Chapter 12: Chapter 12

When Syl woke up, and asked if I wanted some of the strawberries we had brought back yesterday, I was forced to put the book down. I made my way across the five or so feet separating us, and got my share of breakfast.

Oh… Praise be to the inventors of breakfast!!! Write songs to speak of their glory, for not a man nor woman should ever be forced to go without! I struggled to gain any semblance of control over the giggles bursting out of my mouth, all while Syl watched on in what I assumed to be confused amusement.

It really was amazing to finally be able to eat a simple breakfast. Sure, we would probably get tired of eating only strawberries for every meal, but after going what felt like ages with little or no food, the strawberries were a welcome change.

When we finished eating, we made our way down to the stream, where we stripped, rinsed out our clothes, and washed ourselves off to the best of our ability. There was only so much you could do without soap.

By unspoken agreement, when we deemed our clothes dry, we made our way back to the rock. My stunt with the magic had changed quite a few things, and foraging for edible plant matter was not a very effective use of our time anymore.

When we reached the rock, Syl started off our impromptu meeting session, uttering one simple word. “So”

“So” I replied

“You can use magic”

“That does appear to be the case, yes”

“Ashley!” She squealed, her calm demeanor faltering in the face of her excitement. “This is amazing! Think of everything we can do now! This might even mean we don’t have to forage for plants anymore!”

“Whoa… Calm down there girl. Just because I have magic doesn’t mean I know how to use it. I do have something that might help me learn, but it will take time”

“Still!...”

As we went over what we knew, Syl got more and more excited. We started with what happened at the clearing, which was actually really helpful. I had passed out, and missed the entire process, but Syl saw the entire thing. Apparently I had let loose a lot of green light, before passing out. The plants had started to go crazy, and grew for at least half an hour before slowing down. Speaking of which, Syl said I had been out cold for almost two hours.

In turn, I shared my conversation with God, and what I had learned from it, from the pool of magic forming at the recently created utopia, to the basics on how magic works. Then we got to strategizing.

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After a brief discussion, it was obvious that learning magic was of utmost importance. With it, we would be able to accomplish far more, in far less time. With that in mind, Syl practically forced me to spend my time reading the book, and practicing. I protested that I didn’t want to leave all the work for her, but she refused to listen, stating that “You are the one who can do magic, not me. Plus, once you figure this out, there won’t be any work left to do. The sooner that happens, the better.

With that established, we set about deciding what needed to be done. In terms of food, We could just trek back to the gigantic strawberry bush I had created. It wouldn’t last forever, but hopefully by then I would be able to recreate the process. 

Since we didn’t have to be constantly searching for food anymore, We had far more time to put towards improving our quality of life. In the long run, we would probably want to make things like beds, or even one day a fully functioning shower, but for now, Our main goal is simple. A roof over our heads, to hide under when it rains, and a way to store food for the winter. We had both read at least a few stories back on earth where the main character got stranded in the wild, and winter was always a problem.

For the house, it turned out it would be far easier than I had expected. Not easy, per se, but still manageable. Syl’s obsession over all things wilderness apparently included building structures out in the wild, so all we had to do was find a way to get her the resources she needed, and a lot of grunt work. Maybe we could use my magic to help with both of those?

The food storage would be a problem. Short of relocating to this world's equivalent of Antarctica, neither of us could think of anything that would keep food fresh. We could dig out a cellar or something to lengthen how long it would be good for, but nothing would last forever. We resolved to wait, and see if there was a magical solution. 

Due to magic being heavily involved in both of our ideas, we resolved to spend the rest of the day studying the book. We both wanted a day to take it easy, and it had been far too long since we had read a book. We settled down together, and I started reading.

However, before I could even read the first paragraph, Syl spoke up “I can’t read this.” She said “It's all a bunch of random gibberish that has no sense of order whatsoever.”

“What?” I asked.

“I can’t read this. It doesn’t make any sense.”

“That’s weird. I can read it perfectly fine. It looks odd at first glance, but once you focus on it, it makes sense.”

“I am focusing on it!!! Maybe only magicians can read that book.”

“True” I sighed.

We resolved to take the rest of the day off, and go back to waging war against this jungle’s eagerness to kill us tomorrow. We spent the day doing nothing, and it was nice to not have anything to do. It was one of the things I was finding myself missing most about Earth.

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