ORIGIN

Aurelle had gone alone.

Living with someone always required a little bit of lonely time, she'd found-- and though Lichen was generally very respectful, Aurelle found herself needing a little more alone time than usual today. She'd had to go foraging, anyway, so it seemed like a good time to simply extend her time away from home. Earlier, she had wandered into Scorpio and gotten Bartholomew to tell her the bounties, and she walked into Polaris repeating the ones she thought she could do.

"Four cups of grains," she murmured. "Two cups of berries. A green vegetable. Maybe two cave fish."

The last one was easiest to find by virtue of never really going anywhere. Fish lived in the river, after all, and the river was especially noisy today, the current quick. With a contemplative hum, Aurelle shifted along, following the sound of rushing water until it'd gotten somewhere shallower and safer for her to stand.

Were there fish here...?

Her ears lifted as she focused into her magic, her face tingling where the gemstone was embedded into her skull. It was always more difficult to hear things under the water, but magic helped. She could dimly hear little hearts thrumming of many fish in their schools, nibbling politely at the river floor in search of something to eat.

It'd have to be longer than her forearm, so it'd have to have a fairly large heart. She could sense one further away in the deepest portions of the river, but it seemed much too big to carry. Likely, it'd even take a few snaps at her if she got close.

There was one in one of the schools, though-- bigger than the rest. Aurelle shifted slowly. She reached out, focusing her magic on it. Her fingers tingled uncomfortably, but she could feel the spell taking root and, soon, the heartbeat of the fish slowing and slowing.

It hardly moved when she simply reached out and snatched it, the other fish around it quickly darting away. She lifted it up, the spell breaking, and it began to thrash strongly in her hands. With a grimace, Aurelle held it out at arms length. The fish was stronger than she'd expected; all muscle, perhaps, from swimming all day with no legs.

A wretched few minutes passed before the fish slowed, out of breath, dying. The elf felt a little bad, but regardless, she set it into her backpack and-- just in case the thing woke up and began thrashing again --tossed it out of the river with a heavy thunk, landing somewhere on solid ground. She didn't want to be caught unawares and fall into the river and die.

The sound of heartbeats was beginning to fade, now, but she could still sense something nearby, clinging near an alcove against the wall where the river fell steep against the cave floor. She trotted cautiously forward, moving slowly.

It scented her and began to move. This fish-- a whiteling, not that Aurelle knew --was much slower than she anticipated, though, even in a frantic terror to get away. Either way, she reached into her magic again and heard its heart slowing until it was barely moving at all. She took it out the water.

This one was larger, but, luckily wasn't thrashing. She kept her focus on it, its heart completely stopped, until she couldn't hear it breathe anymore. That was helpful, albeit... upsetting. She didn't like hurting things, even Lesser gembound, even if it were for the benefit of others to eat.

Still, it had to be done.

Wading out of the water with her prize in hand, Aurelle pressed the whiteling to her forearm just in the off-chance she'd been wrong. It came very close, but she was fairly certain it passed Bartholomew's size standards. Her foot hit an upstep in the cave floor and hiked herself up onto it, finding dry land.

She was wet. Maybe she should have taken her dress off before plunging in there, but it was done now. She set the dead fish down in front of her and spent a few moments gently wringing out the sodden fabric of her skirt, water splashing onto the ground around her feet. It was, at least, a little less uncomfortable.

Picking up the fish, Aurelle reached backwards for her bag just to remember she'd thrown it. "Oh," she said aloud to no one in particular. "I think I might be stupid."

Most people would have just used their eyes to look and see their backpack laying where they'd tossed it. Aurelle, however, did not have that kind of luxury. She fiddled with her catch in her hands, her mouth pulling into a little frown.

It was at this point that Aurelle began fully talking to herself.

"Alright," she said. "No panicking, Auri. You're smart. You're not stupid. You don't have to put yourself down like that."

But, oh, she felt stupid. Her head was buzzing with the magic she'd already used and her fingers were numb at the tips from the spells she'd used to slow the current of fish-hearts. If she used a spell and detected all the bacterium around her, she feared she'd simply explode on the spot and start crying.

And Lichen wasn't even here to soothe her.

"You're smart," Aurelle repeated to herself. "You're not stupid."

She could feel herself getting overwhelmed, though. It would be very easy to sit down, have a meltdown, cry, and then yell for a passerby to help her find her bag. If someone didn't steal it or the fish inside already. I'm smart, she tried to hype herself up, desperately. I can figure this out.

She took a deep breath.

"Alright," Aurelle said, turning on the spot. "I was facing this way... and I tossed it that way." Her head turned, ears pricked up like she might hear her bag. She didn't.

But, she could hear the water lapping nearby. "It's on the other side of river," she muttered. "That's okay." It had to be okay, because the alternative was losing her bag forever, and she quite liked that thing. It made her life a lot easier.

Carefully, with fish in hands, she stepped back into the water and waded to the other side. Next time, I'll just go into the water naked and put my dress in my bag, she promised herself, nodding feverishly. Because surely, she'd have her bag for there to be a next time. She scrambled up onto the other shore, taking a deep breath.

She could do this. Of course she could. She shifted along, her ears high. "I was... more along this way, I think," she said, stepping carefully. Her toes touched the edge of the river cautiously. It'd been shallow where she threw it, so she couldn't go too deep, or she'd have gone too far. "I must have thrown it from here."

Aurelle's head lifted like she could see. She grimaced, but she went shuffling carefully forward. Soon-- and thank goodness she did --she found a wall. "It must have fallen against the wall, so it must be along here somewhere..."

Hand tracing each dent and little alcove in the cave wall, Aurelle started to the left, first. When her feet collided into the river bending into the wall, she moved to the right instead.

Finally... "Ah!" she said, her feet coming into contact with her soggy bag. She put the whiteling into it and lifted it up proudly. "Yes! I missed you!"

She almost felt compelled to hug it-- but she supposed a bag's purpose is to hug anyway. She put it back on her shoulders, more than chuffed with herself.

Aurelle took a little break after that, just sitting by the river with her feet in the water. She needed to relax her limbs a little, as they were still tingling from her use of magic. In that time of about twenty minutes or so, she wondered aloud to herself-- "would it be totally inappropriate to give you a name?"

She was talking to her bag, of course. Why wouldn't she be?

"I suppose I'm not very certain what names are appropriate for a backpack," she told it honestly, and paused as though she were waiting for an answer. The bag, perhaps to some surprise, did not, in fact, reply to her. Either way, Aurelle seemed happy to keep chattering. "Baggy sounds like, ahh... an insult, perhaps. A slur to bags. No, that won't do at all..."

How did people find out their names, anyway? Aurelle was simply born knewing her name was Aurelle. She'd never asked Lichen how she got her name. She'd never asked anyone that she met how they knew their names-- even Wolfhound, who had several different heads with several different names.

Aurelle closed her eyes, thinking. If it simply came to them, then surely a name for her backpack will simply come to her.

And it did.

"Chester," she nodded happily. "Yes, Chester is a very good name."

The elf pushed herself up, her dress much drier now, and her hands finally feeling like normal hands again. She adjusted her backpack-- Chester --gently, feeling the weight of two fish in there. "Come on, Chester," she said. "It's time to keep going."

What was next...?

One green vegetable. That would be quick and easy, she decided-- though quickly after, she had to debate what, exactly, a green vegetable was. Truthfully, she'd thought all vegetables were green. Were potatoes green? Carrots? These were easy to find, but she realized she had no idea what colour they were.

Leaves were usually green. Maybe a leafy vegetable would be good? Well, the worst thing that could happen is that Bartholomew would say no, and Aurelle could take it home and eat it with Lichen.

She was comfortable casting again now, at least, so she focused into her magic and felt her face buzzing familiarly.

The room opened up to her, metaphorically. Microbial life was always everywhere and well over the millions in terms of population. She could sense where the floor dipped into the river and rose up into a wall. And, just about, in an alcove beneath one of the lights, she could sense something round rooted into the soil.

Carefully, Aurelle picked it up and gave it a yank, disconnecting it from the roots. The orb was fairly heavy in her hands and it did, indeed, feel leafy. Whatever was layering it felt thick but soft and vaguely waxy under her fingers. Was this... green?

She certainly hoped so. She gently tucked it back into Chester the backpack and lifted her head, sniffing the area. Berries and grains, she thought to herself. Those would be easy enough, she thought. Sure, she had no idea what a grain was, exactly, but she'd imagine it'd feel... grainy.

Berries first. Those were always easy.

With her magic still giving her a decent sense of her surroundings (she'd gotten quite good at it, now) she found her way to a bush. She could sense the microbes on it, tracing the twigs and the leaves, but it was always difficult to gauge if there were fruit or not until she gave it a touch.

Reaching out, she traced some of the leaves with her fingers. Beneath, hanging off the branches, she felt little berries. Good, she nodded to herself. She sat and began collecting, picking them off methodically and filling her hands with little red spheres. Not that Aurelle knew what colour they were.

When she'd filled her hands, she put in the first batch and began picking the second. The bush was running out by the time her hands got filled, and she certainly didn't want to pick even more and leave nothing for other foragers-- or even for more bushes to grow in the future. All she needed were the two, anyway.

Aurelle plopped them into her bag and lifted it up onto her shoulders again.