11

For three days, the elf wandered through the woods, picking mushrooms. One good thing: he didn't have to look for them. His sense of the forest helped him know exactly where he would find chaga. So the gathering of the forest fruits was faster than for a man who would have had to wander long distances in search of birches and look for black growths on them.

Dima set up one camp half a day's hike home. The second camp was the same distance from the first. It was nothing fancy, just a quick campground that any bushcrafter (a person who likes hiking in the woods and making things in the woods) can create.

Each camp had a homemade table made of poles and logs, a bench with a back made of the same materials, and a lean-to with a single-piece roof. A strong log was used as a support for the canopy. In front of the bunk there is a fire place, behind which there is a wooden shield that reflects heat. The sleeping place itself is covered with spruce branches.

Linael used only those materials that did not harm the forest: dead wood, deadwood. The lapnik (spruce branches) was cut a little, so that the trees would not suffer. The fire, again, was organized by all the rules, i.e. in a pit. The elf had no need of forest fires.

He spent the first day setting up camp. The next two days he gathered chaga and hauled it to the far camp. Mushrooms had accumulated quite a lot, about four backpacks. To go back and forth several times was tiring, so Linael cut them up on the spot to reduce the volume and weight, made a drag, wrapped the loot in a blanket and headed home.

Returning with such a load was difficult. It took a whole day to get home. He got there late at night.

The next day, Dmitry took care of the vegetable garden. Despite the heavy rainfall of the previous days, all the beds had time to dry out. So, after watering them with water from the well, he spent the rest of the day on mulching. As mulch, he used old fallen leaves, of which there was plenty around. Mulch sprinkled on seedbeds retains moisture in the soil, making irrigation less necessary. In addition, under the mulch weeds grow much less. Of the disadvantages - under a layer of mulch can get rodents that will eat part of the crop.

Thanks to this uncomplicated move, he bought time for hiking in the woods.

Linael devoted the evening to making camping bread. Its composition is quite simple: flour and water. This bread does not spoil for a long time. It can be cooked directly on the fire, for example, covering a stick with dough. But thin flatbread, cooked in the oven or in a frying pan, and best of all in a tandoor or its equivalent, tastes better. But Dima had only a small stove with room for a stove in the summer kitchen and a large Russian stove with an oven and room for pans in the house. Naturally, one would not heat the stove at home in warm weather, so the cakes were cooked in the summer kitchen.

The next morning, after the daily performance of a small complex of forest rangers, stuffing his bag with bread and dried meat, Dmitry set out into the taiga again. It was not until well past noon that he arrived at the distant camp. The blanket, bow, and arrows, which had been left in a hiding place under the uprooted root of a wind-blown tree, were still there. The camp looked untouched.

After supper of hastily cooked , Dima fell asleep sweetly to the crackling of the fire. His laden left leg was aching, but he got used to it and paid no attention to the slight pain.

Dima spent three days in the woods this time. He collected all the chaga in the area. He spent the entire evening processing the mushrooms so that he could take the loot home early in the morning.

In the morning after recharging, he saddled himself with poles and set off at a frugal pace. But he had not gone more than ten kilometers when at the edge of his perception he felt something wrong.

Putting the drag on the ground, he concentrated on the trance. In the distance he managed to sense a few large beasts... Or did he? Definitely not! It was a group of people. Five people were slowly wandering through the forest.

"Just Humans," Linael thought. - Hunters, maybe."

He didn't care about the humans. Even if they were gamekeepers and policemen, they wouldn't do anything to him. It was not forbidden to collect chaga.

Still, just in case, Dima took the bowstring off his bow and pulled the arrowheads off his arrows. Now they were only sticks, rope, and pieces of scrap metal. There was nothing to show him for sure.

With peace of mind he continued on his leisurely way to the house.

After a while, Linael began to sense the group of Humans more vividly. They were catching up with him, following the trail left by the wagon. Such tracks in the woods would be recognizable even to someone who had only heard of the ability to read footprints.

Why follow someone? If this were not on Earth, but in a wilder world, Linael would assume robbers were chasing him. But this was the Soviet Union! Dimitri's memory told him that such things do not happen here. That left only the Forest Inspectorate, which there was no point in fearing. All traces of poaching had been removed, there was nothing to charge Karpov with. So he continued at the same thrifty pace along the winding route.

Unfortunately, there are no smooth roads in the forest, unless it is a park or an elven grove. And in the latter case, there are not always level trails. For the sake of aesthetics, they often loop, so the surrounding beauty is perceived more harmoniously. In the same forest, the way is complicated by natural obstacles: somewhere a rockfall, somewhere a tree plucked from the root. In some places you can find impassable thickets of thorny bushes. And in some places it's just a swamp. So, we had to wander like a hare choosing the best route.

Closer to noon Dmitry reached the nearest camp. There he decided to take a break and wait for the rangers. It is psychologically easier to communicate with the Humans in "their" territory. And hunger and fatigue made themselves felt.

The feeling was that the pursuers were two hours' walk away. There was time. Karpov quietly hung a pot of water from a nearby stream on an inclined pole and built a fire under it. Soon the water was boiling, and the ingredients for the shuloom went into it.

The closer the humans came, the more uneasy Linael felt. There was something strange about the movements of these people. He ate the hot chowder and tried to analyze what was clinging to the edge of his subconscious.

The hot food had a positive effect on his brain. It was as if it had dawned on Dmitri - these humans do not know how to walk in the woods at all. And okay, some of them, but no. All of them can't.

Though he was skeptical of the Hoomans' skills, it was worth noting that the local foresters and hunters understood something about forest travel. It's not as if first-time hikers in the woods would behave like that. And here you get the impression that this is a group of tourists in a hurry, rushing through the forest.

- Strange...

Linael put the pot with a few more servings of brew aside and climbed into the wagon. Calmly, without haste, he began to gather arrows back and tighten the bowstring.

Oddities were not a favorite thing with the long man. Usually they were synonymous with trouble. Noiselessly, leaving almost no footprints, he moved toward the five hoomans in the distance of the trampled path. His spotted suit seemed to blend into the surrounding forest, the man vanishing into thin air.