“All comes from nature, and would return to its embrace with time.” - Old folk saying.

From the bamboo grove, the goblins took a semi-circular path that kept them roughly the same distance to their village and foraged along the way. At times one of the hunters would expertly use their slings or blowpipes to take down birds, rabbits, or lizards they ran into, the carcasses of which were stored in one of the remaining empty baskets that Aideen kept in her storage.

There were three large baskets, pots, or bags for each of the goblins, counting the three left behind in the first place they visited, which made Aideen curious and ask about them. She felt that it was unlikely for the goblins to be able to carry three of those containers laden full with all sorts of fruits, plants, and game to their village on their own, or at least, not in a safe manner.

If they were occupied with carrying so much stuff they would be easy prey for any passing predator, after all.

“Oh, usually we would not fill them up to full like we did today,” explained the old goblin in the group with a warm smile on his wrinkled, wizened face. “We would usually fill them only a thirds of the way to halfway, then we would stack them like this,” he said as he demonstrated by stacking an empty basket on top of one half-filled with animal carcasses. “Keeps the food separate from each other in case some might contaminate the other kinds, also doesn’t burden us overly much.”

“Today we fill them to the brim because we have the lady helping,” he added, noting Aideen’s help to the foraging by carrying the full baskets in her storage artifact. “We also have these storage items, but too few. The bigger ones we have, we give to those who usually go to other villages to exchange what we have more of with what we need from the others. They have long, dangerous journeys to undertake, so the storages help them travel faster and safer.”

While storage artifacts had become pretty much widespread over the world – thanks to the original creator being so enamored with the idea of everyone having one that he spent his life spreading the methods of their creation back in the day – larger ones remained a relative rarity amongst the orcs and goblins of the north. What storage artifacts they had were salvaged from the dead invaders who came to their lands, amongst which larger storage artifacts were few in number.

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Smaller ones with internal storages the size of a pouch were everywhere, even amongst the goblins, who typically used it to store stones for their slings or darts for their blowpipes, but larger ones were nowhere near as common for them. Even amongst the orcs they were not that commonplace and usually reserved for the more important personages.

Just like how they simply took advantage of whatever edible – which to a goblin was most everything – animal that crossed their path, the goblins also gathered a rather wide variety of fruits as they went along. The jungle being the lush tropical rainforest that it was, there were many kinds of fruit that grew on the trees all over, as long as one kept an eye out for them.

Some of the fruits were familiar to Aideen, while yet others were things that had some similarities to things she knew of but otherwise had never seen before. The goblins gathered fruits ranging from massive ones with somewhat spiky skin that were larger than their own torsos to ones that looked like oblong grapes with yellowish skin that oddly grew directly on the tree’s trunk.

Since goblins were blessed with physical strength that were easily a match to a human, yet had smaller, lighter bodies, they were capable of climbing trees with much greater ease. Some would even directly climb up the a with ease that would have made a monkey proud of them, easily picking the fruits that grew even on the taller trees.

Like with the bamboo shoots and various edible wild herbs and vegetables they ran across on their path, the fruits were harvested and gathered in the baskets as well before Aideen stored the full baskets in her storage. The convenience of possessing a large storage artifact was highlighted at times like these, as it greatly eased the logistics of transporting the food back to the village.

Aideen taking over the burden – which was no burden at all for her – allowed the goblins to forage with far greater efficiency and bring back much more compared to the usual. The old goblin had explained that usually with the amount they foraged only the important people and guests would get their fill of the good food, as while everyone else still got to partake, they would have much more limited portions.

“With you helping around, Lady, everyone gets to eat good tonight,” said the old goblin in sincere praise. What he said was true, since having Aideen carry their harvest – they didn’t even need to be limited by the baskets and sacks with her around – allowed them to carry many times over what they usually managed on their own.

The group stopped for a quick lunch around noon, where Aideen sampled a few of the things they collected along the way, ones that needed no preparation to be eaten. The ones that looked like pears were just pears, with slightly different shape and coloration, as well as a subtle difference in taste, but pretty much the same fruit otherwise. As was the one that looked like long grapes growing out of the trunk of the tree they were collected from. Those tasted like chewier grapes with a strong but pleasant hint of tartness to cut through their sweet juice.

To accompany the fruits, the old goblin also picked a couple of the smallest of the bamboo shoots they harvested earlier in the morning. He peeled off the outermost layers before slicing what’s left into thin slices with his knife and offered it to Aideen. She picked up a slice and bit down, finding that it possessed a very pleasant crunchy texture with a refreshing sweetness with a hint of grass to it.