Survival is key

A few minutes later John found himself seeing a more serious side to Orianna as she began instructing him in the way of survival. The two of them headed outside to the forest John now realized was outside the door. It was straight after they had both finished eating, and the hotheaded biomancer soon began something akin to a lesson.

“If I’m going to rely on you, and you want to make it out there, I should probably teach you some basic survival skills. The type of stuff you’ll need to live off the land for a while. After all, if you have any chance of being a decent explorer, managing to survive is key.” All the while, she looked at John, a serious expression on her face.

“Got it, what do I need to learn?”

“Three main things. I’ll teach you how to start a fire, scavenge for food and water, and draw maps. The basics of what you may need,” she continued, as seriously as ever. “What do you wanna start with?” The young woman said, quite a bit more cheerfully than a second before.

“Well… Let’s start with making a fire, that will probably be the easiest thing for me to learn.”

“Sure.” She began walking further into the forest a moment later. John followed soon after, realizing her intent.

After they had walked for long enough that the cabin was now out of sight, while still being surrounded on all sides by forest, Orianna began her lesson in truth.

“Let’s start with how to build a fire. Look around for some medium sized rocks and make a circle from them, clear the surroundings too, that’s the first step. In the meanwhile I’ll go look for some tinder. Small twigs, paper, needles and leaves are usually good for that. Afterwards I’ll show you how to find some of the larger materials we’ll need.” She had already disappeared beyond the trees by the time she had finished speaking. It didn’t take too long for John to gather up some stones, and she was back soon after.

Orianna showed him how to find kindling and where to look for fuel wood for another hour before they finally began assembling the fire itself. The tinder was placed as a bed inside the rock circle and kindling was added on top of it. The now professional looking biomancer soon pulled out a few pieces of flint and steel, gave John her spares and proceeded to light the tinder and fan the flames until they caught onto the kindling. Once it was clear she wouldn’t smother the fire, she added the fuel wood to the fire and it was burning large enough that John was sure it could be seen all the way from the cabin. Orianna then made him attempt the same feat by himself, and about two hours and three failed fires later, he finally got it. It wasn’t nearly as well made as the one she had put together, but the fuel wood did manage to catch on fire.

“Okay, let’s move on to how you can gather food. First, traps. They’ll be useful for areas with small animals like forests or plains, so don’t expect to use it on a desert or on another plane without those, but it’ll be useful here.” John wasn’t sure he was entirely comfortable with capturing small animals solely as a food source, but he doubted out here he had much choice, so he endeavoured to at least try to learn what Orianna was going to teach him.

They started with her showing John some simple traps Orianna already had set up. Small pitfalls, snares, and a deadfall trap which did some unseemly things to the small animals caught in it. The biomancer then began attempting to teach John how to set up these traps, a task which was considerably shorter than lighting the fire, but by the time he was able to do it well enough for the both of them to be satisfied with the lesson, the sun was already halfway through the sky.

Regardless, Orianna’s task to teach John how to survive in the wilderness continued, and she showed him how to search for water sources by following tree roots, looking for specific plants, and tracking larger animals who came to those sources. She even showed him a few of the closest rivers and lakes, as emergency sources if he ever needed to visit them alone.

Finally, she taught him what berries were safe and could be eaten and where generally he could find them. Strangely, most of them weren’t particularly familiar to him, though a few species of european berries he could recognize seemed common enough. Eventually, it was getting dark, and they both decided to finish the day by heading back towards the cabin and continuing the final lesson of the day there. Drawing maps.

Cartography was a complex field, and its intricacies did not lend well to field usage, but Orianna, having learned it mostly through requiring that capacity, had adapted it somewhat. Rough drawings were the first stage, as demonstrated to John both by the many of them that he now noticed were strewn around the study and by the biomancer beginning her explanation with them.

The rough drawing was the easiest part to get right. Most of it was about drawing the approximate terrain around the cabin while marking places where features would be added when making the final map using the various colours and markings Orianna showed him she usually used for her maps. Dark green with dots for forests, light green for meadows, and so on. It wasn’t really the sort of map John was used to seeing, but it served in exploration well enough if her stay here was anything to go by. John did consider adding various features like height to the maps would be a decent idea, only for the biomancer to explain the impossibility to distinguish that from terrain markings using the limited resources they had. A few hours later the final product was complete. A fully colored map representing the nearby terrain based on memory. It was close enough to Orianna’s own map of the area for John to be somewhat proud. His skill in drawing and agility had helped him create the map, it seemed, as it looked almost professional. The few water sources and texture of the terrain translated well, though simplification was obviously necessary. So mostly they looked just like globs of color. Very well differentiated and somewhat wildly designed globs of color, but still. However, the reward for finishing the map soon appeared in a more concrete way.

New skill obtained: Minimap

It was immediately obvious to John how immensely useful that was, and the round minimap that was added to the top right corner of his vision with a thought proved him correct. A moment later he told this to Orianna, and she immediately took down the large map from the wall and handed it to him.

“If this is as good as you say it is, you should take whatever info you can get for it,” she said while doing so, her seriousness having returned.

The process to add the information contained on the map was quite simple, just holding the map brought up a prompt to integrate it, one John immediately accepted. A moment later, after the minimap seemed to refresh, he now had the full picture. It even detailed the surrounding area with more accuracy, being based on Orianna’s superior map.

“That’s all the training I can give you,” The biomancer told him. “We'll have to delay the trip to tomorrow though. The sun already set a while back.”

John was surprised, but quite pleasantly so. The day had taken a toll on him that he was quite happy to recuperate from. His rest did not come easy, however, as his senses were almost immediately assaulted by Orianna suddenly kissing him on his lips.

“Plus, the two of us have some business to take care of, don't we?” Noticing John's confused reaction, she continued. “I saw the way you looked at me earlier, and I can tell you're just as raring to go as you know I am, if your scrying spell is worth its salt.”

John’s only answer was to simply return the gesture. After all, she was right, he was just as willing and ready to go as she was, or at least so he thought. Soon after, they both stumbled into the bedroom of the cabin, passionately kissing and undressing one another in what could only be described as a lustful frenzy. In that fashion, they fell on top of each other and onto the bed, which only became more disorganized as they continued their chaotic actions. A moment later, the both of them had settled, naked, in a position which resembled missionary to some degree, though the chaos that had brought it on had made it somewhat confused and still disorganized.

That was when John’s mind snapped out of the lust flowing through his body for a single moment, only long enough to think of one word, but that was enough. He felt stupid for not considering that beforehand, for letting his mind be overcome with such a basic desire. He felt guilty for betraying Alice’s trust, and his own promise to her. Most of all, however, he hated himself. For the simple fact he knew he would have to choose eventually. That he would not be allowed both his old life and a new one.

“I’m sorry, I can’t do this,” He said, getting up and going to attempt to retrieve his clothing as quickly as possible. Orianna simply had no response, and so it happened that they did not talk to one another until the next morning.

Even then, they simply talked about the quest, nothing more. Regardless, they eventually exited the cabin and began their journey to the grey blotch.