That meeting could have gone better. The capped man was not amused by the fact that the two had come to him with complaints regarding the food and the fact that the vegetation he found was not being put to use. He got a bit mad when the Wushi kept on pushing on the topic before he threw all of the stuff at her face and told her to do it herself.
Which was why she and the young girl were currently sitting out in the open, staring down at all of these plants in front of them. The Wushi kept poking a few of them with her finger, before scratching the back of her head.
“What the heck are any of these? The leaves could possibly be used for some tea and the berries could possibly be a means for dessert, but what on earth are the rest of these? Black and red mushrooms? A purple and red flower that has fluttering red wings? What can any of these things be used for?”
She groaned as she hung her head. “I can see now why they were unable to figure out which of these were edible or not. After all, we can’t have people volunteer for such a thing and those beasts don’t eat anything at all, so…”
She grimaced, before looking at the young girl. She blinked.
The child was staring at each of those plants fervently, studying them and trying to figure out what they were doing. She picked the vine containing the berries and held them to her eyes, twirling them around and tapping them. Then, without further ado, she went ahead and popped one of them into her mouth.
“He-hey, that’s…” The Wushi looked almost lost as she stared at the girl sucking away at the berry, before going ahead and chewing at the fruit. She then swallowed, before smiling.
“It’s sweet! It’s really good, like eating some nice raspberries with some honey!” The girl’s teeth were stained with some kind of red juice, but other than that, she seemed to be completely fine.
“You’re okay? No stomach aches, no pains, nothing?”
“Nope! I feel fit as a fiddle!” The girl jumped up and flexed her arm, “See? Perfectly fine!”
“O-oh.” The Wushi was still reeling from the shock, but unfortunately, she wasn’t given the chance to recover as the girl proceeded to continue onwards.
“And the best part is I figured out what every single one of these plants do! I can tell which ones are edible and which ones aren’t!”
“Eh?”
The girl then proceeded to sort through the rest of the plants, setting them aside to two different locations. By the time she was done, there were a total of six that seemed to be grouped with the berry vine, making the Wushi realize just how many of them were capable of being eaten.
“So, all of these are edible. I don’t know how to cook any of them, but all I know is that they’re not poisonous at all!”
“Then, what about the other three?”
“They’re not even worth considering.” The girl shook her head, “They’re either deadly or they’re just not even capable of providing any kind of nutrition whatsoever.”
The Wushi couldn’t help but stare at the child for a good amount of time, enough so that she started to slowly squirm in her seat.
“Uh-um, what seems to be the problem?”
“How on earth do you know what’s edible or not?” The Wushi gawked, before shaking her head. “No, more than that, how on earth could you tell if they were deadly or not by a simple look? You didn’t even have to try them or anything!”
“Well, that, well…”
The girl seemed hesitant to explain. She looked a bit worried as she darted her eyes left and right, trying to find an excuse to get out of the situation at hand. The Wushi sighed at this sight, before putting a hand on the girl’s shoulders.
“I’m sorry,” she said softly, “I didn’t mean to put you on guard or anything like that. My curiosity and excitement got the better of me. If you want to keep this information private, then I completely understand. You don’t have to tell me anything.”
The girl blinked at her response, before looking away, almost as if she was ashamed. She took a deep breath and looked up, grimacing as she did so.
“It’s a part of the sorcery that I was gifted.”
“Oh?” The Wushi blinked. “What do you mean by that?”
“The sorcerer in the tower granted me some magic.” The child put her hand to the ground and took a deep breath, closing her eyes as she did so. She traced some kind of symbol using her index finger, then started to raise her hand.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
The Wushi stared in shock as a vine seemed to grow out of nowhere, getting taller and reaching towards the girl’s hand that kept on going up and up. As the vine’s height continued to increase, so too did its mass and other branches that kept going off in different directions. Multiple berries and flowers started to grow throughout the vegetation, blooming into giant sizes far greater than the ones that the villagers had discovered.
With that, the girl stopped doing her action and put her hand to her hip. The vines stayed perfectly upright, supported by an invisible force. Despite this, the wind still seemed to impact its standing, as the plant continuously bobbed and weaved according to the whims of the world.
The Wushi stared at the plant in front of her. Without a bit of hesitation, she went ahead and plucked one of the berries from the vine and popped it right into her mouth.
Tart and sweetness. That was the sensation she got from the fruit in her mouth. All the juices erupted out from a single bit, spreading throughout the mouth. She couldn’t help but gasp at the taste, before slowly gulping down each bit of juice that remained in her mouth.
Tears came to her eyes as she savored every last bit of flavor in her mouth. It has been far too long since she had any type of genuine flavor, the presence of something that wasn’t just salt and cooked meat. Something new that broke the monotony of having the same thing over and over again for several days. Finally, the world of cuisine had opened up and she was now able to experience things as they should be once more.
She finished swallowing the last bit of juice from the berry, before looking at the girl. She gave her a smile, one that seemed to help ease the anxiety and nervousness that was present on her face.
“Do not worry, child,” The Wushi said as she plucked another berry from the vine, “This is not something you should be scared of. This is not as terrifying as you expected.”
“Are you sure?” The young girl asked softly, looking worried as the Wushi threw the berry into her mouth, “I mean, such things would only lead to people wanting to imprison me, right? I’ve effectively made a never ending food cycle, after all. All I need to do is spend some time sleeping and eating before I can go ahead and create another supply of food.”
“If they were so worried about food, they wouldn’t be constantly going out to get meat all the time,” the Wushi pointed out, which seemed to appease the young girl to a certain extent, “Though, I am curious. Is this all you can do with your powers?”
“Eh?” The young girl seemed thrown off by the question, before widening her eyes. “Um, what do you mean by that?”
“Is growing plants all that you have?”
The girl looked down at her hands, before looking at the Wushi. “Um, well, that–”
“More importantly, do you need to draw that symbol every time you want to summon your plants?” She kept pushing, getting closer and closer to the young child, “Do you summon things you’ve eaten or can it be any plan? Could you grow things that come from the world you came from? No, more importantly, can you grow rice?!”
“Eh? What? No, first of all, what the heck is rice?” The girl gasped as she staggered back, thrown off by the Wushi’s reaction to the bombshell, “No, more importantly, that’s a lot of questions for me to figure out! What makes you think I know any of that?”
“Were you not instructed how to use your power? Did you not have the instinct to understand how your divine powers came into play?”
“I–well, no, but–”
“That’s not good.” The Wushi sighed as she shook her head, “In order for us to go and take the tyrant down from the tower and to restore peace, we must make use of all advantages granted to us. Whether that be information, terrain, or heavenly grace, we must use all at our disposal in order to survive to see the next day.”
“What do you expect me to do with this sorcery?” The young girl stood up and held her ground, looking quite upset at the statement, “You say this like we can simply know what we’re doing from the get go! I can’t train when I don’t know enough about what I’m doing!”
“Hrm.” The Wushi seemed to think on that point, before smiling. “Then you mean t o tell me you haven’t practiced with your powers that much then?”
“No, I haven’t!”
“Don’t worry!” The Wushi smiled as she clapped her hands together, “That’s nothing too crazy! After all, I can train you to get better at your heavenly abilities!”
“My sorcery?” The girl raised an eyebrow at that statement, “What do you mean you can train me? Are you trying to tell me you’re a witch of some sort?”
“A witch? No, nothing like that.” The Wushi went ahead and put a hand to the ground, forcing her will onto the world once more. And with that, she yanked.
The earth itself followed suit with her movement. A giant wave of dirt followed through and started to form into a large orb, floating right below her hand. She smiled, before morphing the dirt that floated and changed its shape once more, turning it into a cube, then to a large spike, before finally settling on a spiked orb. Then, and only then, did she launch the clump into the distance, before slamming the projectile into the ground.
An eruption of rock and dirt erupted from the impact, forming a large crater that seemed to span for quite a distance. The dust began to settle, before freezing and forming into another ball of dirt.
The Wushi smiled as she began to compact the components, turning and warping their state. Then, without further ado, she went ahead and let all of the collected dirt fall into the crater, filling up the impact area and covering up any evidence of her actions.
Once that was finally done, she turned back to the young girl, whose jaw had dropped and seemed to look at her in a new light. Her eyes were shiny and her breath was stolen in an instant, before she jumped forward and approached the Wushi.
“How did you learn all of that? No, how on earth did you figure out all that sorcery without making any sigils? How were you able to achieve all of this so fast?”
“Heh.” The Wushi smirked as she patted the child’s head, “Don’t be too surprised. In fact, you should be able to achieve such a thing. All it will take is practice and time. So, are you ready for round two of your training?”
The girl hesitated for a bit upon hearing that. Then, she looked back at the area the Wushi had struck and steeled her face.
“Yes. I’m ready.”
“Good!” The Wushi laughed, before grinning wide. “Then let’s go ahead and start.”