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Post by Noa on Apr 7, 2021 21:40:31 GMT -6
He turned the strawberry this way and that. “Just so long as they’re red all the way up - or nearly so. A little green right around the stem is usually alright.” And taking the fruit, he delicately pinched the stem and pulled it off, before eating it in one bite, his teeth sinking into the fruit just before the stem. He tossed away the rest, then moved on to the next berry, and demonstrated the process all over again.
“Think you can do it?” he said, after he had finished.
{I think so,} Rhys said. {It doesn’t actually look that hard.} He had some practice using his telekinesis already, so his finesse with it was at a level where Noa didn’t doubt that he would probably succeed. He spotted another berry, and Noa watched with some amusement as it rose in a disembodied way, before coming free with a slight tug.
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Post by Noa on Apr 7, 2021 21:40:45 GMT -6
The fruit was a little bruised, and Noa registered Rhys’s disappointment as soon as the Faeron noticed the state of it. “It’ll be fine if we eat it now,” said Noa. “It just won’t be any good to store like this. Try again. You almost had it.”
With that encouragement, Rhys tried his hand at taking another berry, and this time when it came free, there was no bruising. The two of them inspected it together, and when he saw the result, Rhys was very pleased with himself. {I did it!} he proclaimed, flying a quick circle in the air in his excitement.
“Take a few more, then let’s move on. Strawberries are actually pretty sturdy before they get overripe,” Noa said, twisting off the stem from this one and popping it into his mouth.
{Aren’t you going to give any of those to me?} said Rhys.
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Post by Noa on Apr 7, 2021 21:40:55 GMT -6
“The next one can be yours. Go on, pick it.”
Rhys looked as though he would have liked to protest, but in the end he resigned himself to Noa’s verdict, and picked another strawberry. This one went well, just like the last, and Rhys made sure to sink his teeth into it before Noa could take it from him. That drew a small laugh out of Noa.
A few more strawberries later, and Noa took them over to the next set of plants, which had blueberries on them. “These are smaller, so it’s a bit harder. And you really want to check that they’ve got a nice blue color, no green or even light purple. The unripe ones are sour as hell.”
{Blue… Okay.} Rhys flitted around the bushes, looking for likely candidates. The berries were all clustered together, so he had a harder time picking out individual fruit, but his dexterity with his telekinesis was improving all the time.
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Post by Noa on Apr 7, 2021 21:41:10 GMT -6
And where that failed him, his quarry was small enough now that he could use his own claws, which increased the level of finesse he was able to have. It didn’t take long for him to amass a handful of berries, even if some of them were a bit crushed.
“This one’s too pink… This one’s also too pink… But otherwise not bad,” Noa declared. Rhys was watching him so balefully that Noa laughed again. “Okay, you pick first. Which ones do you want?”
{I picked them, so of course they should be mine,} Rhys said petulantly. {But you can have the leftovers, I guess.}
“Come on, you’re not even half my size. I need the food more than you do,” Noa said, but he was only teasing, and they both knew it. Rhys ate his fill, and then Noa had the rest, and they moved on to the last set of berry bushes, which were raspberries.
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Post by Noa on Apr 7, 2021 21:41:22 GMT -6
“Look for big ones, with nice color to them,” Noa said. “You see what I mean about it being easy to remember? Mostly you just want them to be the right color, whatever kind of berry it is.”
{I guess you’re right,} Rhys replied. {This is a lot easier to remember than all the specifications of all your plants. Hey, raspberries break easy, don’t they?}
“They do.” Noa reached out to a ripe looking raspberry, and very gently worked it loose. “You have to be careful not to crush them, especially if you’re not eating them right away. But don’t worry, if you ruin them, I’m still hungry.”
{Gee, that’s so comforting of you,} Rhys said. Noa felt he didn’t have to warn Rhys to watch out for the thorns, since Rhys was small enough that he ought to easily be able to see and avoid them.
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Post by Noa on Apr 7, 2021 21:41:32 GMT -6
It was harder when you were Noa’s size, but Rhys shouldn’t have had any problems with it. The issue, if there was one, was inevitably going to be with the berries themselves.
Sure enough, on Rhys’s first few attempts, the poor berries became too squished to do anything with them but to eat them. Noa had some, and Rhys had some, before the Faeron was finally able to pull one free without damaging it. Rhys tried his claws as well as his telekinesis, but ironically it was the telekinesis that proved to be better, once he managed to work out the right amount of force to use. His claws were sharp enough that they could do real damage to the fruit.
And if he could pick raspberries, Noa figured he couldn’t possibly have much trouble with any other sort of berry.
Eventually though, he did get it, and they had themselves a pleasant little snack before deciding to call it a day.
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Post by Noa on Apr 7, 2021 22:10:49 GMT -6
It was best not to push their luck too much. The later it got, the more likely they were to meet with the sorts of security systems used by owners of large mansions for late night intruders, and even Noa didn’t really want to tangle with that sort of thing.
They extricated themselves from the property just as the sun was showing signs of beginning to want to set, and Noa erased as many traces as he could of their presence. The berries that were eaten were of course gone, but they took sparingly, and spread out their petty theft, so he had hopes that it wouldn’t be noticed. And the damage was sufficiently trivial that even if it was, it probably wasn’t worth pursuing… Though a gardener might be fired for their crimes.
Ah well, collateral damage.
But seeing as he had already begun to teach Rhys how to gather food, he figured he might as well keep going.
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Post by Noa on Apr 7, 2021 22:11:22 GMT -6
Over the next few days, Noa put together some resources - namely books with lots of pictures, which they pored over together, since the pictures afforded Rhys something to look at. Some were agricultural books, or at least books about how to grow vegetables in your own garden, which Noa didn’t bother with, but it seemed like something that would be good for Rhys to know.
Other books were about foraging for edible plants in the wild. Food crops couldn’t exactly be found readily in a camping situation, and identifying edible plants when they were mixed in among a bunch of other plants was something of a skill in itself. Fortunately, for that reason, a lot of these books had helpful illustrations and diagrams, which Noa went through together with Rhys. Honestly, he was learning about some of this himself, since he had never gone camping and foraging in this manner.
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Post by Noa on Apr 7, 2021 22:11:35 GMT -6
The outdoors weren’t exactly something that had been a part of his childhood, and any herbs he wanted to get his hands on later could always be cultivated or, at worst, purchased.
But since they were learning about it, they might as well put it to some use. That line of thought led to the two of them wandering through the wilderness behind and between homes, seeking out plants that might have some edible or medicinal use. Noa brought along the field guides at first, but eventually they learned how to identify the plants they wanted without any need to refer to these, and it didn’t take long for the books to merely become reference material to confirm their findings.
Eventually they could do without the books at all.
Of course, they also took their little tours through the cultivated gardens of their neighbors, though without, Noa was saddened to admit, the same amount of petty thievery.
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Post by Noa on Apr 7, 2021 22:11:52 GMT -6
But it was a hassle to carry produce with them, especially since a lot of the items were invariably quite large and cumbersome, and vegetables weren’t generally the sorts of things Noa liked to eat raw, and without seasoning.
Still, they made a game of sneaking in and sneaking out - or at least Noa did, with Rhys as a reluctant lookout. And they identified all the crops they could, though these were easier for the most part, since they tended to be clearly marked out, and domestication tended to make the food bearing plants more distinctive.
By the end of it, Rhys had been subject to a pretty thorough education on edible plants and foraging. “And so, if we’re ever stranded in the wilderness, I’ll be relying on you,” Noa said blithely to Rhys.
{Shouldn’t you be relying on yourself? You learned all this too, right?} Rhys said.
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Post by Noa on Apr 7, 2021 22:15:16 GMT -6
For once it was less a protest and more his attempt to point out a flaw in Noa's logic. Noa thought on this a moment, then shrugged. "I guess so, but this lets us split up tasks, so I can leave the foraging to you while I... make a fire or something."
{I guess that's true... But do you know how to make a campfire?} Rhys asked.
"You just pile some sticks up and glower at it, right? I mean, I can light it with magic, and finding sticks isn't that hard," Noa said, watering the plants as Rhys fluttered beside him.
{... You know, maybe we should work on your survival skills,} Rhys said. {Anyway, isn't it time you ate something? We've been out here for a while now.}
"I guess you're right," Noa said. "I wonder if there's anything good in the kitchen..."
{Don't just summon food with magic if there isn't this time.}
25 (exit)
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Post by Jack on Apr 9, 2021 15:02:53 GMT -6
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