One would think, when it was a habit to only go out on a certain day of the week, that one would REMEMBER to go out on that day. But on Saturday the 13th, Rowan woke feeling chagrined, as the day before was when they should have gone into Cindersap forest to get in their river fishing, maybe visit the tower, and, most importantly, check with the travelling cart who smuggled out select goods from the Gotoro empire. They'd missed it because Saturdays were their normal day very other week.
Well, no point in going out today, when the wagon wouldn't be there. Sunday, then.
So instead, they did their rounds on the farm, and in the pottery; they finally had the last teacup made for their first teaset. They put it in the shipping bin well wrapped, along with a heap of the better quality produce (they kept the mediocre or funny looking crops in the fridge, to cook with) curious how much it would sell for; they weren't good at tracking costs, but they hoped it would be worth the work.
And into the mine. And at last, at last, just after midnight, partway through that darn spiral, they found a stairwell down to where they thought the next elevator shaft would be...
... it was, but there was also one of those strange chests, set out, with their name etched into it. The first one had been a shock - and made them even less inclined to visit town and learn exactly who laid out these rewards, when reportedly hardly anyone else had been this far down in ages. It definitely wasn't Clint - while he seemed to be happy to reap the benefits of the elevators for fetching ore - and fast escape from monsters - he definitely wasn't going in advance of them. And that Marlon fellow from the adventurer's guild was in and out all the time, including in the depths, but he'd said it wasn't him, and looked too genuinely confused (and possibly miffed nobody was leaving him chests?). Certainly nobody who was that stingy on his buy-backs for swords and footwear would also be generous enough to leave expensive items in a cave for someone else. Yes, he'd given Rowan the first sword, but that had clearly been a desire not to see the newcomer splattered all over the caves before they could last long enough to afford a better weapon.
But they kept appearing, and the shock had dulled a bit, especially with the annoyance that two of them had contained slingshots - Rowan understood why someone might want a long distance weapon when the monsters started crowding in, but they just weren't any good with the slingshot, and killing even basic slimes took either so many stones, or the ore they needed for so many other tasks, that it was never worth it.
So they weren't expecting much when they opened this one, but there, carefully wrapped against dust and dirt and fumes, was a Stardrop.
Huh.
Half a second of speculation of poison or curses cast on it, and Rowan ate it anyway. They were already beholden to this mystery person, so many prior items could have been cursed and weren't.
But there was the familiar, almost tingling, inexplicably delicious taste, and their ears were filled with the soft trills and chirrups, their eyes briefly seemed to glimpse the flicker of feathers among greenery, blues and greens and orange, and that rare, startling red... and the peace they felt when they sat, still, and watched the songbirds at their feeders, the lightness of heart and the quiet healing.
The next day, in Cindersap, was an anticlimax, really. It was nice enough - they actually caught a goby among the sunfish. They ran into the rancher's little girl, who treated them like a stranger - which, fair - but handing her a flower at least soothed the worst of the child's alarm. They saw that pretty artist, sketching on the dock at the pond, and approached, feeling both the discomfort of talking to others and a pleasant peace. She smiled at them, and didn't object when they lingered a while, looking over the pond. It was even friendly, even before they offered her some of the fresh mushrooms they'd found in the deep part of the woods.
They had a jolt when they considered checking in with the wizard, even though they had nothing usefully magical on hand to soften his curt manner, and it would probably drive them to run right back to the farm if they did* - but with a jolt, they saw the purple haired girl from town - Caroline's daughter, they thought - hovering near that place. While she was pretty, she was daunting, and Rowan decided they weren't up to spending the last of their energy for talking to people on her right now*. Better to continue further through the woods and collect the rest of the forage...
* Rowan's rule on Cindersap weeks is if they talk to 4 human people they have to return to the farm. And the travelling merchant counts. So with Jas, Leah and the cart already covered...
. In the meantime, I went to the Night Market and bought 3 of the last 4 Lupini paintings (I seem to be missing one from a previous year ... hmmm...). Put them in my display shed, which actually works out - unfortunately the shed is one tile width shy of accommodating all 9 paintings, grrrr. So I'll have to put the last one in the house. Eh.
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