Foraging

Chapter 185

The morning after the Lepusan meeting, Henry joined me in town. We’d talked about the trip to the other side of the mountain and decided to make a kind of picnic of it. I left catching him up on everything that happened for the walk to the camp.

Henry met me at the Mayor’s residence and we chatted as we headed for the foothilIs. In the interest of diplomacy I left out Artem behaving being a bit of an ass.

“Ban will stay? I’m glad, I’m r-rather fond of him and Hari,” was Henry’s only comment. He’d made polite noises of interest throughout though.

“Not excited about getting some new customers?” I asked to tease him a little. He had a shop and atelier in town but hadn’t been as enthusiastic about it as I expected. He did enjoy design and teaching the skill focused skeletons I’d summoned as his assistants.

“I’ve been pl-playing with your ready wear idea, I think they’ll find my shop quite accommodating,” Henry replied, with a smile.

“But you're not excited at the prospect?” I asked. He hadn’t actually answered my question after all.

“Perhaps I will be later, when they take more of an interest in their own designs. What they're wearing now is clearly based on local human clothes,” Henry explained. I nodded, understanding why that wouldn’t be particularly interesting. The stuff I’d provided in particular was based on human things Elim had given me.

The rest of the walk passed in an amicable silence. Getting up to the camp didn’t take long despite walking the whole way from my residence in town. The majority of the Lepusan bucks were waiting and eager to go. Even Artem seemed to have lost some of his suspension and was excited.

“This isn’t going to be all that interesting,” I warned. There was forest on the other side rather than desert, but nothing much else.

“We'll still be glad to see it,” Ban assured me.

With that I led them to the tunnel through the mountain that I’d unblocked after telling them about it. It hadn’t been likely that they’d go poking around at night looking for it, but I’d taken the precaution anyway.

The walk took a while, but the path was reasonably well lit by light stones. When we emerged into daylight again, the Lepusan all seemed dazzled though so it might have been dimmer than I realized. I had trouble with determining things like that since I could see equally well in absolute darkness.

“The farms are tended by earth elves so they're up in the tree’s for the most part,” I offered as an explanation for why nothing was immediately visible. When no one responded I realized they hadn’t been looking for the farm but just looking around in wonder.

“Uhm, like what you see?” I asked Ban. I was at a loss.

“I thought the valley was lovely but this is… a good place,” Ban said after a few moments. He was the only one standing still, the other bucks were already heading into the trees.

I exchanged a confused look with Henry. Neither of us understood what was going on but we didn’t try to stop it either.

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“Well, be back before midday,” I said. Ban nodded then headed out into the tree’s. All of the Lepusan were quickly out of the dungeon and beyond my senses since I hadn’t invested much in the area outside of the farms.

“Are you sure? They were acting rather oddly,” Henry asked.

“I think they were just excited, Ban still had his wits about him at least,” I said with a shrug. It had been odd, but only because I didn't understand what they found so interesting. They also hadn’t all gone in the same direction which would have been worrying.

“I supposed,” Henry agreed.

“Shall we?” I asked. At Henry’s nod we spread out a blanket and sat down to spend some time with craft projects. A picnic for those who didn’t eat.

The Lepusan didn’t return by midday, but they weren’t too late either. What all they were doing was clear as soon as they appeared carrying bundles and sacks of things.

“So you smelled food and went running off?” I asked in amusement.

“Yes, miss. Sorry,” Ban offered. He had his arms full of wild onions, their green stalks swaying gently with each step.

“It's nothing to apologize for. I’ll make sure you have proper backpacks when you want to go foraging again,” I said. It was actually nice that they were taking the initiative to explore and find things.

Some of the younger bucks carried an assortment of roots and mushrooms. The mushroom caps ranging from delicate ivory to rich, earthy browns. Others had what I was pretty sure were acorns and bundles of herbs.

“How much of it do you want?” Artem asked. His fingers were stained a bright red hue as he opened the sack he’d brought to reveal plump, juicy berries.

“Huh?” I was too caught off guard for words. Ban gave the elder a hard look. Artem looked a little embarrassed but determined.

“It's nothing compared to what you have already, but we ought to give you something,” Artem added.

“That's fair,” Ban said, nodding. There was a general rumble of agreement among the other bucks.

It wasn’t like I had a use for most things and saying one of everything to sample with the system would be weird. This also seemed like a pride thing, which made it important. They wanted to pay their way and this was the first real opportunity they’d had.

I definitely needed to make sure the mushrooms were safe though. I didn’t distrust the Lepusan, but I had no idea how familiar they were with the local plants and mushrooms were fucking dangerous from what little I knew of them. Or fun. There was a lot of middle ground between those two things that included ‘will make you horribly ill’ that I’d rather avoid.

“A tenth of what you’ve found,” I decided. That felt high to me, but none of the Lepusan seemed bothered by it. Even Artem just nodded, apparently content with the amount.

“When we get back to town though, I don’t have anything to carry all of that in,” I added. Henry chuckled, knowing I was full of shit. I hadn’t shown the Lepusan my abilities in that respect and intended to keep it that way for the moment.

“Now, I’m sure the does are wondering where all of you are. So we should head back… unless you all want to go grab some flowers first? Quickly?” I asked. That got me blank stares for a moment then a full blown stampede as all the bucks but Artem rushed back into the woods.

“Bunch of igits, should have already picked them,” Artem, chuckling even as he grumbled.

“Indeed,” Henry agreed.

“Oh? Did you already pick me some?” I asked jokingly. With a flourish Henry pulled a flower from his coat. It sparkled brightly in the sunlight and I was stunned for a moment. It looked like a rose made of drops of blood until I could hold it closer and see the intricate beadwork and gold thread veins.

I grabbed Henry by the front of his jacket and pulled him in for a kiss. Something that took a bit of leaning down in my current form.

“I take it you like it,” Henry said when we parted a little. As if for breath neither of us needed.

“Kindly pin it in my hair,” I said. Henry kissed my nose before moving to comply.

“I thought we were the ones who get spring fever,” Artem said archly. I nearly jumped, my mind had been on what I’d make Henry as a gift in return, not who was watching us.

“Mine isn’t seasonal,” Henry countered. Artem laughed and I felt the acidic burn of what might have been a blush.

When the other bucks returned with flowers it was a bit of a relief. The air was filled with their excited chatter as they shared stories of their foraging adventures as we headed back.