Wandering through the undergrowth, making sure to keep trees in the way of me and the sky for now. I head over roughly in the direction of the smoke. My Biochip begins calculating time passage based on our moons, noting a small shift in their cycles compared to my own time. Surprisingly there are only 3 moons now instead of the 5 I grew up with. Large and on the horizon the moons stare down at my solitary trek.

Using their light as a guide I harvest a few plants which seem to be more active at night, hopefully some rarer herbs and spices that I can sell if they are more active at night. My biochip confirms no toxic components are being released by the plants at moment of harvesting.

I wander past a field of purple and pink glowing flowers, with tiny oval leaves with a shiny blue pearlescent on their green surface making them glitter as the wind hits them similarly to soap bubbles. The flower itself ranges from light and hot pinks to lavender and orchid purples. Their bioluminescent glow grabs my attention as their leaves dance in the wind.

My biochip cuts in, identifying the plant with words I had expected. Eleocharis Lutea, a plant with memories for me. A rare plant which can only grow with enough space around it, a sensitivity to mana made it impossible to cultivate with botany due to many of our machines and their mana lines.

Its common name, Fairies tears. A small delicate plant, that shows great strength can have a great weakness. A strong sour taste when eaten is its only defence against being churned into extremely valuable potions. Its beauty however is why it is sometimes used as a centrepiece to a gravestone bouquet. Its fragility even with its strength means it tends to be used on high ranking or wealthy soldiers gravestones when they can't be returned from war. I'm familiar with the plant due to having to add it to each bouquet of my family and regiment at their services.

Another flower catches my attention, the petals of this bluish white flower seem to have a faint golden tint when looked at closely and the leaves themselves are a deep green. A plant I'm familiar with, but not as much as my fairies tears.

Achroma Lactifolia. A plant which produces a powerful sap that has a strange ability to restore lost mana when mixed with water. An extremely rare flowering bush known as the Fairies guardian. It produces a smell many herbivores dislike and tends to attack many plants near fairies tears, causing the tears to have enough space to grow safely. In return the tears are better at channelling magic, luring in more plant life and helping fuel the guardian. A symbiotic relationship within plants.

Making a big note in the biochip, I analyse the location properly, landmarks and location to find it later. A plant like this should have an extreme value but considering how close to extinction we drove the plants before, I'm hesitant to make this patch known.

My thoughts fall back to my last deployment, the sinking feeling as our helicopter started losing altitude, the tearing of my arm against the blades as I tried to keep one of the last members of my group from falling up into them. I stare at my right arm, feeling a slight pang when I recall the time. Before the war and fighting, barely reaching home, bloodied and torn. I was thrown into a biolab to restore my organs and limbs, benefits of being a high level commander but it seems when I was taking the regeneration cycle in the pod, power was shut off, so the pods system entered emergency stabilization mode, attempting to heal me but slower, using cryo to keep me safe while the facility was attacked.

With a shake of my head, trying to force away all my emotions along with a deep breath with my eyes closed, I look up to find myself quite close to the edge of the forest. I must have kept wandering while in thought. Looking around I find myself standing next to the shoreline of a lake, waves gently lapping against its sandy beach as the moonlight reflects off it. The lake waters are clear, reflecting what little sunlight is out there in this area. The village I saw in the distance and its smoke, glowing in the light of the sunset. I decide now is as good a time as any and start walking towards the lights, hoping to see if anyone is still around and maybe even get some help finding a place to stay and rest my aching body for a while until I figure out what I need to do next.

It takes me a few minutes to realise just how large this settlement actually is, stretching further than the eye could see from where I'm standing on the lakeshore. The buildings are spaced apart enough to prevent fires spreading and are all made from wood, with many of them appearing old but well maintained. A number of lights flicker in windows, showing signs of life within their homes. There are boats floating in the lake as well as small houses and other structures on stilts built up above water level.

I take several steps onto the shoreline as I search for someone who may be able to tell me what has happened. There isn't much in terms of people moving about on the lakeside as they seem to have mostly retired for the night, a main fire kept burning in the center of town for light and warmth. There does seem to be some activity near the centre though as more than one boat is pulling towards shore, probably heading home after fishing.

I walk closer towards the central building, noticing that it has multiple floors and appears to be a community hall with a large wooden sign above it. As I draw nearer to it I find that the doors are open, a guard standing nearby watching over it as if waiting for something. Dressed in some basic leather armour with a sword on his hip and a spear rested against the wall behind him.

"Good evening," I greet him politely, keeping my tone even despite wanting to shout at his idiocy as he continues to stare into nothingness. "Can you please tell me where I might stay tonight?"

He jumps as if startled by my voice, grabbing his spear in panic before looking in my direction. Speaking to me in an unfamiliar language in response he sounds partly confused.

─ Achievement Get: Lost in translation.

JHarp

Gotta love getting ill when I was planning to backlog chapters