the bowls and cutlery while the children had already run back outside.
The two were happily chatting and putting the bowls when some of the children came rushing back in.