Board Thread:Fun and Games/@comment-31986068-20160429231407/@comment-26510374-20170701214656

loco is the moco my brothers

The next class turned out to be Foraging, outside of Igikpak by the Druid border. The teacher was a young human boy, maybe a little older than Rain, with short, rust-colored hair and a ranger hat. He seemed more enthusiastic talking about plant identification than talking to the animals around him.

“This,” he said eagerly, showing them the same wispy blue leaves Illaw had used with Rain yesterday, “are Kihlik leaves. They grow off weeping willows, but they are at first glance invisible. In order to see them and pick them, you must either have a lot of experience with magic or a specially Drali charmed basket.”

After an overview of a few more plants, the boy told them to find some dayplums, describing them as peachy-colored and shiny.

“At dusk, they turn into a shimmering purple and become nightplums,” he said. “Once dayplums are picked, they stay dayplums. Same with nightplums. Dayplums are very bitter, nightplums are sweet and slightly tart. They have different medicinal properties. Gratil’s told me he wants some and I want to see how you do.”

He said some more things about light and the dayplums, and then gave them all Drali charmed baskets and sent them off.

Rain watched the animals for a few moments before setting off to look for the fruits. Maxim was looking around wildly and grabbing things that appeared to be blobby-looking, old bearberries off a nearby bush.

Rain remembered the boy saying that dayplum trees were likely to be found in places where a lot of unblocked light came through. She scoured areas by the stream, but a voice in her head decided if dayplum trees grew by water, they wouldn’t be bitter. Trusting this, Rain moved away from the stream and towards some rocks where the sun seemed to vanquish the cold air, despite it being November. Sure enough, there was a small tree slightly taller than her. Its bark was startlingly grey, blending in with the rocks. Pale, fat fruits hung off some of the branches, so vast in size Rain expected them to fall off if she made the slightest contact with their smooth, shining skin. Indeed, some were now merely shriveled, fractured husks of skin exposing dark orange flesh that hung off the trees as if they had been popped.

After pulling several off, Rain decided to test how bitter the fruits were. She picked a smaller one nearby, and, after checking that nobody was watching, it into it.

Almost immediately after Rain’s teeth punctured the dayplum’s surface its juice sprayed into her mouth. Rain gagged- it was as bitter as a lot of medicine she had taken before. These juices were enough, and Rain, with a running start, hurled the dayplum into the stream.

Glancing at the fruits in her basket, Rain felt sick. She hurriedly scooped up some of the frigid stream water with her hands and drank it up to be rid of the bitter aftertaste.

Looking up, Rain startled at a pair of yellow eyes across the water. On the Druids’ side, a white cat stood, waded in up to its elbows, a cracked and vine-entangled stone mask engulfing half of its face, burning, bright yellow optics staring into Rain’s blue.

A startled, choking cry escaped from Rain’s mouth before she scrambled to her feet, grabbing the basket, running off back towards everyone else.

The next class was Weaving, but Rain wasn’t paying much attention, her mind plagued by the gaze of the cat, which seemed familiar.

By noon, Rain was starving. After Weaving, they were allowed to go down to the cafeteria.

Rain got some loco moco from the same rooster who had given her malasada and followed Ferris, who told her she was allowed to visit Bellde during lunchtime, towards the Healers’ den.