Guardian's Farm 17

Eli knelt at the edge of a small ravine, carefully examining his surroundings as he took a small sip from his flask, not daring to lower his guard even for a second. He was too deep into the forest, and he couldn’t take such a risk.

Not when he was exploring deeper than he ever had in his life, wandering away from the safety of the areas he had already explored.

It was not an accident.

After all, the farther away from the border he got, the more dangerous the forest was. But, it also meant better targets to hunts, and more valuable medicinal plants to gather. He needed money desperately if he were to follow his plans of leaving for adventuring before winter arrived, and this was the only way he could gather the necessary amount.

First of all, he needed a new weapon. While his secondhand spear had been enough when he had been working on his own, lately, he could feel that the old weapon was holding him back, its poor balance and slightly crooked handle making it difficult to achieve balance.

He tried his best to make a replacement handle, but it didn’t take long for him to realize it was not something he could do, and fixing the handle for a weapon was much different than repairing a household axe. He needed to visit one of the weapon makers in town to purchase a new one. And for that, he needed money.

However, while the need for a new weapon was important, it wasn’t the only thing that drove him. The more money he earned, the less he had to work; which would free the time he desperately needed to practice with his spear. Lately, he could feel that his lack of time was holding him back during the lessons.

Especially since his teacher turned out to be surprisingly competent.

Eli wasn’t sure if the other students in town would have shared the same idea; after all, a month of training with them would be enough to start principles of internal energy. His teacher clearly lacked that knowledge, but he made up for it with his solid focus on fundamentals.

Something Eli had benefited from greatly while hunting. He was stronger, his endurance was better, and moreover, his balance had improved significantly, which was very useful while exploring the mountains behind the border, where a sure foot while trying to climb a boulder or escape a beast too big to tangle could be the difference between life and death.

It was why he was keeping an eye open for medicinal plants, other than the money they represented. He hoped to find something that might be useful for his teacher’s injuries.

Despite the man’s stoic demeanor and unwavering posture, Eli could sense that something wasn’t quite right. The stiffness was persistent in his movements, a few grimaces that slipped past his otherwise controlled expression while he was practicing his techniques suggested something persistent.

He never spoke of it openly, never asked for help, but Eli wasn’t an ingrate. His teacher was doing his best to help him — even if it wasn’t much — and he would pay him back with his full capabilities. If he could find a cure before he left, it would be for the best.

After the brief break where he quenched his thirst, Eli straightened, and started walking once again, following a rough trail he had discovered earlier, one that belonged to some kind of large goat. Hopefully, it would mean that there were no predators around.

He pressed on as the forest canopy grew denser, the underbrush thick enough to slow him down. The calls of birds and small animals sounded faint and infrequent. He paused occasionally to scan for potential landmarks, not wanting to get lost.

The worst thing he could do deep in the forest was to waste daylight. Too much lingering, and he would end up lost. Soon, he would have to make a decision between camping and returning back, and the more herbs he discovered before then, the easier that decision would be.

“Maybe leaving some marks wouldn’t be amiss,” he said as he used his knife to add a notch to a nearby tree. Then, he sniffed, a bitter, unfamiliar smell hitting his nose. “That can’t be right,” he muttered as he let the sensation wash over him, cutting the tree deeper.

Only for it to sink into the tree with shocking ease. When he pulled his knife back, a residue clung to its surface, dark and faintly slick. “Alright, that can’t be normal,” he said even as he used a leaf to rub his knife clean, careful not to touch the edge.

“Luckily, it’s far from the town,” he decided. Diseases were a common part of farm life, but not a welcome one. Particularly the kind that was strong enough to ruin an aged tree like the one he had touched. He used his knife to cut a sample from the tree, wrapped it carefully, and put it in a separate section.

As a hunter, reporting anything unusual was something that was expected of him. It might be far away from the border, but diseases had a way of spreading. In the same vein, he had also used a rock to smash the plants he had collected … only to realize half of them had been ruined.

Which meant the rest couldn’t be used either.

“What a giant waste,” he growled in frustration as he poured everything he had collected. It was impossible to know which one was diseased, and which one was not. Eli didn’t want to risk selling it to a herbalist and indirectly killing a patient.

With that, he decided to return. It was earlier than he had expected, but the disease made the exploration a wasteful effort. Especially since he needed to take a bath and wash everything he owned to make sure he didn’t spread the disease further.

As he walked back, he wondered whether to mention it to his teacher as well, but he decided to wait until he received the word from the elders. Unsubstantiated news about a disease spreading through the plants might cause panic, especially for his teacher, who was going through his first year as a farmer.

“Thankfully the Dragon of Darkness is long gone,” he muttered as he walked back down the same pathway. After encountering a disease, it was impossible not to think about the blight. Not with all the cautionary tales that were told to them when they were young, and the battle against the dragon was still ongoing.

The darkness held many threats according to the various tales he had listened to while growing up, but for farmers, nothing was scarier than the blight, a magical disease that had been spread by the worshippers of darkness, destroying the land and corrupting the beasts.

It was scary because it hadn’t needed to spread into their land to ruin their lives and threaten them with starvation. It just needed to ruin enough crops to create the threat of famine; and the nobles did the rest by taking over their reserves, leaving them just enough to survive until the spring.

The memories of those cold, hungry winter nights still haunted Eli.

“Thank the saviors that we don’t have to worry about such horrors anymore,” he said and focused on the present. They defeated the dragon, meaning they didn’t have to worry about threats like the blight anymore.

Still, as he walked back, he found himself uneasy in a way that he couldn’t easily explain, his fingers around his spear tight enough to hurt. “You’re being paranoid, Eli,” he told himself, but that didn’t prevent him from walking faster.

The sooner he reported his findings to the village elders, the better. The elders would report it to the town, which would solve the issue permanently.

It wasn’t like they would ignore it if there was a real threat.