Of course, failure is only failure if you give up, and if there was one idea that has never crossed River's mind, it was to give up. River would continue to drag me out on one of her excursions on nearly a daily basis, whenever she uncovered a "lead"—a "lead" being anything that River needed to justify requisitioning my free time.
In a way, I was impressed with River's ambition, she never seemed to tire of her hunts, and despite not getting any closer to finding the elusive Forest Guardian, she was completely dauntless and her spirit never waivered. Even I began to believe that with such wherewithal, she would eventually come across him sooner or later. That being said, it was a bit much for me. I did enjoy hanging out with River, but I also valued my leisure time every now and then. So I had taken to making myself more elusive.
It was while I was ducking River that I came across several harvesters sniffing the ground and doing so in a hastened fashion, at least I thought so—how does one go about smelling the dirt? It was uncharacteristic of me to intrude on the activities of others when I wasn't acquainted with them. However, one looked familiar, so maybe I was acquainted with them. Furthermore, I knew it was only a matter of time before River found me—she was actually a good hunter, despite how much crap I gave her—and I needed to be otherwise occupied to avoid conscription. Perhaps I am being unfair to River, she is actually fairly considerate and doesn't demand my time if I have something else on my plate. Unfortunately, my plate was usually empty, and I needed a break—I was still picking off burrs that had attached themselves to me from our previous treks.
So with that in mind, I worked up the modicum of resolve I would need to intrude, and stiffly walked over to them. "Hey, sorry to intrude, but what are you doing?" Two of them just continued to sniff the ground giving me the coldest of shoulders—maybe this was a mistake and I was unwelcome... But the third one, the one that looked familiar, looked up, though it seemed to me a bit reluctantly.
"I'm sorry, we are really busy," she wasn't angry, but it was apparent that she would appreciate me leaving them to their work. It was then I became aware of this person's identity.
"Aren't you Dawn's mother?" I asked even though I knew the answer.
"Well, yes..." she stopped in earnest now—before she was still crouching over the ground, but now she stood up. "you are... Indigo, Dawn's friend."
"Yes, ma'am."
"Green-Field Harvester, use it." She was simply telling me her name and not to use some generic honorific, there was no hostility in this statement. "But I must get back to work." She went to crouch back down on all fours, when out of the corner of my eye, I saw River making her way over.
"What's the problem? Maybe I could help." The words came out almost reflexively upon catching sight of her.
"It's Harvester business, you wouldn't be of much use." Now it did sound like she wanted me to just leave her be, but I pushed on.
"Well, not much help is still better than no help." Sound logic. She let out a sigh. Realizing I would not leave without an explanation, she reluctantly explained the situation.
"We are looking for a medicinal fungus," the image of a strange bulbous fungus that looked like ginger root came into my mind. "It grows underground and can only be found by smell."
"I see." That explained the smelling the ground. "But why the urgency?"
"The Elder is in dire need of this medicine! We cannot afford to fail!" An uncharacteristic display of emotion from the usually controlled and well-mannered Green-Field Harvester.
Well, this was bad, I wouldn't want the elder to die suddenly. Even though I couldn't really say what he did, he seemed like a nice enough guy. However, while our noses were probably around twice as sensitive as a human’s, this method seemed lacking. "Can you really find this fungus by smelling the ground?"
She looked at me, and with a point of pride said, "We harvesters have excellent noses. It's what makes a harvester a Harvester." I guess that makes sense, it would make it easier to sniff out ripe produce, but still…
"How long do you think it will take?"
The pride faded and was replaced with a dark veil that dropped down over her face. "Well, it's not something we typically look for. And not many of us have actually searched for it before. And the smell doesn't permeate very far..."
"Will you be able to find it?" She had just made a strong case that they probably wouldn't come across it anytime soon. Meanwhile, the clock was ticking for Snowcap Elder.
"Well..." she paused. But then, forcing a brave face, "Of course we will! We must! The Elder is counting on us!"
I was already thinking of ways to help the effort to save the Elder. Smelling seemed dubious at best. It would be one thing if we had the noses of bloodhounds, but utilizing a modestly buffed sense of smell didn't seem the best approach. What would be nice is ground-penetrating radar... and that is when it occurred to me. I had developed my proprioception in the same way as that of the Healers. That same method could be used to feel underground. Of course, you would want a larger swath to be covered at one time, as opposed to the more target method. Unfortunately, I hadn't invested much research into it since that incident with River…
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"Can I help?" I asked. She gave me a tired look.
"Well, It's not like any harm can come of it." But then she thought better. "Just don't go roaming too far from the village."
"Yes, Green-Field Harvester. I won't let you down!" I gave her a formal salute, which confused her. "Oh, one more thing. Do you know where they tend to form?"
"Well, it's not like we have collectively seen many." She paused in thought for a moment. "I suppose they have a propensity for being near old trees, both living or otherwise." Or otherwise? What could that mean besides dead?
"Okay, I'm off!" I would look elsewhere to expand the search area.
"Wait! You don't even know what they smell like." I stopped. I had forgotten about that, as I had no intention of going by the smell. As I turned back to face her, a rich odor filled my mind. It was earthy and had overtones of sour, spice, and other qualities I couldn't place. It was such a precise and strong scent that I knew it had to be the odor as experienced by the harvesters with their enhanced sense of smell. She wasn't kidding about their olfactory senses.
River was disappointed when I told her I couldn't play with her today, as we needed to find this special fungus; the Elder was counting on us! "Well, be sure to find it quickly, I can just feel that we are onto him." Normally, I might feel bad for ducking her, but it was true that the Elder was in dire need, so this was a legitimate excuse.
Anyway, with River out of the way, I could try my idea for ground-penetrating radar. It was the same thing as proprioception as explained before, just over a larger area. Specifically, I plan to make large sweeps through the earth using a wide surface area and low volume, so it would be like a plane in mathematics. It would be challenging to try and feel out a large cube of volume, plus I don't think I could take in all the information from such a space.
It was rough going, but by the end of the day, I had managed to achieve a 3x3 meter-wide sweeping surface. I would need to practice more to feel confident, but I was satisfied, it was more just a need to condition my focus. As proof of my accomplishment, I was successfully able to uncover three clusters of the fungus. This could actually be a useful innovation. Imagine what you could do with this when harvesting allusive items.
As I thought this, it occurred to me that I had gotten too involved in my experiments again. I had completely forgotten that the Elder was in dire need of these, and it was already very late—my parents would let me have it when I got home. Still, I need to get these fungi to the proper people.
The harvesters were still at it; I had expected them to have packed it in for the night, but I shouldn't have been surprised, lives were at stake, and while fairly carefree, our race was very devoted to their fellows. When I presented the fungi I had found, they were in disbelief.
"How did you find this? And so much..." Green-Field Harvester was having difficulty maintaining her poise. I would have loved to explain—I took great joy in explaining my discoveries—but I needed to get home. Aside from my parents' wrath, I was also exhausted from expending so much energy doing those sweeps. In my experimental fervor, I hadn't noticed.
The harvesters clamored for details, and I think one even offered to take me on as an apprentice on the spot, but this was too much. It was late and I was tired, so I just wandered home, tuning out most of their telepathy.
Upon returning home, I was summarily chewed out.
The following day, I stepped out of the domicile only to find myself surrounded by harvesters shouting at me like a recently doxed social pariah. For a moment, I thought that it was shakedown by the Harvester guild to stop encroaching on their market, until I remembered that wasn't how things worked here. Apparently, the miraculous feat I had pulled off yesterday by finding those fungi was tearing them up with frustration. They demanded to know how one who wasn't even an apprentice Harvester managed to find this medicinal herb so easily.
I explained that it was basically using the same technique the healers use to scan injured bodies, but applied to scanning the ground instead. I swear there were visible question marks that appeared above their collective heads. It was as if the concept of appropriating techniques from other professions for completely different applications was an alien concept. Still, I eagerly offered to teach them how to do it. As an engineer, increased efficiency is something that makes me smile. However…
"We cannot apprentice under you," one said. "You yourself are not even an apprentice."
"...Who said anything about an apprenticeship?" I was confused.
"You did."
"Huh…?" Long story short, it seems that if you study under someone, you are an apprentice, even if it's only for a couple of weeks or several days. Becoming an apprentice is apparently a big deal, so after your initial apprenticeship, taking up another is rarely if ever done. It would seem career changes aren't a thing. No wonder they innovate so slowly.
"By the way," as they were heading off, Green-Field Harvester added, "the Elder sends his regards for finding that herb."
"He is doing okay now then?" I was relieved to hear that he had gotten that medicine in time.
"He is. His sore throat is feeling much better now, and he can continue verbally communicating with his new apprentice."
"...Wait what!? That's what all this commotion was about??"
"Yes, I don't intend to understand what this verbal communication is, but the Elder made it very clear that it was of the greatest importance that we get the medicine." I take back my former opinion, the Elder was clearly a self-centered blowhard! I could see that Green-Field Harvest had no idea what verbal communication even was, outside that it involved sound and communicating, and was under the impression that there was some genuine importance placed upon it. Was this how the Elder ran the village? Like his own personal oppressed third-world country where he exploited the ignorance of the populous? Despicable!
Anyway, word soon got out that I was good at finding things. I began to get requests to find and locate all manner of things: Insect infestations from Arborists, subterranean plants and the like from the Harvesters, minerals—mostly stone—from mostly Masons... This last one proved the most challenging as they usually wanted something in particular and not just random rocks. At least I perfected my scanning technique.