Ch. 10 Gift

"What do you mean he told you? Are you saying that bird can talk? Next you'll be telling me the Fox has its own name too."

"Yeah, she's Gala."

Buck stared at Emmie with a slack jaw. (She can't be serious, like I'd believe that little bird can talk. She must be losing her sanity. He's still a broken. By the look of his size, he's barely a month old, there's no way he could possibly speak.) "Yeah, right, and pigs can fly. Put down that damn Fox and help me finish picking these berries. If we finish these bushes off, we should have enough to complete your contract with some to spare. We could return home tomorrow."

"Yes sir!" Setting Gala down gently next to her pack, she quickly grabbed her storage box and went back to picking berries. Gala laid down nearby in the grass to recover while Gabriel napped.

As the afternoon flew by, both Buck and Emmie had completely filled their storage boxes with Rockberries. As they we're making there way towards their packs, Gabriel was already scrolling through his new tab. Tiny Dimension.

(This is huge! I could've brought the whole wolf corpse with us. Should've thought of that earlier. Let's check what this First Contract Package is all about )

'Would you like to open First Contract Package?'

(Yes.)

'Host has acquired book Basics of Forest Animal Care. Host has acquired 5lb bag of Delicious Treats. Host has acquired 5 stat points.'

(Well, doesn't seem to be anything special, but at least I can feed her for a few days without any effort. Plus, that book will come in handy, I'll be able to tell when she's sick and it'll help me identify any animals we come across here.) Gathering himself, Gabriel preened his wings and started to hop off Emmie's pack. He made his way over to Gala to check on her wound.

"Gala, are you okay?"

'Yes, my leg is healing very quickly. Thank you again.'

"It's of no concern Gala. We will follow Emmie as long as she will let us. First we need your leg to heal, then we can figure out what our future holds." Gabriel gave her leg a once over and decided to go see Emmie. As he got airborne, he noticed Buck and her making their over to the packs. He glided over to her shoulder and landed softly. "Hello!"

Emmie giggled. "Well hello there sleepy head, did you have a nice nap?" As she made her way to Gala, Gala raised her head and acknowledged her presence. "Let's check these wounds. Those herbs I packed in there are meant to heal quickly, so it should be nearly back to normal by now." She unraveled the the cloth around her leg to check the wound. After gently washing away the herbs, a few circular scars were revealed. "Looks good to go. Good thing they weren't too deep or it would've taken much longer to heal."

Gala got up and started walking around testing her leg out. Suddenly, she dove into the brush and Pounced on a small rabbit. She bit into its neck, hard, breaking it before carrying it to Emmie as an offering of thanks.

"Lunch!" Gabriel yelled as he took jumped from Emmie's shoulder to the ground.

"Yes, when we set up camp this afternoon, I'll cook up this Rabbit. Thank you Gala." Gala's tail started wiggling back and forth happily. Emmie and Buck strapped on their packs after storing away the berry boxes and set back out towards home. It would take more than 10 hours to walk home so they've decided on setting up camp after sundown. As it is only early afternoon, they'll have several hours of travel before setting up camp.

Gabriel thought this would be a perfect time to test out his new herb knowledge to see if he can replace the herbs Emmie used helping Gala. Since he already knew all the basic herbs, one look had told him they were a common herb in this forest. After a short flight he found several bunches and brought them back to Emmie.

"How'd you know these were the herbs I used earlier?"

"Smell. They have weird smell." Knowing he had to come up with an easy to believe lie, he blurted out the first excuse he could think of. (Now she won't question me bringing other herbs to her in the future. I can also use it as an excuse to take off whenever I want.) After several more flights looking for the herbs he learned of earlier, he had found 7 different herbs. Of these herbs, 3 were used for healing wounds, 3 were used for pain killers, and the last one was a single Black Flower on a branch. He had put the single flower and most of the other herbs in his Tiny Dimension, only bringing small portions back to Emmie. The black flower wasn't actually in his herb knowledge, but it gave him a strange feeling so he took it anyway with intentions to identify it after gaining more knowledge. Finally deciding to rest, Gabriel landed back on Emmie's pack.

"Gala, stay close."

'I will.'

Several hours later, Buck and Emmie had already set up their camp. Emmie was currently cooking strips of Rabbit in a travel pan. Humming to herself while the ravished Fox and Raven creeped over her shoulders to check the food.

"Get down, it will be done in a few minutes." Emmie brushed off the two beggars and finished cooking the food up. She brought the biggest portion to Buck and split the rest amongst the three of them.

"Get rid of those two, you know they're going to cause you problems when you come back to town. If that Raven isn't tamed, your brother will never let you keep it." Buck grew increasingly frustrated with Emmie's antics. (Wasting her own food on some strays that she can't even tame. Pointless.)

"I think brother will understand. They're not hostile and since Gabriel is learning to speak, he may be able to help me when I attempt to tame other animals. Maybe he can learn their languages too. He seems to be able to communicate with the Fox already." Justifying her friend being there, that genius thought occured to her. (I don't know if he can, but maybe this will get Buck to let them be.) After cleaning up their dinner dishes, Buck told Emmie to take first watch and headed in for the night.

Gabriel snuggled up next to Emmie while she kept watch. (6 days I've already been here. Doesn't seem like such a bad place with these guys around. I might like it here.)