To Save a World Ch. 04

With a satisfied nod, she got up. Without further delays started to carefully poke around the dense vegetation of the forest.

Foraging, for Serche, is no foreign task. In all of her twenty and three seasons alive, probably half of it was spent scrounging the forest floor for food.

Sacred technology passed on from the Age of Harmony and magical inventions borne out of necessity provided the whole populace some means to produce food above the ground, so truthfully the Sky Treader Clan had minimal need for hunting and foraging. Wild game provided much needed variety, to their diet, though. And besides, the Kin were fundamentally hunter-gatherers, and the wild called out to their blood. The same was true for Serche and her teacher, so although Leiyis had taught her to maintain an efficient garden in their home, she was still well acquainted with the knowledge needed to effectively skim their daily fare from the forest's abundant blessings.

Within minutes of carefully exploring her surroundings, her baskets already had an appropriate selection of plants. The spoils were sorted out in her baskets; sweet greens and berries in one, leafy edibles in the other, roots and tubers in another. She couldn't exactly get too much of a kind, spread out as her food sources are, but she felt happy enough with how she was going so far. She enjoyed slowly plucking the edibles one by one, feeling a small sense of accomplishment every time she laid her new acquisitions in her slowly filling basket. She got lucky and found a colony of edible mushrooms growing on some dead hardwood, along with some sweet berry bushes that the wildlife hadn't touched yet.

It occurred to her, as she was carefully examining a dense growth of a broad leafed plant that she couldn't identify, that two days ago she was seriously contemplating on ending her life. The only thing preventing her from doing so was the pain that the slave seal would undoubtedly inflict on her before she could die. She shuddered with the memory. The difference between that bleak and painful life and the current tranquility was stark -- and a warm, grateful feeling crept up from her spine to spread through her body.

The young woman absently thought about what had happened so far, a progression of unthinkable events that belonged in tavern songs, or what could be the beginning of a story told to a child at bedtime. She thought about the future, getting more uncertain by the day, but also -- she couldn't deny it any longer -- more interesting and exciting. She thought about her Leiyis, her tribe, her clan. The people she failed at the beginning of it all, the people who died for their escape.

Serche picked a few tender tops of a firegrass, feeling a slight tingle in her fingertips from the sap of the spicy herb, slowly pruning them with her sharp nails one at a time.

She could see how strong, invisible currents are sweeping her off into a strange, scary future, far away from familiarity and comforts that she lost some time ago. Serche found no way to fight the hands of fate and circumstance -- and though it seems to be dragging her to a place far away from her people and her home, she resolved in typical prideful Raikan fashion to not run away from it.

She'll simply have to take it one day at a time.

One day at a time.

* * *

The smell of roasting meat stopped any sort of discussion that night. It stopped Aaron and Lydia's not-so-covert flirtatious glances and smiles. It stopped Trasnu and Serche's good natured bickering. Words ceased to matter as they longingly stared at the lively fire. It stopped everyone from saying anything at all. If they could talk with the rumbling in their stomachs, their little campsite would certainly be alive with lively back-and-forth conversation. As it was, the only sound that could be heard among the four of them was the crackle of fire, the spit and hiss of the cooking juices an accent to a much anticipated orchestra.

At first, the logistics of the situation kind of horrified Aaron. After all, they currently have no water, and you needed water to wash your raw food. It became all the more apparent when Trasnu started preparing the three fat rabbits and one large bird that he caught. Without a knife. To put it simply, Aaron didn't vomit, but he didn't think he would have much of an appetite, either.

But he was wrong.

The fragrance was almost unbearable. The smell of cooking meat seemed to saturate the air around them and directly squeezed their stomachs. Aaron had to swallow the spit that formed in his mouth, consciously stopping himself from speaking -- he had already asked if it was ready twice for the past ten minutes. Serche, on his right, seemed unconcerned, but Aaron could see how she glared at the spit as if willing the food to cook faster through her mind. Lydia seated on his left was just staring at the golden meat and wiping the drool from her mouth. Aaron was pretty sure that Trasnu, the one taking care of actually cooking the food right across from him, was secretly laughing at them. His eyes held that glint of pure amusement, and whenever Aaron glanced at him the man was studiously staring somewhere else.

Finally, the time came. Everyone seemed to hold their breath as Trasnu picked a bit of meat from one of the spit rabbits and dramatically plopped it into his mouth. He chewed. Slowly. Savoring the anticipation in his companions' faces as much as he was enjoying the taste of the meat in his mouth. He didn't hide his thoroughly amused grin.

"It's ready." He declared.

It was the most ferocious meal of their lives.

Serche struck first, her brave hands snagging a juicy rabbit leg that immediately dripped delicious smelling oils into her fingers. Having just literally come from the fire, the food was obviously too hot. The eager young woman yelled and cursed with pain while Trasnu laughed his signature loud laugh at her, but she never let go and victoriously dumped the whole thing into her maw. She still got scalded with the heat, of course, but her actions inspired the other two youths.

Lydia and Aaron immediately grabbed a piece for themselves, hissing at the pain but successfully tasting the juicy meat with their tongues. They groaned with satisfaction almost simultaneously. Aaron had simply realized how ravenous he was with the first bite, inhaling his piece and reaching for another even as he was chewing.

"I knew this would happen!" Trasnu crowed with delight, "Eat, my hungry pups! Eat!"

Trasnu handed them the roasted tubers to eat along with the meat. It was like eating crumbly cardboard, with the slight taste of burnt potatoes. Aaron didn't find them particularly delicious, but every gulp lay satisfyingly heavy in his gut. He demolished the piece and then reached for another, complimenting the tasteless fare with the savory rabbit and pheasant meat.

"Well, that went fast." Aaron burped. He was slowly chewing some kind of sweet berry for dessert, laying back with his legs spread before him, an arm propping him up from behind.

"You ate like starving dogs!" Trasnu teased, "You inhaled them so fast I doubt that you even remembered the taste."

"It was our first real meal in ages." Serche haughtily replied, refusing to acknowledge that she had been so momentarily undignified. She as well popped a berry into her mouth sedately. Lydia was already dozing off in the wolf woman's thighs in a rare moment of trust. Aaron had no memory of how the small woman had ended up there, but it sure as hell didn't hurt to look at. The small woman was curled up facing the fire, her head placed precariously on the wolf woman's lap. The flickering yellow hues of the fire lent the scene a comfortable, homely atmosphere against the steadily darkening forest around them.

Aaron smacked his lips. "Damned good meal. Too bad there's nothing to drink." The sweet berries weren't bad to wash off the palate, but nothing can really compare to good old water.

"We search for water tomorrow," Trasnu announced, "Everything begins tomorrow. For now, though, you youngsters be off to sleep!" He stood up, stretching, and started to walk away from the fire.

"How about you? Where are you going?" Aaron asked after him.

"Oh, I'll be sleeping too. Just some place higher up, these old bones don't sleep well on cold ground."

"Wake me up for next watch, Trasnu." Serche called, stifling a yawn. She was about to get up to sleep, but she remembered the young woman asleep on her lap. She paused, conflicted.

"I'll get her." Aaron offered, smiling. He gathered up the sleeping woman, her small form unexpectedly light as she unconsciously clung to him. "Good night, Serche."

* * *

The following morning was one of the more interesting days in Lydia's life.

She woke up in Aaron's arms, for one. Her first sight upon waking was the vision of his smiling face inches away from her, glowing from the radiance of the morning light as if the heavens reached out and touched him. That made her heart skip a beat, and so early in the morning.

Then there were all those strange exercises. Through Aaron, she understood that the creature called Trasnu seemed to have taken upon himself the unfathomable agenda of 'toughening them up', and seemed to think that depriving them of breakfast until they completed several sets of 'exercises' was the way to do it. Apparently, the old hunter would ensure that the whole thing would be their morning routine from now on. Aaron himself protested about the lack of water, but he rebutted that that if they didn't begin at that instant then they might as well not begin at all. Despite being sort of embarrassing, tiring, and truthfully seeming a bit pointless, she didn't find it so bad.

It made her terribly hungry, though. Breakfast were the roasted tubers from the night before. She didn't mind the bland-tasting food so much (she's eaten much worse things from her time in the streets), but she couldn't help but fondly recall the taste of last night's fresh meat.

The large, old beastman said something in an encouraging tone, something that Aaron curiously questioned. And then they conversed for a while in that beautiful-sounding language. It always fascinated her, how the young man always talked as if he was one of them, and not a human. She didn't know anything at all regarding their language, but her good ear could tell that he sounded just like them.

"Trasnu here told us not to worry," Aaron relayed to her happily, "Because he'll be hunting on the way as we search for water. We'll forage for stuff to eat too, as we move along. Apparently, he'll be teaching us how to hunt too, little by little, since there seems to be nothing to do except explore, after all."

Her eyes widened, delighted at the prospect. She looked over at the large creature and their eyes met, his foreign, golden-brown wolf eyes smiling at her cheerily. Embarrassed to be caught looking, she sketched a hasty nod of the head.

The old man rumbled something and laughed, making Aaron glance at her and immediately turn red.

"What?" She inquired immediately, "What did he say?"

Aaron had trouble meeting her eyes. "Ah, just that you shouldn't be so embarrassed, since they've... heard it all, anyway."

She stared for a bit, digesting his words. Her adorable face turned red as a tomato. Without any other means of respite, she drew her knees close to her chest and buried her head in between them, groaning in embarrassment. Everyone, even Aaron, laughed at her.

It was quite difficult to tell where the sun was because of the dense foliage, but from the slant of the sunlight that made it past the canopy and the relative coolness of the surroundings, Lydia surmised that they left the clearing with the enormous, hollow tree about three hours from daybreak. They did their best to dispose of any signs of habitation, covering the firepit and scattering the leaves from their makeshift tent. The group deliberated about the unnaturally placed clump of trees that Silver grew from the ground, but in the end they couldn't really do anything about it, so they just let it be.

After that came a lot of walking.

Lydia didn't have fond memories of walking through the jungle like this. For her, it was a thing of pain, exhaustion, and mind-numbing fear. She shuddered as she remembered the hopelessness of feeling like her enemies were constantly at her back, the mindless fleeing to a jungle thick with things she's never seen before. The terrifying grip of the darkening forest, smothering any hope of escape or survival. Needless to say, she didn't look forward to it overmuch.

As time went on, though, she discovered that those feelings were a thing of the past. There was no fear of enemies chasing them. No burden of a flickering life for her to be responsible for. More than that, the reassuring presence of her capable companions chased the fear from her heart.

Even more so when the young man would, seemingly at random, grab her hand and continue to walk with their palms linked together. She'd blush a deep pink, and although she tried to hide it she's caught Silver glancing at her with a knowing smirk in her lips from time to time. It made her blush all the more, but she couldn't deny that it made her happier, so she endured it.

Not that the trek itself was easy. Far from it. The terrain was unstable, and the mulchy forest floor hid all manner of traps to their footing; slippery, rotten fruits, hidden stumps, dilapidated logs. There seemed to be no respite from the crazy growth of the underbrush, billowing like green clouds of leaves absolutely everywhere; on the ground, on the trunks of enormous trees, on rocks and boulders. Some vines even clung on to some other vines, so that they seemed to form a thick rope of intertwined vegetation rising from the ground to attach themselves into some other, taller plant.

It was a total domination of greenery. So much so that they had to physically force their way into the lot of them.

It would always make the two beastmen wince whenever they did that, but there was no other way around it. The clumsy humans couldn't hope to move like them. Lydia could swear that they had eyes on their feet, the way they seemed to avoid tangling and snagging their limbs in whatever obstacle the forest floor hid for them. Their eyes seemed to hold the uncanny ability to identify the giving points of every clumps of vines and plants, allowing them to weave their bodies through with minimum effort and disturbance. Their fur, too, helped a lot in rebuffing thorns and clinging leaves, unlike Lydia and Aaron who endured their clothes getting snagged through every movement in exchange for keeping most of their skin intact.

As she looked upon the shiny white of Silver, and the mottled red-and-brown of Trasnu walking ahead of them, there were moments when Lydia would envy these awesome, legendary creatures. What must it be like to have such long, strong limbs, or those sharp, golden eyes? What must it be like to hear with such acute ears, to taste with such distinguishing tongue? She'd wonder how it would feel to move with such grace, to know the forest as thoroughly as the back of her hand.

She'd daydream like that -- and then she'd trip, her attention turned from spotting trouble in her steps. Most of the time, though, Aaron's strong grip would catch her and prevent her from falling down.

"Geez. How many times has this been?" He would remark with a slight smile on his lips. Daring hands would linger on her hip, her arm. "You should avoid being so distracted, or else we'd get left behind. Our friends seem to be very eager to look for that river."

And then a slightly irritated call would come from ahead of them, right on point. The both of them would chuckle and hurry after their companions.

It was past the sun's peak when they found themselves in yet another small clearing. A quick rest was announced, and Lydia was wondering whether it was time for lunch. Unfortunately, it seemed to not be the case after another announcement made by Trasnu. Aaron turned to her with an apologetic look on his face, and told her that they'll have to forgo a substantial lunch as they needed to find water immediately. Instead, they took various nuts, berries and some fresh leaf sprouts that Silver distributed to everyone, and munched on them while they rested.

Lydia thought that made sense. She was getting thirsty, more than she was hungry. She supposed the fluids she got from the fruits that they've been eating have been replenishing them until now, but it can't continue forever.

Another thing that weighed on her was her inability to understand the language. She simply couldn't stay like this forever. She'd be a burden to Aaron, who needed to constantly be there for her to understand what was being said. What if there were urgent things that needed to be done? What if they got separated? Not to mention, it hindered her ability to get to know and trust her companions -- and she'd need to do exactly that if she wanted to be useful.

Lydia had to be useful, at the very least.

"What are you doing?" She inquired after Aaron. The young man was busily gathering vines for something, ripping them off from -- well, everywhere.

"Just wanted to try something." He grunted, "Our clothes are too loose, they keep on getting tangled everywhere. So I just figured, maybe we could tighten them up. So at least we're not catching every twig we pass through."

The young woman watched with interest as he tied a portion of a long vine to his ankle, and then began to loop the vines up and around his leg, finally then tying them to another vine that he attached like a belt on his hip. The effect was that the vine served as an anchor that pressed the loose cloth of his trousers close to his leg, secured by the ties on both ends.

"Ooh, I see. I guess that could be a solution. But..."

The young man tried flexing his leg, and then walking with it. First the plants loosened their twist, losing their hold on the man's trousers as an effect -- and then they plainly snapped when he tried jumping.

"Ah. Well, that was stupid."

Lydia, though, had a different idea. "Aaron, Silv- I mean, Serche, she can control plants with her magic, right? Can you try asking her if she can grow them in a particular way? Like maybe grow a thorn? Preferably one that would have some sort of hook, or that can loop back around."

"A thorn?"

The young woman nodded, now inspecting the cloth on the young man's pants. "I want to try if I can fold them from the inside."

Aaron relayed her request to the beast woman. After a thoughtful expression, Serche bustled around for a bit, poring over some the vegetation around them much like Aaron had done. She presented the group with sticks and said something to describe them. "She said they're from a common bramble that she's seen around often. It's apparently supple and strong." Aaron translated for her.

Lydia nodded hesitantly. "Yes, but the hooks? I was planning on fashioning them into some sort of needle."

Aaron grinned. "Watch."

Lydia, wide-eyed, focused her attention on the sticks on the beastwoman's hand. They were small, blackish looking things, three of them about an inch and half long. Suddenly, the sticks started to glow and move. Lydia gasped, seeing the miniature pieces of plants grow on both ends, with one being sharp as a needle, and then loop back around. The sticks, after Serche's magic, now looked like long, wickedly sharp hooks made for some mighty fish.

"Wow," the young woman gasped, impressed. "That's... quite impressive. She controls her magic so precisely. Although..." Lydia, though impressed, told Aaron what she wanted more accurately. The size of the thing just wouldn't do. It had to act like a small catch on the inside, to gather the loose parts of the cloth of Aaron's trousers and be unobtrusive.