Yawning, Charlie draped herself on Whitey the white mare, and was struggling to prop her eyelids open.

She was sleepy from being roused and shepherded to the stable before dawn, and Whitey was very warm and soft, like a comfy pillow.

After a brief struggle, she shut her eyes and just listened to Evelynn's talk with mister Johnson.

Evelynn and Charlie were supposed to meet mister Johnson at the crack of dawn to set out on their trip, but Evelynn wanted to meet up ten minutes early. Something about convincing mister Johnson to help them transport a sack of herbs.

"Good morning, mister Johnson. I'm sorry for the short notice, but may we bring this sack of herbs with us for the trip?"

Charlie heard someone shift their weight, and she sniffed at the musty fragrance. Evelynn had probably untied the sack to show mister Johnson the crumbling medicinal herbs.

There was a hum, and Charlie could just imagine mister Johnson stroking his short grey beard.

She chuckled a little at the mental picture of mister Johnson acting so wise and all-knowing.

"It won't take up much space, and Charlie and I would be grateful."

There was a rustle of cloth.

"As a show of appreciation, would you like some biscuits? They are scrumptious."

Charlie's mouth was already watering as she heard the small bag of biscuits change hands. Evelynn had bribed her to wake up with one of the biscuits, and it truly was delicious.

A soft crumbling texture with crunchy nuts and a creamy aftertaste. No one would be able to resist such sweet temptation, and Charlie was proven right.

"Sure. Load up your bag into the wagon, and we'll be off. Although miss Charlie appears to have gone back to sleep."

Wanting to disprove mister Johnson, Charlie unceremoniously flopped off Whitey's back, and hit the ground with a whump.

Charlie groaned.

With a sigh, Evelynn walked over and helped Charlie up.

In what felt like a few short moments everything was packed up and ready to go.

The two brown horses were hitched to the wagon, the textile cargo was double-checked, and the bag of herbs was placed beside the bundles of cloth.

Charlie clambered into the wagon as mister Johnson directed the horses out of the open stable doors.

After waiting for a bit so Evelynn could close the doors and climb into the wagon as well, they set off at a relaxed pace down the dirt road.

Charlie rubbed her bleary eyes and appreciated the view of a glorious sunrise.

The black night was fading away, slowly lightening into a light blue as the sun crested the horizon, revealing a plethora of warming orange and yellows.

Mister Johnson was at the front, holding onto the two brown horses' reins, while Evelynn and Charlie were at the back of the wagon piled high with bolts of fabric, colorful clothing, and a single bag of herbs.

Scanning the wagon's contents, Charlie saw a small pouch beside mister Johnson, and rubbed her hands with glee.

Charlie crouched, balancing on the shifting wagon, and climbed onto the bolts of cloth separating Evelynn and her from the front. Thankfully the fabrics were covered in a tarp of tough waterproof material to prevent them from being soaked or getting dirty, so Charlie only caught Evelynn rolling her eyes instead of opening her mouth to reprimand her.

Creeping forwards, stealthy as a cat, Charlie painstakingly crawled forward on the loose and unsteady pile of fabrics.

She was nearly there.

The small pouch of delectable biscuits was almost within reach!

The wagon hit a rock, a bolt of cloth shifted... and Charlie went tumbling.

She slid off the tarp and sprawled forward, landing right beside mister Johnson and the enticing pouch.

Charlie sheepishly looked up.

Mister Johnson was staring at her bemusedly with a single raised brow.

"Miss Charlie, to what do I owe the pleasure of your company?"

She sat up and scratched her head while darting furtive glances at the biscuits.

Mister Johnson followed her gaze, and with a wry smile cupped a hand on the small pouch.

Looking up at mister Johnson's knowing gaze, Charlie beseeched him with an imploring mien.

Clasping her hands together, she glanced towards the sun, allowing the rays to reflect off of her slightly teary eyes as she gave him an earnest set of puppy-dog eyes.

Mister Johnson blinked, and to Charlie's delight, he laughed and relinquished the small bag of biscuits.

"Make sure to share it with miss Evelynn!"

Charlie was already scampering to the back of the wagon while clutching her hard-won prize.

Once she got back to her seat, she saw Evelynn sitting in the same spot, but now with an exasperated expression on her face and her head resting on her hand.

Charlie peeked into the bag and saw a round dozen biscuits nestled within.

She dumped half of them onto her palm, and had already crammed one into her mouth as she passed the cookie bag to Evelynn.

Evelynn shook her head.

If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.

"Charlie, you can't go begging people like that."

"Mhy not?"

Charlie mumbled through a full mouth and yet managed to somehow stuff in three more biscuits.

Evelynn grimaced and looked away.

"Nevermind."

Charlie happily munched through her biscuits only to realize she had gobbled down five of them, leaving only one left.

Now, tentatively nibbling on the last biscuit to savor the flavor, Charlie leaned her back on the side of the wagon.

Slyly glancing across from her, she saw that Evelynn was still taking small bites out of her first biscuit.

Evelynn was also reclining on the side of the wagon, and facing her, so they would have some space to stretch out their legs and would each be able to see one side of the landscape.

With the town fading into the distance, the bordering forest had also receded from view.

Along the road leading northwest, there were only the rolling hills, lush green grass, and the blue skies overhead.

A few puffy clouds were blown on a soothing breeze, and the warming sunshine shone down on the peaceful scenery.

After only an hour on the road, it was already getting boring.

"Are we the-... mumph."

Evelynn clapped a hand over Charlie's mouth and gave her a warning look.

Wilting, Charlie resignedly lowered her head and Evelynn removed her hand.

Evelynn was still watching her like a hawk, so Charlie decided not to do anything to bug either Evelynn or mister Johnson.

Sprawling on the tarp, Charlie looked at the nearly unchanging landscape and remembered to her dismay that this was a week-long trip.

She would have to spend a week trapped in the wagon while watching the same sights.

And what was worse was that only an hour had passed.

Only an hour.

And there was seven more days to go.

What was she supposed to do to pass the time?

----------------------------------------

It turned out that Charlie did find something to do.

Over the next four days of the trip as the road slowly curved south, Charlie refused to sit in the wagon.

Instead, she spent all that time running and exploring the rolling hills.

She even managed to hunt some rodents, which would have been impossible if she relied on her human body alone.

After all, Charlie had to not only find the well-hidden rodent burrows, she also had to dig them out and get back to the horse-drawn wagon on foot.

Charlie could see that mister Johnson was growing a little suspicious, but he decided not to ask any questions, especially since Charlie kept her promise to keep her tendrils hidden from humans.

Instead of using her eldritch abilities out in the open, there were plenty of hills she could hide behind whenever she wanted to extend her tendrils.

After branching out, her threads would comb the hidden side of each hill, and when she was feeling adventurous, would even slither over the entire hill by worming through the grassy covering.

Whenever she found a burrow, Charlie would either scoop out the rodents in a web of threads or snap their necks with a thread noose before digging up her meal by hand.

On the first day, Charlie bagged a group of mice, and patted herself on the back with a tendril before wrapping the eight dead mice in her robe and lugging them back to the wagon.

Weirdly enough, mister Johnson didn't want to eat any of the mice, so Charlie split the mice with Evelynn and they shared a nice dinner of roasted rodent.

Charlie's pattern of playing and hunting continued, where she caught a variety of voles, rabbits, and other rodents, resulting in a highly unbalanced and carnivorous diet.

Well, not quite carnivorous since Charlie would occasionally sample some of the more interesting plants.

She even found and tried a variety of mushrooms of all sorts of colors and decided that she liked their chewy texture.

One of the mushrooms she ate was a pale beige from cap to stem, an inconspicuous coloration that would have turned away more experienced foragers.

With a glance, those same foragers would have pointed to the mushroom's off-white gills and skirt and pronounced that only those with a death-wish would consume something so poisonous.

Aside from a mild tingling in her mouth, Charlie decided that the death cap was nothing special, and there were plenty of other food to sample.

However, while frolicking far from the road today, she found something really weird.

From what she could tell, the things were neither plant nor animal nor fungi, or were maybe a mix of the three.

Charlie was exploring as usual, however this time she traveled quite a distance from the road, and even crested several hills.

Standing on a hilltop, Charlie looked down in confusion at the valley full of eyeball stalks.

Yes, eyeball stalks, since there was no other way to call them.

They were head-sized eyeballs of different eye colors mounted on corn stalks of varying lengths.

The eyeballs were all rotating at different speeds and directions, taking in the view from all around the valley while occasionally swiveling upwards to point their pupils at the sky.

Charlie felt a little queasy watching some of the eyeballs that were rotating in a blur of clockwise or counterclockwise, and the undulating stalks really didn't help settle her stomach.

The eyeball stalks were interesting, but she definitely felt like she remembered them from somewhere. Charlie could feel a very faint eldritch presence clinging to the eyeballs, so she knew they weren't native to the mortal planes.

Some of the eyeballs had stopped and were now staring at her.

Biting her lower lip, Charlie tried to place where she felt such a presence before. She didn't recall any of the important abyssal residents displaying such an eldritch signature.

Now all the eyeballs were staring at her and were leaning towards her.

Sure, they came from the abyss, but what type of being were they? It was proving fruitless to place them based on eldritch signature alone.

Charlie dismissively swatted the eyeballs that had extended their stalks and were now peering at her face.

Rolling her eyes, Charlie grabbed the closest eyeball and took a squelching bite.

A viscous fluid pooled into her mouth, and she nearly gagged at the acrid taste.

Charlie spat out her mouthful and wiped her tongue on her sleeve.

She glared at the punctured eyeball which now had opaque white fluids running down its sides.

Yup, no wonder she didn't remember them.

These were nameless eldritch beings that were bottom feeders in the abyss. The only reason they survived was because of their fast reproduction and disgusting taste.

The wounded eyeball was drunkenly weaving around, smacking into the other eyeball stalks before falling limp to the ground. Some of the nearby eyeballs bent down and rubbed against the splattered ocular fluids, coating themselves in the white substance.

Sticking her tongue out, Charlie surveyed the eyeballs that were now circling around her.

And it was not only the nearby eyeball stalks that were approaching Charlie.

There was a slight rustling as all the eyeballs in the valley were extending towards her, and the eyeballs residing in the adjacent valleys were also turning to look at her.

It was a sea of head-sized eyeballs unblinkingly staring at Charlie, and slowly lengthening their stalks to rise up and swarm her hill.

They were kind of annoying, but the colors were pretty.

Charlie looked amongst the varying eye colors of the eyeballs surrounding her and picked a green one that she particularly liked. The eyeball had a solid black pupil, but had a vibrant green sclera that was tinged with streaks of yellow.

Sensing Charlie's intentions, the eyeball tried to pull back only to get ensnared by a darting tendril.

Pulling it closer, Charlie plucked the eyeball from its stalk and cuddled it.

Nice and smooth, and it was also fun watching the eyeball swivel in her hands.

Waving goodbye to the other eyeballs, Charlie pushed aside the eyeball stalks that had swarmed around her position and were blocking her escape path.

Charlie happily skipped down the hill, dismissing the eyeball stalks that were creeping down the hill and trailing after her.

She really wanted to show Evelynn what she found, so it was time to head back to the wagon.

Even though the wagon had traveled a fair distance while Charlie was distracted, she had no issue catching up by using tendrils to propel herself along the valley floors where she would be out of sight.

Holding the rotating eyeball above her head to showcase her trophy, Charlie pranced back to the wagon.

Mister Johnson caught sight of her and the swiveling eyeball.

He blinked and rubbed at his eyes to make sure what he was seeing was real.

By now Charlie was pulling up beside the wagon, and had also caught Evelynn's attention.

Evelynn opened her mouth to make a remark about Charlie and her unorthodox prize, only to see a head-sized eyeball flying her way.

"Here Evy! Catch!"

Charlie had tossed the eyeball at the stupefied Evelynn before swinging herself into the wagon.

Making herself comfortable, Charlie beamed at both mister Johnson and Evelynn, and waited for them to praise her for finding such a wonderful toy.

"Evy, don't you think this eyeball is pretty?"

Staring at the cheerful Charlie... for once Evelynn was at a loss for words.

And coincidentally, she was also holding a freshly plucked eyeball.