Chapter 7: Picking Herbs

Asteria and Annie departed in the early morning when the sun hadn't even risen yet. Breathing in the fresh and relaxing air, combined with the humid atmosphere, it gave off a slightly cold feeling.

The animal skin made into clothes that Asteria wore right now helped her fend off against the low temperature. She walked alongside Annie, who seemed to be nimble as she jumped around the sticking out low branches of trees.

The grass was pretty high, just as expected in this kind of forest. Mosses grew unhindered, adding the color of green into the scenery. Dew dotted the leaves, though it caused slippery when one stepped above the mosses.

Asteria had never taken a proper look at this situation. The sun was still hiding, but the sky had gradually brightened. So, she still managed to see everything clearly.

As someone who had been living so long in the city with air pollution, she enjoyed it living here.

"The journey might take several days," Annie informed again, though she had said this a few days ago.

"Alright. Got it."

Annie certainly did this kind of thing a lot as she expertly moved along the slippery mosses, tendrils of plants sticking out from above, and avoided thorny plants. Asteria had a nice figure as she worked out a lot, but she was still losing to Annie. However, she was also a quick learner.

Asteria, with several tries swinging tendrils along to moved faster before she quickly mastered it. Annie joined her as she grabbed them, and both competed. It was a fun experience.

By the time that sky had turned blue, and clouds decorated it just like a painting, the two took a rest. The humid air was long gone, replaced with a slightly hot atmosphere that caused them to sweat.

Asteria drank mouthfuls of water, then handed the pot back to Annie. Besides sweating a lot, her skin and clothes have been dirtied. However, she didn't mind. The dirt would help to cover her smell from wild animals.

"Do you usually go to pick herbs alone?" Asteria asked, fanning herself with her hand.

Annie munched on the bread in her hand and nodded. "It's more convenient going alone so that others wouldn't see where we have been hiding our herbs; I mean, we sometimes leave some herbs to be properly mature before picking them. Others also plant them instead."

"But we may also run into each other sometimes," Annie added, dusting herself off. She stood up to look at the area ahead and called out to Asteria. "Asteria, are you okay if we continue right now? We should be arriving on the tree I usually used to sleep on before midnight to be safe."

Asteria still wanted to rest a bit more, but she didn't want to be a hindrance on this trip instead, so she nodded at Annie. "No problem. Let's get going."

The two continued their journey, occasionally climbing up trees to check for the situation ahead before going forward. They finally arrived at the said tree after more than three hours of jumping and running around.

The three were big. Asteria estimated that two people wouldn't be enough to hug the circumference of the entire trunk. Annie grinned and told Asteria. "Let's climb up."

While Annie nimbly jumping around the branches to reach a high place, Asteria who hadn't been used to living in the forest like that took the slower development. She carefully stepped on tree branches one after another while checking that no green-colored snakes were hiding and disguising themselves in the thick leaves.

"We sleep here tonight," Annie told Asteria when she finally arrived at the thick branch that supported Annie. This place wasn't bad, but Asteria chose to pick another branch so she could lean against the main trunk.

To sleep in such an open place, she hoped that nothing would happen. After spending a month in the village and living in this place, Asteria got a lot of new knowledge. But she still thought that it was lacking, as of this was just the tip of it. Considering that the villages were such secluded places, it was probably not wrong to assume so.

The sun had gone around a few hours ago. As they needed to be in perfect condition to continue moving forward, the two didn't waste any more time to sleep after they had just eaten their dinner. The menu was the usual, a slice of bread combined with a piece of greasy meat.

The surrounding was quiet at the night. Asteria accidentally awakened from her sleep. She somehow could feel that something was bothering her as if someone was watching her every move. She looked around and found not even a single animal activity above. It was too quiet.

This discovery puzzled her. But she also had no intention to check for it. As Annie said before, the beasts here seemed to have more intelligence than the ones she found at her home. Especially for wolves, they were smart and extremely cunning.

If the uneasiness was due to the eyes of those beasts staring at her from the dark, then she just let them be. She just hoped that by the time morning came, they would've left.

Asteria no longer bothered by it and closed her eyes as she went back to her sleep. After so much difficulty, she finally managed to sink into the world of oblivion again.

What she failed to notice that indeed there was a pair red of eyes studying, watching, and analyzing her from the dark. But they weren't the eyes that belonged to any beasts...

Time passed as the sun quickly rose again. After waking up and having the morning breakfast, the two continued their journey. The journey unexpectedly went without too much trouble. Perhaps it was mating time for wolves as winter will be coming soon, so they just paid a little amount of attention to a pair of skinny humans.

After going around exploring the forest for more than three days, the two finally arrived at the mountain area; their destination.

"Ready to find some herbs?" Annie asked quite excitedly. It was clear that she loved picking up the herbs, especially when they found the rare ones. They've found a completely weird plant in the middle of their journey; for Asteria at least, it was an unfamiliar plant. But Annie actually picked it and claimed it as a rare herb.

"It's for treating fatigue and has the effect of calming one's mind. It's could also help when you are unable to sleep at night." The color of the leaves was dark red. The effect sounded ordinary, but Annie added that it could also cleanse the body from negative energy and get rid of all possible diseases.

Asteria listened and took a look at the plant. She inwardly noted down its features. Annie had also been picking other ordinary and slightly rarer ones during their journey. So, they already stock up some herbs.

The two quickly took their time to search for herbs in every corner of these high mountains. It couldn't be said to be mountains, but the height of the place was higher than the hills. A lot of herbs grew here unhindered.

Asteria has been picking up some herbs as she quietly memorized which way she had taken earlier. The two went into their separate ways, but they've also agreed to meet again after deciding the time.

There were no specific herbs to be picked, so Asteria just pick whatever plants she knew of to be useful. She crouched down to inspect a certain four-leaf small plant.

She had that feeling again of being watched, which made her quite wary. She couldn't help but be vigilant of her surrounding that it made it her so conscious of it. Asteria pretended as if she didn't notice anything, though she would be slightly startled at every sound in the area.

Asteria didn't waste too much time wandering alone as she hurriedly packed the herbs in a cloth and tied it together. She moved along the pebbled mountain full of high grass, heading to the location that Annie and she had promised to meet before.

She heaved a sigh of relief as she felt that the existence who was seemingly watching her had gone. She waited for Annie to appear by picking more herbs in the surrounding area.

After an hour later, Annie appeared while bringing two cloths filled with herbs each. She unpacked both and began to separate it into categories.

"Those are also herbs?" Asteria frowned as looked at the group of unfamiliar herbs in front of her. Those herbs were deliberately separated from others since the start and Asteria was puzzled by it.

"Those are not herbs." Annie chuckled. "It's for creating poisons."

Asteria was taken aback. She looked at Annie as if she had just found out about the hobby of this new friend of hers. "Why?"

Annie shrugged. "Everyone has their means to protect themselves, aren't they? And mine is poison."

Asteria nodded. If she thought about it again, it was actually an interesting skill. "Do you learn it by yourself?"

Annie shook her head. "I once found a few pages of a book. I can't read it by myself, so I asked someone to read it for me."

It was understandable that Annie couldn't read. Perhaps, Asteria also couldn't, since she doubted that she would even know about their alphabets. It was likely impossible that they would use Latin.

"You are a diligent person," Asteria commented.

Annie smiled and shook her head. She glanced at the direction where none of the two hadn't gone into and gestured to Asteria. "Let's go."

"Okay." The two happily chatted away, walking together as they pointed and exchange knowledge about herbs. The two really looked compatible together as friends.

"I will check that area," Annie informed her as she hummed a random tune and jogged to the place where she had pointed to.

Asteria glanced at the two cloths on the ground filled with herbs that Annie had picked before. She was wondering who would bother to learn how to write and read in this forest where none needed to?

Since she doubted that those villagers would be interested in such a thing. However, she didn't doubt that the existence of a person like that was a lie. Each person had their own uniqueness.

Asteria also wondered how she should learn those alphabets. Perhaps, she could ask Annie first who it was?

As Asteria pondered about this. A sudden realization struck her like lightning. Talking about reading, it was inseparable from language.

There were thousands of languages with the probability of each region had their own local ones. How was she able to understand what the people in the village when they were talking?

Asteria tried to speak again and she was even more bewildered that she was currently speaking a completely different language than the ones she knew before.

It was such a frightening thing that Asteria needed time to recover from her shock.

"Asteria!" Asteria didn't even realize Annie was calling her as she stood frozen in her spot. Her eyes filled with great confusion, like a lost person.

"Asteria! Wake up quickly!" The voice was getting louder and urgent, urging her to wake up from her stupor. Yet, Asteria still seemed to be lost in her own world, as if she didn't belong in this world at all and that anything happening around here right now was none of her business.

A harsh pull caused her to stumble, and it finally snapped Asteria out of her daze. Stunned, Asteria looked around at her current situation and couldn't help but was shaken slightly.