Levy McGarden

Chapter 2

It takes an hour to find a good walking stick and four more to peel all the bark off of it. By then, the sun is setting and she knows she'll need to settle down for the night.

She sleeps next to a river in the trees and wakes up with a crick in the back of her neck. She hops down from the tree before realizing she left her stuff up there.

Birds chirp as she climbs the tree. Through windows in the leaves, she can see the sky, painted pink and orange by the sunrise. By the time she gets back down, the forest is awake and full of life.

Determined to use as little of what her father gave her as possible, just in case, she fills a flask with water from the river. While looking for food, she sands her staff down until it's smooth. Eventually, a rabbit crosses her path, brown with the fading summer.

She kills and skins the rabbit. Keeping close to the water, she starts a fire to cook the meat. While she's waiting, she cleans off the skin. It'll be getting colder soon and they'll make good gloves. Or she could sell it when she comes by a town.

She eats slowly while she walks, the meat over cooked, but still meat. By the time she finishes, it's noon and the mountain is so steep she has to use her walking stick to help her down.

When she found them, she collected fruits and nuts and berries for her dinner.

By sunset, the ground had leveled out and she was off the mountain. She started eating while looking for water to sleep by, she didn't like sleeping too far from water, after the fire.

She found a stream and finished her meal, leaving plenty for later.

She didn't sleep well that night. Someone was camping nearby and the smoke tainted the air. She kept waking up with nightmares.

The next morning, she continued her journey, eating some of the fruit she had collected.

By the time she reached a town, the sun was low in the sky and she was hungry. She indulged in an inn for the night, her back sore from all those years sleeping on the ground.

The mattress was heavenly, but the room was dingy and dirty, so it probably wasn't all that great. But to her back, it was the best. The water pressure in the shower was crap and she'd bathed in warmer rivers.

The food was good, though. It was clear that the person cooking cared. It wasn't over or under cooked, either, so it was better than most things she had eaten over the years. The vegetables were steamed and the juice was fresh. In the morning she had eggs and apple juice and sausage and went on her way.

The town was alive with people. They flooded the streets. The sound of children laughing filled the air and parents traded stories. Customers argues over prices or chatted with owners. The cobblestone road was filled with people of all ages and Levy had never seen so many people in one place before. She glanced through the shops, fruits and foods and clothes and jewelry. She manages to sell the rabbit hide for a good, fair amount and makes her way from the village.

Even though people naturally gravitated away from her, due to her dark cloak,there were still so many people it was hard for someone her size to get through the mass of bodies. She wasted far more time in the market than she wanted to.

Eventually she got out of the town and onto the road.

It was a good day. A sunny day with just enough clouds that it didn't get too hot. The path she walked was surrounded by meadows filled with gorgeous flowers. She took her time. While she was behind schedule, she wasn't in any actual rush and she liked to enjoy herself when she could. There were so many different types of flowers she hadn't seen in person, the fauna and flora of this world can get so differ from hers. She stopped every time she saw one she hadn't seen before and took them in, only smelling and touching them if she recognized them from a book, one could never be too careful. She picked a couple she recognized as edible. They didn't have any flavor and they weren't at all filling, but it was the experience that counted. Birds chirped and flew overhead, occasionally she'd see a bird of prey, but that didn't happen all too often. Rabbits and bunnies  bounded across the path every so often, and she debated killing one, but decided she had enough food.

Big, fat bumble bees buzzed around, carrying pollen from flower to flower and insects flew lazily through the late summer heat. When the sun was high in the sky, she sat on a rock, slightly off path and finished up her fruits and berries before they could go bad. While walking, she debated eating some nuts, as she was still hungry when she came across a stand selling fresh, honey crisp apples. So she traded some coins for the fruit and munched on it as she went. It was a good apple. The juices flowed and dropped from her lips and her fingers. She savored every taste and licked her fingers clean of flavor.

Eventually, when the sun was low, she stepped into Fiore.