Hunting in the woods

An hour after waking up, Orin had bathed, make cornmeal pancakes, eaten them, and was exiting the city's eastern gate. There weren't many people on the road yet, since it was still early in the morning. This is what Orin preferred for two reasons, the first is, because in few hours there would be many carts traveling between Emerald Valley City and Four Streams City, and not all cart drivers were respectful of those that walk along the road. And having to dive into the brush on the side of the road to avoid being hit by a speeding cart, wasn't pleasant. 

The second reason has to do with his competition, some were young cultivators like him trying to earn some spirit stones to improve their odds in joining a sect. But most were old drunks looking to earn enough to spend the night in a drunken stupor. If Orin ran into a fellow cultivator in the woods, they would give each other a wide berth and move to another area to hunt. But each time Orin met an old drunk in the woods, they would try to rob him. The first couple of times this happened Orin was forced to run away, and each time made Orin feel irritated. Eventually, he stopped running and pulled a knife on his would-be robbers, most were smart enough to walk away, but a few received a slash or two.

Orin didn't take any pride in slashing some old drunks suffering from the shakes and hangovers, it made him even feel more cautious. There may come a time when he pulls his knife on drunk who hasn't let his cultivation lapse. A drunk like his father, someone who kept cultivating and learning spells, someone who could kill him with ease. The meagre spirit stones he would get from the various spirit grasses and any animal he hunted were not worth his life, but someone without pride isn't worthy to be a cultivator. 

Around an hour of walking along the road away from Emerald Valley City, Orin left the road and began exploring the woods. Within a few minutes Orin had already found several stalks of spirit grass, and a few rabbits off in the distance. He was starting to feel that today was going to be his lucky day, and it was giving him a disturbing feeling.

Orin knew himself and his luck. He had never been very lucky, and he had never been very unlucky, his luck had always been middle-of-the-road. But almost the moment he stepped off the road he practically trampled over several stalks of spirit grass and saw rabbits, the two very things he came to the woods for. Thinking a little deeper, Orin remembered that in the plans he made last night, he was supposed to leave through the northern gate instead of the eastern gate. While it wasn't a big deal to leave from a different gate, but if Orin decided to leave a gate, then he would normally leave through the northern gate. 

Orin wanted question if he was overthinking things and he was just having a lucky day, but decided to do it later since he had already found what he was looking for. It was better for Orin to wonder what was going on while a rabbit or two were stewing on his stove than to wonder about it now and let the rabbits run away. Crouching down and trying to use the surrounding brush as cover Orin crept up on the rabbits before throwing his hunting stick. The stick flew through the air and hit a rabbit in the side of the head with a thunk, which caused all the other rabbits to scatter in all directions.

Orin ran to the rabbit; it had been stunned by the stick and if he calmly took his time and walked over, he might just see his dinner get up and run away. Grabbing the rabbit by the neck and giving it a quick jerk ended it life. After putting the rabbit in his storage bag, he began to pick the spirit grasses. Orin was about to wander around looking for more spirit grasses and rabbits, when he decided to try and test his so-called luck.

Closing his eyes he began to think of spirit grasses, imagining the way they look growing out of the dirt. Within a few seconds he had a feeling that if he headed to his left for a bit, he would find some spirit grasses. After walking for several hundred feet, he found a large patch of spirit grasses. When the patch of spirit grasses had been picked clean, he tried the same thing with rabbits and was able to kill another rabbit. But after repeating the several more times, it stopped working. No matter how hard he tried to focus on spirit grasses or rabbits he no longer had any feelings of where they were. 

Orin didn't know how what had happened had happen, it was just another weird thing on the list of weird things over the past couple of days. And yes, he was keeping a list. He hoped that someday all the things on his list would be answered, along with the one question he didn't dare put on his list, why him. 

Looking at the sky, the position of the sun told him he had only been hunting for about a little over an hour. In this time, he had found over two-hundred stalks of spirit grass and killed four rabbits, making this the best hunting trip he ever had. He was planning to spend several hours looking around the woods, but now he was going to return early with more than he planned. His walk back to the city was just as smooth as it was on the way out. Only a few passed him on the road and none of them seemed to be in a hurry yet, it was still early. 

As Orin entered the city, the quite tranquility of the woods with the normal everyday hustle and bustle of a city. A thousand noises that made up the background hum that this morning Orin was used to, now seemed overly loud and annoying. Heading to the merchant's section, he looked in on the shops to find the best prices for the spirit grasses, taking thirty spirit stones for the two-hundred plus stalks. The happiness of getting all those spirit stones soon disappeared, when he began wondering if those were the spirit grasses he needed to make an alchemic tea. This increased his desire to copy all the alchemy books the city library had.

After a quick stop at Jax's food cart to trade two of the rabbits he hunted, he made his way to the library. Once he got inside the library, he began to read the first page of all the books he still needed to read on the first floor. Just reading the descriptions of the contents of the books made Orin feel bored and he started to dread the time when he would have to read the entire book. After the last book had been copied, he hoped, he went to the second floor with hope the descriptions of the books on the second floor would be more interesting.