The Veil of Darkness
Chapter 65: The Herb Valley

Chapter 65: The Herb Valley

"Are you for real?" Annalise couldn’t help herself from asking as she started at the waterfall and then at her husband who was asking her to cross the waterfall. Just looking at the speed and amount of the falling water was making her feel dizzy.

Kenric pulled her closer to his side as he wrapped one of his hands around her and spoke in a soft voice, "Trust me, Little Bird. Nothing is going to happen. You won’t even get wet let alone get hurt. The Herb Valley is on the other side of this ward."

"A ward?" Annalise asked in surprise as she once again turned her attention to the waterfall, trying to see if she could feel the presence of any magical energy there, and to her surprise, she did find one - a powerful one. "There’s indeed a ward."

"See! Now, are you ready?" Kenric asked as he looked at her with his eyes glowing with excitement. He was really eager for showing her the Herb Valley.

She finally nodded her head and muttered, "Okay."

The man didn’t give her a warning before he suddenly pulled on her arm and dragged her into the waterfall along with him. A little scream left Annalise’s lips when the cold water hit her body but the sensation was gone just as quickly as it came.

When the world around her came into focus, she found herself standing inside a small cave with an opening in front of her that was covered with long vines hanging down that his the view from her eyes. Kenric was standing next to her with a cheeky smile on his face and as for her, she was completely dry with not even a single drop of water on her.

She let out a small sigh and followed behind her husband who was already making his way through the hanging vines. She too stepped outside of the small tunnel like cave and found herself looking at a spectacular view.

On their way to this place, several images of the Herb Valley appeared in her brain with long fields of herbs and other magical plants growing in them. However, nothing came close to what lay in front of her.

"This..." Her voice was lost and so were her words as she couldn’t decide what to say. Her eyes and brain were too busy taking in everything that they were seeing.

The place was indeed vast and was spread as far as her eyes could see. The sky was a shade of neon and argon with millions of stars filling it to the brim, probably the most beautiful shade of sky she had ever seen in her entire life.

There were small cliffs around the place with magical herbs growing on them. And as for the herbs, they were nothing like the ones she had been imagining. All the herbs seemed like the rarest magical herbs to exist in the four realms. There were tall trees with multiple colored leaves, small plants with huge glowing flowers, beautiful sparkling butterflies, and fireflies wandering around the place and she also noticed a pavilion built of moonstones next to a spirit pond.

"Wow."

The word finally escaped her lips as she took in everything present around her. It was so overwhelming that she was struggling to believe her eyes. She had never seen so much magic in a single place ever before.

"Looking at your reaction, I can assume that you are liking this place. Right?" Even though he made it sound like a question, he was already aware of the answer. The smile on his lips was making it pretty obvious just how happy he was to see her stunned expression.

"What herbs will we be collecting from here?" She asked as she looked around the vast area and the hundreds and thousands of herbs that were growing there.

"Though Valerius gave me a list before we set out, I’m planning on getting a little bit of everything from here. Who knows when we will end up in their need. It’s better to be prepared." Kenric responded as he flicked his hand and a bag full of small pouches appeared out of thin air.

"Here, we should start now." He said while handing her the bag filled with empty pouches.

"All of these?" Annalise stared at the herbs and then at the pouches. Even an entire day won’t be sufficient for them to collect all the herbs that were growing there.

Taking in a deep breath, she hurriedly took out a pouch from the bag and moved towards the nearest herb. Just as she was about to collect a little part of it, she stopped and turned to look at Kenric. "What am I supposed to collect? The flowers, the leaves, the stem, or the root?"

She was sure that she saw him holding back his smile which made her look at him with squinted eyes but the man hurriedly changed his expression to normal as he answered, "It doesn’t matter. As long as it’s a part of a certain herb, it will perform its job perfectly. But to make things simple, you can collect either the flowers or the leaves."

Annalise nodded her head in understanding before she started with her work. She roamed around the vast space, collecting as many herbs as she could in the pouches before handing them to Kenric who was making all the pouches disappear as soon as they landed on his palm.

"Who created this place?" Annalise asked out loud in wonder as she went closer to the pond after collecting the flowers from a herb growing near the pavilion. The spirit water in it was reflecting back the stars and the beautiful sky.

Kenric appeared beside her as he took the pouch from her hand and it too disappeared to someplace as soon as it was in his hold. "It originally belonged to a family of pixies but when Valerius helped them around two hundred years ago on his way to the nearby town, they gifted this place to him as a gift."

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