Between The Crystals

Ch 83 Surprise in the Garden

The sun was barely rising as the first people gathered around Grant. Only a few villagers were up this early and even fewer lingered nearby to watch friends or family depart. Thankfully, Barrett and Tieber hadn't made an appearance yet.

Grant covered a yawn. "Same assignments as yesterday, unless someone wants a change?"

People drifted over to the shelves of foraging and hunting supplies, apparently content with that decision.

I wandered over to Grant. "I'm kind of torn. There's nothing to collect at Orange Flower, but I'm guaranteed to bring a lot back. Most of my group can go with Roxanne."

"Do you mind going to Orange Flower again? The patriarchs don't really want you there anymore, but they want you in other spots even less after some villagers pointed out that they knew about the brown Saursune that's always there and that it hasn't harmed anyone yet."

I rolled my eyes. "Why not just leave the assignments to you then?"

He made a face. "Barrett is honestly convinced he's doing a better job at protecting the village than I am. He didn't care if you leave most of your group with another one of our porters. Orson is trying to reason with him, but you can imagine how well that is going."

With a shrug, I said, "It'll be boring, but I can go to Orange Flower and water the seeds or something. I'll take three gatherers with me and leave the rest with Roxanne. The Saursune is bound to show up, so at least I'll bring something back worth my time."

"Thanks. It annoys me to listen to them, but most of the villagers agree with their decisions, and I suspect you'll bring back more than enough to make the trip worthwhile. Before you go, do you mind checking a few fields? Tomorrow is Keywa Village's turn at Orange Flower, and the place Janette was at yesterday was completely harvested. I'd like to give her some options, and it should give you a few ideas for tomorrow."

Letting me bring back ideas? This was far too tempting to pass up. "Sure."

Which spots should I try first... With a grin, I began to think of places with really desirable crops. We usually avoided such places since the Saursunes there were always on the lookout for raiders. Perhaps a few of the good fields were close to harvest.

Or...it didn't need to be a field. It could be an orchard too. Not the one by the town—even I wasn't comfortable porting there—but there were other orchards.

"Mango Orchard," I murmured, hoping the huge trees had a bumper crop.

The air around me hazed over, then cleared. The grass was somewhat trampled, but the mangos were only half grown. I'd have to check back in a month or so. Next, I tried near a tomato field. I craned my neck without moving away from the crystal and was able to see specks of red in the distance. Excellent.

On my next port, I almost scared myself into a bounce when I appeared right beside a group of strangers. After a friendly nod, I quickly left. I limited my ports and picked my destinations carefully so I could trade my remaining energy for food. It took a handful of ports before I found two more fields close to harvest.

The shimmering air cleared as the desert cliffs loomed above me once more.

I wandered over to Grant. "I checked eight places and found three fields close to the harvesting stage. None of the orchards had ripe fruit. I even encountered two rather jumpy groups of strangers who looked ready to bounce at a moment's notice."

He scribbled down the location names as I listed them off. "Hmmm... Others are getting desperate enough to harvest near the ripe fields."

"That's what I was thinking. So, new idea. What we really need are crystals that no one else knows about, and Keywa's days at Orange Flower would be the perfect time for me and some hunters to try finding them."