The Traveler

The beginning

"Psst! [traveler]!" Paimon whispers. "It is time to wake up! You know your tasks won't do themselves."

I blink and swat at her like she's a pesky fly.

"Hey, watch it! You might hurt Paimon!"

I yawn and sit up. Memories flood back from yesterday. Meeting Amber, walking around town, getting introduced to the adventure's... club... thing, I can't remember. Losing my sister. Having mysterious wind magic that I don't even know how it works. Hillichurls. Yay.

"Paimon is right." I sit up. I was given a handbook for my adventure entries, and it has a list of tasks to be done. Each task has a handsome reward involved, so it won't be too boring.

"Paimon is always right." She huffs and folds her arms.

"Hungry?" I ask, standing and stretching. I pull out my backpack catalog and together we chose what to eat for breakfast.

Technically, I don't need to eat anything. I just need to stand next to one of the Statues Of The Seven, and it blesses me with full health and stamina. It saves a lot of time and resources, but it doesn't work for Paimon. So I let her eat some of my hash browns and eat some as well so she won't feel lonely.

"What should we start with today?" I pull out my list.

"Paimon can't tell which is easier, but this one is closer!" She points to the third task. It's outside of Mondstadt, just behind the Statue Of The Seven that Paimon affectionately named "Mr. Dad."

"Sounds good to me." I stow my adventurer's handbook in my bag and trade it for my map. I locate the statue, and away we go.

It's quick and easy. Teleporting is always fun, and gives me a rush. I can feel wind running through my hair and caressing my face, there's a fresh scent like peaches and ponds, then I'm deposited at the desired location.

There's a woman standing at the base of the tree. I approach, and I can hear her muttering.

"Oh! Hello." She greets.

"Is everything okay?" I ask.

She starts talking, but I tune her out. I feel kinda bad, but all of the conversations I've had in and around Mondstadt are long-winded. These people sure like to chat. Paimon does all the talking for me, then hands me a paper with the objective when the conversation is over.

I have to climb the tree and pick... leaves? Suddenly, I wish I'd been listening.

"Paimon, are you sure this is what she said?" I ask, looking up at my companion. But she's gone. Her little disappearing act. Barbatos-dammit Paimon, come back here.

I turn around to ask the commissioner, but she's busy doing... things, I dunno. So I turn to the tree and take in the scale of the project.

Hundreds of thousands of leaves. And I need to find the special ones? I'm not even that confident of a climber yet. But... she needs those leaves for her project. She isn't better suited for this job than I am.

I put aside my thoughts and climb. I'll know what I'm looking for when I find it.

The dark wood is warm beneath my gloved fingers. Even with all these leaves, the sun still manages to bake the bark. The higher I go, the windier it becomes.

There's a place on the tree where I can stand, the branches make a path in different directions, hiding things within their leaves. Leaves. Drats. I pause for a moment to catch my breath. That's when I see it.

A particularly wide, dark leaf. It's suspicious the only leaf on its branch. This must be what I'm looking for. I grab it, and Paimon tells me I was right. There are two more I need to find.