Chapter 28: Sasha's Forest

Chapter 28: Sasha's Forest

 

I nibbled my lip a bit as I looked upon my work. Paper would have been so much easier to work with, if less durable, but, well, I’d found out paper was not nearly so plentiful here. There was some, but our host had little to spare, nonetheless any for a random five-year old’s silly pointless project. That didn’t really bother me, but it was a surprising change from the island where even with us being isolated, there was always another little journal or piece of paper taken from Sandy’s cargo or crew effects to be found.

 

Still, I’d improvised. Using a frame of carved sticks and twigs tied with twine, a discarded cloth stretched over said frame, a strip of leather, more twine, and a little carving knife led me to my creation: a makeshift band with two triangles attached. Tying off one end, I sat up and yawned.

 

I’d been at this a while, but it at least looked…

 

Tolerable.

 

With that, I took my project and padded over to the table stand. On it was a cloth bag. I gently opened it and knocked away a few socks to the side to reveal Sandy’s orb.

 

She was still opaque, almost like quartz crystal with none of her light and only a trace of amethyst in her crystal depths now. I touched the surface of her core, and besides the smooth, cool feel of her crystal, I felt nothing. Well, mostly. She was actually warmer now than when she was awake and glowing. After a moment, I retracted my pointer claw. She didn’t respond to my touch any more than the past twenty times I’d poked her.

 

I stared a bit longer before sighing. I missed Sandy. I’d known her for less than a year, heck only a few months, yet she already felt engraved into my life.

 

Still, all the better I finished so she could wake up with my gift.

 

Thus, I placed the set of cat ears over her orb. They were a bit loose, but I fixed that with a bit more twine wrapped around her core. Once I was done, I admired her look with the fake cat ears, patted her orb, and closed the sack back up.

 

I hopped up and left for downstairs with more than a bit of eagerness to my steps.

 

The reason why was simple: we were going to with Sasha into the forest to gather herbs and mushrooms!

 

…

 

Even thinking that made it seem a lot more boring than it was, but there was a reason for not, say, racing off to see the glories of civilization in Stonetown.

 

…

 

It was me. I was the reason.

 

We’d tried to head to Stonetown with Sasha for one of her routine visits few days ago, but I, uh, hadn’t gotten very far. I’d felt much better since first waking up after Sasha cured me, but I wasn’t all better. My stamina capped had out at playing tag with Mom for a bit and then sleeping for eighteen hours.

 

Collapsing face first into a patch of daisies was not the grandest way to discover I needed more rest. But! I’d gotten better over the last few days, and Mom judged me good enough to head out.

 

Frustratingly, she’d seen the village already, at least once. I tried not to be jealous, but to be fair, I tried and failed at a lot of things in my life so far.

 

The bottom floor of the cottage consisted of a single ‘front’ room with a desk and shelves for the rare occasions someone came to Sasha but mostly existed as herbal storage space, another devoted wood lined storage room with tons of herbs and other concoctions hidden away in bottles lining the walls like glittering little secrets, a kitchen area with a devoted fireplace that doubled as a sort of dining/living room, and Sasha’s own bedroom she’d kept closed.

 

It was in this entryway I found Mom tying her boots on while Sasha absently twirled a whicker basket in her claws. .

 

“Oh Gwen! Good, hope you enjoyed your snooze,” Mom said. I glanced to the side. She didn’t need to know I hadn’t exactly spent all the time upstairs asleep. But cat ears were important!

 

“How are you feeling? Still up for the for a little foraging today? If you’re nervous, it’s okay, we can put it off a little while longer.”

 

“Mom! I wanna go!” I said indignantly. I know she worried, but seriously. I was feeling fine and moreover, giddy to see things. I wanted to see the village, but I understood just a short jaunt into the woods instead. “I slept a looooooooot and I wanna see and help!”

 

“She has you there,” Sasha said. I was getting pretty good at catching most of her words now, after a few days of chatter and my earlier practice, but technical stuff still eluded me. Speaking it, however, was a bit more difficult.

 

Left unsaid was that this was just a trip into the forest and not to the town itself. Mom had put her foot down about going after I collapsed the other day.

 

I told myself the town wouldn’t compare to the memories of my first life or even the pictures she’d shown me, but that didn’t take away the fact that I’d never been in even a tiny village before. I hadn’t even seen a proper society this life and I don’t think the ragtag refugees Zenn and Jonas came with counted.

 

Hence, my attempts to temper my expectations hit a brick wall and shattered into a million pieces. Part of it was the above, but I also felt a pang as I realized Zenn evidently was still traveling with the refugees. I hoped she was okay, but there wasn’t much I could do about it.

 

 Still, it wasn’t all bad. I mean, I got to see and go through a living forest without the threat of starvation over my head or being eaten by monsters, so that was really nice.

 

Mom held her hands up in defeat. “Fine, fine.”

 

“Ah, just got these ready recently. Please, go put this on and then we’ll head out,” Sasha said, and pushed a bundle of clothes into my arms.

 

I blinked, looking down at the black wool socks, dark green pants, and white shirt. I looked at Mom. She looked right back. “Your night gown isn’t exactly good for walking around a forest, Kitten.”

 

I…

 

Huh.

 

I stared at the clothes a bit as I realized this might be one of the first gifts I’d ever gotten from anyone other than Mom. I mean, the refugees shared food, and Zenn shared all sorts of interesting rocks she found with me while traveling before I got sick, but…

I held the clothes close to my chest and nodded; not sure I had words I could speak at the moment.

 

I hesitated, just a bit, before I darted up to Sasha and gave her a quick hug. She started in surprise, going stiff. I even noticed out of the corner of my eye her long tail bristling, but before she could react further I stepped away and ran up the stairs. I heard Mom and Sasha’s voices shortly after, but…

 

She deserved a hug.

  

A bit later, I was dressed and ready to go. I descended the stairs.

 

“Thank you. I know it’s just clothes, but, well, she’s just had me a long time,” Mom said.

 

“I… I wasn’t aware, it really was just—” I heard Sasha saying, but she cut off.

 

Mom was smiling and noticed me first. Their discussion ended. “Looks good, Gwen,” she said, and gave a thumbs up.

 

Sasha blinked at that, and then awkwardly followed up. I giggled at the entire exchange, but…

 

 

“Shall we?” Mom said, offering me her claw. I smiled, and like that, we left for the wider forest around the cottage.

 

Pretty soon, I was almost able to forget we weren’t going to Stonetown today.

 

Back on the island, I’d known just about every plant by name, but while I saw some things here, I saw a lot I didn’t. It ended up becoming a bit of a game.

 

I’d point at a plant, say a low growing herbaceous plant with pillar like purple flowers on its stems, and Mom or, more often, Sasha would chime in.

 

“Ah, creeping lousewart. Useful for treating rashes, but its cousin, giant lousewart, will make you puke. Useful if that’s needed, but otherwise best to leave it alone. Bees love it, however.”

 

Most plants weren’t too remarkable, but it was nice to be learning again, after things had been put on pause for so long.

 

“Ah, see that moss? It’s traveler’s aid,” Sasha said, pointing out a bit of an green moss growing in patches over a boulder I’d overlooked. “It’s sometimes used to stem bleeding, even has a very mild coagulating effect. Good for slow bleeding wounds.” She bent over slightly to pull a patch off to put in her basket.

 

Mom pouted.

 

Sasha tilted her head. “What?”

 

“I was going to get that one,” she said, sullenly.

 

Sasha giggled. “Oh dear, seems I beat you to it.”

 

Mom said nothing, but seemed oddly energized afterward.

 

…

 

This was nice. We continued a while. Occasionally, Mom or Sasha would harvest a bit of leaf or root from a plant, showing me how to. In under an hour of walking around I had about twenty new plants rumbling about in my head.

 

I’d thought Mom had known a lot as she’d memorized all the survival books and plant guides she’d had, but Sasha beat her handily, to the point she actually corrected Mom a few times, as well.

 

“What’s that?” I asked, pointing at an odd, yellowish mushroom growing on the side of a decaying tree stump.

 

“Ah! I know that one,” Mom said happily. “Pidgrat of the woods. Fry this up and it’s almost like fried meat, soaks in other flavors really well too.”

 

Sasha’s eyed it and slowly shook her head. “We’re a day or two late. See how the yellow flesh looks good? But it’s too shiny. If you check the underside…” she said, lifting the edge of the yellow mushroom up, and I saw it was discolored, with brown and black spots. “Grubs and bugs have been eating at it. You wouldn’t get sick if you had to eat it, but it’d be nasty,” she said.

 

I stared. I looked at the fungus, and back to her.

 

“You tried eating one when it was bad, didn’t you?”

 

Sasha scratched her head with a sheepish smile, cherry blond ears low. “Yeah… it was when I was new out here and I had thought I’d found a bit of a delicacy I actually recognized. But, well, it very much wasn’t,” she said with a grimace as horrid memories I could only imagine went through her head.

 

We stopped at one point for a little break. I was fine, but Mom insisted and we had bread with smoked fish. Yum. Sasha even brought a skin of tea! Double yum. Still, we eventually resumed and I spotted something notable.

 

“What’s that? Weren’t a lot of these around your house?” I asked, pointing at a woody shrub with trailing vines wrapping around nearby trees and bushes, absolutely covered in bunches of tiny pink flowers. It smelled sweet, but what got my attention, what made me ask about it was the fact it smelled more, almost charged, of magic.

 

My ears perked as I realized the scent shifted with my notice. How interesting!

 

Mom opened her mouth, but Sasha beat her to it.

 

“Good eye, Gwen. That’s a thorny wysp. Always was fond of them, back home, compared to the roses everyone else liked,” Sasha said, happy at first but then her own ears drooped. “This variety’s one of my own cultivars, and they do particularly well in woodlands like this.”

 

I didn’t miss the sadness in her words. I don’t think she was ready to share the reason for it, but I could help, maybe. “They’re really pretty, So many flowers…” I said, amping up the ‘awe’ in my tone a bit.

 

Mom’s tail twitched and I knew she knew I was overacting, but Sasha probably didn’t.

 

…

 

Probably.

 

Sasha, at my words, perked. Success!

 

“Why thank you, Gwen. I’ve worked very hard on them. Almost like they’re my own kittens,” she said, a small smile on her face. She patted a vine, claw tips dexterous as she pressed in, avoiding the thorns. Wind rustled the leaves as she did so, making it almost seem like they enjoyed the attention.

 

The rest of the trip was pleasant, but my ears perked straight up while crossing a stream as I something seemed different.

 

I looked around. We had been going down a trail, and nothing looked out of the ordinary; just pine with a scattering of bare trees bristling with buds. Yet, I felt like something had changed, almost like leaving a room arranged in a very specific way and coming back to find something ever so slightly off.

 

I sniffed, following along, holding Mom’s hand as she helped me up the stream slope and into the the light crunch of needles beyond. Damp soil, pine needles, and…

 

This was going to annoy me. Something was missing and it wasn’t just the sweet scent of Sasha’s cottage…

 

I paused. Thought it over. I felt a jolt go through me.

 

The magic was gone. Or, not so much gone as faded.

 

Which was notable as I hadn’t even realized the cottage was magical. I’d known Sasha was, of course, and I’d figured out how to pinpoint her smell within a day or two of being there from all the flowers and herbs, but the cottage? It’d sunk into the background such I hadn’t noticed a thing.

 

The closest equivalent was Sandy when she’d activated on her ship. The whole ship had smelled a bit like her, but not quite, with a distinct twinge of the mint of her meeting oil and machinery. At least, that’s how my brain interpreted it.

 

The difference here, though, is I wasn’t even aware that someone could sink their magic into the land. At least, I think that’s what Sasha had done? The only difference between her and the land around the cottage was that her scent was stronger while the land’s scent was subtler.

 

This opened a lot of questions I had no answers for, like how had she done this, was this normal, did she learn how to do it from someone like Sandy or was it something else entirely, or what?

 

Another jolt went through me.

 

Did Mom know about this? I felt like she had to, but she’d said nothing…

 

Ugh. This was another ‘me being a child’ thing again, wasn’t it? There’s no way she can’t know.

 

So lost in thought, I didn’t notice Mom had stopped until I bumped into her. “Mom? Wha—”

 

She looked at me with a finger to her lips and pointed ahead. Sasha, for her part, had crouched as well as she glanced ahead without getting her dress dirty, but I could see her tail twitching. She gave a smile back at us, her fangs seemingly glinting. Without a word, she pointed further ahead.

 

The path we’d been following split ahead and the foliage decreased. Standing there, I saw three black furred deer.

 

I froze as well and found myself crouched without thinking. One of the deer paused and looked in our direction. It had three horns and strangely red eyes. The two smaller deer — the [fawns] — stopped as well, staring our way. Six sets of crimson red eyes trained on us.

 

This led to a standoff. The deer had to see us, just as we saw them, but…

 

They didn’t break and run. They merely watched, highly observant, but not tense. Finally, the adult bent down to nibble on a low lying dwarf fern.

 

Just like that, the seeming tension dissipated. Neither mom nor Sasha made a move or sound as we merely watched the deer graze. Every now and then, the adult would stare back at us or bend down to nuzzle or lick one of her fawns who walked in and out from between her legs underneath her body.

 

 It was almost strange. Just a week or two before I’m sure Mom would have slaughtered them. I knew that much fresh meat would have me salivating back at the shack before Zenn’s group arrived.

 

Yet now, I felt almost…

 

I honestly wasn’t sure. It wasn’t a physical feeling, but it was almost light, even airy feeling in my chest. In a sense, it very much was. Not counting the things that wanted to kill me, this was the largest living terrestrial animal I’d ever seen. I knew they got much bigger. My old life told me that much, but seeing it here and now, with my own eyes, felt indescribably special, like I had seen something truly precious for the first time.

 

Eventually, the mom moved on, the fawns bouncing after her.

 

I watched them fade into the foliage.

 

“Trihorns, Gwen. Common enough deer. Looked like a young mother, probably had her [elain] with her while grazing,” Mom said. It didn’t take me long to figure out she meant fawns. Or deer babies, more or less.

 

I nodded, still staring out. After a moment, a question broke out of my throat. “Do they taste good?”

 

Mom bent over laughing while Sasha hid her mouth behind her claw tip.

 

I did not pout at them over my legitimate question!

 

Indignation aside, we ended up watching the trihorns a while, just enjoying the sight while it lasted.

 

 

Chapter 28 Author’s Note

 

Fun fact, this and what is now chapter 29 were originally one monster chapter, but I decided to split them up a bit.

 

I am more than happy to write big chapters, but they take longer and my goal is 2-3k chapters, outside special chapters that really need the extra words, like a book or arc climax, or moment that needs the time. THis was a case of it working better to split as it means more posting.

 

Mildly annoying as it does disrupt the releases I’d had on Patreon, but eh, here we are.

 

Still, had fun with this chapter and turning it into its own thing.

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