The Dryad 81 Ivy's Cooking

It does not seem like Laurel trusts me all that much. I really don't understand why she would think I was not reliable. She made me repeat several times that I would find a safe place to keep her papers since they would get ruined if they got wet. "I am already 754 years old, I have been taking care of myself that whole time," I shouted in frustration, scarring a squirrel out of a hollow it was hiding its nuts in. I took a breath to calm myself down, then started thinking hard.

The hard part would be finding a place to put the papers where they would not be turned into a nest for some animal or other. I originally wanted to just put them in a hollow of a tree. But more than half the ones I found already had animals inside them. The other half did not do much to keep the pages dry. This made me realize that if there was a good spot, it would already be taken.

"I guess it is time to practice some of what she taught me," I said to myself in mild frustration. Was it really too much to ask for a nice empty hollow with no one home that would keep everything dry? OK, fine, maybe it was a lot to ask. I would just have to simplify my search. After a little while looking, I found a sugar maple tree near where I spent most of my time that would work nicely. I caused the end of a branch to grow with a small hollow I could put the rolled up pages into. To keep it dry I caused a small layer of bark to grow over the opening.

To open it up again, I would need to try pulling my energy out of it to make it regress. But not now! Now was not the time to practice with that. I was mentally and magically exhausted. I needed a break! I had finished making the cover of the opening using my internal reserves as I was taught. I practiced using my internal reserve a few times with Laurel and several more times over the last few days since she had left. I could already notice a difference in my capacity. I had added another 30 seconds onto my endurance! I was quite proud of myself for that. That was a fifty percent improvement in just a few days. Maybe I was overestimating Laurel. I could catch up to her in no time!

After thinking of my new friends, I felt lonely sitting by myself. It had been at least a week since I spent my happiest days yet of having Laurel, Emily and Leafy to talk to. Now that I think about it, I think they said that Leafy was not her real name, but I can not remember what it really was. Leafy is easy to remember, it is nice and plant like.

My whole life seemed a lot more boring now just sitting around after all the excitement I had. I was tired, but I needed to do something. Then remembered something I had not practiced yet. I needed to make some porridge. I was 'hungry' enough to eat. Does that really work? I have never been hungry in my whole life. But I felt like I could eat. I think that is what hungry means, so I guess I am hungry. Even if not, it works for me!

I gathered a nice pile of logs together and stacked them up. But sadly when I went to go light it I remember I left the flint and the pot I was gifted in the clearing where we had last camped. Porridge would have to wait a few hours for me to go back for them. Why did I forget something so important! I couldn't believe it.

As I walked I tried practicing Laurel's walking technique, but to be honest, I tripped myself up nearly as many times as I sped myself up. It was going to take many decades for me to get anywhere near the level that Laurel was at. But at least I had something to work towards. I do not think Laurel was aware of how she walked, what with how casually she uses her power. Every step she takes, she has the plants catch her feet perfectly and gently push her feet off when she takes her next step. It was a small difference, but when I was walking through the woods with just her, I had to try hard to not fall behind. I was too ashamed to ask her to slow up or to show my tiredness so I am guessing she did not notice my struggle. But I could not wait for the day when I would be able to do that without thinking about it like her.

I tried boosting my speed on the way back with the pot, but the added weight threw me off, so I decided to just give up and walk normally. One thing I was proud of is that the return trip did take longer when I was walking normally. Yay! I was on the right track! I let myself do a little dance around the fire. Well, the pile of logs. I would do some more dancing once I got the fire started.

It only took three tries to get good sparks with the flint. I was still in such a happy mood that I wanted to start dancing again, but I would get nowhere if I did not get this fire started so I had to forbear. It was hard to not get distracted.

I tried several more times sending a shower of sparks into the logs, but things were not going like I remembered. My patience was waning quickly as I sent spray after spray of angry red into the logs with no effect. I let out a whimper and fell back on my rump. The elated feeling I had from my successes earlier was already deflated.

I poked the ground trying to figure out what I was doing wrong. I had not had any real issue when Leafy was here getting the fire started. Why could I not do it now? Out of frustration I struck the flint a few more times and watched as the sparks showered on the leaf litter around me. When one of the leaves started to smolder for an instant, I remembered that I needed some small things to get the fire started. I hurriedly grabbed a bunch of dried leaves (or Leafy's?) as I was thinking about them to help me remember, then found some small sticks and placed them inside the logs. With a few strikes of the flint I was able to finally get the fire started. Something still did not seem right as I was getting a lot more smoke than the other fires I have seen. But it was burning and that's what mattered.

Waiting for the fire to grow, I did my little victory dance around the fire. I overcame my trial and now it was time to have fun! To be honest I might have gotten carried away, but a skittering noise from a racc.o.o.n distracted me long enough to remember what I wanted to be doing in the first place.

Part of me wanted to open up the log to get the notes on how to make porridge. But that would involve practicing pulling out my powers from the branch. So I decided to just do it off of memory.
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I added the water salt and grains and put it over the fire. It did not take long for the water to come to a boil. Yes, step one! Once the water had mostly evaporated, I gave it a quick test but the grains were still too chewy. I remembered that Leafy said that this means that the food was not ready yet, so I let it cook longer. But a foul smell started coming off the food. What was going on??? I tried stirring, but the grains were sticking to the bottom of the pot and turning darker, and it looked so dry… Oh---

I needed more water to cook the porridge. I felt like such an imbecile for not realizing it sooner, but now was not the time to worry about it. I quickly rushed to the stream to gather more water. I did not think the damage to the porridge was toooo bad, so I kept cooking it. I gave it a few more minutes and tested the food again. This time the grains were done well, but the porridge was a little runny and the flavor was off. I think that had to do with it burning a little.

I decided I would count it as a success and eat what I could of the porridge. But trying to figure out how to clean out the blackened stuff on the bottom of the pan was going to be harder. Leafy had just said to rub the pan down with clean sand and some water, but after a few prods I could tell that would not be enough. At least not without a lot more effort.

***

Racc.o.o.n's POV

There was a terrible noise coming from the stream all night. Such an awful sc.r.a.ping noise that sent s.h.i.+vers down my spine. I really wanted to hunt for clams in the stream, but I did not dare go near there. It was not turning out to be a good day. For starters, I was woken up coughing due to too much smoke. At first I thought I would need to run for my life, but then I realized that the forest spirit was pretending to be like those humans. She was doing a bad job at it, too. But let's hope that she does not become too much like them and start to look for meat to eat.