Neither teen had an answer for what was next. They had already done what they could, but this new place was insufficient in terms of resources. Royal was already going over random trivia, rationing out the gourds Esther had collected. Meanwhile, Esther was going over her spells. There was one she really wanted to learn, but it was so difficult. Lighting Ring, a move than combined defense and offense. She had been trying to get it for weeks, but to no avail. Lightning didn't seem to come to her in general, even. But she hadn't given up.
Royal broke the nervous silence after a few minutes. "I uh, got the food divided. It'll last us about 6 days, but we'll be hungry all the time."
Esther hummed in resignation. It wasn't the first time she's gone hungry. "I'll manage." She said. "Do we eat now?"
Royal nodded. "Yeah. I cooked the first portion. It's not burnt, I already had my part. Here..." He bought over the meager seared gourds, looking more like an appetizer than a meal.
Esther relished it, eating slow. And yet, it still didn't last long.
"Well, what do we do now?" She asked, looking around. "I doubt those mushrooms are edible..."
"Especially the moving ones. At least they're target practice, if we want to train..." Royal tried to make light of the situation. It didn't really work. Esther had worry lines all over her face. "Hey, c'mon. We'll get through this. Together. That's what friends do." He patted her back. Esther tried to smile. Tried. She managed a half smirk.
"Ok. Ok, you're right. It'll be ok. We just gotta be positive and stick together..." She trailed off. Royal and Esther both knew they were lying to themselves. But silently on the wind, a piece of parchment made from papyrus leaves sailed into view. One of the mushroom creatures tried to eat it, and was broadsided by Royal's blade as Esther grabbed the sheet.
On it, in messy, spidery writing was a simple sentence.
"The brown caps will be your salvation, the pink caps will be your demise."
"That's not ominous at all..." Royal said sarcastically. But Esther was thinking harder.
"Mushroom caps. That's what the tops are called? Right?" She asked, a hint of hope crawling back into her voice.
"Yeah, but what does that..." Royal realized. "This note says the brown mushrooms are safe to eat... I think."
"I don't trust it..." Esther said for a moment. "But I don't think the mushrooms can write. It's worth a shot."
Royal bent down and picked several brown mushrooms. Handing half to Esther, he smiled uneasily. "On three?"
Esther nodded. "One, two... Three!" They swallowed the raw mushrooms. Already not the most tasty, these mushrooms tastes repulsive raw and mixed with dirt. But Esther and Royal both felt like they weren't dying, even if both retched in their mouths.
"If we don't die in like, an hour, we should be ok. Yeah?" Royal decided.
"Those taste bad... But that's ok." Esther nodded in agreement.
Unseen eyes watched them from the tree line. Bottles clicked silently as their watcher moved around, always keeping an eye on them both.
Esther decided to go into the cave to wait, and Royal stood outside to go through his motions and stay in practice with his sword. He accepted that he was bad, but he didn't want to get worse. Not in a situation such as this one. Sitting in a dead forest, fighting strange mushroom men, and trusting random paper tossed on the wind. He shook his head and focused, moving with enough grace that a passing blind person would not think he was faking a shark attack. At least the mushrooms stayed away.
Esther came out. "Royal, can you help me with this spell? It's not working..." She gave him puppy eyes. Royal nodded and went into the tent. Their stalker couldn't see them now, but knew where they were.
Sitting in a pile of dust, Esther had her book open to the page about the Lighting Circle. "This one. It won't work, I can't make lightning..."
Royal didn't even need to think about that one. "What if you try doing the spell, but with a different kind of magic? Like fire, or darkness? You know those ones. Sometimes you can't copy things by the book. You add your own spin and make them special. That's how new things are made by many people. They take pieces of older things, and add their own new thing to it."
Esther slowly nodded, understanding the gist of what Royal meant. She beamed at him. "Thank you! I'll try that..." She started focusing. Royal watched for a few minutes, before going back outside.
He could have sworn he heard a bush rustle, but nothing was there. Nonetheless, he looked around, before doing the logical thing and collecting more brown mushrooms. Even if they tasted vile, they were sustenance, and being picky wasn't an option at the time. Luckily they were absolutely everywhere, because they were tiny. He made a mental note to borrow Esther's basket when he came back. Every now and again a mushroom man would get bold and make a move, but they were always lopped in half, and left to make indistinguishable angry noises helplessly. Royal had figured out that cutting cutting one from bottom to top put them out for a while. They always seemed to grow back together, however... So no harm done, right? He took that fact as both comforting and terrifying.
After a good half hour of picking mushrooms, Royal had amassed enough to last a week. The question became how they were expected to transport it, but neither Esther nor Royal really wanted to do that just yet. So long as they had to sleep basically on top of each other to keep the imminent nightmares away, that fact would remain constant.
While Royal had been getting food, Esther had a new question. Water, where. This place seemed too dry to get much water. So she decided to explore on her own after Royal borrowed her basket. She found a stream. Muddy for sure, but she figured Royal might know how to fix that.
But back at the camp, she was met with a different tale. "I know a way to clean water, but it uses things that don't exist here. Tinfoil, for one." Royal had said. Esther had never heard of tinfoil, so she just looked forlorn. They would have to drink dirty water and risk illness just to survive. It was a scary thought.
Nonetheless, she got Royal to come with her, and the pair went to get water and try to make it not mud.
Down by the river bank, they had their hands, and their great idea was having royal grab the water and let it drop through his fingers into Esther's hands, so the mud stayed behind. Success had been... Limited thus far.
Their little stalker decided to drop what she was writing and show them how to get anything. A small sprite, not even topping 4 feet flew out from the trees softly and landed behind them.
"That works, but there's at least 10 ways to do it better, you know." She said.
Royal jumped. Esther jumped hard enough to tumble into the river.
"That's not one of the ways to do it better..." The sprite said flatly.
Put off by their utterly flat tone, as well as everything else about them, Royal just sat and stumbled over words.
The spite sighed, taking a tightly woven grass net and a bowl that looked like something's skull out of her outfit and started filtering water with them. When she took the bowl and filter out from the water, the bowl was full of mostly clean water.
"It's not that hard, really. It'll save you in the long run." The sprite said, before turning to go.
"Wait! Thank you miss..." Esther squeaked. "I'm sorry, what's your name?"
The sprite sighed. People and their formalities... "Eldrie is my name. You may refer to me as such." She said dryly. "Now, I must return to my work. Do me a favor and stop risking your lives for a day, it's a headache having to watch you like baby birds." She said, before disappearing into the tree cover.
"Wait! Eldrie!" Royal said.
"No. I'll always be near, human. But I'm busy now. You'll have to wait." Was the last thing they heard from her.
"She seems nice!" Esther decided.
"She scares me. I'm sure this is a skull..." Royal said, sipping the water. He refilled it before the pair went back, however. No reason to not have it on hand.
The pair returned to the cave. Eldrie was sitting and waiting for them to return. Royal didn't expect this and jumped again. "Stop doing that!" He said, flustered.
"But it humors me." Eldrie countered, totally straight-faced.
Esther ignored Royal's mini heart attack and went to talk to Eldrie.
"So what's up?" She asked tentatively.
"I came to ask for your assistance. You seem to need my services, and I require the services of others." Eldrie said. "I believe this to be mutually beneficial."
"Wait, ok, so what do you need? We're kind of on a quest to like, do something about that whole void invasion." Royal said, frazzled.
"If that is the case, this is well and good. A very important place to me on the edge of the forest has been tainted by the void monsters. Without the flowers there, my strength is lacking." Eldrie explained.
"So you're dying?" Esther looked ready to cry.
"What? No. I merely lack any form of attack without those flowers. They allow me to make elixirs to defend myself, but I have very few left." Eldrie said dully.
"So let me get this straight. You want us to fight those things by a flower patch so you can make potions?" Royal asked, bewildered.
"Yes. That is one way to say it." Eldrie replied. "I do not suggest going now. The morning is more apt for slaying creatures of shadow."
"We almost died to a small one! We can't fight a bunch at once." Royal exclaimed, nervous.
"Ah, that is no issue. You see, while I lack spells to harm others, I possess many healing skills..." Eldrie said mysteriously, before leaving. "You'd better rest and eat well. Tomorrow will prove a difficult fight." She finished.
Royal scrambled out after her as Esther had a faraway look in her eyes. But Eldrie had already vanished like a distant breeze. "How do you keep doing that?" Royal said indignantly.
He was stopped by Esther pulling on his arm. "Royal, I don't wanna sleep alone. I'll have bad dreams..." She pouted.
Royal sighed, entering the cave. He knew he would as well, as he wrapped his arm around Esther's shoulders and laid down. "Don't worry. We should just take Eldrie's advice for now. Sleep well, Esther..." He said, starting to doze off.
Soft, gentle snores were all that responded. Esther was already fast asleep for the night. Cold, wet, and afraid, but she felt safe with her good friend.