Chapter 18: Seventeen – The Road Untraveled

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What was left of the road wasn’t all that great. I suspected that the road had once been compacted dirt with cobbles above it, but nature and time and a complete lack of maintenance had taken their toll. Now that path was torn apart by younger trees, roots, fallen branches and more bushes than you could shake a stick at.

There had been a few homes close to the road and some paths leading off into the forest, but they were worn far worse than anything within Threewells and I didn’t think it was worth snooping around them.

Navigating through the woods would have been, if not impossible, then at least very hard.

So I cheated.

“Hup!” I said as I spent a trickle of stamina and burst from one branch to another. I wasn’t using the branches near the top, but instead the much thicker ones by the base of the trees. Fortunately, most of the trees along the road had grown horizontally to catch the sunlight pouring over the path instead of growing upwards and competing with the other trees. It made for much easier travelling.

Plus, I got to feel like a ninja.

My mood was riding pretty high. The air was fresh, the sun was shining, I got to bounce from tree to tree and I felt like I was making good time for someone that wasn’t too used to travelling through a forest.

I paused on my next leap and looked down. Something red had caught my eye off to the side of the road.

There was a bush. Well, there were lots of bushes, but this one had big plump red berries growing out between its branches. Big berries that probably didn’t taste like honey.

I let myself drop from the branch I was on and landed with a crunch that didn’t carry over the birdsong and the rustle of wind across treetops. I hiked up my backpack to make sure it was on snug and moved over to the bush. A few of the lower berries seemed to be missing, so something was eating them, and a few friendly bees were buzzing around.

“Hello, mister Bee,” I told one that buzzed closer to my face. “No worries, I won’t disturb your bee-sness.”

I giggled as I used insight on a berry.

A red berry.

“Wow, thanks,” I said before I tried again with some mana.

A red berry, common, fresh.

“Wasted skill that one,” I muttered. I set down my backpack, then rooted around until I found the cloth-wrapped book. I hadn’t really read anything out of the herbology book yet, but this seemed like the time for it.

I hopped up--because using my Jumping skill as much as I could was not only smart, it was fun--and found a spot to sit on a low hanging branch before cracking open the book. The hand-drawn pictures weren’t coloured, but they were very pretty, and the notes next to them hinted at what colours the flowers and berries and roots within were supposed to be.

Flipping through the pages to find berry bushes took a few minutes, but the prize was worth it.

Red Chokerberry

These berries, which grow on Red Chokerberry bushes, have a few interesting qualities. Mashed and mixed with sugar it is a perfectly palatable snack and can be used to feed pets and woodland animals. Turned into a paste and left to dry, the berries will darken and if consumed can affect the eater’s respiratory canals. In low doses can assist those with specific breathing problems while exacerbating others.

I read the rest of the page, then read through the warnings and preparations that could turn the plant into a poison or a cure for some specific ailments. It was at once interesting and kind of scary. Still, the book said they were safe.

Hopping down, I ambled over to the bush and plucked a couple of the juicier looking berries, then popped them into my mouth.

They were bitter, but also tangy, like ripe oranges.

And they weren’t honey!

Ding! For doing a Special Action in line with your Class, you have unlocked the skill: Gardening!

“Whut?” I said, bits of red berry juicy spitting out of my mouth. I swallowed. “But all I did was eat berries!” I said. “Delicious, delicious berries.”

I brought up the menu for my new skill while I ate more berries.

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Gardening

Rank F - 05%

The ability to find, identify, and cultivate plantlife.

It wasn’t Fireball or Magic Missile or anything that I really wanted, but it could come in handy. Especially if it meant more food!

I packed the book away, but placed it near the top of my backpack for easy access. Then I found a cloth and wrapped a few berries for later. It was time to hit the road again.

Time passed in a comfortable haze. Other than the occasional jump that I almost missed, there wasn’t much to make the trip exciting. I kept jumping over the road, made sure to keep the distant mountain in sight, and generally fell into a sort of meditative pace where trees passed and time sank away.

I saw chipmunks and squirrels and the occasional daring rabbit. There were big paw prints that probably belonged to bears in the mud, and I heard a howl from afar once, but it didn’t worry me too much.

The road curved as it climbed up a hill and I found myself without trees to jump from. I landed and stretched a little. My legs weren’t cramping, but they were a little stiff from the constant jumping.

The sun was starting to set above, but it was still a few hours until sundown and I still had plenty of time to find a spot to camp.

I started hiking, the steep incline of the road harder on my legs than the constant jumping had been. I was going to have great calves by the time my adventure was over.

Reaching into one of the pockets on the side of my backpack, I pulled out the Cheshire Choker and fiddled with it as I walked.

A enchanted Cheshire Cat’s Collar of Rare quality, new. Allows the user to summon a spirit cat once a day.

I had mana to spare. I pushed some into the collar and... and nothing happened.

Maybe I was supposed to wear it? I wasn’t the kind of girl that wore collars though. I tried wearing it as a bracelet, but that didn’t work.

“Stupid Cheshire Cat,” I grumbled as I undid the latch on the collar and placed it around my neck. It fit nice and snug, with the smiling kitty mouth dangling over my sternum. I probably looked quite silly.

A bit of focus and some spare mana pushed into the collar and I felt my reserves draining, more and more until they had dropped nearly seventy points in one go.

I slowed down as a sparkly cloud formed before me at chest height. It twisted, spun, then was sucked in as if a blackhole had opened up in the world. I felt myself being pulled in, and the ring on my finger grew cold, but nothing changed in the world around me.

A popping sounded out from the spot before me, like someone pulling a cork, and a cat appeared. No, not a cat. A kitten. It was a ball of semi-transparent fluff and cuteness that dangled in the air and looked around with the kind of lack of interest that was common among kitties.

It took one look at me, then walked through the air in my direction.

“I-Insight,” I said before reaching for it.

A spirit cat companion, bound to Broccoli Bunch.

“Holy granola muffins, I have a kitty summon,” I squealed as I picked the kitty out of the air. It was soft, there and yet not. Like the ghosts I had touched but warm instead of cold. I spun around once, then saw the unamused look the kitty was giving me and hugged it close instead.

This was the best day ever.

“Oh, you’re a cute little thing aren’t you? Yes you are,” I told the kitty as I rubbed my nose against theirs. I bit of a peek under its tail that earned me a very indignant look and I had solved one small mystery. “Do you have a name, miss kitty?”

The kitty made a meowing motion, but no noise.

I hummed as I started walking again. “You’re not very noisy, huh?” I asked it. “Okay, then I’ll give you a name! For free!”

The kitty started at me, so I cradled it against my chest and started rubbing against her tummy.

“How about... hrm, can’t go with the classics here, they don’t have Saturday Morning cartoons. Unless they do. Ah, I know. I’ll call you Orange. Because it’s your colour and it’s a fruit while my name is a veggie and no one can make mean rhymes with your name.”

The newly dubbed Orange seemed completely ambivalent to her name.

I got to the top of the hill I was walking on and took in the sights before me. The road wasn’t taking a straight path towards the mountain but was veering off towards what I chose to call the West. Towards the swampy areas. I wanted to take a straight path towards the city, but that would have meant trekking through untraced paths.

The road might reconnect with another at some point, which might mean people. No one spent as much time building a cobbled road as the one I was on only for it to lead nowhere.

Still petting Orange, I tried to take in the whole world out ahead of me, but there wasn’t too much to see. Then I spotted smoke way off in the distance to the West, way too far for me to reach it in a day, but still present. People!

Or a random brush fire, but I was hoping for people.

“Come on, Orange!” I said as I continued my trek.

An hour or two later the woods turned darker and darker and I was beginning to look for a place to rest. Staying out in the open was an option, but not one I was fond of. I soon found a small clearing with a stream running downhill through it. A stone bridge crossed the rocky rivulet, being in the same rough condition as the road running across it. The place sounded nice, the constant flowing murmur of water a sort of quiet lullaby that made it seem nice and peaceful. A good place for a rest.

I placed Orange on the ground and watched as she trampled around and sniffed at the grass and stuff around her. I could almost pretend she was a real cat until a bug spooked her and she floated a meter into the air and stayed there.

Shaking my head, I let my new friend have her fun and explored a little while I collected branches and whipped at the grass next to the road to make a decently sized clearing. Then I stacked the branches and found some rocks from the edge of the stream. It was like camping again, only without a tent and without parental supervision and with a much greater chance of running into zombie bears at night.

Hopefully they were afraid of fire.

The sun was setting for real as I sat down on my blanket next to the fire and pulled my herbology book out and started reading through it while eating supper. Supper being more berries and some honey.

Orange took a nap hovering a centimeter or two over my chest curled up in a little ball. It felt as if I could unsummon her at will, but keeping her around didn’t seem to cost anything so I enjoyed the company without complaint.

I searched for flowers and plants that the book said made for good tea and left leaves in the pages that had good candidates. Then, while a small fire crackled merrily next to me, I let the warmth of the flames and the exhaustion of a long day overwhelm me at last.

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