Chapter 139

Bellesweet and the Golem of Growth

Hawkin

Brewer’s Reputation: 343

It was unanimous that we all take the day off from clearing the shore and from building the tavern. Abigail regaled us of her experience at the Oude Brewer’s Competitive. She spoke passionately of the food and the beer and the beer and the beer. Quite a few goblins had joined in the festivities which had really livened up the mood. Many of the Collectors recognized Erik Skullander. I learned that he had admirers.

Afterwards, Abigail and I spent some time in the woods on a meandering stroll. We avoided the bright green fern whose leaves towered over us for fear of ticks. Instead we delved away from the coast toward the pines. It was warming up since we were officially past mid spring. The breeze was toasty, as though it had slept by the stove in my cabin. There were great tailed grackles in the trees, and they sounded like they were goblins that pinched their tongues between their lips and spat without respite.

I held her hand.

“I have something for you,” said Abigail. “It’s from Corylus.”

“Oh, Corylus, how is he?”

“Jolly as always. Could we go to your Beyond the Cabin plane?”

We sipped my Beyond the Cabin beer and stepped onto the sand while fall leaves rained around us.

“It might draw a lot of attention,” said Abigail. “So I thought this would be a better place to show you.”

She produced a plant from her inventory. It was a sweet flag. The base of the grass was pinkish and rose in sword-like blades that were bright green. There was a cone at the center covered in yellow-brown flowers. It stood on its brown roots and immediately started walking around. It ambled in a circle around us and bobbed its cone which I suspected might be its head. When it completed its circle, tripping twice, it looked up at us.

“Corylus named it Bellesweet,” said Abigail. “Isn’t it precious?”

“It’s walking!”

“It sure is.”

“That’s incredible. What sort of care does something like this need?”

“It can sustain itself in the ambient energy of the plane. Kinda like what happens with us. It will look for water, and it will dig itself into soil when necessary.”

Bellesweet shuffled over the sand toward the tall black cohosh. Chimeric light from the window of the log house fell upon it. Bellesweet turned its cone to the window, then beelined to it. It scraped its leaves on the sill and hopped up against the logs. Oh, what a precious thing!

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“Corylus just gave this to us?” I said. “It must be incredibly rare.”

“He’s been developing these plants for a couple of years now.”

“Does it know what’s going on?”

“It seems to have some idea…sometimes. Oh, and it will grow if it drinks any Wild Growth attribute ale, so we have to be careful with that.”

I gazed at the ball of woven oak, and peered through to the chestnut trees. “There are some barrels of that floating around.”

“Isn’t this exciting? It’s like…I don’t know…It’s like a familiar!”

Abigail held my hand, and we followed Bellesweet as it ambled around the plot of land and through the log house. It explored things with unbridled curiosity. It didn’t stop to smell, nor to what, nor to see, but it did stop for reasons beyond me.

“What if we gave it a companion?” said Abigail.

“Another one?”

“I’ve been thinking. I don’t know if you remember, but I had mentioned an attribute called Resident Earth Sentient. A 15.5 gallon barrel of the attribute gives life to a half inch tall golem of nature. It meditates, and as it meditates new things begin to grow. New plants. New animals. They could wander through the plane together and expand it.”

“I’d like for Bellesweet to have a friend. Do we have the ingredients?”

“I already bought everything.”

We collaborated on a stout and stored the beer in an ethereal forged 15.5 gallon ethereal. The barrel sat at an angle on the sand between rows of black cohosh and fourrure blancs. I cradled Bellesweet to my chest, and we dodged behind the corner of the loghouse. The barrel imploded with a clap.

As soon as Bellesweet was set down, it waddled over to the explosion. There was no evidence that a barrel of beer had once been there. A small round golem made of sand stood in the middle of a shallow crater. It had speckles of autumn colors all over its body. Bellesweet lowered its cone head as it to smell the golem. The golem turned all around, and then it sat in a pose which I had often taken to meditate in. After a moment, micro sprouts snaked up from the sand around the golem. The sprouts budded, and the buds flowered in coral hues.

“What do you think, Bellesweet?” I said.

Bellesweet cocked its head at the golem, but otherwise simply stood over it.

“Do you think they’ll get along?” said Abigail.

“We’ll see?” I said.

Micro flowers continued to sprout around the golem. Bellesweet took a step back as the ring of growth expanded.

“How’s the tavern coming along?” said Abigail.

“Good. Surprised to say it, but I’m glad I accepted the Makers for Hire quest. They're doing most of the heavy lifting.”

“Any good loot?”

“A couple of higher level dungeon cores, a few skill books, and a Forge Ethereal Wheat skill book.”

“Ethereal wheat, wow. On that note, what beer shall we make exclusive to the tavern?”

“Something that could be our flagship. Something we could sometimes make Grand batches of.”

“What about something that represents our woods?”

We each stepped away as the ring of growth expanded again. Bellesweet turned in place, and leaned over the micro flowers. The flowers at the center of the growth where the golem sat doubled in size.

Things that I’d been reflecting on seemed to double in size as well.

“I met an old man on the shore. A brewer. Said he spent thirty-five years alone in the wilderness.”

Abigail cracked a smile. “You two must’ve hit it off.”

“He said we had a lot in common.”

Still smiling, she said, “That bothers you?”

“…It does.”

“You see yourself, and you don’t like it.”

“I gotta think about it. I can’t wrap my head around it.”