Antef - Spring prompt

It was spring again, and the fine weather and newly blossomed flowers reminded Antef of the first actual spring he had ever seen. In Alexandria, where he had spent is youth, spring was a moderate alteration of the weather. A transition between the rain season and the hot season. If you ventured into the desert, nothing changed just because it was spring. In the big merchant port of Alexandria, you knew it was spring because of the different kinds of goods the ship brought to sale or trade.

It was only when Antef was brought in the traveling circus by Wadjet that he began to discover new countries. There, spring really meant something. It was not just another word. Antef discovered the green grass of countryside Europe first, when the circus headed to France. Grass was already green in winter. Only, when spring came, something happened. First, gillyflowers bloomed in gardens and even in more savage parts of the land. They came in several colors. Some were yellow, some were pink, some were white, others were light purple, or even deep purple sometimes. Antef had never seen such a thing. He was fascinated by flowers. When Wadjet explained he would have to learn about plants and herbs, Antef was very happy. He smiled his quiet, benevolent smile, and made a point of learning everything Wadjet, or any other person, was willing to teach him. He soon discovered Wadjet was not very good at plants. But, during daytime, when the circus didn’t perform, Antef went to listen to the old ladies. He knew a bit of French from acquaintances in Alexandria. He put it to use, and discovered that grandmas were often willing to teach him what they knew from their own ancestors about plants and what to do with them.

Some weeks later, when the grass itself had already begun growing, and taking a lighter, deeper shade of green, Antef saw his first daffodils and dandelions. Yellow everywhere! He was dazzled by that, and at first, he thought the sun had left the sky to fall on the grass. When he learnt that he could actually cook dandelions, he was thrilled, and tried it with the help of a good tempered grandma who didn’t mind him around her kitchen. Then, the trees began to bloom too. White and pink flowers for most of them, who even appeared before the leaves, giving Antef the impression he faced a tree with pale white leaves when he saw his first almond-tree, toward the end of February.

It was this love for plants and what they could do that made Wadjet encourage Antef to take advice from other people than herself. She wasn’t the best teacher for a Woodwife who wanted to learn brews and potions. So she asked Vera, her former teacher, if she could, when they happened to be in London, teach a thing or two to Antef. Sadly, Vera wasn’t this good with plants either, even if she was better than Wadjet at cooking and brewing. But the older, pale-haired Woodwife gave Antef a book, in which he could find some knowledge about plants and their medical use. Antef didn’t like books very much, for he wasn’t a very fast reader, having learnt this skill quite late at the hands of Wadjet. But this book had pictures, lots of them, and it was quite entertaining for a book. So he learnt from it, while he keept on learning how to cook with grandmas around the world. They were even good enough to show him new plants, sometimes, and explain why you should put them in you tea for health.

That was what spring represented to Antef. The major discovery of his life, and he never grew tired of it. On this very spring, since they were now with the Fairy Circus and he was a handsome young man, he hoped he could still lure grandmas to tell him their cooking tricks and herbalism knowledge, while he winked at their granddaughters and smiled his brightest smile to make them come to see him performing at the show. Only Natasha, the head of the Fairy Circus, was always using his strength as an excuse to make him put on tents, carrying supplies and all, which left him less time to flirt with young and elderly ladies. Hopefully, he would find time nevertheless, because he didn’t want to give up on this useful hobby, and he could certainly not skip training with Wadjet, or she would have wounded him for real out of spite. It was the one thing she demanded of him, now that he was a confirmed Woodwife: be in time for shows and training. Antef thought about it, while seeing a butterfly gracefully settle on a bush of forget-me-not. He was ready to ask for his own tent, hence leaving Wadjet’s caravan to have his own privacy. He was like the butterfly in spring. He would sprout out of his cocoon and grow his own wings.