lirvothethird

  Entering the forest in the dark is tantamount to suicide. But I walked in.

  Using the st vestiges of dusk, I hurriedly used a stone glove to rake through the berry bushes before collecting the pulpy mess into my shirt. Tapping her cheeks and shaking her slightly, I called out.

  "Hey, hey, don't sleep yet, here have berries I picked."

  "So sleepy..."

  Yawn

  Keeping someone awake so they don't fall into eternal slumber is something that must be done. Rustling the cloth again, I continued.

  "What do you like doing? I like shaping things with my hand as well as looking at scenery."

  "I wanna travel the world, while reading books. But the thing is... mother doesn't want me to go. Omly after daddy persuaded mother by bringin more guards did I mage the trip."

  Faint sounds of breathing slowed down to a rhythmic pace. It seemed like Anna's mom didn't die with the carriage, giving me a destination to go towards.

  I hate to do this, but I have to. Shaking her awake again, I ask.

  "When was the st time you ate?"

  "Uhhhhggg. A few hours ago..."

  "Is it on the carriage, or after it?"

  "I ate some while chasing you. Men should stop being so nosy."

  "Oh."

  Embarrassment flushed my cheeks. It felt extremely hot to touch. The will to explore through the darkness in search for food dissipated. Pcing her down next to a tree, she sleepily reached out. The sudden coldness as wind blew, raising goosebumps on my skin.

  I quickly dug a burrow underneath the tree. Bringing her inside, she clung to my body. I y on the ground, she id on me, and the cloth covered both of us.

  Something wet touched my back. Patting the ground next to me, the a few dull sptters of water shocked me awake.

  I tried raising myself up, until I remembered there was a person on top of me. Slowly rotating her onto her back, I pced on a retively dry spot.

  Meanwhile, I started digging small tunnels into the ground. Water likes to go from high to low. Having fresh water to drink in the morning required a container to catch the rainwater so I quickly made some and pced it outside.

  After quickly finishing this task, I went back to sleep.

  "Do you think this is edible?"

  The scent of a forest after rain is unique. Mushrooms sprouted rapidly after the rain, appearing on wood and dirt. The bright and colorful appearances warned of its dangers.

  We were wrapped together in a the cloth again, where she opted to remove her wet clothes. I had gone over two meters deep to bring dry soil untouched by the rain to pack inside, basically forming a dirt cocoon with my limbs and head sticking out.

  "Oh, I see something that can be eaten!"

  "Mhmmm."

  I walked forwards before crouching, or rather, attempted to crouch. I couldn't really see what was under me.

  "Can you move to the back?"

  A weird shuffle happened as she climbed around me. Now with my front cleared up, I cheerfully pulled up the entire pnt. Just as I expected, a bundle of roots was pulled up along with the stem.

  Traveler's burdock, the entirely edible pnt. The only reason why it's not eaten often other than travelers is because of the taste. The bitter and waxy leaves and roots can sustain someone, but over eating it leads to a bad stomach.

  The distinction between this and other lookalikes is in the stem. The safe ones don't have spikes on it's stem, and also had to not have purple streaks on it too.

  "Here, eat this, it's one of the few pnts I know."

  After waving it around for a bit, all I received was silence. Flipping her back in front of me, I felt her forehead. It was burning hot in this cold weather.

  There wasn't much I can do against this but to feed her and travel as fast as I could. Wiping the root cleanly of dirt, I snapped it before pressing it against her mouth.

  "Aaahhh. Say ahhh."

  She opened her mouth, weakly nibbling on the root. Desperate times call for desperate measures. I pced the root inside my mouth, chewing it into a paste before pressing it onto her mouth, pushing the root paste inside. After making sure she swallowed, I did the same for the leaves.

  Now that the food issue was temporarily solved, I needed to hurry. If I followed the road, we would have to twist and turn, but we wouldn't pass any vilge situated near.

  I started jogging, moving back on the road. Breaking the road would make me feel bad, so I ran beside it, sinking my feet to always have steady footing.

  "Hehehe, kiddo."

  I was surrounded. I completely forgot that there were always this chance. Scratches adorned the makeshift pte armor they wore. Whips hung on their side as well as a big knife.

  "Fresh meat delivered right towards our doorstep brother."

  "Wow, I thought we only picked one, but there's a girl as well! I call dibs."

  "Me am first! I the oldest!"

  They started talking like they owned us, but they didn't know. I stomped on the ground hard, channeling my magic. The ground vibrated, water spraying up like a fine mist.

  "I know I can survive a ndslide, can you?"

  "He's a mage!"

  "Ohhh, so scary."

  Taunts and jeers called out as they backed away. I, however, needed medicine or fire for Anna. Waiting for them to disappear, I quickly went underground, making another wave through to ground to sense where they were going.

  It seemed that they went back to hiding near the road, waiting for the next distressed and weak traveler going through the rain.

  Some pce not too close to the road had the ctter of a metal pot.

  Making sure to give her time to breath every now and then, I made it to their camp.