Nicodemus
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iscover soon he did. Very quickly in fact. Nicodemus had been searching for herbs for quite some time now. One's as mentioned in the journal to help alleviate pain, and some of which he could use as wraps to dress his as-yet-to-be-seen wounds he could feel upon his face. He nosed at a bundle of aromatic plants he had found nestled between two larger bushes. They were low to the ground, green leaves turned wavy and curled at the edges, leaving a delicate appearance to them. Curiously, and quickly as he still was very much in pain, flipped through the pages of his journal, searching for an image that appeared similar to what it was he was looking at. Dock, it would appear to be, his eyes flicking between the drawing and the plant itself, which looked near identical. Supposedly able to help soothe wounds when made into a paste. Not exactly having the best tools available, Nico, as he dubbed himself due to Nicodemus being a mouthful, began to pluck the leaves from the bushel. He quickly popped them into his mouth and began to grind them between his teeth. He stamped his hind leg in protest as the bitter flavor of the juice filled his mouth. Still he chewed, and once he was satisfied with the resulting liquified remains of leaf, he spat it onto the ground. With as much grace and tact of a newborn foal, Nico rubbed his face into the chewed medicine, scrubbing his nestled horn and the surrounding forehead in the green tinted spittle. He began to lift his face off of the ground when a sight caught his eye. His journal, snapping shut on a few of the Dock leaves that remained and snapping them off of the stems.
To say Nicodemus screamed was an understatement. The mule reared up on his hind legs, stepping back a few paces before his front half met the earth once more. He stared in horror at the journal. There was no way his eyes had deceived him. That… That thing moved! The teak furred colt began to back away slowly, watching the object pensively as he did so. The book remained still as he watched from a distance. Nicodemus, moving from fear to intrigue, folded his legs and flopped down. He waited for something to happen, anything. He had to see it again. Of course, as fate would have it, the moment he dedicates to observing, is the moment of dormancy. Nicodemus glanced around, finding himself a pebble of which he tossed at the journal. The rock bounced off of the inanimate cover and rolled off beside it.
Maybe… Just maybe it was a trick of the eye after all. The mule returned to his hooves, trotting over to the book and moving to pick it up. As he tilted his head down towards the journal, it suddenly sparked back to life, pages flipping open of its own volition and landing upon the page that nestled the leaf within. Nico reared back slightly, not breaking his line of sight from what he could only assume to be a magical journal by this point. He watched in awe as loose pages sat behind the dock leaf slowly began to flicker and draw itself in along the torn edges of where they once sat. The journal was mending itself. While not particularly fast in its work, the object repaired the superficial damage Nicodemus had unintentionally inflicted upon it before his very eyes. The mule sat with the interesting book as it slowly completed its endeavors for several minutes, until finally he carefully plucked the leaf from the pages. He examined it closely, double checking to make sure he hadn’t discovered a magical plant rather than a magical journal. No no, this was definitely the journal as while he turned the leaf over in his inspection, the book fluttered once again and leapt towards Nico. The mule dropped the leaf in surprise and caught the journal between his teeth as it began to come down its arc.
Alright… So. This is what we’re dealing with now. Nicodemus glanced around the forest, suddenly very much aware that he and this enchanted journal were out in the open. An equally sudden anxiety washed over him as he gently gnawed at the leather of the covers sat between his teeth. Maybe it’d be best to keep the mystical properties of the book to himself until he could at least understand how it works. Bringing the leaf his journal had picked and placing it back inside the pages, Nicodemus moved away from the area, feeling as if eyes were now on him.
