Evidently, this isn’t a good situation and nobody should be happy.

    I’m not sure what this is, weird rodent-shaped child thing; it's awkwardly shuffling forward loudly sniffing while squinting small beady eyes. Out of the corner of my eye, I see Loup slowly picking up a rock and briefly locking eyes with Lucy. He throws it hard against a moss-covered boulder not far from our little group, causing it to loudly clatter against the rockface; The animal snarls and lunges toward it while Lucy pulls me behind her, Loup shuffling behind us, looking at the confused animal and glancing at the ground every so often.

I keep my eyes on the green-skinned animal until we get out of eyeshot, but Loup goes in front and urges us quietly ahead. After some time has passed Lucy lets out a quiet sigh out like she was holding her breath. She brushes the top of my head and explains what the animal is

“Goblin, the lowest level of a monster; it’s got bad eyesight but they make up for it with their sense of smell and hearing.”

I tilted my head, thinking back to earlier, “Why didn’t it smell us then?” I can understand them trying to stay quiet but if the hand-sized nose was as powerful as Lucy says then wouldn’t there be an issue?

“Mourning moss has a deodorizing effect, sometimes used by hunters,” Loup replied tersely, still scanning around the small clearing we stopped in.

“Plus none of us should smell that strongly yet, considering we just started and the day hasn’t heated up yet.” Lucy added. 

With that potential situation avoided, Loup asked if Lucy and I still felt up to foraging. I didn’t mind, it just would feel pathetic if all it took to shake me from a good payday was the sight of some odd animal-child-thing. Didn’t even have any weapons aside from small pointed teeth and claws- even my axe would have better range; Lucy might have issues if it went after her though, armed only with a short dagger. I glance at her side where it’s still sheathed and furrow my brow in minor irritation. Why isn’t she more prepared to fight back if something happened? Just seems like a poor choice to make.

So we continued down the deer path carved in the woods and followed the smatterings of mourning moss poking out from logs and rocks until we spotted a small dot of bright red. Loup smiled and led us further down this way, saying that more mature mushrooms would be nearby. Not sure how that bulb was a mushroom but not like I study plants.

Lucy went ahead and twisted one out of the ground and placed it gently in her rucksack then waved me close, showing me how to place my hands as to not break the stem. Not sure why she’s so nonchalant about touching them when it feels like the time I tripped and fell into a pile of deflated slime; bad time bad touch. I try to move as quickly as I can with as few mistakes; maybe I should get a pair of gloves for harvesting? Unless the gloves are also terrible to exist around. Why doesn’t anyone else realize how awful the feelings around us are- I feel insane sometimes when I point it out only to get blank stares.

Having gathered all nearby mushrooms I sat back on my heels and swung myself back into a standing position, where I saw Loup crouched at the rocky face of the exposed hillside as it jutted far above. Strangely enough he was ignoring the many mushrooms nearby in favor of sawing off some vine stubbornly clinging to the rockface, exclaiming exultantly when he finally tugged it off entirely.

He collected it into a small bundle where he placed it in his own bag, humming happily as he joined in collecting mushrooms. When most of the large mushrooms were gathered Loup instructed us to leave some behind for the animals and other gatherers in the future. No telling if other people can find this place like we did but better safe than sorry right?

We started heading back to the village but midway Lucy asked for a break to do…something. Bathroom break maybe? She didn’t use the words specifically but how many other reasons would someone stop in the middle of the woods where wild animals roam? Seems dumb if she wants to stop and pick flowers.

“Here you go! I thought these matched your eyes” Lucy chirped as she gave me a handful of small yellow flowers. I cupped the bundle in my hands and looked. “Aww, you’re smiling!” Lucy cooed as she rubbed my head while I touched the twitching side of my lips. Ahem! I gently place the flowers in my pants pocket and coughed, avoiding smug looks.

Loup clapped his hands and announced, “Now let’s hurry up and get home before something stupid happens again.”¹ we call this a flag

HelloHound

I think I'm going to take a bit of a break in order to build up my queue so don't be inconsolably weeping next week when y'all don't get your regularly scheduled nonsense (lol). I'll try and keep it timely and if I end up able to write ne'er again I'll post an update so nobody languishes forever with not a clue as to the future of a story.