Chương 33: Chapter 30

It hadn't even taken a single second before her family was upon her. Creyla opened her mouth and said something that barely surprised Sobelle, "with your father gone and me being pregnant, you need to go out and forage." She did not talk to Dorsh or even Sobelle's other sisters, she only had one person in mind.

"You're capable aren't you? You can do this much. It's a lot easier than killing a bunch of goblins." Killing a bunch of goblins. Creyla had a way of wording Sobelle's efforts in a way that they meant nothing to those who heard them, the combination of her dismissive tone and her choice of words essentially created this absolute dismissal that convinced everyone into altering their own opinions to reflect that of Creyla's instead.

Such an impressive skill was being used by a petty woman who wanted nothing more than to hate on her own step daughter. Sobelle did not even know why Creyla did this to her, she just did it. There wasn't a time when she treated Sobelle kindly either, she was like this even after she entered their home for the first time. With her father gone, Sobelle had no choice but to follow Creyla's demands.

If he was here, he'd say something that actually got the woman to shut up and do her chores, but also not defend Sobelle in any way. But that was better than whatever treatment would come after he left.

"I'll be back before dinner then."

"You don't have to do that." Creyla whispered. Sobelle caught enough of it to make up what her stepmother tried to say under her breath. She did not react, dared not to.

"Just go and collect whatever you can find in the forest, and you can't carry a basket with you since I'm going to use it." Petty. Childish. Annoying. There were so many words Sobelle could use to describe the vapid mutt that was her step mother, but out of all of them, she'd prefer to call her by a much simpler name that still perfectly described her: Desperate.

Creyla was desperate for her husband's attention, she was desperate to feel better about herself, she was desperate to have a better life than what she had now. Whatever purpose she thought she had in the past was now gone and she was desperately clinging to a belief that she had achieved it. And she kept up that belief by bringing others down. It was such a pathetic life that Sobelle believed herself to be above it. Now though? She reconsidered how she felt.

Back then, Creyla hadn't targeted her outright because her father's presence prevented that from happening. Since he was gone, her pettiness ramped up and she treated Sobelle like she was some annoying urchin rather than her daughter. She only ever really played nice in the past, and it was only directed at her father, not Sobelle.

'I definitely won't get any portions for what she's going to cook from now on.' She was lucky to have the knowledge the Gods gave her. If she knew nothing about making traps, she'd starve or possibly even beg. With it, she'd be able to catch meat in the coming days. And meat was definitely a better meal than whatever her stepmother would cook. Recognizing that she needed to get started on that as soon as possible was essentially how Sobelle convinced herself to walk towards the forest and start foraging early.

"Wait!" A voice came from behind her and stopped Sobelle from continuing. She turned and saw Chael running out of the gates and towards her, Sobelle was curious as for what this merchant wanted with her so she waited. That and she knew that it'd be rude if she did not wait despite being asked to. She respected Chael and was thankful for all the things the girl gave her during the goblin crisis. The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

"You—" Chael bent over and braced herself by holding her knees. She exhaled and straightened up, "you actually waited for me!" Why was she so happy about that? Wasn't that just common sense? Of course Sobelle waited for her. She'd also do it even if she hated Chael, as being rude in front of her entire family would be like throwing dry firewood into a raging campfire. Giving them that kind of fuel would only make their insults worse.

"Yes?" Sobelle did not hate Chael and so, instead of anger, she was just confused.

"Was I not supposed to?"

"No, I wanted you to wait." Chael fixed her hair and patted her clothes to straighten them. She cleared her throat, "let us go to the forest, together. I also want to help you."

"Forage?" Merchants foraged? Sobelle always believed they were the type to just buy their food if they needed to eat. Kinda like nobles.

"You want to forage?"

"Oh! Foraging! Right! Of course I do. Yeah, I wanna forage." Chael acted suspicious but Sobelle was confident she'd win against this pampered girl if they were to ever come to a fight so she nodded. Which caught Chael off guard for some reason, "wait, you agreed?"

"Of course." Sobelle turned away and moved her feet. She did not want to waste precious daytime, "let's go."

"Okay." Chael ran after Sobelle and the latter heard her loud footsteps until Chael slowed down enough to be inaudible once she caught up. Her footsteps were then replaced by words, or in other words, a conversation.

"Foraging is pretty fun huh? I think it's pretty fun."

"It's not." The last time Sobelle did it, she had to be bitten by bugs, slashed by plants, and just suffered from what the forest threw at her in general.

"Foraging is annoying because of all the plants."

"Huh?" Chael's confusion made Sobelle share the emotion. Did this girl actually forage? She looked so sure when talking about it that Sobelle doubted her own doubts.

"What do you mean? All the plants? Why'd you forage in areas with plants to begin with?"

"People forage in forests, which are full of plants." Sobelle went back to doubting Chael when it came to foraging. She hoped that the young merchant would change her mind after a while.

"What? No! Wait, I mean yes, you forage in a forest because that's what foraging is, you get stuff from plants." Chael's explanation was lacking so Sobelle waited for her to continue. And the merchant elaborated in a way that actually got Sobelle to understand foraging as a concept, "plants can regrow their fruits, and even mushrooms do that. Right? You just need to keep coming back to those spots and keep gathering stuff, it's like a pathway you know?

Eventually things will—""Not be as wild as the rest of the forest, because humans go there." Sobelle finished. It was at this moment when she realized that it was her who had no clue when it came to foraging.

"Yeah, you get it." Chael said softly. She gave Sobelle a subtle and endearing side eye. She giggled, "you mean you didn't know how to do it?"

"Of course I did." Sobelle played it off but it was clear to anyone listening that she lied.

"I've foraged before."

"I'm sure you have, how many times?" The playful grin Chael wore gradually disappeared as she asked Sobelle with a serious tone.

"Someone around our age should already be good at foraging right?"

"I've only done it once." Sobelle actually felt shame when she admitted this. All her life, she believed that this type of work simply did not suit her, that she could spend her time doing anything else.

"I planned to do it again but then the goblins came and ruined everything."

"... Yeah, they tend to do that." Chael didn't seem hurt by the mention of the greenskins though. The brief time she looked guilty disappeared quickly and she went back to smiling happily, "but hey! You killed all of them!" Not all of them, she accidentally left one alive and now a growing tribe of greenskins wanted her captured. Sobelle did not talk and kept her eyes on the pathway ahead.

She didn't want anyone to come with her earlier, and when she waited for Chael, she thought that the merchant just wanted to talk. Chael wasn't a bad person, she supported Sobelle when everyone else didn't. But this was not enough of a reason for Sobelle to bring her to the lakeside camp she'd been building, as it was far too important for anyone other than herself to know about.

"You've been awfully silent, is there anything you're thinking about?"

"Nothing." Sobelle stopped just before she went past the tree line. She faced Chael, "can you teach me how to forage properly?"

"Yeah, of course." Chael agreed moments after Sobelle asked for help. She grabbed Sobelle's hands and the two of them followed the pathway that the other villagers made in the past.

"Foraging is simple once you know that you don't need to search the deep forest and just copy what everyone else has been doing these past few years."