On Guard

Giving my best smile towards Olivia, I heard the voice of Oliver get louder. Soon, he was back by my side, slightly sweating but with a happier smile on his face.

"Now let's go back to harvesting!"

Olivia smiled kindly and we moved forward from our current area.

"This area we are in right now has been harvested recently, so we must change areas. Also, the areas we harvested from are from the village's buffer area, so I hope you don't mind if we move a little further away from the village."

Saying that, Olivia set out a path for us that seemed to be quite deep into the forest.

"So the village has a harvesting system?"

As I asked, we finally stopped and started harvesting a little from every tree.

"We group up several areas and assign them a time period to be used. This is so when we finally cycle around all the resources will be replenished and the natural fauna will not be harmed by our harvesting."

Hearing her words, I pried some bark off a tree and broke it into several pieces to be kept.

"Then is there a reason we must go so deep? We passed by a lot of trees earlier."

Looking at my current inventory as well as the haul in Oliver's basket, I nodded my head in satisfaction and decided to end harvesting for today.

"That is our barrier. Since you most probably will never betray us, I think I can safely tell you this."

Olivia shot a glance at Oliver secretly and I saw Sazzy narrowing her eyes at Olivia's action.

"For that patch of land, the ingredients there are not edible. We regularly poison that stretch of land to keep intruders away. If anyone makes it this far, they usually have at least a decent knowledge of the fauna that of Mors. However, that may be because they have someone to help them. To prevent outsiders from approaching our village, we poison the trees a certain distance from the village. They're not deadly, but you will be incredibly weakened by eating them. Most of the villages in Mors use this method to keep out anyone who plans to camp near us. Of course, the distance and width of the poisoned land is confidential to every village."

While speaking, Olivia expertly harvested several ingredients.

"I guess the children must know the distance as well. In the beginning, we followed Jenny so there were no problems. Then in Media Luna, we had the two boys follow us. Maybe there were others nearby as well since I kind of doubt Linda would only send children for surveillance. As unhinged as she seems. Then for Fluvius, it's the two sisters."

Typing quickly to Sazzy with my personal terminal, I saw her read my message and nod her head.

[I agree. I don't think we are 'lucky' to be able to avoid the protective band around Media Luna. They probably had someone else tail us. The children were probably a method to let our guards down. Since the two aren't exactly the greatest hiders.]

Remembering back to the time we found Brian and Theo poorly hiding in the bushes, I couldn't help smiling at their antics.

"Did someone send you a joke?"

Olivia turned around with her basket full of ingredients.

"No no, it's not that. I was just remembering that in Fluvius, we met two little mischievous boys who invited themselves inside for a meal."

Laughing as I shared how Brian and Theodore became friends with Oliver, Olivia chuckled.

"As expected of Brian and Theodore. The two of them certainly have a way with quickly befriending people regardless of their age. I can certainly see why Linda sent the two of them to look after you. However, that mind boggling decision of sending children is certainly like her. It almost makes me want to give her a piece of my mind."

[I see that we weren't the only ones who were treated like that.]

I laughed nervously as Olivia smiled her scary smile. Then, noticing that we were not harvesting anymore, she suggested we walk back to the village.

"If it's not too personal, could I ask how the two of your villages met? You seem quite close after all. Linda even has a house here."

Olivia sighed once and looked up pleadingly towards the sky.

"I wish it was a happier meeting. To be fair, our villages go back really far, further than the war. Since both of our gods are siblings, our villages were technically siblings as well. But even so, we weren't as close as we are now. It was during the time when the Colonizers started colonizing Mors that we grew closer by having a common enemy. Then the war deepened that bond. But the first memory I had with Linda was when our villages were gathering in protest. Linda was not the chief yet, but she sure knew how to lead everyone. She banded together the non-adults, which included me at the time, and we had the displeasure of being involved in all her shenanigans in repelling the Colonizers as much as possible. She's smart. She just has no screws in her head."

She shook her head as she seemed to recall all the memories of a less than pleasant time period.

From there, the conversation turned into small talk until we finally returned to the village.

"Well then, we'll see you around!"

Waving at us, the two sisters then left our group. The three of us returned to our house, where the first thing I did was to walk into the kitchen to sort our ingredients. Beside me, Oliver was helping out with some of them.

[How was your time with Pansy?]

Sazzy stared as the two of us worked while she slacked off at the side.

"From what I feel, she is quite a nice person. Although I feel that sometimes she is viewing someone else through me. She makes these sad expressions once in a while, so I didn't feel too comfortable asking her about it."

Hanging his head a little, I raised one hand and patted his hair.

"You did a good job. We also didn't manage to get all that much information from Olivia."

Leaving out her backstory, since it was a little too sensitive for children, I told him about her relationship with Media Luna, specifically Linda, and we both shared our impressions of the two sisters.

"Also, I'm planning on pulling us out of this whole faction war between the anti-Colonizers and the pro-Colonizers."

Stating this to Oliver, I saw him pause for a while and frown.

"But why? We've come this far!"

I wrapped my fingers around the strands of his hair and gave a sigh.

"It's too dangerous. You saw what happened with Amanda. And then our house was invaded. If this continues, our lives might even be put into danger. I don't want that. I want us to spend the rest of the 20 years in peace. Not being involved in such a dangerous thing."

Oliver made a face of frustration. His eyes shook as he seemed to be in the middle of a dilemma before he sighed.

"I understand."

Saying this through gritted teeth, he seemed extremely down.

"Thank you. Now, let's make dinner! Today has been such a busy day that time flew by quickly."

Lifting my hand from his head, I tried to cheer us up by shifting our attention towards food.

"I was thinking of making something more savory. Since we usually eat sweet things."

Taking some of the bark we harvested, as well as some berries, mushrooms and fruits, I put them aside and kept the rest of the ingredients.

Then after washing our hands, I took the bark and placed it in a plastic bag, before smashing it with the back end of the knife.

"First, smash the Rain powder bark into small pieces and mix it with water. This will make a sweet mixture that can neutralize poisons. Next, we take some of these fruits that we harvested, including jade fruits, and smash them as well. We can then cut the mushrooms up, including the cap, and put them into another bowl."

Doing all this, we then boiled some water and put a pinch of clam powder. Oliver then helped me put all the berries inside the boiling water after smashing and stirred the mixture.

"To make it not sweet, we have to boil the berries in hot water and throw that water away. This will allow all the other flavors other than sweetness to shine."

Scooping out the boiled berries, we then threw away the water and refilled the pot. This time we put in way less water.

"After boiling the water, we can add the boiled berries and the mushrooms together. Near the end, we can put in the fruits to give it a better texture."

The resultant mixture would have a texture not usually associated with savory food. But it's most probably delicious.

I closed the WonderFood blog which I got this recipe from and looked at the black mush mixture that we got as the end product.

[Is this...edible?]

Staring skeptically at the dish, Oliver reflected Sazzy's thoughts with his face.

Looking at the two of them, still not used to the weird combinations in this world, I took a spoon and offered myself as the first sacrifice to taste the dish.

Although mushy, when I bit onto it, there was a sort of crunch that most probably came from the fruits. Following that crunch was a slightly salty flavor that reminded me of soy sauce with half-boiled eggs.

Seeing my expression, Oliver took up a spoon and scooped a little bit of the dish into his spoon. He then licked it.

"Mmm! It tastes salty!"

More confident, he scooped one whole chunk of the dish into his spoon and put it in his mouth.

"Delicious!"

Devouring the dish clean, we both washed up before heading to bed. Currently it was quite late, and the sun had already set.

[Personal stream tomorrow?]

Bidding goodbye to Oliver at his room, Sazzy asked this question as I headed into mine.

"Yeah. I decided on the menu already. By the way, what is the progress of the police investigation?"

Getting into bed, I snuggled into the covers as I asked Sazzy.

[I haven't gotten any more news yet. You go to sleep first. I'll go check up on the progress.]

Saying that, Sazzy disappeared into thin air and I closed my eyes.