Chapter 3: Chapter II – Jessica – The Child of the Sage

“Jessica… Jessica… Jessica!”

Jess jolted upwards, vision still blurry and head swimming in the dreams of the previous night. Slowly, their vision began to adjust and they stretched out as they looked around their room, finding that things were still blurry despite the adjustment. Jess let out a loud sigh and reached a hand over to the nightstand beside the bed, picking up a small wooden case. Upon opening it, they plucked out two small essence film lenses that Jess quickly placed in to their eyes. With the lenses in, the world came in to full focus and Jess groaned once more as they looked around, preparing themself for the coming day.

Despite being the child of the Sage, Jess didn’t live in what many would consider particularly lavish accommodations. It was by no means a hovel, but when most people heard that they were the child of the Sage of the Forest, they presumed that they lived in something close to a mansion. However, the small room was all Jess really needed and they saw no desire for anything bigger. The bed they were laying in was right next to a window with curtains still drawn. Next to the head of the bed was a night stand with a small tree-like lamp, a pair of glasses, and Jess’s contact lens case. Across the room, there was a mostly empty bookshelf and desk that Jess never used. Behind the bed, there was a small walk-in closet with a green curtain draped over the entrance.

Jess stumbled out of bed, still half asleep as they entered the closet and grabbed their robe and boots for the day along with a bra and some underwear. From there, they exited the room and headed left down the short corridor. Jess then turned right in to the bathroom and stripped away their pajamas and turned on the water, adjusting the temperature to a much warmer setting than their mother used. Jess hopped in to the shower and quickly began to wash themself, not wanting to spend any unnecessary time bathing.

Eventually, however, Jess got to the part they always dreaded, their hair. They had always liked having long hair, theirs going down almost to their waist, but the biggest issue with it was that it took almost a quarter of a bottle of shampoo and conditioner and it had to be washed every single day or it would end up gross and damaged. Jess spent almost fifteen minutes struggling with their hair, cursing loudly the entire time as they attempted to untangle the dozens of knots to the best of their ability. Once they had their hair sufficiently untangled, they exited the shower and began to dry off before reaching for the hair brush and once again fighting with their hair for far longer than they would have liked.

After almost an hour, they had finished with showering and as they stared in the mirror then sighed, noting the new scar that had appeared on their chest thanks to a match of sparring that they had taken a bit too far a few days ago. Their body was covered in dozens of scars all over from all kinds of different circumstances. Jess chuckled softly as they admired their biceps. Despite being beaten so often in combat, Jess had a rather well built body. Most people found them rather intimidating due to their physique, but Jess never let that get to them.

Now done admiring their body, Jess began to redress. The bra and underwear were simple as always. They had never understood the interest in fancier articles, but they were both still very comfortable and fit well. They smirked as they slid on their boots, chuckling silently at the way people always commented about the fact that one boot was far longer than the other. The right boot only went up to just below Jess’s knee while the left boot went almost all the way up their thigh. Jess had requested the two completely different boot sizes on accident, but upon receiving them, they found that they really liked the look of the boots, the asymmetry added a bit of interest to their look.

Finally, there was the robe. It was nothing too special, the same exact robe that all the other disciples of the forest wore. It was light green with gold trim along the hem and a broken gold ring of trim just above that. The robe went down to the lower thigh, the sleeves going all the way down to the wrist. All of the robes were custom made, so they were all very comfortable and fit perfectly. Jess usually rolled up their sleeves whenever they fought. They thought about cutting them off once, but then they remembered that their mother would have likely killed them if they had, so decided against it.

Not ready for the day, Jess headed out of the bathroom, tossing their towel on to their bed before going downstairs where they could already smell the breakfast their mother had prepared. Much like the rest of their home, the kitchen was quite simple. It was only a bit bigger than Jess’s room, but a bit more crowded thanks to the table and cabinets all along the walls. Silvia was standing with her back to the table, reading through something unknown to Jess. Quietly, they took their seat at the table and began to eat.

“You took your sweet time,” Silvia remarked without turning around. She spoke in a sweet motherly voice with a soft accent that she had been told was something called Scottish. Jess wasn’t sure that they had ever heard her get angry or even raise her voice, it was always very calm and patient.

“Yeah, well, you know how long it takes to wash my hair…” Jess replied, swallowing an entire glass of juice in a single gulp. Their voice had the same accent as their mother, but a little less heavy. However, they spoke much louder and a bit less composed than their mother.

“Yes, well you chose to have such long hair. If you’re going to keep it so long, then you need to get up earlier, so that you can still be on time,” Silvia countered, turning around and taking a seat at the table just across from Jess, still reading her book which Jess could now see was a book about baking pies.

“I try to get up early, but it never seems to work… It’s not like I have an alarm clock…”

Silvia looked up and rolled her eyes at her child. “Just because we don’t have fancy golem clocks, that doesn’t mean you can’t still get an alarm clock. They make analog ones, darling.”

Jess averted her gaze, finishing up the food, eying up the napkin the utensils had been set on. “I mean… I tried to make one, but… for an earth apprentice, I’m kind of a failure at the whole craftsmanship thing…”

Silvia chuckled. “Darling, I’m not particularly crafting inclined either, but I do know that you can simply purchase a clock. I know I try to keep our expenses somewhat… constrained, but surely, we can get you a clock.”

Jess sighed. “Fine”, they replied as they picked up the napkin and began to chew it.

“I still will never understand how you can find such things appealing…” Silvia remarked.

“I dunno. Ram genetics, I guess,” Jess replied pointing to the curly horns sprouting from their head. “Oh yeah, speaking of that… Do you think Aunt Avery is gonna come visit for my birthday this year?”

“I sent her a letter two days ago, but she has yet to respond. Your birthday is still two weeks away, so I wouldn’t say it’s out of the question. Although… I think I remember hearing that they recently took in a very powerful apprentice at Arclight, so there’s a chance she’ll be called there to assist with that and you know how those kinds of things can eat up time…”

Jess sighed softly and nodded. “Right… I know… I just miss her… It’s been a while since she last visited…”

“Well, even if she doesn’t come, you’ll still have your friends from around here, plus, we can try and visit her sometime during this year when we have a bit of free time, alright? How does that sound?”

Jess smiled softly and stood up from the table. “Sounds great.” They made their way around the table and gave Silvia a soft kiss on the cheek which caused the woman to smile softly. “Thanks for breakfast, mum. It was great!”

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“Jessica, please don’t forget about the plants around the central shrine that you have to tend to today, alright?” Silvia called after her child who was already halfway out the door. She sighed softly. “What am I going to do with that child…”

Jess bounded out the home and in to the village, taking a deep breath before hoping down and in to the morning rush of people who were making their way to various places all over the forest. Jess had a number of chores to do today and if they had remembered correctly, Beth was totally off today, so they would be able to hang out later if Jess finished their chores early.

All Jess needed to do today was help with hauling some lumber for a construction project that was going on in the southern village, helping one of the village elders with moving some of their furniture, and tending to the central shrine’s garden. Most of them wouldn’t take too long on their own, but all of them were on completely opposite ends of the forest and far from Jess’s home. Jess sighed at their mother who had opted not to live within the great spirit tree in the central village because she said that the space that had been constructed inside could serve others better than her.

Jess stretched out and tried to figure out the best choice to go with first. The south village was closest to the central village and the village elder that they were helping was in the west village which was the farthest from all of the villages as well as being on the complete opposite side of the island from them in the east village.

“I guess I might as well go help the elder now since he’s the farthest away. Then I can go help with the lumber in the south village and then make my way up to the central village. I hope it isn’t too crowded there, so I can get some meditation in…”

Jess then took off down the road, making their way along the route. By foot, it was about an hour to the west village, so Jess had a bit of time to simply be alone with their thoughts. Usually, on this kind of trip, they would ask Beth to come along, but it was barely ten on Beth’s off day. Jess knew that she was still fast asleep and probably would be until the middle of the day. Luckily, they had timed it out, so they would be finished with the lumber in the south village around an hour after Beth was probably waking up, so Jess would hopefully be able to pop in on her then and ask about hanging out.

Before Jess knew it, they had arrived at the west village. Everyone eagerly greeted them eagerly and wished them an early birthday. They made their way to the elder’s house who was a little surprised. He had assumed that Jess would be arriving a bit later in the day, but he was happy to see them, nonetheless.

“You know, I was quite surprised when I saw that you were the one who had accepted the job, considering how far away your village is from here,” he said with a chuckle.

Jess smiled and motioned for the man to move out of the doorway so that they could squeeze the bookshelf through. “I don’t mind at all. I like getting in extra exercise when I can and the route between here and my house is one of the best for that. Plus, I like to help out the other elders. My mum always told me I should be respectful to you guys and she’s right. You guys are always so nice to us workers.”

The man smiled. “When you get to my age, you start to realize that if you don’t fill the world with more good will, you probably shouldn’t be in it anymore.”

“That’s an interesting philosophy,” Jess replied, setting the bookshelf down. “Alright, is that everything?”

The elder nodded. “Thank you so much for your assistance, Jessica. Can I get you anything to eat or drink?”

Jess thought for a moment before asking, “Do you have any scrap metal or anything laying around?”

The elder gave them a slightly confused look before heading off in to another room, coming back with a small box filled with screws and other small loose pieces of metal. “This is all I have. Why?”

Jess took the box and immediately began to eat some of the screws, much to the shock and confusion of the elder. “I love metal. It tastes soooo good. Mum replaced all of our silverware with wood since I kinda kept eating ours and she got really sick of replacing it. As if I don’t have impulse control now…”

The elder simply nodded and Jess headed off, now with a stomach full of random metal. The trip to the south village was somewhat of a blur. Jess helped move a few hundred logs of lumber for a small enclosure the village had commissioned for housing a strange new creature that had been found in the woods near the town. After that, they went to Beth’s house, but her parents told Jess that she had left for the central shrine half an hour ago looking for them.

With that, Jess left and half an hour later, they were in the central village. Jess was always taken back by just how busy it was in the central village, but thankfully, when they entered the central shrine, they found it totally empty. Jess had always loved the central shrine, it was so beautiful to them, something they didn’t think very often about anything.

The shrine was located just underneath of the center section of the great spirit tree that made up the entire forest of the island. The swirling branches were all around, light green dots glowing all over them. The floor was made of four grass rings divided by roots that had been forced to form circles around the altar in the center of the room. The altar was empty at the moment, but people frequently left offerings on it to honor the great spirit tree. Along the walls, there were eight gardens encased in spirit tree branches, each one with a different variety of mystical plants inside of it.

Jess began to make their way around to check on all the plants, making sure all of them were being properly taken care of, watering and adjusting any that weren’t looking right. People would filter in from time to time to pray at the altar or simply take in some of the energy of the shrine. After about an hour, Jess had finished with tending to all of the plants, so they made their way to the middle ring of the room, sitting down just in front of the altar and closing their eyes.

They began to take deep breaths, clearing their mind and eventually slipping in to a state of meditation. Their chest began to softly glow green as their mind was filling with the energy of the forest. They liked to meditate here because they could feel the energy of the entire forest all in one place, allowing them to reach a deep state of meditation which they often used to help with self-reflection. There were a lot of things on their mind that they were hoping to try and filter through a bit at the moment.

However, they could feel something strange tugging at the back of their mind as they meditated. It wasn’t like anything they’d ever felt before and Jess hadn’t felt it the last time that they’d been here only a few weeks ago. It was an unsettling presence, like the kind they usually felt when there was increased Ser beast activity in the forest, but this wasn’t quite the same. Against their better judgement, Jess focused on the strange feeling, allowing it to practically engulf their sense, hitting them with a deep sense of unease. Then, they felt a hand creep on to their shoulder. Their eyes shot open and they whipped around, only to be met with the face of their best friend.

“Hey, Jessie!”

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