This is the first-ever short story I wrote (finished Dec. 8th, 2020)
Amelia Mackenzie sat on the edge of her mother's bed, tears flowing freely down her cheeks. Her mother had caught an unknown illness that turned a person's skin grey. It had been a week since her mother first started showing symptoms. Amelia panicked when she first saw her mother turning grey. She had hidden in her room for most of the morning that day. Amelia was always a brave girl, sometimes even doing a boy's stuff, like hunting and using weapons. She was particularly talented in using the bow. That whole afternoon, she rode around the country on her horse, Blaze, to find healers and doctors, but all of them had sighed and said, "I have never seen anything like that. It must be a new disease. The best thing for her now is a lot of rest. She must fight the disease herself. Who knows? Maybe she would get better." From then on, her mother was getting weaker by the minute, unable to move or sit up. Amelia hated to be able to do nothing for her mother. Before the illness, her mother was a scholar. She was there every time Amelia needed advice, but now, she couldn't do anything. "Amelia, my daughter," Her mother rasped. It was the first time she had spoken in days. Amelia snapped to attention at her voice. "Mother! What can I do for you?" Amelia sobbed. "Listen. I am about to die. But there is maybe a medicine that might help. I read a book about a kind of illness like the one I have. It is called the greisteen. The only cure is behind the Scared waterfall. It would be a dangerous journey but might reach it. It is my only hope." She finished with one huge breath and sunk into sleep again. "I will, mother, I will. I will not fail you," She cried. Amelia jumped to her feet. Her mother's words gave her hope and something to do. The Scared waterfall was just out of the country, but there were a series of mountains and hills blocking the way. Amelia set a goal for herself. She had to make it, no matter what. Pulling on her coat and reaching for some saddlebags, she prepared to leave. She looked around the house, it was not so big, but a tidy little cottage. She would be traveling light so she took the most basic supplies. Beef jerky and crackers for food, a sleeping bag, a small one-man tent, a flint and steel to start a fire, a compass, a first-aid kit, and of course, her weapons, the bow and arrows, two knives, and an ax. "We need to go to the Scared waterfall, girl," Amelia said as she saddled Blaze, placing the saddlebags that contained their supplies on both sides, then climbed on herself. She urged Blaze into a canter and set off towards the hills. Amelia sat on Blaze, looking around the trees that surround her for any sign of something familiar. She was sure she had been here before, but the memory was just out of reach. Her fists clenched on Blaze's reins until her knuckles turned white. Her face was red, and her teeth were clenched. She wanted to scream until she got the memory, but who knows who might be listening, so she stayed quiet. Blaze seems to have sensed her mistress's mood as she neighed nervously. "Oh, I am sorry, girl, but I think we are lost!" She said and signed loudly. Now that Blaze knew the problem, she turned her head and shook her mane, as if she was signaling something to Amelia. "Oh, what? We are lost." She signed again. "Any chance you would know the way?" She asked as she let go of the reins and let them fall to the ground. Blaze broke off into a gallop, nearly unseating Amelia. "Wo, Blaze, know where you are going!" Amelia said. She found herself sitting lightly in the saddle, balancing easily. She was hunched over Blaze's neck, avoiding low-hanging branches by doing so. Suddenly, the trees disappeared around them as they sprinted into a clearing. Amelia recognized it instantly. It was her clearing, the one she spent days making and improving. It was not a big one, with a tree dominating the center. All around it was a patch of short, even grass, maintained by Amelia whenever she went hunting. There is a place for her to start a fire, a small pond where she did all the washing. With the experience of a hunter, Amelia knew that animals will always forget to look up, and people are the same. Up in the tree in the center of the clearing, stood a magnificent tree house. It contains many levels and it led to small watch houses all over the woods. Amelia tends to have the habit of building a treehouse wherever she thought prey were plenty, then connecting them and finally to the headquarters, here, in the clearing. "You never stop giving me surprises, Blaze," She said in a low voice as she took in the scene in front of her, then, seeming to snap out of a trance, said to Blaze, "Might as well have a meal here, come on." Amelia walked into the clearing with Blaze close behind. After un-saddling her and giving her a full rub-down, Amelia let Blaze graze while she climbed into a big room in the tree houses to prepare a meal for herself.
Below her, Blaze whinnied, it was a call Amelia knew very well, a warning call. She jumped to her feet, bow in hand, with an arrow already knocked onto it. "Which way?" She shouted to Blaze. She had been trained to identify the way a threat came from. Now, as Amelia peered out of a window in the treehouse, she could see Blaze toss her head to the left, which is directly below where Amelia was. That would give me a clear pass to shoot, she thought. "Stay," She commended. She didn't want Blaze getting in the way when she shoots to protect her. There it is, a flash of black in the trees, there it goes again. Amelia squinted to get a better look, and suddenly, it was in the clearing, moving with such speed that it was only a mass of black. Amelia aimed, drew, and shoot with one fluent movement, estimating the speed and distance of the mass. The mass stopped in its tracks, dead before it hit the ground. Amelia slid down the tree to look at the animal. It was a black jaguar, a beautiful one. "I am sorry I have to kill you, but you are threatening us. You died without pain." She whispered to the jaguar. Beside her, Blaze neighed and rolled her eyes at her, probably saying, "Why do you say that, it tried to kill us, after all." "It tried to kill us, but it is an animal, it has a life," Amelia replied, "Come on, we'd better get going, we need that medicine." Amelia and Blaze rode steadily for the rest of the day, coming to a stop as they saw a village coming into view. "Looks like we will have a roof over our heads tonight, come on, tomorrow, we will reach the waterfall," Amelia said to Blaze as she urged her into a gallop. "You there, hand over all your valuables!" A man with red hair came out of the wood and said. He was large, and in his hand with a spear. "I am just a lone traveler, I have no valuables, just some food, and clothes," She replied. "I see that you are on a horse there, I want your mount, give me that and you can be on your way," The man threatened, "Or, I can kill you for it." With a sigh, she took out her bow and selected an arrow from her quiver. "You had better leave me alone, or I will put an arrow through you." She replied calmly. He was just one man and she was confident she can handle him easily. "I don't think so," Came a voice from the woods. A second later, twelve armed men came out of the tree, surrounding her. Six of them have crossbows and the rest have slings or spears, and they looked like they knew how to use them. Realizing that she was outnumbered and surrounded, Amelia signed and replaced her arrow in her quiver. She needed to talk her way out of this. She could be very persuasive when she wanted to be. "Look, I am just a kid, can't you leave me alone? I see that you are big, fierce, men with good weapons, why prey on lone, poor travelers like me?" Amelia asked, trying desperately to calm her voice. She knew that these men ruled by fear. They are used to having people surrender at the sight of them, but Amelia was doing none of those. The more time she is wasting on these men, the more chance that her mother would die. "Plus," She continued, "You could get more from wealthier people, or are you scared that they would beat you?" That did the trick. These men didn't like to be insulted, especially by a girl. "Of course, we can defeat them, we just like your horse," One of them spoke up. Amelia noted with interest that his nose was slightly crooked and there was a huge scar on his left cheek. "Yeah," The others agreed. The leader of the group, which is the man who appeared first with red hair, grunted. He was not enjoying this and wanted to do something about it. "Get her." He ordered and instantly the men all surged forward, crossbows and slings forgotten, instead using their spears. Amelia's bow was no weapon for close-quarters fighting, but the ends were reinforced with iron and the curve on both sides was used to catch the enemy's weapons. A man's spear came into view, but Amelia caught the spearhead with the curve and twisted so that the spear was locked into the bow. She then pulled on the spear and stabbed the man holding it in the stomach. With a whoof, all the air went out of him and he let go of his spear, landing heavily on is back about a meter away, still wheezing. She disentangled her bow from the spear and stood up in the saddle, balancing on the balls of her feet, then, as two men came at her, she jumped, spinning in the air as she did so, kicking the men in the face at the same time. She landed lightly, just to be facing another man. Amelia side-stepped a spear thrust and came up behind the man, simultaneously sweeping his legs under him. The hilt of her knife struck him just behind his left ear, enough to knock him out, but not kill him. Beside her, Blaze was fighting too, kicking and bucking with all her body. Together, they knocked out six out of twelve, but the rest were still coming, overwhelming them. "Stop it," Another voice came from the woods. It was surprisingly young, and the speaker was a female. All the fighting stopped instantly, as if lured by the voice, they all turned toward the speaker. She walked out of the woods, holding a sword. "Do you know what you are doing? That girl killed or knocked out half of your men by herself, any man with any sense wouldn't be rushing forward just to be knocked out. I say that you leave her alone," The girl announced, her voice was what you would expect of a leader, full of determination and without an ounce of fear. She was wearing a green and grey shirt, black leggings, and a brown cloak. She was a year or two older than Amelia, with black hair tied in a rough ponytail. The men, realizing that the speaker was a mere girl, began to laugh. However, the leader glared at them and they stopped. "Who do you think you are? Talking to us like that?" He asked, face burning with anger. "Who do you think you are? You have no right to rob innocent travelers and I did what I have to." The girl answered stubbornly. The men gritted their teeth. Today, they had been insulted, twice, and by girls. They are going to pay for this, they thought as they advanced again. The girl was also lightning fast, as it turned out, parrying blows with her swords, and returning the blows before her opponent could react. Men fell under her sword and quickly, with Amelia and Blaze's help, all of the men lay on the ground, groaning. "Thanks for your help, what's your name by the way?" Amelia asked. "My name is Phoebe, Phoebe Hawthorn. I don't think you need much help with these men, you could defeat them easily," She said, "Where are you going, anyway? Think I could join you?" "I don't think why not. I am Amelia. But I am on a quite urgent quest." "Well, I am on one too, we might as well travel together. I am heading to the Scared waterfall, come on." Phoebe said. Noticing that Phoebe didn't have a horse as looking toward Blaze, Amelia asked, "Don't you want to stay in the village for the night? We can ride double tomorrow. I am going towards the Scared waterfall too." “Sure.” Phoebe agreed. The next day, as they rode together, Amelia's curiosity exploded. She had been wondering what Phoebe was doing at the waterfall as she knew that there are no villages close to it. "What do you want at the waterfall?" She asked, trying to sound casual. "Well," Phoebe said, and then hesitated. They had only known each other for a day, but she thought that she could trust Amelia, "My dad was sick with a new disease. It turned the person's skin grey. My mum said that there is medicine at the Scared waterfall." Amelia gasped. She stopped Blaze and her head snapped back and look directly at Phoebe, then said in a bare whisper, "I came for that medicine too. But I think there is only enough for one person. Only one of us can have it." "Let's talk when we get there, all right? Maybe there even isn't a medicine." Phoebe said calmly.
"Look, there is it," Amelia shouted. Looming above them, was the Scared waterfall. They had ridden in peace for nearly all day, but now, they realized that they were enemies. She left Blaze and decided to walk with Phoebe.
"So," She started, "Who gets the medicine?" That question had been on their mind for a whole day, now, they needed to decide.
"Let's see the medicine first, maybe it is enough for two people. “Phoebe said.
"How do I know that you won't kill me at the first sight of it?" Amelia asked.
"I swear that I won't. Plus, I can already think of a solution. Where do you think that medicine is, anyway?"
"If the medicine is really here, the best hiding place will be behind the water itself. I think that there is a cave behind the water. But from what I can see, it is narrow, in the middle of the waterfall, which means that we need to use the stones to cross. The trip will be dangerous. The rocks are wet, and you can slide easily." Amelia observed and concluded.
"Fine, we need to take that risk. Come on."
The cross was terrifying for all of them, but with great effort, they reached the narrow cave, and inside, was a little bottle of medicine.
"It is really here. So, who gets it? You said that you have a solution?" Amelia asked. She didn't like the fact that Phoebe could cut her into a million pieces with her sword if she wants to, but she think that she could trust her.
"Yes, my mum is a scientist. I heard that she could copy nearly everything. I could ask her to copy the medicine."
"Are you sure she could do this? I mean, how could anyone copy a medicine?" Amelia asked, worried.
"Magic. This is a healing potion. With a little magic, she can copy anything. But you have to swear that you won't tell anyone that my mum is a magician." Phoebe said.
"Sure, I swear I wouldn't tell anyone about your mother."
At Phoebe's house, her mother cast a spell on the bottle of medicine. Then, with a bang, another bottle appeared next to the original one.
"That's terrific! Thank you so much. I had better get going." Amelia said with a smile. Racing outside and hopping onto Blaze, they galloped full speed, back to Amelia's home. Not even wasting a second, she feed the medicine to her mother. She looked even worse, with more grey spots showing. After that, before her eyes, the grey started to fade. Her mother opened her eyes and smiled.
"Thank you, my girl." She said in her normal voice. Amelia sobbed with joy and relief, then hugged her.
In that split second, Amelia realized that there is always another way to a seemingly impossible situation.
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