The Traveller

Chapter Twenty-Seven: Insurgence

"Well, picnics, games, campfires, swimming, if the people want to. But I bet a picnic would work, to start.." Traveller said brightly, he was having a lot of picnics lately.

"What's a picnic?"

"What... really?!" Traveller said, in shock, now then, this had to be fixed.

"Yes... Really... I don't know what that is..." Shadow frowned as she looked at the ground.. It wasn't her fault that she didn't remember what a picnic was...

"Well,a picnic is where you have a blanket, and you eat food with friends or family. It's nice, you can do it a lot when you're on the road, or camping. I have food and a blanket if you want to, or.. we could have a wild picnic. I call it that because you gather the soils of nature and prepare them once you have enough." Traveller explained, he could easily do a wild picnic, as he could see a lot of wild onions, berries and other foods in the area around them.

"Can we try both of them?"

"Sure, we can gather wild foods first. Do you know what they look like, I can teach you if you want me too, as not all of them are noticeable." Traveller asked, take those wild carrots for an example, as they looked very different from garden grown ones, before they were picked.

"No... But I would love to learn what they look like..."

"Alright, as it is, we have quite a local selection of root veggies in this area." Traveller said, skipping, and about fifteen feet away from them, a large gathering of wild onions, garlic and carrots grew. Probably, sometime in the past, someone, or something, had a stash here that had gone to seed, or they stolen it from a garden that went wild after many years.

He plopped down near the ground, waiting for Shadow to come over so he could show her their natural looks before he picked them.

She followed him, and she sat down next to him. She had a childish look in her eyes, and a huge smile on her face.

Gently, he walked her through the process of identifying nature's bounty, and how to pick and clean them, and just how much of it was safe for her to take, and leave enough for wildlife. And before he knew it, he had her at a picnic blanket, with some of his food supplies out, and he was showing her how to prepare them into healthy filling meals, he had even crafted a small sheltered fire to make a few quick foods.

Literally everything that you could get in nature, but he did provide some other goodies, and bread, to make sandwiches.

Shadow was smiling and she was asking him questions about the foods that he was making, and questions about the fire and the sandwiches.

"And now, we can eat." Traveller said, with a grin, gazing at her softly through his golden shades.

"Yay!" Shadow had a huge smile on her face.

Traveller gave a hum and he started nibbling on a bit of each, he wasn't too hungry but.. Shadow was much too thin and she clearly hadn't been eating well, or sleeping well.

Shadow giggled as she started to munch on the food that they had made together... She was so happy, and the food was so yummy!

"Oh..." Traveller said, he hadn't realized that it had gotten so late, or so dark. He could hear excitement from the nearby town, and a certain fizzle sound... He would enjoy this and their spot had a good view of the sky.

Shadow tilted her head, when she heard the fizzle sound.

A blast filled the air, with fizzling bright light exploding into dazzling images.

"Fireworks, always a blast." Traveller said, cheerfully.

Shadow's eyes got wider, when she saw the fireworks. "They're so pretty..."

"Pretty to watch from far away, we really do have the best spot." Traveller said, laying down on the picnic blanket, there were trillions of stars in the night sky, and a fireworks show to make it even nicer.

Shadow blinked, and she lied down, on the picnic blanket.

The show was ending when a soft sound caught Traveller's attention, and when he turned around, he saw that Shadow was fast asleep as exhaustion had finally caught up to her. Smiling, he created a blanket from his magic, it seemed to shift to one color to another, depending on how bits of light hit it. Gently, he tucked her in, enjoying the silence in the air now that the fireworks were over.

Humming softly, he pulled a backpack from his item space, and he carefully packed some of his many extra travel supplies for cooking and travelling. He couldn't do much here, and while he was powerful, he couldn't do much in this multiverse.

But he could do what he could for someone that needed his help... He could sense that Shadow had a long journey ahead of her...

"Good journey Shadow." He whispered kissing her forehead, like a parent would kiss the forehead of a child.

Then, in a swirl of his wing's he was gone.

The only trace he'd been there, was a picnic blanket, a comfy sleeping blanket, and a backpack that would hold a lot more than it seemed.

Shadow silently hummed in her sleep, and she snuggled the blanket that had been wrapped around her. She would wake up, the next morning, to see what Traveller had left for her, and she would smile...

She had a feeling, that in the end, everything was going to be okay...