After one disaster of a day attempting to gather items for coins, Lichen wasn't coming into this one with as much hope as she had the previous day. All they had to show from the previous day was a single cherimoya and nothing else. She doubted just the single fruit would pay for their meal. Yet, she'd still awoken, groggy and feeling a little drained from trying to make their mushroom-y breakfast the day before, but she was ready. Today would be better, she could feel it, almost. At least, she tried to feel it, which was almost as good as believing it. Probably.

Today was the day! There was a river and streams, fungi that would show them the way and probably some sort of other vegetation in this room, a pepper or fruit of some sort, surely. Even a lesser, though hunting wasn't easy, would make do. What was the list again? Fruit, fish, grains, peppers, bones and something that surely wasn't important. Wood? Perhaps it was wood.

After coming down from the awful case of overstimulation yesterday, she was ready to really dig her teeth into searching for their list of items, she could only hope Aurelle was still feeling as hopeful as she was. Lichen hadn't yet asked how Aurelle had been feeling yet, keeping their journeys' conversation light, small talk.

She wriggled her toes on Polaris' cave floor, it was time to find their way to.. somewhere. She wasn't going to hope for specifics after last time, so just sensing anything that wasn't awful would be a good start...

For once, the mycelium network unfolded neatly within her senses. The gentle pulse of the signals sent through the network felt more like the beat of a drum than a never ending, constantly winding echo of voices all around. It gave a half decent idea of what the terrain was like, never actually guaranteed since most of the network lived under the soil -- and in the case of the Polaris, up on the ceiling.

But it gave a decent enough idea of where to go where they wouldn't be walking into walls or falling into streams. Not a clear picture by any means, just enough of one to gain her bearings. "Where do you think we should try first?" She turns her head towards Aurelle, despite not needing to. Her feelers reaching out to find her.

@Aurelle

Aurelle felt a lot better.

After they'd gotten home, Aurelle ate the mushrooms that Lichen had grown. It wasn't a hot deer, but it was safe and familiar and she tried very hard not to think about all the bacteria that must have been swarming it-- which turned out to be easy, once her gratefulness to her friend outweighed the anxiety. She'd slept curled up to Lichen and, once she was very certain Lichen had fallen asleep, had a little cry. That helped a lot.

When they woke up, Aurelle took out some of the berries she'd had stored away from foraging the day before. They'd gone just a little bit sour, but they weren't too bad. It more stirred the desire for whatever the tavern had, which was hopefully some hot deer.

She was practically skipping along the way to Polaris when they set out. "Let's start with a tree," the elf said cheerfully. "We can get some firewood from it, and maybe some fruit. Maybe some peppers." She still had no idea what peppers grew on, but surely they'd find out.

Her magic blossomed and, thankfully, didn't explode this time.

"Come this way," she told Lichen, holding her feeler gently as she led her further into the cave. She could hear the river rushing nearby and she could sense the dip of the shore more than ten feet away. Here, though, the microbes moved upwards. Aurelle reached out to the upcrop, feeling something rough beneath her hand.

Aurelle hummed. "It feels like a tree," she told Lichen. This was a good start. "Can you tell if there's any fruit up there?"

@Lichen

Lichen was more than happy to be led along, especially when Aurelle's mood seemed so much brighter than the day before. She'd slumbered completely unawares of Aurelle's little cry, not for a lack of care, but she was a deep sleeper; something Aurelle already likely knew. So, with their meager breakfast sat in her tummy, she was happy to be led around by her friend.

Just like the day before, she felt about with her foreclaws, eventually finding a decent hold on the maybe-tree. Then, once steady, pushed herself upwards, using nose, feeler and claws alike to gently feel around for anything tasty...

But once she was up there, she couldn't find anything at all. Feeler brushed against odd shapes, perhaps leaves. Claws only found the rough surface below and her nose was tickled by something above, making her sneeze. "I think this tree is empty." Lichen grumbles.

"It's tickly too." She complains further, but truthfully she could've stuck her nose into anything; leaves, spores, a nest, moss.. there were so many tickly things, it's hard to narrow it down to just one.

@Aurelle

"Tickly?" Aurelle echoed, wondering what they'd found. That said, she was relatively certain it was bark beneath her hand. She gave it another half-rub just in case, but it certainly did feel... wood-y. "Well, even if there's no fruit, we can still break off bits for wood."

She wasn't an expert in what you needed for fire, but she was certain it was dry wood and something small and flammable. They hadn't asked for tinder-- just the wood, but maybe the courteous thing to do would be to supply some dry bark or something as well, just in case.

Her head angled briefly upwards to where Lichen had ascended. She was fairly certain the dragon was stronger than she was. "Do you think you can break off some of the branches?" She asked. "Keep the leaves on them. I think they can use them once it all dries out. I'll check for anything that's fallen down here."

Bending down to the cave floor, she pat around. She could feel something soft-- perhaps moss, perhaps some lichen (not the dragon kind) --but moving away from the base of the tree, her hands clasped around some shed twigs. Gathering a fair bundle of them took some time, but when she straightened again, she had a good collection in the hook of her arm.

One cherimoya. One bundle of firewood. This was going well.

1/2 fruit
1/3 bundles of firewood
@Lichen

Lichen made a sound of agreement, "Move away from the bottom. I don't want anything to fall on you." She warned before finding purchase with her claws and heaving herself up. It was a decent size branch, she assumed by the width under her, and the way it supported her weight. Hopefully it would be good firewood, whatever that was; truthfully she had no idea what made wood into firewood.

As she settled on the base of the branch, she found nothing was tickling her nose any more, so she assumed the moss was mostly on the base of the tree. With no further distractions, she rose up on her hind legs just a bit, then let her weight fall onto her front, putting it all on the branch she stood on...

Yet the branch didn't budge. What were they feeding the trees around here to make them so hardy? Lichen tried again, and still nothing. Then, again. Then kept repeatedly trying without much technique behind it out of pure frustration and still the tree remained in tact. "Break.. you.. stupid.. tree!" She hissed at it between thumps; and despite the verbal attack, the tree remained unharmed.

"Gah! What are these things made of?! Rocks?" She flopped down onto the branch, finally giving up, sounding more than a little breathless from exertion.

@Aurelle

Obediently, Aurelle shuffled further away from the bottom of the tree, her head angling back up towards Lichen. She could hear the sounds (and the verbal indication) that the dragon was struggling to have her way with the branch.

And then, the familiar thump of Lichen settling down.

She hummed contemplatively. "Maybe you could try a smaller branch," she suggested. "Or the little branches near the end? Just, ahh, be careful that you don't fall."

Sure, Lichen had wings, but Aurelle was uncertain if those had enough give to save her from a good fall. Aurelle had never heard her fly or use them for anything other than a glorified blanket, really, but she'd attributed that to not being able to see rather than an actual lack of physical ability.

"I'll keep checking over here. I think I found enough for one already," Aurelle called up, wandering further from the tree. She pat around, checking. She found a rock... but that was about it. Perhaps she'd gone too far from the tree already?

Lifting her head again, Aurelle's ears twitched upwards to listen for Lichen, half-hoping she wouldn't fall.

1/2 fruit
1/3 bundles of firewood
@Lichen

Lichen made a loud-ish sound of acknowledgement, not really certain how far away Aurelle had ventured. Some bitter part of her wanted the big branch, especially now, just to prove she could do it; and maybe Aurelle would be impressed too. But, the shame of already failing to get it was enough to deter her from attempting that again.

So, she shimmied further down the branch, feeling for smaller branches as she goes...

She shimmied and shimmied and... where there any branches on this tree? Lichen had begun to question, what sort of tree was this? While she was aware she only had a vague idea of what trees were like, this one seemed an odd exception to this. And she was running out of branch, the thing was curving downwards under her weight the further she moved across; so she stopped still.

Lichen paused for a moment before asking. "Is this a tree at all? I can't find any little branches." Lichen continued to complain, then a thought struck her, "did someone already take all the little branches?"

@Aurelle

Aurelle hummed. She might be right, actually, considering she seemed to have picked up all the available fallen-bits already. "Well, I have one bundle already," she called up, approaching the trunk again. "Maybe it's better for the trees if we only take a little bit from each one anyway? We don't want them to die."

Dying meant no one ever got anything again. As easy as it'd be short-term to decimate everything of its resources, it wasn't helpful in the long-term. Besides, blind people in particular needed things that were easy to find to return to in the future.

"The river is nearby. Maybe we can try fishing next?" She suggested. Provided Lichen scrambled down from the tree without incident, Aurelle took her to the edge of the crystal river, listening to the water rush by in the divot carved into the cave floor.

She put the sticks down. They were too big to fit in the bindle, anyway.

Leaning forward, the elf sniffed the surface of the water, but found... well, no fish smell. They were all under it, presumably. "Do you think you can just take one out of there?" She asked.

1/2 fruit
1/3 bundles of firewood
@Lichen

Lichen scrabbled down the tree, without incident. Climbing wasn't something she was completely awful at, usually. Plodding along after Aurelle, her excitement in almost palpable as the sounds of running water get closer. "It needs to be bigger than your arm, was it?" She asks as she pads into the stream. Letting the water get deep enough that she had to wade before stopping dead still.

The dragon's feelers gently touch the waters' surface before she presses her face into the stream, jaws agape but not fully submerged; leaving just enough of a gap for her to be able to breath through her mouth still provided the stream's current doesn't suddenly bubble.

Feelers reach out, wriggling and worming around opened jaws, ready to close shut on anything that came to investigate..

Sure enough, after a few minutes passed, something came to investigate the worm-like feelers in the water, alerting Lichen to its' presence as it brushed against one of those feelers. Jaws shut around the fish, snatching it from the waters. The fish flops in her jaws, making slapping noises against the side of Lichen's face as she brought it back towards Aurelle. Not dissimilar to a dog proudly bringing a stick back to its master.

@Aurelle

"That's what they said," Aurelle confirmed, sitting politely. She could hear Lichen padding into the water and, after a moment, a dim inward splash of Lichen submerging her face. Not that Aurelle could discern that; for all she knew, Lichen was currently swimming through the river like a fish.

Perhaps she should have been more concerned in those few minutes, but it wasn't like Lichen was in active danger or anything.

There was another splash of Lichen lifting her head, and as the dragon approached, Aurelle lifted her arm out for measuring. "Oof-- it feels about right," she said, the fish still writhing in Lichen's jaws. It wasn't easy to tell, with how much it was twisting, but it felt about right. "Give it a crunch so it stops moving."

With the fish killed and measured a little more properly, Aurelle contentedly slipped it into her shawl. It'd be gross, but... it wasn't a shawl right now, it was a bindle. She could give it a good wash once it was done being a bindle.

"That's good, I think," she said, pulling the bag up her shoulder and gathering the firewood again. "What's next?"

1/2 fruit
1/3 bundles of firewood
1/1 12"+ fish
@Lichen

note: fish size was determined via a d15 roll and it is 14 inches. big boy