Aurora Meadows's Arc

Chapter 2 of 5

The hippogriff slept on the straw, but her wound was darkening at the edges. Aurora knew that color. Infection was close. She had nothing in her garden strong enough to stop it. She wiped her hands and turned to the stranger. "There's a greenhouse past the ridge. Rare herbs. Come with me if you can walk." He stood, slow, one hand still on his ribs. They took the path together through the pines. Halfway there, a small russet fox slipped from the ferns and stopped in front of them. It dropped something bright onto the moss and watched Aurora with calm eyes. She knelt. The seed in her palm shimmered with patterns that seemed to move on their own. The fox turned and vanished. Aurora closed her fingers around the seed. "This isn't from any plant I know," she whispered. The stranger looked at it and then at her. "Then plant it," he said. "Whatever it is, it came to you for a reason." They hurried the rest of the way. The greenhouse stood in a clearing, its glass panels catching the afternoon light. Inside, Aurora pulled down a small pot of blessed soil she had saved for something important. She set it on the worktable. Her hands were shaking. She pressed the seed into the dark earth. The stranger reached to steady the pot, and his fingers brushed hers. The soil glowed gold. A green sprout pushed up between their hands, unfurling fast, reaching for the light above them. Aurora stared. The sprout was already budding. Whatever this plant was, it was growing for the hippogriff, and it was growing now. She lifted the pot carefully. "We need to get back," she said. "Before she gets worse." Outside, the wind shifted through the pines, and somewhere beyond the ridge, hooves moved on stone.