Flashback [Everstone Forest] A Brief Respite Among the Rocks

[Irriari]

[The Everstone Forest] Fourth Day of Spring, 510 AV

Irriari found herself in the far north of the Wildlands, tired out by nights filled with flying and days of sleeping. While she had originally planned on sleeping in trees to ward off most of the ground based predators of the Wildlands, it had only taking a few nights to realize that she was better off on the ground. Her left wing throbbed painfully where a wayward branch had stabbed her as she moved in her sleep. Grumbling, Irriari rode the thermals and gusts of wind, promising herself that she would stop for a break after the next half bell.

Fifteen chimes later, the winds changed, and each stroke sapped more and more of her energy. When the zith looked down, she was shocked to see the tall rock structures that reached towards the sky. A small portion near the edges of the hills were shorter, but the majority were taller than most of the trees she had seen in the Wildlands so far. Irriari allowed herself to float down to one of the stalagmites, flapping her wings every couple of seconds to keep herself aloft. Her left foot hit hit rocks first and she winced as the sharp edges cut into the bottom of her feet. Finding it stable enough, she placed her right foot down and teetered with her arms outstretched until she gained her balance. From the top of the rock, she had a decent view of the surrounding area. In the distance, she spotted a small lake surrounded by rocks, cat tails, and a few trees. For the first time that day, she smiled, happy to have found a clean source of water. Her parched throat urged her to fly down to the lake with haste, but she stilled the irksome thoughts in favor of a more cautious approach.

She looked around the forest several times, pivoting as needed to get a better view of the wildlife and foliage that made up the ecosystem. While the forest wasn't teeming with wildlife, it was far from barren. Grey rabbits scurried from stone to stone, blending in with the natural gravel that was scattered across the loamy soil. Birds soared overhead, tilting their feathered heads left and right, searching for a meal between the stalagmites. There were also a good number of grasses and weeds, which was a promising sign. Irriari hoped that she could find poison reagents among the flora, though there were many other tasks that took priority. Satisfied with her appraisal of the area, the zith took wing and glided towards the lake.

[Irriari]

As she flew through the area, the zith took care to stretch her senses outward into the mossy forest. Her eyes scanned the stalagmites that encircled the pool, as she searched out the sounds telltale sounds of an alpha predator on the hunt. As the sun sank into the horizon, her vision improved immensely, but she knew that many traps could be set up around a scenic source of water. She circled the pool twice, ignoring the fearful cry of the distressed rabbits and squirrels that were drinking at the waters edge. The forest lacked the grass cover that the Sea of Grass was famous for, but the wildlife was still boisterous and loud. The Elders voices echoed in her head for the thousandth time. 'If the animals in an area are quiet, leave. Fly away as quickly as possible, for the animals have keener senses than we do, and if the creature they fear can silence a forest, you can be damn sure it can kill you too.'. A wry smile crossed her lips as her feet landed at the edge of the pool. The Elders were cruel more often than they were nice, but they had taught her how to survive in the wilderness as best as they could, and parts of her missed the colony. Irriari shook her head violently as she stepped into the water. No. She had left the colony for good reason, and being homesick would only serve to weaken her. The ziths furred skin shivered as the cold water rose to her knees. Shortly after, she found that her arms and legs had been covered in gooseflesh. Cupping her hands, Irriari reached down to the surface of the water and gathered as much as she could hold before bringing it to her lips. She drank deeply and quickly, shaking as the cold water rushed down her parched throat. She repeated the process thrice more, until she could drink no more. One last handful of water served as a refreshing way to clean the dirt off of her face.

The zith stepped out of the water, knowing that if she stayed in much longer, she would be loathe to leave. Turning towards the setting sun, she estimated that she had an hour to hunt before the animals scurried away to sleep. Irriari pulled her bow from off her back and checked the condition of the zith-crafted bowstring. Thankfully, it was still in good condition after she had tended to it a few days ago. Rubbing the string with animal fat wouldn't fix a broken bowstring, but it kept intact strings supple. Irriari grabbed a normal arrow from her quiver, not wishing to damage the more expensive armor piercing variety. After scanning the forest, she decided to head to the south side of the forest that was crowded with stalagmites. She hoped that the animals would flock to the safety and shade of the crowded landscape.

After fifteen chimes of walking, Irriari crouched lower to the ground and attempted to muffle her footsteps. While holding her back in a strained position was painful, it hid her shadow from nearby game. The moss cushioned her footfalls slightly, but the rocks that had fallen from the stalagmite peaks crunched as her weight sank into them. Knowing that the noise would spook away the game she intended to kill, Irriari opted to crouch behind a stalagmite instead. She moved her head out slowly, mindful of the movement that could easily give away her location. While the creatures of the forest weren't as intelligent as zith, their communication could stall her hunting efforts indefinitely. Thankfully, no warning cries met her ears, and she gazed beyond the stalagmite. Another rock was in the same line as the first, with about twenty feet separating the two. To the left were the crumbled remains of a smaller stalagmite that had been split by a lightning strike. After straining her neck considerably, Irriari resigned herself to the view she had currently. If she wished to see what was to the right of the stalagmite that was ahead of her, she would have to move.

Time was running out quickly, and the zith fought the urge to claw the ground beneath her feet. After another fifteen chimes, she spotted a small deer crossing the area ahead. The deer was just old enough to be out on its own, though Irriari was sure that the mother wasn't far behind. Unwilling to wait for the bigger of the two, Irriari grabbed her bow, with her right hand and passed it to her left, carefully avoiding scraping the rock she was leaning on.

Irriari did her best to level her stance, knowing that the proper stance was the difference between an arrow landing where she wanted it, and missing entirely. She calmed her breathing and placed the arrowhead to the string, taking care to not move her torso. The deer flicked its tail as it ate the clover that littered the mossy ground. She drew the bowstring back to the anchor the string at her chin as it reached the correct level of tenseness needed to make the shot. Irriari lined up the bow to hit the deers chest and breathed in deeply. As she exhaled, she released her grip on the bowstring, letting the arrow fly. Before looking to see if the arrow hit its mark, she slung the bow over her shoulder and bounded forward. As she covered the short distance, she saw that the arrow had pierced the deers shoulder. The animal struggled, it's slender brown legs kicking outwards as it tried to regain its footing. The efforts were in vain, for Irriari had pinned the animal to the ground with one clawed foot and sank to her knee with the other, landing on the deers ribcage. Her clawed hands found the large artery in the deers neck and ripped into the skin, tearing it out, so the deer would be quick to bleed out and die. Famished, Irrari tore into her meal soon after, happy to have been successful in hunting after many days of dried rations.

[Irriari]

After her meal, Irriari made the trek back to the northern side of the forest. The pool was calmer, and its emerald water was even more beautiful in the moonlight than it had been in the daytime. Irriari took a second to admire the pristine surface of the pool before bending down to exam a cluster of mushrooms. She was surprised to see two different mushrooms in the grouping, which was a rare occurrence in the tunnels. Sevrai had mentioned that the root system that spread under the earth typically took up too much room for multiple varieties of mushroom to coexist in the same area. Irriari grabbed the first mushroom by the base of it’s stem, gently moving it back and forth until it came free from the ground. The top of the mushroom was light purple, with hints of orange spreading from the center of the cap. For a second, Irriari wondered if this coloration signaled that the mushroom was mature. After looking at the rest of the grouping, she noticed that they all had the orange tinged center, and dismissed her original thought. Irriari flipped the mushroom over and ran the back of her finger across the gills of the mushroom, marveling at how soft and moist they were. The gills were a lighter purple color, though they appeared just as dark due to the way they were clustered. The striated stem was firm, though short compared to other mushrooms she had seen with the same cap size. Irriari gathered all of the mushrooms of this type that she saw in the vicinity, for a total of ten. After gazing at the small collection by her feet for a chime, Irriari decided to name them ‘lavender flatcaps’. Sevrai would have admonished her lack of creativity, but Irriari didn’t care to name plants in a way that didn’t reflect their appearance.

[Irriari]

The other type of mushroom that vied for space around the first was striking in it’s pigmentation, even in the moonlight. The mushroom was only a quarter of the size of the lavender flatcaps in diameter and only half as tall. Its glossy orange cap drew Irriari’s attention. At first, Irriari thought that the small red lines on the top of the mushroom were a part of the cap. After she pulled the fungus from the ground, she realized that the cap was slightly translucent, and the lines she saw were actually the cream colored gills of the mushroom. The wispy, translucent stalk was crushed in her grip, though she had tried to handle it gently. Irriari carefully picked five more, for a total of 6, and placed them next to the lavender flatcaps. She named these ‘sunburst roundcaps’.


The zith stood, glad to give her weary eyes a rest. If a slave had accompanied her, she would be free to hunt more while they gathered mushrooms. Instead, she was alone and breaking her back for the sake of poisonmaking. Irriari grumbled, hoping the mushrooms were actually poisonous. There would be no way to tell without actually making a poison, which bothered Irriari greatly. She shook her head to rid herself of the negative thoughts that had sullied her mood and stood up. After a chime of stretching, she decided to walk around the pool once more, before attempting to make anything with the mushrooms.

[Irriari]

After a chime, she stumbled upon one last cluster of mushrooms. She chuckled at the grouping, as it reminded her of humans vying for the attention of a damsel. The tan cluster of mushrooms all originated from the same spot, and many were perpetually hidden under the shadow of the others. ‘Just like humans’ she thought with a smile. Wasting no time, Irriari ripped the entire collective from the earth, and shook the excess dirt away. These mushrooms featured a pebbled cap and a smooth stem, with odd gills. She was used to seeing gills that were spaced close together, like the sunburst roundcaps. These mushrooms had gills that were a few claw widths apart. After inspecting them for a bit longer, she gathered the grouping and brought them to lay with the others. After separating the last group by size, she counted nine in total. Feeling entirely uninspired and sullen, the zith named them “brown pebble caps”

Irriari gathered her newfound reagents and moved a few feet away, favoring the flatter ground near the stalagmites. She carefully laid out her poisoncrafting kit, and gathered moss and twigs to make a fire. She bundled the moss into a compacted ball and pulled out her flint, striking it with a small piece of metal until a red hot shaving fell off into her moss bundle and caught fire. Irriari rummaged through her poisoncrafting kit, carefully extracting 3 empty vials. The largest was filled with water from the pool. Afterwards, Irrairi set it aside as she used her claws to cut up a cap from each of the three mushroom varieties. The zith held the vial with water over the open flame until the water inside was boiling hot. From there, she deposited the mushroom cap pieces and boiled them for three chimes, until the liquid was a murky yellow color. She used the second vial to catch the liquid from the first, while pouring the boiled mushroom pieces back onto the ground. Irriari separated the mixture into two vials and stopped the vials with cork. She cleaned the first vial by filling it nearly full with pond water and boiling it. All three vials were returned to her poisoncrafters kit, along with the newly harvested mushrooms that would be dried in the sun in the morning hours.

[Balderdash]

Delicious rewards! Happy days and jubilation!

Skill	XP Awarded
Flying	1
Hunting	1
Wilderness Survival	2
Observation	4
Botany	3
Stealth	1
Weapon: Shortbow	2
Sulking	1
Poisoncrafting	1

Lores: Stance Is Everything, Animals Talk, Murdering A Deer, Everything's Easier With Slaves, Cookin' 'Shrooms, Only One Way To Test Toxicity

Items and Consequences: +9 lavendar flatcaps, +5 sunburst roundcaps, +8 brown pebble caps, +1 vial of mushroom juice. It's got alkaloids!

A pleasant, well-paced read. I'm curious to know what those mushrooms do!

If you have any questions or concerns about this grade, please PM me. A happy you is a happy Balderdash!