บท 6: Her Harvest
Mai continued to collect mushrooms, berries, and the occasional green. The voice commented every now and then, giving her little hints- and sometimes big hints.
"No! Are you crazy? That mushroom's purple! Of course it's poisonous!" The voice was exasperated. It was the third time that Mai tried to slip in a 'harmless' mushroom.
Mai pouted, "But pretty."
"No, put it back," the voice commanded. Mai huffed as she placed the purple mushroom next to the rest of the them. She stomped through the forest, miffed. However, she soon came upon a clear stream.
"Want," she said, pointing towards the river.
"How about making a basket?"
Mai shook her head- it would take too long. She looked up at the sky. It was almost dinnertime and she didn't want to let Dir wait.
"You can use a large leaf?"
Breaking into a smile, Mai nodded. Easy, simple, and effective. She liked that.
Looking around, Mai noticed a tree nearby that had suitably large leaves. She quickly went up to pluck one, cupping it with her hand. It was fuzzy on the bottom. She furrowed her eyebrows.
"What?" the voice asked.
"Feels weird."
"Oh. Well, nothing you can do, I guess."
Mai nodded and scooped up water. Being careful to not spill, she carefully made her way back to her large harvest: a pile of edible mushrooms, berries, grasses, and tree bark in the middle of the clearing.
Claire had gone elsewhere. She most likely became too impatient waiting for the results of Dir and Mai.
Mai stood before her harvest, a problem arising. If she placed her leaf on the ground without doing something, all of the water would seep to the ground. She looked left and right. What could she use as a substitute?
Noticing one of the tree barks that she had collected, Mai saw that it was curved. Her face brightened- she can attach three tree barks together and plug the creases with tree sap. Doing just that with only one hand, Mai had successfully created a crude bucket.
"Good job," the voice said, impressed.
Mai raised her head, proud. She giggled and looked up to the sky. "Thank you."
A few seconds later, Dir burst into the clearing. "Look what I caught!" he yelled, excitement in his features. He skidded to a stop, however, when he saw the large pile of edibles in the middle of the clearing. Looking at his own hunt- one small rabbit and a tiny bird- he suddenly felt as if his achievement wasn't as great as he had thought it would be. "Um, never mind" Dir said, heartbroken.
"Poor boy," the voice snickered.
Mai shook her head. "Good job," she told Dir, motioning towards his 'big' achievement.
Dir beamed, heaving up his rabbit and bird, "Let's eat!"
"Is he stupid or something?" The voice wondered, looking at the uncooked 'hunt' in Dir's hands.
Looking at Dir weirdly, Mai opened her mouth, "Uncooked."
Dir looked at the rabbit. "You mean you don't eat mean raw?" His face was the picture of surprise and revelation.
Mai's face morphed into one of disgust and worry before Dir quickly burst into laughter.
"Look at your face!" He laughed harder. "I don't eat meat raw, Mai. You don't need to worry about it. I was just messing with you!"
Puffing her cheeks, Mai grew angry. She went up to Dir and pinched his shoulder, making sure that the pinch was hard enough to leave a bruise.
"Ow," Dir said in-between his laughs.
"Pinch him again, but harder this time," the voice urged Mai.
Mai was about to do so when Claire entered the clearing. "Why are you laughing, Aldrich?" Claire looked at Dir weirdly.
Dir wiped away his tears and beamed up at Claire. "Oh, nothing," he said, "Mai can be too gullible sometimes, though."
Mai pouted, menacingly making the motion of pinching with her fingers. Dir raised his hands in an 'I surrender' gesture before Mai put her hand down.
"Glad to see you guys having fun, but what about the task I assigned you two?" Claire asked. She noticed the two small animals that Dir held and the large pile of edibles behind the two children. "I see that you're dinner is going to be more of a feast than a meal. Tell me how you're going to keep the edibles from going bad?"
"Carry it?" Mai looked at Claire. She felt as if the solution to the problem wasn't that difficult.
"Wrong! If you're running away, then this much food can only slow you down. The general rule of thumb is to only carry a third of your body weight. And May, that isn't a lot for you."
Nodding her head to show her understanding, Mai thought of a different way. "Store it?"
"But you're running away. How can you come back to a place you're running from fast enough to prevent your edibles from decomposing?"
"Just eat it," Dir said, impatience on his face.
"Wrong! If you eat too much food, then most of your energy goes towards digestion. You won't be able to think quick on your feet if you do that. Instead, it's preferable that you only eat until you are 80% full."
Dir and Mai nodded, realization on their faces. The two looked at each other, asking each other with their eyes if they had come up with something different.
"Any other ideas?" Claire asked, crossing her arms. After a few seconds of silence, Claire answered her own question, "Good, because there isn't a way. You're not supposed to harvest or hunt this much food. When you're in a hurry, it's better to quickly get away and then harvest along the way, once you're sure that your pursuers are no longer following you. It's preferable to eat vegetables than meat, but you'll soon need meat. You need to eat meat at least once in a week."
"Then what do we do with this food?" Dir asked.
Claire sighed, "If you two lived near even the outskirts of Ymir, then I would have suggested selling the extra food. But, since that isn't the case, what if you just give it to your grandfather, Dir?"
"Great idea!" Dir said, his eyes twinkling.
"Now, let's cook and then eat!" Claire said.
.....
After almost roasting the bird into charcoal, Dir and Mai stood before Claire once more.
"Tomorrow, the two of you will once again hunt. This time, I hope that the amount that you will harvest or hunt will be just enough for three people. And you have to be faster. Aldrich, it almost took you two hours to catch just two small animals. May, you can still harvest a little bit faster. You two are dismissed."
Dir and Mai exchanged glances before they turned to Claire and bowed to her. They were grateful for her instructions. Turning and leaving before she could reply to their bow, Dir and Mai giggled at the expression they thought would be on Teacher Claire's face. Instead, they failed to see the flash of warmth and the gratitude reflected in Teacher Claire's eyes.
Dir and Mai entered the village, but were stopped at the entrance by two of the village children.
"Aldrich!" one of the two said, a boy. The boy glared at Mai before he tugged on Dir's sleeve. "Stop hanging out with the sacrifice! You haven't been playing with us as often!"
The other village child was a girl. She stood with a pout before Dir and Mai, "Boss! You promised us that you would teach us how to use a bow!"
Dir looked apologetically at Mai before he appeased the two children. "I'm sorry, guys. I was too caught up in Teacher Claire's lessons."
Mai stood before the appeasing Dir and the indignant children. She felt left out- a feeling that she was used to but had never felt as sharp.
"I'm here for you, Mai." The voice whispered to her, and Mai smiled.
"I'll leave," Mai told Dir, however he was too busy talking that he failed to notice. Mai wore a bittersweet smile before she quickly reformed her features. She didn't like to wallow in negative emotions. Rebounding fast was her motto.
"What are you going to do, Mai?" The voice asked her.
Mai tilted her head and made a 'duh' face. "Weaving!"
The voice grew silent. "You could always try to escape. Even if you do, I will always be with you."
"Thank you-"
"But no thank you, I know," the voice huffed, exasperated. "You're so stubborn, Mai, I'll give you that."
Mai softly beamed, finally entering into God's house. She spent the last hours of light weaving, her fingers dancing above her materials.
........
The next couple of days went by exactly as the day Mai had the previous day- she and Dir were taught how to fight by Claire in her hut before the two of them exercised their specific skills in the forest. The two grew more and more skilled. One day, however, did not go as planned.
Mai was kidnapped.
......
Following her specific path for harvesting, Mai smiled at the purple mushrooms that she found pretty. She still found them pretty, but she would rather let them grow than pluck them. With her head in the clouds and the assurance that only the villagers would be the other people who would ever appear in the forest, Mai failed to notice the signs of overturned dirt and underbrush. The voice was too late in his warning to Mai.
They were slave traders who had stumbled upon the quaint- and most importantly unexplored by the Kingdom of Ymir standards- forest next to the village of Bu Hai. They had escaped from a bounty placed upon them by one of the nobles due to them trying to steal their youngest daughter. They failed, however, and now the noble's guard were after them along with the anger of their current client. They had to find a replacement girl and quick. It was at that moment that the slave traders had found Mai; however, it was more like Mai had stumbled upon the slave traders.
Shock filled Mai's features as she looked at the unfamiliar men.
"Who?" Mai asked. This was the first time she had met so many unfamiliar people. She felt uneasy.
The men shared glances with one another before one of the smaller men stood up from his seat. He walked towards Mai and told her with a thick accent, "Hey there, missy. What are you doing here?"
As the man advanced, Mai had equally retreated. "Don't be scared, pretty," the man continued, "I just wanted to see something."
Shivers went up and down Mai's spine, and she quickly broke into a run. However, she had failed to notice that one of the other men had crept up behind her.
"Be careful!" the voice yelled, fear in his voice.
Mai turned in shock to see the man's face before her consciousness grew dark. It was an older man with stubble on his chin.
..........
Mai woke up to an unfamiliar noise. She was bound and in a carriage, however this was her first time being in a carriage.
"What?" Mai asked the voice. The voice could hear a tinge of fear in Mai's question.
The voice's heart bled and he quickly answered Mai. "You're in a carriage, Mai. Don't be afraid. The men hadn't touched you. Let's calm down and find a way to get out together."
Mai nodded, calming down. She needed to have a cool head to get out of her predicament. Indiscreetly feeling her side, Mai grew relieved that the men hadn't taken away her fan- they must have thought that it was those fans that the noblewomen used. Mai grinned. Her fan was way sharper than the wooden fans those women used.
Maneuvering her fan out of her pocket, she used its sharp edges to whittle away the rope that bound her wrist. The bumping of the carriage and the uneven path made this difficult, however, and Mai took longer than she expected to free her hands.
It was then that the carriage slowed and stopped. The slave traders were stopping to rest.
"Quick!" The voice said, "pretend you're still unconscious!"
Mai followed the voice's words, laying down so that her unbound hands wouldn't be seen with a casual glance in the carriage. She was just in time, too- one of the slave traders glanced inside as he took out a piece of bread.
"This princess sure sleeps a lot," the man took a bite of bread, "I'm surprised that she looks so much like that noble's daughter."
"Just the skin and the eyes, though," another man commented. "The noble's daughter has blond hair."
"Nothing a little bit of dye won't fix," the man took another bite of bread. "Honestly, I think that this girl is prettier than the noble's daughter."
Mai tuned out the words of the men. She counted underneath her breath, calming herself down. It would take around thirty minutes for the men to finish eating and another ten minutes for them to start moving once more. She could last forty minutes.
"You can do this, Mai," the voice encouraged, "I believe in you."
"Story," Mai croaked in below a whisper, however the voice could hear her just fine.
"Okay," the voice replied, softly. "A grandfather and a grandson were hunting in the forest, when the grandson had caught his first prey. It was a small rabbit, just like the small rabbit that Aldrich had caught. The boy was so happy- he quickly went to his grandfather to show him, but stumbled upon two men. The two men saw the weak grandson and his prey. The two men looked at each other, greed and laziness numbing their heart. They quickly overpowered the grandson, taking away his first hunt. The grandson was devastated as he went to his grandfather.
The grandfather looked at his grandson, wisdom in his eyes. 'Do not worry, grandson,' the grandfather said, placing a hand on top of his grandson's head. 'Men have two wolves in their hearts. One of the wolves are good; the other wolf is evil. The two wolves are forever fighting each other, but men are able to influence the wolves. If one decides to assist the good wolf, they do good deeds. But if one assists the bad wolf-'
'They do bad deeds?" The grandson asked, his eyes wide.
"Yes, my grandson. Those men had encouraged the bad wolf, and it will soon consume them. That is why you must always help your good wolf."'
Mai listened to the story, entranced. Ever since she had first listened to Dir's history about how grassroots had gotten its name, Mai had fallen in love with fairytales. After the voice had finished the last word, the carriage once again moved. Mai quickly unbound herself. When would be the best time for her to counterattack?
"You shouldn't fight," the voice said, worried, "How about waiting until the men fall asleep?"
Mai shook her head. She had already taken off the ropes that bound her. They would notice that something was wrong. Mai peeked through the carriage covering. There were two men guarding the back of the carriage.
Mai inwardly groaned, wondering how she had the bad luck to have been caught by these slave traders.
How was she to get out of this mess?
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