Looking for Trouble

Now on high alert, John manifested his draconic vision. He was lucky as the dim light coming through the canopy wasn’t too overbearing, unfortunately, however, the flowers' light was painfully bright, and even when he wasn’t looking at them, his migraine still persisted.

John’s head was on a swivel as he tried to ignore the dull pressure on his eyes. He scoured the forest floor for five minutes before internally facepalming. His search darted up, from tree to tree in hopes of spotting the cause of the flowers' warning.

Another ten minutes passed with John looking frantically around before Robbin had enough. “What are we doing?” Robin whispered in a harsh tone. “At least tell us what we’re hiding from.”

John shushed him once again, to which Robin gave an annoyed expectant expression. John continued to look around before sighing and hunkering down with the other two. “These flowers glow when a dragon is nearby. And since they’re glowing that can only mean that one is around us right now. I don’t know where or what kind it is; for all I know, it could be one of the little gecko-type dragons I saw in the dragon barrier yesterday but it could also be one of the giant basilisks I saw when I first got my dragon powers.”

Robin stood up abruptly looking even more annoyed. “I wonder what could be setting it off? Could it be the guy with literal dragon powers squatting in the bushes within reaching distance of them?”

John didn’t want to admit it but after looking around them one last time, he sighed feeling foolish. “Sorry, that should have probably been one of the first things I thought of, but I’ve been unprepared for most of the other encounters I’ve had, so I just got jumpy, I guess. To be fair though, I’m not an actual dragon, so I don’t get why it would be set off by me. Unless it’s detecting dragon mag-”

The crunching of leaves and the snapping of twigs silenced all three and they got low to the ground once more. John gave a half smug half worried, “I told you so.”

A loud hiss and a low growl attracted John’s attention from behind them. He strained his eyes to look across the forest floor, searching for the scales of their draconic aggressor. John saw movement on the forest floor, obscured by leaves, and held his arms out pushing Ellie and Robin back behind him.

John spotted the whites of teeth as a muzzle pushed through the leaves of the underbrush. A black and white face followed the snarling maw and John let out an annoyed growl when Robin burst out in a laugh, his anger only grew as he heard Ellie stifling a giggle.

“Oh no, watch out John. Don’t let the dragon get you,” Robin teased. John looked over his shoulder with aggravation clearly on his face.

“Cover your ears,” John warned. His head snapped forward and as 20MP drained from his mana, he let out an ear-splitting roar at the tenacious badger. Causing it to rear up and fall on its back before scuttling away as quickly as its small legs could carry it.

With his frustration vented, John took a deep breath. ’God damn, I can’t believe I got worked up over that. Robin is probably right, there’s a good chance my powers are causing the glow… It wouldn’t hurt to be cautious though… just in case,’ John thought.

He closed his eyes for a moment to further calm himself down, which is when he heard… nothing. John looked around, his only experience with the forest going deathly silent were cryptid stories on youtube. He jumped when Robin spoke. “Ouch, that was fucking loud. My ears are ringing!”

Ellie took hold of John’s hand and looked back at Robin. “He did warn you to cover your ears, didn’t he?”

“Yeah, but I didn’t expect whatever he was going to do, to literally vibrate my body or scare the entire forest into silence,” Robin said, wiggling a finger inside one of his ears.

Ellie nodded and laughed. “Yeah, well you weren’t there when his bullshit powers gave it to him. I literally said as a joke he should try a dragon shout from Skyrim and then after looking like an ass he was smiling ear to ear because he’d gained a new power.”

Robin looked at Ellie, a little shocked. “Seriously? That easy? He just tried to do something from a game and suddenly he has a new magic power? How is he not just trying to get every random spell from video games or tabletop games?”

“I mean I’m sure I could try, but after a couple, I’m sure Gaia would stop giving them to me,” John explained. “Plus, I’d end up with a giant list of powers that I don’t plan on using again and you know that’d drive me insane. Like I already have a few powers I’ve been neglecting, so I’ve been thinking of ways I could make use of them.”

Ellie leaned her head on John’s shoulder. “That’s not what we’re out here for today anyway. We should keep looking for interesting stuff.”

“Oh wait, I wanna finish reading the Observe for that dragon flower,” John said, looking back at the glowing plant and focusing on it.

Dragon’s Beacon

In lands where dragons are common, this flower is often used around villages, towns and cities as an early warning signal. The orbs in the centre of the flowers glow brightly when a dragon is drawing near.

Dragon’s Beacon grows in 6 to 12 scaly stalks that have a soft green hue. The flowering sphere is typically orange with 4 ribbon-like dark blue petals growing from the centre with 4 fan-like orange petals that showcase the glowing centrepiece.

These flowers are a symbol of joy and prosperity and are welcome decorations for parties of all kinds. Many royal courts use this excuse as a way to place these flowers in meeting chambers in order to identify dragons in a transformed state.

Skilled hunters sometimes employ these flowers in tracking down dragons, though the practice has gone unused for many years.

“Guess that info is more interesting than useful. What about yours, Ellie?” John asked, looking down at Ellie who had turned the page on her own Observe to read the same information John had.

She nodded. “The petals can be used in some kind of elemental resistance potions. And the orb can be used in some potions but I don’t have information on what they do. Would you mind putting some in your inventory, that way I can look at them when I get back to my lab?”

John smiled and nodded. He leaned down and plucked half of the flowers, storing them in his inventory.

“Right, let's continue on then,” John suggested, turning to walk in the direction they’d been heading.

The three had been walking for a short amount of time before Robin perked up. “Oh, a plant I recognise,” he said. “I’ve never seen them growing in the wild though.” He pointed at an out-of-place looking succulent looking plant with large leaves which were dripping a thick pink liquid. Since Ellie was hanging on his arm and she got more useful information, John decided not to bother with his own Observe and just looked at hers.

Cahnvi

(Plant)

This plant is one of the few which is solely used in culinary alchemy.

This plant grows in mana-rich environments; this is the sole reason it hasn’t been introduced into the mundane world.

This plant is often used to mass-produce sugars and syrups that contain none of their negative effects when consuming larger quantities. These sugars and syrups are commonly used in alchemy as a way to make consumables more pleasant, but more so they are used in alchemically enhanced foods and confections.

The thick skin of the leaves is often described as extremely bitter; in spite of that, brewing it with hot water allows the underlying flavours to be infused without the bitterness. The preferred drinking experience for this drink is ice cold and with a drop or two of the sap or syrup from the same plant.

The leaf interior is much like that of Aloe Vera, with a thick gel-like consistency. This part of the plant is often cut into small cubes and served with fruit salads or in similar ways to jello. The flavour is hard to pin down but can be described as fruity and sweet.

“That’s pretty interesting actually,” Ellie mumbled. “This thing looks like it just drips sap all the time, it would be really cool to be able to take this back to the lab so I could collect it but it’s too big. It’s nearly half my height and it’d take up a lot of room in the greenhouse.”

“Maybe we could ask Prim about it? She might be able to get one for you?” John suggested.

Robin smiled before approaching the two. “You could ask your friend, and she might be able to get it a little cheaper. But these things are super common, we could just get one from a plant nursery in The Inferno. They’re an amazing healthy alternative to mundane sugars, we have three smaller ones at home, my folks really love them.

John looked a little confused and concerned. “Should you be letting your parents eat that stuff since it’s abyssal?”

“It’s just sugar, it makes things sweet and you don’t get an ear full from your dentist for decay. My mom actually exclusively drinks the iced tea stuff and when my dad decided to go on his diet, the jello really saved him as an alternative to chocolate,” Robin explained.

“It definitely sounds interesting, guess we’ll have to take a look at the plant place then,” John said, before turning to Ellie. “So, how many more plants do you wanna look at before we try opening a barrier?”

Ellie shrugged. “I dunno a few more? I think I saw some little glass-like mushrooms earlier, that was just before you went into panic mode over the dragon flowers. I’d like to take a look at them and maybe one more type of mushroom before we move on.”

Both Robin and John nodded. “That sounds like a plan, where’d you see those glass mushrooms?” John asked.

Ellie’s grip slightly tightened before she pulled him back through the forest, where they found a fallen dead tree. It didn’t look old and didn’t look like the drake trees around them. John assumed it must have managed to get established before the surrounding trees sapped the nutrients from under it.

Looking under the log John spotted what Ellie was looking for and they really did look like little glass mushrooms. John counted eight small mushrooms each a different colour. Ellie smiled as she opened up her Observe.

Dye Maker Caps

(Fungi)

These common little fungi are a dream for many types of people and are highly sought after. They grow in clusters of six to thirty and can range from being as small as Brown Bottlegill to as big as the average Portobello.

The stems of these mushrooms are sometimes used in dishes to give a strong earthy mushroom flavour and they contain a variety of nutrients.

The colourful caps can be dried and crushed into a powder which can then be mixed with other things to make paints, dyes and inks. Unlike the stems, the caps of these mushrooms are flavourless which makes the dye from these mushrooms perfect for cooking with.

Some alchemists like to use these mushrooms in order to change the colour of their potions. This can be done for a few reasons, one being to match with standardised potion colours, not all ingredients give a potion the same hue and using a healing bark in a potion of healing could turn it a murky brown where people expect a vibrant red. Similarly, an alchemist may have their own colour coding system for potions, all blue potions have healing effects, all red potions have magic boosting effects, and all green potions have transformative effects, etc.

Without saying anything, Ellie let go of John and pushed the log, rolling it away from the mushrooms before she pulled out her garden trowel and dug up a large section of dirt with all of the mushrooms. “Put this in your inventory, please, John. I don’t want to uproot them because I might be able to cultivate them and grow a bunch more and they could be useful. I might even be able to make a colour bomb or something.”

John smiled and did as she requested. “Okay, what next?” he asked, grabbing Ellie’s hand.

“Well, mushrooms aren’t super easy to find. How about you use your enhanced vision to try looking for oddities? Look for shaded areas, and if you spot an odd colour or something, point it out so we have somewhere to start,” Ellie said, walking back in the direction they had been heading previously.

As the three walked, Ellie was constantly looking at random plants. Robin hummed a song as he walked ahead of the two and John searched in places he’d expect to see mushrooms.

A short while passed and John spotted something. It wasn’t a mushroom, but it was pretty. Without saying anything and while Ellie looked in another direction John pulled up the plants Observe.

Whisper Weed

This flower is related to the dandelion and shares the way in which it disperses seeds.

Children often find this pink fan-like flower extraordinarily entertaining. The windblown seeds of this flower can be used as a messenger of sorts. The seeds are able to have thoughts or words imprinted into them when blown, and upon skin contact, the receiver will be shown or hear what has been imprinted.

If you are ever walking in nature and are suddenly shown imagery or hear someone talking, you might just have had one of these seeds land on you.

Due to this odd ability, there are many who use this plant as a short-range messenger; hunters and elves are some of the common users of these plants.

John smiled and let go of Ellie’s hand. “Hey, what gives?” she questioned.

John didn’t answer, racing towards the small pink flower. He plucked it from the ground and turned to look at Ellie.

He took a breath in. ’I love you,’ he thought as he exhaled and the pink seeds flew into the air in the direction he blew.

Ellie looked at him with an annoyed expression but smiled as one of the seeds made contact with her arm. She rushed over to give him a light kiss and wrapped her arms around him. “How did you do that? It was like you spoke in my head.”

“Magic,” John said before laughing. Which earned him an eye roll and groan from Robin. After the momentary distraction, the three continued.

Fifteen minutes of walking didn’t reveal any mushrooms like Ellie had hoped. They continued on, but John felt his leg catch something before a loud hollow chime echoed through the forest.

John looked down to where he felt his leg catch and spotted a faint thread. He followed it, rounding a tree and found a large flower. The flower reached over a metre tall. A poofy looking forty or so centimetre wide pink and purple flower sat atop twisting wood-like stems. John cast Observe and began reading quickly.

Ranger’s Warden

The plant is known by many names, Ranger’s Warden is the most common but due to the sounds it makes in the wind it is also known as Dryad’s Wind Chimes. The hollow stems house, twist and wrap around a hard seed which is suspended by a thin vine. When the wind moves the plant, this causes that seed to knock against the stems and sends out a pleasant but loud chime.

The presence of these plants often make for lively-sounding forests, but intelligent creatures often shield them from the wind and tie tripwires to them as an alarm system. Often this is used by survivalists to warn them of intruders in or around their camps but it can also be used as a location marker for hunters.

Once again, John felt a slight amount of panic and turned to Robin. “Run,” he said as he pulled Ellie along with him. Robin didn’t argue after seeing the Observe and they ran for a while before John pointed at a patch of long grass and all three ducked down into it.

Five or ten minutes passed without a sound or any indication they’d been followed. John crossed his fingers, hoping whoever might have set up the tripwire hadn’t gotten to the location in time to spot them. He slowly lifted his head, trying to look around in hopes he might see whoever might be after them before they spotted him.

Suddenly John’s vision shifted. It was like he was a bird in the trees looking down at the three of them hunkered down in the grass; then a voice whispered in his ear, “You are trespassing.”

“They’ve found us, run!” John called. The three of them began running through the forest again, weaving through trees, jumping over fallen logs and avoiding the thickest parts of the underbrush.

“This way,” Robin said, changing directions but pointing to the left of them in the trees, where John spotted someone jumping from tree to tree following them.

They continued until John spotted someone. “Fuck, someone’s to our right!” The three changed directions once again and continued running until John spotted a small clearing not too far away. He couldn’t tell how big it was, but if it was big enough, their pursuers would either have to climb down or go around the clearing to follow them; either way, it would slow them down.

As they neared, John realised that the space was only five or so metres across and would only marginally slow their pursuers down, if at all. The flat ground would, however, allow the three to speed up ever so slightly.

They broke through the tree line and ran for the other side, but upon reaching the middle, John heard a loud snap. John’s stomach lurched as the ground beneath his feet all but vanished. The three fell almost three metres, hitting the ground with a hard thud. They all let out different vocalisations of pain or discomfort. John thought about quickly climbing out and continuing to run, but as he looked up a fine net which seemed to have been suspended above dropped, snuffing out their hopes of a quick getaway.

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