For the bugs.
(short sweet excerpt from book III under the cut)
Then Kaelin abruptly smacked herself on the side of the neck. “Ugh.”
“Bugs?”
Turning her head to squint up at him, Kaelin grumbled, “I thought you didn’t know what bugs were? I had to explain spiders and butterflies to you.”
“I’ve always known what bugs were. I just didn’t know there were different kinds of bugs. They’re all just little flecks that fly around and bite you.”
“Spiders don’t fly around.”
“Wow. Thank goodness for that.” Ruyak put his nose to the wind thoughtfully.
“I ought to just stay in the pocket where the bugs can’t find me…” Kaelin groaned and let her arms drape over the outside of her pocket. The weather was hot. These days she was constantly washing her clothes and experimentally shedding layers, sometimes wearing only her sarafan or her underdress, which left her fair game for the biting flies. “I’m too sweaty right now.”
Ruyak followed his nose along the rise, examining the foliage carefully. The plant he was looking for preferred sun, and didn’t like soggy soil. It wasn’t something he’d find lower in the cool valley bottom.
“What are you doing?” Kaelin asked.
“Looking for something.”
“What-?”
“Found it,” Ruyak interrupted. He picked a sprig of the pink-flowered herb from the clump he found and handed it to Kaelin. “Here.”
“Oh… thanks?” Kaelin took the offered herb, examining the flower with a bemused pout. “It smells nice. Like… mint, almost, but fruity.”
“It’s sweet balm. Crush it up and rub it on yourself.
“Uh-”
“For the bugs.”
“Oh.” She gave the flower another sniff, tore off some of the leaves and rolled them between her hands, then rubbed the oils against the back of her neck and on her upper arms. The flower itself she hesitated over for a moment, then plucked from the rest of the stem and tucked behind her ear under her headscarf. “How’s that?”
“Good.” Ruyak sniffed the top of her head. “Now you smell prickly.”
Kaelin glowered up at him, but the effect of the little pink flower behind her ear nullified any ire in her glare. “Prickly enough for you to stop sniffing me all the time?”
“Ha! Nope.”
“Ah well,” Kaelin chuckled. “I suppose it’s too much to expect it to repel Ruyaks as well as bugs.”
